My son recently celebrated his birthday. He handed out these lovely creatures for some festive fun. We just combined these googly eyes from Flying tiger and simple carrots. This made for a healthy snack and a fun simple trinket for the kids to take home.
Last time I made these beautiful cars, but my son really enjoyed being able to join in this year. This made all it feel extra special for a toddler in the “I wanna be independent” fase!
If you are anything like me, you will have started planning your Christmas dinner(s) by now. Normally cooking is a spontanious thing for me, but for parties and holidays I make a list of what I want to make. After this I plot out my preparations in time, scheduling my shopping, prepping and cooking over the days before Christmas. Ideally, I do as little as possible on Christmas day.
Here are my favorite recipes for Christmas this year:
Starters
Side dishes
Main dishes
For more Christmas inspiration look at my Christmas page or my Christmas pinboard.
If you love pizza, you will love this recipe! You use the same recipe for the base, but the topping is completely different. This German dish is popular with my son and his daddy. We may have stumbled on a new family favorite (after pizza that is).
This dish makes a great dinner if served with a tasty salad but it also makes a great party snack or a simple lunch.
Flamm kuchen (3 medium pizzas)
For a vegetarian option you could top your flamm kuchen with blue cheese, union and artichokes. Look up our favorite pizza recipes here.
The other day I felt a strong craving for some decadent American style chocolate chip cookies. After dome experimenting I found a recipe that works for us.
I made the dough a day in advance and I pulled the dough out when my pre-schooler seemed bored. We had great fun slicing the cookies and watching the oven do all the work.
After this we enjoyed these satisfyingly chewy cookies with a tall glass of milk, yum!
I turned this recipe into a lovely coloring project. You can download MonsterCookieColoring here.
Monster cookies (8 to 10 cookies)
Enjoy your baking and coloring project!
On a cold and wintery day, we just love making cheese fondue.
As a metnlintje first, I made you a (downloadable) decorative recipe! You can just follow the instructions on the FondueSketch to make the fondue. This recipe serves 2 greedy adults and a toddler. Don’t forget to season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
I grew up in Switserland. This means I am quite a puritan about how you are supposed to enjoy your home made fondue. These are my Cheese fondue guidelines:
My family loves cheese, so everyone joins in for this one at our home. It always makes a festive meal in our home. We light the candles and we take our time to saver the cheese but it also leaves lots of time for conversation. Hope you enjoy it too!
This is a tasty Asian fruit salad is known as rojak in Malaysia. It makes a great side dish with a (Malaysian) curry but it also makes a great accompaniment with grilled meat, fish or poultry.
Traditionally Roedjak is made with tropical fruit but I have found it is also delicious with tart apples and crunchy cucumber. The dressing sort of preserves your salad, making it possible to make your salad one or two days in advance.
Asian fruit salad with Dutch fruit
In case you haven’t discovered Pinterest yet: Pinterest is a great website/app that lets you create you own “pin boards” of pictures that inspire you! Millions of creative people share and organize their pictures on this site. If you create an account you will be able to organize your own finds, but most importantly be inspired by others as well!
What I have discovered is that Pinterest gives you new ideas for cooking, crafts and activities with your kids. I often take elements of the idea of a creative mommy on the other side of the globe, tweak it for my own toddler and make it my own.
These are some of my latest (p)insired creations:
Top tip! Get inspired for Christmas and Halloween and get an early start this year!
I am always looking for a way to make broccoli more interesting. Somehow this veg does not apeal to me, but I love it with cheese! This recipe makes my life easy. Especialy because I can do all preperations the day before. All I need to do when I get home is heat the dish in the oven.
We like eating this simple broccoli casserole with roast potatoes and maybe a salad on the side. As the sauce is so rich, we like having this broccoli feast as a vegetarian dinner. As a variation to this dish you could mix in cauliflower or maybe .
Broccoli feast
I learnt this recipe at a cooking workshop. It was such a simple recipe, but it is a major showstopper for dinner guests. It celebrates the flavor of the sprout, complementing it with fluffy cream, crunchy salty bacon and zingy fresh spring union. It’s secret for me is the diversity in flavors and textures.
What I like most of all is that this luxury treat is easy to make for any starting cook.
For a vegetarian option replace the bacon with homemade garlic croutons.
You can serve this starter in a cappuccino cup, or a stylish glass cup.
Brussel sprout cappuccino (serves 4)
Clean your sprouts. Boil the sprouts in the stock for about 10 minutes, until tender. Turn of your heat. Place a lid on the pan while you prepare the other ingredients.
Fry your bacon cubes until they are crispy while the sprouts are cooking. Slice the spring union in thin slices. Divide the bacon cubes and spring unions over your cappuccino cups.
Whip the cream into stiff peaks.
Blitz the sprouts and vegetable stock until smooth.
Add a spoonfull of whipped cream to the smooth sprout soup. Add the soup to the whipped cream and fold the mixture in until combined.
Gently spoon your fluffy soup in each cup and let your guests dig in.
My friend loves taking me to great lunchrooms. At one of these fabulous lunches I tried my first beetroot burgers, and I was hooked. Unlike other vegetarian burgers this burger does not try to replace meat, it is a totally new flavor sensation providing great texture and filling you up for the rest of the day.
Obviously, it is also a very healthy alternative to your regular meaty version. But that is not why you should try this. This is a new flavour you have to introduce to your pallet, the healthy part is just a bonus!
I have to honestly admit this dish isn’t for everyone, especially meat lovers that think veggie burgers are blasphemy. And you have to love beetroot. I do think that offering lots of garlic rich yoghurt sauce will help convince your family members.
These burgers and sauces can easily be made a day in advance, making them the perfect easy home made fastfood!
Beet root burgers (4-6 burgers)
Mash up the peas (in the foodprocessor), I like leaving some chunky pieces for texture.
Mix in the beet root, onion and egg. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.
Add half the oats and let the mixture stand so the oats can soak up the moisture. After 20 minutes, check the mixture and add oats as needed. You want a firm, non-sticky mixture that still holds together well. I like to compare it to how my meatball texture feels when it is just right.
Shape your burger paddies, dust with oats to prevent the paddies from sticking if needed and let them rest for at least 30 minutes. For the practical busy moms I recommend making these a day in advance.
Fry your paddies in some oil on a high heat for a few minutes on each side. After making the paddies crusty on each side, place the paddies in the 220 degree oven for 20 minutes.
Serve with some fresh crispy buns, some lettuce, a spicy yoghurt sauce and a yoghurt mint sauce (you find the recipe with the posh fish and chips recipe).
Spicy sauce
Blend half the tomato, union and chili to a pulp. Mix the pulp with the other ingredients and season to taste.
