Hellers are here to make your life a whole lot easier and your dinner a lot yummier with their new range of Hellers Crafty CooksDiced Chorizo and Bacon Strips.
Ready to eat, you can add these into your favourite dishes for quick and easy meals for your tribe. They’re in convenient twin packs so you can keep them fresher for longer.
They’re also Made in NZ and Gluten Free with no artificial colours or flavours. Unleash your inner chef and use these in frittatas, risottos, pastas, fried rice and salads, the list goes on!
This Lunchtime Hax from Jax Hamilton and Best Foods is fun, healthy and yum! Low on carbs and high on flavour, rice paper rolls are a light and tasty modern take on a sandwich that can be made in the weekend, frozen, then popped into lunchboxes when you need them.
Social media star and creative foodie genius Jax Hamilton has teamed up with Best Foods, makers of New Zealand’s favourite mayonnaise, on a mission to make school lunches a fun (and easy) experience for both parents and children, by sharing the ultimate time saving hacks (or Hax!) and delicious recipes.
Make several rolls and store in the freezer for up to two weeks.
Hack, slice & go! This great Lunchtime Hax from Jax Hamilton and Best Foods makes preparing great lunchtime rolls quick, easy and tasty.
Social media star and creative foodie genius Jax Hamilton has teamed up with Best Foods, makers of New Zealand’s favourite mayonnaise, on a mission to make school lunches a fun (and easy) experience for both parents and children, by sharing the ultimate time saving hacks (or Hax!) and delicious recipes.
Lunchtime Hax: At the start of the week, create two to three options of loaded sandwich spreads pulled together with a lick of mayo and butter so you can easily spread on top of any bread option and go.
In a wok, heat the oil until very hot. Add the prawns and chopped garlic. Stir-fry for 2 minutes until the prawns are almost cooked. Add the snow peas and stir-fry for a further 2 minutes. Pour over the stir-fry sauce and toss until hot and well-coated.
Season with black pepper and serve with boiled rice.
Notes
Sometimes the prawns used in this recipe are sold as prawn “cutlets”.
Make sure that you don’t overcook these prawns so they still have some crunch.
Blanch the snow peas by trimming off the ends, removing the string, and standing them in boiling water for 5 minutes.
This recipe was created by Jennifer Cheung for Kidspot.
Katie from Busy Happy Kids knows how challenging it can be to come up with snack ideas for the kids. Not only do we need some nutritious goodies to pack into the lunch boxes, but often the after school munchies have the kids reaching for a snack too.
Easy snacks for kids
In order to help you avoid the pitfalls of processed and often unhealthy snacks, Katie has created a handy list of some superb snack ideas that the kids will love. If you would like to order a fridge magnet of the list, pop on over to her Facebook page, Busy Happy Kids NZ and drop her a message – they’re just $5 incl P&P!
To help you out we’ve even included some Kidspot recipes below for those that require a little bit of preparation. Happy snacking!
The trick to a great sandwich roll up is choosing fresh, tasty bread that the kids like – otherwise they will never even consider trying the filling. Get the recipe for turkey pest roll-ups
Mini frittatas
These little frittatas are made with bacon and peas but you can substitute these for other cooked deli meats or veggies. Try diced capsicum. leftover roast pumpkin or kumara, or grated zucchini. Get the recipe for Mini bacon and pea frittatas
Boost balls
Boost or protein balls come in many different forms. This recipe uses dates, peanut butter, raw cacao powder and almonds. Get the recipe for chocolate nut balls
From Katie at Busy Happy Kids: I started Busy Happy Kids to share activities and ideas on how parents can encourage their children to be active and get outdoors. I was a Physical Education and Health teacher prior to having children and really love encouraging other families to be active. I progressed into sharing recipes and shopping lists/menus to teach parents how to shop on a small budget.
Visit the Busy Happy Kids website for more food ideas, recipe and fun activities to do with the kids.
