Snow Cream

 I'm not sure why I've never tried Snow Cream before.  It is such a simple recipe and I love ice cream of any kind.  My friend, Susie, mentioned she made it with her girls and we decided to give it a go.  We've definitely had enough of the white stuff around!

In case you don't know, the "recipe" is snow, a bit of milk, a bit of sugar, and a bit of vanilla.  Mix together and enjoy!

And enjoy we did!

Pudding Pops

I got some fancy new popsicle molds during my last Ikea trip and have been eager to try them out. Up until this point, I've been pretty boring with what I've put in them. Mostly just lemonade or Kool-Aid. Yawn.

I had some chocolate pudding in the pantry and since I had no plans for it, I thought I might give it a try in the molds. Turns out they are yummy! And as an added bonus, there is no dripping! (Of course, that doesn't mean it still doesn't get ALL over faces and things).

Regardless, they were good and we all enjoyed a few! We will definitely be making these again!

Proof is in the Pudding

So I am pretty sure my OB is not going to appreciate my weight gain this month following all of the Halloween treats that myself and the little one have been "cooking" up. I saw this HERE and although we used all of our crushed cookies for our graveyard, I think these treats still turned out pretty yummy!

First, Amelia and I took turns painting chocolate faces inside the clear plastic cups.

Then, Amelia got to work mixing up pudding tinted green!

Here are our scary creatures ready to get put into the refrigerator. That's Amelia's creation in the middle!

Yum, it was a hit!

Here's Looking at You!

Its hard to believe, but its already year number four of making these spooky eyeball cookies for Halloween! I scored a heck of a deal on pre-mixed green icing awhile back, so we opted for a green iris this go around. For the complete recipe (if you can call it that), check out last year's post.

Down by the Old Cemetery

Anyone else remember that old softball cheer? (I'm probably dating myself, actually).

Anyway, with Amelia's sudden interest in all things cemetery AND with me scoring a tombstone candy making kit at 90% off last year after Halloween, I thought we'd make a dessert combining her love of candy and death.

I made some brownies and then started delegating jobs to Amelia. First, she was in charge of making the icing a nice cemetery grass color.

Then, she was in charge of spreading it around on the brownies.

At some point after that, I asked her to use a rolling pin to break up a bag full of Oreo cookies. That didn't even last long enough for me to get a picture, however...

And, from then on out, Amelia became my official spatula licker. As you can see, I've taught her well!

Our simple, yet spooky, finished cemetery. I have to say that I am not sure why I have been eating brownies without frosting for all of these years. I am pretty sure I will not be going back to that again...like ever.

Mummy Love

Scary mummy pizza!

Name Game

Have I mentioned how much I love my letter/number cookie cutters? I have used them countless times. Amelia is really into spelling her name now and pretty much has it down. I made her some tortilla letters to play with as part of her lunch and she figured out the order all on her own!

Just Skewer It!

I'm slowly trying to ease my way back into doing fun things with food for Amelia. I have been so freakin' tired the last few months that it was really all about survival. I saw this somewhere and thought it would be easy and relatively mess-free. Amelia threaded grapes on a kebob (did you know there are like 8 different ways to spell this??) stick (from Michael's) and then we froze them for a delicious, frozen treat!

Of course, when Amelia was placing the grapes on the stick, it was more like thread one, eat two.

All in all, it was a success! Although, I think she liked the regular grapes more than the frozen ones!

A Beary Special Lunch

They're Back!

It was the 99 cent bag of fresh spinach that prompted the return of some fun eating tricks around our house.  Some of you long-time readers may remember THIS POST about sneaking veggies into fruit smoothies.  I got away from this a bit during the winter months because the assortment of fruit available wasn't that great.  But, with the cheap bagged spinach and more varieties of fruit showing up at the produce market, game on!

I usually add whatever I have on hand and always include yogurt and some sort of juice (apple, orange, grape, cranberry, etc.).  We always have a stash of frozen blueberries and still have blackberries left from our Fair Shares days.  I have also added pineapple, strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, and bananas.  As for the veggies, aside from spinach (which works great!), I have also added cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots.  I would not suggest adding peas, as the taste of them doesn't get covered up very well--yuck!  I sometimes add a little sugar or vanilla extract if I'm feeling crazy.  It really is amazing how well the fruit covers up the veggie taste!

I have heard from many, many, many of you that you use this for your kids and it has worked like a charm.  I have also heard from a few of you who haven't been quite so lucky!  Fortunately for us, it works for Amelia every time!

And since the smoothies are back, I decided it would be as good a time as any to try out the muffin tin lunch again.  I think weekly is too often for us to partake in this little treat, but once every month or two is great to spice up lunchtime around here.

