crusts and everything

Being the season of goodwill, I thought it was time I gave something back to all you Funky Lunch followers. So here is one of my favourite sandwiches from my book, the Reindeer. The best bit about this sandwich is the use of toasted bread for the antlers, it gives a nice dark texture and works well.

Ingredients
brown bread
sandwich filling
cherry tomato
cheese
black grapes
cucumber

How to make it:

Everything we do starts with a template, so click the image on the right to download our template for this sandwich.

1. Make your sandwich using your favourite filling and two slices of bread, and then cut out the head shape.
2. From a third slice of bread, cut out a letter ‘B’ shape and place on its side at the bottom end of the head, place a small slice of cucumber skin in between for the mouth. Cut two petal shapes from the leftover bread to make his ears and then two smaller-sized petals from the crust part of the bread for the inner ear detail.
3. To make the antlers, toast another slice of bread and then cut out two jagged shapes and position at the top of the head.
4. Create two eyes from circles of cheese and place half a black grape on each one.
5. Finish off your reindeer with a trademark red nose, made from a cherry tomato.

Top tip 1
Instead of a big juicy tomato nose, try a radish or a circular cut of red pepper.

Top tip 2
Be daring! Try black olives for the eyes instead of grapes.

Now all that is left is to take a photo, email it to me at munch@funkylunch.com and I’ll add them to the bottom of this page.

Enjoy!!

It seems the success of award winning business Funky Lunch is rubbing off on local youth football team Rustington Otters. Only weeks after Funky Lunch began sponsoring the Sussex based team they’ve raised their game and even beaten the current league leaders in a recent match.

“Despite Funky Lunch becoming a global brand, with the Funky Lunch Cookbook appearing in the media across the world, the heart and soul of the business is engaging with kids on our Creative Food Workshops in schools,” explained Funky Lunch founder, Mark Northeast. “Sponsoring the Otters was a natural extension of our message that being healthy is as much about having fun as anything else.”

Funky Lunch Creative Food Workshops offer a curriculum based day of exploring new healthy foods before designing and then creating a unique Funky Lunch sandwich. The workshops are designed for Key stages 1 and 2 and can either be run by the Funky Lunch team or by a school’s own teachers using the Funky Lunch Creative Food Workshop Pack that includes everything bar the ingredients.

A follow up to the award winning Funky Lunch Cookbook is set for release in 2012 along with plans for a unique birthday party service. “We regularly get requests to do Funky Lunch parties so are planning to offer this to a wider audience,” explained Mr Northeast.

We ran a poll recently on our Facebook page to find out which was the most popular template that people wanted to try out next, and it was no surprise to find Hello Kitty came out on top. This sandwich design got a lot of interest from children and parents around the world and so we thought we would show you how to make it.

Ingredients:
2 slices of bread
sandwich filling
slice of ham
cheese
tomato
cucumber

How to make it:

Everything we do starts with a template, so click the image on the right to download our template for this sandwich.

1. Make your sandwich using 2 slices of bread and your favourite filling and then cut the outline shape of the head using our template as a guide.
2. Using a vegetable peeler, remove some strips of cucumber skin and then cut these into 6 large matchstick size pieces for the whiskers.
3. Using a small circular cutter and some more cucumber skin, cut out two eyes and a nose. Cut a slightly smaller size shape nose from cheese and place it on top of the cucumber nose so has an edge around it.
4. To make the bow, cut a slice of ham into the bow shape on our template and then  cut some thin slices of tomato skin into strips to use around the edge of the bow.
5. Finish off with a circle of tomato skin in the centre of the bow.

Now all that is left is to take a photo, email it to me at munch@funkylunch.com and I’ll add them to the bottom of this page.

Enjoy!!

Your photos…

This one was sent in by Gabriela Früh

As the much anticipated (well in our house anyway) sequel to Cars hits the big screen this week, I thought I’d give you a guide on how to make the Mater sandwich that was a big hit with my son and has gained a lot of interest around the world with many people asking how to make it. This is also a great way of getting children to eat wholemeal/wholegrain/brown bread as Mater is a rusty brown coloured truck and so the colours work perfectly.

Ingredients:
3 slices of wholemeal bread
1 crust of wholemeal bread
sandwich filling
cheese
cucumber

How to make it:

The best way to start this sandwich is by making a template on paper or card. Click the image on the right to download our template for Mater.

