Rainbow and Squirrel Sandwiches (not what you think)

We made it through September and October seems to be even busier!! Seriously is it me or do we get busier every year? What happened to the down time it must be somewhere, I am still looking!! The preparing dinners is tough enough, but making lunches can leave you at a loss too. Walking in to the kitchen groggy and trying to juggle breakfast, finding missing socks and making sure homework is in the backpack can be a real chore. The last thing you want to do is make a bunch of lunches, am I wrong? Well I can't help with that because the kids have to eat!! At our school we have to bring lunch everyday we do not have a lunch program (yet).  Over one hundred and twenty or more lunches in a school year can seem daunting, and if you have more than one child...well you get my drift!  

          When winter comes I immediately get out the Thermos and go for soups and stews, warmth during the day can give a child that little boost they need. But until then I like to make sandwiches, the problem is that my daughter has never been a fan of the sandwich. She much prefers a warm lunch, something homemade of course but that can't always happen. Recently I remembered I had some edible markers I usually use to draw on hard boiled eggs with. My discovery that they work on bread was a gold mine!!! I can write notes like "I miss you" or "drink more water" on her bread!! 

The best part is that she likes make her own lunches (with some persuading) because the markers are fun to use. We make the sandwich the night before so we are not rushed in the morning. We only do this once a week to keep it special but it sure is fun!!  We add, fruit, cheese and crackers, and a veggie like cucumbers or carrots. I very rarely add any sugary treats unless it is home baked like banana bread.   This gives me a break the next morning so I can gear up my creative brain for the next day's lunch.

Try going to a thrift shop for cookie cutters, Ikea has some fun ones too!  I have a large collection and find that I almost never make cookies with them. They work so well for "sandies" as we call them in our house!

Cookie cutters and edible markers make a great lunch.

Make it Pretty for Earth Day + Kids Konserve Giveaway

I buy plates and cute cups like some people buy shoes! (OK, I buy shoes like that too) My husband and I do many food shoots and I am always on the hunt for new props. I can’t keep my hands off  those cute playful serving vessels, I do try to buy recyclable items as much as possible. My cupboards are busting (to my husband's dismay) with stacked colorful plates, bowls, napkins and even the occasional coconut shell or bamboo plate.  But in real life I try to reuse as many containers as I can.  I like fun food and so do kids, they love to imagine and play and it doesn't stop at mealtime.  If you are trying to get your kids to eat healthier, it can be a frustrating challenge. Starting with snacks can ease the pain, get them eating better in small doses. Once the snacks are more wholesome then you can work on mealtime. Kids are much more likely to be interested in a fun presentation of a food even if they may not have been a fan of it in the past.  Any change for kids can be tough but making it fun can make a world of difference. You can get your kids to make a world of difference by re using containers you already have. Reusing containers in a great way to stay conscious about how much trash we are tossing. Ditch the paper plates and cups and please do away with plastic forks and spoons. If you need some good ideas for no waste lunches click here. 
I have a great giveaway, this super reusable lunch bag and containers from Kids Konserve!! Read below to find out how to enter.

• ·      Take everyday foods and cut them in new ways. Instead of giving a granola bar in the wrapper, unwrap it and cut it lengthwise for something different.
• ·      Serve salad in a cup, stand up the baby Romaine leaves and cut everything in sticks
• ·      Slice quiche in small triangles and insert fun playful toothpicks for eating. 
• ·      Use an ice cream scoop for rice, or even veggie lasagna!  

Make it different, change it up and think out of the box. Snack time is a fun time to try new food ideas, it fast and uncomplicated. Moving to healthier foods at snack time can be tough, so put the emphasis on adding new foods not on taking away foods. Start with fruit to replace sugary bars and nuts to replace chips.  Keep the crunch, kids love crunch it is very satisfying.  Try fun snacks you may have not noticed in the store before, check the natural section.  Have fun and look around the house for new ways to serve up snacks to your kids.

See what you have in your cabinet to serve in and see what kind of healthy snacks can go in to them in fun exciting ways. Have your kids help find containers to hold the snacks.

Suggestions:

•   Clean votive candle holders

•   Shot glasses

•   Mason jars

•   Use clean-take out containers

•   Wrap snacks in parchment paper  and tie with a bow

•   Cut a circle from a paper bag and make a cone shape for holding snacks

•   Make a boat shape from aluminum foil

•   Small Tupperware containers, are good for serving

•   Large deep lids are good to serve in too

•   Use doilies left over from Valentine's Day

•   Cut wrapping paper in to squares for a makeshift place mat

Our winner is The Family Chef!

