Superheroes v. Aliens Party Food

The menu was quite simple:  Mini pizzas, Mini chicken satay, UFO cake with alien cupcakes and lime jelly with eyes

How to use your snow cone maker for good (instead of ...)

I have always wanted a Snoopy Snow Cone machine.  I almost always chose the Snow Cone from the ice cream van.  And I love slushies, slurpees, icees, coollattas, etc.  Except that they are usually so sickeningly sweet.  Even for me.  And believe me I have a sweet tooth.

And so in the intrerests of health I have been avoiding these products for a few years.  My son often asks for these drinks while we are out and I indulge him sometimes with a guilty conscience.  We have been eyeing up snow cone makers for a while and I finally relented when I found a Party Penguin on sale a couple of weeks ago.

They are trickier than they look!  It takes a long while to shave your ice.  Even if you chop it a bit first or leave it out for a few minutes to melt a bit.  When you have a nice little drawer of snow, pop it into your bowl and THEN: 

Now here is where snow cones move into the realm of fantastic.  Delicious.  Healthy. 

Now, you add flavour to your snow with any of the following:

fresh squeezed juice (we chose orange today)

coconut juice

coconut milk mixed with milk

Hindu lemonade

You now have a nice little snack and you have had fun with the kids and you know that you haven't had extra sugar or worse--nasty chemicals, dyes, and artificial flavours. 

Ryvita 3 Ways

I have been a big fan of Ryvita for many years, especially the multi-grain variety.  We like them with peanut butter, humus, or dhal, but you can do more with them.  These ideas would work with other crispbreads as well.

Toasted Cheese

Sprinkle with shredded or sliced cheese and place in a hot oven/grill. 
Watch carefully.  They only take about 5 minutes and can burn quickly.

You can add slices of tomato, onion, avocado...before or after cooking.





Pizza

You will need tomato paste and a cheese of your choice.  Salt, pepper, dried herbs, and red pepper flakes are optional.  Assemble your pizzas and cook as above.  If you take the pizzas out while the cheese is melted and the crackers are soft, you can cut them, cool them down and put them in a lunchbox.  But we prefer them hot.

Ryvita with Satay Chicken

I often cheat by using some plain peanut butter with leftover spicy roast chicken.  Simply spread your peanut butter or some satay sauce on the cracker.  Add strips of cooked chicken.  If you have time (which I usually don't) you can add a bit of something fresh and green like shredded lettuce, herbs, or green onion.

I am not including a proper recipe for satay sauce here.  There are plenty on allrecipes.com.  I sometimes make a quick one by placing half a cup of peanut butter, a spoon of a natural brown sugar, and a splash of rice wine vinegar in a pan.  Melt carefully.  Thin with water if necessary and whisk to a smooth sauce.  Remove from the heat and add a splash of soy sauce.  Whisk smooth again.  Serve as above or with a fresh salad and cold roast chicken.

Soaked Pancakes

This is my first attempt at soaking flour (if you don't count my disastrous first attempts at making a sourdough starter). 

You will need:

2 cups whole wheat, spelt or kamut flour (preferably freshly ground--mine wasn't)
2 cups yoghurt, kefir, buttermilk, (or water mixed with 2 tbsp whey, vinegar, or lemon juice)--I used organic yoghurt

2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp sea salt (preferably unrefined)
1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
2 tbsp melted butter


1.  On the first day, stir the flour with your chosen soaking liquid in a large bowl.  Place this in a warm place for 12-24 hours.  (I used plastic wrap over it and placed it in a warm kitchen for about 18 hours). 

2.  When you are ready to cook, mix the rest of the ingredients in.  You can thin the mix with water if necessary.  Cook in a hot frying pan.  Serve with maple syrup, butter and or jam.

My son and I make pancakes most weekends and so he was very excited to hear that we were having them this morning.  That is until he was given the bowl of soaked flour, which had become a bit smelly according to him.  He was no longer enthusiastic and asked if we could make regular pancakes instead.  I told him we could after we finish this batch.  He did help with some of the stirring despite his misgivings. 

