T is for Tiny Biscuits

Tiny things always seem to be a hit with children.  Tiny pet toys, tiny lego pieces, tiny fairies and tiny dolls are popular in our household.

Bee and Bear also love the small packets of even smaller biscuits for a snack.

And while they are cute and convenient, the biscuits do work out to be quite expensive when packaged like this. Besides, with only a few biscuits in each packet they don't last very long.

I knew I needed to find a homemade version that I could package up myself to include in the girls' kindy lunchboxes.

Amanda from One Crafty Mum has this recipe for Homemade Tiny Teddy Biscuits on her blog and that is what we used for our tiny biscuits. We don't have a thermomix which is what Amanda used to make this recipe.  She does suggest that the recipe would work with a mixer or a bowl and spoon so we used our stand mixer.

We added 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder in with the flour to make tiny chocolate biscuits.  And because I am impatient I didn't bother putting the dough in the fridge for an hour.  The weather was reasonably cool the day we made these and the biscuits turned out fine.  But if I was to make them in summer I would definitely rest the dough in the fridge for a while.

To make the dough for the Tiny Biscuits, I creamed the butter and sugar.  Then I mixed in the egg,  vanilla, flour and baking powder.

Once it was all mixed well, we turned the dough out onto the lightly floured bench, rolled it out and starting cutting out our shapes.  We don't have a tiny teddy shaped biscuit cutter so I searched through the girls playdough cutter collection and came up with small bear, small elephant, small duck and small dog shapes.  After a good wash in hot, soapy water the cutters were ready to use.  If you want to buy a tiny teddy cutter Amanda has links in her post.

T is for Travel Tucker and Our First Giveaway!

tucker
1 [mass noun] Australian/NZ • informal Food: what’s the best tucker for setting you up for a job?

[ early 19th century: derivative of British English slang tuck 'consume food or drink'] {Source: "tucker." oxforddictionaries.com. 2014. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com (11 June 2014).}

With kids on school holidays, or soon to be, many of us will be embarking on long trips either by car, train or plane.  The right tucker, or food, is an essential requirement to help these trips go as smooth as possible. So to help with my planning (we are going camping up the coast), and yours, I have collected some great ideas on food for children while travelling.

To help celebrate the school holidays, I have joined with some other great bloggers from the Kids Blogger Network to have three $500 cash cards to giveaway.  Yes you read that right.  Three $500 cash cards. How cool is that?  You could use the money to prepare for your next road or plane trip or even do some early present shopping.

Travel tucker

Our whole family like to snack while travelling in the car.  Not only does it help to pass the time but it can also ward off any travel sickness. We can also avoid the temptation of the fried and sugar loaded offerings at the travel stops along the way.  The right snacks are essential though.  I always include some treats like jubes and gummi bears but these are usually spaced out between trail mix, crackers and water.

Since this is our fourth longish trip already this year, I have been looking for some new travel food inspiration.  I love these ideas from some of the other Kids Blogger Network mums and dads and I hope they help you too if you are planning a trip away with the kids.

 A great way to get kids excited for the trip is this Road Trip Muffin Tin Meal from JDaniel4's Mom.

The Kids Activity Blog has this list of Road Trip Snacks and tips for Eating on the Road with Kids.

While hubby and I like a trail mix full of nuts, seeds and carob, Bear and Bee would love this Kid-Friendly Chex Mix Recipe from Nothing If Not Intentional.  And I can get them to make it and bag it too ready for the trip.

Family Travel: Road Trip Snack Suggestions by Childhood 101 not only has a good list of snacks to take but also some suggestions on what containers to use and some things to avoid on a road trip.

Eating on the Road: Meals and Snacks is a fantastic post by Kid World Citizen on what to pack to eat on the road whether its for 1 day, many days or even internationally.

How about stopping for a picnic lunch?  In their 5 Must Have Tips for taking a road trip with kids, Your Modern Family suggests packing some sandwiches and then letting the kids run around to burn off some extra energy

If you are travelling by plane you can avoid the hit and miss nature of the onboard menu options and take some Wholesome, Homemade Food for Air Travel from Simple Bites.  This list is so good I am going to use many of the suggestions for our upcoming road trips.


What do you do if your child has food allergies and you want to travel.  Travel Mamas have some good advice on Travelling with Children who have Food Allergies.

And while this Restaurant I-Spy printable from 3 boys and a dog is not directly food related it is a good way of passing the time in the car for older children.  The printable could easily be adapted for the areas you will be driving through.

If you are planning a trip away I hope these tips help and Good Luck with the giveaway!

An InLinkz Link-up

Giveaway Information 
Win one of three $500 cash prizes directly in your paypal account! This giveaway is open internationally. You must be 18+ years old to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

W is for Weetbix Slice

Oooo Yum!

Do you ever have those moments when something happens and you are reminded of something you loved from the past and you didn't even realise you had forgotten all about it?  And then your family was like, Woah how come you have been hiding this from us?  We love it!  Well for me it has been the humble Weet-Bix Slice.

I was reading the March issue of one of my two favourite food magazines Super Food Ideas (my other favourite is Donna Hay) when I spotted a recipe for Weet-Bix slice.  We made the slice following the recipe and it turned out really well.

Now everyone is happy! (Well for the moment anyway).

