Christmas Damper with Guacamole

Challenge 11 in our 12 Days of Christmas DIY Challenges is to make a healthy Christmas snack using ingredients you have in your house.

I chose to make super simple Damper (like scones) and added a fresh guacamole dip which complemented the dampers really well!

Damper Recipe

Damper has to be one of the easiest things to make ever. All you have to remember is 2 cups of Self Raising flour.  Then add whatever ingredients you want and mix to a dough using milk! Shape into rounds, flatten and bake at 200C (400F) for 20 minutes.

I made 2 different kinds for this challenge. One was fetta, sundried tomato, chopped friend onion and fresh herbs.

The other was fried onion, salami, cheddar cheese and fresh herbs.

Rather than just shape the damper into rounds, I rolled it out a little and cut it into shapes using Christmas Cookie cutters.

I cut mainly star and bell shapes!

They looked and smelled so nice when they came out of the oven!

The fresh guacamole - I just cut up and mixed avocado, tomato and spring onion and added a little lemon juice to stop the avocado from discolouring.

The damper and guacamole tasted SO good together!

A great healthy Christmas snack I will be making again for sure!

Have you ever made a healthy Christmas snack? Or do you have an idea for one?  Please do link up your Healthy Christmas Snacks to our linky party here.
The party will stay open until Christmas so there's plenty time to get cooking and be inspired too!

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Each day a challenge will be set by means of a video and blog posts giving some suggested ideas and crafts. These posts will also contain a linky party for anyone and everyone who wants to join in to link up their projects - both past and present, that answer the challenge.  The linky party can be found on all our blogs and we'll  try and come up with different ideas and tutorials for the challenges too. So please do visit us all, and then share your ideas with us as well! We're looking forward to seeing how these challenge are met!

Ready, Steady....Let's Christmas Craft!

The 12 Days of Christmas DIY Challenges is brought to you by

Jill @ Creating my way to Success
Vicky @ Vicky Myers Creations
Anna @ Tea and a Sewing Machine
Pam @ Threading My Way
Anne @ Domesblissity

Previous Challenges
Challenge 1 - Upcycle old clothes to Christmas Decoration
Challenge 2 - Make a Christmas Gift from a pair of old jeans
Challenge 3 - Make a fun Christmas snack - use what you've got
Challenge 4 - Make a Christmas Card from a cereal box
Challenge 5 - Make a Christmas Decoration from something in your shed
Challenge 6 - Use Fabric Scraps to make some Gift Wrapping
Challenge 7 - Use something from your garden to make a Christmas Decoration
Challenge 8 - Make Christmas Decorations from Chip Packets
Challenge 9 - Make something to wear for Christmas using what you have in your house
Challenge 10 - Make a stocking filler gift from Fabric Scraps
Challenge 11 - Make a Healthy Christmas Snack from foods you have in your house

Super Simple Pumpkin Soup

One of my favourite things to have for lunch is soup, and this is the easiest soup to make there is I think!

Here's how to make yummy pumpkin soup! The amounts here are just rough - you can adjust them according to what you have available or whether you like thicker or thinner soup.

You will need:

Pumpkin (1kg), stock (1 litre), 1 onion, olive oil, plain flour (1 heaped tablespoon), cinnamon and nutmeg (1 tsp each).

Saute the onion in a little olive oil.

Then add the chopped pumpkin and stir fry for a few minutes.

Add the flour and spices and stir until all the pumpkin is coated.

Add the stock, stir and simmer, covered, for about 15-20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and blend until smooth.

Serve while hot.

 (season with salt and pepper to your personal taste)

See - super simple!

Do you have a favourite soup to make?

Mini Sundried Tomato and Fetta Dampers or Scones

In trying to find more lunch box snacks for my girls this year, I've started making these super simple 'Mini Dampers' which are a big hit.

Damper is a traditional Australian bread cooked on a camp fire with just basic ingredients. The very basic damper would be flour with butter rubbed in then mixed to a dough with water or milk and then baked in a large round. 

To me, this is basically a simple scone recipe like I grew up with in England - although we didn't cook scones on a fire and generally they were cut into smaller pieces rather than one large round.

So anyway, this recipe you could call a type of Damper or Scone.  It uses fetta cheese instead of butter and adds the extra flavour of sun-dried tomatoes, basil and onion.

