Eats Amazing

Butterfly Lunch and a Giveaway!

By Grace | May 23, 2013 - 1:29 pm | Other Fun Food

Small Child was off school for the first few days this week suffering from a nasty stomach bug that has been doing the rounds. This meant no lunch packing (I must admit I enjoyed the break) but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t make his food fun; once he was able to get any food down him that is. I made this butterfly themed lunch to tempt his appetite. It’s not a very balanced meal, but I found that ‘dry’ foods plus some banana were appreciated by him at that point.

For this meal he had some toast with a little honey, cut into butterfly shapes and decorated with banana slices and some mini pretzel sticks. He also had some banana slices cut into butterflies with a mini butterfly cutter. On the side he had some snacks in our new butterfly snack pots; dried banana chips, apple granola and some more mini pretzel sticks.

He made a really good dent in this meal; it was the most he had eaten for days. He was also really happy to have ‘fun food’ to eat too, it cheered him up no end!

You may have noticed the butterfly snack pots above, I also have a set of car pots made by the same company that we love too. I recently bought the butterfly pots (which came in a set with ladybirds too) because I find them a really handy size for mini snack portions, and they are just so cute! Just because I’m nice like that, I decided to buy a couple of extra sets to give away to two lucky Eats Amazing readers. Here are the car pots in action in a previous lunch (details of this lunch can be found here):

I have two sets to give away, each set comprises of 8 mini snack pots with lids. One set has 8 car shaped pots, the other 4 ladybird and 4 butterfly pots. Colours may vary from those shown below. Please note that I bought these snack pots at my own expense to give away, and have no affiliation to the company that made them. To enter, leave a comment saying which set of snack boxes you would prefer, and what you would put in them. Winners will be picked at random, with first come first served on the pot shapes.

You can enter using the Rafflecopter below, and don’t forget to leave your comment. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please note the following terms & conditions:

The winner will be notified by email within 24 hours of the the giveaway ending. If no response is received from the winner within 48 hours then a new winner will be selected.

If extra entries are earned by following Eats Amazing on Facebook or Twitter, the winner must still be following Eats Amazing when the giveaway ends in order to claim their prize.

This giveaway is open to all international users, as well as those based in the UK.

A Lunchbox Full of Snails

By Grace | May 22, 2013 - 9:32 am | Lunch Boxes

1 Comment

Small Child was very excited that his classroom got some new pets last week - 3 giant snails! I was in the classroom when the children were coming up with names for them, so I thought it would be fun to make a snail lunch to celebrate the new arrivals.

In his snail lunch Small Child had 2 small homemade pizza whirl rolls, decorated with polka-dot food picks to make them look more like snails, a couple of rolled up ham ‘snails’, held together with more polka-dot food picks, which also helped to add to their snail-like appearance. On the side he had some cucumber slices, with a swirl carved into them with the tip of a sharp knife, and a clementine snail.

I’ve been meaning to try my hand at the clementine snail for some time, after spotting it on Pinterest. It was very easy to do, and I was pleased with my attempt. Here’s a close-up of my snail, the face was drawn on with a biro, as the peel was obviously to be discarded, rather than eaten.

Small Child was very excited about his snail lunch, and ate everything up. He told me some of the girls thought snails for lunch were yucky, I’m glad he didn’t listen!

Grace

New Doggie Lunchbox

By Grace | May 21, 2013 - 9:31 am | Lunch Boxes

3 Comments

Despite the fact that Small Child probably has enough lunchboxes to last him to the end of his school days and beyond, I was completely unable to resist this little chap when I spotted him on a trip to IKEA last week. I think that it is probably the cutest lunchbox in our collection, and Small Child loves him! If it wasn’t for the fact that he grew out of tippy cups years ago, I would probably have bought the super cute matching cups too!

Of course we had to use the lunchbox the very next day, and I found that it was the perfect size for a simple houmous ’dippy’ lunch. In this lunch Small Child had a pot of organic homous, a toasted wholemeal pitta bread cut into slices, chunks of cucumber and raw carrot sticks, popped into silicone cupcake cases to keep them from making the pitta bread soggy. He also had some red grapes on mini heart skewers, and a couple of strawberries to finish off. I popped a lid on the houmous & also added a small plastic knife to help Small Child spread houmous on his pitta bread.

Here is the lunchbox closed and ready to go. As you can see, the ears are actually two flaps which swing down to clip the box closed. Too cute for words!

Grace

Cooking with Small Child – Simple Fruit Salad

By Grace | May 20, 2013 - 9:52 am | Cooking with Small Child

1 Comment

Small Child absolutely loves his fruit, so I decided to put together a simple fruit salad recipe for him that he could prepare himself. We’ve recently been having discussions about how we can all contribute in our own way and ’do our bit’ for our family; that day Daddy cut the grass, Mummy made dinner and Small Child made dessert. He was really pleased and proud to have made what he considered to be an equal contribution.

