Food

Real Toddler Servings

July 16, 2015 By Alicia Leave a Comment

I have heard from a lot of you wondering if your toddlers are eating enough. How can such a ball of energy survive on so little food? Rest assured, toddlers don’t need a lot of calories and it’s expected that a toddler will eat one good meal per day. I try not to stress out about how much my daughter eats or what food groups she eats because it’s out of my control. All I can do is offer great choices, be a good example, and have a healthy attitude about eating.

I think a lot of parents have unrealistic expectations for their toddler’s eating. You should NOT expect a lot! Toddler servings are pretty tiny. Here are some real toddler servings based on recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics. I measured and weighed each of the portions shown below.

dairy 2-3 servings per day

1/2 cup of milk, 1 ounce of cheese, 1/3 cup of yogurt

grains 6 servings per day

4 tablespoons of pasta, 1/4 slice of bread, 4 tablespoons of rice, 4 tablespoons of tortellini, 2 crackers, 1/4 c of cereal

fruits and veggies 2-3 servings of each per day

1/2 piece of fresh fruit, 1/4 c of canned fruit, 2 tablespoons of veggies (1 tablespoon of veggies per year old)

legumes 2 servings per day

2 tablespoons

protein 2 servings per day

1 ounce of meat (1/2 hotdog shown, 6 small slices of salami), 1/2 an egg, 1 ounce of tofu

learning table manners

Instead of focusing on portion sizes and food groups we focus on table manners and keeping meal time fun. The last thing any parent wants is a meal time battle. If you’re worried about your toddler’s attitude about eating I have two great books for you: How to Get Your Kid To Eat: But Not Too Much and Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense, both by Ellyn Satter. I hope you feel at ease about how much… or how little your toddler might be eating. Just remember, it’s a phase and it’s normal! Real toddler servings are tiny. I feel better knowing that when my toddler doesn’t eat much I know she’s right on track.

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Toddler Yogurt Muffins

July 6, 2015 By Alicia Leave a Comment

I have another great freezer meal for you to try! These toddler yogurt muffins are low in sugar, high in fiber, use whole wheat, flax seeds for omega- 3s, yogurt for calcium and protein AND you can use whatever fruits or veggies you want. On top of all that goodness I have directions to mix up one big bowl of muffin mix that you can portion into 3 batches. Make one batch now and save the other two for a super quick batch later, just add a few wet ingredients. I hope you love it as much as we do!

To make a big batch of muffin mix combine the following in your biggest bowl and mix well with a whisk:

3 c flour
4.5 c whole wheat flour
1.5 c sugar
1/2 c flax seeds (grind if they might be a picky problem)
3 tablespoons wheat germ
3 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Fill two ziplock bags with 3 1/4 cups of muffin mix for later. Or save 3 bags of mix for next time and start over to make 3 batches at once. Each batch will have 3 1/4 cups of dry ingredients.

On each ziplock write down what to add later:

1-2 cups fruit or veggies
1 egg
12 ounces full yogurt
1/2 c milk (dairy, almond, soy, or coconut)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Optional heaping scoop of melted coconut oil

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes

I find living at a higher altitude, 375 for 20-30 minutes gives me the golden brown top much faster!

For this batch I made a variety of 3 different flavors: Zucchini Sweet Potato, Berry Banana and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip. I shredded the zucchini, mashed a baked sweet potato, diced berries, used canned pumpkin and a pinch of mini chocolate chips. They turned out great! If your toddler is very sensitive to anything veggie, try blending the veggies in the blender with the other wet ingredients. Worked like a charm for my batch of “Smoothie Muffins” with spinach, sweet potato, banana, and raspberries. I also did Zucchini Pear and blended the shredded zucchini with soft canned pears to make kind of a pear sauce to add to the mix.

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Boxed Mac and Cheese 3 Ways

June 30, 2015 By Alicia Leave a Comment

You really cannot make everything from scratch, it’s nearly impossible! I whipped up four batches of fun mac and cheese, then popped 3 of them in the freezer for quick and easy lunches or dinners. It will be so easy to grab a bowl and pack for daycare or when you’re in a rush to get dinner on the table!

Here’s a tip: do not use all of the freezer stash in one week! Let the freezer stock up. If you add 1-2 things to the freezer every week but continue to make some things fresh you will have so much success with freezer meals! I will be sharing how I schedule this and how I plan my family and toddler meals around freezer meals. It’s my way of life!

Here are the 3 different versions of mac and cheese I made today. I used Annie’s Mac and Cheese which has a short list of ingredients that make sense to me. I’ve been trying to buy things with less preservatives and one way I know if I feel OK with the ingredient list is if I know what all of the ingredients are. I’m not super strict about this because it’s not only hard to find things that are convenient but it’s also very expensive. I think it’s a balancing act and it’s a good goal to start with. I made the package of mac and cheese and and had the mix-ins ready to go in 4 separate little dishes.

Taco Mac: mix a pinch of taco seasoning with the mac and cheese while it’s still hot. Stir in black beans, diced avocado and a bit of cilantro (optional).

