Christmas Nibble Board

Christmas nibbles…ah!…so many happy memories of our family nibble platters at Christmas time!

I’ve seen many a delicious plate of nibbles in my day, from the excitement of my Mum and Dad bringing out our faves at Christmas to visiting Grandma and Grandad at Hogmany and feasting on scrummy hot nibbles all night when we were wee and then to us as parents ourselves bringing out warm plates of nibbles to our own excited kids!

There’s been many a happy memory around food in our household at Christmas young and old.

I made this somewhat healthier version of a nibble platter to feed the kids the day we collected the Christmas tree, because who has time to prepare huge meals when your all singing Christmas songs and decorating the tree with twinkling lights.

I used fresh fruits, vegetables, homemade crumbly feta almond cheese, sticky mango and sweet chilli sausage bowls and mushroom based sausage rolls. Yummy!

It’s super easy to prepare and assemble and you can of course vary the ingredients loads.

Ingredients

Sliced fruit and vegetables of choice

Vegetarian/vegan sausages

Vegetarian/vegan sausage rolls

Crispbreads for spreading

Crisps

Mango chutney

Sesame seeds

Sweet Chilli sauce

Chopped Spring onions

Cranberry sauce

Black olives

Sun dried tomatoes

Almond Feta Ingredients

2 cups of whole almonds

1 shallot or half a red onion chopped

2 chopped garlic cloves

1 lemon

1-2tbsp of plain yogurt (I used coconut) (optional)

Salt & pepper

Almond Feta Recipe

Soak the almonds in boiling hot water in a bowl for a couple of hours and peel off the skins. Pop the peeled almonds into the blender. Add the chopped onion or shallot, garlic, the juice of 1 lemon, yogurt if using, salt and pepper.

Blend in a high powered blender until completely smooth and taste, adjusting the seasonings as necessary. Add a little water if necessary too. You should have a really thick ‘stick to the spoon’ paste texture.

Lay out a muslin flat on the counter and spoon out the almond mixture onto the muslin. Wrap up into a tight ball and squeeze out the excess liquid over the sink. Tie a knot and hang into a jug, place in the fridge over night. If you don’t have time just squeeze out as much liquid as possible and then shape into a ball. Place in a glass dish and bake at 160 for 30mins or until golden and crispy on the outside.

Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with chopped herbs, sun dried tomatoes or olives etc. Serve with thin crispbreads or oatcakes.

Sticky Sausages Recipe

Cook the vegetarian sausages on a medium heat in the oven. Split into two bowls, coat one batch in mango chutney and the other in sweet chilli sauce. Serve in two small bowls, sprinkle sesame seeds over the mango sausages and spring onions over the sweet chilli ones.

Lay the cheese and sausages out on a chopping board and display the sliced vegetables all around the bowls to make it all look pretty and edible.

Enjoy!


Apple Fall Recipes

Awesome Apple Recipes

I have four delicious apple recipes to make use of my homegrown apples and apples from friends.  These recipes are so easy to make, even supervised children could make them.  My favourite is the toffee apple smoothie!  If anything try this recipe!

Click the video below for the recipes.  You can also find the recipes further down this post.

Toffee Apple Smoothie

2x chopped apples

2-4 x medjool dates

3+ cups of Hemp Milk (or other milk)

Dash of maple syrup

1 Tsp of Cinnamon

Add all of the ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth.  Add in a little extra milk if necessary.  Share with family and friends!

Apple Recipes

Peanut Butter Apple Sandwiches

Oh these are so delicious!  Be warned they are addictive! 😉

Apple Slices (seeds removed)

Crunchy Peanut Butter

Chopped Nuts/Dried fruit/fresh fruit

Slice and remove the seeds from the apples (you can see how I did this in the video above).  Spread a tbsp of peanut butter on one slice, top with chopped nuts or fruit etc. and top with another slice.  Serve like mini apple sandwiches!  These make great after school snacks.

Overnight Apple Oats

I love overnight oats, they are so easily digested once left to soak the whole night.

1 x apple

Organic Oats

Hemp Milk

Additional fruits/veg (I have used pomegranate seeds in the video some grated carrots would be good too)

Cinnamon & Allspice (optional)

Grate the apple into the glass jug or bowl and stir in the oats, add in the additional fruits/vegetables (grated) into the bowl.  I used pomegranate seeds as I needed to use them up from the fridge.  Add in enough oats for 4 people (or less) and top up with hemp milk.  I topped up the hemp milk up and over the oats so that they have enough moisture to soak up. 

In the morning you could pop the oats into a tray and warm in the oven.  I topped with some live coconut yogurt and a dash of maple syrup. Delicious!

Apple Turnovers

These are really handy little snacks for kids and are great for packed lunches or for school break snacks.  My kids had these all week!

Ready to roll puff pastry

Chopped Apples

Cinnamon

Allspice

Caster Sugar

Leave the pastry to come to room temperature and unroll.  You can also make your own pastry but for a super quick recipe ready to roll does the job nicely!  Cut the pastry into rectangles and then into smaller triangles (as seen in the video) then add in some chopped apples and a sprinkle of cinnamon, allspice and a sprinkle of sugar.  Fold in half and close with a fork pressing into the edges.  Sprinkle sugar over the top and serve!  😀

If you enjoyed these recipes please check out my youtube channel for more recipes, holistic health tips and ideas.

Natural Living You Tube Channel