Go-to Toddler Foods

Sharing some of our favourite toddler meals today and let me tell you, I feel like A's taste buds change every five seconds; one week she loves fish, pasta, and raisins and the next she looks at me like I'm feeding her garbage if I put those same things in front of her. Luckily we have a few standing favourite go-tos to fall back on when she's changing her mind about most other foods. 

Eggs. She loves eggs. All my kids do. So much so that we constantly have boiled eggs in the fridge, no exaggeration. And they go like hot cakes. Which is fine by me. So when the baby is being picky I can always make her eggs whether it be scrambled, fried, boiled, etc. We legit buy three 2.5 dozen cartons every two weeks and even still I usually need to go grab another dozen or so before the full two weeks is up. Yeah, our grocery bill is insane. 

Rice. She eats every last grain. I've had this amazing rice cooker for the last decade. No joke. And it was worth every penny because you literally push a button and you have perfectly cooked rice in no time. Sometimes I put a sauce on her rice. Sometimes I don't. Either way she devours it. I usually serve it with some sort of bean for protein. 

Pasta. Any kind. End of story.  

Couscous. Its her fave as of late

Potatoe salad. Yo, the girl likes carbs. She is her mother's daughter. My father-in-law's side of the family has a potatoe salad recipe that is heavenly. Super simple but heavenly nontheless. I never had anything like it and struggled to even call of potatoe salad for the longest time because it's only relation to traditional potatoe salad is that it has potatoes and mayonnaise in it. Anyway, it's another one all the kids love.

Chicken pot pie. I love this stuff. And so does she. And I don't feel bad about her having it because of all the veg it contains. 

Grapes and Clementines. She probably thinks they're candy. She rolls her eyes and hums whilst eating them and I never tell her no of she asks for more. 

Apples. She can eat an entire one. Girlfriend isn't gonna go hungry anytime soon.

I know all kids are different but hopefully some of these go-tos will be a winner for your kiddos too. And one more thing that ensures she eats well is not giving her loads of something at once. I don't know if she gets overwhelmed or what but she'll start playing with it and making a mess intentionally rather than eating, but if I just give her a small portion she happily eats. She's also starting to love eating at the actual table in a real chair rather than her highchair. Which is more than fine by me because I took ages to find a highchair that didn't have a large footprint and wasn't an ugly hunk of plastic in my dining area so while I eventually found a highchair that I love I'm definitely not going to be sad to see it get stored away soon.  

Happy Friday, folks. 

Chicken Stir-Fry with Somen Noodles

• If there's one thing you should know about me it's that I looooooooathe cooking. I do it daily, obviously, since I have a basketball team to keep alive, but I absolutely dread cooking. 
• Baking? Sign me up. 
• Cooking? I want to cry. 
  
  
  You know how when people are like, "If you won't the lottery what what's the first thing you'd buy!" ? My answer is a personal chef. Not even remotely kidding. 
  
  
  One thing that makes cooking a bit less painful is when the family raves about the food. And it's a bonus when it's a quick, easy dish. Which brings me to my new favourite that I had to share with y'all. Chicken stir fry with somen noodles. Really quick, how do people come up with names for recipes? I find it difficult. I find myself wanting to use every ingredient in the title but that just sounds ridiculous. I digress. 
  
  
  
  This recipe is quick and tasty, guys. Here we go:
  
  
  Ingredients:
  
  
  Sauce:
  3 TBSP honey 
  1 TBSP hot sauce (or 2 TBSP sriracha)
  Dash of salt and pepper
  1 tsp rice vinegar
  1 TBSP olive oil
  1/4 cup soy sauce
  1/4 cup water
• 
  
• Stir Fry:
• 1 lb Chicken breasts
• somen noodles
• 1 orange bell pepper
• 1 1/2 cups cabbage
• 1 cup carrot

Misc:

Asian seasoning (in your grocer's spice aisle)

1 bundle green onions

Directions: 

Heat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Sprinkle Asian seasoning on chicken breasts liberally. Wrap chicken in foil and place in oven. As chicken is baking, mix sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Chop veggies to desired size. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a large pan on medium heat, add veggies. Cook veggies until slightly tender then add sauce. Bring to a simmer and cover, stirring occasionally. When chicken is done (about 20 minutes but will vary by oven) remove from oven and cut into cubes. When sauce has thickened slightly add chicken and stir. In a large sauce pan add water and bring to a boil. Add somen noodles (I use one 'bundle' per person). Somen is very thin and therefore cooks fast! Keep an eye on it, it should take no more than three or four minutes for the noodles to cook. Once noodles are cooked, drain and rinse in cold water. Place desired amount of noodles in bowl and top with the chicken/veggie/sauce mix. Garnish with green onions. Enjoy!