Bippity Boppity Boo

Anyone who hangs out at our house long enough will most assuredly be turned into a dog, pumpkin, or perhaps even Cinderella herself.  Thankfully, GG finally made a magic wand with poor Amelia who was using any long, narrow object (ruler, pencil, mop, licorice stick) she could get her little hands on as a wand.  Apparently, we are not quite out of the princess phase just yet--in fact, it seems to be stronger than ever!

So, I've decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and have given into Amelia's princess tendencies.  This magic wand snack was a huge hit and vanished, well, just like magic (despite the frozen peas adorning the star)!

Personal Penguin

I am not sure why I insist on creating characters that have marshmallows.

Since that is ALWAYS what she reaches for first!

Animal Tricks

Have I mentioned how much I love my new cookie cutters?  They have worked miracles on more than one occasion to get Amelia to eat the delicious food her mom prepares for her.  The latest trick?  Some caged zoo animals!

The lion and elephant are quesadillas.  The "bars" are string cheese and the top and bottom rails are made from breakfast bars.  I'll leave out the part about the animal droppings that we added in post picture.

Granted allowing a lion and an elephant to share the same cage would have disastrous, but Amelia did seem to notice a bit as she gobbled it all down!

Princess Sleepyhead

Or so we hoped!

Call it wishful thinking, but I was hoping that with a little celebration on Sunday night would help her fall asleep a little easier.  I am not sure that it worked, but it was sure fun anyway!

I borrowed this idea from the site, THE HOMESPUN HEART.  She had similar parties when her children slept through the night for the first time, which as many of you know is truly something to celebrate!

I set the table to look like a bed.  Amelia thought this was great!  

We ate our meal by night light only!

Amelia wore a special Princess Sleepyhead crown (for about 6 seconds).

We dined on little people (hot dogs) wrapped in blankets (croissant roles).  Each person rested his or her head on a little ravioli pillow!

For dessert, I made brownies and used my new cookie cutter sets to cut out stars and Z's. (As in ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ--Jason didn't get it at first)

After all of the excitement, we headed up to her new bed and read books together.  Then, she made a request for me to tell the Snow White story.  After that it was lights out!

You may be wondering whether our party made any difference in the way she slept on that first night.  I would guess no!  It took her about 1.5 hours to fall asleep and she  was awake at 5:20 AM the next morning!  If you know Amelia, you know she loves her sleep and this is HIGHLY unusual behavior.  

After explaining to her that the sun is still sleeping and she can't get up until it does, we didn't hear from her again until 7:30.  (I'm not sure if she fell back asleep or not, but I would think she did for at least a little bit).

Not too bad for the first night, I guess!  But, here's hoping things get better from here!

You Better Not Pout!

Nothing like starting out the morning with loads of sugar!  Ugh.  Its super cute, but I don't think we'll be doing it again because she went straight for the marshmallows and not much else.

Turkey Overload

I made the decision following Halloween that I would not overlook Thanksgiving this year and I would fight the urge to jump straight into Christmas.  But, we are loaded down at our house with turkeys everywhere!  We have a turkey on our front door, turkey cookies in the kitchen, our thankful turkey hanging on the basement door, and turkey books scattered throughout the house.  And, I am sorry to say that this probably won't be the last post about turkeys!

A turkey even waddled its way into lunch today. I was feeling adventurous, but not at all creative.  Seems that when I want to make something fun for Amelia to eat, I always want to put the food in the form of a smiley face (AKA the winking guy).  I turned to LITTLE NUMMIES for some motivation.  This site is incredible if you are looking for ways to make lunch fun for your toddler (or your spouse!).  I was just about to build a bunny sandwich for Amelia before I came across this turkey idea instead.  And because of our recent obsession with turkeys, I just couldn't pass it up.

This could be made an infinite number of ways, but here's what I did.  The turkey body is bread coated with pumpkin butter (Amelia's new favorite). The eyes are Cheerios with raisin middles.  The beak and legs are swiss cheese and the waddle is a stretched out fruit snack.  The feathers are pieces of bread covered in peanut butter and topped with Cheerios, raisins, Goldfish, and dried apricots.  

Amelia "gobbled" most of it up.  She ate the entire body in record time and ate about half of the feathers.  She rejected the cheese for what I think is the first time ever in her life--I guess she isn't into Swiss :)

The Magic of the Kabob

Much like the novelty of eating from a muffin tin, eating food skewered onto a plastic spear seems to also yield admirable results.  

Okay, so the word spear may be pushing it a bit.  I actually use a plastic stick that came from a popsicle making kit I scored at Target for like 74 cents.  Regardless, any food that I make into a kebob (seriously, did you know this word has like 6 different spellings?), Amelia will consume.

Being Tuesday (the day I work), dinner is usually either always something super easy like spaghetti or it is something one of us can pick up on the way home.  Tonight, Jason arrived home 15 minutes early and had 'Breakfast for Dinner' night nearly fully prepared by the time Amelia and I walked through the door.

