Craft Idea - Hallowe'en Handprints

We are in full autumn mode!  We've been doing for lots of fall walks, enjoying the last warm-ish days, and sadly packing away all things summer.  Fall has also crept into our diet with more apples and squash.  So, as Little Smiling Man naps and Mini Muffin plays with orange playdough while we wait for our pumpkin oatmeal muffins to cool, it seems like a great time to share a little handprint craft we did the other day.  It makes a great seasonal decoration, is small to store, and will be super cute to pull out again next year and see how much Mini Muffin has grown.

Before the toddler phase, arts and crafts were certainly a long way behind me.  As in, I'm pretty sure I left arts and crafts behind in elementary school.  So, I've been doing a lot of learning... and a lot of idea gathering on Pintrest!  This idea was just too cute to miss!



Eek!

As you can see, it was mostly a mommy craft with a bit of toddler input.  Mini Muffin thinks "her spider" is pretty cool, and loves the webs created around it in purple (her favourite colour).  And, mommy had some fun doing something crafty during naptime. 
A little bit more about the process -

I chose to work on canvas for longevity and display purposes, but you could very easily work on paper.  I also used tempera paints to keep everything non-toxic and easy to clean. 

Since we didn't have any orange paint on hand, I mixed some up and prepped the canvas while Mini Muffin was napping.  I applied a couple of layers with a sponge brush, and then dabbed with a sponge to even out the texture.  Once it was dry, we painted Mini Muffin's hands and pressed them down one at a time to make our spider.  The next day (also during her nap), I broke out the purple and a fine paint brush to finished it off.  She was so surprised to see the end result when she woke up, and I had so much fun painting.  As I said, it's been years!

I had a few learnings through the process, which the very crafty would find basic.  When I mixed the orange, I was completely off with the red/yellow proportion.  For the record, Hallowe'en orange is mostly yellow.  I ended up with so much orange as I added more and more yellow to find the right shade!  I also found the by using a foam brush (which is all I had on hand), I ended up with a really streaky canvas.  It looked kind of cool, but wasn't the look I was going for.  Hence, improvising with the sponge.  I love the mottled texture of the final product!

So, there's a fun handprint Hallowe'en idea.  Now, on to create one for Little Smiling Man!

Simply Delicious - Cauliflower Soup for Everyone!

I've been learning a bit more about cauliflower recently.  I'd always written it off due to its colour - I mean how could a white vegetable contain much in the way of nutrients?  Well, cauliflower is really back in vogue these days.  And, it turns out that it's super healthy!  It's a great source of vitamin C, folate, and vitamin K, as well as fibre.

Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of plain old boiled or steamed cauliflower, and adding cheese sauce seems to sort of defeat the purpose.  So, after talking to a friend about an amazing cauliflower soup she threw together for her baby, I decided to see if I could come up with my own version.  It was so easy and simple, I forgot to even take a picture of it before it was all gobbled up or frozen into baby cubes.

Here's the recipe, should you choose to give it a whirl -

Cauliflower Carrot Soup

1 medium head of cauliflower
2 large carrots
1 medium onion
2 medium cloves garlic
1 tbsp butter
4 cups low sodium chicken stock

1.  Melt butter in a large pot, and add chopped onion and crushed garlic.  Cook over medium heat until onion is translucent.
2.  Add stock, chopped carrots, and cauliflower flowerets.  Bring to a boil.
3.  Cook covered, over medium heat until cauliflower is fall-apart cooked.
4.  Blend until smooth, adding water if too thick.
5.  Serve and enjoy!

Everyone in my family enjoyed this soup, especially Little Smiling Man. I'd even say that it's his favourite food so far!  It was versatile and delicious, and so very easy to make.  This one will definitely reappear on our table to help us all enjoy more cauliflower!

Magic Happens at Daycare

Magic happens at daycare!  A friend of mine coined this phrase to explain why our children seem to be completely different people when in the care of someone outside of the home.

Here are some "magical" cases:
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Case 1:
Mini Muffin fights naps to the bitter end at home.  A nap can literally take hours to start, regardless of how much physical and/or mental stimulation she's had, time, routine or sleeping environment.  It takes forever, and a lot of mental fortitude from her parents so that we can avoid getting frustrated with her and making the situation worse.  Left to her own devices she does everything she can to keep herself awake and has never fallen asleep for a nap unattended.  With a parent in the room, she also does everything she can to keep herself awake, but can sometimes be lulled to sleep by a persistent parent. 

