I love traveling to new places; I love exploring new spices and smells, learning different languages, and pushing myself beyond the comfortable and into the unknown.
For this reason, I always thought I’d live abroad where I’d birth little expat babies who would manage airport security better than playground equipment. But alas...God had different plans for me and I've been living in the same house...in the same city...doing the same ol’ same ol’ for a veeeeery loooooong time.
Well, not anymore!
I created Passport Kids as a fun and easy way for families to explore other cultures without leaving their living room. All you need is my FREE printable Passport and internet connection. (Seriously, how did we ever do life before YouTube?? It's a #teachermom 's dream!)
The passport itself is real simple: your kids will cut it out, staple it together, and then fill out their personal information (which doubles as a special keepsake.) If your littles can't write yet, have them draw pictures instead. Here's an example of one of the passport pages:
Our first Passport Kids experience was to Serbia (basically because when I suggested it to my husband he said, "Where the heck is that??!" Exactly. And that's why we're going.)
I've included links below to help you, but really you can do this however you want. That's the beauty of travel, right? Here's what I did:
I printed out the passports.
I made Sarma and Eastern European Green Beans. (More info on that below.)
We sat on a blanket in our living room, eating Serbian cuisine, and watching videos on the culture.
It was dreamy. For a complete guide to the videos we watched, click HERE or click on the image below.
ABOUT THE FOOD
Sarma
This recipe is pretty much stuffed cabbage leaves, but the secret's in the sauerkraut and tomatoes — do NOT skimp on those. I followed this recipe, and let me tell you, believe it when it tells you it takes 3 hours to make!
I tried to skirt around this (naturally), but after an hour and a half of cooking, the rice was still hard and the meat mostly raw. 😣
My advice: cook the meat and rice ahead of time (unless you've got three extra hours to burn...and apparently only the Serbians have that!)
Also, forgo the tomato soup. Yuck! You want more acid than sweet with this dish so sub out the tomato soup for just a regular ol' can of diced tomatoes.
Eastern European Green Beans
Oh my gosh...this recipe was so good! And so easy too. You don’t need the tomato juice, though. I just squeezed a few fresh tomatoes in the skillet instead and it worked out great. Here's the recipe.
Also, if you want to make "take off" extra special, play a video of an actual plane ascending. My kids loved it!! ✈️
My kids loved this living room adventure so much they're already begging us to go on another one... which will be India. 🙌 Subscribe so you can join us!!
