Carnival is here and brings with it many parties – and some parents may have been persuaded to throw a carnival party for their children or are jointly responsible for organizing the festivities at school or kindergarten. If this co-responsibility also includes the culinary organization of the event, we would like to offer help and provide you with ideas for a regional, partly more and partly less healthy party buffet.
To appease the parental concern about their children’s diet, we start with a healthy classic:
- Vegetable sticks. However, as the taste of the little ones often – and to the dissatisfaction of the parents – have a certain aversion to any form of vegetable, tricks have to be used here.
– Trick 1: Colourful and creative plating – Here I would like to clearly refer to Pinterest, where countless ideas are presented on how a vegetable platter can be designed in such a joyful manner (for example as a lion’s head) that even the biggest vegetable haters could buckle at the sight of it. You can find inspiration HERE.
– Trick 2: Colorful dips. Children’s eyes love colors, so try to make the dips for the vegetable sticks as colorful as possible. You can do this with spices such as paprika powder, curry, turmeric, etc. or you can use the more regional version and incorporate beet, carrot, etc. into the dip to add color.
To soften up stubborn vegetable refusers, you can offer vegetables in an unhealthy form:
- Vegetable potato chips. You can use any winter tuber vegetables that the regional soil has to offer. Whether parsnip, carrot, parsley root, beet, potato – slice everything thinly and then mix with a little vegetable oil, salt and spices of your choice, such as pepper, paprika powder, curry, chili, and bake on a baking sheet, preferably not overlapping. Set the temperature to approx. 100 – 150 degrees and dry for approx. 40 minutes. The oven can also be set to a higher temperature, but you must be careful not to burn the vegetables. If you have a dehydrator at home, you should of course use it!
The best friend for quick party snacks:
- Puff pastry. Pizza rolls are perfect for the savory version: Simply cover the dough with the desired filling (tomato puree, cheese, mushrooms, corn, ham, etc. or the version with spinach, feta, cream cheese), roll up, cut into snails and pop into the oven.
For the sweet version, apple pockets (filling: apple, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice) or jam pockets are ideal.
Of course, fruit is also a must on a healthy party buffet:
- Apple tiramisu. Instead of the caffeine-laden classic tiramisu, this version promises that only the sugar shock will make children hyperactive. The ingredients and procedure are the same, except that the sponge fingers are soaked in milk rather than coffee, and a layer of apple sauce mixed with cinnamon, lemon juice and vanilla sugar follows the mascarpone layer.
- Fruit skewers. To do this, skewer fruit, preferably seasonal fruit such as apples, pears etc. in winter. If you want to, dip the whole thing in chocolate, leave it to cool and entice children to the buffet with this sweet temptation.
For the wild party crowd:
- Cocktails or mocktails for children. Juices from the region can be combined to create heavenly mixed drinks. If the regional and seasonal juice selection doesn’t seem so attractive, you can also use frozen summer fruit. All kinds of berries can end up in the blender and, refined with ice cubes, milk, cream, etc., a wild long drink can be served to the little party guests.
