Kid Friendly recipes.

We all know how hard it is to cook for the family without making several different meals to cater for different needs. So turn on the printer and follow these easy to follow recipes the whole family will enjoy.Its always a good idea to get your kids used to all sorts of different tastes. Don’t worry if they don’t want to try at first, they’ll find out what they do and don’t like, we all know that the taste buds change over time. Just keep offering the different tastes and chances are what they hated today, they might love in a couple of months time.

We found this great sushi recipe at Kid Spot

Baby sushi

Serving Size:

4

Special Info:

Egg free, Gluten free, Lactose free, Nut free

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sushi rice
• 1 ½ cups water
• 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 6 sheets nori (don’t mention it’s seaweed!)
• bamboo mat
• carrot sticks
• cucumber sticks
• cooked beef or chicken
• avocado slices
• soy sauce and pickled ginger, to serve

Method:

Place rice and water in a saucepan, cover and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and leave for 10 minutes covered.

Spread rice into a container and allow to cool, then sprinkle with combined vinegar and sugar. Stir thoroughly.

Use scissors to cut a sheet of nori in half. Place nori shiny side down on the bamboo mat. Place some of the rice on the sheet, press down with wet fingers to a depth of 0.5cm, leaving a 1cm gap at one end. Arrange fillings on top of the rice.

Start rolling up from the end with fillings. Lift the bamboo mat and roll tightly. Wet the strip at the end and push gently to seal the edges. Slice into six or eight pieces using a sharp, wet knife.

Place on a serving platter, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes to allow the nori to soften.

Serve with soy sauce and pickled ginger.

Kid Spot is fantastic for recipes, so here’s a few more.

Basic omelette

Serving Size:

Makes 4

Ingredients:

• 8 eggs
• Salt and pepper
• 3 rashers bacon
• 4 teaspoons butter
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• ¼ cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
• ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Method:

Chop the bacon into small pieces, about 1cm square.

Heat a non-stick saucepan to medium-high heat and cook the bacon until brown and crispy.

Transfer to a plate and keep warm in the oven.

Wipe out frypan (I had to wash mine).

Cook the omelettes one at a time.

For each omelette, whisk 2 eggs, a bit of salt and pepper and a sprinkle of parsley in a small bowl.

Heat the frypan to medium heat, melt 1 teaspoon of butter in the frypan until it starts to foam and pour in eggs.

Don’t stir the eggs (some recipes recommend you push the cooked outsides into the middle, but this always ends in disaster for me, see note below!), leave the eggs for about a minute until the base has set, then sprinkle bacon, tomato and parmesan in a strip across the middle of the omelette.

By this time the top of the omelette will be just about set.

Use a spatula to carefully fold one side of the omelette over the filling. Now for the tricky bit… gently push the spatula under the middle of the omelette, tilt the pan a bit and use the spatula to help slide the omelette on to a plate.

Then fold the other side of the omelette into the middle.
Sprinkle some parsley and parmesan on the top.

Serve immediately.

Start the next one!

Homemade muesli bars

Serving Size:

Makes 24

Special Info:

Egg free, Nut free

Ingredients:

• ½ cup (125mL) honey
• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 125g butter
• 3 cups rolled oats (see note for GF)
• 1 cup rice bubbles
• 1 cup sultanas
• ½ cup chopped apricots or dates or choc chips
• ½ cup desiccated coconut
• ¼ cup pepitas (pumpkin seed kernels), sunflower or sesame seeds

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Grease and line a slice tray (mine is 31 cm x 22cm) with baking paper.

Combine honey, sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

Cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until butter melts and sugar dissolves.

Bring to the boil and cook for 2 minutes or until syrup thickens slightly.

Remove from heat.

Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

Pour over the hot syrup and stir to combine.

Spoon into prepared pan and press firmly to make sure the mixture will stick together.

I wet my fingers with a bit of cold water and press the top to get a smooth finish.

Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Cool and then refrigerate until well chilled and cut into 24 slices (about 2cm x 6cm).

Pizza pinwheels

Serving Size:

3

Special Info:

Nut free

Ingredients:

• 3 ½ cups plain flour
• 3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ cup milk
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 200g ham, sliced
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Method:

Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a tray with baking paper.

Place flour and baking powder in a large bowl and whisk to combine.

Make a well in the centre and gradually pour in milk, stirring with a spoon until a dough forms.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured bench and knead (about 5 minutes) until smooth.

If the dough is sticky sprinkle with more flour, I had to do this 3 or 4 times, but don’t over do it.

Roll dough into a 20cm x 40 cm rectangle and spread with tomato paste.