2 x 200gram sushi grade ahi tuna steaks (3/4 of an inch thick)
2 Tbsp. coriander seeds
1 Tbsp. crushed black peppercorns
½ tsp sea salt
Instructions
Rub coriander seeds, crushed black peppercorns and sea salt and press into tuna loin.
Sear each side quickly on high heat in avocado oil so that the spices brown but the meat only cooks about 1/4 inch into the loin. Let cool for 2 minutes then slice thin.
Toss ingredients and dressing from the Taylor Farms Asian Chopped Salad Kit and plate.
Head Chef of the Sheraton Resort and Spa Tokoriki Island, Adriano Avino, gave us a cooking demonstration of the most delicious salad in the world – Kokoda! If you love raw fish salad as much as we do you simply must have a go at making it yourself using this easy recipe, who knew something so simple could pack so much yum!
Ingredients
1 white fish fillet (about 1 kg), skinned and pin-boned (or you could use snapper, blue-eye trevalla or tuna)
Juice of 2 large limes
1 small red onion, finely diced
4 small green chillies, chopped
3 vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled and diced
250ml (1 cup) coconut cream
1tsp cracked black pepper and salt
1/2 bunch coriander, sprigs picked, to serve
Procedure
Cut the fish into 1cm pieces and place in a bowl with the lime juice. Toss to coat and leave for 30 minutes or until the fish turns opaque. Add the onion, chilli, and tomato – combine well. Add the coconut cream, pepper, and season with salt.
Place uncooked rice in 3 cups of cold water, bring to the boil and simmer until cooked.
Rinse rice thoroughly, but delicately as you want to keep the form of the rice, I rinsed the cooked rice three times in cold water.
Put the rice into the refrigerator to cool completely before using.
Prepare all the ingredients and have them ready to use.
Add 2 tbsp of mirin to the cool rice; thoroughly mix through with a spoon.
Lie a seaweed sheet over the bamboo mat and position the two lengthways away from you. Place a little of the rice (about ¼ of a cup) on the near side of the seaweed sheet and flatten into a rectangle shape into a sausage shape, leaving about 3cm of the seaweed sheet clear of rice nearest to you.
Place a little of the filling across the centre of the rice and then gently pick up the end of the bamboo mat closest to you and start rolling away from your body as tightly as possible.
Make sure you leave about 3cm at the far end of your roll without rice/filling. When you have finished rolling, dip your fingers into the water and wet the strip of seaweed on the end to close and seal the sushi.
With a sharp knife, chop the sushi into bite-sized pieces.
Notes:
Rolling sushi is definitely one of those techniques that gets easier and better with practice. By the time I had finished all the rice I had made, my sushi was looking a whole lot better than when I first began!
We’ll definitely make again! I highly recommend it – it would be great thing to do with teens as an activity too. I’m now eager to try making some of my faves from the sushi bar – tempura prawn, cooked tuna with corn…
Mirin is Japanese vinegar. You can find it most good sized supermarkets these days.
A lot of sushi that you buy includes Japanese mayonnaise. Rather than buy it, I cheated and watered down some regular mayonnaise so it was the consistency of tomato sauce.
I have listed the fillings I used to make sushi this time, but obviously the sky is the limit when it comes to choosing sushi fillings. Avocado, carrot sticks and tuna (tinned or fresh) are others that I could have used but didn’t this time around.
This recipe was created by Melissa Klemke for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Place the fish fillets on the tray, place 2-3 slices of lemon on each piece of fish and season with pepper. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until cooked through.
While the fish is cooking, prepare the salad by cutting the core from the lettuce. Wash leaves, roll up, finely slice and place in a salad bowl. Slice top feathery leaves and bottom from the fennel bulb. Remove the outer layer and then finely slice and add to salad. Peel avocado and slice into chunks, add to salad. To make dressing, whisk oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper in small bowl. Toss dressing through salad just before serving.
Place a pile of salad on each plate, top with fish and lemon wedges.