Triple Cheese Mac: microwave a spoonful of cream cheese in a small bowl for about 5-10 seconds at a time. Stir and repeat if needed until soft and creamy then add the boxed mac and cheese that you already made. Mix a spoonful of full fat (4%) cottage cheese, a scoop of cream and top with any shredded cheese you have on hand. I used parm and cheddar on top so it was actually QUADRUPLE mac! 😛 I prefer to serve full fat cheeses because my tot is average sized. The fats will help her body and brain continue growing strong, and since she sometimes only eats 5 bites at one meal, I like to up the calories. I’ve found a “greek yogurt” cream cheese at my grocery store and it has more protein and calcium than the other cream cheeses. Keep your eye out!

Veggie Ranch Mac: stir a dollop of ranch dressing into the hot mac and cheese then add thawed frozen veggies. I used peas and corn but you can use anything that sounds good. Sometimes if I’m thinking ahead I will toss a handful of frozen veggies in a dish with a lid and let them thaw in the fridge. It’s quick and easy!

Remember, ration out your frozen meals! Or, if you need to use them all quickly make 2 boxes of mac and cheese at once.

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Baby Signs for Meal Time

December 22, 2014 By Alicia Leave a Comment

A lot of parents deal with a fussy baby during meals. Shouting, throwing food, spitting, tossing cups, arching their back and swatting at the spoon… it can be stressful when your child is frustrated and the whole meal time feels like a flop!

We use sign language for meal time that I really think help curb fussiness. When we help our children communicate they might not feel so frustrated which means less meltdowns! I love using signs in a lot of different situations, especially transitions like cleaning up, waking up from a nap, getting ready for a bath, or getting dressed.

We started signing with Baby Babe around 4 months or so. For several months we just signed to her and then one day she started signing back! “Baby Signs” are the same as American Sign Language (ASL). I learned the signs from books that I found at our library. Some signs have several different versions, and you might notice your baby has their own version of a sign. I say, go with it! They know what they are talking about!

My favorite book is Sign With Your Baby: How to Communicate With Infants Before They Can Speak by Joseph Garcia. I love the illustrations, the index, the variety of signs, and there is a great DVD to go along with the book.

Some of my best tips:

Sign AND Speak. This will help reinforce the meaning of the sign and encourage your little one to use their voice.
Be consistent! Sign, sign, sign, sign…. then sign some more! Young children learn and pick up on ideas through repetition so even though you might feel like it’s not sinking in, keep at it!
Sign where their eyes are looking. A lot of times before signing I say, “Look!…. (sign and say) Thank you!”
Recognize their efforts. Babies often make up their own version of a sign, or they might not do the sign as specific as you see in a book, but that’s OK! Recognizing their efforts and immediately rewarding them or praising them is VERY, VERY helpful and encourages their behavior. If your baby kind of signed milk, acknowledge it immediately with your words and repeating the sign. If it’s not appropriate timing you can still recognize their effort and redirect. For example, Baby Babe and I are in the process of weaning from breastfeeding. If she signs/ says “milk” I respond with, “You can have milk later. Would you like water or a snack?” I don’t want her to feel ignored and I want her to know that I understand what she is saying.
Be playful. If your child is fussing or looking away don’t make it a chore, wait for another opportunity. Add some signs into playtime or music time. One day we were working on “Thank You” and Baby Babe was feeling grumpy about it. I asked her for a bite of her food and when she gave me some I did a silly “thank you! thank you!thankyouthankyouthankyou” signing game. The silliness snapped her our of her grump and allowed me to show her the sign.

We started with: milk, more, eat and all done. “More” and “all done” are useful during playtime! After Baby Babe started using those we added: please, thank you, help, and drink. She started doing drink on her own and she uses it for “water”.

Some other signs that we use are: duck, bird, silly, bath, out, shoes, socks, hot, and hurt.

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Monday Meal Ideas: Toddler Sweet Potato Muffins

December 15, 2014 By Alicia Leave a Comment

This week I am sharing toddler sweet potato muffins, spinach pumpkin seed pesto, chia seed breakfast pudding, vegetarian lettuce wraps, egg salad, and a fresh jicama-lime snack. Also included: our family stromboli recipe, a Christmas tradition!

Our bread machine is broken so no more homemade pizza night for a while. 🙁 We’ve had Friday Pizza Night as a family tradition for about 10 years now, but we also have a Christmastime tradition: STROMBOLI! I definitely don’t mind missing out on pizza for Stromboli!

My mom taught me how to make stromboli when I was little. There’s really no right or wrong to me. I even adapted the recipe to be full of yummy veggies when I was a vegetarian. The ingredients you will need are:

One package of frozen bread dough (3 loaves)
Italian salad dressing
Deli Meat- at least three types
Sliced Cheese 2-3 types

Thaw the dough.
Press dough out to about the size of your baking sheet.
Spread Italian dressing on top.
Layer your favorite meats and cheeses.
Bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes or until golden and melty.

Slice into 2″ strips and serve with marinara for dipping.

