Foods for Little Fingers

I don't know what you guys are doing at your house, but over here we're eating. Don't worry, we're hitting the gym five times a week to compensate (well, I am. Laney, Mia and Mike don't really seem to gain weight despite their general pigginess.) Since we're stuck inside most of the time now, we've decided to have a little fun with our food. Here are three snacks we've enjoyed recently.

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins
This muffin recipe been great for us. I overbought cranberry sauce and pumpkin puree for the holiday. Both have good nutrition. Combined with not-too-much sugar, no butter and whole wheat flour, this is a treat that works for breakfast, snack or a as a side with pork tenderloin and brussel sprouts (yes, do it.) I've usually make it with a little less than a can of cranberry sauce bc I sneak some as a spread for lunchtime turkey sandwiches!

3-3.5 cups of whole wheat flour (or AP, or a mixture depending on what your kids will eat)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
dash cloves, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice

1/2 to 1 cup of sugar-type thing, brown, honey, pure cane
1 can of pumpkin
1 can of cranberry sauce
2 eggs
1/3 cup veg oil or applesauce
dash of orange or grapefruit juice

One kid mixes the wet, one kid mixes the dry, one mommy combines it all and bakes in greased muffin tins at 350 until it's done. I think 20-25 minutes, you have to check with a toothpick.

Pretzel Bites
I don't like pretzels. I used a cup in Crispix Mix a few weeks back and now I've got almost a whole bag. Luckily, they seem to work at snacktime! I need to get more fat and cals into Miss Mia than that so here we fancied it up. Also, I wanted to use my snowman treat dish because it was snowing. So I had to make little bites of something.

pretzels
Hershey Kisses (caramel filled, yes.)
M&Ms

Let little fingers spend 20 minutes opening foil wrappers. Save wrappers to use as ornaments for tomorrow's construction paper Christmas tree. Arrange pretzels on cookie sheet. Top with Kisses. Bake at 300 for 3 minutes. Press M&Ms into kiss. Put on cute tray and offer to your husband upon his return from work. Watch husband not notice cute tray.

Banana Reindeer
I'm sure others have done this more intricately but I am neither artsy nor crafty so this is what I came up with for a healthy 2 minute snack project. Laney LOVED making these and both girls cleaned their plates without hesitation.

banana
nut butter
raisin
pretzels (yay! using them up!)

Slice a banana in half length wise and width wise (so you have four oblong pieces of banana). Use nut butter as glue for eyes and mouth made of raisins. Also attach pretzel antlers with nut butter. All set.


Cooking and art projects. Indoor playdates and good naps (ha.) This is what'll be going on for the next few months. Yes, we'd rather be outside--but hey, we're going to have fun anyway. Mia's old enough now (18 months!) to participate and Laney is just so crafty. Now if I can just come up with a few more ideas...

Papergirl!

A few weeks back I bought Laney a big box of craft projects at the Toy Box. We have this situation where Mia naps for three hours (so good) but Laney naps for...not at all. So we need an awful lot of "quiet" activities to keep the afternoon running smoothly. Art projects are big.

In this box, there was a sticky butterfly and a bunch of post-it note sized tissue papers in various colors. The idea is to crumble the tissue paper ands stick it to the butterfly. What a simple idea.

What a good idea.

Especially after a birthday.

This became a DIY craft after I painstakingly cut all the tissue papers from gift bags into little squares (ok, it was neither painstaking nor time-consuming). I also unearthed the Elmer's School Glue. Give my 3 year old some glue, and you don't see her for a half hour. Which can be nice when I just want to watch Flipping Out on my DVR.

So what you need is tissue paper, a piece of copy or construction paper and glue. One drop of glue per tissue square. I got Laney started by drawing a tree trunk and she made a tree complete with falling leaves (or apples, whatever.) She also made a cute balloon. And of course, I've included the butterfly that started it all.

I realize this isn't exactly a unique activity idea but we are crazy in love with it right now and you should all give it a chance. It's good for hours of quiet fun!

I am not Martha Stewart.