1. This sandwich is made of different layers so the first thing to do is to make your sandwich using your favourite filling and then cut out the outline shape of Mater excluding the wing mirrors and wheels.
2. Next, get a single slice of bread and cut out the front which includes the mouth and headlight areas. Remove an area of this bread for the mouth and press down a couple of circles with your finger for the headlights. Fill only one of these headlight areas with a small circle of cucumber flesh.
3. Before fixing this third slice on top of your sandwich, remove some thin slices of dark green cucumber skin and put it on top of the sandwich where the mouth hole will be so it shows through. Finish the mouth with a couple of rectangles of cheese for Mater’s big goofy teeth!
4. To make the face area, take the crust of bread and using the template, cut out the edge around the windscreen/eyes area. Put this in place and finish off by cutting a big rectangle of cheese for the windscreen and two small eyes from cucumber flesh and skin.
5. Using the leftover bits of bread and crust you should be able to make the wing mirrors, engine, bumper and wheels.

Now all that is left is to take a photo, email it to me at munch@funkylunch.com and I’ll add them to the bottom of this page.

Enjoy!!

Your photos:

This great photo was sent in by Amanda from NY state, USA who made it for her 3 year old son Nathan.

This next one is from Amy Payne

Angela Flowers sent this one in

This Mater sandwich was made by Melissa Smith

This next one was from Yvonne Dzurik from Cleveland, OH

Monica Miller’s son loved her Mater sandwich

I’m not quite sure how the last update of 2010 can follow on from such and amazing start and middle to the year, but here goes…

September meant ‘Back to school’ and as such I started to get some more enquiries to hold Funky Lunch School Days in the first few weeks. The schools were mostly local ones who had heard about me through either my children’s school or from the local press and so I held a couple of days in September and a couple in October. Because school sizes vary I found I had to quickly adapt my days to cater for the number of children present and in some cases there was more than one year group involved.

Each Funky Lunch day was a success with some great feedback coming from the teachers and pupils. The good news that arrived at the end of September was that the book was now available in the United States and was being stocked and shipped by Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Borders to name but a few.

At the beginning of October I received an email from a school interested in holding a Funky Lunch day at their school… the whole school… all 168 children! After picking myself up from the floor, I set about arranging what turned out to be three and a half amazing days in Herefordshire.

Immediately made to feel welcome, I went about the first day with Years 1and 2 in the normal routine with tasting, designing and making. On day two, I decided to up the skill level for Years 3 and 4 and we started to create more 3 dimensional shapes with our sandwich creations. Nearing the end of day two the head teacher approached me with an idea, “Tomorrow,” he said, “if you want to completely change things around and try something new, then do it!” “The children will work with any challenge you want to set them, but as it’s Year 5 and 6, try and make it even more testing.”

Now normally I would jump at the chance to mix things up if I had a little bit of notice and the comfort of my own kitchen/office to plan these ideas out, but being given just a few hours before the shops closed, and only a guest house bedroom to use as my office, I felt that a daunting task lay ahead. Which was probably why I was sat in the supermarket car park for about 30 minutes scribbling ideas on a piece of paper before dashing inside and getting what I needed.

I stayed up until gone 1am that night typing up new worksheets for the children to use in what I hoped would be a great challenge for them. The more I thought about it, the more I had a feeling they would make it work and come the following day, I was not disappointed. Split into 10 teams of about 6 students, each team carried out the tasks required, and even suggested that we change something half way through the day to make it even better. The feedback from pupils and teachers was a resounding success and from that point on, I knew I could run Funky Lunch Days across the whole Primary Years, challenging them and testing their skills levels at every opportunity.

It was also during November, I found out that I had been nominated in the Arun Business Partnership Awards, a business networking group that encourages local companies to work together. I attended on the night and was extremely amazed to pick up New Business of the Year 2010. The icing on the cake I thought to a pretty crazy year, but little did I know, December had one more treat up its sleeve for me.

Sat in the office on Wednesday 15^th December an email landed in my inbox which took me by surprise… “Congratulations!” it said, “You have won the Best UK Children & Family Cookbook Award”. Slightly shell shocked by this I contacted my publishers who informed me that yes, indeed I had won, and now my Funky Lunch book would go head-to-head with winners from other countries around the globe for the chance to win Best in World in that category.

So as it stands, on March 3^rd 2011, Funky Lunch will be representing the UK in Paris at the Gourmand World Book Awards… keep your fingers crossed for me!

Now there you have it, better late than never, an amazing year in review for Funky Lunch in 2010. 2011 is well under way and I’ve hit the ground running, as this year will see the expansion of our school days to other parts of the country, in a way that is affordable for school budgets. Also on the menu this year will be birthday parties and birthday kits, but more on that to follow in the coming weeks.

For now I shall close this hat-trick of posts by offering my sincere thanks to everybody who made 2010 so great, from the facebook and twitter followers, the families who bought my book, to my friends, family and more importantly my publishers. I hope you all stick around in 2011, because things will only get bigger and better for Funky Lunch, helping children to enjoy healthy food and encouraging them to try something new.

Thank you.

The second instalment of the Funky Lunch Year in Review begins in May 2010, when after a quiet April, it was all hands on deck to get the book finished and off to the printers. As I mentioned in the first post, writing is not something that comes naturally to me and so I was surprised and relieved when I managed to put down on paper the entire book introduction in one sitting. As the deadline got nearer, I was receiving versions of the book by email almost every day, with little tweaks made here and there.

