Australian,  Christmas,  Savoury,  Snack

Homemade Christmas Food Gifts

Grandma’s “not-so-secret now” family recipe, lovingly made by my mother every year, is one of my favourite homemade Christmas Food Gifts.

It’s often joyfully bestowed upon friends and family and devoured enthusiastically in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Leftovers are a welcome snack into the new year, but then it disappears for a few months until some celebration or special guest encourages another batch to be made!

If you are using MacroFactor, this recipe has been prepared for easy import by following this link from your mobile device. A serving has been set to 1g for convenience, but a small handful is roughly 20g.

Christmas is an excellent time to get into the kitchen and try something new to share with your loved ones, and I fully encourage you to give it a go. There is nothing greater than the gift of thought & time at Christmas, especially for hard-to-buy-for friends and family. Food gifts are often a great choice, because it’s completely individualized, unlikely to be wasted and shows appreciation and care for the recipient.

This Recipe makes 3x 800ml Glass Jars

Info & Tips

  • Choose a recipe that fits with your delivery schedule. The optimal shelf life for muffins is only a few days. Baked goods with a longer shelf life include hard or iced gingerbread cookies. Alcohol preserved fruit cake will have the longest shelf life possible.
  • Glass Jars are a great way of storing and presenting a number of treat recipes, such as rum balls, nuts&bolts and sugar dusted spice biscuits. These are most suitable for in-person gifting.
  • Plastic containers and bubble wrap are more suitable for postage. Some crumpled baking paper may also assist in padding the inside of plastic containers to avoid breakages in transit.
  • There must be enough cushioning around the item to ensure it is secure. This also ensures your pacakge doesn’t can’t cause injury to shipping & handling staff or damage to their equipment and other mail.
  • Ensure that in the normal course of carriage they will arrive in time to be usable

Australia post has the following requirements for shipping perishables:

  • Wrap items in a sealed plastic bag and place suitable padding around it. Use shredded paper, biodegradable foam beads or a recycled paper pulp product. Choose suitable fill based on the product’s size, shape and substance.
  • Put this in a sturdy cardboard mailing box lined with absorbent material
  • Enclose the address and return address inside the mailing box.
  • Close with heavy-duty packing tape and address correctly
  • Write the word ‘PERISHABLE’ on the top and on one side of the box

Note: Some countries do not accept perishable foodstuffs via International Post – Refer to auspost.com.au/international


Nuts & Bolts

Prep Time10 minsCook Time5 mins

Yields1 ServingDifficultyBeginnerCategorySnack

 290 g Kellogg's Nutri-Grain cereal
 375 g Salted Mixed Nuts
 1 Packet Cream of Chicken Soup Mix
 1 Packet French Onion Soup Mix
 ½ cup Olive Oil, or other neutral flavoured oil.

1

Measure Out Nuts & Cereal into a large Mixing Bowl or 5L Stockpot

2

Sprinkle over powdered soup mixes.

3

Heat Olive Oil in a small saucepan and pour over the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly to combine and ensure there are no powdery bits left and no nuts or cereal left uncoated.

4

Allow to cool slightly then fill 3x 800ml Glass Jars. Leave the jars with the lid off until you're sure the ingredients have cooled.

5

Seal tightly and either store or gift. If keeping for yourself, serve in festive snack bowls!

Ingredients

 290 g Kellogg's Nutri-Grain cereal
 375 g Salted Mixed Nuts
 1 Packet Cream of Chicken Soup Mix
 1 Packet French Onion Soup Mix
 ½ cup Olive Oil, or other neutral flavoured oil.

Directions

1

Measure Out Nuts & Cereal into a large Mixing Bowl or 5L Stockpot

2

Sprinkle over powdered soup mixes.

3

Heat Olive Oil in a small saucepan and pour over the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly to combine and ensure there are no powdery bits left and no nuts or cereal left uncoated.

4

Allow to cool slightly then fill 3x 800ml Glass Jars. Leave the jars with the lid off until you're sure the ingredients have cooled.

5

Seal tightly and either store or gift. If keeping for yourself, serve in festive snack bowls!

Notes

Nuts & Bolts

Recipe Notes

How Hot does the Oil have to be?

Not so hot that it’s smoking, but hot enough that it sizzles when you pour over the dry ingredients

Can I use non-branded Cereal?

You can substitute home-brand Nutrigrain – such as Mighty Grain, Power Grain, Max Charge, Etc. However the best and most consistent results are using the original brand.

Can I substitute ingredients?

You can play with the ratios and include unsalted pretzels, other roasted nut varieties or even include dried fruit if you wish. Dried fruit will decrease the shelf life of the mixture though – just depends on personal preference. I would not reccomend adding chocolate or other sweet mix ins though, as it’s not that kind of trail mix recipe.



Free Tags & Labels!

Great For Homemade Christmas Food Gifts

If you need a quick gift label for your DIY treats, you can save or print the images below.

I’ve also grouped tags and labels together as a downloadable PDF.

The Round label PDFs are compatible with Avery L7105 Inkjet Round Labels if you want quick stickers.


Key Ingredients

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