So I've been staying at home for 3 years now (Happy Birthday, Laney!) For some reason, I thought the very act of staying at home with my children would hone certain areas of my skill set. I've become a better cook, I've gained patience, I may even be a *slightly* better housekeeper.

Still not crafty.

But I keep trying. A few weeks back I saw a bloated, aged Brendan Frasier make sidewalk chalk on Martha Stewart. He seemed either drunk or high (both?) and was able to create a colorful and neat chalk. So I figured that I could do this too. Or at least Laney, who has some skill and an actual attention span for this sort of thing, could enjoy this project.

The prep--took empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls. Duct taped the bottom, rolled a piece of parchment in each. Used big plastic cups (think house party-$5 cup) and disposable plastic cutlery for mixing.

The mix--a cup of water in each cup. 4-6 tablespoons of tempura paint mixed in. slowly mixed in a cup to a cup and a half of Plaster of Paris.

The set-up--poured PoP mix into cardboard cylinders. Let sit a couple of hours. Peeled off cardboard and parchment. Waited until the next day to use.

The result--ok, we made sidewalk chalk. The pros-an active project for the kids, a very colorful chalk, a good-size cylinder for little hands. The cons-messy, much more expensive to make than to buy, and oddly Mia keeps eating the homemade chalk. Can't explain that one.

Also in the Martha/Encino Man segment--homemade watercolors. Hmmmm.....

Back to Blog!

So summer is officially over and so is my break from blogging. To recap the summer--we played outside. There, everyone's caught up. Blogging over the summer would have made for some pretty boring writes--we put our crafting and cooking aside in favor of running wild, swinging, sliding, swimming and gardening. The weather is chilling so we're spending more time back inside and getting creative again.

Apple season came quickly this year and we've already had our first big batch. We ate most by hand but had a few to use up and wanted to do it healthfully.

Apple Chips

Slice apples thinly (I didn't peel; I love the peel.)
Line cookie sheet with parchment
Arrange apple slices in one layer over parchment
Sprinkle with desired seasoning (we did some cinnamon sugar, some curry, some kosher salt)
Bake at 250 until crisp (an hour or so)

There you go!

Yes, you may have a cupcake for breakfast!

We recently made very yummy and healthy muffins. I adapted the recipe from Muffins A to Z.

2 c flour ( I used whole wheat)
1 1/4 c sugar (I used some white, some brown)
2 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
4 medium grated carrots
1 large grated apple
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c shredded coconut
1 c vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 t vanilla extract

Oven at 400. Combine everything but eggs, oil and vanilla. Then add eggs, oil and vanilla;) Put into greased muffin tin or cups and bake for 20-25 minutes (do toothpick test.)

These are so moist and yummy and full of good stuff. Coconut is particularly good for babes and tots. You can add nuts but then it's not so baby friendly.

Go West!

So, for the very first time, I left my family for a solo vacay. I desperately missed my good friend Jenny who ditched WI for Utah last year. So I booked a flight and headed west.

To the land of Mormons and honey.

Jenny and her husband Jeff (we like him too) picked me up in Salt Lake City and we dined on mole and margaritas. After dinner, we walked around the Mormon- Temple-big-epicenter-place and took in the beautiful setting. Zillions of flowers in bloom.

Jeff and Jenny live in Ogden, which is about a half hour from SLC. It's pretty much a bunch of mountains with a city scattered in the crevices. I stayed at their beautiful home, hiked mountains, took strolls around the town, ate, drank, shopped and sunned myself. Utah is gorgeous and old friends are worth the trip. I had an invigorating yet relaxing 48 hrs before heading home.

What was happening at home? It was Mike's first time overnight with the girls without me. And it was two overnights (plus another bedtime!) I'll tell you what wasn't happening--naps. But I came home (at midnight on Sunday) to a calm husband, sleeping babies and a VERY CLEAN HOUSE (he's welcome to clean when I'm home too...)

So all was well. Daddy is fun and Mommy is allowed to go away. That's good to know. I've been home less than a day and Laney has mentioned several times that she's getting on an airplane and going to Utah. I better let Jenny know to expect her!