When Mini Muffin started in the "big kid" room at daycare, I naturally asked how she had napped.  I was told that she had a good sleep, but was the last kid to fall asleep.  I thought "Aha!  So it's not just me!", only to have my bubble burst immediately thereafter.  Carer: "Yes, she was the very last one to fall asleep, but she did it completely on her own - no back rubbing or anything.  She fell asleep at a quarter to one."  Me (knowing their schedule): "I'm sorry, pardon?  A quarter to one?" "Yes." "As in 12:45?" "Yes (looking at me like I'm simple because I don't know what a quarter to one means).  We start settling for nap at 12:30 and she fell asleep on her own at 12:45.  Oh, and we make the room conducive to sleep - it's dark and we play nature sounds."

Seriously!?!?  Fifteen minutes!?!?!  Between naps and bedtime, some days I feel like I do nothing but try to settle her for sleep.  Magic happens at daycare.

Case 2:
Mini Muffin is quite particular on her diet.  We try not to make too big a deal out of what she will and will not eat, to avoid it turning into more of a power struggle.  She actually tastes more things when we pretty much leave her to her own devices.  That being said, I'm very familiar with her refusing to eat foods that most kids love (e.g. pasta, scrambled eggs, ketchup or any kind of sauce being among them).

I picked her up one day to hear that she refuses to eat cheese.  Yes, I'm well aware.  She will eat it melted; but normal, cold, delicious cheese?  No way.  Oh, but she ate her crackers (a steadfast favourite of hers at home), ham and pickles, she just left the cheese.  What!?!?!  She ate ham?  And pickles?  Huh?  Then I was told that they make their snacks fun - cubes of ham, triangles of cheese, round pickles and rectangular crackers.  Hmmm.... I suppose I could try to make snacks more fun. 

I replicated the snack at home a few weeks later.  Mini Muffin ate the crackers, and built houses and towers out of the rest.  Not a crumb passed her lips, even when asked.  So much for fun.  Magic happens at daycare.

Case 3:
My friend's toddler went through a stage of throwing her plate on the floor when she didn't want any more, didn't like the offerings, or sometimes just for fun. 

One day at pick up, she was told that her daughter had thrown her plate on the floor.  The carer explained that she'd asked her to pick up the food and carry her plate over to the garbage to throw out her wasted food, and then return to the table to wait for the others to finish - which is exactly what this little toddler did. 

And, for the record, she never again threw her plate on the floor.... at daycare anyway.  Magic happens at daycare.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm still not sure how I feel about this phenomenon.  I'm happy that my little person is well behaved when I'm not around, and that she seems to be stepping outside her comfort zone.  She also seems to push boundaries much harder at home.  I'd like to think that it's because home is a safe place for her to grow and learn and that she knows we'll love her unconditionally, and not because she sees me as a push over.  For the record, I don't think she sees me as a push over; I think she just has a need to continually confirm that the boundaries haven't shifted, and by extension that I haven't suddenly morphed into a push over. 

In conclusion, magic does indeed seem to happen at daycare.  And, it sure would be nice if once in a while Mini Muffin would share some of that daycare napping magic with me.   

Easy Mommy Win - Carrots!

You may perhaps recall that Mini Muffin is a bit of a picky eater.  In addition to continuing to offer her healthy, whole foods including a variety of vegetables (which are usually declined), I'm always on the lookout for ways to sneak the nutrients she needs into foods she'll enjoy.

Carrots have always been a tough one.  Despite being sweet and delicious, Mini Muffin is determined to avoid them.  And, their bright colour can make them tricky to disguise.  Not long ago she tried Motts fruit and veggie sauce, which is essentially applesauce with some peach and what I can only assume is a token amount of carrot (based on its place in the ingredient list).  She loved it, and it soon became known as "orange applesauce".

The other day, Mini Muffin was requesting orange applesauce and we were all out.  She and I decided that mommy should try to make some.  And so, a healthier version of orange applesauce was born.

Orange Applesauce

3 apples (any sweet variety)
1/2 large carrot

1.  Cook carrot by desired method (boiling, steaming, etc).  This is also a great opportunity to use up left over carrot - which is exactly what I did! 

2.  Place peeled, cored and chopped apple, along with carrot in a medium saucepan. 

3.  Add water until apples and carrots are almost covered.  Ensure all carrots are under water.

4.  Bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until apple is fall-apart cooked and carrot is very soft.  Almost all water will have boiled off.  If water is boiled off before carrot and apple are thoroughly cooked, add boiling water.