Ingredients

2 cups Self Raising flour 

1 onion chopped and lightly fried

5 or 6 sundried tomatoes

1 cup fetta, crumbled

handful of basil leaves chopped

milk to mix (approx 1/2 cup)

Method

Preheat oven to 200C (400F)

Sieve the flour then add the onion, tomatoes, most of the fetta and the basil. Gradually add milk and mix until a soft dough is formed. 

Knead lightly on a floured surface.

Divide into 8 portions, shape into rounds and place on a baking tray.

Mark a grid - like a noughts and crosses (tic tac toe) grid on the top of each one and sprinkle with remaining fetta.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

These really are best enjoyed warm from the oven, but also keep a couple of days in an airtight container and make great lunch box snacks!

I like to cut mine open to eat!

Yum!

You could add really anything you like to these mini dampers - use butter instead of cheese, and substitute anything you like for the sundried tomato and basil - pumpkin, zucchini, other herbs, or even something sweet like sultanas or dates.

What kind of snacks do you put in your kids lunch boxes? I'd love some new suggestions and recipes to try with my kids!

Pumpkin bread and chocolate mousse - Use What You've Got, Day 26

Do you collect recipes from magazines and papers? I do, but they all then sit in a folder for...erm...years I guess until I get around to doing something with them.

This recipe book incidentally 

has a cover made from an old waistcoat, and was one of my first ever clothes upcycling projects!

But back to the actual recipes.  Because my current challenge is to "Use What You've Got" - I've decided to actually try out some of those recipes I've cut out and kept over the years!

First up this week was..

Pumpkin, fetta and rosemary twist.

The recipe was from a free magazine.

It was very yummy - and nice and easy to make too! 

This recipe is definitely one to keep and stick in my book!

Another recipe I tried was from a free magazine from the UK that my mum brought out. 

This one was for Chocolate Orange Pots:

Again, very yummy and so easy to make!

Now I've just got to tackle the rest of the pile of recipes I've kept!!

Do you often try new recipes?

Where do you get most of your recipes from?

Jill

Cake in a cup - Day 10 Use What You've Got

Last night I decided to try out a recipe that I'd pinned months ago - for a cake in a cup!

There are lots of different recipes out there but I used 

 one from Sweet Little Bluebird.

Apart from being a little confused with the amount of some of the ingredients - like 5 Tablespoons of flour (in a cup?). Once I realised I should just measure everything in teaspoons it was all good!

Here's what it looked like before cooking..

And after just 1 minute in the microwave..

(sorry didn't get a better picture before the toppings were added!)

We added squirty cream, a little chocolate sauce and sprinkles!

My husband and I enjoyed the cake, but my kids were less than impressed. Perhaps it was a vegan cake recipe - with no milk or eggs in it? We don't usually have vegan cakes..

I think to be fair I'll have to try this again with a different recipe.

Does anyone have one to recommend?

Have you ever made a cake in a cup?

Jill

Bread and Butter Pudding - Day 5 - Use What You've Got

Our elder daughter is away for this week on a school trip (lucky thing), and although I tried to adjust our weekly shopping to allow for her not being here, I still got to today with milk and bread that needed using up before it goes off!

So what to make - a Bread and Butter Pudding of course! A good old traditional British dish. Yum!

This pudding is so easy to make, and great for using up slightly stale bread.

All you need is bread, butter (I like to use margarine), milk, eggs, sultanas and sugar. I also add in strawberry jam.

Quantities aren't vital for this recipe - it's a really good one for Using What You've Got!

Spread your butter, margarine or jam on the bread 

(I had 6 thin slices):

Cut the bread up into small pieces and spread a layer in the bottom of a baking dish.

Sprinkle with sultanas and sugar, and repeat the layers until you've used all your bread.

Then whisk together your milk and eggs. I had about a pint of milk (500ml) and 2 eggs.

Pour the liquid over the bread and let it soak for at least 30 mins.

Bake at 160C (325F) for 45 mins to 1 hour until the top is crispy and golden.

You can serve it with custard or cream, or just enjoy it on its own.

Have you ever made Bread and Butter Pudding?

Do you have any other desserts that you can make from leftovers - or to use things up?