a little birthday magic

Dustin turned four a few weeks ago. of course this threw up some major hurdles, especially considering we have recently discovered both strawberry’s and tomatoes are also a trigger for his allergy. so cut out dairy, gluten, strawberries and tomatoes out of the birthday boys diet and what have you got left? the thinking cap definitely had to come out!! in the panic of the actual day I didn’t get all the photos i would usually so I’ll make the cake again soon so I can give you that yummy recipe, but for now I’ll give you a couple of ideas that we came up with that made his dinosaur themed party easy.

jelly is always a birthday winner in our house. but because we are all packed up while our shed is being built i had a bit of a panic about not being able to find the baby food jars i usually put my jelly in. never fear the warehouse had these cute little jars in the section with their other preserving jars. I got five jars of jelly out of one jelly packet. then just pop the lid back on if they don’t get eaten and they will last in the fridge. team them with some wooden spoons, also from the warehouse and our naturals and green colour scheme took off.

next we added in a platter of fresh fruit with marshmallows on it. in season fruit is awesome and inexpensive, rock melon, watermelon and pineapple made the cut. then i just added some marshmallows in between on the platter – man i wish i had taken photos.

I did another platter, this one had on it some pavillion slices. they do a great raspberry slice, and a mint slice that the kids love, both gluten and dairy free. then from couplands I also got some of their GF DF bites and biscuits to complete the platter. easy, done.

Dustin loves savouries so back to couplands for some more pavillion. they do a savoury box with pies, and sausage rolls. then I found at countdown they had gluten free nuggets, made by inghams. I think they have pepper in them, but they are a total family favorite, we couldn’t keep up with demand and they were the first to go. with these we served plum sauce, satay sauce and BBQ sauce all of which seam to get by Dustin’s allergies.

the cake of course was gluten free and dairy free, but I’ll go into that another time, when I get a chance to make another.

another thing Dustin loves that I added to the table was rocky road. this recipe is so super versatile you can really make it however you want, add whatever you want, more or less of whatever you want, there are no rules here, im not even worried if you prefer your chocolate to rocky ratio to be higher or lower. but ill give you my latest, and i say latest because it will probably change again next time i make it.

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right now you’ve managed to scroll past the chocolaty goodness lets talk ingredients.

chocolate disclaimer – Whittikers 50% and above have “may contain dairy” on the label so they are my go to for chocolate. for those of you who aren’t aware “may contain” usually means it is processed on machines, or in the same building as something that has dairy in it. so the manufacturers can’t guarantee it is dairy free. a whole heap of products have the “may contain” label and as my kids don’t have severe allergies i risk it. it is totally at your discretion what works for you. find another chocolate if you are uncomfortable with the risk. so…

rocky road…

• 2 250g whittakers 50% dark chocolate
• kea Cookies Lemon coconut cookies (from new world)
• fruit puffs (countdown brand)
• dinosaur lollies (the natural confectionery company they contain wheat products – the countdown brand has jubes with no wheat)

so this is totally easy. while it’s still in the packaging break up your chocolate, then put it into a microwave save bowl. put it on for 1 minute at a time until the chocolate is melted a little, give it a good stir, if there are still hard lumps in it, pop it back in the microwave, if there are a couple of soft ones just leave it for a minute and it might melt on it’s own.

next prepare your rockyness, i left the fruit puffs whole, but cut the dinos in half. the cookies i just broke a little when i added them.

chuck everything into the chocolate, then give it a little stir.

line a slice tin with baking paper, my ones about 20cm by 10cm. pop the chocolate mix in the tin, and spread it out as best you can. give it a little shake, and a little bang, then pop it in the fridge.

a couple of hours later you can get it out and slice it. try to put in in a container in the fridge, if it will make it that far!!

what else can you put in? marshmallows, nuts of all kinds, other lollies, cookies, dried fruit, hmmm that’s all i can think of, but as long as it’s dry and goes with chocolate, and you like to eat it, chuck it in!!

and then there was the chocolate mousse….. watch out for next weeks post.