Machacados Snow Cones Recipe

I received a complimentary press trip and accommodations. All opinions are my own. 

Have you dreamed of a family vacation where you are able to take your children along on the trip and still relax? Seems like a contradiction but there’s one vacation destination that truly lets the whole family come along and let’s everyone have a chance to play, have fun, unwind, and enjoy! I’m talking about the Gourmet Inclusive Generations Riviera Maya resort by Karisma.

This resort is a family friendly resort where you won’t have to pull out your wallet at every turn forking out cash for your children to participate. Food and activities and even the Eko Kids club is included when you purchase your stay.

The Eko Kids club is a fun place for kids to hang out and play supervised by the resort staff for children ages 4-12. The kids club has a movie area, craft station, library, video games, and even a whole new program where the kids get hands on learning to cook cultural dishes from the area in the new Little Eko Chef’s program!

I got to visit Generations Riviera Maya for the launch of the Little Eko Chef’s program and kickoff complete with celebrity chef Alexander Weiss – winner of the first MasterChef Junior TV series.

It was so much fun to get a chance to watch Alexander cook and teach us about plating skills as he created a seared Ahi Tuna and polenta dish.

We also got a trial run of all 10 of the cooking classes that are part of the Little Eko Chef’s program which included making tamales, chocolate, pasta, cookies and other dishes. It was so fun to experience first hand what the kids would get to experience as part of their stay at the resort.

There isn’t any additional charge to join the Little Eko Chef’s program and it gives the kids an awesome opportunity to get hands on and learn about cultural dishes from the area while having a great time. Plus, who doesn’t love sampling what they got to cook!

I got permission to share one of the recipes from the class, and decided to share and make from home with my boys Machacados, a Mexican version of Snow Cones!

Machacados Snow Cones Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of shaved ice
• 1/4 cups condensed milk
• 1/2 cup of Strawberries, pineapple, or melons

How to Make
Strawberry Machacados 

Let the kids slice the fruit with a kid-safe knife, or pre-slice the fruit it medium sized chunks.

Muddle fruit into individual plastic cups, letting each kid muddle their own fruit.

Layer the cup of shaved ice on top of half of the muddled fruit. If you don’t have shaved ice, you can blend crushed ice to create shaved ice easily from home. It won’t be perfectly smooth, but still works great.

Top with the remaining half of fruit.

Add 1/4 cup of condensed milk on top. Stir and enjoy!

The boys thought it was so fun to mix up their own homemade snow cones and they loved eating them – too!

Generations Riviera Maya
An Eco-friendly Resort

One of the things we really loved and appreciated about the Generations Riviera Maya resort was how much attention they paid towards being eco-conscious. Everywhere you turned you could see ways that the resort made sure to lower their own impact on the environment while not sacrificing on amazing quality.

For example, the resort has it’s own greenhouse that grows many of the vegetables such as tomatoes that are used by all of the Karisma resorts in Mexico.

They are able to produce so much food that they even have excess produce they donate to the surrounding community. The taste of the fresh grown produce is amazing! Just look at these tomatoes!

One side of the resort faces the beach front which is currently under going renovations as they replace the current sandbags with a whole new really neat system of current blocks that will overtime create a natural reef.

The blocks were engineered specifically for their placement to align to best blocks the what otherwise might be rough currents and use a material that is safe for the sealife to latch onto and grow corals and encourage a wonderful reef to form.

On the back side of the resort and as you drive into the resort there are mangroves. The mangroves were damaged by a bad storm, but are being protected and replanted by the staff as they also build a canal path that will let guests take a scenic boat ride through the mangroves as they look for wildlife including crocodiles!

It looked a little rough while we were there because of the aftermath of the storm, but it’s really neat to watch the process unfold as they build the path and have a completely different view from the beach front out the other side of the resort.

Generations Riviera Maya resort uses solar panels to cut down on energy consumption and looks for other ways it can support the environment as well.

I loved seeing this turtle nesting enclosure that was built to help protect turtle eggs laid on the beach. The resort staff watches closely for turtles laying eggs as they often will dig 2-3 holes and leave their eggs in just one hole to throw off the predators.

The staff will then carefully move the turtle eggs to protect them from outside predators and the resort guests. Turtles have such a small chance of survival and odds already, that I love that they take this precaution to help protect the turtles.

At one point during our stay, my husband and I called up our four little boys who were home with grandma and showed off the resort over Skype. My boys all repeatedly asked why didn’t I bring them and insisted we all needed to come back so they could swim in the lap pool right outside our room.

While we absolutely loved our getaway for two, and you can read all about the fun we had on our stay, Generations Riviera Maya is an absolutely perfect place to bring along your kids, too. We can’t wait to schedule a vacation for our whole family!

When you’re looking for the perfect destination for your family to getaway together – look no further than Generations Riviera Maya resort.

You will not be disappointed from the moment you step onto the property until the moment you leave everything you could want is right there within reach for your family to create memories together and enjoy a wonderful vacation!