Christmas Canapés

Christmas Day in our house is rather a small, intimate affair. Its just the 4 of us for dinner, passing the turkey around the table and telling each other the silly jokes from the crackers. However in the evening, my aunty, uncle, cousins and grandparents come over, and in true Christmas spirit we eat more food, this time in buffet form.

I'm not going to lie, usually its curtsey of some Asda/ Tesco/ Iceland party food selection pack- hey, Christmas dinner was stressful enough, whatever is easiest! Yet, I found myself this week with some spare time, so I decided to have a practice round of some very easy, but oh so delicious Christmas Canapés.

What makes these deadly simple, that even a over stuffed Redhead could rustle up? Oatcakes! A few key, and get this, pretty healthy ingredients, and you've got yourself some impressive looking canapés. I adapted a few recipes from the Nairn's website to woo mine and now your guests with into food coma submission.

Honey and Grated Apple Topping (Adapted from Nairn's ambassador Lady Claire Macdonald)

You will need:

2 apples
2 tablespoons runny honey
1 tsp dried cinnamon.
50g Almonds
Rough Milled Nairn's Oatcakes

Roughly chop the apples and almonds into a bowl.

Add the honey and cinnamon and mix well.

Divide evenly between each oatcake.

Drizzle with more honey if your feeling naughty.

Mashed Bananas and Dried Cranberries (Adapted from Nairn's ambassador Lady Claire Macdonald)

You will need:

2 bananas
75g dried cranberries
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
Rough Milled Nairn's Oatcakes

Slice your bananas into a bowl, then with a fork, mash the banana slices into one soft mass, and mix in the dried cranberries and add in the nutmeg.

Again, top evenly between the 4 oatcakes.

Christmas Chutney with Goats cheese (Adapted from 'Nairn's ambassador and nutritionist' Christine Bailey)

You will need (for round 30 oatcakes):

2 apples
1 red onion
300ml apple cider vinegar
150g dried cranberries
50g Chopped Almonds
150g Spinich
150g brown sugar
60g crystallised stem ginger, finely chopped
½ tsp. allspice
1 tsp. Cinnamon
½ tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp. salt
Rough Milled Nairn's Oatcakes
Goats cheese to serve

First core and dice the apples and chop the onion, then place in a large pan with vinegar.

Cook gently for around 10 minutes until the apples begin to soften.

Then stir in the rest of the ingredients and cook gently for a further 30 minutes until a nice traditional relicious consistancy.

Spoon into a jar of container to allow to cool.

Once cooled, top onto your oat cakes, and roughly break off small chunks of cheese and add on top.

As easy as (Christmas) pie, you can feed your guests something light post Christmas Dinner in a matter of minutes. Or these would even make a great boxing day lunch if you didn't fancy everything covered in turkey leftovers.

Whatever you are doing Christmas food wise this year, if these is one thing I would say is make it as easy as possible, so you can spend less time hot and bothered in the Kitchen and more time with your loved ones. Merry Christmas everyone!