Weet-Bix Slice

Makes 18 pieces

Original recipe: Super Food Ideas magazine, March 2014: News Life Media

Ingredients
For the slice
3 Weet-Bix, crushed (great step for toddlers to do in their highchairs)
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
3/4 cup brown sugar
160g butter, melted, cooled

For the icing
1 cup icing sugar mixture
1/4 cup cocoa powder
60g butter, melted
1 1/2 tablespoons boiling water

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius/160 degrees Celsius fan-forced.
2. Grease an 18cm x 28cm (top) slice pan. Line base and sides with baking paper, extending paper 2cm above edges of pan.

3. Combine Weet-Bix, flour, coconut and sugar in a bowl.

4. Add butter. Mix well to combine.

What?  I didn't try any yet. Honest!

5. Press mixture firmly over base of prepared pan.
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and top of slice is just firm to touch. Cool in pan.
7. To make icing sift icing sugar and cocoa together in a large bowl.
8. Add butter. Stir to combine.
9. Gradually add boiling water, stirring, until mixture is a spreadable consistency.

 10. Working quickly, spread icing over the top of prepared base.

I can't wait that long mum.

11. Set aside for 30 minutes or until set.  Serve cut into pieces.

C is for Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

Muffins are a great lunchbox addition at any time of the year but as the weather starts to cool I like my muffins to do double duty.  A warm muffin with vanilla ice cream or custard makes the perfect dessert. And if, like me, you wrap the muffins in plastic wrap and store them in the freezer, its a quick and easy dessert too.

These Chocolate Raspberry Muffins taste a little like a cherry ripe chocolate bar but are a healthier option (depending on what you serve them with of course).

The original recipe is from the Australian Institute of Sports website.  To make life easier I have made a printable card for this recipe which you can download here.

Chocolate Raspberry Muffins

Recipe credit: Australian Insitute of Sport
Makes 12

Ingredients
2½ cups self-raising flour
¼ cup baking cocoa
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
¾ cup caster sugar
½ cup dark chocolate chips
1 tablespoon margarine, melted
1 cup skim milk
1 egg
300 g frozen raspberries

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Line a 12-hole muffin pan with paper muffin cases. Putting the paper cases into the tray is a great step for even really young children to help with. We actually made some regular sized muffins and some mini muffins which are a great size for Bear and Bee's lunchboxes. 

3. Sift flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. 
4. Stir in sugar and choc bits and make a well in the centre.

5. In a small bowl, use a fork to whisk together margarine, milk and egg, then add to flour mixture.
6. Stir gently until mixture is just combined (do not over-beat).

7. Gently fold raspberries through mixture. We actually crushed our raspberries up while frozen by placing them in a ziplock bag and gently hitting them with a rolling pin.  This gave us tasty little raspberry peices all through the muffin mix rather than lumps of whole raspberries.

8. Spoon mixture into cases.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are well risen and spring back to the touch. Leave in pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

F is for Food Revolution Day Part 2

So far so good for this year's Food Revolution Day.  We have made Banana smoothies and Banana Bread today and both were delicious. Bee and I decided to make up our own recipe for Banana smoothies rather than use Jamie Oliver's version.  However we pretty much stuck to Jamie's recipe for Banana Bread.  All we changed was to leave out the nuts.

I hope all the other participants in this year's Food Revolution Day are having just as much success and fun as we have had. We will be joining in with other The Kids Cook Monday participants and making Rainbow Salad Wraps too.  Keep a watch for our blog post on how we go.

For our Banana Smoothies, we placed 1 banana, 1 tablespoon of honey, 200ml milk and 2 tablespoons of low fat strawberry yoghurt in a blender and blitzed until smooth.

Bee adding yoghurt for the smoothie.

Adding the honey for the smoothie.

Blitzing the smoothie ingredients.

Bee enjoying her smoothie.

For the Banana Bread, see Jamie's recipe here.

Bee mashing the banana.  Potato mashers work a treat for this.

Bee cracking the eggs. We are lucky to get home grown ones from a relative.

Mixing it all together.

Smoothing the top.

Fresh from the oven.

Delciousness.

#FRD2014

F is for Fathers Day Food

This post originally appeared on the Wide Bay Kids blog where I guest post every month.

In my opinion, food on Father’s Day should be all about simplicity.  I know it is Dad’s day but I don’t want to make too much extra work for myself.  Bear and Bee will definitely want to help so I plan on keeping everything easy but at the same time very tasty.

One of our favourite food related past times as a family is happy hour.  I have written about what our family does for happy hour in a past post on the threefootcooks blog.  While we don’t often include ‘adult drinks’ in our version of happy hour we do always have good cheese and crackers.

To make happy hour a bit more festive for Father’s Day, Bear and Bee are going to help make crackers and dip to serve with the cheese.  This is what we practiced to prepare on the day.  

Father’s Day Crackers and Dips

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Crackers

2 slices of mountain bread

Olive oil

Salsa

125g can corn kernels, drained

1 tomato, chopped

½ small red onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ lime, juiced

French Onion Dip

1 slice of short cut bacon, fried and finely chopped

½ cup sour cream

½ packet (15g) French onion soup mix

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

      2. Arrange bread on baking trays and brush with oil. Bake for 5 minutes.

      3. Allow bread to cool and break into corn chip sized pieces. This is a great job to give younger children but you may need to have spare ones as they tend to break the chips into tiny pieces.  Probably because it makes such a good sound!

     

      4. For Salsa. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix gently. You may also like to add ½ a chopped avocado.  Juicing citrus fruit is a great skill for children to practice.  It is a tricky movement so you may need to show them quite a few times.

     5. For French onion dip. Combine cream, soup mix and parsley in a bowl. Mix well and sprinkle with bacon.

     

     6. Serve crackers, salsa and dip on a platter with vintage or tasty cheese.