Spotlight On: Breakfast

Breakfast is my absolute favorite meal to eat with the kids. It is hands-down our most pleasant "eating together" experience for a variety of reasons. They've just woken up so they are (usually) very happy and hungry. And while I try to change up the menu to include a variety of flavors and nutrients, there's simply much less variety of recipes compared to dinner and the key staples are easy favorites: fruit, grain, dairy and protein (in the form of nuts, whole grains and dairy instead of meats). So the kids always happily scarf their breakfast with much less playing around or whining/complaining.

As the day goes on, kids tend to be more difficult eaters as they wind down before nap time (as with lunch) or before bedtime (as with dinner). Additionally, the meals are different in that there is such a wide range of foods and flavors, so they tend to be pickier with regard to main dishes and less interested in actually sitting still to eat. With that in mind, I prefer to put a lot more effort into breakfast than just cereal with milk. Mainly because I see this as my chance to start their day with plenty of energy and to maximize nutrition in their daily diet.

I was ALWAYS just a cereal and milk eater myself because of its ease and lack of time involved, but even I noticed that it leaves me feeling hungrier by mid-morning. Why? There's really not much to it! Just a processed, fortified cereal grain (usually a mediocre grain as most breakfast cereals are) with lowfat milk. It's more like a tease of energy for your body. Enough to fire up your metabolism but not enough to provide satiety till lunch. My friend Julie (who's also a dietitian) found it helpful to use a higher fat milk (she used 2%) on her breakfast cereal to help her feel fuller longer in the morning. Smart thinking, because that little extra fat in her milk will ultimately prevent her from grabbing something unhealthy or overeating mid-morning. Anyway, now I very rarely resort to cereal even on work mornings. If I don't have something leftover from the weekend, I will often just do a piece of toast with peanut butter and half of a banana or a snack baggie of dried fruit and nuts with a piece of fruit. (I usually drink milk in the morning and water all day while at work so I try to include cheese or yogurt in with my lunch and then usually do a big glass of milk with dinner.)

We've been very satisfied with our ritual pancake breakfasts that often carry over into the week and now even begin during the week as well. They are guaranteed to continue because they are versatile and well-accepted. But I've also wanted to branch out a little and try some other, healthier cereal grains. Continuing on with my huge Weelicious kick, I was super excited to find her recipe for oatmeal in the crock pot! I love using the slow cooker and was super excited at the prospect of having a wholesome, hot cereal ready and waiting when I got up in the morning. I decided to trial it on a weekend morning first just in case of any unforeseen bumps in the road that would be too time consuming on a work morning.

Well, first thing I will tell you is that it smelled wonderful and what I did taste was sooooo good and creamy and hearty. But the truth is, my crock pot is a little touchy and sometimes seems to get hotter than I think it should. So I often decrease cooking times than recipes call for, even set on low. This suggested 8 hours (overnight) but it probably only ended up being 7 and still much of it had burned around the outer edges. I'd like to try it again using one of my mom's smaller crock pots. But what I was able to salvage out of the middle was delicious.

The recipe called for steel cut oats. My favorite brand is Bob's Red Mill and Meijer carries it in their baking aisle.

There's also LOTS of liquid in this recipe to really soak up and absorb overnight: 2 cups water + 2.5 cups milk to just 1 cup of oats. Plus a teaspoon of cinnamon. Then you just add whatever toppings you like when serving. I added some real maple syrup and a bunch of broken up walnuts. Oh my gosh... soooo very good! I did the same for Sophie with a little less syrup and smaller, chopped nuts. Will is not a fan of oatmeal so he ate leftover pancakes.
The downer was the multiple soakings and scrapings my crock pot had to endure until my mom suggested I soak it in hot, salt water for awhile. Presto - did the trick! I still like my crock pot for most things, but I would like to get a new, smaller one. Does anyone have a brand/model they recommend?

