Tag: Party Recipes

Very Hungry Caterpillar Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Tortilla Chips

Posted July 29, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

As you may recall, the Very Hungry Caterpillar LOVES fruit. When he eats his week-long feast, fruit makes up most of his diet, so today we’re making a recipe that includes every fruit he ate Monday-Friday. Say hello to my 5 Fruit Salsa!

This salsa is composed of finely diced apples, pears, plums, and strawberries generously drizzled with a refreshing clementine white balsamic vinaigrette (the clementine is the 5th fruit). Of course, every salsa needs something to dip in it, so I baked up some flower-shaped cinnamon sugar tortilla chips.

This has to be of the easiest recipes I’ve ever made. Perfect to throw together before a party or as a snack! Munch on, little caterpillars! 😀

Very Hungry Caterpillar Sandwiches

Posted July 1, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

I was planning to do a Very Hungry Caterpillar menu next year, but after Eric Carle’s recent passing, I really wanted to do it now. It’s been comforting to spend the past month working on recipes inspired by his most famous character. It’s also given me an opportunity to talk with my 4-year-old about the Carle books we’ve read. I grew up with his books myself, and it fills me with warmth to know I’m passing on his legacy to another generation.

This Very Hungry Caterpillar menu is going to have a children’s party vibe, similar to last month’s Stuart Little menu. I know lots of people like to use Very Hungry Caterpillar as a birthday or baby shower theme, so I’m keeping that in mind as I plan.

Today’s super simple appetizer is just right for any kid who’s ever loved lunchables–we’re making Very Hungry Caterpillar sandwiches! I used spinach tortillas for the bread (don’t worry, you can’t really taste the spinach–at least I can’t). For the filling, I used American cheese and Genoa salami, but you can pick whatever meat/cheese combo your kids enjoy most. It took me less than 5 minutes to cut everything out, and the results were SO. FREAKING. CUTE. 😀

It’s super easy to scale the recipe up or down depending on how many you’re serving. There are about 5 sandwiches per hump in the caterpillar, so if you’re serving a small group, you can made individual caterpillars with one hump (just keep in mind you’ll need extra tomatoes for the heads). If you’ve got a large group and a big enough plate, you can add as many humps to the caterpillar as you want. A giant one would be lots of fun!

P.S. If your kids won’t touch anything spinach related (my 4-year-old is going through a no-green-things phase), you can make the same design using fruit or vegetables. For example, you could make a kiwi, watermelon, and mango body with blackberry feet and half an apple for a head. Or go the Caprese salad route with a cucumber, tomato, fresh mozzarella body and tiny basil leaves for feet. Have fun with it!

Mouse on the Go: Stuart’s Hummus Deviled Egg Boats and Mini Pepper Roadsters

Posted May 20, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Hold onto your hat’s, folks! Today we’re gettin’ whimsical! 😀

Lately I’ve been trying to make a lot of historically accurate blog recipes, like Rustic Brown Bread from JANE EYRE and Rüeblitorte from HEIDI. I planned to stick with that theme through this menu too, but the only entree in STUART LITTLE is lamb stew. Since I already shared my go-to lamb stew recipe in my HUNGER GAMES MENU, I decided to have some fun and make something silly instead. Plus, I’m unofficially trying to make everything on this menu work for a birthday party just because I think STUART LITTLE would make such a cute party theme, and I’ve never seen lamb stew served at a birthday.

For my focus, I chose Stuart’s favorite modes of transportation: his car and boat. I made deviled egg boats for a WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE menu a few years ago, and the one’s I’m sharing today are a slight variation on that. I made homemade hummus from Gimme Some Oven, mixed it into the filling, dyed the egg white blue to match the boat in the story, and topped it all with a pita chip sail. The rest of the hummus went to fill the roadsters: mini peppers I cut in half and fitted with tomato wheels, pretzel steering wheels, and chive seat backs.

These were SUPER simple and so fun to make. If you’ve got kids, I highly recommend getting them involved with this one. My 4-year-old loved putting the sails on the boats and driving the little cars around his plate!