Today Bradley turned 30 (I love the couple of months a year that we’re the same age). We’re pretty low-key about adult birthday celebrations around here, but to celebrate, Miss G got to stay up late to have a family dinner and open a couple of little presents once her Papa got home from work.
This may have happened too… Her first ever taste of a chip. *Gasp!*
Ridiculously cute while so wrong baby bikini #2. (Number one can be seen here.)
Everyone’s got to have a job, right?
I don’t think I know a single toddler who doesn’t love crackers. The problem is that many of them are loaded with high fructose corn syrup, sugars, sodium, artificial colouring, and a bunch of other ingredients that I can’t properly pronounce. Luckily, we have found several healthier options that Miss G loves (like these, these, and these), but that doesn’t stop us from whipping up a batch of these delicious goldfish cracker knock-offs every once and a while. They’re ridiculously yummy, easy to make, and only require a handful of ingredients. Doesn’t get much better than that, does it?
Here’s the ingredient line up for our homemade cheddar crackers… Wholewheat flour, olive oil, good cheddar cheese, some garlic or onion powder (plus cayenne if you wish) and a tiny bit of sea salt. (You may also need a touch of warm water if you’re using a mixer instead of a food processor.)
Of course a tiny little kitchen assistant is a necessity also.
First things first, measure your wholewheat flour into a large mixing bowl.
Add in LOTS of old cheddar.
Be sure to sneak a little pinchful into your mouth while no one’s looking.
Then add your spices. We use a combination of garlic powder and cayenne pepper, but you can pretty much add what you like.
Next, add some olive oil.
And just a teeny tiny bit of sea salt.
When all of the ingredients are in the bowl, mix everything up. If you’re using an electric mixer like we did, or mixing by hand, you’ll probably have to add just a touch of warm water to help the dough come together. If you’re using a food processor, the moisture from the olive oil and cheese will probably be enough.
Take a look inside your bowl and stare in awe.
Right now, your mixture should look something like this.
Dump the contents of your bowl onto a clean work surface, and gently form your dough into a ball.
Lightly flour your counter and rolling pin and roll out your dough fairly thin.
Using a teeny tiny cookie cutter, cut out tons of tiny crackers. You may want to flour it every so often to ensure a clean cut.
Gracen chose a moon-shaped cutter, so millions of tiny moons it was.
Lay them on ungreased baking pans.
And then pop them in the oven to bake.
Take them out of the oven just as they begin to turn slightly brown, let them cool, and serve!
I highly recommend making a batch of these sometime soon! The original recipe can be found here, and this is our modified version:
Wholewheat Cheddar Crackers
3 cups of sharp cheddar
8 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon of cayenne paper
1/8 teaspoon of sea salt
1/4 cup of warm water (if mixing by hand or electric mixer)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine all ingredients and gently form dough into a ball.
On a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to 1/8 of an inch thick. Form shapes with a cookie cutter, dipping it in flour from time to time to ensure a clean cut. Gently transfer crackers to an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake the crackers for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are just barely browned at the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Enjoy!
Tonight we headed out with Grandma Charlotte and Uncle Brett for an early birthday dinner for Bradley (he’s celebrating a big one in just a couple of days). He decided upon a restaurant not too far from our house, called Burgoo. We’d tried to eat there a little while back, but with a half hour wait and an antsy, hungry munchkin in tow, it just wast our night. So this time we planned ahead… Although they don’t take reservations on weekends, we arrived early, put our name on the list, and took a little stroll down Main Street. And let me tell you – it was worth waiting for! In fact, it was so good, that if you live in Vancouver, live near Vancouver, or ever visit Vancouver, you need to visit this joint. With a cozy, rustic atmosphere, friendly servers, and an amazing menu filled with delicious comfort foods, you’ll be planning your next dinner out as you’re walking out the door. Here are a few {poor quality} photos from our dinner out…
Papa and his little lady.
Manmaw, Papa, and Grae.
Uncle Brett and Grandma Charlotte.
Miss G enjoying the most delicious-looking Gooey Cheese Griller and Sunset Corn and Chicken Soup.
Happy {almost} birthday to Bradley (a.k.a. Papa).
This morning we headed down to Kerrisdale for their annual Carnival Days. Not going to lie – what was supposed to be a fun, low-key morning turned out a little rough. On top of Grae waking up at 5:00 a.m. in a freezing cold room due to her window accidentally being left open overnight (parenting fail) and running very late (such is the case when 4 people are trying to get ready and get out the door in a teeny tiny one bathroom house), I was grumpy, Brad was grumpy, and Gracen was grumpy. Poor Grandma Charlotte was the only one in a good mood and she was stuck with us 3 crab trees.
Either way, Gracen enjoyed the parade. She plunked herself down on the street to watch the tame parts (like baseball teams walking by) and then jumped in someone’s arms when horses or a loud band marched past.