At first Jason was going to make Amelia a "pancake sandwich", which I myself was eager to see.  But, in the end, he opted for the ever popular skewer instead.  Tonight's kebab was made up of pineapple, sausage, pancake, and apples alternating along the plastic rod.  It wasn't the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but I certainly wasn't complaining and neither was Amelia!  She stepped it up and ate two skewers full of food AND an ENTIRE piece of toast spread with pumpkin butter.  She then was allowed to eat the candy bracelet GG so kindly gave her today before she left.  After she finished the bracelet, she reached across the table and swiped another entire sausage link and polished that off in about 60 seconds.  

I'm thinking a growth spurt may be to blame..or maybe it was just the magic of the kabab.

Take Your Pick

My little lady can be a bit of a picky eater at times.  Granted, she is two, and I think it is a typical trait of children her age more than anything.  She will put down any fruit I put in front of her, some vegetables, every cereal known to man, pancakes, and a handful of other things.  Most of the time she is content with what we serve her, but there are times that it is a downright chore to get anything down her little throat.

Its during those times that I have to become creative.  Sometimes that involves pulling out the bottle of sprinkles (because she will seriously eat ANYTHING with sprinkles on it!), making her food into shapes of well liked objects like the "winking guy", giving ultimatums (To get movie time, you have to eat three more bites), eating bites together as a family (yes, this actually works for whatever reason--I don't question these things), and pretending her food is a favorite character needing her help ( in a distressed voice, I may say "Amelia, its me, Belle.  I need your help!  I have to hide from the Beast" at which time she will open her mouth and eat the food/Belle.  I feel absolutely ridiculous doing it, but it works, so I will continue to do it).

So, although Amelia hasn't been in a particular food funk, per se, I have been wanting to try these muffin tin meals that I keep seeing all over the internet.  There is a whole gang of moms who hold "muffin tin Mondays" where they serve their child's meal in a muffin tin, take pictures of it, and then blog each Monday about what they served and how it went over.  These women and culinary creations are incredible!  Some even make shapes with the food, some follow themes each week, and a select talented few base their Muffin Tin meal on a favorite book loved by their child.  I am certainly not that creative, but have been wanting to see if serving lunch in a muffin tin would be a new stunt I could add to my current bag o' tricks for when Amelia is being picky.

As a note, I have been wanting to try this for a looooonnnnnnggggg time, but I only have two muffin tins.  One I would never dream of using to serve ANYTHING to ANYONE and the other is a mini muffin pan which means I would have to come up with 12 things to serve instead of just an already difficult six items.

When I got out all of the fall decorations, I came across this brand new 6-cup muffin tin I bought on super clearance last year after Halloween.  The fact that the "cups" are pumpkin shaped only made it all the more exciting for Amelia.  She exceeded my expectations and ate NEARLY EVERY MORSEL of food I put in for her.  (I should have taken an "after" picture, but I was in too much shock).  Granted, the things I served were all tried and true favorites of hers, but still!

Our first Muffin Tin Lunch included peas, cheese, applesauce (with sprinkles of course), pineapple chunks, turkey dogs, and ketchup.  It was a huge success and I plan on using it lots more, especially during those picky eating phases.  

Feeling Ballsy

After the success of the Energy Balls last Friday morning, I decided to give some Toddler Meatballs a try in the afternoon.  These were a favorite of Amelia's long ago, but like most foods she likes that are actually nutritious, a gave them to her too much.  So much, that she started to reject them.  But, after a 9 month hiatus, she's back on the meatball bandwagon again!

In case you have a toddler that may be interested:

Toddler Meatballs:

1 lb. ground turkey or ground beef

1 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup wheat germ

1 egg

1/3 cup finely grated carrots (I added these because I had some leftover from the energy balls, its not a part of the original recipe).

spices such as garlic, pepper, basil, thyme, and/or oregano

Mix meat with bread crumbs, wheat germ, egg, and spices you've chosen.  (Recipe may call for more/less bread crumbs.  Vary measurements as needed).  Roll into balls, bake at 375 F until golden brown or for about 25-30 minutes.  Do not allow these to burn.  Cover the pan with tin foil to help prevent burning if needed.  Use a small baking pan so you can shake and roll meatballs around to help meatballs to cook evenly.  I serve them with spaghetti sauce or ketchup.  These freeze well!

Energy Balls

Not sure why a toddler would need more energy, but these little treats are quite a delight!  I've made them many times since I introduced peanut butter to Amelia and they are always a hit with her!  However, the best part about these little guys is easy carrots in the belly.

Here's the recipe:

1/4 cup finely grated carrots

1/4 cup rolled oats or Granola

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup sunflower seeds (I left these out because I didn't have any)

1 T. honey

3 T. peanut butter

Mix and roll into balls.  Granola makes these balls more tasty and add a nice crunch.