Fiesta!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! In this post I'm going to throw in lots of half-correct (half-wrong) Spanish phrases and see how much I can make my mom cringe.

Any excuse for a party at our house. This week we decided to do la comida mexicana. We went with Mexican Chicken Soup and a Mexican Chocolate Cake. They are Mexican dishes because of the addition of *chili powder* to regular dishes. I never promised authenticity.

Laney le encanta cocinar, um, cakes. So she was excited. We did this first. I didn't have a cake mix but I had a full pantry so I decided we would make this cake from scratch. And then I made up a recipe. I think you're not supposed to do this for baking, but I am awesome so it worked.

Here's the recipe--

oven at 350, cake pan buttered and floured

1 cup AP flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder (it's unsweetened)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp or maybe more chili powder
1 stick butter (room temp)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup milk with 1/2 a lemon squeezed in it (I wanted buttermilk but didn't have any)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

I mixed things in that order. I think you're supposed to do dry, and then wet yada yada. I didn't. This batter seemed SO WET so I was scared. I based the proportions off a basic cake recipe and I was pretty sure the water was a mistake. It wasn't. The cake baked for about half an hour (do the toothpick test) and then remained moist and yummy for 4 days until it was gone. Instead of frosting Laney tapped powdered sugar on it. Delicioso!

To the soup. Soup is a great thing to make when home with young kids because nothing is time sensitive. I really just added chili powder to regular soup.

Just a note on chicken broth. It's best to make your own (I mean it.) Anytime I make any poultry with bones I throw the bones in a Zip Loc in the freezer. I also freeze vegetable scraps. When I have time, I simmer the stuff in water with salt and pepper and any loose herbs I have (always with a bay leaf) and then I cool/freeze. This is free. A second option is buying some sort of powdered/dried/concentrated bouillon situation. This is cheap but usually salty. I do this a lot; Trader Joe's is the best. Of course you can buy the cartons and cans at the market. That stuff is good but way expensive and soup is supposed to be a frugal choice. Que economico.

Sopa Mexicana

2 carrots
2 celery stalks
2 cloves garlic
1 giant onion
1 bell pepper
1 jalepeno pepper (don't touch your eyes)
1.5 lbs chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1-2 cups water
1 tbsp taco seasoning
1 tbsp chili powder

Chop everything (up to the can of tomatoes). Saute the carrots, celery, onion, garlic, peppers. Add chicken and brown. Add all other stuff and let it simmer for 20 minutes to 3 hours.

Serve with triangled corn tortillas sprayed with PAM/baked in oven and guacamole. Aye Carumba!

I don't actually know what aye carumba means but it seemed right.

Happy eating!

Marshmallow Art

A few weeks back I playdated with my old friend Julie and her cutesters, Ian and Audrey. I noticed an interesting craft hanging on her wall. Oh yes, marshmallow art. What could be easier?
So the basic premise is taking some paper, drawing an outline with glue and adhering marshmallows to the glue to complete the picture. Easy enough, right?

Let me say now that Julie's son is THREE and my daughter is TWO. That doesn't sound like much, but trust me, it's the difference between "making marshmallow art" and "eating glue-covered marshmallows".

Luckily, I've been Laney's mom for a couple years now so I thought of this beforehand. First, I did this activity after nap. Had we done this before nap the sugar ingestion would have seriously messed up the afternoon. Second, I used FROSTING IN A GLUE BOTTLE. Yes, FROSTING. Tremendously increasing potential sugar rush yet eliminating the pesky glue consumption. Now let me tell you, you can buy frosting in a glue bottle. Yes, you can. It totally does the job. It's like $900. You can also wash a glue bottle out really really well and put your own cheap powdered sugar water frosting in it. What I did was actually a compromise. I bought the glue bottle frosting, used it, scolded myself for wasting money and now have been continuously cleaning and refilling the same bottle for a few months now (yes, we do many edible crafts.)

By the way, Laney can really only draw a face. Everything else is abstract (she knows what it is, I don't see it.) Doesn't matter what it looked like--it never made it to the wall. She ate it when she was done. It was fun. Thanks, Julie Z.

