Kid Friendly Summer Recipes
Although we’ve been lucky enough with the weather since the kids got off school (so far) there’s no harm in being prepared to entertain when those rainy summer days roll in! We’ve got some great easy, fun and healthy (shh don’t tell them!) recipes you can do at home with the kiddos.
Milkshake Ice Creams
Don’t worry there’s method to this madness of starting with dessert first... the Milkshake Ice Creams need to freeze while you make the main course!
Ingredients:
- 1 Can light condensed milk
- 1 Tsp vanilla bean paste/ vanilla extract
- 1 Ripe banana chopped
- 10 Strawberries or 3 tbsp chocolate hazelnut spread
Steps:
- To start off, put the light condensed milk, vanilla bean paste and chopped bananas into a food processor. Mix until smooth.
- Add the strawberries, chocolate hazelnut spread, or other fruit of choice. Mix again.
- Lastly, pour the mixture evenly into 4 paper cups, cover with foil, and push an ice pop stick through each lid until you hit the base.
- Freeze for 4 hrs or until solid.
- When completely frozen and ready to eat, peel off the paper cups and tinfoil and they’re ready to eat!
Homemade Hummus
Homemade hummus is super easy and is a great way to get the kiddos eating fresh/raw veggies.
Ingredients:
- 1 x Can chickpeas
- 2 x Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 x Garlic cloves
- 1 x Tsp cumin (optional)
- 1 x Tbsp of tahini (or try natural peanut butter)
- Pinch sea salt
- 2 x Tbsp olive or rapeseed Oil
- 4 x Tbsp Water
Steps:
- Drain can of chickpeas and rinse (don’t skip the rinsing as often the chickpea water can leave a taste on the chickpeas!)
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
- Taste and add more lemon juice, cumin (if using), salt or water if necessary
- Scoop into a serving bowl and add a sprinkle of paprika for decoration
- Serve with toasted slices of pitta bread, carrot sticks, celery sticks and slices of peppers
Personalised Pizzas
Finally, for our main course, we will be having Personal Pizzas. From the dough to the sauce everything will be home made! The parents will have to help out a bit more for this recipe.
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting small pinch of sugar
- 1 x sachet fast-action dried yeast
- 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing
- 300ml warm water
For the sauce:
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 400ml chunky passata
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- handful basil leaves snipped
- small pinch of sugar
- 1 tsp red wine vinegar
- For the toppings:
- Whatever tickles your fancy.. mozzarella and fresh tomatoes for a Margherita, ham and pineapple for Hawaii, classic Pepperoni or whatever veggies/cheese/cooked meats you have in the fridge. Bonus points for anyone who can make a face or design out of their toppings!
Steps:
- Make the dough: Put the flour, sugar and yeast in a bowl and make a hole in the middle. Measure 300ml of lukewarm water. Add the oil and water; Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough is sticky.
- Knead the dough: Scatter a bit more flour over the surface. Lay down the dough. You ‘stretch’ the dough and then bring it back into a ball shape. Do this for about 10 minutes.
- Leave the dough to rise: Brush a bowl with a little olive oil, put the dough in it and cover with cling film. Leave it somewhere warm for it to grow until it has doubled in size (a hot press usually does the trick here!)
- Make the tomato sauce: Crush the garlic by using a garlic crusher or by grating it on the fine edge of a box grater. Put all the sauce ingredients into a bowl and mix. Make sure it is well stirred.
- Roll out the dough: Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 8. Divide the dough into the number of pizzas you want to make. Brush the baking trays with extra oil. Put the freshly rolled dough onto the baking trays.
- Spread the tomato sauce: Put the freshly made tomato sauce all over the pizza crust.
- Build your own pizza: Put all the toppings out in different bowls and add whatever you’d like to your personal pizza.
- Cook the pizzas: Bake pizzas for 12-15 mins until puffed up and golden around the edges, then carefully lift out of the oven. Leave to cool slightly, then slip onto a board or plate. Slice into pieces and serve.
And if you don’t fancy doing any cooking at all… why not pop into us at Zest for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We’ve got plenty of kid friendly options! Click to make a reservation online here.