Spita-Bedita

Yesterday was a long day. We started “school” just before 8 and by lunch time (11:30) we had done writing, spelling, science, math and swam for over an hour. We then sat down to read a chapter of a book, did a reading assignment and then Doodle was ready for nap (long before I was, at 1:30). Kids were up by 4:00 (though Honeybun didn’t nap and I’m not sure Sugarplum did either) and I faced a LONG afternoon before hubby got home.

Before nap I asked Sugarplum what she wanted for dinner and she said sausage. I said okay and later asked Honeybun what she wanted with sausage to which she replied “Speta-badita!” We laughed about it and I said “Ok. We can have that. What’s in it?” She decided Doodle should be able to eat it as well so we set off to find things to make Speta-Badita.

She decided it should have rice (and we switched to ham since all my sausages have stuff Doodle can’t have). She continued to pull out lots of items and some I had to veto (like coconut oil and salad dressing.) This is what we ended up with:

Rice
Ham
A ton of Fresh vegetables
Sugar
Oil and Garlic
Water
Salt and pepper
Hummus

I nearly vetoed the hummus but then thought “I have a vat of hummus, why the heck not?” So I let her keep it.

I made it in the fashion of a Paella (sauté the vegetables in oil; toast the rice; add the water, sugar and seasoning and cook until rice starts to soften; add meat and vegetables you want to stay crisp; when water is absorbed and rice is cooked, stir in the hummus and top with crushed chick peas) and this was the final product:

Was it the most delicious meal I’ve ever had? Honestly, no but with a little more seasoning it could have been really good (I drizzled mine with Balsamic reduction and hubby added hot sauce) But I will try it again.   The kids all really liked it, especially Doodle who went to town on it! And Honeybun was really proud that she thought of it and helped make it which is more than enough reason to make it again!