Dinosaur Food A.K.A. No Bake Cookies

Are all little boys paleontology experts? During my five-year-old nephew, Tristan's, visit for a sleepover, I was amazed at the dinosaur facts swimming around in that kid's head. He shared all kinds of interesting prehistoric tidbits, so many that I pulled out my trusty dinosaur encyclopedia (yes, I really have one of those) to check his facts. The child is a dinosaur prodigy! He can't even read yet, but he knows all about creatures I've never heard of like maiasauras and borogovias (those are dinosaurs by the way).At one point, while Colter and Tristan were playing blocks, Tristan started working on a detailed structure using Colter's big cardboard brick blocks. He kept saying it was a papasaurus. I thought he meant he was making a daddy dinosaur, a papa-saurus, and he would make a mama-saurus as well. Soon, it was obvious that the block sculpture was one of those squatty armored dinosaurs that look like grumpy, spiky turtles with a flail for a tail. Sure enough, on page 150 of Dinosaurs A to Z: The Ultimate Dinosaur Encyclopedia, I found an entry for the PAWPAWSAURUS with a picture that looked amazingly like Tristan's creation. My nephew is a genius! Unfortunately, Colter knocked down the poor dino before I could take a picture, but it was quite impressive.

Since Tristan loves dinosaurs so much, I decided we should make some dinosaur food!

DINOSAUR FOOD

2 cups crushed bones (sugar)

1/2 cup dirt (cocoa)

4 tablespoons of brontosaurus blubber (butter)

1/2 cup swamp water (milk)

1/2 cup squashed bugs (peanut butter)

1 teaspoon oil (vanilla)

3 cups of dried dinosaur grass (oatmeal)

Place the crushed bones, dirt, blubber, and swamp water in a saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring mixture continuously. Add rest of ingredients. Stir well and remove from heat. Drop by teaspoonful onto wax paper. Let cool and harden.

Tristan and Colter had a ball making the food, but my picky nephew (who asked me to leave the room while I was eating a salad because he could smell the tomatoes) turned up his nose when it came time to eat them. Apparently, he doesn't like dried grass with his squashed bugs. The rest of us enjoyed them though!