Muffins!

Once again, I have a zucchini the size of my arm to use up. It finally cooled down so I decided to do a little baking. I LOVED these muffins. They aren't overly sweet but stay super moist. I found the recipe in the Taste of Home Archives. I made a few changes and substituted strawberry applesauce for regular.

*Justin would not touch these muffins. I took a wooden cake dowel and pushed a hole through the middle (see where I'm going with this?) and told him it was a donut. Well all of the sudden it was a yummy treat and he ate 2 :)


1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup applesauce (I used strawberry)
2 eggs
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon (I used pumpkin pie spice)
1 cup shredded zucchini, water squeezed out (just dump into a big paper towel and squeeeeeze)
2 ripe medium bananas, mashed

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375. Place paper cupcake wrappers in cupcake pan.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, applesauce, eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla.

3. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Make a well in the center and add the wet ingredients. Stir until just blended. Then stir in the grated zucchini and mashed banana.

4. Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean. Let cool about 5-10 minutes, then remove from pan and eat!

Taco Pizza

If I cut anything into uniform pieces and hand Justin a fork, he'll usually at least try it. Still, I was shocked that he seemed to really like Taco pizza! It's SO simple, really yummy and pretty darn healthy!

1/2 of 1 package of Wegmans Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
1 diced red pepper
1 diced vidalia onion
1 20oz package "Jennie-O" seasoned lean ground turkey (Taco flavor)
8oz shredded mild cheddar cheese
1/2-1 cup taco sauce (your preference)
sour cream optional

*Preheat oven to 375.
*In a large skillet, saute turkey with the peppers and onions. Sometimes I'll stir in additional taco seasoning mix, just to make it more flavorful.
*Spread dough out. I didn't have a pizza pan so I shaped my pizza into a small enough circle to still fit on a cookie sheet.
*Spread taco sauce on dough
*Top with meat/pepper&onion mix.
*Top with shredded cheese
*Bake 15-17 minutes

*After it cools a few minutes, cut into slices. I put some sour cream in a baggie. Snip off one corner and gently squeeze out sour cream.

Zucchini Casserole!

I LOVE zucchini. I know I've said it before but it's just so good and so versatile. We have several zucchini the size of my arm in the garden so I knew it was time to get cracking with one of my favorites. Yes, it has a stick of butter & condensed soup but served as a side dish it does have lots of yummy nutrients. Growing up- my mom would make this with homemade croutons but it was really hot out and I was in a hurry. The dish is 90% zucchini. Jody & Justin both gave me the thumbs up.

Zucchini Casserole (adapted from allrecipes.com)

• 1 large cubed zucchini (mine came to about 4 cups of diced sized pieces) To prep the zucchini, make sure you peel it. Then I cut it in half length wise and scrape out any large seeds with a spoon.
  
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup grated carrots
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 1 (6 ounce) package chicken-flavored dry bread stuffing mix

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Boil the zucchini and onion in water for 5 minutes; drain well. In a medium bowl, combine the soup, sour cream and carrots. Stir in the zucchini and onion and mix well.
3. In a separate medium bowl, combine the butter and stuffing mix. Spread half of this mixture into the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish. Spoon the zucchini mixture over the stuffing, then top off with the other half of the stuffing.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes, or until stuffing is golden brown.

Stuffed Peppers

On the night we have stuffed peppers I made Justin the "stand-by", Grilled Cheese. I was super surprised when he looked at my plate and said, "meat please?"Then gobbled up half my dinner. Now that I think back of it; stuffed peppers are a great meal. I picked the green peppers just minutes before I stuffed them from our garden so they were nice & sweet. The other ingredients; lean turkey, brown rice, mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce... totally kid friendly! You'll noticed in my picture I cook them in individual ramekin mugs. That way I can give them a little "bed" of extra filling. *Tastes better than it looks, I promise*

Stuffed Peppers
2 or 3 large green bell peppers (depending on how full you stuff them)
1lb lean ground turkey (browned)
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 vidalia onion-diced.
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1tbsp Worcestershire sauce

*Preheat Oven to 350
*Cut the tops off of the peppers to make a little "bowl".( I used any discarded pepper around the stem to cook with the onions)
*Place peppers in a pot of boiling water for 5 mins to soften- set to dry.
*In a skillet saute diced onion and any diced pepper until slightly soft.
*Add browned turkey and brown rice.
*Stir in 1/2 cup tomato sauce and Worch. sauce. salt & pepper to taste
*Add filling to peppers and top with the rest of the tomato sauce

*Bake for 1 hour at 350. With 15 minutes left, top peppers with shredded mozzarella!