Donut Fear, it's Friday!

Hi Friday, ya'll. I'm here with a recipe for you. Donuts. Oh yes.

I wanted to share this recipe because I searched high and low for a baked donut recipe that I liked. We tried loads. Seriously, like eight or nine. But something was always slightly off in my opinion so I decided to try my hand at my own and after a batch or two I got it just right.

This morning the littlest and I made a batch and ate half of them in one sitting. Don't tell anyone though.

Here's what you need:

Donut pan (*this is the one I have and is perfect)

1 Cup All-Purpose flour

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

1 Egg

1/2 Cup Milk

1/4 tsp Apple cider vinegar

 4 TBSP Butter

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine all dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Next, combine all the wet ingredients except the egg in a small sauce pan over medium heat until the butter is melted. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture. Whisk it. Whisk it good. I'm laughing right now. I know, total nerd. Once combined add the egg and whisk again.

I like to spoon the batter into a sandwhich bag, cut the corner off, then pipe into the donut pan but you could spoon the batter straight in to the pan if you wish. It's honestly much easier to do the bag method since the donut pan is in the shape of, well, donuts.

The batter will make exactly six donuts if you're using the size donut pan that is linked above.

Pop them in the oven for about 13 minutes.

Once done remove them from the pan and let them cool while you make the glaze. 

You need glaze, trust me. Tis good.

Glaze:

1 Cup Powdered sugar

2 TBSP Milk

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

In a small saucepan combine all the ingredients on medium heat. Dip one side of each donut (or both sides if you're a rebel) into the glaze and place on cooling rack. The glaze solidifies quickly so if you want to add sprinkle do so as soon as you glaze it. As in, before you even move on to glazing the next donut.

Once all your donuts are glazed, devour them. Avery annihilated one and hummed the whole time. It was adorable. And not nearly as messy as I thought it'd be. Although she did end up crumbling half the donut in her tightly clenched fists.

Happy Friyay, ya'll! Make this weekend amazing! xx

*contains affiliate links

Delicious Banana Bread

When my husband realises I'm posting a recipe he'll laugh out loud. And he's not one to just toss his laughter around easily; he's a funny guy but it takes quite a bit for him to think you're funny.  Ariana compared him to Kanye West in that regard. Which, by the way, she thought his name was pronounced "Con-yee" and had been calling him that for so long that we simply say 'Con-yee' now when referring to Mr West.

The other night we were playing a game and Owen said something funny, Seth laughed and two point four seconds later was back to a straight face. Ari said, "See?!" Pointing to Seth and grinning. "Conyee!!!" *shrugged shoulders*

In any event lets get to it, shall we?

Banana bread - one of my favourite snacks and one of the few things I bake well from scratch (hence my hubby laughing). I played around with your basic banana bread recipe and changed it until I found what is perfect to my completely unrefined palette.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (one stick) butter, softened

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup white sugar

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

3 medium bananas

1/2 cup vanilla greek yogurt

Walnuts (optional)

Directions:

Beat butter, eggs, and vanilla together. In a separate bowl, mix salt, baking soda, sugar and flour. Combine dry mixture with wet mixture. Add the yogurt and bananas, mixing well. If you'd like to add walnuts do so now.

Place in greased bread pan. 

Bake in a pre-heated oven (350 degrees Fahrenheit) for about an hour and a half. 

*Baking times may vary slightly by oven

Hope ya'll enjoy this yummy treat as much as the kids and I do. I don't think a loaf has ever lasted more than two days in our house. I have a slice in the morning with my coffee and the kids snack on it through the day. My littlest lad loves it warm with a pat of butter on top. Yum.

Enjoy!