Family Adventures, One Meal at a Time!
Family Adventures, One Meal at a Time!
New Year's resolutions can be a bit daunting. They aren't always fun, a lot of the time, they require discipline, willpower, and a fair amount of hard work just to keep them going past January. This year, alongside our personal goals, we decided to try something different: a family resolution. So far, it's been an absolute blast.
Here's what we do.
The Concept
Each month, we take turns picking a country as a family. Once we've chosen, we build the whole month around it: we cook a meal that originates from or is popular in that country, we watch a short educational kids' video about it on YouTube, and we finish it off with a kids' movie that either takes place there or ties into a theme connected to that country.
This idea came about from Ashtyn listening to a podcast about someone making it a point to cook meals from other countries as a form of cultural immersion. We liked the idea and thought we’d dial it up a notch by incorporating educational videos and a fun family watch.
What We've Done So Far
January — Canada
Meal: Poutine
Movie: Turning Red (set in Toronto, Ontario)
February — France
Meal: Croque Madame
Movie: Ratatouille (set in Paris)
March — Ireland
Meal: Irish cheddar mac and cheese, brown bread, and boxty for the whole family, plus a Guinness or two for Mom and Dad
Movie: Luck (not set in Ireland, but steeped in Irish-inspired lore)
April — Italy
Meal: Bruschetta, mushroom and prosciutto penne, pastina, and stracciatella gelato
Movie: Luca (set in the fictional Italian town of Portorosso)
We went to a local Italian market to gather ingredients and that journey was half of the fun. There may have been a couple of times where we had to intercept our preschooler trying to knock over expensive bottles of wine and other glass-jarred items, but aside from that, it was a fun trip where we left with more ingredients in our cart than we anticipated (much like our recent trips to Costco).
May — Mexico
Meal: Carne asada and calabacitas
Movie: Coco (set in the fictional town of Santa Cecilia)
June — South Korea
Meal: Hot pot
Movie: KPop Demon Hunters (a fictionalized version of Seoul)
We had no idea we had a local Korean convenience store in our area. A while back, Ashtyn fell into a rabbit hole of Korean convenience store reels with people making the most delicious-looking ramen, snack hauls, the whole aesthetic. She started showing me the videos and looking into where we'd have to travel to have that kind of experience ourselves. Lo and behold, we found a store just like it, right in our area. We went in planning to scope out ingredients for our hot pot, but wound up leaving with Triangle Kimbap, Musubi, and Samanco (fish-shaped ice cream waffle sandwiches) instead. Turns out our local store is walking distance from Ashtyn's work, so what started as a quick trip for hot pot ingredients turned into a new monthly routine of Ashtyn and a coworker swinging by for lunch.
July — Peru
Meal: Lomo saltado
Movie: The Emperor's New Groove (a fictionalized take on the Incan Empire)
August — Morocco
Meal: Harissa Chicken Skewers + Couscous
Movie: Mummies (set in Egypt, not Morocco)
We'll admit this one was a research fail on our part. We assumed we'd find something set in Morocco once movie night rolled around, but our streaming services came up short. Rather than skip the movie entirely, we picked something else on the continent, even though it wasn't a true match for the month.
How We Pick Our Videos
We didn't list the specific educational videos we chose for each month, but our search formula is pretty simple: [Country] + "for kids", usually landing on something under ten minutes long. We tend to watch these while we're cooking, or right before the movie as a little primer. We've made this a Saturday night tradition, since some of these recipes get a little elaborate if you let them.
Why We Keep Doing This
Honestly, we do it because it's fun and we enjoy trying new things. Sometimes it's easy to fall into a routine, and this is a fun way to break it up a bit. What started as a New Year's resolution is likely to just become part of our routine.
It isn't always realistic to actually travel somewhere while raising a family, but this practice has given us a way to bring more educational, cultural experiences into our home in a way that's flexible and genuinely fun. It's become something we look forward to. When the first day of a new month rolls around, one of the first things we find ourselves thinking is, "new month, new country!" And deciding where we should "go" next has become half the fun.
Stay tuned for a follow-up post on what we get up to for the rest of the year!
