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Christmas food inspiration

Posted on December 21, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Christmas is almost here. If you’re still in need of inspiration, maybe these very cute ideas can help get your creative juices flowing.

Santa Cookies by My Poppet
I love how simple yet effective Cintia’s biscuits are – two colours of dough, some white icing, some raisins and voila, little santas!

Reindeer Cupcakes by With Sprinkles on Top
Pretzels make great antlers!

Five-Minute Fudge Wreath by Rachael Ray
This doesn’t require any cooking, just mixing and you only need a plain old round tin.

Reindeer Cookies by mommy2owen on Cake Central

Reindeer Cookies by mommy2owen on Cake Central
Such a brilliant idea using gingerbread men shapes turned upside down!

Snowman Cheese Ball by Betty Crocker

Snowman Cheese Ball by Betty Crocker
Take two cheese balls, put one on top of the other, add a few garnishes and you have a snowman!

What fun food are you making for Christmas?

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Cute lunches: snowman snow globe

Posted on December 17, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Keeping my snow globe theme, here’s a cute snowman to brighten up your day.

cute lunches: snowman snow globe

What you need:
2 tortilla wraps (I used wholemeal ones)
blue food colouring
pastry brush
tortilla filling of your choice (I used avocado and ricotta)
a piece of mozarella (or other cheese such as ricotta or cream cheese)
a piece of cucumber
1 slice of red pepper (or tomato)
1 slice of red apple (or red pepper or tomato)

Directions:

Using a small bowl as a template, cut out two circles from the tortilla wraps (mine were about 12cm in diameter). From the scraps, cut out one snow globe base and the trunk of the Christmas tree.

Mix 1 or 2 drops of blue food colouring with 2 tbsp water. Using a pastry brush, lightly paint one tortilla circle (don’t let it get too wet) and leave to dry.

Put your other circle on your serving plate and top with your filling. Place the base cut from the remaining pieces of tortilla at the bottom of your plate.

Cut out three small circles from your mozzarella, making each a little bit smaller than the last. Cut a larger piece of mozarella for the snow at the bottom of the globe. (If using a softer cheese, spread it at the bottom of the globe.)

Once your coloured tortilla circle is dry, place it on top of your filling and place the mozarella pieces on top.

Cut a piece of cucumber for the snowman’s hat and finely dice some more cucumber for his eyes and buttons.

Cut a nose and hat pompom from the red pepper. Cut two very thin strips from the apple to make the scarf.

Finally, break off small pieces of mozzarella for the falling snow and scatter them around your tree. (If using a softer cheese, drop tiny dollops around for the snow.)

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Cute lunches: pasta Christmas tree

Posted on December 13, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Seeing pesto-covered farfalle pasta yesterday made me think not of butterflies, but of lovely thick Christmas tree branches and I couldn’t resist making another Christmas-themed cute lunch!

pasta Christmas tree

What you need:
cooked farfalle pasta (I used 8 pasta shapes)
pesto sauce (or avocado pasta sauce)
a small piece of wholemeal tortilla (or bread)
1 slice of cheddar cheese
1 black olive
1 slice of orange pepper
1 slice of red pepper

Directions:

Cut a trunk shape from the tortilla and place it on the plate.

Mix the pesto sauce through the cooked pasta. Starting from the bottom of the tree, place the pasta in a tree shape on the plate.

Cut a square from the slice of red pepper and a smaller square from the orange pepper. Put them next to the tree.

Finely dice the remaining pepper and scatter them over the tree.

Cut a star from the slice of cheese and place it on top of the tree.

Cut two thin strips of cheese and place them on the red pepper for ribbon.

Finally cut the olive in half lengthways and slice two thin strips from it. Place them on the orange pepper for ribbon.

inspecting the 'presents'

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Pesto sauce

Posted on December 12, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

While it’s one of my favourite pasta sauces, I hadn’t yet made pesto for Nicholas. I generally have it out of a jar, but I’m still rather anal about giving Nicholas ready-made food of any description, so I needed to make it from scratch.

