Shrek Juice

Today we practiced what seems to have become a weekly ritual.  Today was our official try-to-sneak-green-food-into-your-strong-willed-and-picky-toddler day.  So far I've been having the most success with putting greens into beverage form, and have previously posted about some of our favourites (Shamrock Mock-shake and "Chocolate" Thick Shake).  This time, I decided to revisit a favourite of Mini Muffin's that I haven't made for a few months; Shrek Juice.

Gloriously Green - Shrek Juice!

The recipe for Shrek Juice came from Homemade Smoothies for Mother and Baby by Kristine Miles, that my husband picked up for me on a whim at the grocery store about a year ago.  It's been the source of a couple of good ideas for kid friendly smoothies, a few good mama smoothies and, well, a few flops along the way.  From those we've tried, Shrek Juice is a definite gem!

So, without further delay -

Shrek Juice

1 1/2 c coconut water
Large handful of baby spinach
2 dates
1/2 avocado
1 ripe banana
Ice

1.  Soak dates to soften.  I like soaking them overnight to get them as soft as possible.
2.  Add spinach, then dates, then coconut water to blender.  Blend well (no chunks should remain).
3.  Add banana and avocado, blending until smooth.
4.  Add ice, blend and enjoy!

I find this smoothie to be very well suited to the toddler/preschooler pallet.  The banana and avocado make it creamy, the banana and dates make it naturally sweet, and the banana flavour does a great job at hiding the taste of all the other ingredients.  And of course it's a wonderful shade of green that could only be favoured by ogres!  I also like that it gives Mini Muffin healthy fats from the avocado, electrolytes from the coconut water and of course a good helping of spinach! 

Since it's been a while since I've made it, today was Little Smiling Man's first Shrek Juice experience.  He's not as tough a customer to please as his sister, but he greeted it pretty enthusiastically and screeched for some of mine as well.  Mini Muffin eyed it up, then she eyed me up, then conceded to try a sip.  Happily, that sip turned into her drinking her cup.  I think Shrek Juice is officially back in my rotation!

Whole Wheat Carrot Muffins - A Hit!

A couple of months ago I started cleaning my fridge out every Friday.  It's made a huge difference; reducing fridge clutter and food waste simultaneously.  It gives me a good view of what I have, what I need, and what I need to use up in the very near future.

This past week, I realised that a jar of unsweetened applesauce had been open for a while, and needed to be consumed quickly.  Instead of trying to feed my kids a lot more applesauce than normal, I thought I'd turn it into muffins.  My quick recipe search was uninspiring; oatmeal applesauce muffins galore.  Then, I found a fantastic recipe for whole wheat carrot muffins at 100 Days of Real Food.  Now this was a recipe I could work with!

So, after a few tweaks to meet my family's tastes, here's my version:

Whole Wheat Carrot Muffins

Still warm and ready to be enjoyed!

1 1/2c whole wheat flour
1 tsp gluten flour (optional)*
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
pinch of salt
1/2 c butter, melted
1/3 c honey
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 c unsweetened applesauce
1 c grated carrots


1.  Preheat oven to 350F and prepare muffin tin (grease or use muffin cup papers).
2.  Combine whole wheat flour, gluten flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Mix well.
3.  Add grated carrots and mix until carrots are coated.  Create a well to receive wet ingredients.
4.  In a small bowl, combine butter, honey, egg, vanilla and applesauce.
5.  Add wet mixture to the well in the dry ingredients.  Stir until just combined.
6.  Divide among muffin cups and bake 22 - 24 minutes.

Yields 12 muffins

* Gluten flour is an optional ingredient and was not included in the original recipe.  I find adding a bit of gluten flour to whole wheat baked goods results in a more tender texture.  Essentially you get all the goodness of the whole wheat flour without the toughness it sometimes yields.  Gluten flour is available in bulk stores, as well as in the health food section of many grocery stores.

I am so pleased with how these muffins turned out - I will absolutely be making them again!  They're moist, lightly sweet, and have quite a delicate crumb.  Mini Muffin ate an entire one with gusto for her "sert" (aka dessert) last night.  And while each muffin only contains just over a tablespoon of grated carrot, I'm in full support of any extra little bit of veggies that my kids can eat - and enjoy!

My kind of Saturday morning...

This morning, we broke from our usual Saturday morning routine of waffles, play, and then Mini Muffin's gymnastics.  Instead we had breakfast and playtime, my husband started switching over to our summer tires, and then he took Mini Muffin to gymnastics solo.  Little Smiling Man and I packed up and headed to a mom to mom consignment sale instead!  Now, I've previously sung the virtues of my favourite consignment store, but now it's time to heap praise on how amazing mom to mom sales are!  I seriously recommend checking out what's available to you locally; there are great deals to be had!

