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I have been having the hardest time getting little miss A to eat breakfast.  I wouldn't fret, but she becomes the grouchiest of creatures if she has nothing in her little tummy.  This makes for a "no-fun morning" for all involved.  I've decided to go back to the pre-packed Bento box.  

Mealtimes are already a struggle, and when you add the fact that A is gluten-free and dairy-free, it just becomes an even bigger obstacle when Mama is als0 tired and hungry.  I'm also thinking I may go back to themed breakfasts just to be sure they aren't seeing the same breakfasts day after day.  Here's the plan:

Muffin Monday

Oatmeal Tuesday

Waffle Wednesday

Cereal Thursday

French Toast Friday

Saturday/Sunday I'm going to see if I can get her to start drinking smoothies and maybe eating g/f pancakes again.  Baby steps, right?

*Recipe for the chocolate quinoa muffins here.

Kabobs

I do not know why it has taken me this long to try kabobs with A.  We recently had fruit kabobs for a family celebration, and she actually ate fruit she normally will not try.  So tonight, I decided to put french toast (which she never eats) with grapes (which she loves).  It's a hit.  She's even asking for MORE.  Amazing.  I can't wait to try it with sandwich items.  Bread, cucumber, turkey?

Thankful Thursday: Plain ol' muffins!

Today I am thankful for a sweet little girl who is not afraid to ask her mama for "plain muffins with no strawberries."

And for Google...and Bisquick.

Grab the recipe for these applesauce puff muffins here.

"Mmm...and no strawberries in them!"
(yes, she really said that.)

Linking up to Thankful Thursday

Mealtime, Shmealtime.

Consistenly, the most stressful part of my day with A (since she began eating table food) is mealtime.  UGH!  She doesn't eat meat, can't eat dairy (along with other fruits and nuts), has acid reflux, along with the usual toddler pickiness too.  She's not the kind of kid who, "if she's hungry enough, she'll eat it."  No.  She will turn into a crabby bear and make everyone else pay until she gets something she approves of into her tummy.  (Sadly, she gets the hungry, crabby bear trait from me)

We gave her a portion of a bottom drawer to access as her snack drawer whenever she wants.  This has helped, but mealtimes still were stressful.  This was especially true at the end of the day when a tired mama had run out of ideas.

Enter the pre-packed Bento.  We've always brought one along with us on errands, playdates, at church, etc. since A has intolerances and, well...can get grumpy without food (Ahem...Mama has her own snack stash too.)  Today I decided to prepack every meal for one entire day.  That way, there is an intentionally planned, at least somewhat balanced meal ready to go.  Why has it taken me this long to think of this?!  DUH!

There they are: Breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Now when it's mealtime or I hear, "Mama, I'm huuungry!" I can just whip one of these out and not spend an ounce of stress worrying about it.  To go even one step further, I planned out an entire week of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that I can rotate around.  Oh, I can't wait to try this.

Oh, I almost forgot.  I am freezing her smoothies too.  I can just pull one out the night before and have it thaw inthe fridge to be enjoyed the next day.  Ahhh....I can do this.

Animal Crackers

This was a fun baking project A and I did this summer.  I got the cookie cutters off of ebay since Williams-Sonoma stopped selling them.  You can get the recipe right off of their website.  The cookies were yummy and we had a great time making them!

Summer teas

Yesterday I canned sweat tea concentrate and Passion tea concentrate.  I've been wanting to do it for a while and decided on a whim to do it.  The Passion iced tea bags I got from Starbucksstore.com and brewed the concentrate according to the directions.  My sweet tea (which actually isn't very sweet...just sweet to my taste) was made this way:

-boil 4 1/2 cups water
-place 3 family size tea bags in water
-let sit for 10 min.
-add 1/3 cup sugar
-pour into jars

I then put them in a water bath for 15 minutes.  I'm so exicted to have this tea on hand!

*another thing I did was to make a simple syrup out of sugar and water so that others can sweeten the tea to their liking:
simple syrup:
-2 cups sugar in 1 cup water, boil until dissolved

Constructing a tower

A made a tower using her two sippies and a waffle in between.  Just before this photo, she'd put the pacifier on top and made the tower tumble.  When she'd made the tower again, I asked her to smile and this is what she did.  

Happy Weekend!

Strawberry picking (and lots of recipes!)

On Friday morning, we picked strawberries.  It was A's first time.  She enjoyed picking the strawberries and placing them directly into her mouth, dirt and all. 

Once she'd had her fill, she picked a few and put them into the basket.  Her favorite part was carrying the (too heavy for her) basket for Mama.  We even got to eat some delicious apple donuts at the strawberry stand when we were finished.

With the few pounds we picked, this is all that we made:

Strawberry Jam and Rhubarb Strawberry Jam from Canning for a New Generation

Strawberry Lime Stuffed Cupcakes

Old Fashioned Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Fresh Strawberry Muffins

Strawberry Sauce to make Fresh Strawberry Limeade

Lalo's famous cookies

We might be done...or...we may go back for more so I can freeze a bunch.  We'll see!

Snack drawer!

A now has her own snack drawer.  We've always had a few snacks for her in the family snack drawer (the drawer right above the one shown) and she's always been free to get them herself.  The drawer was a bit too high for her, so I took the baking items out of the bottom drawer, put her snacks in there and put the baking stuff in the old snack drawer.  There was still room for a few of Mom and Dad's snacks in the middle drawer.

