Fruit kebabs & Strawberry, apple and almond crumble!

Last week was half-term and therefore a week off school for my son. When I was offered a half-term SOS pack from Viva Strawberries, I gladly accepted and was keen to try their strawberries that are a variety akin to the British strawberry, grown in Spain and Morocco.

We received a lovely box of goodies, that in addition to the strawberries, included some grapes, a mango, an orange, some skewers, straws, a small bottle of wine and even a fun food-related game and some stickers for my children. We were most grateful!

With the fruit and the skewers, I decided fruit kebabs made the perfect excuse to let my five year-old practise some knife skills with one of my proper cutting knives. While he carefully cut off the ends of the strawberries and halved them, then diced the mango, my two year-old pulled off grapes from their stalks - great team work! They had fun putting the pieces of fruit onto the skewers and of course, even more fun getting to eat the fruit kebabs!

It goes without saying, these make a healthy, tasty snack or dessert and are something that can be made almost year round with whatever fruit is in season.

Strawberry, apple & almond crumble

I had saved some of the strawberries and was wondering what to make with them. Some of the typical desserts I might make with strawberries seemed too summery for February so I opted for a crumble. I found a Nigella Lawson recipe for strawberry and almond crumble that I adapted. I threw in some apples as we had plenty lying around. I reduced the sugar considerably, as I knew the fruit was quite sweet already and we prefer our crumbles less sweet than some. I also reduced the amount of flaked almonds in the topping. Here are my ingredients:

Filling:

500g strawberries & apple, sliced
25g ground almonds
4 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
110g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
75g cold butter, diced
75g flaked almonds
75g demerara sugar

For the method and a pretty picture (as mine were not blog-worthy!), I will refer you to Nigella's recipe online.

Read more about Viva Stawberries and find lots of inspiring strawberry recipes to try from their website. 
Disclosure: We were sent a box containing the items described above, but with no obligation to blog about them.

I'm linking up our fruit kebabs with Kids in the Kitchen over at Raisie Bay.