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Lots of Valentine’s Day Lunch Love
In Episode 133, we want to pack your lunchbox full of love this Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day falls on a Tuesday this year (how un-romantic) so we want to spice up that packed lunch.
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The recipes we chose this week are:
Recipe 1 – Cut Out Cookies (from Mrs D Plus 3)
These delicious cookies were featured in The Party Issue of The 4 Blades Magazine and they have been tried, tested and adored many times. So cute to cut into heart’s and add them to a lunchbox. We wanted to test the friendship with this recipe by making them grain free cookies.
To do this, Bec has found a bit of a magic formula for a besan / tapioca blend. The magic ratio works out to be around 56-58% (besan) to 42-44% (tapioca) + a pinch of xanthan.
We wanted to make these ‘chocolate’ hearts so we added cacao – only 1 Tbsp though. We really needed more to make a difference to the colour. You could use drinking chocolate powder too.
Here’s what Robyn (from Mrs D Plus 3) recommends…
- Add a little flour to your work bench and roll the dough into a square shape about 2-3 cm thick. Wrap it up in cling film and pop it in the fridge for 30 mins. (Note: we rolled it out between 2 pieces of baking paper straight away and it worked really well. Grainfree dough is better before chilling.)
- Roll it out so that it is approx 1 cm thick, get out your cookie cutters and let your kids have fun cutting shapes.
- Lay them on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes (or until they are golden around the edges but still soft in the middle).
- And then if you want you can add some icing!
Recipe 2 – Heart Shaped Fluffy Pancakes (from The Road To Loving My Thermo Mixer)
Wouldn’t these just make the most gorgeous Valentine’s Day lunch box treat? As the base recipe we used Peta’s very popular Fluffy Vanilla Pikelets.
We wanted to play around with the colour and the taste, so used this recipe as we know it works well.
Firstly, we made them grain free using the magical formula above. Then to play around with the flavours, we used a frozen banana (you could also use overripe) and 100g of frozen raspberries to make them pink. Now, spoiler alert – the batter was pink… but the pancakes didn’t really turn out pink when cooked. They were still delicious though.
So here’s what we did…
- 280g self raising flour… (OR using my magical ratios, I did 160g besan+120g tapioca starch… because it’s self-raising, you should also put 2 tsp of baking powder in (forgot!), and a pinch of xanthan.)
- 60g sugar (optional if you are adding the fruit… we put it in to counteract the bitterness of the raspberries)
- 250g milk (we used almond milk)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder (which is additional to the 2 you should add if you aren’t using self raising flour)
- 1/2 tsp finely ground salt
- 45g butter
- 1 frozen banana
- 100g frozen raspberries
Speed 10 / 20 seconds. Scrape down sides.
Speed 10 / 10 seconds.
I made BIG pancakes on a medium fry pan (oiled with butter) so that I could use a cookie cutter or scissors to cut out hearts.
Recipe 3 – Heart Shaped Boiled Eggs
You know when you see something cool and want to give it a shot? I wouldn’t say we #NailedIt… but not too bad either! These make a great addition to your Valentine’s Day lunch box.
Check out the video that inspired us:
Now we think that the Thermomix is so good for boiling eggs. Our favourite method is:
Pop as many eggs as you can fit into the steaming basket
Add 1.2L hot water
Boil 14 minutes / Steaming Temp / Speed 2, measuring cap on.
Here are some cool tips from this podcast…
- Use a cookie cutter for your cookies and pancakes
- If you don’t have a cookie cutter you can always use scissors
- Check out Episode 36 of the podcast for a 3 course Valentine’s Day Dinner for Two!
- Check out Episode 94 of the podcast for some yummy Valentine’s Day cakes!
What cute Valentine’s Day lunch box treats have you made? Leave us a note in the comments below!
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