It’s really not that difficult (it’s just blending the ingredients) and by making it, you can adjust the amount of cheese, the amount of oil and so on to your munchkin’s and your taste.

pesto sauce

Traditionally you should use a mortar and pestle to gently crush and mix the ingredients together, not rip the delicate basil leaves apart with the sharp metallic blades of a food processor. I use a mini food processor (don’t tell anyone).

I’ve read tips including to use a plastic blade in your food processor, and putting the bowl and blade in the fridge beforehand to cool down (you don’t want the blades to be heating up the sauce as you’re making it). The only tip I do follow is to blend on a slow speed and to use the pulse button rather than let the blades continuously spin (again it’s trying to avoid heating up the sauce).

Many traditional Italian recipes for pesto use some grated pecorino as well as parmesan. If I was making this just for adults, I’d substitute 2 tablespoons of the parmesan with pecorino, but as pecorino is a much saltier cheese, I’ve left it out altogether. I also haven’t used any salt in this child-friendly version; you could add a pinch with the garlic if you wanted.

PESTO SAUCE

Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 0 mins
Makes 4 adult servings
Keeps in the fridge for a couple of days (cover with a layer of olive oil)

1 clove of garlic
50g fresh basil leaves, washed and completely dry
1 tbsp pine nuts
6 tbsp grated parmesan
100ml extra virgin olive oil

In a small food processor, blend the clove of garlic until it’s creamy.

Add the basil leaves and process until the leaves are fairly evenly broken up.

Add the pine nuts then the parmesan, 1 spoonful at a time.

Slowly pour in the oil and blend until completely combined and creamy.

Variations:

  • walnuts are a traditional substitute for pine nuts, but you do need to skin them otherwise the sauce will be very bitter
  • substitute 2 tablespoons of the parmesan with grated pecorino if serving to adults

Other uses:

  • serve over a baked potato
  • use as a dip for vegetables

Seeing the pesto-covered farfalle pasta has given me an idea for another Christmas-inspired cute lunch, but you’re going to have to wait till tomorrow to see that!

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Cute lunches: penguin snow globe

Posted on December 10, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Another Christmas-inspired snow globe lunch, this time featuring one of Nicholas’ favourite animals, an adorable penguin.cute lunches: penguin snow globe

What you need:
2 tortilla wraps (I used wholemeal ones)
blue food colouring
pastry brush
tortilla filling of your choice (I used cooked spinach and ricotta)
2 tbsp ricotta (or other cheese such as mozarella or cream cheese)
2 pitted black olives
1 slice of orange pepper

Directions:

Using a small bowl as a template, cut out two circles from the tortilla wraps (mine were about 12cm in diameter). From the scraps, cut out one snow globe base and the trunk of the Christmas tree.

Mix 1 or 2 drops of blue food colouring with 2 tbsp water. Using a pastry brush, lightly paint one tortilla circle (don’t let it get too wet) and leave to dry.

Put your other circle on your serving plate and top with your filling. Place the base cut from the remaining pieces of tortilla at the bottom of your plate.

Once your coloured tortilla circle is dry, place it on top of your filling and spread some of the ricotta at the bottom for snow.

Cut one olive in half lengthways, then cut 6 thin strips from the sides. Using 4 strips, make the outline of the penguin’s round body and add its flippers. Cut the other olive in half lengthways and trim down the sides of one piece to form the penguin’s head.

Fill the penguin’s body with some ricotta and add two small dollops of ricotta for its eyes.

Cut a nose and feet from the orange pepper. Cut two small squares from the remaining olive piece to finish the eyes.

Finally, drop tiny dollops of ricotta around the penguin for the snow.

scrutinising his lunch

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Leftover chicken soup (family recipe)

Posted on December 7, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

Do you ever roast a chicken, then the next day you scratch your head wondering what you can do with the leftovers apart from chicken sandwiches? Well here’s something filling and warming to try, that will feed the whole family. It would also work really well with leftover turkey.