Homemade tater tots

YUM! These were so good. I'm not going to lie, they were kind of a lot of work. Tater tots are a favorite of Justin & Jody right now so I think it was well worth it. Also, I added some cheese to the original recipe, as part of my "add-calcium-because-my-kid-hates-milk" cooking.

Recipe adapted from http://momsensenj.wordpress.com/

1 Large Potato, cut into approx 2 inch cubes
Salt

1/4 C shredded cheddar
1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 Egg, whisked
1 Cup homemade wheat breadcrumbs
Olive Oil Spray

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Boil the potatoes in salted water in a pot for 12-15 minutes or until fork tender.
3. Drain off all the water and cool the potatoes.
4. Using the side of a box grater, grate all of the potatoes into a bowl. (mine made about 1.5 cups shredded potatoes) Mix in shredded cheese
5. Place the flour, whisked egg and breadcrumbs in THREE separate bowls.
6. Take about 1 tbsp of the potato mixture and shape into “tater tots”.
7. Roll the tots into the flour, followed by the egg, then the panko bread crumbs, coating lightly.
8. Place onto a lined/greased cookie sheet and coat evenly with cooking spray.
9. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden.
10. Cool and serve.

10 minute Chicken Noodle Soup

We have a very busy weekend ahead of us so I wanted to prep some food for Justin in advance. Lately he's been searching through the cupboards and when I ask what he's looking for he says, "hmmmm soup?". I think he's had soup maybe 3x in his life and I haven't bought canned soup in years. He's such a goof!

I make this recipe in my small crockpot. If you have a large crockpot I'd double the recipe. I started the soup while Justin was eating breakfast and it was done by lunch. There was virtually no dishes and no time spent cooking. The crockpot does all the work. I maybe did 10 minutes of work... that's why I called the recipe 10 minute Chicken Noodle Soup...

*Place into your crockpot...
16oz low sodium chicken broth
10 baby carrots (sliced into disks)
1 large stalk of celery (sliced into disks)
1/4 small onion (optional)
3 boneless/skinless chicken breast tenders (you could use 1 lg breast, just cook it longer)
salt & pepper to taste (I also threw in a bay leaf, I like that flavor)

*Turn the crockpot to high and let it sit 2 hours.
*After 2 hours "fish" out your cooked chicken and shred it. Place it back into the broth.
*Add 1/2 C of small uncooked pasta to the soup. (I used Orzo)
*Stir & Cook on high for 1 more hour.

I got about 5-6 big cups of soup. It will depend on the size of the pasta and size of chicken tenderloins you use :)

BBQ nuggets

Every kid loves mashed potatoes! Every kid loves Mac & Cheese! Every kid loves milk!
Nope. Not mine. Justin doesn't really have "every kid" taste. That's why I decided to spice up his chicken nuggets! Also- it's so mom & dad could enjoy too. 3 ingredients... that's all! Plus these freeze, so well! I let them cool and threw the rest into a ziploc bag. The next day, 8 mins at 400*- perfect!

BBQ Chicken Nuggets
2 large chicken breast cut into chunks (or strips- you pick)
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1 cup bread crumbs (once again used the ole' wheat roll into the food processor)

Preheat oven to 375. Dip chicken chunks in bread crumbs and then into bread crumbs. Place onto greased cooking sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes.
*If you want a golden color to the nuggets, I suggest using an Olive Oil spray to mist the nuggets before they do into the oven.

Zucchini Bites

Zucchini is probably my favorite vegetable. I think you can do a million things with it. It's got a light, almost sweet flavor. We always plant it in our garden. For 1 99cent pack of seeds I'll probably get 20 zucchini, the size of Justin's leg! They're the best when they're picked small though. Then there are really no seeds to deal with. Once a small zucchini is peeled, the slices look just like apples, so Justin was more likely to try it. Yesterday was one of those weird day where you have a bunch of odd leftovers to use up. This was SOOO easy to make and it was a huge hit!