The sale I attended was an annual one hosted by our local multiple births society.  The vendors aren't exclusively twin parents, but many of them are which means that there are lots of good quality items... in multiple. Last year I had some great scores on everything from potties to swim gear to sippy cups.  Pricing is often better than consignment stores since the sellers want to be sure they sell everything they've brought, and there tends to be lots of variety.  My strategy for these sales is that since you never know what you might find, go with a shopping bag ready to fill with treasures and an open mind (e.g. no shopping list). 

Little Smiling Man and I arrived to a packed parking lot about an hour after the sale had started.  Once I finally got a parking spot, I popped him in the carrier and headed in.  After my first survey of the tables I mentally sighed that you win some, you lose some.  I was not inspired.  Most tables were almost exclusively clothes, and as you might recall I really dislike sifting through second hand clothing looking for gems.  Many had the same pricing as my consignment store, so I figured I may as well sift through well organised racks at my leisure, as opposed to heaped tables in a crowded gymnasium. 

Then, I found it - the table designed just for me!  The seller must have had boy/girl twins because everything was being sold in the same sizes for boys and girls.  Her organisational scheme was fantastic; Ziploc bags with three of this, or five of that at super low prices.  I didn't get to see exactly what I was buying, but at $1 for three 4T skirts, I didn't have much to lose.  So, I stocked up on great finds for Mini Muffin this summer, and for Little Smiling Man a year or two from now.  All I can say is $29 can go a long way... and that includes the $2 entry fee.

Here's what I came home with:

• 1 pair size 9 girls rubber boots

  

  The Haul - I love a good bargain!

• 1 pair size 9 girls water shoes
• 1 pair size 4 boys sandals
• 2 insulated sippy cups
• 1 straw cup
• 1 gender neutral tshirt
• 3 size 4T skirts
• 5 size 4T girls tank tops
• 2 pairs size 4T girls pjs
• 1 size 4/5T girls Columbia brand coat
• 3 pairs size 3T boys pants
• 2 size 3T boys dress shirts
• 1 pair size 3T boys dress pants
• 6 small toy trucks

All in all, I'm feeling pretty pumped about my finds.  I love that they're all good quality, and they're all things we need and will use.  And, I love that they were a small fraction of full price.  What a great way to start the weekend!

So Long Man Cave!

Over the weekend we finally packed away Little Smiling Man's bouncer/exersaucer.  In all reality we could have done it a couple of months ago since it's been quite some time since he'd let us put him in it, but it's had a few extra uses for him so we waited.  First, since he learned to pull to standing he's enjoyed playing with the toys while standing next to it.  Second, since almost the day we brought it out he's loved playing under and behind it.  So we dubbed the bouncer Little Smiling Man's "Man Cave"! 

Often, he'd pull a few toys underneath and sit there playing, occasionally peeking out to check out what the rest of the family was doing.  Sometimes he'd just go down there to hang out and possibly to escape Mini Muffin's attentions(?).  Other times, he'd head behind the bouncer to play with whatever he'd squirrelled back there days before.  However, his favourite thing to do in his Man Cave was to play with and disassemble the foam letter tiles we had stacked behind it.  Mini Muffin even joined in at times, treating them as little puzzles.  Did you know that the outline of a foam tile 8 also makes an excellent crown?  Or that the center piece of an O makes a great play phone?

Since it's tricky for adults to manoeuvre the Man Cave, we generally just let it be, and soon there was a massive mess of foam letters back there.  Every few weeks we'd tidy them up, but generally they were just left as a jumbled pile for playing.  Below is a picture of Little Smiling Man from before Christmas playing behind his Man Cave.  The tiles had recently been straightened so there's still a semblance of a pile - picture them in their normal state, as one big mound of disassembled tiles.  Fun for kids and rather unsightly for everyone else!

Playing with letters in the Man Cave

Post Man Cave - easily accessible and untouched!

Sunday night, after the bouncer was packed away and the kids were in bed, my husband and I decided to at long last tidy up the letters.  Since every single tile had been disassembled there were quite a few to put together.  I'd find a matching pair and my husband would put them together and stack them.  We joked that it was a bit like being a Sesame Street Muppet - we had to tidy up and organise our letters before bed.  To us it sounded like a task worthy of Bert and Ernie!

