Three Recipes for the Kids over the Long Weekend

The Australia Day long weekend starts tonight, so I’ve put together three easy recipes that the kids can help make, and then eat of course!

There’s a lot written about the dangers of letting children watch television, but I think all those articles are missing a key “danger”.  The one where your child is watching television and calls out “Mum!  Can we make {insert unsuitable food here}!”   This happened with Play school and their apple and blueberry pie, which I turned into apple and banana pie, and now again with the Bananas in Pyjamas and their Honey Cakes.   As I usually do in these situations I turned to Google and found this recipe by fuzzygirl on Best Recipes that claims to be the real BiPs’ Honey Cakes recipe.  There were a few substitutions to be made, but they still turned out pretty good.  The only thing was they were rock cakes the next day, so best eaten on the day they are made.

The cereal bites recipe came about because I wanted to find a new snack food for Oscar with a lot less sugar.  I couldn’t find anything on Google this time so I made something up – they’re not very different to muesli bars.  They must be good because Oscar kept coming back for more!  As well as being refined sugar-free these are also gluten-free and dairy-free, as well as FAILSAFE / Low Chemical.

The instant pudding recipe is from Frills in the Hills, no modifications required, but I did halve the sugar.  I haven’t had instant pudding since I was a kid, in fact I’d forgotten all about it before I came across the recipe.  Oscar had great fun making and eating it, although I had to convince him that the pudding made with milk would taste even better than the dry mix!

Vanilla Instant Pudding

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Serves	12
Prep time	4 hours, 15 minutes
Allergy / Intolerance	Amines, Artificial Addititives, Artificial Colours, Egg, Glutamates, Preservatives, Salicylates, Wheat
Suitable for	Gluten Free, RPAH Elimination Diet - Low Chemical / Failsafe
Meal type	Dessert, Sweet Things
Misc	Child Friendly, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
Website	Frills in theHills

Home made instant vanilla pudding mix.

Ingredients

For the Pudding Mix:

• 3/4 cups wheaten cornflour
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 vanilla bean (seeds removed)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups milk powder

To make:

• Milk (2 cups for three serves)

Directions

To make the pudding mix:
1.	Split the vanilla bean and remove the seeds.
2.	Place all the ingredients for the pudding mix into an airtight container. Seal the container and shake well.
3.	Store the pudding mix in a cool dark place for at least a week to allow the vanilla bean to flavour the other ingredients. Can be stored for several months.
To make the pudding:
4.	Combine half a cup of pudding mix in a medium saucepan with two cups of milk.
5.	Heat the milk mixture over medium heat, whisking continuously. When the milk has thickened like custard and can coat the back of a spoon remove it from the heat.
6.	Pour into a single bowl or three smaller bowls. Place in the fridge and allow to set for 4 hours.

Note

Low Chemical / Failsafe, Gluten-free

The longer the dry instant pudding mix is left, the more vanilla flavour will seep into the mix.  The vanilla beans can be re-used several times with more batches of pudding mix.

Half a cup of dry pudding mixture makes three serves of pudding.

Variations:

1. The vanilla bean can be left out and some vanilla essence or extract added when to the milk mixture when the pudding is made.
2. Add some maple syrup to the milk mixture for maple syrup pudding.

Bananas In Pyjamas’ “Honey” Cakes

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Serves	12
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	12 minutes
Total time	22 minutes
Allergy / Intolerance	Amines, Artificial Addititives, Artificial Colours, Dairy, Egg, Glutamates, Preservatives, Salicylates
Suitable for	Dairy / Lactose Free, RPAH Elimination Diet - Low Chemical / Failsafe
Meal type	Sweet Things
Misc	Child Friendly, Serve Cold
Occasion	Birthday Party

Bananas in Pyjamas Honey Cakes, with no honey and low chemical.

Ingredients

• 90g butter or Nuttelex
• 1/3 cup rice malt syrup
• 1 cup plain white flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup Special K
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup carob kibble or carob buttons (chopped into small pieces)
• Canola oil spray

Directions

1.	Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease two baking trays with canola oil spray.
2.	Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the Special K, rolled oats and carob kibble/buttons. Set aside.
3.	In a small saucepan combine the rice malt syrup and butter/Nuttelex over low heat and stir until melted.
4.	Add the butter mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
5.	Place heaped tablespoons of biscuit dough onto the baking trays, leaving room in between for them to spread.
6.	Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly golden.
7.	Allow to cool completely on the tray before serving.

Note

Low Chemical / Failsafe

These biscuits need to be eaten the day they are made - they turn into rocks the next day.

You could also substitute maple syrup or golden syrup instead of rice malt syrup.

Cereal Bites

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Serves	24
Prep time	15 minutes
Cook time	8 minutes
Total time	23 minutes
Allergy / Intolerance	Amines, Artificial Addititives, Artificial Colours, Dairy, Egg, Glutamates, Preservatives, Salicylates, Wheat
Suitable for	Dairy / Lactose Free, Gluten Free, RPAH Elimination Diet - Low Chemical / Failsafe
Meal type	Breakfast, Sweet Things
Misc	Child Friendly, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold

Gluten-free, dairy-free and refined sugar-free cereal bites.

Ingredients

• 1 cup millet rings
• 1 cup rice puffs
• 2 tablespoons quinoa puffs
• 2 tablespoons puffed amaranth
• 2 tablespoons rice bran oil
• 1/3 cup rice malt syrup
• 1 tablespoon carob syrup
• 1 tablespoon rice flour

Directions

1.	Preheat the oven to 160°C and grease a baking tray or mini muffin tray.
2.	Combine all the cereals and flour in a large bowl and set aside.
3.	In a small saucepan over low heat combine the oil and syrups, stirring for a couple of minutes.
4.	Add the liquid ingredients to the cereals and stir until completely combined.
5.	Place heaped teaspoons of mixture onto the baking tray or in the mini muffin holes.
6.	Bake in the oven for 6 - 8 minutes until lightly golden.
7.	Allow to cool in the tray completely then store in an air tight container.

Note

Low Chemical / Failsafe, Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Refined Sugar-free

Makes 24.

These cereal bites keep well in an airtight container.  They can be eaten as is for a snack or broken up and added to plain cereals at breakfast for a bit of sweetness.

Carob syrup can be purchased or make your own with this recipe.  You can also substitute the cereals for any other cereals you would like to use and/or add dried fruit or fresh grated coconut.