What to Feed a Toddler?

Before the boys were born I had great ambition to make all their food from scratch. Organic! Fresh! Homemade! No Preservatives! It was all so idyllic. And for a few months, so EASY! We had boys who ate spinach on an almost daily basis. We had a freezer full of purees that ranged from the plain and simple apple sauce to the fancier mango-pear-squash combo and the always favored edamame-spinach concoction. It was awesome!

Then they started eating solid foods.

And I pretty much closed up shop on making everything from scratch. It's hard. I feel like such a poser. I can make my own chicken fingers and freeze them by the batch. I even made up a ton of meatloaf scooped it onto a cookie sheet to bake which resulted in a big bag of what we lovingly called "Meat Wads" that we could pull out of the freezer at will and the boys ate that up like it was the best thing in the world.

But fruit? Veggies? I'm severely lacking in that department.

I figure- they're beyond the puree stage, they want things to chew on. It's so easy to steam and puree and get creative. It's so boring to just steam and chop up a bunch of carrots. And their favorite spinach? Forget it- they don't want it anymore.

So we've fallen into this cycle of chicken tenders, mac and cheese, pasta, quesadillas, grilled cheese- easy things for lunch. I've even started to give them (gasp) Chef Boyardee and hot dogs! For shame I know. For dinner it's whatever we're having, which is hardly balanced.

How do I get my good eater's back? I'm thinking a smoothie would be a great start for getting more fruit but I need ideas for veggies. I'm not a big proponent of juice although we drink prune juice for dealing with constipation. Hopefully a more balanced diet will help with that too.

Ideas?

So after I posted this I found these two cookbooks that seem to be based around putting fruit and/ or veggie purees into other foods:
The Sneaky Chef
Deceptively Delicious
I think we're going to check these out from the library and give them a try.

Rainbow. Cake.

I found inspiration for the boys 1st Birthday cake here: Tasty Kitchen*.
Anyway. This was no simple feat making this cake. It took three people to wrangle babies while I baked for hours and then frosted, stacked and froze for another bunch of hours. By the time I got home I was totally beat and didn't care what the hell the cake looked like because I was DONE!

Here is the final product:



Not too shabby.

I'd better figure out what we're doing next year because this year was a total home run.

*or from a MckMama post if we're being honest but this is where the recipe was posted by the woman who brought this tower of delicious to the MckGathering.

Most Delicious Mac Ever.

A few months ago I was reading one of my favorite local/ food blogs and I was introduced to the idea of adding a few of my favorite things to one of my absolute favorite dishes. Jalapenos + Bacon + Macaroni and Cheese. Oh gosh. It's so good.

There are pictures and words and possibly some semblance of a recipe on that original post but I must say I didn't really pay attention for the drooling. This is what I came up with after those three magical things were put together for my brain to wrap itself around.

1 lb box of Rigatoni (cooked al dente) drain and set aside

4 Tbls Butter- melt in heavy saucepan add 4 Tbls flour, cook roux until bubbly and the raw flour smell is gone

Add 4 cups of milk- I do it slowly and whisk the roux in as I go. Bring to a low boil and let thicken a bit.

To make it super fantastic: Add chopped up Jalapeno slices from the jar (hot, mild, many or few- it's up to you) Bacon- I just used a package of the Hormel bacon pieces you find near the salad dressing because I was being kind of lazy today. A few splashes of the juice from the jar of jalapenos.

Cheese, obviously. I use one package of shredded (2 cups) today I had Colby Jack on hand but I've used Cheddar or the 6-cheese Italian blend- it's whatever you like.

Once the cheese is melted and the sauce is thickened to your liking pour the sauce over the pasta and mix it a bit.

Enjoy.

What We Ate: State Fair Edition

It's that time of year where seemingly all of Minnesota crams into St. Paul for 10 days of food and fun. It's really no secret, we go for the food.

We plan. We make lists of what we want to eat. We write down locations for these items so we are not sidetracked by fancy signs beckoning us to delicious sounding delicacies such as Australian Fries with Sweet Chili Sauce and Sour Cream or Carolina Barbecue Baked Potatoes. I almost *almost* got both of these today. It sounds sooooo good! And the smells? Oh the smells. Once you get out of the really crowded areas where the air is thick with sweetness and grease you can smell things like smoked meat or Italian seasoning and you just get ready to EAT.

So this year we did really well. We stuck to our game plan and we weren't totally stuffed when we walked back to our bus. That was surprising. We even had a few "extra" things since we were feeling pretty proud of our sticktuitiveness. Is that even a word?

Here's the low down, in the order we ate them:

Fried Green Pepper Rings.
This was a new one for us and the hype did not disappoint. I think it will be a Fair staple from now on.