Now that everyone has easy access to that corner, it seems to have lost its allure to Little Smiling Man.  The tiles have remained untouched for five whole days!  However, I suspect he'll rediscover them at some point and we'll have the same old mess; just with easier access to clean it up.  Who knows, maybe Little Smiling Man will even return to his Man Cave someday when the bouncer is returned to the corner for his future sibling.

Simple Kitchen Sink Quiche

When I’m home with the kids our daily routine sometimes seems to revolve around food – breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner – and everything else needs to fit into the gaps.  With the responsibility of nourishing small, growing people my own eating habits have definitely shifted.  I eat more fruits and vegetables, fewer processed foods, and certainly eat more regularly than I once did. 

Since my return to work some additional changes in my eating patterns have been necessary.  On a work day, I’ve generally finished my breakfast by 5:30 (as opposed to the leisurely 8:00 I enjoy when at home).  With nearly six hours between breakfast and lunch, a morning snack is more of a necessity than ever!  And, let’s call a spade a spade; because my morning is so long, my morning snack is more like a small meal than a quick bite.  With that in mind, I’ve been trying to make sure my morning snack is a) enjoyable, b) varied from day to day, and c) packs a nutritional punch.

This morning I snapped a picture of my morning snack since it was looking so good, and thought I’d share the recipe!  This quiche can be whatever you want it to be; mine changes every time based on what I have in the fridge and want to use up!  It’s simple and quick to make, can help to reduce food wastage, and as I’ve learned this week makes a great snack or meal for young children and mamas alike!

Simple Crustless Kitchen Sink Quiche

Simple Crustless Kitchen Sink Quiche

4 eggs
1c 2% milk
1c self raising flour
1 medium zucchini*
2-3c of other veggies, meat and cheese, finely chopped or grated** 

1.        Preheat oven to 350F, and grease a casserole dish or baking pan (approx 10” square).

2.       Grate zucchini and combine with other finely chopped or grated ingredients.

3.       Add self rising flour and mix well.

4.       In a small bowl, whisk eggs and milk.

5.       Add eggs and milk to zucchini mixture and stir until just combined.

6.       Transfer to prepared pan and bake until firm in the middle and lightly browned around the edges; approximately 40 minutes.  Time will vary based on size of pan and thickness of quiche. 

* Grated zucchini is a key ingredient for this dish – it gives the quiche its final texture and helps hold it together.  I do not recommend omitting zucchini from this recipe.
** You can plan this quiche (e.g. broccoli and cheese), or use it as a kitchen sink dish to use up odds and ends in your fridge like I do.  The quiche pictured contains – 1 zucchini, 1 carrot, 1 seeded tomato, 2 green onions, handful of leftover cooked broccoli and corn, cheddar cheese and peameal bacon.

To dress your quiche up, consider laying asparagus spears or tomato slices on the top before baking.  A quick spray with a non-stick cooking spray or oil atomizer will also help brown the top.

Little Smiling Man and I have been enjoying this quiche for a couple of days now.  It’s quick and easy to add to his dinner, and he really seems to enjoy it.  Plus, it's firm enough for little fingers to pick up easily, yet still soft enough to be easily eaten before any molars come in.  I’ve had it both as a packed lunch with a side of spinach, or on its own as a snack.  It holds its shape well, and reheats nicely, so it’s a great work day dish!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies for Baby

As I was getting ready to return to work, in addition to my flurry of preparing freezer meals, I worked on finding easy, freezable, wholesome finger foods I could make for the kids.  My vision was to have foods, preferably containing some form of vegetable, ready to go in the freezer so that when my hungry littles got home I could put something in their hands to help them wait until dinner's ready.

The first baked creation I tried was a tweaked version of Pumpkin Pie Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies from Amy's Healthy Baking.  It came highly recommended from an online forum I frequent, so I had to give it a try.  The original recipe looks absolutely delicious for grown ups, but for my kids I did need to tweak it a bit.  The end result was a moist and flavourful cookie that Little Smiling Man devoured each and every time I handed him one!  I definitely ate my fair share of them too, and I may or may not have had some breakfast at some point before they ran out...

So without further ado -

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies for Baby

Soft and delicious Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

1c instant oats
3/4c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch salt
3/4c pumpkin purée
1/4c maple syrup
2 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4c raisins

1.  Preheat oven to 325F
2.  Blend dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl, created a well in the middle.
3.  Combine pumpkin, maple syrup, butter and vanilla.  Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just combined. 
4.  Add raisins, and mix until well distributed.
5. Spoon onto parchment lined cookie sheet.  Using a spoon, press down and form cookies.  These cookies do not spread at all during baking, so form the cookies however you'd like the final product to look.  I used a cookie-sized ice cream scoop to get the volume and round shape I was looking for, then just pressed them down.
6.  Bake 12-14 minutes.  The cookies should still be soft, and slightly browned on the bottom.  Cool on pan for a few minutes before transferring to a rack.