1/2 small zucchini, sliced about 1/2" thick
1 cup Bread Crumbs (1 toasted Wheat Hamburger bun thrown in Magic Bullet)
Garlic Salt (optional)
1 egg (beaten)
Olive Oil spray

I set up a little assembly line leading to the pan on the stove. A plate of the zucchini, then a bowl with beaten egg, a bowl of the bread crumbs (I added Garlic salt- seems to be Justin's fave)and finally a HEATED pan sprayed generously with Olive oil spray.

Dip the zucchini in the egg, then breading and then into the pan. Cook for about 2 minutes each side or until golden.

I cut the zucchini in half and let Justin go at them. He was a little tentative at 1st so I offered him 1 with "dip"/ketchup and it sealed the deal. Then he was so into eating them he didn't even dip another at all.

Popsicles

I know I've said it before but if you have kids you should definitely invest in a magic bullet food processor! They're less than $50 and I've used it at least a hundred times in the last 19 months, including making all fresh baby food.

Justin & I were in the dollar store and noticed those "make your own Popsicle" molds. When we got home I threw...

*1 small ripe banana
*6 big strawberries (chopped)
*1/4 cup Vanilla yogurt

...into the magic bullet. It made 6 Popsicles. Think about the numbers. It's about 15 cents for 1 banana, 50 cents for the strawberries and 30 cents for the yogurt. 95 cents! You couldn't get a box of popsicles for that, especially popsicles made with fresh fruit. They took a few hours to freeze but after his nap he had a delicious (tasted like the Edy's "creamy" fruit bars) and boy did he love them :)

Turkey Shepherd's Pie

To be honest, I'd never even heard of Shepherd's Pie until I met Jody. I make a pretty darn good shortcut version! If you served this with applesauce on the side it makes a great complete meal. As far as veggies go, I like to use the carrot,bean,pea, corn mix. It took a couple of tries to convince Justin that it would be yummy but once he got one bite in he started scarfing it down. I like to make a whole 9x13 pan so we can have lunch the next day too!



Ingredients
Ground Turkey (comes in 20oz package at Tops)
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables, defrosted & drained
1 cup brown gravy (I use the McCormick low sodium packets- they're SO easy)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
3 cups Mashed Potatoes
I made mine out of russet potatoes, skim milk, lowfat sour cream and margarine
you can use your own recipe or instant if you'd like.
1/2 C Shredded Cheddar

Preheat oven to 400*
In a large skillet, cook onion on medium until it's soft. (This would be a good time to make your mashed potatoes)Add Garlic, cook 1 minute. Add ground turkey and cook until no longer pink. Stir in mixed vegetables. Season with salt & pepper. Turn off heat and stir in gravy until your meat/veg mix is well coated. Pour mix into 9x13 pyrex/glass dish. Spread mashed potatoes evenly on top. Bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top and bake 5 more minutes. Let stand for at least 15 minutes.

Orzo with feta

I am really trying hard to get Justin to like pasta. It is such a cheap, easy, versatile food and one of Jody's favorites. I've baked Orzo (those little football shaped pasta) before and watched him eat it so I decided to invent a new little recipe. I LOVE feta cheese, a tiny bit gives a ton of flavor and I usually have it in my fridge for salads. Plus broc-ca (broccoli) is always a winner when I'm cooking for Justin. Next time I'm going to toss in some shredded chicken and see if he notices!

Note the funny shape of the pasta "patty"? I baked his lunch in these Wilton Halloween baking pans (Jack O Latern shaped) because they make perfect patties! Larger and more shallow than a cupcake tin :)

In a bowl mix;
1/2 C cooked orzo (you can boil it in broth for extra flavor, if you want)
1/3 C cooked broccoli, diced tiny.
1/2 an egg (save the other half for breakfast I guess)
1 tbsp crumbled feta cheese
a few shakes of salt & pepper

Pour into sprayed muffin tins and bake for 12-14 mins at 375

Spinach "meat"balls

Today's Lunch
Spinach "meat"balls
Large pear
banana yogurt

I feel like lunch should be easy but it's not. Justin hates pasta- so no spaghettios, no mac & cheese, no noodles/ravioli. Justin also doesn't really eat meat. Lunch is my biggest challenge.

