Angry Bird Party

For my son's 6th birthday we had an Angry Bird party. I had seen some of my friends' posts about Angry Bird parties they did, and thought it would be pretty simple. As with the alien party, I tried to get my boys as involved as much as possible. They sampled sandwiches, helped make the Bomb bird,  and made another poster with drawings of angry birds, and angry bird levels.

A few weeks before the party, I asked for boxes from my local grocery store. We used them to build angry bird towers, complete with bad piggies (I hadn't planned very well how to attach them, especially with the wind, so we only had one). After building the towers, the boys took turns throwing balls at them to knock the tower down.

 

 They especially enjoyed being the angry birds, and knocking the box towers down with their bodies.

 For the cake, I made chocolate cupcakes, and turned them into angry birds using different colours of fondant icing (and dried apricots for some of the mouths). The sling-shot is made out of carrot cake, with homemade apple fruit leather for the sling. I baked the carrot cake in a 9-in x 13-in tin lined with baking paper. After removing the cake from the tin, I cut a slingshot shape from it. I had a lot of fun making this cake, and was quite pleased with how it turned out. I let each boy choose an angry bird to take home, and they loved that.

 

For the rest of the food, I made Matilda sandwiches. I used a round biscuit cutter that fit inside the bread. The filling was either ham or cheese, but you could use any sandwich filling really. I cut triangles out of orange cheese for the beaks. For some of the eyes, I used sliced black olives, and some had halved red grapes. I used julienned dates for the feathers. Although it worked pretty well, the dates didn't go down very well with the party guests. Most of them didn't know what they were. If I make these again, I would either just use scraps of the white bread, or make strips with brown bread for more contrast.

 Another game we played was pin the fuse on Bomb. My boys helped design the bird and the fuses.

We also had a treasure/egg hunt. Each clue was on a piece of paper that formed part of a puzzle. on the other side of the  puzzle was a picture of the locker we hid the treasure box in. I placed the party bags and some kinder eggs in the treasure box. As usual, the treasure hunt was one of the more popular activities.

Alien Party

Several months ago, I had an alien birthday party for my son, and I am finally getting around to posting about it. I don't have a fancy camera, and I am not the most artistic person around, but I found/had some fun ideas I think someone out there might want to use someday.

As my boys get older, I try to involve them as much as possible in the planning of their birthday parties. I don't really care about everything looking perfect. I'd much rather have things that my boys helped to create. My son really likes aliens, and especially loves drawing his own alien creations. So when it came to deciding what his theme would be, it was a no-brainer. We looked through cake decorating books together and found a design he liked. To decorate, my boys drew aliens and planets on a banner of paper, and then we taped black alien eyes to balloons.

For the invitations, I cut out aliens my son had drawn and pasted them to some shiny card with the party information: 4...3..2..1.. Blastoff to x's alien party.

For the food we found a tutorial on how to make alien cupcakes, and then my son helped me make and decorate them.  I also made some green smoothies using this idea for a Toy Story alien milkshake.

I got the idea for the birthday cake from Gorgeous and Gruesome Cakes for Children. I changed the swamp monster into an alien eating an astronaut. The actual cake didn't turn out so well, it was quite dense, but I really liked how it looked.

For the games we did "pin the eye on the alien." My son drew the shape for the alien's body.

The best game of the day was our "Aliens in Underpants" treasure hunt.  When the children first arrived, we had each one decorate his own paper underpants. When they were finished, we hung them on the line. Then when they were busy building spaceships out of junk, I took the underpants, and hid them around the house next to a party bag with another original alien pasted to the front.  When we were ready for the treasure hunt, we announced that the pants had been stolen by aliens, and each child had to find his own underpants.  They loved this game!

Banana Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (Dairy Free, Egg Free)

My youngest son has a mild allergy to cow's milk and is eczema seems to flare up with eggs as well. Since discovering this, I have been using soy milk in all my baking, and have tried several dairy free and even egg free recipes and techniques. One idea I found was to use ground linseed as a binder in place of egg. Now that I have finally invested in a spice grinder, I have been experimenting with this idea with mixed results (the pancakes didn't turn out so well). After a couple of attempts, though, I have developed a recipe for banana oat cookies that are healthy enough to eat for breakfast, or any time of day. They aren't like the normal cookies that you would make with all the butter and sugar, but they are sweet, soft and chewy. Between me and my boys, the last batch I made lasted one day.

You will need a spice grinder, or some other way of grinding the linseed into a powder first. If you don't have one, you could try using one egg in it's place. I haven't tried this yet, so I don't know how it would change the recipe, but I'm sure it would work.

Banana Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 Tbs ground linseed
3 Tbs water
2 medium sized, ripe bananas, mashed (about 3/4 cup)
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbs honey
2 cups oats (I used porridge oats, similar to quick oats)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
generous pinch of salt
1/4 cup soy flour (or all purpose/plain flour)
1/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F/170 C fan assisted. Line baking sheets with baking/parchment paper, or grease them. In a small bowl combine the ground linseed and water, stir and set aside. In a medium bowl combine mashed bananas, vanilla and honey. In a larger bowl combine the remaining (dry) ingredients. Test the linseed mixture, it should be kind of gloopy (like the consistency of a beaten egg).  If it's ready, add it to the wet ingredients and mix to combine.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture, and stir until combined.

Using a round tablespoon (or small ice-cream scoop), scoop up the cookie mixture pressing it against the side of the bowl, then tap the spoon onto the tray to release the dough. It may be useful to grease the spoon with a little oil. Using the back of the spoon, gently press the ball down in the middle to flatten the ball.

Bake in a preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are turning brown. Cool on a cooling rack, and enjoy!

Here is a video showing how I get the shape for my cookie. I made it originally for my coconut macaroon cookies that I haven't posted yet, but the technique is still the same.

Corn and Bean Salad

Last night we had our Relief Society birthday party at church, complete with potluck refreshments. I always like to bring something healthy, to balance out all the delicious sweet cakes and puddings. This time, inspired by a Mexican style dinner we had over the weekend, I used one of my favourite recipes: a Corn and Black bean salad. However, it's rather difficult to get black beans in England, so I used black-eyed peas instead. The lime juice and fresh coriander really bring a freshness to this dish, and the chili powder and chili pepper give it a nice kick. After several people asked about the ingredients, I promised them I would post the recipe on my blog.  So here it is:

Corn and Black Bean Salad

1/4 cup apricot preserves/jam
1 Tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp chili powder (or to taste, I think I used less)
3 Tbs lime juice
1 tsp salt (I used less)
1 can (about 2 cups) black beans,
1 can corn, drained
1 jalapeno, finely chopped (or a green chili)
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
1 Tbs fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped

Tortilla chips to serve

Mix the apricot preserves, olive oil, chili powder, lime juice, and the salt together in a medium/large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, and mix until well combined. Serve with tortilla chips.

Note: I would suggest starting with less chili powder and salt, then taste once all the ingredients are mixed together, and add more chili powder or salt as needed.

For those of you in England, I really like Aldi's tinned corn the best. It is inexpensive, yet very fresh tasting. Also, it is packed only in water. I bought a tin of corn from Tesco, which was packed in "sugared salt water," because I needed it in a pinch, and it was no good. The kernels were starchy and mushy, and not much flavour. I couldn't bear to use it in the salad, so made an extra trip to Aldi to get the good stuff.