Makes 18 large cookies

Among the many things I like about this recipe (aside from the cookies of which I ate quite a few myself!) is that it gets its sweetness from raisins and a bit of maple syrup as opposed to large quantities of added sugar.  I also like that they work well with whole wheat flour, and have a healthy portion of pumpkin in them.  All in all, they're a well rounded cookie, and did I mention that they're delicious?   

Budget Helper - Springtime!

Spring finally made it to our part of the world!  After a sunny few days of above freezing temperatures, Mother Nature decided to end the teasing and bring back winter.  We've had a few weeks of below seasonal temperatures, and precipitation ranging from sleet to freezing rain to snow.  Everyone I know is totally over winter - even Mini Muffin was less enthusiastic to play in the snow.  Finally, this weekend the tides have turned and we're able to enjoy a sunny and unseasonably warm couple of days!  Yahoo!  I was marvelling on my run this morning that only a week ago I was having trouble navigating the ice and snow, and now the roads and bare and dry.  Fantastic!

Today also marks the seasonal return of one of my favourite budget savers - line drying!  The inaugural load is just sheets, so the photo isn't super exciting... unless you consider that those are winter sheets that are about to be packed away.  In that case, it makes it slightly more exciting I think!

A true sign of spring - sheets flapping in the breeze!

Now, let me tell you about my clothesline.  I've had it for three years now, and I love it.  It gets heavy use from late April through October, and is holding up very well.  With two young children, the laundry pile seems endless, so there are real savings there.  And, it saves heating up my house during hot weather by running the dryer. 

As you can see, it's a bit different than what most people think of when they think about clotheslines.  When I was researching them, I knew that I wanted one, but didn't want a permanent installation.  So, no strung across the yard jobbies, nor the umbrella style that my grandma used to have.  Collapsible racks to use on the deck just didn't have enough space.  And then I found this one - it's umbrella style, but also collapsible.  So, when I'm not using it, it's stored unobtrusively on the side of my deck.  And, when I am using it, it's a full sized umbrella clothesline.  Talk about perfect.  I'm glad I did some research as I certainly didn't know that this style existed, yet there it was as our local Canadian Tire! 

Here's to spring, and the return of clothes flapping in the breeze under sunny skies!   

Healthy "Chocolate Thick Shake"

I had a major mommy win last night. Since shortly before my return to work, Mini Muffin has been kicking the picky eating up a notch.  A lot of it, I think, is around the changes in our routine and that's leading to her retesting boundaries and trying to exert control over what she can - in this case whether or not she eats.  It's been a huge struggle as she's been rejecting foods she loves, and generally eating like a bird, which in turn makes her cranky, and well, you know the drill.

One of the significant challenges I've had are vegetables.  I've been struggling to get any form of veggie into her, and it's so frustrating!  Last night I tried something new, and was so happy that it worked!  I found a recipe in a smoothie cookbook I have, gave it some pretty significant tweaks, and the result was a "chocolate thick shake" that when served in a coloured straw cup to hide the green tinge, went down like a treat!  Mini Muffin of course has no idea what a thick shake is, so took to calling it her chocolate drink.

Mini Muffin's Special Chocolate Drink

Large handful of baby spinach
1/2 med or 1/4 large ripe avocado
1 1/2 c coconut milk
1 banana
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Ice

1.  Add spinach, avocado and coconut milk to blender, and blend until smooth.
2.  Add banana, cocoa powder, honey and cinnamon.  Blend until smooth.
3.  Add ice, and blend.  Adjust consistency with extra avocado and/or ice to make thicker, or extra milk to make thinner if desired.

Makes two servings. 

I made and served this drink while Mini Muffin was out of the room, since it does have a bit of an odd colour to it.  However, once she tasted it, she was pretty intent that it was all hers!  She drank about half of the recipe (so a big glass full), and Little Smiling Man and I split the rest.

I totally did a happy dance behind her back as she slurped it back!

Kid's Books We Love - The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes

Today was an exciting mail day - a book order I placed a few weeks ago arrived.  I'm pretty excited, so even though it's seasonally late, I had to share!

