Belize Unit

Any time our geography lessons mean I get to make street tacos, I am totally down for this country study. My research for my Belize Unit had me totally convinced I wanted to visit so I could eat the food there. Yes, I am that shallow sometimes, but our actual study convinced me the country is pretty cool beyond the food, so come find out why they’re so cool.

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Belize Unit Resources

I looked up a few websites and found these that I liked:

• 50 Belize facts
• 20 Amazing Belize facts– that’s right AMAZING
• Facts about Belize

And since it’s early in the alphabet, the Geography Now video is only 10 minutes.

Belize Unit Recipe: street tacos

We tried salbutes, which are basically street tacos. The recipe also included how to make corn tortillas and a cabbage slaw, so lots of things for me to try and mess up (sadness)

corn tortillas ingredients

• 2 cups masa harina
• 1 tablespoon achiote paste (in the international section of your grocery store)
• 1.5 cups water
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• coconut oil for frying (the recipe calls for vegetable oil, but I like coconut oil)

red cabbage slaw ingredients

• 1/2 head shredded red cabbage
• 1 lime of lime juice
• 1/4 bunch chopped cilantro (I did not include this, since Jeff hates cilantro)
• salt to taste

Garnishes (other various toppings)

• shredded chicken
• sliced radishes
• sliced jalapenos
• shredded queso fresco
• chopped avocado

Let’s make some street tacos

1. Mix together masa harina, salt, and baking powder.
2. Dissolve the achiote paste in 1 1/4 cup water, then add the mixture to the masa harina.
3. Knead the dough for about two minutes, if it is too crumbly add more water slowly.
4. Divide the dough into balls using about 2 tablespoons of dough for each ball. Flatten using a tortilla press (I super love my tortilla press, we also use it for making pizzas), and then roll out flatter if you want.
5. Heat the oil and cook the tortilla for about 30 seconds to a minute per side. Let drain on a paper towel.
6. Top with the garnishes you want and the cabbage slaw.

Street Tacos

Print

Street tacos from Belize that you can make specific to your tastes

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 cups masa harina
• 1 tablespoon achiote paste (in the international section of your grocery store)
• 1.5 cups water
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• coconut oil for frying
• 1/2 head shredded red cabbage
• 1 lime of lime juice
• 1/4 bunch chopped cilantro
• salt to taste
• shredded chicken
• sliced radishes
• sliced jalapenos
• shredded queso fresco
• chopped avocado

Instructions

1. Mix together masa harina, salt, and baking powder.
2. Dissolve the achiote paste in 1 1/4 cup water, then add the mixture to the masa harina.
3. Knead the dough for about two minutes, if it is too crumbly add more water slowly.
4. Divide the dough into balls using about 2 tablespoons of dough for each ball. Flatten using a tortilla press, and then roll out flatter if you want.
5. Heat the oil and cook the tortilla for about 30 seconds to a minute per side. Let drain on a paper towel.
6. Top with the garnishes you want and the cabbage slaw.

Belize Unit Notebooking Pages

We used my North America notebooking pages and filled them out.

I always love to learn about the flags and what they mean, unlike most other countries the red on their flag does not stand for the blood of the martyrs!

But, my favorites:

• Their motto: Under the shade, I flourish
• their new capital built after Hurricane Hattie destroyed the last one was built next to a cave of calcified children’s remains > I mean, what the heck, that just seems like the set-up for a horror movie
• they have a jaguar preservation rescue

More learning fun

• How does chromatography work?
• Maze Runner Book Club
• Hungary Unit
• Galveston Flood of 1900, Texas history lesson
• Tom Sawyer book club

• “Belize” by billy3001 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
• “Belize” by billy3001 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.