The BEST ever healthy dips in jam jars for kids snacks, picnics or BBQ's

It's mid way through the school holidays and my kids are eating me out of house and home!! They seem to be hungry every 10 minutes and as soon as I've finished up with breakfast (which is a little later than the usual school mornings), they're asking me for morning tea!!

It's so hard to make sure that they're eating healthy snacks all the time and it's so disheartening when you bake up a lovely batch of cookie's and they're gone in a half a day!!  The holidays are TWO WEEKS!!

I discovered that dips were the answer!!  Don't get me wrong, I've still had to bake several batches of cookies and several banana bread loaves, but dips seems to fill in the gaps perfectly - and they're healthy.  I just left them in the fridge with some chopped up veg and a tin of crackers, and they just helped themselves when they were hungry.  Well Master J has been helping the girls, relieving me of the constant sound of "Muuuuuuuuuuum I'm hungry!"

I'm a bit of a jar collector and so putting my dips into jam jars seemed the perfect thing to do. They look so cute and they're awesome to take out and about if you're heading to the park or the beach or even a BBQ.

I got my recipes from the Thermomix Every day Cookbook, but I have adapted them all slightly to suit us.  I did use my thermomix to make these but don't worry if you don't have one, all you need is a good blender or food processor.

TUNA DIP (an absolute favourite in our house)
you will need:

• 30g or a small handful of nuts (I use either almonds or walnuts)
• A  large tsp of vegetable stock or a few sprigs of parsley
• 60g Mayonnaise (not salad cream) I use Helmans Light
• 1 block (250g) cream cheese
• 1 180g tin of tuna
• salt and pepper to taste

Throw the nuts and parsley (if using it) into the thermomix and whizz for about 5 seconds on speed 7, until they are crushed, but not quite to a fine powder.  Scrape down the sides and add everything else.  Whizz on speed 5 for 15 seconds, then scrape down the sides and repeat.

SUN DRIED TOMATO & CASHEW DIP

You will need:

• 100g sun dried tomatoes
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 50g cashew nuts
• pinch of sugar
• 1 block (250g) cream cheese 

Add everything except the cream cheese to the thermomix and whizz for 15-20 seconds on speed 8.  Scrape down the sides and add the cream cheese.  Whizz for 20 seconds on speed 4-5, then scrape down the sides and repeat.

HOMMUS

You will need:

• 400g tin of chick peas
• 1 fresh lemon
• 2 tbs Tahini
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs cumin powder
• salt and pepper to taste

Add everything to the thermomix except the lemon.  Close the lid and squeeze the lemon over the top so that the juice drips in without the pips falling in.  Then whizz for 1 minute on speed 4.  I sometimes whizz mine a little longer as my kids like a smoother consistency.  For a courser consistency maybe only whizz for 20-30 seconds.

Pop them all into pretty jars and they're ready to be eaten.  You can store them in the fridge for a few days but don't quote me on how many - mine never last more than 2 or 3 before they're eaten.

If you've got any great dip recipes I'd love to hear them.

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