Toddler Friendly Banana Bread

Not only is this banana toddler friendly, it is also toddler approved!  It's made with whole wheat flour and lots of bananas!

You'll need:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
5 very ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray nonstick spray into a 9 by 5 inch bread pan.

Combine the flour, butter, baking soda, and brown sugar.  Add the eggs and then the bananas.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 60 minutes or until a knive inserted into the bread comes out clean.

I cut this bread into slices and then cut each slice in half.  I also freeze these and put the amount I want to use into the fridge the night before.  Yum!!!

Need a Cheap, Easy Meal? Try Camillo's Pizza Crusts

I was recently in the Dollar Tree and I came across Camillo's Pizza Crusts.  We really enjoy our pizza, so I figured, why not?  These are $1.00 and come with two 7 inch crusts to a pack.  These are a HIT in our house!  So far we have only made cheese, pepperoni, and pepperoni with mushroom pizza, but the possibilities are really endless! 

The way I have really made these work in our house is to cut one in half and let my toddler eat half at home and the other half in his lunch the next day.  In fact, I made them for his lunch a day this week, click here to see.  He really likes these!  I was thinking about them today and next time I'm going to try adding more veggies to his pizza.  maybe some small broccoli pieces or slices of tomato.  I'll post back to let you know how that works out.  It is always a challenge getting the little man to eat his veggies!  So far the only way he will eat veggies is when I make Spinach and Carrot Quiche.

I have found that my Dollar Tree sells out of these pretty fast, so when I see them I stock up.  Today I bought 4 packages which contain 8 crusts total.  So worth it for 50 cents per crust. 

Here's how you prepare the pizzas:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Brush crusts with olive oil
Add toppings
Lower temperature to 425 degrees and cook for 7-10 minutes.

Give them a try!  It's a meal you and your toddler will enjoy!

You can find Camillo's Pizza Crusts at the Dollar Tree.

Friday's Lunch

Large Section: Danimals Smoothie with a straw.  Spinach and Carrot Quiche (recipe below)

Medium Section: Mandarin Oranges

Small Section: Crackers and Raisins- I know they're hiding,. but trust me, they're there!

Spinach and Carrot Quiche is the ONLY way my toddler will eat vegetables.  He loves this stuff!  Give it a try:

1 pie crust
1/2 onion, diced
1 package frozen spinach, thawed
1/4 cup carrots, diced (you could definitely add more)
1 clove garlic, minced
3 eggs
1 cup cheese (I used mozzarella because it's what I had)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place onion in skillet and cook until tender- you could add 1/2 tbsp oil here, but I don't.

Add spinach, carrots, and garlic and cook until the liquid from the spinach is gone.

Remove from heat and add eggs and cheese.

Pour into pie crust and cook for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The trick here is to let the quiche cool in order to cut it.  In fact, I cut mine after a few hours in the fridge.  Quiche is just one of those things that needs to set.  I wish I could see my little man's face when he sees quiche in his lunch!

Thursday's Lunch

Large Section: Danimals Smoothie with a straw and Cheese Pizza.  We use the Camillo's brand pizza crust and love it!  I'll do a review soon.

Medium Section: Mandarin Oranges

Small Section: Goldfish and Raisins

Wednesday's Lunch

Here is a picture of my little man's lunch today.
Big section: Danimals Smoothie with a straw and a cheese sandwich (1/4 is missing because he HAD to have some when he saw me making it)
Medium section: mandarin oranges and freshly cut cantalope
Small section: goldfish and raisins

For snack he got one of the snack packs I made on Sunday.  You can read more about it here.

Mrs. Freshley's Cereal Bars

I found these Mrs. Freshley's cereal bars at the Dollar Tree.  I love the Dollar Tree and I have loved every food item that I bought from there.  I once read on a website where people said they won't buy Dollar Tree food because it's made overseas.  Every food item I have looked at at Dollar Tree is made in the USA.  These cereal bars are distributed from Tucker, GA. 

Anyways, I was browsing the food isle and saw these cereal bars and figured- hey, why not?  I grabbed a few. boxes, some Apple Cinnamon and also Blueberry.  They were $1.00 (obviously, they were at the dollar store) and 6 came to a box.  I brought them home for a tast test.  We LOVE  these cereal bars.  My toddler is even crazy about them!  They are only 100 calories and they full size too!  I have been looking and I have not been able to find a better deal than these cereal bars.  Give them a try and let me know what you think!

These cereal bars are made by Mrs. Freshley's and can be found at the Dollar Tree!

Packing Lunches!

In my son's world, this is an ideal lunch!  Luckily for him it's exactly what he will get to eat tomorrow!  In the big section he has a drinkable yogurt with a straw.  Next to that He has a quesadilla.  This quesadilla was made using one small tortilla folded in half with mozzarella cheese.  In the medium size section he has mandarin oranges and strawberries.  In the smallest section I added some goldfish and raisins.  Yum yum!  My little man loves fruit, can you tell?  We work on the vegetables at home, but he simply refuses to eat them at "school" and throws them on the floor :(  There you have it, a perfect lunch in the eyes of my little man!

Snack Packs

I am so excited for the great find I picked up at the dollar store.  A lot of people think that all dollar stores are the same, but that couldn't be further from the truth!  I love the Dollar Tree.  It has great products and everything really is a dollar.  Recently I found cute little snack containers that were packaged 2 for $1.00.  I thought it would be great for preparing snacks in advance for my toddler.  I spread out everything in an assemly line and filled up these little guys.

My toddler is 19 and a half months old and he enjoys all of these foods.  This is more than he would eat at one snack, but it gives him a little variety. 

This week my toddler will be getting a cereal bar, raisins, and goldfish!  I'll do a review on those cereal bars soon, they are too good and super cheap!

My little snack assembly line:

A better look at the container and what's inside:

 

I feel sooo productive!  Snacks for the week- DONE!



Intro

Every week I spend a lot of time making meals and snacks for my boys. 

My first son is 19 months and is becoming harder to feed each day. I started him off on all vegetables, but once he got his first taste of fruit he was hooked!  I'm working to hard to keep him on a healthy diet. 

My second son is only 2 months, so he doesn't eat food yet. When I start cooking for my little man I'll post here!

Stay tuned to find out what works... and what doesn't when it comes to feeding my boys!