Oaty Cranberry & Seed Bites

 

These delicious little bites were adapted from a recipe from Nigella Express. I had a tin of condensed milk in the pantry and had been looking for a "healthy" recipe to include it in, knowing that the sweetness in the little tin would make all other ingredients sing.

When I stumbled on this recipe while paging through my well thumbed Nigella Lawson recipe book I thought it would be a great excuse to open the tin of condensed milk while being able to incorporate some nutritious nuts and seeds in Mr 3's diet.

Usually Mr 3 isn't a huge fan of oaty type treats, but these he just adored. Yes, there is a tin of condensed milk in them, but the rest of the ingredients are as good as a gourmet granola full of oaty and seedy goodness - so in my mind the sugar in the condensed milk is balanced out by the benefits that the other ingredients bring to the table. At least that's what I keep telling myself!

Oaty Cranberry & Seed Bites

395g Tin Condensed Milk

2 Cups Rolled Oats

1 Cup Fine Dessicated Coconut

1 Cup Dried Cranberries

1/2 Cup Sunflower Seeds

1/2 Cup Sesame Seeds

1 Cup Slivered Almonds

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 120°C and grease a square baking tin. 

2. Empty the tin of condensed milk into a pot and pop the pot over a low heat on the stove. Slowly warm the condensed milk, you don't want to boil it, you just want to loosen the texture so it's runny and milky. 

3. Combine all the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl and mix through thoroughly.

4. Pour the condensed milk over the oaty, seedy bowl and stir through really well to ensure the condensed milk is evenly distributed into the dry mixture.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin and place in the oven and bake for 1 hour. 

6. When the tin is removed from the oven, allow it to sit for a few minutes until it's cool enough to handle so you won't burn yourself. When it's cool enough, using a sharp knife cut the slab into bite sized pieces, I made 6 rows of 6, totaling 36 Bite Sized Bars. 

7. Allow to cool completely then remove the bars from the tin. As you cut them in the previous step, they should remove from the tin fairly easily. 

These bars become harder and crunchier with time so after a day or two they are at their peak crunchiness and yumminess! Yes it's a little tricky to stop at one because they are just so heavenly, I found having them hidden away out of sight in an airtight container was the best way to avoid eating and eating and eating them! These oaty cranberry and seed bites are one of my favorite Nigella Lawson Recipes... and I'm sure they will be yours too!

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Tuna and Vegetables Muffin Tin Meal

For this week's Muffin Tin Meal I decided to make a fun meal for Mr 1.5, full of different vegetables, tuna and a few slices of banana. I mixed a tin of tuna with a bit of sour cream to bind it together and it was a simple, fresh and delicious dish.

The Muffin Tin Meal includes the following:
Top Row - Beetroot Hands & Feet and Slices of Banana
Middle Row - Tuna mixed with sour cream and Peas
Bottom Row - Tuna mixed with sour cream and Sweetcorn

Mr 1.5 got stuck straight into it, alternating his fork and hands to eat his way through the Muffin Tin Meal. It was a slightly bigger meal than normal for him, so he ate all the vegetables and banana, and left a portion of tuna at the end of the meal.

You'll find this Muffin Tin Meal at Muffin Tin Mom.

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Love Bunny - Red Themed Bento Box

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This week, the theme at Bento Blog Network is red and I made a Snack Bento Box for Mr 1.5.

For the "Love Bunny", I cut an apple into circular slices. I cut a few bunny's from each circle, the one from the peel I inserted into one of the other circles, so it looks a bit like a bunny puzzle.

The red hearts are slices of red pepper/capsicum with a heart of yoghurt in the centre. The yoghurt heart melted pretty quick as it was a hot day here in Melbourne, so it was more of a yoghurt puddle very quickly! Here's a closer look at the Yoghurt heart before it melted. (too much!)

Mr 1.5 thoroughly enjoyed eating his way through his "Love Bunny" Bento, he got completely covered in yoghurt in the process, but the miles of smiles he had throughout made up for the mess at the end!

Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins - Happy Australia Day!

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Happy Australia Day! The weather here in Melbourne is perfect - not too hot or cold, just sunny, clear and warm! For Melbourne that's a real treat, it's more often one extreme or the other! To celebrate the glorious day, we took the boys down to a park in South Melbourne on the beach and had a ball enjoying the sunshine.

Tomorrow Mr 3's Kinder is having an Australia Day/Welcome to the New Year Picinc. I volunteered to make muffins. After the huge hit my Choc Chunk & Lemon Muffins were with the family, I decided to alter the recipe (only slightly!) to make Lemon & Poppy Seed Muffins. I used Green and Yellow cupcake wrappers in Celebration of the Aussie "Green & Gold" Colours!

