I'm Still Here

Slacking on blogging yet again. Life with a 1 year old will do that to you. Also been having some issues, but hopefully will be back with lots of recipes and toddler meal ideas. Hopefully I'll fit some crafting in soon, and we're planning out a small kitchen remodel. Don't forget about me, I promise I'm still  here!

Toddler Meals

When Baby B started to really switch over to solids, I was so very overwhelmed. He really liked some foods, but didn't like the idea that he had to feed himself. There was a 2 week period where he threw an absolute fit at every meal until I would finally pull out a jar of baby food and feed it to him. I know this is not what you're supposed to do, but I wanted the poor lil guy to get some nutrients. But, as time went on it got a little easier. I am happy to say that mealtime has become (mostly) much easier.

However, I then became obsessed with trying to figure out what to feed him 4 meals every day. I wanted him to have a variety and healthy options. I scoured pinterest, which is a great tool, but half of the links went to nothing. And, there were a bunch of vegan meals. We're NOT vegan here. We like our meat! So, I thought I would start a list of the foods that have worked out best for us and hopefully it will help someone like me, who was majorly stressing out about what to feed their toddler...

For breakfast, most mornings, I just give little man some yogurt and dry cereal. Which means I throw a handful of cheerios on his tray while I get the rest of his food ready. My favorite yogurt for him is this:

It's called YoToddler by Stonyfield. It's organic, comes in lots of flavors, and isn't crazy expensive. Little man absolutely loves it. Some of them even contain veggies or bits of cereal. I know when he eats it, he's getting a good amount of good calories, and he devours it. He cries when he's finished, he loves it so much.

He also loves toast, cereal bars, oatmeal, and pretty much any type of fruit. He's only tried eggs once, and liked them as well. Some kids have egg allergies so keep that in mind.

For lunches, there's lots of options. But, this is also the meal I get the most hung up on.

In a hurry and for a quick fix, you can always use the little Gerber pre packaged meals.



Little man likes these well enough, but they can be kind of expensive, and I don't want to feed him pre packaged food every day. They are nice if we're traveling, because they can be tossed into your diaper bag, and don't need to be refrigerated. As long as you're going somewhere with a microwave. Baby B will also occasionally have the lil entrees if we're having something for dinner he might not like, like something spicy, etc. The pasta pick ups are good to serve with veggies, etc, on the side.

Most days we will either have leftovers from dinner the night before, or lunchmeat, cheese, and veggies. If you're gonna feed your little one lunch meat, splurge and get a better quality one. You want them eating the healthiest possible choices.

These are typical lunch ideas.The top one are little meat sticks (gerber), peas, and cut up cheese. The bottom one is corn, taco meat with black beans, avocado, and tortilla.

I like him to have lots of veggies, and he is a veggie lover. I found these little convenient 4 packs of veggies that can be microwaved, right by the canned vegetables at walmart. They are also travel friendly, and little man can eat almost a whole container of those veggies in one sitting.

I like to mix it up, so that he has a meat, at least one veggie, a dairy or a grain, and sometimes a fruit. Lunches are his least eaten meal of the day, so I like to make sure he's getting lots of good nutrition from the little bit he actually does eat.

He always goes for the bread first, he is his Mommy's boy!

You can also just throw some veggies and cheese on a tortilla and make a quesadilla. A good way to hide some of the goodness you're trying to get your little one to eat!

After nap time he has a snack. Most days he has some fruit, usually banana, strawberries, or kiwi. Sometimes he'll have cheese or cereal bar. His favorite after nap snack is kiwi. This kid absolutely devours kiwi.

Little stinker enjoying his kiwi! And some cheerios!

Banana, strawberry, and some puffs for crunch!

Sometimes at snack time, I throw in some puffs for crunch. Any flavor will do. If you want a good veggie style puff, I recommend these:

 

They're organic, and have lots of veggie goodness in them! Snack time is the easiest time of day. Give them whatever they enjoy, just try to make it nutritious!