The good news is that our day, which got off to a rocky start, got better after some lunch and a nap… It’s amazing what some good food and rest can do.
Guess who arrived tonight… And guess who is up past her bedtime chomping on a slice of watermelon while showing Manmaw our {blossom-covered} garden…
Our little daredevil watching a game of basketball at the school across the street. Luckily there’s a big bed covered in a cushy duvet and tons of pillows right there…
Organic, wholewheat pasta shaped like elk?! Yes please.
It’s crazy to me that this is the eighth Toddler Food post I’ve done… Seriously, where has two months gone?! As they say, time really does fly when you’re having fun. Cheesey, but true.
On a different note, can you tell that we’re early risers and our house is still dark when we eat breakfast? I have to apologize for all of the terrible morning photographs! With summer on it’s way, hopefully that won’t be a problem for much longer.
Anyways, here’s a look at some of the things our little doodlebug ate this past week:
Breakfast // Wholewheat flax pancake with plain organic whole milk yogurt, strawberries, and blackberries.
Breakfast // Avocado and cheese on sprouted grain sesame bread. Fruit salad.
Breakfast // Baked blueberry and banana oatmeal with organic whole milk.
Breakfast // Toasted 12 grain flax bagel with all-natural cream cheese and avocado slices.
Breakfast // Multigrain french toast with almond butter. Strawberries, blackberries, and black grapes.
Snack // Organic corn puffs, organic brown rice puffs, organic cranberries, and organic raisins.
{A Papa & Grae} Snack // Unsalted in-shell peanuts.
Snacks {on the go} // Raw almonds. Roasted garlic parmesan chickpeas. Strawberries and blackberries. Steamed edamame beans. {Apple} LARABAR (one of our diaper bag staples).
Snack // Raw almonds.
{A Silly} Snack // Raw walnuts. Black grapes. Strawberry half. Cantaloupe slice.
Snack // Cheddar cubes. Raw almonds. Apple slices.
Snacks / Lunch {on the go and barely visible due to a sneaky little hand) // No-salt-added chickpeas. Mary’s Organic Seed Crackers. Tofu chunks. Organic no-sugar-added fruit leather. Red pepper strips. Avocado half. Raw walnuts. Strawberry halves. Apple slices.
Snacks / Lunch {on the go} // All-natural peanut butter and Crofter’s Organic Just Fruit Spread on a cape seed roll. Fruit salad. Tofu cubes. Red pepper slices and carrot coins. Multigrain Melba Toasts.
Lunch // Veggie and quinoa soup. Grilled mozzarella on seedy flatbread.
Dinner // Chicken and spinach lasagna.
Dinner // Warm chicken, grape, almond, and wild rice salad. Spinach and avocado with Little Creek dressing. Wholewheat pita.
Dinner // Wholewheat spaghetti with homemade roasted tomato basil sauce. Edamame salad. Grilled chicken. Steamed beets.
Dinner // Turkey lasagna soup.
Dinner // White bean and arugula pasta salad (wholewheat fusilli, no-salt-added beans, arugula, feta, red onion, avocado, olive oil, and red wine vinegar).
Dinner // Wild rice with toasted almonds and grilled chicken. Oven-baked parmesan zucchini chips. Steamed broccoli with all-natural cheddar.
Dessert // Cantaloupe chunks. Watermelon chunks.
Dessert // Banana almond flax yogurt pop.
Dessert // Plain organic whole milk yogurt with banana slices, organic oats, and raw sunflower seeds.
Dessert // Berry yogurt pop.
This afternoon my little sous chef and I gathered a few simple ingredients and got to work on making one of my recent ‘pins‘ – baked zucchini chips.
To get started, we got out a couple of small zucchinis, wholewheat bread crumbs, freshly grated parmesan, ground flax, dried basil and oregano, garlic powder, ground black pepper, cayenne, sea salt, wholewheat flour, milk, and some organic raw apple cider vinegar.
First up, we worked on our dry mixture. In with the breadcrumbs…
Then the flax, herbs, and spices…
And then the fresh parmesan.
Gracen gave it all a good mix and it was ready to go.
Next, we worked on the wet mixture. And let me tell you, things got wet. Oopsies. Like they say, don’t cry over spilled milk.
Mess cleaned up, we continued on our way by adding some wholewheat flour to the milk.
And then just a little apple cider vinegar.
Then Miss G gently stirred it up into a thin paste.
With our wet and dry bowls ready to go, we began the dipping process. First the zucchini slices got dipped into the milk/flour mixture…
And then into the breadcrumb mixture. (Grae loved this job.)
Once they were nicely coated, we placed them on a baking sheet lined with foil. (Note to self: Must buy more parchment paper.)
As you can see, things got a little messy, but such is cooking with an enthusiastic one-year-old assistant.
With our baking pan crammed full of coated zucchini coins, we popped them in the oven to bake for a bit.