The selection of fruit for this recipe was chosen based on ease of preparation, but of course you can use any fruit that you like to replace these ones if you decide to make this recipe yourself. A PDF of the recipe can be found at the bottom of this post, in case you’d like to challenge your own ‘Small Child’ to give it a go.

Ingredients

Blueberries
Strawberries
Grapes
2 Clementines
2 Bananas
50ml Orange Juice

Method

Wash all the fruit if necessary. Put the blueberries in a large bowl. Chop the tops off the strawberries, cut them all in half and add them to the bowl. As I’ve mentioned before, I allow Small Child to use a small sharp paring knife (under close supervision at all times) as I believe that the best way for him to learn about knife safety is to learn how to use it properly, and practice makes perfect. Every child is different though, so you should use your own judgement to decide whether your child is ready to use a sharp knife or not.

Chop the grapes in half and add to the bowl. Peel the clementines, break them into segments and add to the bowl.

Peel the bananas, chop them into pieces and add to the bowl. Measure out the orange juice.

Pour over the orange juice and stir to coat all the fruit.

You can serve the fruit salad up as it is, or add extras such as cream, natural yoghurt or meringues as desired. We had crushed meringues with ours, it was delicious!

If you’d like to print off a child-friendly copy of this recipe for yourself, click on the link below to download the PDF file. Do comment and let me know if you try it!

Simple Fruit Salad Recipe

Please let me know if there are any other recipes you’d like to see here or if you have any other suggestions; we’re always looking for new ideas to try.

Grace

Simple Crackers & Cheese Lunch

By Grace | May 17, 2013 - 12:18 pm | Lunch Boxes

4 Comments

After a busy weekend and with very little food left in the house I threw together this quick and easy lunch for Small Child. I always have crackers on hand for last minute meals and snacks, and Small Child loves them, so this lunch was a worked well for both of us.

In this lunch, Small Child had some assorted crackers, sandwiched together in pairs with Roulé garlic cheese, to make ‘cracker sandwiches’, his favourite way to eat them. On the side he had some ham, rolled and skewered on a heart pick, blueberry ‘kebabs’, on more heart picks, and some baby carrots. At the last minute I added a few red grapes at Small Child’s request, also on heart picks. Lots of love in this lunch!

For his after school snack, Small Child had a few vegetable crisps (a special treat left over from the weekend), a heart shaped silicone cup filled with organic yoghurt and frozen, and a few more red grapes.

Thanks to the insulated lunch bag, some mini gel ice packs and the fact that it was frozen overnight, the yoghurt was still lovely and cold when Small Child came to eat it in the park after school, a very good thing on a very hot day!

Grace

Leftover Pasta & Baby Carrots Lunch

By Grace | May 16, 2013 - 9:26 am | Lunch Boxes

2 Comments

I couldn’t resist buying baby carrots when I popped to the shop the other day – they are so cute! I added them to this lunch to make some leftover pasta seem a little more interesting.

In this lunch Small Child had some pasta leftover from our dinner the night before (spinach and ricotta tortellini in a homemade tomato and mascarpone sauce), topped with a plastic cockerel cupcake pick to decorate, with baby carrots and rolled up ham on the side. I popped the ham onto cute bunny picks and added a silicone divider to make it look like the bunnies were peeping over a fence at the carrots. In a separate container Small Child had a Babybel cheese with a star cut from the wax to decorate, and a sliced plum with a cute cat pick to eat it with.

For his after school snack, Small Child had some mini fruit kebabs; blueberries, green grapes and red grapes skewered on long picks. He also had a star shaped silicone cup filled with a handful of oddities (mini savoury crackers).

It was a gorgeous day so we went to the park after school and the snack was quickly demolished!

Grace

Cats vs Dogs

By Grace | May 15, 2013 - 9:09 am | Lunch Boxes

10 Comments

Small Child has always been a big lover of cats, and recently he’s also become a big fan of dogs too, probably because of the arrival into his life of Grandma’s dog ‘Alfie’. I’ve made him cat themed lunches in the past, and decided it was time for a dog themed lunch too. This led to a request for another cat themed lunch the day after, so he got one of each. This leads to the age old question – do you prefer dogs or cats? My husband is firmly in the dog camp, I much prefer cats, and Small Child is a fan of both. Sadly we can’t have either as a pet, as I’m allergic to cats, and our house and garden are too small for a dog, so poor Small Child has to make do with cuddly toy versions and themed lunches!

In his dog themed lunch Small Child had a cheese sandwich, with a dog cut from the top piece of bread using a cookie cutter, then replaced on top so that it stood out in ‘relief’. He also had some carrot letters spelling out the word ‘WOOF’, frozen yoghurt bones and a silicone cup filled with homemade granola (recipe to follow in a future post) topped with a little dog food pick.