Slacking

It's been WEEKS since I've blogged so I'm going to take advantage of some insomnia for a quick update. There are a few reasons you haven't heard much from us lately (refreshing break?) The best reason is the weather! We've been enjoying some simple running around lately. Lots of parks, grass, swings, walks--all that good stuff. Makes for good days but not good blogging. Also, our house is up for sale. Those of you who have tried to sell a house with two tots can feel my pain. Every spare minute is spent cleaning. It's so ridiculous. Constant floor-sweeping going on over here.

Anyway, we had the chance to get out for our first 2010 trip (of many) to the Wildlife Sanctuary. Grandpa joined us and a good time was had.

Too pretty to eat. Ok, not really.

Cupcakes.

The treat of the moment, yes? Well, we've bought in. Laney and I are fans. So much so that I posted on FB my craving for cupcakes. In fact, my posting about hitting the park and making cupcakes worked out very well for us as my friend Steph offered me both her (and her sons') company at the park and a fun new cupcake idea. Talk about a good day.

Laney and I pre-burned our cupcake calories running around the park with our friends Steph and Jake (and the babes) and then headed home for some creative cupcaking. Steph let me in on her Martha Stewart-esque cupcake recipe--RAINBOW cupcakes.

Food coloring. Both a good idea and a bad idea. Makes a pretty cupcake but a messy countertop. Strip the kid or ready your Tide Pen. Also, if you have cupcake pajamas for your baby, it helps with the mood.

Ok, so we made boxed cupcake mix and then separated it into several bowls. In each bowl I put something like 10 (12, 15, 20) drops and stirred. I then, with a tablespoon, layered each colored batter into the paper cups. Baked as usual. Frosted and sprinkled.

These are gorgeous and springy! Worked perfectly. Keep in mind that my standards are pretty low (for presentation, not taste.) I've seen Steph make things that could go in magazines. Neither Laney or I have that steady hand (patience). But we do have fun! Try this at home, and then give them away to keep from eating them all. Or better yet, bring to a playdate that we're attending;-)

Go Fly a Kite.

I'm not a crafty girl but I'm willing to indulge my kid when she requests most art projects. The other day she was chatting up about kites and I'm sure it's because kites are one of the pictures on her precious Zingo game.

*Sidenote: if you have a toddler, rush out and buy Zingo. It's a Bingo-like board game that keeps a tot happy for hours and can be used as a bargaining tool for naps, bed and picking up toys. Not that I would ever bribe my kid.

So I wondered if we could fashion a kite without any sort of shopping trip. Turns out, it's easy. I grabbed a piece of posterboard and cut the shape and then handed it over to Laney for decorating. She's into stickers right now, so that kept her busy for at least an hour, no exaggeration. Pretty helpful since she sprained her foot--kept her sitting/lounging/sprawled on the floor for an impressive amount of time.

After she was satisfied with her kite, she very sweetly requested a canvas to decorate a kite for Mia. So I cut a minikite with the scraps from the big kite.

After the decorating was complete, I needed to reinforce the back of the diamond. It occurred to me that chopsticks would be perfect. I have a strong dislike (fear, ongoing battle...) with chopsticks so I didn't have any in the house. I started thinking about ordering some sushi but Koko's isn't open for lunch anymore. After being irritated about that for a while, I moved on. Something I DO have in the house--diapers. I cut the cardboard diaper box to make the reinforcing cross for the back of the diamond. I used wood glue to attach the cardboard and put the kite out of reach and let it dry during naptime.

In the afternoon, I dug out Christmas wrapping ribbons and let Laney choose colors for the streamers and the "string". I cut a hole to tie the string and reinforced with a roll and a half of Scotch tape.

It was a very windy day yesterday so we headed outside to fly the kites. It actually worked (I had no expectations.) Laney couldn't run because of her limpy foot but the wind picked it up anyway. It was super-functional when I ran with it.

Extra bonus--early evening when I started making dinner she went back to her kite and spent another hour improving its sticker count by oh, 150 stickers.