I had some baby spinach in the fridge that I needed to use up so I started to search for recipes. People are doing some wacky stuff to spinach to make kids eat it. When I try a new recipe it has to be pretty simple, budget friendly or work with what I already have. These "meat"balls are a mish-mash of like 4 recipes I read. They turned out pretty cute- looking like little meatballs. When I put them in front of Justin he said, "oooh brocc-ca?" Sure! Sure honey, it's broccoli, eat up :) I kid you not- he cried for more when these were gone... I was in total shock! They were SO good. Filling and savory but super light.

Preheat your oven to 375.
*In a bowl mix together
1 C. cooked (and DRAINED)spinach (I steamed baby spinach- but frozen would work)
1 tbsp melted butter or marg.
1/4 C. Parmesean cheese
1/2 C. bread crumbs (wheat toast in food processor)
1 tsp Garlic salt
1 egg
*Drop onto cookie sheet (sprayed with Pam) by the tablespoon- or shape into balls with hands.
*Bake for 5 mins & flip. Bake 3-5 mins or until golden brown.

Carrot Cracker/Snacks

*Recipe Adapted from Weelicious.com

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese, grated
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup Carrot, finely shredded
2 Tbsp Oil

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine the first four ingredients and stir to combine.
3. Using your hands, add the carrots to the flour mixture coating the carrot pieces with flour.
4. Add the oil and work with your hands to bring the dough together.
5. Form the carrot parmesan dough into a flat rectangular disk and roll out 1/2 inch thick.
6. Using a knife, cut the dough into sticks, 2 inches long by 1/4 inch wide.
7. Bake on a Silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet for 15-17 minutes.
8. Cool and serve.

This recipe was alright. I mean, I made a half batch and to get the amount of shredded carrots barely took like 5 baby carrots- that's not much veggie in the snack. I am very lucky because Justin loves baby carrots plain, so these seemed like a lot of work. They tasted kind of like a cracker. I added garlic salt and also substituted 1/2 of the oil for water. They would make a great finger food :)

Broccoli Nuggets

(Recipe adapted from wholesomebabyfood.com)
16 oz package of frozen broccoli (florets if possible.)
1 cup of breadcrumbs (or 1/2 cup bread crumbs and 1/2 cup baby cereal)
1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
5-6 tablespoons of water or milk
5 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
shakes of spices as you desire

Preheat oven to 375F
Thaw and drain broccoli (if using fresh, cleanse, cook then drain and chop)
Mix together remaining ingredients
Shape the mixture into nuggets, rolls or whatever takes your fancy.

Bake for 20-25 minutes on a lightly greased/oiled baking sheet.
Turn your broccoli-cheesies after 10 minutes of cooking time - these are done when golden and firm.


These are yummy. Justin totally loves them. I do however, make a few changes. I use fresh broccoli, steamed, instead of frozen. I add a hand full of shredded spinach. I also make the bread crumbs. (Throw a piece of wheat toast into the food processor- SO easy!)

*Clearly, I'm not photographer and these nuggets were already cut in half so they could be a lot cuter*

Budget Shopping

The post below got me thinking about how to cut costs from grocery bills. It's something I put A LOT of thought into. I know lots of women who say they don't have the time or they forget the coupons... it's so much easier than you'd think, I swear! I make breakfast, lunch & dinner for the 3 of us 99% of the time. We RARELY go out and if we order food, it's usually for a snack if we have company at night. My budget is $50 a week. That does not include paper products or diapers which I stock up on when they're on sale. Paper products/cleaning stuff is the easiest to get coupons for- they're always in the paper. (I haven't paid more than pennies for toothpaste or Magic Erasers in like a year.) I have like 250 diapers & 9 packages of (good brand)wipes in the closet- total cost... MAYBE $20, at maximum.
Here are 5 helpful tips
1.) Websites. It can be frustrating to check the paper and not see any "good" coupons. You have to dig a little. If there's a product you like, check their website, lots of them have coupons or will email them to you
2. email. If the website doesn't have coupons, go to the "contact us". Send them a short email saying how much you love the product and that your family could really use a few coupons. Write the email once- copy and paste it for several websites. This would take seriously 5 minutes. You will be amazed when you get literally dozens of coupons in the mail!
3. Coupons double!. I shop pretty much at Tops and Wegmans only. I'm always shocked to see how many people don't know that both store DOUBLE coupons under $1 automatically. AKA a .$75 coupon is really $1.50 off! Last week I got a few boxes of ronzoni pasta FREE because they were 2 for $3 and I have a few .75off coupons.
4. Clearance I LOVE clearance racks. Many times food manufacturers switch packaging or labeling and the item will go clearance. ALWAYS CHECK DATES but if it's something like a dry good- scoop it up. The absolute best is when you can find clearance items you have a coupon for!
5. Know a good price & buy, buy buy. Chicken Breasts were $4.29/lb at Wegmans for the "regular packs", club packs were $1.99/lb. I always buy the club packs and freeze them 2 breasts each in little freezer bags. When Tops put the Boneless/Skinless breast for $1.49 each summer I buy literally 10lbs at a time. On the flip side I'll see them on "sale" for $2.49 but know to just wait it out.