So after 27 days of emails going back and forth between myself and my publisher it finally arrived. Friday 28th May 2010 I was sat at home waiting for the postman, a wait that seemed to take forever… a wait that had me pacing the kitchen… a wait that lasted until almost lunchtime… and then the doorbell went. The postman seemed a bit bemused by my eagerness to grab the package, sign his delivery card and send him on his way. I closed the door, and sat looking at the package for what seemed like an hour but can only have been a few minutes, not wanting to open it through fear of ripping or scratching it.

I shouldn’t have worried about damaging the book when I finally plucked up the courage and tore into it, as it had been carefully cocooned in enough bubble wrap to cradle a newborn. To say I was overjoyed at how it turned out was an understatement, every gentle turn of a page brought another, even bigger smile to my face. It wasn’t like it was the first time I had seen it, I had been looking at paper versions of each page on a daily basis for a couple of weeks, but to see each one bound together so perfectly, so crisp and so shiny… it really was a special moment. And of course, being the textbook proud father, I took it up the school playground that afternoon to have it cooed over by anybody who wanted to have a look.

The end of May 2010 was also the start of another chapter in the life of Funky Lunch; an opportunity had presented itself that could not be turned down. I was asked by my daughters Year 2 teacher if I would like to come in and talk to the children for 30 minutes about Funky Lunch and the success it was having. Instead of a simple 30 minute chat, I asked the teacher if I could come into school for the whole day and teach the Year 2 students, all 60 of them, about Funky Lunch.

I sat down that night and devised a schedule for the day to include tasting, designing and making, I sought the approval from the teachers and once I had their confirmation, the Funky Lunch School Day was born. Having helped out on a few occasions with my daughters’ class, I felt confident that I knew at least 50% of my audience and so when the day came to stand in front of sixty little faces and talk about getting creative with food, it went like a dream. The feedback from the teachers, parents and pupils confirmed it was a great success.

Skipping in to June and the book went on sale at Amazon, Waterstones, and most other book retailers large and small. I went into my local book shop and asked if they were able to stock it and two days later while walking past the shop, there it was in the window for all to see. A very surreal moment indeed. The initial print run of 7,500 went in the first 4 weeks thanks to a big order from The Book People and feedback from playground purchases (my target audience) were very positive.

During June, my Mother clipped an article out of a Sunday paper and gave it to me. It was about a competition being run by Peter Jones of BBC’s Dragons Den and gave start-ups the chance to pitch an idea to a panel of judges including Peter, with the hope of winning a cash injection for the business and some business advice from a panel of business experts. With only a day or two to spare I typed up my online application form and submitted it along with some supporting photos and a video my sister-in-law had created for me.

The day of the shortlist announcement came and went and so I carried on as normal assuming that I had been unsuccessful on this occasion. Little did I know that due to the overwhelming number of entries (around 2,500), they had delayed the announcement. When the email dropped in my inbox saying I had been shortlisted as one of six finalists to pitch to Peter Jones, a mixture of emotions washed over me, the first was the amazement that my entry had got through, the second and more powerful emotion… was fear! In 10 days time I would have to stand in front of Peter Jones and a panel of six other judges and pitch my ideas for Funky Lunch to them!! I had a lot of practising to do. The next few days became a blur and I only really remember the final days before the pitch, walking around the house and talking out loud to myself and my invisible audience. It’s easy to convince yourself you have a great idea, the hardest part is getting somebody else to believe in you.

On the morning of Thursday 22nd July I set off for London at about 05.30 with the aim of getting there in plenty of time. The other five finalists and I had time to chat before we were each called up one at a time to pitch to the panel. I was fourth on the list and so was able to gauge the reaction of how the others felt they did and the response they received during questioning. The format was to pitch for up to 10 minutes and then receive 10 minutes of questions from the panel. I remember waiting outside the room ready to go in and feeling the most nervous I have ever felt. The door opened… it was time.

I can only remember snapshots of the next twenty minutes… there were about 25 people in the room (judging panel and invited guests); the judges sat on two tables either side of the room forcing me to continually turn between them; I used my prompt cards more than I wanted to; the questions came thick and fast from both sides and even from the audience; Peter Jones is an exceptionally sharp-eyed businessman. Then before I knew it, it was time to stop, no more questions from the panel and no more answers from me. I had done it, I was inwardly hyperventilating, but I had done it!

While the judges were deciding their winner, we all stood in the bar chatting and recounting our stories of tricky questions, stupid answers, mind blanks and fumbled words. Sitting down to lunch and waiting for the winner to be announced was another one of those surreal moments suspended in time… had I really just pitched an idea about sandwiches to Peter Jones? I can now honestly say that I know what those X-Factor / American Idol contestants go through while waiting for a name to be said, time does seem to slow down.