Growing up, our go to Easter book was The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward.  It was originally published in 1939, and our copy was probably from the 1950's; worn and full of character.  Sadly, it disappeared when my sister and I became adults, and we didn't think much more of it.  That is until this Easter.  I remembered it as I was reading a bunny board book to Mini Muffin, and decided to see if it was still available.  It turns out that it was recently reprinted for its 75th anniversary!  I was able to order a copy for my family, as well as one for my sister.  And, while late for this Easter, it'll be ready to go next year.

Available for purchase from Chapters (and other great retailers)

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes is a great, warm and fuzzy Easter children's book.  It tells the story of a country bunny who dreams of being an Easter Bunny, but feels her chances are lost when she has a family.  She puts her whole heart and soul into raising her family, and lets her dream go.  When the time comes to find a new Easter Bunny, the hunt is on and all the well-to-do and speedy bunnies gather to strut their stuff.  However, it takes more than being clever and swift to be an Easter Bunny!  Grandfather Bunny, who is responsible for Easter Bunny selection, values those characteristics but also believes that an Easter Bunny must be kind, wise and hard working.  You can imagine what happens next! 

The edition I purchased (pictured above), is beautifully illustrated with the same illustrations as the version from my childhood.  It's an older style of illustration than many books today feature, and is vivid and warm, adding to the story's magic.  It's definitely on the longer side, so is appropriate for preschoolers, or young school aged children. 

Now that this is written, The Country Bunny is being tucked away for next year - I'm already excited to share it with my family!

Freezer Meals!

I've always been a planner.  My mom recently commented that I'm the same today as I was as a child - I have a plan, a backup plan, and a plan for every eventuality I can imagine. As such, it's really no surprise that I've been thinking about and planning how my household would run with two busy kids and two busy working parents.

One of my big concerns is providing healthy suppers with lots of variety, and being able to get those suppers on the table within minutes. We are, after all, a hungry tribe when we walk in the door at 5pm, and at that point it's definitely too late for a snack to get us through to dinner. And so, prior to my return to work last week, I went all Once A Month Mom and filled my freezer full of wholesome dinners that could be on the table in moments. My goal was to have two meals a week for the first two months ready to go in my freezer, so a total of 16 meals. And my window to make it happen was nap time. It was a busy week of cooking!

First, I spent some time planning. For recipes, I pulled from our favourites, got ideas from the internet, and scoured my cookbooks. I chose to freeze fully cooked meals to minimise my on the day prep time. Next up was making a list and shopping. Given more time I would have waited for meats to come on sale and worked my recipes for what was available, but in a pinch Costco is certainly a good source of high quality, competitively priced meats. Then with my fridge full of veggies and about 10 lb of meat, it was time to get cooking!

By the end of the week, my freezer happily contained:
4 meals of Meat Sauce
3 meals of Thai Coconut Chicken
2 meals of Rosemary Chicken
2 meals of Lemon Ginger Chicken
3 meals of Swiss Steak
1 meal of Meatloaf
1 meal of Sloppy Joes

Each one needs a side on the day, which will ideally be set up the night before (e.g. rice measured into the rice cooker waiting for water and power, veggies chopped and waiting in the fridge to be steamed).  Each meal, with the exception of the meatloaf, is also frozen into a large, labelled freezer bag.  So, the night before the meal can be transferred from freezer to fridge, and later poured into a pot for a quick heat before we can all dig in.

Now, here are my tips for a freezer meal cooking frenzy:

• Plan ahead - recipes, groceries, order of cooking and storage.  Bonus points if you can sequence your prep to minimize the dishes afterwards!
• Wear running shoes - unless you have a cork floor or an ergonomic mat, it's definitely worthwhile to wear supportive shoes - your back will thank you!
• Freezer bags save a tonne of space!  Lay flat to freeze and they'll stack nicely in your freezer.  Plus, removing excessive air is easy with the help of a straw.
• Label everything - it's amazing how similar things look when they're frozen.  Imagine the disappointment of defrosting what you think is chili and discovering that it's actually meat sauce.  As someone that experienced this (but didn't realise until I was at work with no other lunch options but a container of meat sauce), I can tell you it's not fun.
• Keep a tally of what's in your freezer - I put my list on my meal planning white board in my kitchen.  This way you can keep track of your meal options, and theoretically none of them will get lost in the far reaches of your deep freezer, never to be seen again.

So, how is it going so far?  We didn't use any freezer meals for my first week back.  Little Smiling Man had a fever after only one day at daycare, so I was home with him for two days, making meal prep relatively easy.  This week, we've had leftovers or cooked quick meals like stir fry each night so far.  However, tomorrow meat sauce, pasta and mozzarella are on the menu!

Tomorrow Night's Dinner (thawing in progress!)