Toddler Food Series

I'm so excited to share this post with you. I have been working on it for an insanely long time. I don't know about you but I am always looking for fun new foods and ways to feed Maggie. Fortunately she has always been an awesome eater. From the time she was 6 months she was wanting to eat whatever we were having. After a couple of months I realized I could use it to my advantage and I started making my own baby food. I would combine things like Carrots, Sweet Potatoes and Apple Sauce or Green beans with Avocado. I also loved it because I could play with around spices for flavoring and cut back on the sodium. It broadened her tastes so much. I can't say that I know too many almost 15 month old who's favorite food is anything Mexican because she loves spicy things. Now she pretty much eats whatever we are eating for dinner, and breakfast and lunches we get to be creative. 

She is getting to the stage where eating needs to be more fun, and not so much a chore. I have loved playing up her serving trays and giving her varieties of things to choose from. These are some of my favorites that we have purchased and want to purchase. 

 

1. Plastic Deviled Egg Tray

2. Landscape Dinner Plate

3. Start to Finish Plate

4. Ice Cube Trays

To give you an idea of what some of our meals look like. Breakfast I always try to include carbs or protein and lots of fruit. Some of our favorites are scrambled or hard boiled egg, eggo/ english muffin with cream cheese. Lunch always has a protein, veggie, fruit and some sort of treat like a fruit snack, or a handful of marshmallows. Dinner is almost always what we eat. Main dish, fruit, veggie, carb. I will be completely honest and tell you I am not a mom who focuses on non-processed, all organic foods. I do my best to make sure my child eats healthy, but when I'm in a bind, TV dinners and boxed Mac n' Cheese are lifesavers. 

1. Ham, Crackers, tortillas, cheese, raisins, marshmallows, pears, cheese puffs, peaches, flavored puffs. 

2. Blueberries, peaches, diced roast beef, turkey stuffing, dinner roll. 

3. Bow-tie Pasta with meat sauce, halved grapes and fruit smoothie. 

4. Mini pancakes, peanut butter, bananas, raisins, marshmallows, blueberries. 

 

5. Italian Chicken, corn, fettuccine noodles, cheddar biscuit.

6. Chicken and cheese quesadilla, guacamole, chicken rice and bananas.

7. English Muffin with strawberry cream ch., bananas, blueberries

8. Meatballs, butternut squash with cinnamon, and blueberries. 

9. Tortellini tossed with panko bread crumbs, hard boiled egg and kiwi.

10. Crockpot Italian Chicken, egg noodles, green beans and watermelon. 

 I hope this gives you all some fun ideas and that feeding time becomes a little more creative in your houses. Please comment and leave me your meal ideas too. I would love to add to our ever growing list of options. 

Wishing you a fabulous weekend. 

Happy Saturday! 

-Kelli

Hump Day

School Starts in less than three weeks and our mornings will no longer be filled with laziness. They will however be filled with many more matching headband days like today. I'm loving making these knotted t-shirt headbands. What I love even more is that Maggie keeps them on. She thinks it's pretty silly when she sees we are wearing the same thing. I think I look pretty silly in this picture period. I tried so hard to get her to take a fun selfie but this was the best I could do. 

Lately we are spending more time upstairs playing in Maggie's room, pulling every stuffed animal and book out of their shelves, and attempting to put on every pair of pants in her dresser. She is all about trying to dress herself lately. I think we are going to be in trouble before too long. 

Wednesdays get even more exciting when packages come. I took advantage of some major JCrew Factory sales and stocked up on some Fall necessities. I am soo looking forward to rocking these with my favorite Boots. I'm so in love with the Jewelry tray. I can finally take my most frequently worn jewelry out of the tupperware container it has been housed in. 

We have had thunderstorm overload this week and I have been loving it. This is what every evening has looked like for the last several days. Doesn't get much better than this. 

Here is the best part. A successful test kitchen run in the middle of the week?....My work here is done. 