I used onion, carrot, courgette/zucchini and peas in my soup, but you could easily put in other vegetables (it’s actually a great way to use up those last few vegetables that you’re not sure what to do with at the end of the week). And remember, taking a little bit more time to chop the vegetables into smaller pieces, will shorten the cooking time.

leftover chicken soup

If serving to a baby, don’t season after pureeing. You can either serve them just the pureed vegetable soup, or add some chicken and peas to their portion and puree again.

Nicholas likes searching for the chicken and peas in this soup, and I’ll often add some cooked pasta just to his for him to discover. Adding pasta is also a way to make the soup last for a couple of meals.

If you have a toddler who’s fussy about eating vegetables, puree the vegetables they’re less keen on and keep the ones they do like whole. Or you can puree all of it to hide lots of vegetables!

LEFTOVER CHICKEN SOUP

Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 20-25 mins
Serves 4 adults
Freezable

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, roughly diced
2 large carrots, chopped
1 large courgette/zucchini, chopped
1 tbsp dried sage
1 litre chicken stock
200g leftover chicken, skin removed and diced
150g frozen peas
salt and pepper

Heat oil in a large pot over a med heat. Add the onions and cook for about 5 mins until they’re starting to soften.

Add the carrots, courgette, sage and stock. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer for 10-15 mins until the carrots are cooked.

Remove from the heat and puree the soup until smooth. Season to taste.

Put the soup back on the heat, and add the chicken and peas. Simmer for 5 mins and serve.

Variations:

  • add some cooked pasta to make the soup more filling and to go further
  • use leftover turkey instead of chicken
  • use other vegetables such as potato, leek, butternut squash, frozen corn, etc.

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Cute lunches: Christmas tree snow globe

Posted on December 5, 2012 by TheGingerbreadMum

I love browsing other blogs looking at ways other people make food cute and fun. There is amazing creativity out there. Just google ‘cute lunches’ or ‘cute bento boxes’ and you’ll see what I mean.

But apart from having great fun creating my Halloween tasting plate and coming up with some cute ideas for breakfasts for Mindful Mum, I hadn’t allowed my imagination to run a little wild. Not until now that is!

Here is my first cute lunch idea (hopefully the first of many), inspired by Christmas. I hope you like it.

cute lunches: Christmas tree snow globe

What you need:
2 tortilla wraps (I used wholemeal ones)
blue food colouring
pastry brush
tortilla filling of your choice (I used ham and cheddar)
4 slices of cucumber
1 slice of cheddar cheese
a piece of mozzarella (or other cheese such as ricotta or cream cheese)
1 slice of red pepper (or tomato)

Directions:

Using a small bowl as a template, cut out two circles from the tortilla wraps (mine were about 12cm in diameter). From the scraps, cut out one snow globe base and the trunk of the Christmas tree.

Mix 1 or 2 drops of blue food colouring with 2 tbsp water. Using a pastry brush, lightly paint one tortilla circle (don’t let it get too wet) and leave to dry.

Put your other circle on your serving plate and top with your filling. Place the base cut from the remaining pieces of tortilla at the bottom of your plate.

Chop the cucumber slices in half. Once your coloured tortilla circle is dry, place it on top of your filling and layer the cucumbers, starting from the bottom, to create your tree.

Cut out a star from your cheddar and place it on the top of your tree.

Finely dice the red pepper and sprinkle over to create Christmas baubles. Tuck the trunk under the bottom cucumber slices.

Cut a larger piece of mozzarella for the snow at the bottom of the globe. Break off small pieces of mozzarella for the falling snow and scatter them around your tree. (If using a softer cheese, spread it at the bottom of the globe and drop tiny dollops around for the snow.)

inspecting his lunch

It really isn’t difficult at all to create something cute. I’ve got some other ideas as to what I can put in a Christmas snow globe. What would you make?

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