For dinner, little man usually just has whatever we are having. He loves meatloaf, shepherd's pie, chicken, soup, veggies. We try to get him to try all kinds of foods so he has a diverse palette. And, sometimes, kids do not like something the first time they try them. Keep on trying it, and eventually they'll usually learn to love it. I hate when I hear, "My kid hates peas, he spit them out the first time he tried them, so I just don't give it to them." Keep trying it, our little man will eat just about anything!

Strawberries and cheese!

I hope this post helps other frustrated Moms out there! Don't stress out too much about what/how much your little one is eating, they will get the hang of it! I promise! I stressed out enough for all of us!!!

I will be doing more toddler meals posts in the future! Keep checking back!!!

Linking:

Yah, I'd Eat That- Easter Treats

Been perusing pinterest for some yummy Easter goodies. Here's a few of the ones I've came across:

Hot Fudge Easter Sundaes from Rachael Ray

Can you ever really go wrong with a Hot Fudge Sundae for anything? I think not!

Cheesecake Filled Chocolate Eggs from Raspberri Cupcakes

Mmmmm...Need I say more?

I mean, how cute are these? 

Jelly Bean Tartlets from Smart School House

These look super simple, and kids would love them. I don't know any kid who doesn't like Jelly Beans.

Nesting Baby Bluebird Cupcakes from Martha Stewart

 Martha does it again!

These are just a few of the ideas I've come across. There are a gazillion! Maybe not that many, but happy browsing! 

Still yet to get sewing on my quilt, but I have my pieces pinned together and will be starting soon! Check back soon!

Monster First Birthday

I'm baaack, and finally ready to share some of Baby B's Monster Bday Party decorations with you!

We had a pretty small party. I wanted to go all out, but hubby talked me down, and we only ended up inviting close family. Then, because it is flu season, only about half of them could come. I tried to keep everything pretty simple, and just tried to stick with the theme.

 The table-scape was just a monster tablecloth and some green letters spelling out Baby B's name. The post about where I got a lot of this stuff can be found here.

A bit of a zoomed out view. I made the cupcakes and cake pops myself.

Hubby actually did a lot of the work on the cake pops. We made them a little too big, but I told him it was okay that they were a little goofy since they were supposed to be monster eyes anyway. The kids didn't care, and they ate them up!

As far as the cupcakes go, I just used a couple of different frosting tips and went a little crazy with some candy eyeballs. They were also very yummy! They're hard to see, but I got the super cute polka dot cupcake liners from Pick Your Plum. I also got the frosting tips there!

For the drinks I just glues googley eyes onto paper cups. The kids also got a kick out of those, sometimes it's just the little details that kids love!

You can read the post about how I made these adorable party hats here.

Behind little man's high chair we just made him a little "throne" with some streamers and balloons. If it were up to me, the whole wall would've been streamer-ed up, but I like the effect.

 I got that little "loch-ness" looking peel and stick monster sticker at the $ tree, just thought it was super cute!

 Then I picked up some simple little monster party favors for the kids in the Wal Mart party section.

 These cute monster cups I got on clearance at Michael's. They held the silverware.

 Also got some silly straws for the kids at the $ tree, and as a bonus- they matched the color scheme!

 I got these little monster hand puppets and zip pouches on clearance at Michael's as well, they went in the kids' favor bags as well.

 Along with those little bday horns, that I just stuck monster stickers on so they would also fit the theme.

I handed the kids their favor bags as soon as they got there, which included the monster puppets/zip ups, monster poppers, horns, sour gummy worms, and some other various candy. Favors don't have to be extensive...especially if you include candy- what else do kids want?

Overall, little man enjoyed his first bday party, and that's all that really counts!

Hope this inspires you to get a little creative with your child's bday party! If I can do it- anyone can!!!


And here's a sneak peek at another project I'm working on:

Linking:

 

Craftberry Bush