For many, along with all of the other concerns about the current situation, there was added disappointment as family vacations scheduled for the April school vacation were put on hiatus or canceled completely.

While some families were able to simply move their visit to a later date, for many others, it means significantly delaying or outright missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many others. Nothing can ever replace the magic of Disney. But the Maza household was determined to make the best of it with a “Disney Staycation” – the week was complete with mouse ears, music from the parks and films, and a generous helping of the Disney+ programming, and, of course, food.

Whether original park recipes or new creations inspired by Disney, we found a bevy of both meals and snacks we’re passing along so you can have your own tasty and magical moments at home. Given the current global situation, we were sure to choose things that had ingredients or substitutes readily available.

So put on your Mickey ears, loosen your belt and prepare to dig in! 

Churro Bites

Shortly after it was forced to close its parks, Disney released the recipe for one of its favorites - the churro. While the churros in the park are long, cinnamon sugar fried dough sticks, the churro bites make for a terrific snack that is manageable to make and eat. The entire process from putting contents in the bowl to pulling them out to cool and douse in cinnamon and sugar is about 45 minutes. They can be eaten on their own or with your favorite dipping sauce; we drizzled some with melted chocolate, which was divine. The recipe recommends creating the star-shaped bites with a piping bag, but without one available, our bites were just rolled into form.

After creating the dough with a mixture of water, butter, salt, cinnamon, flour and eggs, use a piping bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe and drop 1-inch strips of dough into the oil. Fry the churro bites until golden brown, remove them onto a paper towel and then toss the bites in a cinnamon and sugar mix until they are covered.

The complete printable recipe is available through Disney’s website at https://cdn1.parksmedia.wdprapps.disney.com/media/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ChurroBites_Recipe.pdf.

Ronto Wraps

Disneyland and Disney World both recently opened their long-awaited addition - Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. With that came a brand new set of food and drink menus inspired by the stories from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Just as the movies sparked countless offshoot stories in new movies, TV shows and books, the park menus were the inspiration for even more culinary creations. Enter Galaxy’s Edge: the Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook.

Among the recipes inside were Ronto Wraps, sharing the same name as a park favorite. However, the cookbook’s recipe stands in contrast to the sandwich you would find at Ronto Roasters on Disney’s the Outer Rim planet of Batuu. While the park sandwich has roast pork, a grilled pork sausage, slaw and peppercorn sauce in a wrap, the one in the cookbook is more like a sweet and spicy sloppy joe on a pita. The recipe essentially calls for a mix of ground pork, chorizo removed from its casing and onion simmered in brown sugar and tomato puree. Once the pork and chorizo mix has thickened in the pan, spoon it into the Ronto Wrapper and top with guacamole.

The cookbook’s recipe was easy to make with the filling needing just one skillet. At the time, chorizo wasn’t available, but it was easily substituted with spicy pepperoni. When the cookbook was initially launched, the publisher released the recipe for Ronto Wraps and several others to the public. It can be found at https://wdwnt.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/SWGE6-1200x750.jpg.

The homemade Ronto Wrappers are a mix of flour, water, olive oil, brown sugar, salt, garlic and herbs and instant dry yeast. The complete Ronto Wrappers recipe found within the cookbook but a quick search of the internet can yield the results you need. Also, because of a lack of instant yeast, we utilized store-bought pitas. They were a bit big for what are supposed to be handheld sandwiches but were an acceptable replacement.

A little bit sloppy, but incredibly flavorful for an easy-to-make meal, this is one we’ll be having again.

Grilled Three Cheese Sandwich

Who doesn’t love a good grilled cheese sandwich? Enough people that it has its own day! April 12 was National Grilled Cheese Day and in honor of the occasion, Disney released the recipe for its Grilled Three Cheese Sandwich, which has quickly become popular at Woody’s Lunch Box in Toy Story Land at the Hollywood Studios park in Florida. It’s easy to see why. This dangerously cheesy version of a classic American staple includes a cream cheese spread and slices of sharp cheddar and provolone cheese between two slices of artisan bread.

What’s in the cream cheese spread? Cream cheese, of course, shredded Double Gloucester or cheddar cheese (we used cheddar), heavy cream and coarse salt, blended together in a food processor until smooth. After lining one slice of bread with cheddar and the other with provolone, smooth the cream cheese spread over the provolone and then press the two sides together. Before putting it on the pan (or griddle, which we used), brush both sides of the sandwich with a special garlic mayonnaise.

