Around the World in 18 Breakfasts: Mexico

Huevos rancheros - Fun Food For Kids

Week 4: Huevos rancheros

With so many amazing looking recipes going around for Cinco de Mayo, we were inspired to make something Mexican for this week’s Around the World breakfast. Huevos rancheros (‘ranch eggs’) are typically made using jalapeño chillies but we omitted the chillies to make it a bit more kid-friendly. However, if your mini chefs are a little more iron-tongued, feel free to add some finely diced jalapeños to taste.

Mexico ATW banner final

This recipe makes enough for 3 serves.

What you will need:

  • 3 corn tortillas (flour tortillas apparently work fine if you can’t find the corn variety)
  • 3 tomatoes
  • 1 large brown onion
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/3 cup refried beans
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup grated tasty cheese
  • 1/2 cup chopped coriander (cilantro)
  • sliced avocado, to serve
  • olive oil
  • pastry brush

Method
1. Finely chop tomatoes and onion (and some jalapeños if you dare). Fry onion until softened. Add tomato (and jalapeños), cumin, salt and pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, brush your tortillas with oil and cook in another frypan on medium heat until they are just browned and starting to bubble. Set aside.
3. Fry eggs.
4. Spread tortillas with a thin layer of refried beans and top with tomato mix, egg, cheese and coriander.

huevos rancheros cooking

Join us on our journey!
This is the fourth of our ‘Around the World’ breakfasts. Each week we’ll be making something from a different country as part of our ‘Around the World in 18 Breakfasts’ series. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Facebook or Pinterest to be part of the journey. Next stop: Lebanon!

 

Around the World in 18 Breakfasts: USA

Warm spoon bread - USA - branded

 

Week 3: Warm Custard Spoon Bread

For the third week of our Around the World in 18 Breakfasts adventure, we made this warm custard spoon bread. Americans refer to this as a ‘holiday breakfast’ and it’s apparently pretty popular in the south. To be truly authentic, we would have served it up with maple syrup and bacon, but we went for maple syrup and fruit (with a dusting of cinnamon) instead. The flavour of the polenta-based ‘bread’ is not particularly sweet but it’s quite heavy, so the fruit lightened it up just nicely.

ATW - USA banner

We found this recipe on food52.com, but the following is our ‘Australianised’ version with ingredients translated into local equivalents. You can find a video tutorial on how to make it here.

What you will need:

  • cup plain flour
  • 3/4 cup polenta (cornmeal in the USA)
  • tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
  •  eggs
  • cups milk 
  • tbsp melted butter, plus a little extra for greasing 
  • 1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar
  • tbsp vanilla extract
  • tsp ground nutmeg (we grated a whole nutmeg but ground would work just fine)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • cup thickened cream
  • optional, for serving – a dusting of cinnamon, maple syrup and fresh fruit OR maple syrup and bacon

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place an un-greased 20 x 20cm baking dish in the oven to warm.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside.
3. In a separate, large mixing bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients except the cream.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until batter is smooth.
5. Remove heated dish from oven and grease with remaining butter.
6. Scrape the batter into the dish and set dish on the oven rack. With the dish in the oven, slowly pour the cream over the batter, without stirring.
7. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the top layer is golden brown and a knife comes out clean. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
8. Dust with cinnamon and serve with maple syrup and fruit. For a more traditional option, serve with maple syrup and bacon.

IMG_4712

Join us on our journey!
This is the third of our ‘Around the World’ breakfasts. Each week we’ll be making something from a different country as part of our ‘Around the World in 18 Breakfasts’ series. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Facebook or Pinterest to be part of the journey. Next stop: Mexico!

Around the World in 18 Breakfasts: Brazil

Acai bowl - fun food for kids

Week 2: Açaí  bowl

An açaí bowl is a traditional Brazilian breakfast made primarily from açaí berries. Basically, it’s like a big purple smoothie in a bowl, topped with fruit and other good stuff. The açaí (pronounced ah-sah-ee) bowl has apparently taken off in health fanatic circles around the world in recent years as it’s jam-packed with antioxidants. More importantly for us though, it just looked yum. And looks were not deceiving – it was purple lips and double thumbs up (and double helpings) all round at our place this morning!