Despite Will's assumed dislike for hot oatmeal, I want to keep trying similar (but different) variations of oats for him. My mother in law suggested I give muesli a try. I remember my hostess eating muesli nearly every morning during the three weeks I spent on an exchange program in Germany. It does look appealing and Will does have a fondness for nuts and dried fruit. So we gave it a whirl. I found this recipe on Weelicious also.

It calls for rolled oats, wheat germ, flax seed (I only had ground on hand so I used that), nuts (I used a combination of walnuts and almonds), dates and raisins.

Then there are serving suggestions included below it. Orange juice sounded a little too funky for me, so I went with the shredded apple and yogurt suggestion for Sophie and I.

The preparations are similar but different. Mine, in the white bowl, was prepared the morning of with the apple and oatmeal and left to "soak" for about 10-15 minutes before we ate. Sophie's, in the yellow bowl, was prepared with the apple and oatmeal the night before to soak up and soften with the moisture of the fruit and yogurt. Muesli supposedly gets better the longer it "soaks" unlike traditional breakfast cereals. Will's was just prepared with enough whole milk to saturate it and then left to sit as mine was.

Here's a close up of mine.

Sophie LOVED it and it's just sticky enough to make it a fantastic food for her to spoon feed herself. Will was really intrigued and ate several bites saying that he liked it, but ultimately didn't eat much that morning overall. So I'll try again another day, maybe adding the shredded apple with the milk. (He doesn't care for plain or vanilla yogurt at all - even with fruit added - and I'm really trying to get away from those "kid" yogurts.) And I thought it was pretty good too. Personally, I liked the hot oatmeal better but I did enjoy this.

And finally, we tried another "smoothie" from the Weelicious website called a Tropical Lassi on the same morning as our muesli breakfast. Catherine explained that a "lassi" is a southeast Asian yogurt-based drink containing milk, honey and/or spices. Hers calls for blueberries and mango (I used frozen), lime zest (mmm!), yogurt, honey, milk, raw almonds and ice.

Mmm! Looks good already!

The blueberries of course give it a purple color and you can still taste a hint of crunch from the almonds here and there, which I love. I would add nuts to almost anything - I love the flavor and the crunch.

This was very tasty and refreshing - a perfect breakfast in itself or accompaniment to cereal. And it would make a great snack too!

I think, next up, I'm going to try making homemade granola and also get back to playing up variations of egg recipes: basic hard cooked, frittatas, omelets, etc.

What's your favorite breakfast?

Sophia is 19 Months!

Can you even stand the cuteness of that face?

I can't. ;)

Sophia is 19 months old today!!!

Some of the highlights of her 19th month have included Halloween festivities, pumpkin carving, a visit to the zoo for the Jumping Pumpkin exhibit, trick-or-treating, an art class at the museum where she painted her first masterpiece, tasting her first smoothie (unless you count the avocado smoothie), and a well check with the pediatrician. It's been a fun month and we're looking forward to all the special holiday festivities upcoming.

In fact, I've put Sophie on cleaning duty just because I know our lives are going to get hectic in the coming weeks. LOL - I'm kidding of course. But she does do a mean Swiffer job.

Though it's hard to tell from this next one because of the curls... when Sophie's hair is wet, it comes down to her shoulders now! It is also obnoxiously in her eyes if not pulled back when she eats and she frequently wakes up with "crazy hair" that needs a bit of taming. :)
I'm sure this is only the beginning because I have zero intentions of cutting it OR giving her bangs. This picture cracks me up. She pulled Will's hat on, covering her eyes, and was gabbing away on her cell phone.

Here she's holding one of her favorite Sandra Boynton books and wearing that cute outfit my mom got her for Halloween. Love it!

The girl still sits in the craziest positions and then pops up to a stand without even using her hands.

She's starting to get the hang of these puzzles now and especially loves the noisy ones.

She prays with us before meals by folding her hands and saying "Amen" at the end.

And she loves the new Bjorn potty seat (as does Will!) for her couple of potty times each day. P.S. She's holding the nose-sucker in this picture. I know that's gross, but it was clean and she likes that it plays music when you push the button.

