Children's menu for the new year 2022: what to cook for a child in the Year of the Tiger?

New Year's Eve is a time of miracles and magic. Every child awaits her with trepidation and impatience. And let all the thoughts of the children be occupied by the arrival of Santa Claus and gifts - we can surprise the children even before the clock strikes the cherished 12 times. It is enough to diversify the New Year's table with beautiful mouth-watering dishes that the child will eat with great pleasure.

We recently wrote about what original snacks can be put on the New Year's table. Children will definitely love the tiger cubs baskets and the tangerine-shaped appetizer salad (just put less garlic there). Here are some more interesting ideas for decorating a festive children's table.

"Tiger" salad

Not all children love salads, and I must say, there is nothing wrong with that. A mixture of a large number of different ingredients, and even seasoned with mayonnaise, can unnecessarily strain a child's stomach. However, the kids will definitely like this salad - firstly, because of the original festive decoration, and secondly, because there are no "unloved" products there.

Ingredients:

• 400 g potatoes
• 200 g boiled chicken fillet
• 200 g cucumbers (fresh or pickled)
• 150 g onions
• 3 eggs
• 400 g carrots
• homemade mayonnaise
• salt
• olives or prunes for garnish

Cooking method:

Boil potatoes, carrots, fillets, eggs until tender. Peel and finely grate potatoes and carrots. Cut the fillet and cucumbers into small cubes. Cut the onion into cubes, pour boiling water over and leave for 15 minutes to leave the pungent taste and smell. After 15 minutes, drain the water. Grate the eggs on a fine grater (leave the protein from one egg for decoration).

Put potatoes on the bottom of a flat dish, add salt and shape to a tiger's head. Brush with homemade mayonnaise (recipe can be found here). Put the chicken on top, brush with mayonnaise. Top with cucumbers (fresh salt), mayonnaise, onions and eggs. Grease eggs with mayonnaise, put carrots on top. You can start decorating.

Finely chop the olives (or prunes). Make eyes and cheeks from protein. Olives nose and eyelashes. Green pupils from cucumber. For the tongue, you can take a piece of boiled sausage. An onion thinly sliced ​​into half rings is suitable as a mustache.

Santa Claus from tomatoes

No child will remain indifferent to such an original snack. Santa Claus from tomatoes turns out to be cute and very cute. A win-win combination of cheese with tomato is not only tasty, but also healthy. The main thing is to choose good ripe tomatoes and not to overdo it with garlic. And be sure to warn your child to take out the peppercorns before putting the snack in their mouth.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 small tomatoes
• 150 g cheese
• homemade mayonnaise
• peas of black and red pepper for decoration

Cooking method:

Wash the tomatoes, turn them over so that they lie firmly on the plate. Cut off the "caps". Take out the pulp with a teaspoon (it can be frozen for making soups or tomato sauce). The molds are ready.

To prepare the filling, you can use both hard (classic recipe) and soft cheese (ricotta, feta, feta cheese, suluguni). Focus on what your child loves best. Grate the cheese and mix with mayonnaise.

Fill heaped tomato "molds" with cheese filling. Cover the tomatoes with lids. Draw "beards" for Santa Clauses with mayonnaise and make faces for them: black pepper peas are suitable as eyes, and a pea of ​​red pepper for the mouth (you can use a pomegranate seed).

Cheese Snowmen

You can invite funny cheese snowmen to the company of Santa Clauses for the festive table. Children will also like them very much and will take very little of your time. For their preparation, they usually use processed cheese with mayonnaise, but if the dish is designed for little gourmets, then it is better to take feta cheese and fill it with sour cream. Again, be sure to warn the children to remove the eyes from the pepper before eating.

Ingredients:

• 200 g feta
• 3-4 tbsp. sour cream spoons
• 12 cherry tomatoes
• bell peppers of different colors for decoration
• boiled carrots for decoration
• cloves or peppercorns, cumin for decoration

Cooking method:

Mash the feta with a fork and mix with sour cream until a homogeneous plastic mass. Roll 12 balls with cherry tomatoes inside with wet hands. Roll the same number of smaller balls without filling. Put the balls with tomatoes on a dish, place the balls without filling on top. Cut off the tips of the bell peppers and attach them to the top of the snowmen in the form of hats. Cut buttons and noses from boiled carrots. Cloves or peppers will become eyes, and mouths can be neatly laid out of cumin.

Tiger roll with red fish

Children will like this roll for its bright and unusual appearance. And besides, with its help it is possible to introduce a child to a red fish for the first time (as a rule, not all children “enter” the child the first time and in an independent form). Just remember that this product is not recommended for children under three years of age.

Ingredients:

• 150 g red fish
• 3-4 carrots
• 3 potatoes
• 3 eggs
• homemade mayonnaise
• greenery
• nori leaf for decoration

Cooking method:

Boil carrots, potatoes and eggs, sue and grate. Chop the greens, cut the fish into thin strips. Prepare a pastry bag for mayonnaise (you can take a plastic bag and cut off a corner).

Spread cling film and lay out in layers: carrots (salt), mayonnaise, potatoes (salt) mayonnaise, eggs (salt), mayonnaise, red fish, greens. Roll the piece into a roll and put it in the refrigerator for several hours.

For strips, cut nori into thin strips. It is good if they are uneven, like the stripes on the skin of a tiger. Place the strips on the roll in any order before serving.

Marshmallow snowmen

Well, where in the new year without desserts. While Santa Claus brings a beautifully wrapped shop gift under the Christmas tree, you can pamper the kids with original treats prepared with your own hands. It is unlikely that on the eve of the holidays you will be up to complicated baking, so it is better to stock up on marshmallows and make such funny sweet snowmen based on them.

Ingredients:

• marshmallow white
• wooden skewers
• food coloring and / or chocolate for decoration
• small ribbons

Cooking method:

String three marshmallows on skewers. Melt chocolate or stir in food coloring. With a toothpick, carefully draw the snowmen's nose, eyes, mouth and buttons. You can also paint your hands with icing or dye, or you can insert pieces of ordinary sweet straw instead. For decoration, you can tie ribbons in the form of scarves to snowmen. The main thing is that the children “strip” the snowmen before eating them.

Marshmallow deer

You will have to tinker a little more time to make such interesting deer from marshmallows. But believe me, the result is worth it. Children will really like them externally, and the combination of marshmallows with chocolate will make this delicacy the most demanded dessert on New Year's Eve.

Ingredients:

• marshmallows
• milk and white chocolate bar
• candy M & M`s
• cookie pretzels
• wooden skewers

Cooking method:

For the eyes: melt white chocolate in a water bath, transfer to a pastry bag or cellophane bag, cut off a corner and squeeze the chocolate into a circle onto parchment. Let dry and put in the refrigerator until the moment when we heat the dark chocolate.

For the horns: Saw the pretzels with a fine-toothed knife.

String the marshmallows onto skewers. Melt milk chocolate in a water bath. Dip the marshmallow in chocolate and insert the blank into the base (made of foam or plasticine). At the same stage, make the pupils on the blanks for the eyes from dark chocolate with a toothpick.

Wait for the chocolate to cool and dry slightly. Stick eyes and noses (M & M`s candies), insert horns.

You will also be interested in reading:

New Year's table: 7 best meat salads for the Tiger

New Year's table: 8 recipes for festive lean dishes