Brazil ATW banner

The following recipe is something we cobbled together from various sources around the web. You could make your own variation depending on your personal preferences (or those of your mini chefs). To be truly authentic, this dish would be made with fresh açaí berries, which no doubt grow in abundance in Brazil. As we’re nowhere near Brazil, we had to resort to freeze dried açaí powder. You can buy this from health food stores but be aware that it’s heinously expensive. We forked out for it because it would have felt wrong to write a blog on açaí bowls without actually using açaí. Despite this, I think you could quite easily omit this ingredient – technically it wouldn’t be an ‘açaí bowl’ but I’m pretty sure it would still taste just as awesome.

What you will need:

For the ‘smoothie’ part 

  • 3 frozen bananas
  • 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 tbsp açaí powder (optional, see note above)

For the topping

  • 1/4 cup macadamia nuts
  • 1 tbsp shredded coconut
  • 1 tbsp chia seeds
  • 1 cup of mixed berries – we used raspberries and strawberries (quartered) and a few frozen blueberries as they were not in season (you could also use some chopped up banana here)

Method
1. Using a blender, chop up the macadamias into small pieces.
2. Blend all of the ‘smoothie’ ingredients to a sorbet-like consistency.
3. Add toppings.

acai bowl collage

Join us on our journey!
This is the second of our ‘Around the World’ breakfasts. Each week we’ll be making something from a different country as part of our ‘Around the World in 18 Breakfasts’ series. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Facebook or Pinterest to be part of the journey. Next stop: USA!

 

Around the World in 18 Breakfasts: Japan

Around the World in 18 breakfasts - Tamagoyaki

Week 1: Tamagoyaki

This week marked the first of our series of ‘Around the World’ breakfasts, with Japanese tamagoyaki – a slightly sweet rolled omelette. The name tamagoyaki literally means fried egg, tamago meaning ‘egg’ and yaki meaning fried. The ingredients are very simple and although it is traditionally made in a special rectangular frypan, we made it in a small round one and it turned out just fine. We served it up with some instant miso soup that we had in the cupboard and some soy sauce. Even though Crackers is not usually a huge fan of omelettes, this one was clearly a hit and we’ll definitely be making it again! We found this recipe at Japanese Cooking 101, along with a brilliant video tutorial which we have reproduced below. If you’re interested in Japanese food, this site is definitely worth checking out as it has some great recipes on it.

Around the World in 18 Breakfast - Japan

What you will need:

  • 4 eggs
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp mirin (or 1/4 tsp sugar)
  • 1 tsp oil
  • a small round frypan (or a rectangular one if you happen to have one)
  • soy sauce for serving (optional)

Method
1. Mix eggs, salt, soy sauce and mirin in a bowl.
2. Heat a pan at medium high temperature and add oil.
3. Pour a thin layer of egg mixture in the pan, tilting to cover the bottom of the pan. After the thin egg has set a little, gently roll into a log. Start to roll when the bottom of the egg has set and there is still liquid on top. Pour some more egg mixture to again cover the bottom of the pan, with the roll of egg at the end. After the new layer has set, roll the log back onto the the cooked thin egg and roll to the other end of the pan. Repeat, rolling back and forth until all the egg has been used.
4. Allow to cool for a few minutes.
5. Slice the log into 2cm pieces.

Here is the video tutorial from Japanese Cooking 101…

Around the World in 18 Breakfasts - making tamagoyaki

We used a small round pan rather than the traditional rectangular tamagoyaki frypan. Crackers also insisted on using chopsticks so I put an elastic band on them to hold them together and make them easier for him to use.

Join us on our journey!
This is the first of our ‘Around the World’ breakfasts. Each week we’ll be making something from a different country as part of our ‘Around the World in 18 Breakfasts’ series. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Facebook or Pinterest to be part of the journey. Next stop: Brazil!

 

Crumpet teddy bears

Teddy crumpet

We made these teddy bear crumpets from scratch as a bit of a culinary science project but you could make them with the store-bought variety for a quick and easy breakfast option.

What you will need

  • crumpets – you’ll need two for each teddy, one for the face and another one for the ears (recipe below if you want to make these yourself)
  • butter or margarine
  • honey
  • strawberry or raspberry jam for the ears
  • banana
  • blueberries (or black grapes) for the eyes
  • pink grape (or strawberry) for the nose
  • nutella for the mouth
  • a small snaplock bag or piping bag

Making the crumpets
We found this recipe on taste.com.au but we’ve reproduced it here for your convenience. A word of warning before you begin: there is a lot of ‘resting’ time involved in the making of these (an hour and 40 mins, in fact) so if your little chef is a bit lacking in the patience department, it might be best to skip this part and use store-bought crumpets! The end product is also a bit denser and less ‘bubbly’ than commercial crumpets so might not be to everyone’s taste (that said, Mr Nearly-2 refused to go back to eating the store-bought ones after trying these!).

