I wish sugar was good…

Tate gets an organic lollypop on occasion after a well-mannered dinner. I have been beefing up on our nutrition discussions and teaching Tate why sugar, processed fats, etc. are bad for our bodies. Tonight, Tate got his occassional lollypop and here is what he said:

Tate: “I won’t eat lollypops much….lick….lick….I wish sugar was good for us, then I would eat lots of lollypops…maybe four a day!”

While Tate enjoyed his treat, Chase wanted to be part of the action. Although, his treat was a orange slice. (he did get a little chocolate just before his orange slice, just so you don’t think I am thaaattttt strict about food).

Sushi!

I love that my boys eat sushi! Chase is an especially adventurous eater. I mean, he has his preferences, but for the most part, if I put something down on his tray he will at least try it. He was totally in love with cheese, but now is not digging it for some reason. So he goes through this little “things,” but for the most part, he is such a fantastic eater!

On Friday, we were not in the mood for our meal leftovers and I was was feeling lazy, so we ordered sushi to go. This sushi place up our way makes a great kids roll that Tate can fit into his mouth and Chase just picks and chews away at a big California roll (with real crab, of course!). He also enjoys the seaweed salad, yum!!

 

 

Zucpasta!

Last night, I finally pulled out my handy dandy World Cuisine Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer. I used my birthday gift certificate money to purchase this little kitchen toy. The main reason I bought it was to make zucchini pasta. It turns the zucchini  (or any squash really) against these little blades and makes long curly, non-mushy “noodles.” I have tried grating them before for the same purpose and it usually turns into this mushy glop. But with this cool gadget the zucchini stays crisp and quite noodle-like, which is quick to make and raw to boot, perfect.

After the noodles are made, these little tubes of zucchini remain. Tyler used them to express his artistic abilities. I topped the zucpasta with homemade sauce (Steph’s recipe), ground beef and parmesan, yum! Tyler even gave it a thumbs up, well, maybe a 3/4 thumb, although he didn’t love it, it is pasta-esque and he will eat it (good enough for me!)

Oatmeal! Really?

We started a reward chart a few weeks back for "Sweet Sleep". To earn a mark on his chart, Tate needed to allow us to leave his room without fussing or squawking like a hawk (which he likes to do to see if we will come back into the room and respond in some way) and wake up quiet (he wakes up sometimes before 6 AM, so he stays in his room and reads or plays quietly while the rest of the house is still resting). There were only a few days when he didn't get his mark. We told him there was a surprise when he achieved all 10 marks! So today was the day, he got his 10th mark on his chart!

 

 

 

His surprise consisted of 2 used matchbox cars (which he totally digs - boys can't seem to have enough cars!) and his choice of breakfast. Now, I will preface this story by saying, Tate does not really know all the "choices" out there - like boxed cereals or whatnot. When I told Tate he got to choose breakfast, there was not one ounce of hesitation - OATMEAL!! I said, OK then, oatmeal is it! Tyler was pretty shocked!

Turkey overload...for most of us

I love turkey leftovers - the first thing I do with the carcass is make turkey broth for a yummy soup with carrots, green beans, leftover turkey bits and creamy mashed potatoes as the thickener. Tyler's favorite is turkey sandwiches on sourdough bread. This is the one time in the year that I actually buy white flour sourdough bread (see, I am balanced when it comes to food! :). There are so few foods that Tyler asks for, I just have to indulge him. And I must admit, it is yummy! So, we have repeated the whole feast with stuffing, gravy, etc., slurped up our soup (a number of times actually, with more stored in the freezer for later) and enjoyed our turkey avocado sandwiches on sourdough as well as turkey enchiladas with pineapple and sweet potato filling and now I can officially say I am turkeyed -out! However....

There is someone in the Allbritton clan, who will remain unnamed, that still can't get enough turkey! In fact, this unnamed family member actually will whine for turkey instead of his bottle (opps, that may have given the person away)! I have considered buying another turkey just for this very small, out-of-this-world cute Allbritton!

Needless to say, this Allbritton has mastered the skill of feeding himself. There are still crumbs caught in his bib or left at the bottom of his highchair, but he can stuff his face pretty well! 

Tate's snack

Don't tell Tate his snack is unique, he thinks it is totally normal!

It is hard to understand exactly what he is saying in this video, so here is the list:

medicine (chewable multi-like supplements)

goji berries (nutritious dried berries)

almonds

prunes

white medicine (which is vitamin C)

Yes, he requests this!

Here is a pic:

Glass popsicle molds

While this little invention may be uninteresting to many, my plastic-avoiding friends may get a kick out of it. A friend Moneca asked me if I had ever seen glass or stainless steel popsicle molds. I have not, but my wheels started turning. I noticed my small glass jelly jars are a good popsicle size and asked my industrious husband if there was a way to make a slit in the metal lids for a popsicle stick. And, of course, my most-excellent husband found a way! So now I have glass popscile molds to put my fudge-sicles in, yummy!

This particular "recipe" was inspired by Moneca, although it always turns out different since I don't really use exact measurements, I just taste as I go:

1 big scoop of raw honey (local is best) - maybe 3 Tbs

large pour of cocoa powder - maybe 1/4 cup or more

2 egg yolks (from my backyard flock of course)

1 pour of dairy kefir - 1/4 - 1/2 cup

small handful of cacoa nibs

1/2 to 3/4 cup raw cream

There is really no wrong way to make these. Try blending in a bag of frozen raspberries too!

Having fun with animal crackers

Tate's new school assigns a day a month where we bring a snack for the entire class. Our turn is at the end of September, right when they learning about farm animals. So I thought perhaps we could make some animal crackers for the class. This morning we experimented with a new recipe and made a batch. Here Tate is helping roll out the dough and cut the cookies.

Here is Tate enjoying his animal crackers with some apples, kefir-cheese dip and a tall glass of milk...YUMM!!

We had fun biting off little bits of the animals, a head here, a leg there. Lots of smiles and fun!

Breakfast Soft Serve Ice Cream

We like breakfast ice cream, an idea inspired by Missy Chase Lapine in her book The Sneaky Chef. The recipe changes every time I make it, but today we took:

2 avocados

a 10oz bag of frozen strawberries (organic of course)

a pour (maybe 1/2 cup) homemade dairy kefir (could use anything, coconut milk, regular milk, almond milk)

1 T raw honey (plus a few drops stevia to bring up the sweetness just at touch)

1 T vitamin C-berry powder

a big blob of raw cream

I threw all the ingredients in my nifty food processor and let 'er rip.

Tate said, "mommy, you make nice ice cream!" I politely said "thank you!" But inside I am totally doing back flips because my precious first born totally digs this nourishing breakfast!

Messy face with first foods

Chase has been practicing eating solids the past few weeks, just here and there, nothing major. So the first food we started with was avocado, not much stayed in his little mouth. His little tongue just pushed most of it right onto this chin.

 

So after practicing with avocado a few times, we moved onto egg yolk once I thought he might actually eat more of it. He did do a good job, I would say he got maybe half the yolk down to his little belly!