When Peter Jones finally said the words “and the winner of the Enterprise Business Challenge 2010 is Funky Lunch” I was waiting for somebody to kick me under the table as I’m sure I didn’t respond immediately… I was gobsmacked, delighted, over-the-moon… use all the expressions you can think of, I was experiencing them. The lunch that followed was a bit of a blur and driving home I spent the entire journey laughing out loud to myself at what I had achieved. I wanted to tell so many people, but because The Mail on Sunday had an exclusive on announcing the winner I had to keep it under my hat for the next 60ish hours until Sunday morning. I was allowed to tell my family and friends on Facebook, but definitely not use Twitter or my public Facebook group. This truly was one of the maddest days ever!

August had no chance of competing with anything the other months had managed to achieve and so luckily a family holiday and a chance to relax and reflect on the first half of the year were in order.

The only other notable thing during August was that after a little collaboration with children’s publisher Orchard Books, I was sent some rather cute promotional recipe cards for a character, Sunny McCloud, who I had immortalised in sandwich form. They were to help promote the new book ‘Scrummy’ and it gave me the chance to try my hand at known character sandwiches rather than just generic ideas.

So that was the middle part of the 2010, I hope you’re still reading this far down the page and that you keep an eye out for the third and final chapter of last year, when we taught even more young minds about Funky Lunch, and finished on a very special high note.

What better way to end an amazing year for Funky Lunch, than by telling you all about it. So in the next three posts (over a couple of days) I shall aim to include everything that Funky Lunch has been up to and achieved in the past 12 months.

2010 started with a lot of excitement and much to look forward to, during 2009 I had secured a deal to publish Funky Lunch as a book and during the closing weeks of 2009 I had begun writing the content and deciding what sandwich ideas to put in it. But before I could throw myself fully into completing the content I had the small matter of a television appearance to deal with!

BBC’s Blue Peter, the world’s longest running children’s television show had invited me on to talk about my funky lunch designs and to demonstrate how it was done. As part of the show I was asked if I could make a number of other well known characters that the viewers would recognise and so early in January I had to perfect these sandwich ideas including the three presenters Helen, Andy and Joel.

The day befor e we were due to film the pre-recorded show, I travelled to London armed with enough ingredients to feed the whole crew and spent the entire day making enough versions of each sandwich to be used in case filming didn’t go well and we had to do it again. On the morning of the filming it was an early start and after completely messing up what I had to say while sat practising in make-up, I stepped on set and thankfully delivered my lines perfectly during rehearsals and the actual recording. It was a great experience to be a part of such an iconic show and to see just how much effort goes in to putting together 30 minutes of television. I remember on the day the programme aired being sat round my parents house hiding behind a cushion not wanting to watch it.

Still recovering from my third television appearance (2009 saw Funky Lunch on TV in the UK and Canada), I was even more shocked when in early February I received an email from a representative from German TV channel RTL asking if he could come to my home and film a piece about Funky Lunch to show on their daytime magazine show Punkt 12.

On the day of filming, a camera man and interviewer arrived and set up camp for four hours of filming which involved talking about Funky Lunch, making a couple of sandwich ideas and also interviewing my two children Izzy and Oscar and capturing them enjoying a Space Rocket and Caterpillar sandwich.

Not content with the footage they had already captured, we all jumped in the car and headed into town, to film a sequence of us walking into a greengrocer and buying some fresh ingredients. Suffice to say the locals looked on with bewilderment at a man with a huge camera on his shoulder filming a family buying a couple of cucumbers and a bag of carrots. Much to my wife’s relief they cut the shopping scene from the final edit, but the response on the day it was shown in Germany was unbelievable… In the 12 hours between noon and midnight that day, I had over 500 new facebook group members and over 3,500 visits to the Funky Lunch website.

Click the following link for the RTL Punkt 12 video footage.

As we rolled into March, I knew I had to put these exciting filming events behind me and concentrate on finishing the book.

Having completed 90% of the written content, it was now time to focus on getting the photos perfect. Matt Inwood, Art Director at my publishers Absolute Press called to arrange a time to visit and work on some shots, so having stocked up with enough ingredients to keep us going, I set about creating the edible works of art that can be seen in the book today. The first day of photos was a long one and at the end of it I think we had only completed about 12 sandwiches, such was our attention to detail and pursuit of perfection. Matt had come carrying an array of plates, trays, paper and props to give each sandwich that extra special lift and a few days later I loaded them back in the car and headed down to his house for another day of sandwich creation.

It took four days in total to photograph all of the sandwiches and at times this included standing halfway out the kitchen door holding an umbrella over Matt as he tried to grab the last strands of light streaming into the room due to the poor weather that hampered our efforts to complete the s