Big Fat Bacon.
I love bacon. I think last year was the first year for BFB and we didn't get to the fair last year so we had to try it. 1/3 pound of bacon on a stick, maple glazed with orange chipotle dipping sauce. I'd probably get this again.


Lefse with Butter and Brown Sugar.
Probably one of Johns favorites- it was at the top of the list this year instead of one of the last things we got.


Peach Glazed Pigs Cheeks.
Sounds weird. Tastes like Pulled Pork. I could've used a little more sauce but they were pretty good. Next year I'll get the Pig Lickers (chocolate covered bacon) instead.


Cheese Curds from The Mouth Trap.
I'm not a huge fan of Cheese Curds but I'll never pass them up. These were lightly battered, salty and had just they right "chew". Another of John's favorites.


Fried Green Tomatoes.
This is my favorite. It's the only way I'll eat tomatoes unless they are chopped up on a taco or in a sauce of some sort. Serve with ranch and Tabasco. YUM!


Key Lime Pie Bar.
Frozen Key Lime Pie. Covered in Chocolate. On a stick.


Minnesota Wines.
We happened to wander into the Agriculture building and got ourselves some Wine on a Stick- three 2 ounce pours of our choice of wines. We tried a Rhubarb and a Raspberry from the fruit wines category and a dry red- I do not remember their names and the only one we walked away loving was the rhubarb. It was delightfully good.


Pronto Pup.
AKA Banquet on a Stick- just don't call it a corn dog. It's like a corn dog...but different. I personally like corn dogs better.


Next year we'll have to try out a few things we didn't this year. Dole Whip always catches my eye and at the last minute I think "It's just soft serve Ice cream!" and I don't get it. Of course the entire bus ride home I think of how good a little pineapple soft serve would be. Next year.

The one thing that wasn't originally on our list that we tried to get was a shake from the Dairy Barn. Those things are cheap and really really good. We inched our way around the barn and when we finally got to the line it was like 40 people long. We skipped it. Next year we'll do that right away before it gets crazy.

What happened?

I used to cook all the time. Now every night is a struggle and it usually ends with this: "Do you want me to just pick something up at Surdyks?"

Spending $15 on sandwiches a few nights a week is taking it's toll on the budget. Not to mention we're getting really tired of Surdyks Deli. Which is a shame because I haven't had a better slice of Red Velvet cake and their Minneapple Melt is out of this world.

So I'm going to buckle down and make dinner. Every night. For a week.

It's a start.

Texas Poppers

This is my first official post, so bear with me. I've been trying new things lately, as far as cooking goes. On Sunday, I grilled for the first time! Not just meat, but potatoes and nectarines as well. To be honest, I think I cooked the meat a little too long but nobody complained.

Last night, I tried out a recipe that I got from my dad. He calls them Texas poppers. It's supposed to be as follows:

Jalapenos
Pineapple cream cheese
Shrimp
Bacon
Toothpicks
Dad's secret BBQ sauce for dipping (it really is a secret, sorry!)

You cut the top off the pepper, then take out the middle and slice it in half the long way. Put a wad of cream cheese inside. Put a shrimp on top, wrap with bacon and secure with a toothpick.

I couldn't find pineapple flavored cream cheese* at the store, so I got plain. No big deal. I also made them without the shrimp, but that was on purpose. I kinda like them that way. My mistake was when I put them in the oven to BAKE. I should have put them on BROIL. I've had these twice before and the pepper was a little crunchy, while the bacon was fully cooked and somewhat crispy.

How long do you cook them? I don't know! I haven't done it right yet.

*Erin adds crushed pineapple to plain cream cheese and likes that better than the kind you can buy already combined.

What we ate: 4th of July

Our contributions were simple:
Breakfast Burritos
Sausages
S'Mores

Breakfast Burritos were what you'd expect- eggs, sausage, potatoes, onions, salsa, cheese. What makes them special is cooking them outside and eating them by a campfire. That's a good reason to get up off the floor of a tent in the morning.

Sausages were from Kramarczuk's the best sausages in my opinion. We picked up our favorites: Moroccans and Cherry Bombs. Add caramelized onion relish (no one touched the habanero pineapple relish) and you've got a little bite of heaven.

S'Mores. I don't like graham crackers unless they are crushed and mixed with sugar and butter and pressed into a pan so we have alternatives. Usually I use Fudge Stripe Cookies, this year I brought Oreo Rings. Caramel marshmallows with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Strawberry marshmallows with plain old Hershey bars. It was some good snackin' at the fire that night.

There was other food of course- steaks with baked potatoes and sauteed mushrooms, chicken salad with grapes, gas station coffee and Guinness.

It was a good weekend of eating.