Ingredients:

crumpets collage

Method:

1. Combine the sugar and yeast in a medium bowl. Gradually pour in the warm milk and water and stir until yeast dissolves. Cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm, draught-free place for 10 minutes or until mixture is frothy.

2. Combine the flour, bread improver and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm, draught-free place to prove for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

3. Combine extra water and bicarbonate of soda in a jug. Use an electric beater to beat the flour mixture for 1 minute or until mixture deflates. Gradually add the water mixture, beating well between additions, until well combined and smooth. Cover batter with plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes to rest.

4. Brush a large non-stick frying pan with vegetable oil to lightly grease. Brush six 7.5cm-diameter non-stick egg rings with oil to lightly grease. Place egg rings in frying pan over medium-low heat. Pour 60ml (1/4 cup) of batter into each ring. Cook for 7 minutes or until large bubbles come to the surface, the base is golden and the top is set. Use an egg lifter to turn and cook for a further 1 minute or until golden. Transfer to a wire rack and remove egg rings. Set crumpets aside. Repeat, in 4 more batches, with remaining batter, greasing and reheating the pan and egg rings with oil between each batch. Serve crumpets with butter and honey.

Decorating the crumpets
1. Once you’ve made your crumpets, spread the crumpet you’re using for the face with butter and honey.
2. Cut out some ears from another crumpet and spread with jam in the middle of each ear.
3. Add the banana, grapes and blueberries (or whatever alternative fruit you’re using) for the facial features. (Tip: Cut out the fruit pieces right before you start to cook the crumpets so you can decorate them quickly and eat them while they’re still warm.)
4. To make the mouth, put a good blob of nutella into a snaplock bag and cut out the corner (or use a piping bag) and pipe it on.
5. Enjoy your crumpet teddy bears!

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‘Frosty fruit’ mocktails

frosty fruit

The photo above is a standard snapshot of the everyday domestic bliss of my household. Just kidding. They’re more often seen having turf wars over Thomas tracks and trains. But these moments do happen occasionally! This one was captured over the Easter weekend when Mr 4 decided we should make “frosty fruits”. I’m not sure where he got the idea but he explained it in very careful detail, right down to the straws, spoons and umbrellas. Here’s how you make Crackers’ frosty fruit mocktails…

What you will need

  • clear plastic glasses (we went for cocktail style ones because we already had them in the cupboard)
  • tinned fruit (we used pineapple here but any sort of tinned fruit would work)
  • juice (Crackers’ original instructions were to use apple juice but we ended up just using the leftover juice from the tinned pineapple)
  • a dash of soda water for a bit of fizz
  • cocktail umbrella
  • straw
  • spoon

This was super easy to do, lots of fun and provided the boys with some great, inexpensive entertainment (I’m not sure there is anything in the world that’s funnier to a 4 and nearly-2 year old than blowing ‘fart’ bubbles into your mocktail!). Let us know in the comments below if you have any suggestions to vary it up a bit. That’s all on this one – bottoms up!

Fun food ideas for Easter

As promised, here is our round-up of some of our favourite fun food ideas for Easter!

Bunny butt pancakes

Quick, easy and almost too cute to eat!


Ice cream easter eggs

Ice cream and sprinkles – guaranteed crowd pleaser.

 

Easter egg biscuits

easter-egg-biscuits

Source: Tesco

Get the kids to roll up their sleeves and get busy decorating…


Funny bunny bread

funny bunny 2

Source: womens9.com

These would make a great accompaniment to dinner or as a snack on their own.

 

Hot cross bun pudding

Here’s one we did earlier in the week, in case you missed it.

 

Ice cream cones with chocolate cake

Puts a new spin on ‘carrot cake’…


Easter fruit basket

easter-fruit-basket

Source: Greatist.com

A healthy alternative to chocolate Easter egg baskets.


And one for the Easter bunny…

Happy Easter – may yours be full of fun food, family and friends!
Tami & Crackers xx