This was so easy and delicious, and it looked like I slaved for hours. Triple Win!

Here is what you need:

1 Roll of refrigerated crescent rolls. ( I used generic brand but wished I had used Pillsbury. FYI). 

1/2 a Bag of Frozen Meatballs

1/3 of a Jar of Spaghetti Sauce

1 can of Diced Tomatoes (mine had onions and garlic in them). 

About 1 cup of mixed cheeses. Anything will do really. I used Italian Blend, Parm, and Colby/Mont Jack. 

Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Italian Seasoning, Dried Parsley, and Pepper. 

Baking Stone. I used my Pampered Chef Stoneware Baking Sheet. 

Thaw your Meatballs out in a strainer with some hot water. No need to cook them. 

Roll your Crescent dough out into a rectangle. 

In a bowl, put your meatballs, can of tomatoes and about 1-2 cups of spaghetti sauce. 

Mix together and pour down the center of your crescent dough. 

Sprinkle with Garlic pwdr, Onion Pwdr, Pepper and Cheeses. 

Next take a pizza cutter or a knife and cut the excess crescent dough on a diagonal until you reach the filling. Pull the dough over the top, alternating sides to create a braided look. 

Top with Parsley and Italian Seasoning. 

Bake @ 375* for about 18-22 minutes, until brown and and no longer doughy to the touch. 

Makes about 6 servings. Don't worry, the brown was just the juices that browned onto the stone. It was perfectly flaky, buttery and delicious. 

Happy Hump Day. 

Summer Cupcake Recipe

At our house, Summer means more Zucchini than we know what to do with. It usually results in anonymously leaving it on neighbors porches or my personal favorite....Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcakes. My Mom made these all the time growing up and I could never figure out why Zucchini was in the name, because they certainly don't taste like it. Even Maggie couldn't wait to get her hands on these. Definitely give these little tasties a try this Summer. 

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cupcakes

½ cup butter

 ½ cup oil

1 ¾ cup sugar

Cream butter, oil and sugar together. Add remaining wet ingredients.

2 eggs.

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup sour milk or ½ cup buttermilk

In a separate bowl mix together dry ingredients

 2 ½ cups flour

3 tbsp dry cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

½ tsp salt

Combine wet and dry ingredients, mix together then add zucchini and walnuts. 

2 cups peeled, grated zuchinni

¼ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Coat Muffin Cups with non-stick cooking spray, fill 2/3 full. Sprinkle the tops with Milk Chocolate Chips

Bake at 325* for 45 minutes

Yields approx. 36 cupcakes 

Monkey Butter Recipe

OH EM GEEEEE! 

This stuff is all you need to satisfy that sweet tooth. I saw a recipe for Monkey Butter on Pinterest and decided to try it since it had...oh about 40,000 or so repins. 

It's easy peasy and I may or may not have snuck a few spoonfuls while I was stirring it on the stove. 

I can't wait for Maggie to try this on Eggo Waffles, English Muffins, over Ice Cream etc. In fact I even threw some in a little Mason Jar to give to Grandpa for Father's Day with a loaf of fresh baked bread. So here is what you need. 

5 ripe Bananas ( does everyone sing B-A-N-A-N-A-S while spelling this, or just me)?

3 Cups of Granulated Sugar

1/4 Cup Flaked or Ground Coconut

1 20oz can of Crushed Pineapple with Juice

3 TBSP of Bottled Lemon Juice

Mix everything together in a pot, heat it on the stove until boiling (stirring every minute or so). 

Once boiling, reduce to a simmer until it thickens to desired consistency. I let mine thicken to about what Apple Sauce is. Again stirring regularly. I also used my Potato Masher to mush up my Bananas better. Let it cool in the pot for while before spooning it into their containers. I'm not a Canner, so I just put mine in Tupperware containers and put them in the Freezer. Pull it out and put it in the fridge to thaw when you want it.