5.  Put apple-carrot mixture through blender until very smooth.  Add warm water if consistency is too thick for your taste.  If you want a chunkier sauce you could mash it, however the carrots will not be hidden in this case.  I used my Magic Bullet, and made sure every last chunk was gone - it came out to be almost exactly like store bought texture, maybe even a little bit smoother.

The final result, was a brilliant orange and sweet applesauce, with no added sweetener required and no preservatives.  The test came when I gave it to Mini Muffin for dessert.  Three servings later, we had to convince her to wait for breakfast to enjoy more!  It's official, mommy's orange applesauce is more popular than the store bought variety.  Even better, it's also completely baby appropriate!

And that, is my easy mommy win for carrots.  Next on the agenda... figuring out which greens I can hide in applesauce! 

Milk Cubes - Why didn't I think of this sooner!?!

I have been very fortunate to be able to exclusively breastfeed both my babies.  It's been, and continues to be, amazing.  Little Smiling Man is seven months old today, and is therefore also about a month into experiencing solids.  Well, actually purées, but I digress... So far he's enjoyed cereals, egg yolks and quite an array of vegetables.  He seems pretty enthusiastic about the whole concept!

As many a smart mama will tell you, if you're making puréed baby food for your little angel, freezing it in an ice cube tray is super convenient.  Once frozen, just pop it out and into a freezer bag, label and away you go!  We still use this technique to freeze homemade soups in small portions for Mini Muffin, and with trying to give Little Smiling Man lots of variety, I'm in baby cube making mode!

Since I chose to introduce iron fortified baby cereals, and he's never had formula, our dietitian recommended using "mix with breastmilk", as opposed to "mix with water" cereals.  The mix with water variety are super convenient, but contain several ingredients that formula fed babies would have been exposed to, but breastfed babies would not. So, to keep things simple for their tummies, and to make it easy to identify any potential food intolerance, we use only the mix with breastmilk variety of baby cereal.

Here comes the challenging part: Managing milk inventories to mix cereal.  Breastmilk doesn't keep long in the fridge, and especially in the early days of introducing solids you use so little to mix cereal.  Sometimes we waste pumped milk because we don't use enough.  Sometimes Little Smiling Man nurses so much (e.g. during teething) that I have nothing to spare for cereal.  Sometimes we're busy and finding time to pump is difficult.  Sometimes I have excess supply and pump a whole bottle, so freeze it to avoid wastage.  But, the frozen bag can only be defrosted in its entirety, and so leads to wasted milk in the end since my little guy also refuses the bottle.  All of this to say, we seem to constantly be in a state of having too much or too little breastmilk for mixing cereal.

And so, after two years of freezing cubes of all sorts of things, it suddenly dawned on me... milk cubes!  When I'm able to pump a whole bottle, instead of using a too-big bag, just freeze it in an ice cube tray.  Then, if we're short on milk, I can just take out a single serve cube, defrost, mix, and the wastage is minimal.  Sweet and simple.



Almost ready - defrosting indirectly with hot water

The question I therefore have to ask is....  Why on earth didn't I think of this two years ago!?!?!

Simpy Delicious - Special Banana Pancakes

I'm all about an easy dinner after a busy Friday!  So, yesterday I drew on one of my tried and true toddler dinners - "Special Banana Pancakes".

These pancakes came about when Mini Muffin was about nine months old.  I was desperately trying to find some form of protein that she would actually eat, aside from milk.  Eggs seemed like a reasonable alternative to the meat she refused, but she really didn't take to them.  So, I came up with her very own special banana pancakes - banana mashed with egg and cooked in a bit of butter like a pancake.  She LOVED them from the get go, and to this day she'll gobble down two eggs in one sitting!

Now, I thought I was being all novel and inventive coming up with these pancakes.  However, I soon came across a banana egg scramble variation on an online community.  Then, I received an email from Self magazine touting gluten free pancakes... which were essentially my recipe with a bit of baking soda!  So, I must concede, they are not what you would call novel, but they are what I would call a quick, easy and awesome way to get egg into a baby or toddler!

And, the 'recipe' -

Special Banana Pancakes

1 very ripe banana (well mashed)
2 eggs

1.  Scramble eggs and combine with banana.
2.  Melt a small amount of butter in a frying pan. 
3.  When butter is bubbly, drop batter into pan.  I suggest pancakes be on the small side (one spoonful per pancake) because they can be a bit tricky to turn.  Flip when reasonably set.

We serve these plain - the banana flavour comes through strongly and makes them sweet so they really don't need anything!  They also reheat fairly well, so I try to make a bit extra for a quick and easy snack the next day.  Enjoy!