Ok, after I went back and read this it seems pretty dorky but if it helps just 1 person, ti's worth it :)

Fruity Pancake Bites

Aww crap, it's been a week! I promise to start updating this more often. We had an awesome memorial day, actually it was like a 4 day long picnic so I was barely in by my computer. I did however come up with a good use for some leftover fruit salad.

Here's a little fruit salad I made with peaches, bananas & strawberries.
Next to it is a batch of pancake batter I made. You could do it from a mix, if you like. I've tested about 10 from scratch recipes and Jody just LOVES this recipe --> http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fluffy-Pancakes-2/Detail.aspx
*Note- you may notice the 1st step (mixing milk w. vinegar) seems strange. It's how you make homemade buttermilk. It is SO much cheaper than buying it and you have no buttermilk leftovers expiring in the fridge.


Ok, so you heat a pan like you normally would for pancakes. Dip each piece of fruit into the batter and lay it in the pan. Cook for about 2 minutes and flip, cook other side.
Voila! They're cute, they're fruit and they make an awesome finger food!

Monkey Bread

Okay so I made this snack for a group of adults but it would be a cool snack for toddlers...


Think of how monkeys "pick" the bugs off of each other. How they pick at food. What toddler wouldn't want to eat like a monkey? I could just see a group of little ones going at these bite sized gooey pieces. It's a semi-homemade kinda recipe which is not usually my style but sometimes you gotta cut corners. *Recipe from Pillsbury Website* (I added homemade icing too)

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cans (16.3 oz each) Pillsbury® Grands!®refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 12-cup fluted tube pan with shortening or cooking spray. In large -storage plastic food bag, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon.
2. Separate dough into 16 biscuits; cut each into quarters. Shake in bag to coat. Arrange in pan.
3. In small bowl, mix brown sugar and butter; pour over biscuit pieces.
4. Bake 28 to 32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate; pull apart to serve. Serve warm.

Grilled Peanut Butter & Banana

It's hard to pick out lunches for a toddler. Justin does not really care for meat and he won't eat pasta. He does however, LOVE toast. I can make any kind of grilled sandwich and he squeels "toast, toast!" and gobbles it up. Here's my current fave...
Slice a small banana. Spread peanut butter on wheat bread and lay sliced bananas on top. Melt 1 tbsp margarine in a small skillet. Top with another slice of wheat bread. Add sandwich to hot skillet- flipping after about 2 minutes or until golden. I gotta admit- this one is hard to keep my own hands off of!

Strawberry-Banana French Toast

There are a lot of nights that Justin has "breakfast for dinner". It's a great way to save on my grocery budget, he LOVES breakfast foods and they tend to be nice and light for the summer. On nights that Jody babysits- Justin usually has frozen waffles, we call it the da-da special.

The only problem with breakfast for dinner (especially with things like waffles) is syrup. I can't see loading a toddler up with insane amounts of sugar and expecting him to fall asleep an hour later. That's why I started using "banana syrup". It's super easy! I just take a ripe banana and toss it in the food processor (or blender if you have one) with a little milk and some cinnamon. You could drizzle this syrup on anything- pancakes, waffles or french toast like we did.

For Justin's french toast I mixed 1 egg with a splash of vanilla extract and a splash of milk. I dipped 2 pieces of wheat bread into the mix and placed them into a hot pan- flipping when golden brown. I sprinkled some diced strawberries on top and added 1 serving "banana syrup".

