



Magical garden



It may look like it takes a lot of time to prep but believe me, it’s easy, relatively quick and you can also get the little ones involved too.

What you’ll need

2 wooden skewers (dull the end by tapping it on the kitchen worktop if you’re worried your little one might hurt themselves)

A flower cutter normally used for cake decoration. If you don’t have a flower cutter you can cut them out by hand.

Ingredients

1 small/medium carrot thick enough in diameter for the flower cutter (if using)

4 x 1cm thick slices of cucumber

thick slices of cucumber 2 sugar snap peas

2 black stoned olives, halved lengthways

2 cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 small handful of pinenuts

The carrot flowers

Cut out the flowers using the flower cutter or cut by hand if you don’t have one. You can either serve the carrot flowers raw or steam them for about 6 minutes. Don’t overcook them as you’ll lose the goodness but also they won’t sit on the skewer very well either. Get 2 of the cucumber slices and slice in half to make a semi circle, then cut out the seeds aiming to make the half look like 2 leaves. Stick the bottom of the skewer into one of the remaining full cucumber slices to form the flower stem. Carefully skewer the flower onto the top of the skewer to finish.

The ladybirds



You could just create the ladybirds if you haven’t got time to do the whole garden. Serve them next to some sandwiches at lunch!

Quarter the cherry tomatoes and place them face down, separating slightly at one end to form the ladybird wings Take one half of the sliced olive and cut the ends off Place the olive piece at the closed end of the tomato to create the ladybirds head.

It’s that easy!

The beetles

Just place an olive half face down, cut a tiny piece of olive off the remaining olive pieces and place at one end for the beetles head Place the beetle on or near the flower of the edible garden

The pebbles

I just placed a small handful of pinenuts in a pile for a bit of extra goodness. You could also add raisins for soil if your little one prefers!