Notes:
This is a very quick meal to prepare, healthy and oh so tasty with the crunchy salad. Leave out the fennel/avocado if you don’t think your kids will eat it. I prepare ¼ of an avocado for me (kids don’t like, gives husband indigestion) and add to my salad when serving.
Freshly caught Flathead on the bbq was a regular feature of my teenage summer holidays. I am still constantly amazed at the price charged for Flathead fillets now, but they are tricky to prepare, so I am happy to pay for skinned, filleted and bone-free fillets.
We are sans-bbq at the moment (the cover blew away, got rained on for a couple of winters: a gas-powered hazard in the back yard happily donated to the local ‘waste transfer station’), so I oven bake fish. But wrapped in aluminium foil and cooked on the barby is perfect.
Place frozen pastry sheets on kitchen bench to defrost and preheat oven to 200° C.
In a large bowl add pork mince, grated carrot, diced onion, basil (if using), fish sauce, sweet chilli and one egg. Combine ingredients until well mixed.
In a small dish, make an egg wash by cracking the second egg and lightly whisking with a fork.
Place pastry sheets in front of you and cut through the middle horizontally creating two equal halves.
Take about ¾ cup of pork mixture and form it into a sausage shape and place it along the top of the pastry sheet. With a pastry brush (or finger), wipe egg wash below the meat to secure the ends.
Roll the pastry and mix into a firm log shape making sure the pastry at the bottom overlaps each other at the egg wash. Repeat until you have 4 logs.
Once they’re all rolled, remove the plastic wrap backing the pastry, wipe over the top with egg wash and cut each log into 5 equal pieces.
Place on a tray lined with a baking mat or baking paper and bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, cool on wire rack and serve as is or with the kid’s favourite- tomato sauce.
Notes
I like to keep the plastic of the pastry on when rolling these up. It keeps the pastry firm and neat. You just need to lift it at the end when you are sticking the ends together.
While you’re waiting for the remaining logs to be rolled, place the existing ones in the freezer. They will firm up and be easier to handle.
These freeze very well once cooked, so if you need to make them ahead of time, just reheat at 180° C for 20 minutes.
If you don’t like basil, parsley works very well or they can be made without any green for kids who aren’t interested in the colour green!
Recipe created by Camilla Baker for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
2 preserved lemon quarters
1 handful flat-leaf parsley
1 handful marjoram leaves
1 handful coriander leaves
warm potato salad or simple green salad to serve
Method
Preheat oven to 180C or 160C fan-forced. Place salmon on baking tray.
Finely grate the zest of the lemons into a small bowl, add the garlic and oil and season to taste. Rub mixture all over the salmon. Cut the lemon into wedges and set aside for serving.
Bake the salmon for 20-30 minutes or until just cooked, depending on the thickness of the fish.
Meanwhile, soak the preserved lemon quarters in cold water for 10 minutes. Remove the pulp and discard, and finely slice the zest. Combine the preserved lemon zest with the herbs and set aside.
Transfer the salmon to a serving platter, scatter over the herb mixture, drizzle with oil and serve with the lemon wedges and salad.
Serving Suggestions
Note
There is no better choice for a light summer meal than this easy baked salmon.
The herbs compliment the flavour of the fish beautifully and it is really up to you whether you prefer a zesty lemon squeeze or a creamy aioli on the side.
On a low heat in a small saucepan, heat oil and fry grated onion, garlic and ginger until onion for about 2 minutes, until it is transparent.
Add spices and cook for a further 2 minutes to let the flavours release.
Remove from heat and add coconut milk, crushed lime leaves (optional) and peanut butter. Stir until well combined then bring back to the heat to warm through. Do not let it come to a boil.
Once hot take from the heat and add fish sauce and warm water. Stir to combine then serve.
Notes
This sauce is very versatile. It can be stored in the fridge for 5 days and then reheated in the microwave.
It will set firm, so just add a little extra warm water to thin it out.
To help save time just before a party, make this 1-2 days ahead for ease and extra flavour.