Now, whenever A says, "eat!" we can just say, "go look in your snack drawer."  She gets so excited about choosing her snacks.  She's been very good about putting them away too.  I just have to remember to refill the fresh fruits and veggies (and put them away at night).  What a nice step towards independence!

Instant art station/placemat

So you know how in some restaurants, usually Italian, they put white paper down for tablecloths and give you crayons to doodle with?  Um....why haven't I been doing this for A for longer?

I've talked about how A is a grazer and isn't much for eating meals at her seat.  She'd rather eat on the run or stand in her Learning Tower.

One thing she does like to do at her seat is to color.  As I was setting the table for supper the other day, I was about to move her paper from earlier and I thought, "Why?  Just leave it...then when she's bored from eating, she can still sit with the family and enjoy being with us."

So I did it.  And you know what?  She's eating a little more and sitting a little longer each time. 

The paper is from a giant pad of paper I got from Target.  Put that down using a few pieces of blue painter's tape (LOVE that stuff!) and you've got a nice placemat/instant art time!

*I'll probably cut pieces from this giant piece of paper (maybe into different shapes) and send the art to family and friends.  However, if I don't, I'll just flip the paper over and use the other side.

Soothing those gums!

Okay, so this is a strange photo, yes...but it serves a purpose.  When A was teething, I would freeze bananas for her to eat.  She wouldn' eat them unfrozen, but enjoyed them straight from the freezer.  The pacifier is in the photo to show the size of the banana chunks.  

Here is what you do:

-Peel a banana and carefully run your thumb/finger down one of the long indents of the banana.  This will split the banana lengthwise into three long banana pieces (this is how they prepare bananas for banana splits!)

- cut banana into three sections (you'll end up with 9 pieces)  Don't just take a banana and slice it; frozen banana slices (round ones) are a choking hazard.

-put some cereal into a plastic baggie and crush it with a rolling pin

-put the banana pieces a couple at a time into the baggie and shake to cover.

-freeze the banana slices on a cookie sheet until frozen

-store in a plastic freezer bag

Then cereal is added so the bananas aren't too slippery to handle when your child is munching on it. It's very soothing to those baby gums when they are teething!

Freezing fruit

Another no-brainer.  We got a great deal on raspberries a few days ago, but there were too many to eat before going bad.  A used to eat these ONLY if they were frozen.  This may not be the "proper" way to freeze fruit, but it works for us.

I just lay a piece of parchment paper on a pan, lay out the fruit, put in the freezer until they are frozen and then put the frozen fruit into a baggie.  I have no idea how long the fruit lasts because it gets eaten up so quickly!  This is good to preserve sliced strawberries for smoothies too.  We also cut up grapes and freeze blueberries whole.  Frozen fruit=yummy!

Snack holder

Okay, so this may seem like a no-brainer, but I had to post it.  On most afternoons, A gets to choose a dvd to watch while I prepare supper.  She sits on the couch with her special blanket, cuddles up and watches. 

I've found that A tends to graze, rather than eat big meals. We try sitting down to a meal, but she just eats more if it is left out for her.  For now, I'm okay with that, as long as she's eating.  I also found that she will usually eat a snack while she watches a dvd if I put it in front of  her. 

Her snacks kept tipping over and then I realized I could just use a little plastic container to hold her treats in.  This one is from Target, and it used to hold markers for my kindergarteners.  It's perfect to hold a couple snacks and her cup.  So easy...why didn't I think of it sooner?

I can do it myself.

I usually allow A to grab her own snacks.  She knows where they are and will usually bring them to me if she needs help.  This time, however, I guess she was seeing if she could do it herself.  I love it!

Strawberry Pops!

We made strawberry popsicles the other day.  I found the idea here. 

You basically puree a carton (or less) of strawberries, adding a little water and sugar to taste.

So easy!  There isn't much to them and they do simply taste like pureed strawberries.  A is used to eating only pureed fruit popsicles, so it worked for her!

Exactly what I said

My husband and I like to call A our little fruit bat because she really just loves fruit (well, not to her face or she'll cry.  Really).  No grains, no meat, a few veggies, but would be fine just eating fruit. She's had a fever the past few days and that means REALLY only fruit.  Today I told her she could have some strawberries if she would take a bite of her cracker.  She took a bite, then carefully spit out the piece from her mouth and placed it back on the plate.  I guess I needed to be a little more specific...

Freezer food

So, everybody probably already does this, but I thought I'd do a quick post about it anyway.  Rather than buy pancakes/french toast from the freezer section, I make large batches of my own and freeze them.  For french toast, I cut them into french toast sticks (A went through a phase where she ate the sticks straight from the freezer--I think they helped with teething.)

You can either leave a few on the counter to thaw, pop them in the microwave or toaster and they are ready in seconds!  I rarely make breakfast for A the day of, simply because when she wakes up, she's ready to eat!

Heart food

I got these tiny little shape cutters from my mom for Christmas and I LOVE them!  I've mentioned before that A can be a very picky eater.  Well, maybe a year ago we were out with friends and the kids needed a snack.  She pulled out a baggie of tiny heart shaped peanut butter sandwiches and offered one to A.  You know what?  She ate it.  So when I got these shapes I knew exactly what to do with them!

Now, I must say, this is not something that works every time, and A still won't eat peanut butter or jelly or sandwiches...but she is way more likely to eat a turkey heart than just plain old turkey.  Thanks, Brooke!