Fortunately, he enjoyed the finished pancakes which had a bit more flavour than our usual plain recipe.  We actually add spices most of the time and I might try that next time.  I think the only disadvantages I can think of are the expense of the yoghurt and having to remember to prepare the flour the day before (which isn't arduous).  I plan to use buttermilk leftover from our butter-making when I get around to the butter-making.  Otherwise, water with a bit of vinegar seems a really cheap alternative to organic yoghurt, or when we have run out.

Marshmallow Smash

These are like Rice Krsipie Treats with an added kick.  I came up with them a few years ago and they have become a real treat.  The best thing about them is that you can always find something in the cupboard to whip up a batch when you feel like it.  I give guidelines rather than strict amounts.  You can make a small bowl for yourself using a few marshmallows or a whole tray using a bag of marshmallows.

Ingredients:

Marshmallows
Something crunchy like fresh popcorn and/or cereal (rice krispies, cornflakes, cheerios, or similar)
Special Additions:  chocolate chips, broken pretzels, broken cookies, nuts, small sweets (like M&Ms), dried fruit......broken chocolate bars.....

1.  Heat your marshmallows in a large glass bowl in the microwave for 1-2 minutes depending on the power of your microwave.  The marshmallows will puff up.  Remove from the microwave and stir immediately. 
2.  Quickly begin adding the rest of your ingredients stirring rapidly to combine before the marshmallows cool down and begin to set.  Any chocolate you add will melt in the hot mixture.
3.  When you have added as many dry ingredients as you can, you are ready to either serve clumps of the mixture in bowls, or press into a glass rectangular dish to set.  If setting for later, place in a dish, cover, then refrigerate for at least half an hour.  Cut into squares as you would rice krispie treats.


***I believe that you can include this recipe in a Nourishing Traditions style diet if you make your own marshmallows and use the mix before it sets.  And then adding whole foods such as popcorn, carob chips, nuts, and dried fruit.
****You can add a bit of butter to the mix and butter the rectangular baking dish if you like.

Usborne Christmas Baking Book

We love this book and have blogged about some of our endeavours already.  We especially love the gingerbread houses and Christmas cupcakes which are flavoured with clementines.  There are a number of Christmassy recipes, but many could be used all year around.  My son especially likes that he has his own cookbook to look through.

He received this for his fourth birthday, and so he still needs an adult to help him with reading, etc.  But there are many large, clear photographs, which helps both of us get through the recipes!  I will definitely look for more of their books in the future.

Thanks Auntie H!!

Numberjacks Biscuits

My 4-year old is becoming a dab hand at the computer these days!  He likes playing the games on Cbeebies.  This morning he found a recipe for Numberjacks biscuits, and of course he wanted to make them.  This fit perfectly in with my plan because we are having some houseguests this afternoon, and a few biscuits are always useful to have on hand.

This recipe is another gingerbread/spicy biscuit type.  Yum!  We don't have number cutters, so we made all sorts of fun shapes.  As usual we skipped the icing, since I have a household of icing-haters (Shame). 

It is a great site for many games, colouring sheets, songs, and recipes:

Numberjacks Biscuits

Blueberry Muffins--Yum

Made them with dried blueberries and still great. It is great to have some time off work to bake with my 4 year old.

Cupcake Making

Both my son and Other Half do not like icing.  And I was completely out of icing sugar anyway.  So we just made a few leaves. They both took off the leaves before eating as well!  When I asked my son how they tasted he said, "perfect."

Christmas Food

So you can see from yesterday's post that the traditional Christmas foods have very little to do with my love of the holiday.  But I feel a bit left out not having our own traditions.  So I am on a mission to find some. 

I have always been fascinated by gingerbread houses and have only made them from kits.  We bought a simple one from IKEA last year, which was easy for a 3 year old to use with my help.  But became stale quite quickly.

A few weeks ago I finally made a batch of the most delicious gingerbread for my son's birthday party.  I had the kids make mini gingerbread houses and it was a big hit.

The recipe came from Usborne's Christmas Baking Book.  It was a gift from his aunt for his birthday.  It was good timing.  I had chosen another to make that morning, but when he opened his gift I had a quick look through.  It does not require chilling, so a real timesaver, and is lovely and cakey gingerbread.