Hokey Pokey Ice Cream:

NOTE: Hokey Pokey is the New Zealand term for honeycomb toffee.

We can't buy Hokey Pokey ice cream here in Canada but we made our own variation. Simply remove vanilla ice cream from the freezer to soften it. While it softens put a metal bowl in the freezer and then chop up pieces of candy bar that has honeycomb toffee in it. The ice cream we ate in New Zealand did not have chocolate in it but for our Canadian version we left it in. Once the ice cream is soft enough to add your honeycomb toffee pieces spoon it into your cold bowl and mix in the pieces. You can either eat it softened like that or refreeze to scoop out.

DESSERTS:

Pavlova

This wasn't as hard to make as I thought it would be. I just needed to let it rest in the oven to cool a bit longer because it cracked easily. It was still delicious. Here's my version of the recipe: New Zealand Pavlova Recipe Printable.

Neenish Tarts:

Speed up this recipe by using store bought pastry tarts and cook them ahead of time.

Filling: Sift 1/2 cup icing sugar into a large bowl and beat in 7 tbsp of softened butter (basicially 1 stick of butter minus 1 tbsp). Then add 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk and 2 tbsp of lemon juice. All this filling to set int eh fridge before filing cooked tart shells.

Icing: Mix 2 cups of icing sugar with 1 tbsp of softened butter and add 1/4 tsp of vanilla. Mix in 1 to 2 tbsp of water until the icing is the desired consistency. Split your icing in two and add 1/2 tbsp of cocoa powder to one half to create chocolate icing. Now ice each tart half white, half chocolate and let them set in the fridge before serving. YUM!

TEA AND GINGERNUT BISCUITS

FOODS

REAL HOKEY POKEY ICE CREAM

New Zealand MUSSELS

HOMEMADE HOKEY POKEY

LUNCH:

Fish n’ Chips is a fast food favourite in New Zealand. You can make your own or visit a restaurant to sample this dish. You can also make a healthier version by baking or pan frying the fish in seasoned breadcrumbs instead of deep frying. Fries can be baked, too, after they’ve been rubbed with olive oil and salt and pepper. The photo featured here was of a meal we ate in New Zealand.

SNACK TIME:
Kiwi Fruit
For the easiest snack to serve for your New Zealand Theme Day serve your children some kiwi fruit! It's probably the only "green" thing my kids LOVE to eat!

You could even have a Kiwi FruitTop Food Challenge to get your kids to try this berry for the first time.

FUN FACT! A Māori hangi (hung-ee) is a method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven.

The Giant Kiwi in Te Puke, New Zealand, the Kiwifruit Capital of the world

KIWIFRUIT

Learn more about these "furry berries" here: kiwi 360

NEENISH TARTS

FISH n' CHIPS

FUN FACT! Ginger Beer and L&P are New Zealand sodas!

New Zealand cuisine is heavily influenced by Britain and Australia, with the Māori bringing some Polynesian influences as well.

PAVLOVA

Meat Pies: This has to be the one thing my hubby misses the most living in North America. It’s so hard to find these here. I’m still searching for a recipe that matches up.

ROAST LAMB

New Zealand

DINNER:

Serve up some roast lamb along with kūmara (sweet potato) for Sunday dinner and you will be giving your family a taste of New Zealand.

Seafood is very popular in New zealand, especially shellfish. mussles

Tea and Cookies
If you don't mind giving your kids a little caffeine, some black tea with milk served with some Gingernut or Anzac Biscuits/Cookies would be perfect for this Theme Day. I made Gingernut cookies for this Theme Day and they were so delicious...definitely a keeper!

MEAT PIES

For a gingernut Biscuit recipe try this yummy one: http://www.foodlovers.co.nz/recipes/gingernut-biscuits.html