To win the Kids Konserve Lunch bag:
Tell me what creative ideas you have come up with for your children's lunches or what you thought of while reading this post?

Follow my blog or or join me on  The Toddler Cafe Facebook page but leave a comment here telling me you did!  

I will do a drawing on Saturday April 30th at 12:00 PM using Random.org you will receive your gift within three weeks.

Please make sure your profile is public or leave your email address in your comment or I won't be able to find you!!

Apple Stuffin’ Muffins

Mini muffins with a strawberry and mint leaf in place of real leaves

Besides driving, working and entertaining, parents are always running right alongside their toddlers: making meals, doing dishes, and trying to keep everyone from getting grumpy.  The best way I have found to offset the constant running in circles is to be prepared with nutritious snacks.   I promise you that these are so quick and easy that you will WANT to make them, instead of feeling like it’s yet another chore.

This is a really flexible recipe.  You can change ingredients here and there and still get great results.  Add a small dot of cream cheese on top for more protein, or leave out the butter or replace it with a vegetable based non-hydrogenated margarine.  These muffins are extremely forgiving, so get to it and make a batch now your kids will thank you!  What are your kid's favorite healthy afternoon snack?

 Apple Stuffin’ Muffins

Makes 24 mini muffins

Here’s a great after-school snack for a hungry kid or any other member of your family. These are perfectly sweet with a strong apple flavor when you use homemade applesauce.  The better the apple sauce the more flavor the muffins will have. No time for making applesauce, add diced fresh apple to the recipe for a stronger flavor.

Ingredients     

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom (optional)

3 tbs butter

1/8 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup fresh applesauce 

1 egg

1/4 tsp salt

Optional. 1/2 apple peeled and chopped very small

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a mini muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl, set aside.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter on high for about 30 seconds; add sugar, applesauce, egg and salt to bowl.  Mix well.

Pour the apple mixture over the flour mixture.

Gently stir in the flour until just incorporated, do not over mix.

Fill the muffin tins about half full with batter.

Bake for 8-9 minutes for mini muffins.

Note: For 6 standard size muffins bake 15 minutes

Tip:

For evenly sized muffins, a mini cookie scoop works wonders, get one at your baking supply or craft store.

Optional Add-ins:

Small shredded carrot or zucchini, currants, chopped dates, flax seeds, quick oats, peanut butter, diced banana, shredded cheddar cheese

Movin and Groovin'

Wondering why I am not posting here? For the month of March I moved over to Nickelodeon Parents Connect. Stop by for a visit and enter to win the grand prize, The Ultimate Baby Food Center plus a prize a day.

Ingredients:

2 cooked lasagna noodles (the old fashioned kind)

2 slices cheese, mozzarella or Monterey jack

2 pieces of lettuce

2 thin slices turkey

2 thin pieces of salami

Instructions:

1. Lay the noodle out flat on a piece of plastic wrap.

2. Layer the cheese, lettuce and meats on top of the noodle, alternating end to end.

3. Roll up from the short end, then wrap in plastic wrap or secure with a toothpick.

Going Against the Grain - Healthier Gingerbread House * Recycled*

Here we are again...It is winter and the holiday season is in full swing. I bet you are all as busy as I am so I know you will understand when I tell you that I am recycling an old post I wrote for Edible Magazine. Things around here are great and I have a few projects up my sleeve. I am not quite ready to share all the details with you. So I figured it is better to re-share than post nothing, enjoy and if this is old news to you then chime in with some new ideas for the perfect gingerbread house!! I promise that after the break I will get back to posting more healthy recipes for your little ones. Until then enjoy your time and don't stress out too much, remember to have fun and take a breath this holiday season!

With the holidays coming, kids have two things on the brain—presents and sweets! When I think of the holidays I always think of a gingerbread house. We made one every year when I was growing up, and we always looked forward to it. It was an elaborate plan of blueprints and time. This year I am thinking of making a much healthier and simpler version—a rustic gingerbread cabin, if you will.

Are the kids sighing in the background? (Just wait kids, this can be fun.) I understand that the thought of a gingerbread house conjures up visions of candy canes, sugary gumdrops and gobs of frosting, but why not build one with some healthier, but still tasty, ingredients?

