Tag Archives: what I ate wednesday

Our Toddler’s Daily Blue Plate Special + WIAW

11/04/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Our toddler is getting a little more sophisticated around here. Before, we could just use her high chair tray as a “plate” for her to eat off of, but now she insists on using a plate. And not just any plate, and blue plate!

Actually, as long as the plate is next to her, she will still accept eating from the tray, but her plate must be blue. Pink or purple is a surefire way to set her off like Katie Ka-Boom from the Animaniacs (please, someone tell me they know the reference), so she gets her blue plate every day for at least dinner. Then wash, rinse, repeat (literally).

It doesn’t stop with just her plate either, she insists on sitting in her blue chair, drinking green smoothies from her blue bottle, wearing a blue shirt, and favors her blue cloth diaper over the other colors. And I lost count of how many times we are told the sky is blue and she has blue eyes. I know she’s too young to call it official, but for the time being, blue is definitely her favorite color.

Back to the blue plate. I’ve enjoyed sharing our toddler’s eats for past What I Ate Wednesday’s, so I figured I’d share her blue plate fare (rhyming rocks!) for this week’s edition.

Breakfast – Banana, homemade chocolate protein pancake, homemade NuttZo Banana Bread, and sprouted raw pumpkin seeds.

I’m always a bit worried about the pumpkin seeds since we’ve had several tipped plate experiences already, but lately, she’s been much better at putting her pincer grasp to use.

Snack – Tiny But Mighty Heirloom Popcorn with more NuttZo Banana Bread.

So it wasn’t a plate, but a blue lid seemed to pass her stringent color standards of….um…blue.

Lunch – Lots of slow-cooker veggies with black beans and a 50/50 mash of cauliflower and potatoes mixed with nutritional yeast, goat cheese, and several spices.

Please note the blue fork. I found it on Amazon and had to buy it for the name alone; Air Fork One. She loves it too!

Big Girl Snack – hard boiled egg, diced apple, slow-cooker butternut squash, steamed veggies, and cut cherry tomatoes.

I swear, she eats more than most adults! She’ll finish off a plate like this and simply look at us and say “more”.

Dinner – chicken thighs from a local farmer, baked apple, and more slow-cooker veggies.

Dinner time is when she tends to get a little ornery, so we keep more food to the side or feed her from our own plate/bowl. This time, however, she was all about the chicken and the veg and used her Air Fork One very well.

Picking up the cargo..

…dropping it off…

…and then back out for another load. Or she’s threatening us, not sure.

Who knows how long the blue plate phase will last, but I guess it could be something much, much worse, so as long as she keeps eating so well, blue plate it is!

Hope you have a great day, we’re getting over the hump now!

Does your kid have a particular item they must have at all times?

Ever see the Air Fork One or something like it?

Food, Going Healthy, Parenting, WIAW

What My Toddler Eats In A Day + WIAW

09/02/2015 R.C. Liley 6 Comments

I can’t believe I haven’t shared a day of eats for our toddler yet. For as much as I love food and cooking, you would think I’d do this all the time. Well, thanks to Jen, a fellow reader and blogger over at My Kitchen Musings, who requested a day in the life of my daughter’s food intake, I finally did it!

It’s been a while since my last What I Ate Wednesday post, so what better time than now to join in by sharing what my toddler ate! I always enjoy this link-up, so please make sure to check out and share the host’s post (cool, a rhyme!) if you don’t mind.

Breakfast #1 – We always start the day by reading Hey! Wake UP! by Sandra Boynton followed immediately with a green smoothie. Since I ~~hardly~~ never measure ingredients, some smoothies can be super green and a little bitter, but she usually loves what I blend up. In fact, she gets down right cranky and impatient if I’m not quick enough to hand it to her.

Breakfast #2 – After drinking most of her smoothie (I usually have to help with finishing), I made a super nutritious bowl of oatmeal.

I’m not one for simplicity when it comes to cooking, this bowl consisted of organic rolled oats, organic chia seeds, organic shredded unsweetened coconut (not pictured), organic pumpkin puree, Great Lakes Gelatin, and obviously NuttZo stirred in. Oh yeah, and two packets of Pyure Sweet Stevia along with heaps of cinnamon. The smell of pumpkin with NuttZo and cinnamon had my stomach rumbling for my own bowl!

I made a lot, and that girl ate 90% of it on her own! That’ll be fun to change later…..

For the leftovers, I added organic cacao powder and egg to create a quick microwave cake treat for us to “share” later.

Yeah, I ate it all by myself during nap time. Sorry, Avery, hope you still love me.

