Filling
them up on something healthy that they don’t even realize is healthy – for the
win!
Brought
to you by Coles
Can we just talk about our kids and
their impressive but painful ability to eat their entire way through a week’s
worth of groceries in just one afternoon?
Every day I am gob smacked at how
much they can put away and STILL profess to be hungry.
I have taken to doing something I
swore I would never do when I had
kids of my own, and that is hiding food in the cupboards.
When I was kid my mum and dad used
to have to hide things like snacks and treats and tins of smoked oysters
because my brother and I would come home from school and raid the pantry for
pretty much anything that was edible and luxury items like smoked oysters… well
let’s just say that they were the most prized finds.
My mum had plenty of hiding places,
but we pretty much knew where everyone of those were and so we would pillage
and devour whatever we could.
I am so sorry Mum and Dad, but rest
assured that justice has been served because nothing and I mean nothing is sacred in this house when it
comes to food and I too have officially run out of hiding places.
We have a massive fruit bowl in our
kitchen and it is chocka block full of fruit. It is the one thing the kids are
allowed to help themselves to without asking… but I guess there lies the
problem. It’s legal food, therefore it is boring.
So I have been forced to take it up
a notch and turn that fruit into something with a little more appeal. It’s
still fruit and what I make is still reasonably healthy, but the trick lies in
taking the fruit out of the fruit bowl, transforming it into something a little
fancier for an after school snack and then hide it in the fridge or in the
cupboards. It’s incredible how it suddenly becomes far more appealing in the
eyes of the bottomless pits.
Jazz
Apples and Corella
Pears (both Aussie grown) are now in
season and readily available at Coles and they make the perfect recipe for
Autumn pies. I'm planning on spending some time in the kitchen this weekend
making this Cinnamon,Apple and Ricotta cake from the latest Coles Magazine.
Now just so we are clear on the
subject - when I talk about fancying fruit for an after school snack, please
don’t mistake me for meaning I out in a whole lot of effort.
I mean we are all busy right? And as
much as I would love nothing more than to spend my days baking for my boys,
well, I aint got no time for that.
Instead, here are some reasonably
quick and totally painless after school snacks with a bit of a crunch, a fair
whack of substance and a whole lotta taste.
Ingredients:
2-3 red or green apples
1 pear
1 cup of Crunchy Granola
½ cup of Vanilla Yoghurt
1 teaspoon cinnamon sugar
Apple and pear Crisps (see next recipe)
Method:
Cut the top 3rd of your apple off with a
sharp knife and put aside.
Use a melon ball to scoop put the inside of the bottom
2/3 of your apple to create a bowl (you can use the scooped apple to make yummy
stewed apples).
Grate your pair and top 3rds of your apples and
squeeze out excess juice.
Fill your apple bowls with crunchy granola, top with a
good dollop of yoghurt and grated pear & apple. Sprinkle with some cinnamon
sugar and an apple / pear crisp.
Ingredients:
2-3 red apples
cinnamon sugar
Method:
Preheat your oven to 100 degrees Celsius.
There is no need to core the apple for this recipe.
All you need to do is thinly slice your apple if full rounds.
I find that using a mandolin gives you thin even
slices that result in super crispy apple crisps.
Lay your apple slices on a baking tray lined with
baking paper. Try not to overlap your slices if possible.
Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar generously over the slices
and slow bake for 2 hours turning your slices once at the one hour mark.
Let the cool for the ultimate crispiness and store in
an air tight container.
So what do you think?
Easy enough right?
Did
you know that the Jazz Apples which are
available at Coles both in store and online
are the loudest apple on record?
I am talking about major crunch here people. A noisy apple…
man could it be any more perfect for kids.
Apart from the crunch it has a whole
lotta zing. They are tangy-sweet and refreshingly juicy, and not too big but
not too small and stingy either… I mean no one likes a stingy apple right and
only the bravest would dare to give a stingy apple to a ravenous kid after
school.
If you do decide to stock up on some Jazz Apples, then there is one more
recipe I need to share with you because hellooo Crispy Skin Duck and Chargrilled Apples…
um yeah!
On that happy note - stay warm you
guys. It’s getting chilly out there. Enjoy your weekend!
Are you forced to hide food in your pantry too?
