Fruit & Yoghurt Biscuit Trifle in a Jar. Healthy, Happy Lunch Boxes.

This recipes was my favourite of the three I demonstrated with the help of amazing little chef volunteers at the Sunshine Coast Agricultural Show this year.

All the fruit & Yoghurt Biscuit Trifles at the show where made with stunning local produce from Jeffers Market if your on the Sunshine Coast or visit this way ever - you NEED to go and check out Jeffers!

I love this recipe so much and I wanted to demonstrate just how easy and simple it can be to make something AMAZING and healthy for the lunch box that kids really will demolish and better yet can even make themselves for their own lunchbox the night before! Oh yeah! Less work for us mums!!

And one of the greatest things about this recipe is you can use whatever fruit is in season right now, whatever fruit is on special or locally grown and beautiful and whatever fruit your kids like and each child can make theirs with their favourites!

What you need

• A nice clean jar with a good sealing lid.
• Yoghurt of choice. I like Maleny dairies, Jalna, Qld Yoghurt and Five AM. (Not paid to say that). For all the ones made at the show and the one pictured here I used Maleny Dairies yoghurt.
• Assorted fresh fruit, think things like blueberries, strawberries, rock melon, kiwi fruit, watermelon, passionfruit, pineapple, paw paw grapes and whatever is in season and tastes great in your area.
• A nice healthy biscuit. Homemade is best or look for one that is gluten free and refined sugar free.
• Spoon to pack with it!

Method

• Prepare all the fruit you will be using.
• Make sure jar is squeaky clean.
• Get the kids to assemble a generous layer of yoghurt.
• Top with lashing of beautiful fresh fruit.
• Place biscuit in a paper bag and smash until it resembles crumbles.
• Sprinkle biscuit crumbs on top.
• Seal and pack with an ice pack for an exciting morning tea!

Simple. Delicious, Budget Friendly, Healthy.

And irresistible!

Notes

• For dairy free use coconut yoghurt or soy yoghurt.
• You can either create just like this OR do it in layers like a real trifle, starting with a biscuit base, then yoghurt, then fruit, then biscuit, then yoghurt then fruit etc.
  
  Check out my NEW FB page Healthy, Happy Lunch Boxes for HEAPS of lunch box inspiration and ideas.
  
  Bek xoxo

Bek's Beautiful Blueberry, Yoghurt Spelt Muffins with a hint of Coconut!

I love blueberries but I don't even come close to loving them as much as my youngest does. From the moment she took that very first solids mouthful she has been a total foodie and never looked back!
She especially loves raw vegetables and fruit and she just loves blueberries so she is very excited when they are in season and sqqeals when she spots them in the shops in a big display, forget freedo frogs its a punnet of blueberries hands down!
Along with eating them fresh she loves them in salads, in fruit salads, in smoothies and in muffins!

I have always made blueberry muffins and now we make these really tasty spelt flour ones, our favourite flour to use now, balanced with the cream, thick natural yoghurt they have a great texture.

Ingredients

• 1 punnet blueberries
• 100g butter, softened
• 1/2 cup dark coconut sugar (not the refined white one)
• 1 free range egg
• 1 teaspoon organic vanilla paste
• 1 cup natural yoghurt ( I use beautiful Maleny Dairies)
• 1/2 cup milk of choice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 & 1/2 cup organic wholemeal spelt flour
• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
• extra desiccated coconut and coconut sugar

Method

• Preheat oven to 180ç
• Grease or line with cases muffin tray
• Beat butter and coconut sugar together briefly, add vanilla essence
• Add in the yoghurt, mix well.
• Add in the egg and mix through well.
• Stir in the milk.
• Throw in around 3/4 of the blueberries and then very carefully fold through the flour and baking powder. Be very careful  not to over-mix at this stage or you will get tough muffins.
• Pour into prepared tray.
• In a small bowl mix a little coconut sugar with desiccated coconut.
• Top each muffin with the left over blueberries and a sprinkling of the coconut mixture.
• Bake until lightly golden on top and bounces back when touched approx 10-20 minutes depending on oven and size of muffins.
• Enjoy!

Notes

• Try the same recipe with blackberries, mulberries, raspberries!
• You can use coconut yoghurt and coconut oil or olive oil for a vegan allergy friendly version if required.
• Use stevia in place of coconut sugar if desired and leave the mixture off the top.