The result is the cheesiest sandwich we had ever seen. Having seen on the internet photos of people stretching out the cheese, we gave it a go and literally stretched the cheese not inches, but feet. The combination of sharp and milder cheeses blended together perfectly and the garlic mayonnaise added an extra layer of complexity.

This easy, cheesy recipe is available on the Disney parks website at https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2020/04/cooking-up-the-magic-at-home-celebrate-national-grilled-cheese-day-with-a-grilled-cheese-sandwich-from-toy-story-land/.

Piggylicious Bacon Cupcakes

The Piggylicious Bacon Cupcakes were a big hit a few years back at Epcot’s annual Flower and Garden Festival. The name basically tells you everything you need to know. These are bacon cupcakes. Essentially the preparation of the cupcake itself follows the process outlined on your standard box of yellow cake mix. The most important ingredient is, of course, the bacon, which is used in multiple ways in the creation of this delicacy. In addition to the obvious pieces of bacon broken up and mixed into the batter, this recipe calls for replacing the oil you’d use to make the batter with the bacon grease. Once you’ve combined your cake mix, water, eggs, bacon grease and bacon pieces, put it in a cupcake tin and bake in accordance with the directions on your cake mix box. We would recommend greasing the pan instead of using paper cupcake wrappers.

While the cupcakes are baking, you prepare maybe the best part - a maple cream cheese frosting. This was amazingly simple to make by blending cream cheese, softened butter, maple syrup or maple frosting (we used real maple syrup) and powdered sugar.

Once your cupcakes are done and cooled, you can add a generous helping of the frosting and top it all off with some crumbled pretzel twists.

Being skeptical of this one is understandable, but the result is a great blend of flavors that is best described as wrapping a pancake around some bacon and dipping it in maple syrup. There’s a great blend of sweet and salty here.

The official Disney recipe is available at https://i.pinimg.com/564x/75/da/13/75da13aaf4919096f0b05cefbd916446.jpg, but various sites such as disneyfoodblog.com and thedisneychef.com have similar recipes.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Milkshakes

Peanut butter & jelly milkshakes are a simple but popular treat at the 50s Prime Time Diner at Hollywood Studios and they are magically easy to make at home. The recipe is a basic blend of vanilla ice cream, milk, grape jelly and peanut butter. If you like peanut butter and milkshakes, this shouldn’t require much coaxing to get you to try. There are recipes out there with real measurements or you could just go wild and throw caution to the wind. For the more cautious, here is the recipe that inspired our milkshake adventure: https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2013/06/05/diy-disney-recipe-peanut-butter-and-jelly-milkshake-from-50s-prime-time-cafe/.

Pongu Lumpia

This is a snack we had never heard of, even having visited Pandora: The World of Avatar at Animal Kingdom. It’s one we will look for next time. Lumpia is a type of spring roll that is popular in parts of southeast Asia but Disney took it in a new direction to match the theme of this relatively new addition to Walk Disney World based on the 2009 James Cameron film.

This recipe has a bit higher degree of difficulty if you aren’t used to using spring roll wrappers and requires more prep time.

For Pongu Lumpia, take a spring roll wrapper and spread cream cheese evenly on it, followed by small diced or smashed pineapple and a bit of sugar. Roll up the spring roll wrapper and seal it, then place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and freeze for at least four hours (we left them in the freezer overnight).         After letting them sit in the freezer, cook them in an inch of hot oil. After taking them out, let them sit on a paper towel, and then roll them in sugar.

Thanks to some fat fingers and lack of experience, mine were aesthetically a disaster but were a tasty, portable treat. Even my skeptical wife admitted she wanted to make these again.

The official recipe from Walt Disney World is available at https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2017/06/recipe-pongu-lumpia-from-pongu-pongu-at-pandora-the-world-of-avatar/.

 Mickey Mouse Pizza

This is less of a recipe and more of just a fun activity for the family. We used fresh made dough from a local grocery store and made Mickey Mouse shaped pizzas by pressing two smaller dough circles and a larger circle topped with sauce, mozzarella and our favorite toppings.

Whether preparing for a weeklong Disney celebration, looking for a new dinner option or interested in making a new snack for the family, these recipes will help inject a little Disney magic into some uncertain times. If you have any questions, want to share your experience with these recipes or share your own favorite Disney different recipes, email chrism@thereminder.com.