Today I'm sharing a fun rainbow omelette cakes recipe that makes perfect picnic food!
This baked omelette recipe is a great easy recipe for kids to cook too, as there are no hot frying pans involved - you simply pour your mixture into silicone muffin cups, pop in the oven and bake. You can also sneak in lots of lovely vegetables - who wouldn't want to eat a rainbow?!
I don't know about you, but I love a good picnic, and with the amazing summer we're having so far this year we're picnicking practically every other day at the moment. There's something about being out in the fresh air that makes food taste that little bit nicer, and my children really love picnics too.
The offer of a picnic can be the perfect bribe encouragement for good behaviour, and we're fortunate enough to have a lovely green across the road from our house, so we don't even have to go far for it!
With all this in mind, I was delighted when Organix approached me to ask if I'd like to get involved with their 'No Junk Picnic Challenge'.
I have long been a fan or Organix products, their extremely short ingredients lists and no junk promise are so reassuring when trying to steer through the minefield of children's food, as so many other products aimed at children that claim to be healthy are actually full of sugar and unidentifiable ingredients.
Organix are very different - they never add anything unnecessary to their foods and promote the idea that we should try to eat real, healthy food as much as possible.
If you're not familiar with the No Junk Challenge, do head over to the Organix website to take a look. It's a fantastic campaign which really makes you think about what is going into the food that we eat and feed to our children, and it aims to help families find, cook and eat healthy food full of simple ingredients and free from junk.
This summer, Organix are encouraging families to do this by making their own homemade picnics full of real, tasty food! I could definitely get on board with that, and got straight to work, planning out a delicious, home-made picnic of our own.
First, I created a new recipe to be the star of the picnic basket. I wanted to find a new way to sneak in some healthy veggies, whilst keeping it quick and simple, and came up with the idea of incorporating a rainbow of veggies in some simple mini omelette cakes - hiding them in plain sight as they say!
These couldn't be easier to make, and would be a fun project to help get your children involved in the kitchen too. You can swap the vegetables to suit your tastes - try letting your child pick some out from the list at the end of the recipe, in my experience they are much more likely to eat them if they are involved in the process. If you're feeding a crowd, this recipe is easily doubled or even tripled!
Rainbow Omelette Cakes
Ingredients (makes 6 'cakes')
- 1 tsp Olive Oil
- ½ Red Pepper
- 2 Spring Onions
- 1 Small Carrot
- 2 tbs Sweetcorn
- 50g Cheddar Cheese
- 3 Large Eggs
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Line a muffin tin with six silicone or paper cupcake cases.
Prepare your ingredients – finely chop the pepper and spring onions, grate the carrot, drain and rinse the sweetcorn, grate the cheese.
Warm the olive oil in a pan, then gently cook the pepper and spring onions for a couple of minutes until starting to soften. Take off the heat and add the grated carrot and sweetcorn.
Break the eggs into a large bowl and whisk until frothy. Add all of the vegetables and the grated cheese to the eggs. Stir until combined.
Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes until cooked through and golden.
Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before serving warm. Alternatively, cool completely and pack them up to take on a picnic.
If you want to try some different fillings, the following would also work nicely in this recipe:
Peas, yellow, orange or green pepper, grated courgette, onion, red onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, chopped green beans, chopped spinach, ham, aubergine, broccoli or cauliflower.
With the omelettes made and cooling down, it was time to pack up the rest of the picnic. I wanted to keep it simple, and free from junk too of course! To accompany the omelettes, I added oatcakes with cubes of cheddar cheese, organic carrot and cucumber slices cut into fun shapes (I used flower cutters), bread sticks with organic houmous and guacamole, and to finish, a rainbow of fruit – grapes, blueberries, raspberries and melon, cut into shapes (I used a heart shaped mini cookie cutter).
We took our picnic to the local park, and enjoyed eating it in the shade of some beautiful chestnut trees. All of the food was received extremely well by the whole family - there was barely a scrap left by the time we went home!
If you're thinking of packing up a picnic or two this summer, why not make it a no-junk one? To help, here are my top tips for keeping your picnics healthy, but still fun and tempting for children:
- Try to pack a variety of finger foods – children are much more likely to eat plenty if they can pick up bite size bits and pieces.
- Prepare fruits and vegetables in advance and pack in tubs to make instant healthy ‘fast food’. Cut into fun shapes with a sharp knife or mini cutters if you have them. Carrot, cucumber and melon are particularly easy to cut into shapes.
- Get children involved in picking out some healthy choices to try at a picnic. Let them choose a new fruit or vegetable or find new ways to present old favourites. Vegetables such as peas still in their pods (eaten raw), mini peppers or purple carrots make perfect picnic foods.
- Get imaginative and give things fun names – magic wands or swords (bread sticks), swamp slime (guacamole) or pirate gold (cheese) - you can easily tailor them to suit your child’s interests and spark their imagination.
- Consider packing up individual portions for each child - you can keep an eye on how much they've eaten and avoid the inevitable fight over the last sandwich!
What do you like to pack in your picnic basket? Do you have any tips for making the perfect picnic?
Grace
Disclosure: This recipe and blog post was created for the Organix No Junk Picnic Challenge. I was compensated for my time, however all opinions expressed in this post are my own.
Rainbow Omelette Cakes
Ingredients
- 1 tsp Olive Oil
- ½ Red Pepper
- 2 Spring Onions
- 1 Small Carrot
- 2 tbs Sweetcorn
- 50 g Cheddar Cheese
- 3 Large Eggs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Line a muffin tin with six silicone or paper cupcake cases.
- Prepare your ingredients – finely chop the pepper and spring onions, grate the carrot, drain and rinse the sweetcorn, grate the cheese.
- Warm the olive oil in a pan, then gently cook the pepper and spring onions for a couple of minutes until starting to soften. Take off the heat and add the grated carrot and sweetcorn.
- Break the eggs into a large bowl and whisk until frothy. Add all of the vegetables and the grated cheese to the eggs. Stir until combined.
- Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes until cooked through and golden.
- Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before serving warm.
Donna says
Those omelette cakes are such a great idea - just like little crustless quiches! Your picnic is beautiful, so colourful! z
Grace says
Thank you! They were really tasty, we really enjoyed the whole thing and have enjoyed several lovely no-junk picnics since, too!
Handy Herbs says
What a wonderful idea the omelette cakes are! Also the picnic tips are a great way of getting the children involved in choosing and eating healthy but fun food.
A says
Can you freeze these??
Grace Hall says
Hello, yes you can. Freeze them in one layer and once frozen place them in an airtight bag or container. Hope that helps!