As any of you that follow us already know, we view celebration times as a great opportunity to encourage, promote and enjoy healthy eating.  Celebrations are also the perfect time to develop and build on relationships with the families and whanau, and encourage their participation in your healthy food culture. 
We have created a whole range of healthy, delicious and straightforward recipes that could be made with children in the centre or given as ideas to parents to bring in for a potluck style party.  By giving the suggestions to parents, you can invite their participation and demonstrate that celebration foods can be healthy and tasty.  An effective way to achieve this is to print some recipe options they can choose from. Not only parents will thank you for helping them decide what to bring, you'll also end up with a range of healthy and appetizing choices at your gathering! 

To ensure you end up with a variety of foods for your celebration, we have included a range of baked, fresh, savoury, sweet and even drinkable options.  For instance we prepared our guacamole recipe with a Christmassy twist by cutting the tortilla crisps with a Christmas tree shaped cookie cutter!

We created a pair of smoothies, red and green, a duo of mini muffins, savoury and sweet, and our vegetarian snack, Xmas Roll-ups; as well as a range of fresh fruit preparations that are sure to be a hit with the children!

Creating healthy foods is not only preferable in a centre setting, it's a valuable opportunity for the children and families to learn and share plenty of other great skills.  Getting the families involved will enable them to recreate these ideas at home, for their own celebrations, or allow them to share some fabulous, healthy ideas of their own!
We wish you all a happy holiday from Clean Plate!

By Clean Plate

By Clean Plate

These Mini Muffins are so quick to make and delicious.  Plus, there are infinite variations depending on the season and the tastes of the children!  Here we create two varieties, a sweet and a savoury, which pair well and look super Christmassy!

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200° C.
2. Mix the two types of flour in a large bowl.
3. Chop the cream cheese into small chunks and mash into the flour with a fork until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Dice the strawberries and add to the mixture.
5. Add the brown sugar and milk and mix until it forms a soft dough.
6. Lightly spray down the muffin tins with the spray oil.
7. Spoon mixture into the tins and bake for about 15 mins

For the savoury version, our base is the same, but the additional ingredients differ.  As with the Strawberry Muffins above, the children can help all the way. Mashing, grating and chopping are all valuable cooking skills they can master with this recipe.  I usually ask them to use scissors with the spinach because it is easier and gives them snipping practice as well!

Serves 10 

Ingredients:
2 cups self-raising flour
2 Tbsps margarine (rather than Cream Cheese)
2 handfuls of baby spinach
1 1/2 cups grated Edam cheese
1 cup milk
4 cherry tomatoes, sliced

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200° C.
2. Mash the margarine into the flour with a fork until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Roughly cut up the spinach and add to the bowl.
4. Add the grated cheese and the milk, and mix until it forms a soft dough.
5. Lightly spray down the muffin tins with the spray oil.
6. Spoon the mixture into the tins, top with the cherry tomato slices, and bake it for about 15 mins.

By Clean Plate

Serves 10

Ingredients:
2 bananas
1/2 punnet of strawberries, washed  and hulled
1 1/2 cups watermelon
water (to help with blending and gain desired texture)

Method:

1. Quarter bananas and strawberries and roughly chop the watermelon. 
2. Add all the ingredients into the blender with 1/2 glass of water. 
3. Blend until smooth.
4. Add a bit more water, or ice, to thin it out if needed.