Poppy Seeds are actually really, really good for you - they are high in fiber and full of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. So, an extra incentive to make them!

The only change to the original recipe was that I simply replaced the choc chunks with two tablespoons of Poppy Seeds. Pour the Poppy Seeds over the muffin batter and fold them through once you've folded the wet into the dry mixture. 

Make sure you fold all the poppy seeds through so you don't get any poppy seedy chunks! 

Instead of 12 normal sized muffins, I made 24 mini muffins, and in fact there was so much batter that I made a few normal sized muffins as well. I popped the mini muffin tray onto a baking tray and surrounded the tin with cupcake wrappers that kind of got squished while baking! That's ok, as these were for the family to enjoy today!

I knew that when Mr 3 saw the muffins he'd want one, and sure enough he did. So, I gave him one of the "family muffins". Had one myself and they were just perfect! Lemony, moist and full of Poppy Seed Goodness.

Hope you have enjoyed your Australia Day, and enjoyed some quality time with your family.

You'll find this post @ Tastetastic Thursday, Sharing Saturday,Show Your Stuff,

Bento Style Luncboxes - 2nd Kinder Week

Last week was Mr 3's 1st week at Kinder. This week, Mr 3 has settled in incredibly quickly to his new kinder and I've got into the routine of preparing his lunches. 

The evening before I have fun with cookie cutters, making shapes of the fruit and vegetable portions for his lunchbox and in the morning, before taking him to kinder, I quickly prepare the sandwich portion. I'm enjoying the bento style of different shapes and textures, and so is Mr 3. 

In the lunchbox picture above there are avocado sandwiches, along with carrot and rockmelon bunnies.  

The most successful to date, by measure of what's left in the lunchbox when I see it after kinder, was the below lunchbox. There's toasted cheese (which was completely eaten!), apple bears and stars cut out of cucumber and then put back in the opposite way around, for a fun and colorful effect. 

I made the toasted cheese in the morning and it seemed to last well till lunch time. I imagine it would have been a bit soft, but he preferred it to the uncooked sandwiches, so this may be the route I go down more often in future to make sure I find an empty lunch box at the end of the day!  (and that he has a full tummy to give him the energy to play all day!)

 

You'll find this post listed on the Brilliant Bento Lunch Website on their "What's For Lunch Wednesday" Page. 

Chocolate Chunk And Lemon Muffins

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About once a week I try to bake with my boys. I do try to cook as healthy treats as possible, so while this recipe does have chocolate chunks in it, it's very low in sugar (only half a cup) and there's no butter, just 1/4 of a cup of oil. As an alternative to extra sugar and butter, I used applesauce.  You don't actually taste the apple but it helps bring extra sweetness to the muffins while keeping them extremely moist.

Lemon Muffins of any description are a favourite of ours. I find that the inclusion of sour cream works really together with the other ingredients. It adds an extra element of sourness and moisture to the muffins.

This recipe can also been adapted to make delicious Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins! 

Chocolate Chunk and Lemon Muffins
Makes 12
Dry Ingredients:
2 Cups Plain Flour
2 Heaped Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Caster Sugar
Wet Ingredients:
2 Eggs
3/4 Cup Sour Cream
Finely Grated Rind from 1 Lemon
Juice from 1/2 Lemon
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
2/3 Cup Apple Sauce
1/4 Cup Oil

1 Cup Chocolate Chunks (I broke round chocolate discs into a mix of halves & quarters)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper wrappers. (or you could spray the tin if you would prefer not to user wrappers.)
2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. (I got Mr 3 to help me!)

3. Add all the wet ingredients to a 2nd bowl, beating well with a fork until well combined.

4. Fold the wet mix into the dry mixture, then fold through the chocolate chunks. The more lumpy the batter, the more character your muffins will have. If you over-beat then you will end up with smooth cupcakes instead of wholesome muffins.

5. Pour the mixture carefully into the prepared muffin tin, ensuring each hole has approximately equal batter.
6. Pop the tin in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, by which time your muffins should be golden and cooked through.
7. Remove from the oven, allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before removing the muffins to cool completely.

These muffins are easy to make (you don't even need electric beaters) and best of all - they are lemony, chocolatey and yummy!


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Muffin Tin Meal - Fruity Snack

 

This is my very first attempt at a Muffin Tin Meal, a craze which started over at Muffin Tin Mom's . Head over to her site to see inspiring examples of Muffin Tin Meals and find out everything you need to know about the "how to's" of this fun activity.

I put together this snack over the weekend for my 2 boys. I filled the middle row with strawberry yoghurt and filled the side rows with grapes and chopped watermelon. 