Remember, a gingerbread house can be any kind of house—a tiki hut, a ski lodge, a trailer, a mouse house or a train. When you make a traditional gingerbread house you end up with bags of sweets left over and, let’s face it, no kid wants to get old, stale candy for Halloween next year and tossing it out is so wasteful. Go against the grain and forgo the candy this year! Challenge the kids to use items you already have in your cupboards and try not to go out and buy a ton of new ingredients. The great thing about this project is that the “decorations”—foods such as nuts, cereals, and crackers— are healthier, easy to use, and you could make a fun cereal trail mix with your leftovers. This gingerbread house will be different, and still just as fun to look at and eat.

An easy way to make a small gingerbread house is to use graham crackers. If you are more adventurous or want to make a larger structure, you can purchase a readily available gingerbread house kit or bake your own.

You will need:

· Graham crackers: 10 per house to allow for mistakes!

· Royal icing for mortar (see recipe below)

· Piping bags and tips or gallon size freezer bags (make sure your bags have a nice square corner, not a pleated one)

· Decorative items such as: nuts, seeds, dried fruits, chocolate-dipped dried fruits, candied ginger slices, banana chips, marshmallows, pretzels, crackers, cereal of any kind, and cookies

Tips:

· To color your royal icing “mortar” for a more rustic look, add a drop of black food coloring during mixing.

· To fill a zip top bag with the royal icing, stand the bag up in a tall glass before filling.

· Cut a tiny hole in one corner of the zip top bag after filling it. You can always cut a bigger hole, but you can’t make a big one smaller!

· Keep your icing bag in the refrigerator for touch ups or other projects during the holidays.

To build the house:

Use a large plate or sheet pan as a base so you can also create an amazing landscape around your house. Attach the graham crackers to each other with the royal icing by piping a line of frosting along the edge of one piece, pressing it against the adjoining piece, and holding them in place just until the icing sets. Prop up the pieces with cans of food or other heavy objects, if necessary, while they dry. Allow the house to dry for several hours before decorating. A graham cracker cut in half diagonally works well for the sides of the roof, or make yours a flat-roof house.

Royal Icing

3 egg whites *

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 (16 oz) box confectioner’s or powdered sugar Yield: 2 cups Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and thick, about 7 minutes. When a knife blade drawn through the icing leaves a clean cut, it is ready. Chill in a tightly sealed container if you are not using it right away.

· Purchase pasteurized egg whites if you are concerned about using raw eggs.

IDEAS TO SPUR YOUR CREATIVITY

Firewood pile: mini Tootsie Rolls

Shutters: sticks of gum

Rustic stone siding: chocolate cereal

Sand: brown sugar

Roofs: Oreo thins, Wheat Thins or Shredded Wheat cereal

Fences: pretzel sticks

Lamp Posts: pretzel sticks with marshmallows on top

Trees: green gum drops shaped like leaves (sold as “Spearmint Leaves”)

Pile of presents in a sleigh: decorated sugar cubes

Barnyard: animal crackers

Walkways: flat cookies or dried fruit

Snowmen: marshmallows with pretzel sticks for arms

Bamboo siding: pretzel sticks

Chimneys: sugar cubes or marshmallows

Snow: shredded coconut (can be sprinkled on for a snowy look on roofs and trees)

Photos: Matthew Carden—www.350degrees.com

Including the Kids with Pie Dough- Jelly Cat Rolls

Jelly Cat Rolls

My posts have been few and far between but that doesn't mean I have been just laying around! My family and I have been traveling, so cooking has been minimal. But we are back for a few weeks and are right back in the kitchen! When we were in Canada last week Claire got a treat from the grocery store, one for her and one for her cousin. The treat was an individual serving size rolled cake, vanilla with strawberry jam rolled in coconut. It was like a Little Debbie cake, not very good for you I am sure of that, she loved it! I assume she has been thinking about that treat because she recreated one!

My first Thanksgiving dessert was an apple pie, I had some leftover dough and when Kidlet saw it she instantly knew what she wanted to make with it.

Once she got the dough she asked me for jelly and coconut, both of which I had. I showed her how to roll the dough from the center out, she did a fine job. She spread jelly on it and sprinkled coconut on it then rolled it up. I helped her cut the pinwheels with a

big chef's knife. We chilled it for a few minutes before cooking and baked it for about 10 minutes and VOILA homemade strawberry roll ups!

Kids are funny, they know what they want and are perfectly capable of churning out their vision. This could be a good lesson for us grown ups, taking the lead from a kid. Just focus on what we want and make it happen, sometimes seems impossible but kids seem to do it with ease. Happy Holidays!