In his cat themed lunch Small Child had some cat faces cut from a toasted wholemeal pitta bread and embossed using our cuteZcute cutter, a small pot of roulé garlic cheese to spread on them, an egg mouse (a tutorial for making egg animals can be found here), cucumber slices with little fish cut from the middle of each and some raw carrot, made to look vaguely like a ball of wool with the help of a julienne peeler.

Small Child enjoyed his cat and dog lunches, apparently they were both his favourite (ever the diplomat!). Which is your favourite?

Grace

Wraps on a Stick Lunch

By Grace | May 14, 2013 - 1:21 pm | Lunch Boxes

2 Comments

This was a very quick and easy lunch to put together. I decided to make the tortilla wrap a little more interesting by cutting it into slices and putting it on mini skewers -after all, everything tastes better on a stick!

In this lunch Small Child had a tortilla wrap, filled with ham, a little light mayonnaise and lettuce, sliced into four and skewered on two mini plastic skewers. He also had a Babybel cheese, decorated with a flower cut from the wax, some raw red pepper sticks, carrot flowers, and a plum, cut into slices and decorated with a cute little cat pick.

For his after school snack, Small Child had a heart shaped silicone cup filled with organic yoghurt, apple slices (dipped in orange juice to keep them from browning), arranged in a row to look like stripes and topped with a cute giraffe pick, and a few red grapes skewered on a sword pick.

Everything got eaten, so I’m guessing Small Child enjoyed this lunch.

Grace

Tutorial – Traffic Light Ice Lollies

By Grace | May 13, 2013 - 9:41 am | Recipes & Tutorials

3 Comments

As the weather has been so nice, today I’m straying away from lunchboxes to share a little project that I made with Small Child recently – traffic light ice lollies. These ice lollies are made purely from fruit and a little fruit juice, with no added sugar, so definitely count towards your 5 a day! I was inspired to make them after seeing fruity ice lollies all over Pinterest, and a quick trip to the supermarket to find multi-coloured fruit gave me the inspiration I needed to make them in traffic light colours. The same principle could be used for any combination of fruit, so I expect we’ll be experimenting a bit more with this recipe over the summer.

Ingredients

1 Punnet of Strawberries
1 Ripe Mango
4 Kiwi Fruits
Orange Juice
Apple Juice

Method

Prepare the fruit; wash, hull and roughly chop the strawberries, peel, stone and chop the mango, peel and roughly chop the kiwi fruits. Whiz each fruit separately in a blender, adding a little fruit juice to aid the blending. I added apple juice to the strawberries and kiwis, and orange juice to the mango. If wanted, add a little sugar or honey to sweeten the fruit; I didn’t add any but having tasted the finished lollies I would probably add a little sugar to the kiwi mixture if I was making them again. If wanted, you could also strain the fruit mixtures at this point to remove any seeds. We weren’t too worried about the seeds, so didn’t bother.

Spoon the first layer of fruit into your lolly moulds, so that it fills about 1/3 of each mould. If you don’t have lolly moulds, you could try using disposable cups or washed out yoghurt pots with lolly sticks instead. Freeze for an hour or two until starting to harden, then add the next layer. Repeat until all 3 layers are in the moulds. Add the lolly sticks after the last layer and freeze overnight or until the lollies are completely frozen through. Note: I covered the bowls of fruit that were awaiting freezing between layers and popped them into the fridge to keep them fresh.Small Child enjoyed getting stuck into this project, hulling the strawberries for me, and helping to fill the lolly moulds with the fruit mixtures. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I allow him to use a sharp paring knife under close supervision as I believe he is mature enough to do so and he knows the rules. Each child is different though, so use your discretion when deciding whether your child is ready to wield a sharp knife or not!

I thought that the finished lollies looked and tasted great, and I’m glad I now have a stash of healthy fruit lollies to dish out when the sun is shining, rather than the very ‘artificial’ ice lollies that I was originally eyeing up in the supermarket.

I overestimated the amount of fruit needed (we made 24 lollies, but our lolly moulds are quite small), so I froze what was left into cubes to throw into future fruit smoothies (you can find my smoothie recipes here).

This was a fun project, I’m looking forward to making more fruity lollies when our current supply runs out. What fruit would you use to make ice lollies from?

Grace

Funny Faces Lunch

By Grace | May 10, 2013 - 9:21 am | Lunch Boxes

4 Comments

I tried to jazz up this simple lunch with a variety of funny faces, but personally I think some of them came out slightly more scary than funny (the egg in particular)!

In this lunch Small Child had a homemade cheese & tomato pizza whirl bread roll, topped with a Babybel cheese, which was split into two and dotted with an edible marker pen to make eyes, and a piece of raw red pepper for a mouth. On the side he had more slices of raw red pepper, some cucumber slice faces and a boiled egg, also decorated with a face.

For his after school snack he had a kiwi fruit, chopped into chunks and mixed with red grapes, with cute little picks to eat them with, and a slice of my homemade Barmbrack cake (recipe for this can be found here), decorated with a plastic sheep cupcake topper.