You can also add chilli flakes to this recipe if you would like an added boost of heat.
Recipe created by Camilla Baker for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.
1 kg deboned chicken breasts/thighs, cut into 4cm squarish-chunks
2 tbsp black peppercorns
2 cloves garlic
2 coriander stalks, chopped
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 cup coconut milk
Method
In a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic and peppercorns until they make a paste.
Add coriander and continue to pound until it forms a paste.
Combine the paste, fish sauce and coconut milk in a container and stir together.
Add the chicken pieces to the marinade and stir to coat. Cover and refridgerate for 1-2 hours.
Preheat griddle/frypan or BBQ and coat with oil.
Lay marinated chicken pieces in the pan and and cook for 4 minutes or until golden brown on each side.
Set aside to rest whilst you plate up rice.
Notes
Back in the day where a takeaway or dining in a restaurant was at least a weekly ritual, hubby and I used to frequent a few Thai takeaway places. However our order never changed. Pad Thai for hubby, Gai Yang (Thai barbecued chicken) and rice for me.
I was thrilled to discover that this recipe fulfilled my need for Thai takeaway without having to leave home or pay $15 a serve!
This chicken is popular with everyone even the kids eat it and ask for seconds!
This recipe was created by Melissa Klemke for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.
Heat oil in a wok or large frypan, break eggs into wok and stir with a spoon to break up the yolks.
Cook for a minute, flip the omelette over and cook the other side for a minute. Transfer omelette to a plate and slice into bite size strips.
Return wok to heat and stir fry bacon and onion until onion is soft, about 3 minutes. Add peas, cook for two minutes.
Add tuna and soy sauce, combine with other ingredients, then add rice and egg strips. Stir well to combine and heat through.
Serve immediately garnished with herbs.
Notes:
I usually cook this fried rice after I have made Û÷something else with riceÛª; cook extra rice, store it in an air-tight container in the fridge and use the leftovers for this super-fast meal.
DonÛªt be put off by the tuna ÛÒ it works really well in this dish, particularly tuna in chilli oil.
Tempt the kids to the table with those little fish filled with soy sauce that you have left over from sushi ÛÒ my kids love putting ÛÏa drop over here and a drop over thereÛ_Û
The whole family will love these satay chicken burgers. They’re a little bit different and make a great addition to your menu plan. The satay sauce adds a fantastic flavour to these patties.
Ingredients
600g chicken mince
1 onion
half a cup continental parsley or coriander leaves
Place onion, herbs and bread crumbs in a food processor, whiz until finely chopped. Combine onion mixture, chicken mince and satay sauce in a large bowl. Form into 8 patties and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Heat oil in a nonstick frypan over medium heat. Cook four patties at a time for 3-4 minutes each side until cooked through. Keep warm while you cook the second batch.
Heat extra satay sauce for 20-30 seconds in the microwave.
Place rolls or bread on plates, top with lettuce, grated carrots and 1 or 2 chicken patties. Drizzle some of the extra satay sauce over the burgers and serve immediately.
Serving Suggestions
Note
The satay sauce adds a fantastic flavour to these patties; substitute with an egg if you want to make nut-free burgers.
Make these burgers gluten-free by making your own gluten-free bread in the food processor.
Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional (160°C fan-forced).
Steam the sweet potato for about 15 minutes, or until soft, and mash.
Combine this with the corn, tuna, cheese and egg and mix well.
Cut pastry into 8 rounds and tuck them into the holes of a muffin tin. Fill with the sweet potato mixture and bake for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden.
These are great for parties and, because they freeze beautifully, are worth making up in a big batch. Vary the fillings according to whatever you have handy.
You can swap the sweet potato for pumpkin in this recipe.
å_ cup vegetable oil (not needed for slow cooking)
Method
To make the barbecue sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan and then add the onion, celery and garlic. Stir through and cook until the onion becomes translucent.
Add the beef stock and vinegar and bring to the boil.