I can't even tell you how much I love this girl... or this stinkin' adorable picture. How did I get so lucky to have such a sweet/feisty/ornery/lovable daughter??

Ooh! This past month has also brought new teeth! Well just one actually, and two that are on the brink. She's hardly phased by the awful cuspids! I'm shocked. Besides a runny nose, you wouldn't even know that she's teething.

A bunch more new words too:

-"out", "ah-ide" (outside), "up", "down"

"Daddy, down!!" (telling Craig to come down stairs so we could leave)

-"go mo-mee" (good morning), "ny ny" (night night)
-"cack-o" (she does know what a cracker is, but sometimes she says this word to mean "food" or "eat" - when she's hungry, she says "cack-o")

-"cup", "bear", "diaper"

-"Dora", "Dee-go" (Diego), "it o-er" (the Dora or Diego show has ended - haha)

-she tells me "shh!" or "no!" sometimes when I sing to her - LOL :)

-she also loves the Brown Bear, Brown Bear book and can usually tell me what animal is coming up next and what sound they make

I just love this age! She's such a sponge right now and the things she knows and understands now are multiplying so rapidly. She's been very different than Will at almost everything though, so it's very interesting. And I continue to be in awe of the minds of our children. So curious and fresh and wondrous.

Happy 19 Months, baby girl!

I love you!

What We're Reading

Ha! I was right! Peanut the mouse was actually Morgan le Fay under a spell. And "mouse" happened to be the fourth "M" thing they needed to figure out to solve the mystery and break the spell. Thus was the conclusion of the Magic Tree House book #8: Midnight on the Moon.
We've also since finished book #9: Dolphins at Daybreak, which had me feeling a little claustrophobic as Jack and Annie found themselves stuck underwater in a mini-submarine with a leak in it that was unable to rise to the surface because it was being held in place by a giant octopus while a hammerhead shark circled around. Yikes! In the end, the octopus released them (did you know octopi have human-looking eyes and can shoot a black ink into the water as a means of defense to help them escape a predator?) and then they had to swim out of the sub and over to shore with careful, calm strokes (so as not to attract the shark). Thankfully, the dolphins they'd met earlier saved the day and swam them to shore much faster. How fun! This book started with a riddle to solve as well, which lets us play detective throughout the book.

Here's a (flash-brightened) picture of Will and I reading our mystery by flashlight. We normally don't read in the dark, but this was just for extra excitement. It was followed by a game of "flashlight tag" on the ceiling. ;)

This weeks picture book list comes entirely from the Scholastic book order. Such a great resource...

1. The Hiccupotamus by Aaron Zenz was cutesy/rhymey but not my favorite.

2. Hattie Hippo by Christine Loomis was too girlie for Will. He wasn't all that interested.

3. Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr & Eric Carle. Almost identical to Brown Bear, Brown Bear except with animal sounds. Will really liked this one and I heard him trying to recite it later.

4. Animal Strike at the Zoo by Karma Wilson was probably Will's 2nd most requested. Comical and clever.

5. Where is Home Little Pip? also by Karma Wilson is so sweet. Little Pip chases after something she's playing with (a feather?) only to find that once she's caught it, she's so far from home, she can't find her way back. She asks other animals "where is home?" but they only tell her where their home is. Finally, Pip sings the song her mother and father sing about "home" at bedtime every night. Her parents hear her singing and find her! Little Pip asks them if they're going home now and they tell her that home is simply wherever the three of them are all together... so this is home! Aww... I kind of teared up with this book.

6. The Very Sleepy Sloth by Andrew Murray pokes fun at the differences between animals and the skills they have. The sloth is very good at sleeping. :) I have a feeling if Craig could reincarnate himself, he'd choose to be a sloth. LOL

7. Big Chickens by Leslie Helakoski was clever with words and alliteration to tell the story of how three fearful chickens overcome their fears.

8. Alphabet Rescue by Audrey Wood was SO COOL! It was actually Will's #1 requested picture book and it was extremely encouraging for him to read and sound out a few words. You could just breeze right through this book or you could take your time and pay attention to all of the details that make each page so interesting. Very educational and definitely a MUST PURCHASE book some day.