In the meantime, my little helper and I cleaned up. ☺
Thirty minutes later, our zucchini chips were ready! We added them to a plate with wild rice, chicken, and steamed broccoli, and dinner was served.
If you want to make some zucchini chips of your own, we followed this recipe fairly closely. Here’s our slightly modified version:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix the breadcrumbs, cheese, flax, spices, and herbs together in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the milk, flour, and vinegar together.
Dip the zucchini slices into the wet mixture first, and then dredge with breadcrumb mixture. Place coated zucchini coins on a lined baking pan.
Bake for 30 minutes, flipping once half way through.
Enjoy!
*Note: When we were done, we had A LOT of our wet mixture leftover. In order to avoid being wasteful, I would cut that part of the recipe down by half in the future.
After a long string of beautiful days spent outdoors, today’s rain brought on a welcomed change – a day indoors filled with hide-and-seek, books, baking, and arts and crafts. Gracen LOVES painting, so while she napped, I gathered a few materials in preparation for a messy paint-filled afternoon.
We started out by using straws. (Have I mentioned that this girl has a thing for straws? Naturally, it was her first choice.) I plopped a few little drops of paint on the paper and demonstrated moving the paint by blowing through the straw. You should have seen her gorgeous little eyes light up! Although she was able to do it, I would definitely try to have a much longer, larger straw next time as it took a lot of effort and aim to really be effective. (Do they still have those giant Slurpee straws at 7-11? Because if so, they would be perfect!) 
Eventually, she moved to just dragging her straw through the paint, which gave a just as good (if not better) result. As you can see, she was pretty thrilled with it all:
With our straw painting up on the drying rack, we moved on to using Q-tips. I dropped little splots of paint on her paper, handed over the Q-tips, and let her go. She set to work without a moment’s hesitation, and announced, “More!” as soon as each paint blob had been smeared.
Next, we tried sponges. This one was especially fun because she ‘jumped’ her duck and rabbit-shaped sponges from one paint splot to the next, leaving a rainbow-coloured trail behind them.
After A LOT of jumping, we moved on to painting with a golf ball (marbles work well too!) I trimmed our paper slightly so that it could fit into a deep baking pan, splattered some paint on top, and placed the ball inside.
With just a couple of instructions, Grae figured out just what to do. She gently tilted the pan back and forth, running the ball through the paint splots. The result was really cool – little multicoloured tracks all over the page.
With our paper fully covered in tracks, I decided to grab a pinecone (a rare case when having little bowls filled with collections of things stored in your kitchen is actually convenient) to use as a brush of sorts. Since we were nearing the end of our painting afternoon and we’d already used a lot of the paint, I handed over the entire tray and let Gracen go to town. She dipped and stamped and dipped and drug her pinecone until there wasn’t much left of it. 
Haha! I know that this would be some parents’ worst nightmare, but I’m a fan of getting messy once and a while. Plus, what are you going to do? Let all that leftover paint go to waste?! With the go ahead from Mama, Gracen cautiously tipped the tray of paint over onto the brown packaging paper we were using to protect the table. 
No painting afternoon is complete without finger painting, is it?
And here are the finished masterpieces:
I’d say it was a successful rainy afternoon. ☺
When I woke up this morning with a killer headache and stinging sore throat, I knew that it would have to be an out and about kind of day in order to avoid a lazy, feel-sorry-for-my-sick-self day where Gracen would miss out on the beautiful sunshine and 20 degree weather. Luckily, a quick trip to the library and our stroller fitness class took care of the morning. We got outside, got some fresh air, and Grae got in some quality baby time while I lunged and squatted my way around Queen E park.
Without anything really planned for this afternoon, we decided to head down to Kerrisdale, one of my favourite quaint little Vancouver neighbourhoods. 
First off, we tried our hand at thrifting. I must admit, I love the idea of thrifting and finding beautiful pieces that have histories of their own, but I’m not very good at it. The only times I’ve really had any luck was when I found a sweet little table and chair set for Gracen’s first Christmas in Canada and when Charlotte and I randomly came across an adorable little doll crib and bookshelf for Grae’s nursery. Today was no different, however, Miss G loved sifting through shelves of children’s books, and ended up choosing three to take home.
After our thrifting adventure, we walked hand and hand down the sidewalk, popping in and out of shops, visiting with puppies, and waving at strangers.
Stopping at this flower shop was a must. Of course Miss G smelled her way down the line.
Our next stop was a gorgeous little toy store. The moment Gracen spotted the window display, she shouted “Nin! Nin!” (In! In!) and pulled me towards the door. Almost every item in the shop was absolutely beautiful and the best part was that in the back there was a little play area for munchkins.
Last stop – treats! An Apricot Delight Roll from Cobs for Miss G and an iced coffee from Artigiano’s for Mama… The perfect ending to our afternoon. ♥
Today’s backyard discovery…
I absolutely adore how magical the little things are when seen through Gracen’s eyes.
♥
Does it get any sweeter than this?