Toddler Tips

• Make them toddler hand sized friendly by using a miniature muffin tray
• These freeze well so are great for school lunches!

(c)rebeccamugridge2014

Spelt, Beetroot and Walnut Chocolate Brownies

It is school holidays here and the kids love to eat a lot, cook alot, do fun things, explore, run amok,  and did I mention eat a LOT?

The recipe below has been one of their favourite picks these holidays.

Spelt, Walnut & Beetroot Chocolate Brownies

We  made these brownies right after the grand opening of Coles in Nambour, yes, I was made delighted to go down for all the face-painting, balloon blowing, stilt walking, live music, games, colouring in, ring tossing and fun and festivities after my kids discovered everything that was going to be happening down there.

I have to be honest and say we were a bit disappointed with the main lift not working and traipsing across to the next one and then all the way around to the said open new shop and through non automatic doors (you notice these things pushing a pram or trolley) and we had been hoping to see more specialty stores, when it is not so busy I would recommend parking up the top rather than underneath if you have a pram, I think a lot of Nambour and surrounds was excited and eager to see what specialty stores were going with it, I was naturally hoping for a kitchen ware shop ;) I can't say I am a huge fan of the design of these shops being wrapped around outside in the heat instead of inside a shopping centre design with air con, I don't tend to browse a lot when we are all hot but I am very happy to see Coles is moving with times and taking great strides like teaming up with WWF to source and supply sustainability caught seafood.
And we were all very impressed with Not Just For Kids entertainment that was put on and the general atmosphere was great and staff were very happy and friendly, it is good to see more jobs in the region and growth in Nambour.

Couldn't believe she stayed so still!

Lily is always a fan of free balloons and promotional giveaways!

AND I was very surprised and happy that this Coles had a lot of organic and healthy food items that you just don't often see in such a large supermarket chain store and at very family budget friendly prices, which when you are on a tight budget can make a big difference to what you can actually buy and make for your family each fortnight.
The organic, wholemeal spelt flour in a large bag I was very happy to see and it was that we used for these brownies.

Spelt, Walnut & Beetroot Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

• 2 cups wholemeal, organic spelt flour
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 4 free range eggs
• 1/2 cup raw honey (or to taste)
• 1 cup walnuts, roughly smashed - see notes
• 200g dark chocolate of choice - see notes
• 1 cup firmly packed grated, raw beetroot
• 1/2 teaspoon pink himalayan salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• baking paper - I use If You Care non toxic baking paper

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 180ç. 
• Grease and then line a suitable baking dis with baking paper.
• Over a low heat melt the chocolate and butter together. (You can of course do this double boiler if you want too but I find over a low heat as it is with butter (and as a busy mum) I often just do it this way).
• Remove from heat.
• Stir honey into chocolate mixture.
• In a large bowl combine the spelt flour, salt, baking powder.
• Add in the eggs, mix together.
• Mix in the walnuts and beetroot.
• Combine it all together and pour into the prepared tin.
• Bake in the oven for approximately 25 minutes or until nice and golden and firm on top but you want the skewer to come out a little sticky in spots so that your brownies are still lovely and chocolately gooeyness in some places but still quite firm. Sometimes ovens vary so a lot will depend on how yours cooks too.
• Allow to cool slightly on a wire rack, cut into squares.
• My kids especially liked theirs drizzled with Maleny Dairies fresh, nothing added real cream, by themselves and with a chocolate sauce.

Notes

• You don't want to over-smash your walnuts as you want mostly crumbly with some bigger chunks through it.
• Use your preferred dark chocolate, you could even use Sweet Williams sugar free or an organic bitter dark - just remember to taste your batter in case it is not sweet enough if the chocolate is really bitter- unless you like it that way!
• Use a GF flour to make these gluten free.

Happy Cooking!

Bek XX

Note: this was not a sponsored post

Edible Sunshine Coast Maroochydore with Maleny Dairies

Recently I had the absolute delight of spreading the local love and presenting a series of EDIBLE SUNSHINE COAST events, right across the coast.

Supporting local businesses in something very close to my heart, it is why I enjoyed teaming up with outstanding local supermarket Maleny IGA so much to create the recipes for their unique, collectible local product local recipe - recipe cards.
(You can find these in store.)

It combined two of my great loves, 

food and community spirit.

Thanks to the Sunshine Coast Libraries I was able spread the messages of eating local through these events, events where I would talk about and showcase locally produced food products.