9. Oh My Gosh, Mrs. McNosh! by Sarah Weeks. A woman takes her dog for a walk and winds up chasing him all over the place causing great havoc. She's sad and defeated in her failure to catch him until she walks home and finds him waiting for her and wagging his tail.

10. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. I have something very important to say! Are you listening? Go out right now and buy/borrow this book to read with your child. It is one of the sweetest stories I've ever read and Will and I have been doing "the kissing hand" all week and we both love it. The little raccoon is afraid to leave his mommy and go off to school. So mommy shares a secret with him. She slowly unfolds his fingers, opens his hand and plants a kiss in the center of his palm. Then she folds his fingers back up to keep the kiss safe and tells him that whenever he's missing her, he can just press her kiss to his cheek and say "Mommy loves me. Mommy loves me." Then the little raccoon does the same for his mommy. And I choked back my tears. So Will and I do this at bedtime now and we're going to start doing it when I leave for work too. So so sweet...

These lists have been so helpful when it came time to do my Christmas shopping! I just scrolled back through them and purchased a bunch of the ones we liked best and would like to own.

What's For Dinner? Week 3

Remember my comment a couple weeks ago about having phases of things I am interested in? Well, I am in the midst of another big Weelicious kick lately. Just this week, I've tried several new recipes from her site.

Oh, but first a quick addendum to last week's menu... We went to my sister's house for dinner last Thursday evening so the kids could play together. She served that yummy lasagna recipe I was talking about that my mom and Casey both share. The one with cottage cheese that's baked in a Wherever pan. Case, I NEED that recipe! It was delish!

And on Friday morning, I made some more yogurt pancakes for breakfast before work. P.S. I tried using half whole wheat flour this time and it was terrible. I find that strange because I love the whole wheat oat pancakes and I don't find a problem with whole wheat flour in many other baking recipes. But in these yogurt pancakes, it just wasn't good. Just FYI.

And here's what's been on our menu this week:
1) Saturday morning (well, Friday overnight), I tried Weelicious Oatmeal in the Crock Pot. (More on that in an upcoming post.) Also, on both Saturday and Sunday, we had a couple different berry smoothies along with our breakfast/snacks. Saturday evening we had my SIL and her family over and they wanted to order pizza, so that's what we did.
2) Sunday, we had supper at my parents' house.
3) Monday I tried Crock Pot BBQ Chicken. This does NOT really require a recipe and it was ridiculous-easy, but it smelled and tasted really good. Just 3-4 chicken breasts with 1 cup bbq sauce. Cook for about 2.5 hours. That's it. I also cut up a whole head of cauliflower and roasted it in the oven with just some olive oil, salt & pepper. I LOVE that!
4) Will's lunch on Tuesday was a strange smorgasbord but it covered all the bases: a pumpkin apple muffin, about a tablespoon each of peanuts and raisins, steamed broccoli with roasted cauliflower (two leftovers pulled together), and red grapes. Will never minds the random collaboration of food items. :)

Our babysitter has been off all this week because she had surgery on Monday. I wanted to take a meal to her family and we'd planned on Tuesday night for me to bring it by. So I decided to make a recipe that SHE gave me (which I made entirely on Monday night - I almost never prepare a meal - on a weeknight - on the same night we're going to eat it). That way I knew her family would like it. It's called Cheeseburger Soup. It actually has potatoes, carrots and celery in it though with a creamy base, so it tasted more like potato soup. I doubled the recipe and took half to their house and left half for us. I also decided to lay off the frozen garlic bread that goes so well with this and make my own using the Weelicious Garlic Bread recipe. Boy did I feel straight out of a magazine with my loaf of French bread poking out the top of my reusable grocery bag this week! And the smell and taste of was SO good! I highly recommend it. Oh, and I sent along a few of our pumpkin apple muffins for breakfast/snack for our sitter's family.

Soup ingredients:

I actually left out a key ingredient in the above picture that lends itself to the CHEESEburger soup name. I'm almost embarrassed to show you, but honesty is the best policy, right?

