Blessed Elements

Let them eat bird seed... without ridicule

My daughter started Kindergarten this past year, which almost immediately sparked my own memories of my first year of school. I had a really great Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Ballenger. She always had these really great crafts and goodies to eat that tied into the week's lesson. One week we were studying birds. All week long we did "bird activities." We made bird houses out of Popsicle sticks, colored birds, and went outside to identify some birds. Then on the last day of out lesson, we made bird feeders. These were not any old bird feeders. Oh no. These were pine cone bird feeder with peanut butter slathered all over and then rolled in yummy looking birdseed. I don't know what came over me. I don't know if I was just hungry, or if I really thought that birdseed was okay for kids to eat, but when I was finished with my bird feeder... I licked it. Immediately the kid next to me let out a "Ewww!" The whole class was looking at me in disgust and I was mortified! I remember peeking up at my teacher, just waiting on her to yell at me for being weird! She didn't though, she just smiled and said "Garah, I bet you turn in to bird this weekend." I was so relieved (and a little excited at the prospect of actually turning in to a bird) that all I could say was "Cheep!"
So, I've come up with this kid friendly, ridicule free bird seed. A fun, simple trail mix kids can pretend is bird seed and you can feel good about them eating.
Enjoy,
Garah

Here's what you'll need:

Supplies

1 cup hulled unsalted sunflower seeds.

1 cup honey glazed pecans*

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup raisins

I have included the recipe below or these can be purchased on Amazon.com*

Simply pour measured ingredients in a bowl or zip lock bag and mix! Then pour the trail mix in any bag you like. It might be fun to cut down and decorate a small paper bag to look like a sack of birdseed and then tie the top with ribbon twist tie. Just have fun and use your imagination!

Honey Glazed Pecans Recipe

1/3 cup honey, warmed
1 cup halved pecans
1 tablespoon sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Stir together honey and pecans, tossing to coat well. Spread pecans in one layer in a shallow baking pan and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15 minutes, then stir and bake 5 minutes more. Transfer while still warm to a sheet of parchment paper or foil and, working quickly, separate pecans with a fork. Allow to cool completely for about 1 hour and remove nuts from the parchment and break up any large chunks.

Other crafts with this theme are:
Bird Feeder Ornament
Pinecone birdfeeder
Painted Bird Houses