Veggie Omelette Cups

We gardened all day yesterday, then I was up until about midnight painting new "markers" for the vegetables. I was totally exhausted. Usually, Justin is up around 7:30, so this morning when I heard, "Mama? Mama? Hellllo?" at 6:25, I could barely scrape myself out of bed. These are the mornings when I love having Veggie Omelette Cups handy. It's super important to me that Justin & Jody have a "real" breakfast every morning but sometimes it's just not an option for me to stand there and dice veggies before the sun comes up.
I made a batch 2 days ago (they tend to "fall" quickly so excuse the ugly picture)

After these bake & cool, they can go right into a ziploc in the fridge. You can microwave them all week! I used to make them in mini-muffin cups when Justin used his fingers. My sister-in-law told me she made them in little heart shaped pans- Cute!!! This is a also a way to use up any small amount of random vegetable you have in the fridge.
My mix was; 6 eggs, 1/4c milk, couple pinches of cheddar cheese and lots of FINELY chopped veggies. This batch had; onion, red pepper, green pepper, broccoli, spinach, carrot and even some hashbrown potatoes I had leftover from a previous breakfast. I sprayed muffin tins w. olive oil spray and poured the mix in. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

Today's Breakfast
3 Veggie Omelette Cups w. 7 veggies
1 small banana
Peach Danonino Yogurt
.

Kale Chips

I was reading a list of "Top 10 foods you should be eating but aren't" on msn the other day. The 1 food that on the list we really don't eat was Kale. Turns out that Kale is a Super-Veggie! It has loads of calcium, iron, Vit A, Vit B, Vit K and nutrients that help fight cancer. Here the low down; Kale looks like a large bouquet of spinach, they sell it at Wegmans (2.99- a little pricey I thought) and it's the "green stuff" in that Zuppa Toscana at Olive Garden!

I found an easy recipe online, Kale Chips! You wash & dry the kale and cut into potato chip sized pieces. Spray it with a little Olive Oil spray- sprinkle with coarse salt and bake for 8 mins at 375. Easy! It was a total fail. I should say that all the adults in my house loved it! I made Kale chips with my lunch 3x last week. They bake into this crisp/flaky texture and it totally freaked Justin out. As soon as he tried to bite down it kind of "shattered" and he was over it. Oh well...

Yogurt Meals

When I saw that YoBaby was making "meals", I thought- jackpot! Justin loves, loves yogurt. He stands by the fridge begging for it every morning. The only problem was that they're $1 a piece. It may not seem like a lot but for a kid that eats yogurt every.single.day, that's $30 a month! I usually buy Justin whatever yogurt is on sale, without a crazy amount of sugar. This week I steamed some green beans and pureed them in the magic bullet w. a few slices of raw apples. (This would be great to do w. left over baby food you may have!) When he begs for his vanilla yogurt- I just add a big scoop of the puree (which stays good in the fridge for days) & stir to make our own "yogurt meal". He doesn't even notice! Gotta love extra veggies at breakfast!

Today's breakfast:
Wheat toast w. peanut butter
Homemade "yogurt meal" (vanilla w. green bean & apple)
Sliced fresh pears and strawberries

Good Eater

As an infant, I could puree ANYTHING and Justin would eat it. anything. Everyone told me how lucky I was to have a good eater... it didn't last. By his 1st birthday all he wanted was yogurt and toast. 2 healthy choices but not enough to live on, haha. It is a lot of work to feed a toddler a healthy, balanced diet. It's all about little steps.

Today's lunch- Grilled Cheese & Spinach Sandwich w. Garlic Green Beans
Justin hates milk. HATES it. I think he may have inherited from me, I can't drink it . I've tried everything for him; skim, 1%, 2%, whole, chocolate, strawberry, warming it up- he drools it right back out. (He hates juice too right now, too) My main concern is to make sure he's getting enough vitamin D and calcium. Dark green vegetables are a great source of calcium. Justin LOVES grilled cheese sandwiches. I always use whole wheat bread and kraft 2% American cheese. It's a lunch staple. He barely seemed to notice when today he had grilled spinach and cheese :) I just added a handful of fresh baby spinach inside of his sandwich. He got a good serving of Vitamin A, iron & calcium. Plus- everyone who watched Popeye knows that spinach gives you huge muscles!!!