Initially it was a struggle to encourage Mr 3 (who's still at the "everything is MINE" stage) to share the snack with his baby brother, Mr 1.5. In the end, I sneakily moved Mr 1.5's share to a separate bowl and redistributed the Muffin Tin so it looked "untouched". Crisis averted! 

I had loads of fun putting the tin together and already have a number of ideas for Muffin Tin Meals I want to create for the boys in the future!

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Frog on a Pond of Peas

We were home today for lunch, so, inspired by Bento of the Week, I decided to have a play with a green themed lunch and made a Frog on a Pond of Peas for Mr 3's enjoyment!

To make your own pond, you need a Frog Shaped Cookie Cutter to cut a Froggy Shape out of a slice of bread.

You then butter the frog with some green avocado. The froggy frame can also be buttered and enjoyed separately.

To put the box together, make your pond by filling the bottom of the box with peas. Then, pop Mr Froggy on top of the peas. I also added a few little green picks filled with peas for an extra little treat. They are in 1st photo in the top corner, but in case you can't see them properly, here is a more details view of the pea picks.

On the 2nd side of the lunch box I simply filled a green cupcake wrapper with some grapes.

Mr 3's face lit up when he saw his Frog on a Pond of Peas. He proceeded to eat his way through Mr Froggy, his pea pond and all the grapes! Success!

You'll find this post lurking at - Full Plate Thursday,  It's a Keeper Thursday, Tastetastic Thursday, For the Kids Friday,Foodie Friday,Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Get Schooled Saturday,Sharing Saturday,

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My 1st Kinder Lunch Box

Today's a special day, this morning I dropped Mr 3 off at Kinder for his very first day, and I prepared for him my/his very 1st Kinder/School Lunch Box. The very first of many, many, many years of lunches. Of course I took photos and of course I just had to share it with you.

I made him sandwich triangles with avocado and cut his fruit and vegetables into shapes using a selection of tiny cookie cutters. I cut watermelon into dinosaur paws, carrots into hearts and cucumbers into stars.

Into his Aeroplane lunch bag I also threw a banana and a 2nd smaller box with extra sandwich triangles, because I know he can eat and eat sandwiches when he's running around!

Thankfully there were no tears (from him!) and he seemed to be playing happily when I said my good-byes.

It's a very quiet house with just one little one running around, and Mr 18 months is loving the freedom! Well, he has a few more hours of undivided attention, so I better get back to him!

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Strawberry Pavlova

Pavlova is crunchy and sweet and usually covered in cream and high in calories. Simply follow your favorite pavlova recipe (it's basically a mix of beaten egg whites, sugar, vinegar and a bit of cornflour), though I only use about a third to half the amount of sugar and it's always sweet enough! I top the pavlova with  creamy, yummy, healthy strawberry yoghurt and fresh strawberries. Still has the sweetness of pavlova, but ends up being good for you!

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Homemade Pita Chips - Fussy Eater Snack

These homemade Pita Chips is a healthy snack for Fussy Eaters. They are super easy to make, a fun activity to do with the kids and best of all they are WAY better for you than a regular bag of chips!

We are at the tail end of summer holidays here in Australia, and I've been doing lots of fun food activities with the kids while we're at home. I had an open packet of Lebanese Bread so I thought, why not make a fun activity of it and make some fun shaped Pita Chips.

I grabbed a handful of different shapes from my cookie cutter collection, called the kids to make chips and we had an entertaining activity of cutting different shapes from the giant Lebanese Bread we had on hand. While cutting the stars, Mr 3 insisted on singing 'Twinkle, Twinkle' to his 18 month old baby brother. Made for a really touching moment!

I used Lebanese Bread, but you could also use Pitas, Tortillas or any wraps you have on hand. I used just one wrap and it made enough for a trayful of chips, plus lots of leftover bits that Mr 18 Month Old snacked on while we were doing the activity!

To make the chips, preheat the oven to 180°C, and line a baking tray with baking paper or aluminum foil. I gave my foil a light spray with cooking oil. 


Use any shaped cookie cutters you like and just enjoy cutting different shapes from the pita and filling the tray. We made stars, tiny teddy bears, dinosaur paws (as Mr 3 called the paw shapes we used!) and bear heads. 

Once your tray is full, pop them in the oven for about 5 to 10 minutes. They can burn very quickly, so keep a close watch on them. Mine took approximately 8 minutes to get to that perfectly crispy stage. 


Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before sharing the Pita Chips out onto the kid's plates.

The Pita Chips are crunchy and wholesome but a tiny bit bland. For kids that's perfect, if I were cooking this for adults I'd throw a sprinkling of salt and maybe some Parmesan Cheese over the tray for a bit of savory flavor. They are great eaten on their own or you could dip them in yoghurt or some homemade dip.

I hope this gives you a tiny bit of inspiration for a fun activity to share with the kids!

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