Community Service with a side of Puppy Chow

Look! Two posts, one day. How productive of me.

Friday, part of our ISA group headed out to do some volunteer work about 15 minutes away from campus. We went to a Comedor Infantil, which is a school /free meal for local children who otherwise wouldn’t get too much to eat for lunch. For many of them, this is their biggest meal of the day.

We didn’t really know what we would be doing there, so some people showed up in flip flops and nice clothes… annnnnnd we ended up doing manual labor. I didn’t have a problem with it- it was something different, and a decent workout. We helped to clear out this big field in front of the school that had been filled with overgrown weeds and dried palm tree leaves.

But of course, we weren’t working alone. Nope. Many of the kids get to school hours before lunch, just to hang out. And they saw that we were using sharp rakes and axe-type things and shovels… and decided to join us. In fact, the woman working there was the one who suggested it. Kind of surprising- considering the average age of these kids was about eight- but they were cute and no one got too too hurt. Can’t say I wasn’t a bit scared though, to see elementary-age kids swinging sharp shovels around. A parent’s worst nightmare.


ISA students and some kids working

Considering most of us are totally done with finals, and really have nothing to do… at all… until we leave (or until classes start again, for the year-long people)… my friend Rose suggested that we get together and make some Puppy Chow and Christmas Wreaths. Now, what is Puppy Chow, you may ask?

Well, it’s the same thing as Reindeer Food. I think that’s more of a Northeastern name for it.

Does that help? No? Still totally lost and wondering about my apparent newfound love for animal food?

Puppy Chow/Reindeer Food is a snack made by added melted chocolate chips, peanut butter, vanilla, and butter to corn Chex, then coating them in powdered sugar. Recipe here, if so interested.


Ingredients for the Puppy Chow and Christmas Wreaths. and my Diet Coke.


Finished Puppy Chow

We all ate so. much. as we were making these. Seriously. I suppose I like to think that I have some self-control… but yesterday, I didn’t. I felt so sick from eating so much chocolate, and just couldn’t stop. It was delicious though. MmmMmm…

After the Puppy Chow, we started on Christmas Wreaths. They’re made by melting marshmallows and butter together, then stirring in corn flakes. You then take a ball of this gooey mix, and form it into a wreath shape. Usually green food dye is added, or even sometimes Red Hots, but we didn’t have any. Still great though. I ate two for breakfast this morning. Recipe here.


Christmas Wreaths.

Both of these snacks were made without an oven and were really easy to do. However, any type of dessert-making makes me miss baking at home! Syracuse, get ready for my return.