I love having a garden. For the past few years we've gotten a wonderful bounty of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes from our own backyard. And now that I have kids, I love getting them involved in the garden - they are my best helpers! It's so important for them to learn how food grows and where it comes from. One of our favorite storybooks is all about gardening, so we decided to make a delicious snack using vegetables from our garden that was inspired by the book!
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A Garden for Pig is a really cute book about a pig who lives on an apple farm. When he gets tired of eating only apples, he ventures to a vegetable garden and gets into some trouble! He finally makes a garden of his own and discovers all sorts of wonderful surprises.
My boys love this book and the coordinating app. I love that it encourages them to eat vegetables, and also included gardening tips at the end. The boys have been part of our garden since they were tiny, and they love to be involved in planting, watering, harvesting, and of course eating what we grow.
This year, we read A Garden for Pig before we headed out to prepare and plant our garden. We talked about the different vegetables we were going to plant, where seeds come from and how they grow.
We had so much fun getting the garden ready, but now we have to wait for our plants to grow! While we're waiting, we decided to make a yummy snack based on A Garden for Pig.
Pig might get tired of apples but we can't get enough. This Apple Squash Bread recipe uses applesauce and Pig's favorite squash to make a healthy snack that my boys love.
Apple Squash Bread
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated yellow squash
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease 2 full size or 5 mini loaf pans. I make mini loaves because the slices are a perfect size for my kids and I make several to freeze.
In a bowl or gallon sized bag, sift together flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, applesauce, brown and white sugars, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and beat well.
Stir in squash and mix until well combined. There will be a lot of moisture from your shredded squash, do not drain it - be sure to include it in the mix.
Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 30-35 minutes for mini loaves, or 45-55 minutes for full size, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from pan and allow to cool slightly before serving.
This post is part of The Story Corner blog hop! Visit the other bloggers in The Story Corner for more wonderful Spring activities:
Mama's Learning Corner - The Bee Tree: Bee Cutting Practice
Line Upon Line Learning - Lift the Flap Spring Colors Book
To the Moon and Back - DIY Baseball Wall Art
True Aim - Fingerprint Mother's Day Card
The books featured in The Story Corner are from my Usborne Books & More online store. If you love children's books, I would love to host an online book party for you so that you can earn FREE books while building your own children's library! Contact me or click here for more details - it's easy and fun!