I wanted to make it as directed since I was sending to their family, who'd had it before... But I think next time I make this soup for just our family, I'll just try using shredded cheddar and see how that goes. The recipe (which serves 8) calls for 8oz of Velveeta. So 1oz of "cheese product" per serving, I guess. Ah, well.

Hmm. In terms of visual appeal, this meal is certainly lacking in color. White soup, white bread, white (leftover) cauliflower, and (haha!) a slice of sharp white cheddar. Oh, and white milk! Oops! Guess I hadn't thought that one through...

Later that night, I was craving some chocolate with nothing in the house to satisfy it. Actually, I'd had the same experience on Monday night and two nights in a row was enough to put me over the edge. So... I made a batch of Aunt Cathy's chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Problem solved. I am SUCH a cookie-girl.

5) Wednesday - As I mentioned, our regular sitter has been off duty recovering, so my wonderful cousin Brianne has been coming over to watch the kids at our house and we LOOOOOVE her! She has been so helpful and does such an awesome job. So I've been getting breakfast and lunch prepped for the kids this week and having stuff ready to go for meal times. Sometimes it has been dinner leftovers. Other times I've gotten together simple veggie bowls and the makings for a bean & cheese quesadilla. I love our quesadilla maker. I just left it on the counter ready to be plugged in and Brianne could grill the quesadilla right before serving. Easy peasy. The kids have also had scrambled eggs, graham crackers with peanut butter, etc.The next two meals (Wednesday and Thursday night) were made entirely last Friday night. I absolutely love having "casserole" type meals ready to put in the oven for week nights. I just take one night to cook/prep and clean up and then dinner is so much faster when time is of the essence during the week. There is just no way I could fathom coming home from work - feeling tired with kids needing/wanting my attention - and make an entire meal. I think I would go crazy with stress and guilt.

So Wednesday evening we had Weelicious enchiladas with tossed salad. Here were my ingredients before prepping on Friday... I was psyched about the red bell pepper and corn that went into the filling!

And here is the baked product... They were actually rolled up burrito style (tucked in at the ends) instead of jelly-rolly style with the ends open.

So I just washed up some lettuce and cut veggies for a tossed salad while it baked. Oh, and I added a bit to the baking time since it was coming out of the fridge instead of going in directly after preparation. I think I baked it for 25-30 minutes?

6) Thursday was my favorite meal of the week: Weelicious Lasagna Rolls, green beans, and another loaf of Garlic Bread. It was a spinach lasagna, not a meat lasagna. And it was so pretty and delicious! I did get more complaints from the peanut gallery (Will & Craig), but I am so over their ungratefulness. It doesn't hardly phase me anymore. My brother and his girlfriend stopped by briefly before we sat down and showered the smell/appearance of my meal with compliments and I almost hugged them. What a nice (rare) thing it would be to hear gratitude once in awhile! Will does compliment the things he likes, but it's usually something like "Ooh! Thank you for making these grapes, mommy! They're really good!" ;)

Ingredients for spinach lasagna:

One prepped roll - so pretty!

That's fancy enough for company! From here, I just cover with foil and stick in our spare fridge (in our garage) until I'm ready to serve it.

I also write the baking information on the foil/lid in case I put away the recipe and forget or in case Craig needs to stick dinner in the oven for me.

Yum.

7) Friday - This is a recycled picture, but I made cottage cheese pancakes this morning for breakfast. A hot breakfast before work isn't so difficult anymore! And these little babies taste a lot like French Toast, I think. A good dose of protein and calcium to start our day. I also bought a bag of oranges and (our standard) bananas at the store last night, so we had some fruit slices along side.

Tonight will be leftovers 'cause we have plenty! But it's been nice having easy lunches to pack for myself this week with all our dinner leftovers.

So next week is Thanksgiving! And I am so thankful for our healthy family. We wish you all a pleasant holiday with the ones you love and lots of yummy food to share together. Happy Thanksgiving!