For our Melbourne Christmas celebration which I hosted, I wanted to try something a little different for entree. Our celebration was 10 days before Christmas and I wanted it to be a little more casual than what I would usually do Christmas day.
I decided to go with homemade noodle boxes for entree – something that we could eat standing, sitting, talking etc. This recipe is super basic as I wanted kids and adults to both enjoy them. (I did do a raw gluten free noodle box also which I will share later.)
So I wouldn’t spend all of my time in the kitchen making them once family arrived, I prepared and cut the veggies, made the sauce and had all the utensils out ready to go.
Once I was about 10 minutes away from wanting to serve, I hit the kitchen, started the kettle and started cooking.
I served up the noodle boxes with chopsticks, but most of the family switched to forks for eating, so next time I might buy bamboo forks for presentation and functional purposes.
How was your Christmas? Did you try any new recipes?
- 3 x 450 grams fresh thin hokkien noodles or rice noodles if you want to be gluten free
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 4 spring onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 large red capsicum
- 1 yellow capsicum
- 1 green capsicum
- 2 carrots
- ½ cup sweet chilli sauce
- 2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce
- 8 noodle boxes
- So this dish can be prepared quickly when guests arrive, I undertake the steps up until and including combining the sauce and then store everything in the fridge until 10 minutes before I want to serve.
- Finely chop spring onions.
- Prepare garlic for crushing.
- Finely chop coriander.
- Slice capscium, snow peas and carrots into thin short strips.
- Combine the sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce.
- Cook noodles as per packet instructions. Make sure they are well separated, drain them and set aside covered to keep warm.
- Heat coconut oil in pan or wok on a high heat.
- Add the spring onions and stir fry for a minute or two.
- Crush garlic into pan and stir for another minute.
- Add coriander and stir for a few seconds, then add all of the veggies to the pan.
- Stir-fry for about 3 to 4 minutes or just long enough for veggies to soften, but not to go too soft.
- Add noodles and the sauce. Stir-fry for a minute or two so they are warmed through.
- Divide noodles into boxes and serve immediately.
Weekly Family Menu Plan
One of the very handy benefits of menu planning on a regular basis, is that it is very easy to recycle menu plans when you are too busy to create a new plan. We returned from our time away at Christmas and I simply chose a plan that fitted our activities for the week, printed out the shopping list and made a trip to ALDI to get everything we needed!
Day | Week Commencing 28th December 2013 |
|
|---|---|---|
| Sat |  | Homemade Tacos |
| Sun |  | Sausage and veg |
| Mon |  | Souvlaki |
| Tue |  | Spicy chutney chicken with mixed rice |
| Wed |  | Slow Cooker Satay |
| Thu |  | Pan Fried Fish and Salad |
| Fri |  | Sushi |
| Shopping List | Weekly menu plan shopping list 28th December 2013 | |
Family Friendly Recipes
If you are looking for further recipe inspiration, check out my complete list of Family Friendly Recipes. You might like to also check out Planning With Kids Menu Planning App.
The kid friendly menu planning app allows you to:
- Create weekly menu plans quickly, choosing as many meals per day as you would like to plan for.
- Generate the shopping list for all the meals selected.
- Modify the shopping list to check off items you already have at home.
- Email the shopping list to yourself and/or others.
The most popular recipes from the blog have been included and more will be added on a regular basis. The app will notify you when new recipes have been added, so you will be able to deliver plenty of variety in your family’s menu plans. Each recipe lists the ingredients required, easy to follow instructions and a photo from the blog.