I bought prepackaged lunch meat in 7 oz packages. I got honey ham, smoked turkey, salami and sandwich sliced pepperoni. I used 3 packages of sliced cheese: Havarti, Provolone and Swiss. We use Swiss for a lot of meals because it’s the lowest sodium cheese on the shelf. You could use less ingredients but Stromboli is a special treat so I like to load up the fillings. We’ve done sliced mozzarella, cheddar, colby jack, pastrami, roast beef… just use whatever sounds good!

I’ve been exploring new ideas for foods that are high in Vitamin D and calcium. I read that pumpkin seeds were high in calcium, but no they are not, they contain about 3% of your daily value of calcium. Haha! They do offer fiber, protein, magnesium, and fat so I still found a way to use them. I toasted them before using them to make a Spinach Pesto. This pesto is good on noodles, toast or sandwiches! I just blended the pumpkin seeds until they were a fine crumble. I set aside half of the ground seeds to stir into oatmeal.

To the remaining seeds I added a handful of raw spinach, a pinch of minced basil, olive oil and parmesan cheese and blended until smooth. I popped one container in the fridge and the other I froze with a layer of olive oil on the top to preserve the bright green color.

spinach pumpkin seed pesto

toddler sweet potato muffins

I had some sweet potatoes that I needed to use and I decided to try my banana bread recipe but replace bananas with mashed sweet potato. It worked! These are a big hit with Baby Babe. She actually snatched one out of the basket when I was taking this photo! Of course since I’m adding fat to her diet I serve this with a dab of butter or cream cheese. I also mixed in a handful of crushed pecans to the muffin batter for added fat. I made over a dozen muffins then froze them so I can have quick snacks and breakfast.

I adapted the recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Good Housekeeping Cookbook. I’ve learned so much from this book and I really enjoy being able to flip the pages instead of scrolling on my phone for recipes.

I baked, peeled and mashed the sweet potatoes and used them in place of bananas.

2 cups of flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1.5 c mashed sweet potato (2 small)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Optional 1/2 c finely chopped pecan
(Next time I’ll add cinnamon!)

Directions: Preheat oven to 325. In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl with a mixer beat butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Alternately mix in flour mixture and sweet potatoes. Scoop mixture into muffin cups and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely then freeze in a gallon size storage bag.

OK, I am a HUGE fan of Noosa. I know that sounds funny to be a fan of yogurt, but that’s how good this stuff is! It is so rich and creamy, it’s like a treat to me! It’s great for Baby Babe because of the high fat content. I use it for her smoothies and stir fresh berries into it for breakfast.

Sadly, Baby Babe has come down with a terrible stomach bug. It’s been pretty rough. She really wants to eat but we are trying to stick with BRATY or Chicken Noodle Soup during her pukey spells. She was bored of BRATY so I blended up a simple smoothie of banana, almond milk, avocado and noosa. She liked it and I think it made her feel full but it wasn’t too much for her poor little sick tummy. I sure hope she’s better soon!

This is one of my favorite ways to prepare tempeh. I use my cheese grater to grate it into crumbles. Once you cook the shreds in a pan with oil they are almost like a ground beef texture. I toasted the tempeh in sesame oil then splashed in some rice vinegar and soy sauce. Make sure you give the tempeh time to toast very well or it will taste like weird raw beans. Once toasted is has a delicious nutty flavor. I sprinkled in some toasted sesame seeds (which contain some calcium!) and served as a lettuce wrap. Baby Babe got a mini lettuce leaf that she mostly explored and played with.

egg salad snack

Egg salad has been a great fatty snack and lunch. The mayo provides fat and the eggs have Vitamin D and protein, awesome for a growing tot! I serve it on crackers or as an open faced sandwich. I’m not grubbing on the egg salad as much as Baby Babe is. With holiday treats and stromboli I want to save my splurges for other things.

chia seed breakfast pudding

“Ch-ch-ch- chia!” Yep, the same seeds that you may have spread onto a terra-cotta animal and watched it sprout are also a great source of calcium that you can eat! I made a little overnight breakfast pudding by mixing:

1/4 cup of chia seeds
8 oz of Blueberry Noosa
1/2 c of almond milk

Let mixture soak overnight in the fridge. When you wake up you will see the seeds have plumped up and it’s almost a tapioca texture. I topped Mommy and Daddy’s with toasted pecans. If you don’t want to try the breakfast pudding you can also just blend the seeds into a smoothie. I would try about 1 tablespoon in a smoothie.

I thought of my busy working mamas when I served the simplest snack ever: a plain ole almond butter spoon. I thought, “How could moms pack that for daycare?” For our picnics I’ve wasted a lot of peanut and almond butter when I put it in a tiny container and forget to finish it or leave it on the counter.

Then I tried loading the almond butter spoon and using a travel toothbrush cover. It worked! 🙂 Let me know what you think of that idea. One spoonful contains a good amount of fat and protein for your toddler for an afternoon snack. I’ve been serving a nut butter spoon with banana or other fruit after Baby Babe’s nap and it seems to hold her over until dinner time.

jicama sticks

We needed to break out of the ordinary and add a new fruit to the menu this week. Actually, jicama is a root. To me it has a mild apple flavor with a watermelon texture. It’s simple, fresh, and tastes great with lime juice. It’s high in fiber and it does contain some calcium (7% of DV) so I like that!

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