Toddler Food

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Carrissa--The sweet potato crinkles are a McCain's Foods USA product purchased from our local Albertson's grocery store. I had not seen them before. I know that Walmart carries a sweet potato fry that we enjoy as well. I'm sure your adorable little ones would love them.

As for the teeny portions, Morgan did ask for seconds of the sweet potato fries but the 1/4 burger and 1/4c fruit were enough. I always start small and offer seconds. That way he cannot fill up on one food too early to sample them all!

Off topic, but isn't he just cute??

Monday night's dinner: Veggie burger (tomato basil pizza flavor), sweet potato crinkles, mixed fruit. Morgan and I eat a lot of vegetarian dishes while Daddy is working and this is one of our easy meals.

But, now that I'm home--I actually have a bit more time for cooking. This week, I am so excited about trying the "best Brussels sprouts" recipe from the Vegan Lunchbox cookbook and website.

Jennifer McCann, who wrote the cookbook--raises her son on a delicious Vegan diet and shares her recipes for animal free school lunches. Now that she has finished the book, she is sharing different menus on her website. I love to check in regularly to see what creative culinary delights she has whipped up!

You can get the recipe for her "best Brussels sprouts" on this page as well as many others that are posted publicly for those who do not own the cookbook.

I had intended to post a photo of the sprouts, but I ate them so fast that I had nothing to show but an empty bowl. The recipe calls for sauteeing and then steaming the sprouts and then finishing with an apple cider glaze made directly in the pan that is out of this world.

For those of you who think you've hated Brussels sprouts since you were about six...FORGET EVERYTHING that you know! These are sweet, slightly sour, and delish!

I'm planning to test them on the little guy very soon...I just need to buy more sprouts!

Recipe

It's been a while since I've posted on some toddler friendly food, but last night we stumbled across a big hit with Annie Chun's Noodles . I had picked up a box of the Chow Mein Noodles with Sesame Peanut Sauce at the store to try and was so pleasantly surprised at how much he enjoyed it.

I decided to go with a vegetarian version of the dish, using the noodle and sauce kit, 1 cup shredded carrots and two cups steamed broccoli. Morgan snacked on the shredded carrots while we waited for the noodles to boil. The size was perfect for a little guy with fewer teeth and he ate them raw--sort of like "carrot fries".

I added the carrots to the boiling water with the noodles and let it boil for four minutes, drained it, and tossed it with the included peanut sauce. I gently folded the steamed broccoli into the dish at the end so that it would not fall apart. We garnished this with some sesame oil (included in the kit) and toasted sesame seeds.

Morgan chowed down enthusiastically and asked for seconds. This is a very quick and easy dish that you could add meat to or any number of varied veggies and proteins.

Two Toddler Thumbs Up!