99% of the time I make the kids pancakes or oatmeal for breakfast. I make the batter for the pancakes the night before. It has 1 mashed banana, 1 egg, ~1 cup of some kind of flour, 1-2 tbsp flax meal, 1/2 tsp baking soda, pinch of salt, and almond milk to reach the right consistency. When I make oatmeal I add a ton of stuff in – raisins, seeds (chia, sunflower, pepitas), nuts (almonds, or walnuts), cinnamon or vanilla, and shredded coconut. Shredded coconut is Pattycakes’ favorite.
Anyway, I felt like they needed a change up, so I looked in the fridge and came up with this baked egg thing.
I had leftover brown rice on hand from dinner that night. So I pulsed it with eggs and spinach in a blender, then baked it in the oven until the center was set.
They both really liked it! P is hit and miss with eggs, so it was definitely a gamble but he kept asking for more and more. This whole dish only lasted them 1.5 meals (they had the rest the next day for lunch with some other stuff).
I’m not used to taking pics of their food, so I snapped this after they had already eaten most of it.
This was the second quesadilla P had. And those celery sticks are actually stacked like columns, even though the photo makes them look like one little slice.
I only dice them small for this one. He eats them like regular old celery sticks. I also cut up her quesadilla into bite sized pieces too, rather than the quarters like his.
And when I say “quesadillas” I really mean tortillas filled with beans. Refried beans, this time.
Snacks depend on our post-nap activities. P usually sleeps forever, so V sometimes winds up eating a snack on her own and then again when P is up and ready to eat. But sometimes we are on the go and they just share apple slices and nothing else. But if I’m on my game and we are home, I offer more balanced things, often a fruit and nut/seed.
Yesterday it was pear and cashews for V, but nothing for P.
But the day before it was this.
I’m so thrilled they are finally fans of potatoes. Be prepared to see many more tater meals in the hippie home because they are cheap and easy and delicious.
Roasted sweet potatoes.
Roasted russets.
And roasted squash (not for Kyle).
I made FIVE trays worth of veggies this night. FIVE!!! It took two ovens and every tray I had with one rotation. I’ve been sorting out the oven’s timer cook delay settings and it’s been ok so far. Since we had swimming from 5-530, I set it to start at 5 and then we got home by 545 to turn it off. I wish there were a way to stop it, but it seems to only have a delay start, so I have to put it in the oven ready to go and then guess what the pre-heat time will be like…it’s not a perfect system, but I’m getting used to it.
The ribs were leftovers, and I gave them to the other three carnivores because I wasn’t feeling up for meat.
Speaking of meatlessness…
Here’s another lunch for the kids. And me. Those are Beyond Meat grilled strips. Plus chopped celery and mashed avocado.
Other mainstays in their diets: smoothies (lots!), roasted chickpeas, home-made bars, steamed veggies, plain cubed tofu, and sunbutter and jelly sandos when I haven’t planned ahead.
You had mentioned while on vacation that the kids really like yogurt but don’t get it at home bc of sugar content…what about plain yogurt and doing mix-ins?
Are there good nondairy plain yogurts you could recommend? I’m open to it for sure, but haven’t looked into it very much.
This is a great post! I always feel like I am giving my little one the same 5 or 6 foods over and over and over…I want to get more variety in her diet. She is still too little for a lot of the things you are giving your kids, but it gives me good ideas for the future and some for now too.
Speaking of yogurt (above) we just got non-dairy yogurt for G for the first time this past week. She loves it! It is plain and unsweetened, and I think it is awful, but who cares as long as she likes it 😉 It is Nancy’s Organic Cultured Soy yogurt, plain unsweetened.
http://nancysyogurt.com/index.php/products/cultured-soy
I thought I might have to mix it with with fruit or something to make her like it, but she likes it plain, which made me so happy!
Thanks! I’ll give it a shot!
It’s so easy to fall into a rut, but I’m sure you are doing an AMAZING job giving her everything her little teeth can handle right now 🙂
You recently mentioned taking P to church – what denomination or type of church have you found to be a good fit? I’m a bit of a hippie too and have had a hard time finding somewhere that feels right (but I’m in the deep south, not CA, so I expect that’s part of the challenge).
Thanks so much. She only has 2 teeth, which is part of the problem….everything has to be verrrrrry well cooked and/or pureed for her. She loves eating though, which is fun!
It’s been interesting doing “church shopping”…I was raised Catholic but don’t necessarily find that to be the denomination I want to attend now. Presbyterian is a pretty open and neutral option, but the one I have found to be the best fit for me (us) in Davis is Covenant (part of the Evangelical Covenant). It’s minimalist and accepting and (maybe since I’m in Davis) very liberal as far as churches go. I don’t know how the rest of CA fares, but our town is pretty hippie, so I think most of the churches in the area aren’t as conservative as they may be elsewhere in the country (just a guess, obviously, since I haven’t been anywhere else). I got recommendations from friends (and people in my MOPS group back when I did it) and then I went to different services and just felt out what was right. The first place I tried was too intense for me. I just felt a little uncomfortable. Both the second and third places I liked a lot, but I found myself drawn to the covenant church and a good friend of mine started going with me now too. What ultimately helped me make the decision was that P LOVED mass from the first time we went and asked if he could “go with the other children next time we came”. He stayed with me through the adult service that first time and it was looooong so I was shocked that he was so into it. Perhaps it was the band that played at the beginning and end, or perhaps it was time alone with me, or perhaps he was just super excited about religion (who knows!?), but he was sold from then on. So I didn’t bother going to any other churches after that. He has gone to Sunday school during the homily every week since and loves it (he wants to stay with me for the music in the beginning). The best news is that this church has a preschool that P will *hopefully* get into next year, so he is already familiar and comfortable with it. He didn’t get in last year, but has been on the waitlist ever since and it’s looking like he will probably get in.
Wow. Sorry for that essay! Hope that helps!
I really really like the Green Valley organic yogurts (plain but really all the flavors are yum)…they’re lactose free but made from milk so don’t think would work for someone with a milk allergy.
I like those too nancy, but you’re right, they’re not safe for P because they still have milk protein 🙁