Mango is a Star

In July The Stir did a nice little piece on Popsicles, and included my Minty Pea Pops as one of the reviewed. One of the other entries was from the Kitchen Enchantress she made a delicious looking mango ice cream. We are going to squeeze the very last bit of summer out of this recipe! The mangoes here have been so utterly delicious and juicy we've been gorging ourselves on them daily! We have giant Raposa here but the common one you will see int he store are reddish, greenish, yellowish and weigh about 1/2 pound. The small yellow mangoes are good too but you would need about 3 for this recipe. (see below for mango types) It would be fun to bring home two or three kinds and do a taste test with the kids. Once I saw the Stir's article I knew we just had to make the frozen treat. We had one more giant jucy mango in the fruit bowl just waiting to be eaten.

The recipe calls for frozen pineapple concentrate as an ingredient. I had a hard time finding this, I wanted organic and could only find orange. I thought I'd substitute orange because I was not in the mood to go to another store.

The surprise was, when I got home I found out I had grabbed raspberry concentrate instead! My first reaction was total disappointment, but we decided to make it work anyway, I was up for an experiment. Her recipe was very easy and fast, just my kind of recipe. I happen to have some very cute Popsicle molds and am always looking for a way to use them, this was perfect!

If you have never cut up a fresh mango it can be tricky but once you learn it makes sense. The pit inside a mango is long and flat, this means that to avoid it when cutting and there is a special technique to cut around it. I found this video and liked how Chef Allen shows how to tackle it. If you are going to dice the mango in the skin please be careful. I advise setting it on the cutting board and not cutting into your hand.

After cutting you should have 2 lobes and the middle with the pit in it. This is the part we fight over, peel it and eat the meat off the pit before you toss it. Now scoop out the meat from each lobe and put it in the food processor and follow the rest of the recipe.

Recipe adapted from Kitchen Enchantress

Creamy Mango Pops

These are so creamy and delicious, you'll want them again and again! If you don't have molds, just pour into a large zip-type plastic freezer bag, seal completely, and lay flat in your freezer for at least 2 hours. When frozen, scoop with a metal spoon to serve!!

2 very ripe meduim mangoes, with the skin and the pits removed
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup raspberry juice concentrate
1 Tablespoon agave nectar (or honey)

1. Blend all ingredients together in a food processor until creamy and smooth.
2. Pour into frozen treat molds, and place in freezer for at least a couple of hours, preferably overnight.
3. Remove from molds and ENJOY!
NOTE- I poured a bit of the concentrate into the top of the molds to make the pops very pretty.

Mango Types:

Haden
These are medium, rounder mangos with an oval-round shape. Haden mangos have skin that is yellow in color accompanied by a red-orange blush when ripe. They have a juicy and yellow pulp that is sweet in flavor and have moderate fiber.

Availability: March through June from Mexico

Tommy Atkins
Large, oblong shaped fruit with green skin that has some hues of red. Tommy Atkins are characterized by firm, juicy flesh with a smaller pit and moderate fiber. They emit a strong and pleasant scent.

Availability: February through July from Mexico

Kent

A large fruit, primarily green colored on the outside, with an occasional red blush. Kents have smooth flesh with minimal to mild fiber and are very juicy with a sweet, rich flavor.

Availability: June through August from Mexico

Keitt

This large, oval-shaped fruit has green skin with a hint of a rosy-orange blush. Its flesh is smooth, sweet and juicy with mild fiber. Keitts have a flavorful aroma and also have a smaller pit than other green mango counterparts.

Available July through September from Mexico

A Different Kind of Pear

We are lucky enough to live around the corner from a Mexican Market. I like to go in there and look around for new and different ingredients. When my daughter saw these bright purple fruits she knew she wanted to take them home. I thought this would be a great activity in the hot weather, so we went for it. Now, I knew all about the Prickly Pear, it comes from a cactus, it grows with long spines all over it and it is very staining. The spines get removed before it comes to the store, but beware tiny spines can be lurking. Before you start rub the fruit with a damp towel to get off any leftover prickers. (I got a tiny one in my hand and it itched like the devil) That told we bought three, and dug right in. They are delicious as is, but you can make jam with them, or dice them and serve over with fish or in drinks, the possibilities are endless.

I shot a very crude video for you to get the full messy effect.

Kidlet had just come home from

school, we did not primp at all for this video (she was fully destroyed from a long hot day of school) I also made her wear an inside out tee shirt so she wouldn't stain her clothes! We hope you enjoy learning about this and maybe it will inspire you to find an unusual food in your neighborhood.