Lunch – This girl loves her veggies, so we always have a large bag of organic Normandy Blend frozen veggies from Costco that we steam. Nothing added, just make them bite size, put them on her tray, and she’ll gobble them right up. Along with canned wild-caught salmon, another staple in our house, and a simple, healthy meal is served in no time.

Pretty? Not really, but the importance of good nutrition far outweighs anything else in my mind. Especially when it comes to feeding a beautiful growing body like our sweet little girl. I even gave her a few spoonfuls of avocado that she surprisingly ate without protest.

It might of had something to do with watching Sid the Science Kid, the only 20 minutes of screen time she gets a day, and my promise to give her air-popped popcorn.

We don't wear shirts for lunch! — We don’t wear shirts for lunch!

With nothing added, this Tiny But Mighty Heirloom Popcorn is awesome! If you ever see it, buy it to try. It’s easier to eat than other versions which makes a perfectly healthy toddler (and parent) snack.

Dinner – Using our handy slow-cooker, I made a black bean and quinoa stew with carrots, zucchini from our garden, and crushed tomatoes along with wild antelope round steak my brother gave me from his hunting trip.

I love slow-cooker meals, and luckily, Going Mom and Avery do too! No special kid food here, we all ate and enjoyed a big bowl of our meaty stew. It’s almost too thick to be called stew, but lets just call it thick stew. Deal? Deal.

Pre-bedtime Snack – I tell ya, she can eat. She didn’t seem fully satisfied after dinner (she shared a big bowl with Mommy), so we gave her a few of these Go Raw Pizza Flax Snax to top her off.

We have to remind her to chew (only a million times a day), but she loves these things and I enjoy them too. They really have a good pizza flavor that makes them fun to crumble on a salad or eggs.

And there you have it, a typical day of eats for our 21 month old girl. We are proud that she enjoys fresh, whole foods and doesn’t cry for sweet treats all the time, and hopefully we can keep it that way. Only time will tell.

Do you have special food for your little ones or do they eat what you eat?

When it comes to cooking, do you tend to just throw things in as you please or prefer to measure it all out?

Food, Going Healthy, NuttZo, WIAW

WIAW #11: No-Bake Mini NuttZo Pumpkin Cake

05/13/2015 R.C. Liley 4 Comments

Baking can be such a hassle. Especially when you have little ones running the kitchen. Crazy kids plus a hot stove/oven NEVER mix! So, feeling creative for Avery’s breakfast, I decided to make a delicious and healthy cake that I didn’t need to bake. Wham, and I just rhymed; score!

I grabbed one of my 24 cans of Organic Farmer’s Market Pumpkin (Thank you, Amazon!), some NuttZo Power Fuel, peanut flour, and unsweetened shredded coconut and got to work. It turned out to hardly be “work” since 5 minutes later, our NuttZo Coconut Pumpkin Pie was born.

Avery was tugging at my shorts and whining for the first bite, so after I took a few quick pics, I fed my ravenous daughter.

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A post shared by RC Liley (@going_dad)

I thought maybe, just maybe, there’d be a little leftover for me to savor, but that hope died fast. Unlike a typical pie, I found it easier to just roll into balls to feed her. At least that way I had messy fingers I got to lick!

If there was time, I’m sure chilling it would make for a cleaner finger food, but as Jack Bauer would say, “There’s no time!”. It does cut pretty good even at room temp though.

Wanna give it a go for yourself? Do it!

Mini No-Bake NuttZo Coconut Pie

by RC Liley

Prep Time: 5 Minutes

Keywords: raw appetizer breakfast dessert snack nuttzo

Ingredients (Serves 1)

1/2 Cup Pumpkin Puree
2 Tbsp NuttZo (or other nut butter) at room temp
1/4 Cup Peanut flour (Can use coconut or almond flour or even protein powder instead)
2 Tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp cinnamon
1 packet stevia or 10 drops liquid stevia
Pinch of sea salt

Instructions

Add all ingredients in a bowl and stir well to combine.

Form into a small cake, roll into balls, or just leave as is to eat with a spoon.

Enjoy!!

On to the main part of the post now, my eats!

Thanks as always to the wonderful Jenn from Peas and Crayons, for creating this fun link-up for foodies everywhere! It was great then and continues to be an awesome linky now!

Breakfast – One of my many leftover cups of black coffee from Starbucks that I picked up on Mother’s Day.

Lunch – Steamed veggies with eggs and raw broccoli on top. Then some Greek yogurt with purple sweet potato, NuttZo, and homemade banana bread. While watching Avery not take her nap!