So there you go. It's not the prettiest kite in the world but Laney was excited about it and spent the day customizing it with her stickers and crayons. And I didn't have to buy single thing to make it! Happy I didn't buy the kite-making kit for $20:)

Someone. Is. Eating. This. Baby. Food.

(The first pic is cauliflower puree on a cracker, the second is pumpkin/chicken tossed with whole wheat noodles)

So once again I went a little nuts making baby food. Steam, roast, puree, freeze in ice cube trays, repeat. I ended up with a freezer full of cubes in Zip Loc bags and a baby who doesn't like baby food. In theory, I don't mind this. We started solids past six months which is a little old for purees, I understand. Finger foods are more fun for everyone. However, I am not wasting this bounty of fruits and vegetables.

Mia's going to eat it. One way or another. The rest of us are helping too.

I have come up with a few successful ways to use these purees. Some ways I developed when Laney gave up purees, other recipes I have developed lately.

Pasta with vegetable puree-

This works great with every savory puree. So far we've had luck mixing whole wheat (petite) noodles with chicken/pumpkin, cauliflower and broccoli. Sometimes I add a bit of butter and cheese and usually some defrosted peas.

Cracker or toast topper

Always a hit with Laney, I spread any sort of puree (green bean, squash, pear) over crackers or toast like spread cheese. Laney will still eat this. Mike, not so much.

Cream of what-have-you soup

We all enjoy this. I used asparagus last week.

Diced onion

Garlic cloves

diced celery

Saute this stuff in butter or olive oil.

Add in ingredient of choice. I had a bunch of fresh asparagus and probably a dozen cubes of asparagus puree. I imagine broc, cauliflower, squash would all work.

Add in a cup or so of vegetable broth. Simmer for a few minutes. Blend with an immersion blender.

Lower heat, add in a cup of half-and-half or heavy cream (or whole milk, I guess) and pepper it like crazy.

That's a really good soup.

Smoothies, of course

Frozen fruit cubes with fresh fruit and yogurt, blended

I did this with mango/broc cubes and you couldn't taste the broccoli. It wasn't that attractive though.

If anyone else has any ideas, please post in comments. My freezer is still full.

More Mia!

It's been called to my attention that Mia is definitely second fiddle in this blog. As a second daughter myself, I will try to rectify that. Laney, being a big girl of two years is more able to participate in fun activities. However, Mia is definitely ready to star in a photo montage. Here it is!

Basic Stir Fry

Here's one of those healthy recipes I promised. Stir fry is my go-to when Mike and I feel like we've eaten out too much and it's especially light with shrimp. Also works with chicken, pork and beef.

I use a wok but you could probably use a deep skillet. My mom used a wok all the time when I was a kid so I feel familiar with it, but I understand they look scary. I highly suggest getting one if you don't already have one. My mom would make stir fry, egg rolls, and even donuts in her wok. Hmmm. Maybe she should teach me how to make those donuts.

Ok, so take whatever veg you have and cut it up before you start. Actually, do everything before you start because you have to move fast with stir fry. Or open a bag of frozen veg. Defrost it first. I like broc, carrots, onion, sugar snap peas, red pepper and water chestnuts. But I use whatever I have.

Here's a good sauce:
2 cloves minced garlic
2 inches grated ginger
3 tbps soy sauce
1/2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp hoisin
2 tsp honey

a squirt of a red curry or hot sauce is good if you don't have tots. I love sriracha sauce but it is very bad news if you're breastfeeding, fyi.

First, start the rice. I like long grain brown rice--it takes 45 minutes. Stick an inch of ginger in the pot to fancy it up. Then throw some oil in the wok and put it at med-low heat. Grapeseed, peanut of vegetable oil. Throw in the carrots, onion and meat (chicken, pork or beef.) Then the rest of the veg. Shrimp towards the end. Sauce it up as you go. Toss some almonds or peanuts on top to serve! This is a very easy dish and super-quick if you use Minute Rice.

**Mia is too young for seafood so I reserved some vegetables and steamed them separately, without the sauce.