Add the remaining ingredients and stir through. Turn down to a simmer and continue cooking for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside.
Slow cooker:
Tip the flour, paprika, salt and pepper into a plastic bag. Trim the chicken pieces of skin and add to the flour mixture. Close the bag tightly and shake the contents so that each chicken drumstick is coated in the flour mixture.
Shake each chicken piece to remove excess flour and place in the slow cooker. Pour the sauce over the chicken pieces so that they are all just covered, you may have some sauce left over.
Set the slow cooker to HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 6-7 hours.
Conventional oven:
Preheat oven to 180å¡C.
Tip the flour, paprika, salt and pepper into a plastic bag. Mix through and add the chicken pieces. Close the bag tightly and shake the contents so that each chicken drumstick is coated in the flour mixture.
Heat the oil in a casserole dish and brown the chicken in batches. Once all the chicken has been browned, return all the pieces to the dish and pour the sauce over the top, making sure that all the chicken is covered.
Put a lid on the dish and place into the oven. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Note
I love this barbecue sauce recipe and am planning to use it on pork ribs next. Delicious!
I served this with mashed potato and peas and it was perfect, the chicken-y sauce was soaked up by the potato to make an incredibly comforting winter dinner.
Sometimes I don’t start planning dinner until too late in the day to use my slow cooker, which is why I have included conventional oven instructions too! Never let disorganisation stop you getting dinner on the table!
I don’t brown the chicken when I use the slow cooker because I always remove the skin. I find that the slow cooking of chicken skin can make all the fat melt and give the dish a very greasy texture.
This recipe was created by Ella Walsh for Kidspot, New Zealand’såÊbest recipe finder.
Preheat the oven to 180å¡C. Place the french stick slices on a tray and spray with canola oil. Bake for 10 minutes until golden and crisp.
In a frying pan, cook the bacon on high until crisp. Drain on kitchen paper and slice.
Chop the lettuce and set aside.
In a food processor, whizz all of the dressing ingredients except for the oil. With the motor running, add the oil in a thin stream. Stop halfway and scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue until all of the oil is used.
Drizzle the dressing over the lettuce and toss to coat.
Toss in bacon, shaved parmesan and croutons.
Notes
This recipe makes a lot of dressing. It is great to use like a regular mayonnaise and it is packed full of flavour.
If you are taking this salad to a party keep all of the ingredients separate and toss it when you get there.
The dressing is so easy you will never ever buy caesar dressing in a bottle again.
This recipe was created by Jennifer Cheung for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.
Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a frying pan and fry the fish fillets skin side down and then turn. This is just to brown so it don’t cook them right through. Set aside.
In the same frying pan heat the other 2 tbsp of oil and fry onions and garlic for 2 mins then add curry paste. Fry off the curry paste for 2 mins to release the aromatics and then add the tomatoes and their juice. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the fish and simmer for a further 5 minutes..
Serve with rice and coriander to garnish.
Note
This is fast Indian curry at it’s best.
Serving it with rice, raita and fresh coriander rounds out the flavours and makes it very satisfying.
This recipe was created by Jennifer Cheung for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.
This quick pan-fried salmon meal is spiced with cumin and served with a zingy dressing of chermoula on potatoes.
Serves 4
Ingredients
For chermoula:
2 tbsp coriander leaves, finely chopped
2 tbsp continental parsley, finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 clove garlic, finely diced
1/2 tsp mild paprika
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
3 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup (60ml) lemon juice
600g potatoes, peeled
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp olive oil
4 salmon fillets (125g each)
100g baby spinach
Method
For chermoula, combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Season well.
Cut potatoes in a 1.5cm dice, place in a large pot of water, bring to the boil and simmer for 6 minutes until just cooked. Drain and set aside.
Combine cumin and sea salt in a bowl. Coat salmon fillets all over with mixture. Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a large non-stick frypan and cook salmon skin-side down for 3 minutes over medium heat. Turn and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Remove and keep warm.
