This week the contestants on Chopped Junior were faced with some interesting beverage ingredients in the mystery baskets, like cream soda in the appetizer round and horchata for dessert. In case you’re not familiar with horchata, it’s a super-refreshing Mexican drink that is made from rice, sugar and cinnamon. The rice is soaked in water and then blended with sugar and sometimes almonds into a very fine pulp. It’s then strained, mixed with water and served chilled, usually over ice.

We decided to give some humble rice pudding an easy horchata-inspired makeover. Simply sprinkle ground cinnamon and toasted almonds on prepared rice pudding. Pack a small zip-close bag of crispy rice cereal for kids to add right before eating, for a little extra crunch.