Bosnia and Herzegovina unit

Growing up in the 1990s means certain things were in the news all the time, and Bosnia and Herzegovina were in the news all the time. They were establishing their independence from the Soviet Union and were fighting over who would be in control and just where their borders would be. My freshman history teacher was profoundly interested in these events, so I learned a fair amount of it. This meant our Bosnia and Herzegovina unit brought back lots of memories from high school, and made for a strange geography lesson for me.

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Bosnia and Herzegovina Resources

I’m rather amazed I haven’t managed to seriously misspell Herzegovina yet. I kept trying to add in extra letters, so I’m very thankful for spellcheck.

We watched the Geography Now video, and since it’s very early in the alphabet, it’s a very short video in comparison to later in the alphabet.

The kids were amazed to find out about all those land mines, and everyone agreed one of the resources for Bosnia was sarcasm.

They loved the air lift monument, that was AWESOME! 

 

Bosnia recipe: One-pot chicken dinner

This one-pot chicken dinner was not a hit. Everyone told me it was way too bland, which I thought was hilarious considering the sheer number of random things I put in this one pot. Oh well, I won’t be adding this to our recipe box.

One-pot chicken dinner ingredients

• 1 diced onion
• 1 carrot sliced (I think I forgot this)
• 1 chopped bell pepper (any color, my family likes red, so I picked red)
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup frozen peas (I left out because we don’t like them)
• 1 cup uncooked rice (I doubled this, and then doubled the broth)
• salt and pepper to taste
• parsley

Let’s make this mess!

1. In your dutch oven, which I am using so much more now that I’m hitting all of these Baltic recipes, heat oil. Add in the onion, carrot, chopped bell pepper, and garlic. Cook until vegetables being to soften, about 3-4 minutes.
2. Add the chicken and brown until meat is no longer pink, about 5 minutes more or less.
3. Add the crushed tomatoes and the chicken broth to deglaze the pan. Which basically means add all that in and then scrape the bottom of the pan to make it not so sticky. Then pour in the uncooked rice and the salt and pepper.
4. Cover and cook for 10-12 minutes, I found it was closer to 15 minutes. I think. Maybe I overcooked that…. If you need more liquid to finish cooking the rice, do so. As you check if the rice is done cooking, notice it’s sticking to the bottom of the pan. I’m rather frustrated because I haven’t figured out how to not have the rice stick when cooking it like that.
5. Sprinkle with parsley before serving, which I could not find at the time. So no pretty parsley for me.

Bosnia One-pot Chicken and Rice dinner

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Try this One-pot chicken and rice dinner recipe as part of your cooking around the world adventures.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion diced
• 1 carrot sliced
• 1 bell pepper chopped (any color)
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups uncooked rice
• salt and pepper to taste
• parsley

Instructions

1. In cast iron dutch oven heat the oil over medium heat, add the onion, carrot, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook until the vegetables start to soften.
2. Add the chicken and cook until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
3. Deglaze the pot with the crushed tomatoes and broth. Add the uncooked rice and season with the salt and pepper to taste.
4. Cover and cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until rice is cooked through. Add more broth if needed to finish cooking the rice.
5. Sprinkle with fresh parsley before serving.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Notebooking pages

I was fascinated to learn about the fun facts in the country. I hadn’t known it was essentially two different regions smashed together to create a country. It’s not quite so crazy as Belgium, but it was pretty unique.

Some of my favorite facts about the country:

• Sarajevo roses- pink concrete filling in bomb holes
• there are over 200,000 landmines still in the country
• they have 3 presidents, one for each of the people groups in the country

More fun learning adventures

• Australia booklist
• The death of Blackbeard the pirate
• Montana Unit
• Geysers lesson
• Texas Geography Unit

 

Bosnia image used under Creative Commons license