Wipe out pan and heat remaining oil over medium heat. Add drained potatoes and cook, turning often, until golden and crispy, approx. 6-8 minutes. Remove to a bowl lined with paper towel.
Add crispy potatoes to chermoula mix and toss to coat. Divide spinach leaves between four serving plates, top with potatoes and salmon.
Cute and healthy – these tuna and tomato boats are the perfect addition to any party table!
Ingredients
1 punnet cherry tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 slice of white bread
1åÊ xåÊ 425g tuna in oil, drained
2 tbsp spreadable cream cheese
Method
Place tuna in a bowl, along with the cream cheese. Whiz with a hand blender until smooth and combined.
Cut cherry tomatoes in half, and then deseed them using a small spoon. If the seeds are not easily coming out, use a small sharp knife to ease them out.
Cut crust from bread, and flatten with a rolling pin. Cut into small triangles for the sails. Put aside.
Cut the cucumber in half. Cut one half into rounds for the boats to sit on. Take the skin of the other half cucumber and cut thin strips for the other sails.
Assemble the boats by filling the tomatoes with the tuna mix. Pop a toothpick through the sails and stick them into the filled cherry tomato. Alternate the sails so that some are bread and some are cucumber.
Place the boats with bread sails onto the cucumber rounds.
Notes
IÛªm quickly learning that cute food is so much more delicious to eat, for children AND adults. If IÛªd put a plate of tuna, tomato and cucumber in front of my family, weÛªd probably turn our noses up at it. But as soon as I start whipping it up into something fun, weÛªre all over it like a rash. I donÛªt even like cucumber so much, but these were too cute not to gobble up!
This recipe was created by Chantelle Ellem for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder. You can follow Chantelle at Fatmumslim.
lemon wedges and mayonnaise or a lemony horseradish cream to serve
Method
Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion for about five minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and lemon rind and cook for another couple of minutes.
Add the rice, stir for a minute and then add the wine. Cook for another minute and then pour in the water (or stock). Cover the pan and reduce heat to low. Cook for about 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and place broccoli florets on top of the rice. Cover and set aside for five minutes.
To serve, transfer to a platter lined with the salad leaves and top the rice and broccoli with the flaked skinned trout and scatter with the almonds. Place a few lemon wedges on the side.
Notes:
With a few tweaks and twists it can go in any direction you choose (see variations below). There’s about five minutes of chopping here and then a bit of waiting around while the rice cooks and that’s it! Serve this with a lemony horseradish cream or mayonnaise on the side and some nice bread and what you have is a really great meal!
Substitute the trout with slices of cooked chicken breast or lamb back strap.
Add half a teaspoon of cumin, ground cardamom and turmeric to the onions while cooking and then stir through some raisins just before serving. In this case I’d skip the salmon and maybe serve instead a beautiful piece of barbecued lamb. This would be great with some minted yogurt on the side.
Swap the hot smoked trout for lightly pan-fried snapper or other white-fleshed fish.
This recipe was created by Sophie Hansen for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.
Heat olive oil in a heavy-based pan and saute onion and carrot until soft.
Add spinach and stir until just wilted. Add milk, bring to a simmer, stir in mustard powder and cornflour mixture.
Stir until mixture thickens. Stir in cheese. Remove from the heat. Stir in lemon juice.
Arrange salmon and smoked fish in a flat-bottomed casserole dish.
Sprinkle egg on top. Pour over creamy vegetable sauce.
Place dollops of mashed potato on top and smooth across entire surface. Spray with a little cooking spray.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until piping hot and golden. Decorate with fish shapes cut from raw carrot slices for novelty effect. Serve with salad or veg.
Serving Suggestions
Note
Rather than boiling the buggery out of eggs, I simply bring them to an initial boil, then turn off the heat, put a lid on the saucepan and leave them for 10 minutes. Stops them bursting at the seams etc. My mother-in-law taught me that, clever woman.
This recipe was created by Alana House for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.
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