Sprinkle with ham and cheese.

Turn the dough so the long end is in front of you and roll up.

Slice into 10-12 pieces and place side-by-side on the tray.

Brush with egg and bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into a ‘join’ comes out clean.

You need to treat your kids now and again, so here’s some great picks for party food!

We found these at taste.

Wizard's cauldron cake

Ingredients (serves 10)

• 85g packet green jelly crystals
• jelly snakes, jelly frogs and cachous, to decorate

• Cake

• 340g packet buttercake mix
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 60g butter, softened
• 1 tube green Dollar Five sprinkles

Method

1. Make jelly, following packet directions. Pour into a 20cm (base) round dish. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours to set.
2. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line base of a 20cm (base) round cake pan.
3. Make cake: Prepare cake, following packet directions. Before pouring mixture into cake pan, fold through sprinkles (this gives a magical coloured effect once cake is cut). Bake as directed. Stand in pan for 10 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack to cool.
4. Place cake, right side up, on a platter. Using a serrated knife, trim top off cake to create a flat surface. Spoon jelly on top of cake. Press cachous into frogs to form eyes. Decorate cake with snakes and frogs.
5. 

   Chicken and vegetable spring rolls

   Makes 20

   Ingredients

   • 300g chicken mince
   • 1/4 Chinese cabbage (wombok), shredded (see note)
   • 1 carrot, peeled, grated
   • 1 zucchini, grated
   • 2 green onions, thinly sliced
   • 1/2 cup grated tasty cheese
   • 1 egg, lightly beaten
   • 20 (250g) frozen spring roll wrappers, thawed
   • olive oil cooking spray
   • sweet and sour dipping sauce, to serve

   Method

   1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Place mince, cabbage, carrot, zucchini, onion, cheese and egg in a large bowl. Using clean hands, mix well to combine.
   2. Place 1 spring roll wrapper on a workbench, with 1 corner facing you. Place 2 tablespoons of filling along centre of wrapper. Fold corner over filling. Fold over sides and roll up tightly to enclose. Brush remaining corner with water to seal. Place, seam side down, on baking tray. Repeat with remaining wrappers, filling and water. Spray rolls with oil.
   3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until light golden and crisp. Serve with dipping sauce.
   4. 

      Choc-banana toasties

      Ingredients (serves 4)

   5. 4 slices of raisin bread
   6. 2 tsp Nutella
   7. 1 large banana, sliced

   Method

   1. Preheat a jaffle or sandwich maker. Spread one side of 4 slices raisin bread with butter. Spread the other side of each slice with Nutella.

   1. Place 2 slices of bread, butter-side down, in the jaffle maker. Top with banana. Top with remaining bread, butter-side up. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until golden. Set aside for 2 minutes to cool slightly. Cut into quarters to serve.

Wise owl cake

Equipment

You will need 1 large cake board

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Ingredients

• 2 x 600g packets vanilla cake mix
• 250g unsalted butter, chopped, softened
• 2 cups icing sugar mixture
• 2 1/2 tablespoons milk
• 180g white chocolate, melted

• Decorations

• 1 tube Cake Mate yellow writing icing
• 1/3 cup desiccated coconut
• 2 large black jelly beans
• 2 teaspoons chocolate dollarettes
• 6 x 2.5cm-long black licorice strips
• 2.5cm-thick slice banana tip, halved crossways
• 1 blanched almond

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 3cm deep, 26cm x 36cm baking pan. Line with baking paper. Make cake batter following packet directions. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand cake for 5 minutes in tray. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.
2. Using owl template as a guide, cut cake into owl shape. Transfer to cake board.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat butter in a small bowl until pale. Gradually add icing sugar mixture and milk, beating constantly, until well combined. Spread butter cream over top and sides of cake.
4. Draw a 20cm square on a piece of baking paper. Spread the melted chocolate over the square. Stand for 30 minutes or until almost set. Using a small, sharp knife, cut four 14cm-long feathers from chocolate square (see note for template). Refrigerate feathers for 20 minutes or until set.
5. To decorate: Using yellow icing, make a heart-shaped outline for the face, leaving a 2.5cm border. Scatter coconut outside the border on the owl’s head, then over rest of cake top and sides. Position jelly beans for eyes. Sprinkle base with dollarettes. Position feathers on cake. Position licorice on base as talons.
6. Position 1 banana piece as the beak. Position almond, pointed end out, at the bottom of the banana piece.

Next week we’re concentrating on fridge things, In the mean time, have a very very MERRY CHRISTMAS!