The range we have here on the coast is simply outstanding. So much talent and creativity. All of the local products I displayed are available from the Maleny IGA who even have their own unique labeling system making it easier for shoppers to buy local. I served  the audience 2 of my recipes from the Maleny IGA recipe card series.
The Buffalo Haloumi Spelt Sour Dough Salad and the Custard Apple Coconut Crumble which was served at every one of these events with beautiful Maleny Dairies custard, yoghurt and THE BEST cream I have ever used. Seriously this cream is so natural with nothing added or watered down that it is that thick you can literally hand whip it and it has this deliciously real yellowy glow to it.

The crowd were delighted to be able to talk to a Sunshine Coast producer about their products, the lovely Meg from Maleny Dairies was a real hit with the audience and enlightened us all about things like permeate and what can be added to the cheap commercial milks you buy from the supermarket. The great thing about Maleny dairies is too that they not only are a local producers but they work with so many Sunshine Coast family farmers and employ so many Sunshine Coast people and are a family business too.

Their cream goes perfectly with the custard apple crumble!

 Real milk

 Sweat Pea the cow with her calf

Maleny Dairies don't just produce dairy products they also have a factory and farm you can visit, farm tours the kids will love and a cafe to relax at and take in the rolling green hills and picturesque township of Maleny.

To find out more about them visit http://malenydairies.com/

Thank you for having me Maroochydore Library and thank you everyone that attended, I enjoyed meeting you all very much.

And of course on top of the product information and talk on why it is so great to eat local and the taste testings we had lucky door prizes too, generously donated by local sunshine coast producers including the famous and extremely well received at all the demonstrations Pomodora's dressings, the stunning Noosa Chocolates who not only donated prizes but also individual chocolate taste samples for ALL participants and of course lovely, fresh Maleny Dairies products 

Happy Cooking!

Bek xx

Edible Sunshine Coast - Caloundra

Eating local is...
Exciting, fresh, supportive and makes you feel good too.

The Sunshine Coast where I live, is home to some very talented local producers indeed.
We have locally made products like milk, yoghurt, the best cream I have ever tried, cheese, olives and olive products, preserves, chocolate, nuts and nut products, nut pastes, tempeh, salad dressings that are to die for, olive oils, avocado oil, flavoured oils, beautiful breads, buffalo haloumi cheese, cordials, ginger and ginger products, coffees, teas, seafood, African spice and sauce blends, spices, chick pea and broad beans "chips", jams, preserves, gluten free products, pastas, gorgeous fresh fruits and vegetables, beautiful chopping boards and even natural dishwashing liquid just to name some of them!

Almost a year ago I teamed up with a very exciting and innovative supermarket, Maleny IGA to use these amazing local products and create unique recipes around them that they published on recipes cards for their customers and were also introduced through fun taste testing events in store each month which were all received with great success!

I have been delighted to further promote these recipes, what the Maleny IGA does and the EAT LOCAL movement through the Sunshine Coast Libraries and a series of Edible Sunshine Coast events where the audience hears all about local products, why it is so fantastic to eat local, how it has a ripple benefitial effect through the whole community and supports local families and jobs and all about the extensive range carried by the Maleny IGA as one of the region's greatest supporters of local businesses.
 The audience also gets to taste test some goodies and 2 of the recipes!
Like the Custard Apple Coconut Crumble served with gorgeous Maleny Dairies cream and custard brought to each demonstration by the lovely Meg! Who is a fountain of knowledge on dairy and a huge favourite with the audience!

Meg

The Custard Apple Coconut Crumble

It was wonderful seeing the audience enjoy the food
Aamongst them was the lovely Karen from Wholistic Evolution

and the Sunshine Coast's own inspirational Yummy Mummies!

 And to end on a really high note we had some lucky (and very happy) winners of some fantastic prizes like gorgeous Maleny Dairies products, a beautiful locally made Fab Slabs chopping board and the sensational Pomodora's dressings

It was a wonderful morning full of the buzz for local food,

Thanks you so much to everyone that came and to the Caloundra Library for hosting us!
At the date of posting this one there are just 2 Edible Sunshine Coast events left! Nambour and Noosa, unfortunately Noosa is fully booked out but you can leave your name in case of cancellation and still get one of the last spots at the Nambour HERE

EAT LOCAL

Rebecca x
A big thank you to: