Last month (yes, I’m a wee bit behind!) we spent a glorious 10 days at “home” in the Okanagan with family and friends which is why these photos look a little different than the ones usually on my Toddler Food posts. Here’s some of what our little lady ate during our trip…
Breakfast: Organic wholewheat waffle with a dollop of plain organic yogurt and fresh strawberry slices.
Breakfast // Organic “Cheesy eggs” (Papa’s specialty) and garden strawberries and banana slices.
Breakfast // Multigrain french toast. Mango slices.
Breakfast // Multigrain toast with all-natural peanut butter and Crofter’s All-Natural Fruit Spread. Raspberries, mango, and fresh pineapple.
Breakfast // Mango oatmeal with flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and whole organic milk.
Breakfast // Organic cheesy eggs. Avocado smashed on wholewheat toast. Grapes and blackberries.
Snack // Strawberry slices and mango chunks.
Snacks {on the go} // Dried nothing added mango. Raw walnuts and almonds. Baby rainbow carrots. Granny smith slices. Fresh raspberries.
Snack // Baby rainbow carrots (Grae’s choice of farmer’s market treats).
Snack // Two ingredient ice cream turned raspberry sorbet {simply by reblending with frozen raspberries added}.
Snack // Fresh cherries.
Lunch // Egg salad on organic multi-seed flat bread. Steamed rainbow carrots. Fresh mango, pineapple, and strawberries.
Lunch // Seedy turkey meatballs. Mexican quinoa salad.
Lunch // Brown rice avocado maki.
Lunch // Wholewheat rotini with sautéed spinach, steamed garden green beans, and garlic shrimp.
Dinner // Lemon roasted salmon. Smashed baby potatoes with rosemary. Mexican quinoa salad. Veggie salad.
Dinner // Grilled chicken. Pear and pecorino ravioli. Steamed asparagus. Steamed broccoli with cheese sauce.
Dinner // ‘Knock your socks off’ chicken (chicken, peppers, and onions in a spicy sauce) on brown rice. Sautéed mushrooms.
Dinner // Whole wheat rotini with steamed broccoli, grilled chicken, and fresh parmesan. Sauteed onions and yellow peppers. Kale chips.
Dinner // Grilled chicken. Greek green salad. Curried pea salad. Mexican quinoa salad.
Dessert // Two ingredient ice cream with fresh raspberries.
Love, love, love them.
Here is everything you need to whip up a batch of your own… A bowl of strawberries (washed and hulled), plain organic full-fat yogurt (the thicker the better), a food processor (or good blender), and some popsicle moulds (these are my makeshift moulds that I love because of their small size – cheap containers with slits cut in the lids). Ooh – and a spoon. Can’t leave that out.
Get started by putting your strawberries into your food processor.
Let them mix until they start to turn into a puree. You can stop while the mixture is still chunky, or blend a little longer for a smoother texture, depending on your child’s preferences.
Take a little taste. If desired, you can add a touch of pure maple syrup or honey at this point and then mix again, but Grae’s enthusiastic “Mmmmmm” and request for more told me that ours was plenty sweet. (Keep in mind that the finished product will be slightly more tart.)
Transfer your strawberry puree into a measuring cup for easy pouring.
Now you’re ready to put the popsicles together. Start by adding a little scoop of yogurt into each mould. (We used plain yogurt because it’s what Gracen is used to eating, but if you don’t mind the added sugar, you could easily use a vanilla, honey, or berry flavoured yogurt. If possible, try to pick a thicker yogurt as it will make the ‘layering’ easier. Greek yogurt would be perfect.) 
Next, cover the yogurt with strawberry puree.
Then add another spoonful of yogurt.
Continue layering until your moulds are nearly full.
Secure the lids onto your moulds and add the popsicle sticks (if needed).
Done! Place your strawberry creamsicles into the freezer overnight (or at least for a few hours)
And now for the best part – let your munchkin slurp up the remaining strawberry juice if there is any. Yuuuuum.
All you need is some plain dinnerware, a Sharpie or two, and in our case, some tape, and a pair of scissors.
Because we chose to decorate bowls, I wanted to tape off the inside of the bowl, where the food goes. Some may say that the Sharpie is sealed in by the end of the process, but something just doesn’t seem right about putting Grae’s food on top of permanent marker. Plus, I think having just the rim decorated looks cute. Painter’s tape would have been the obvious choice here, but since I didn’t have any lying around, we made do with packaging tape and it worked just fine.
Grae got started drawing right away. I explained that we weren’t drawing in the middle of the bowl and that we were just decorating around the edge, and that’s exactly what she did (therefore the tape was pretty much unnecessary, but hey, you never know). 
When I asked Gracen what I should draw on my dish, her immediate response was, “Apple!” I ran with that idea, and since she’s been so interested in colours for the past couple of months, I got started on a little colours of the rainbow theme of sorts.
Gracen drew and drew and drew and never did I have to encourage her to keep going, choose a new colour, or fill in a blank space. She was having so much fun and was so thrilled about the fact that she was using Mama’s ‘special’ markers that she had more than enough motivation for over an hour’s worth of drawing.
Of course, in that hour, she stopped to come over and admire my dish several times. She’d look with big eyes, then nod her head with a slow, enthusiastic “Yaaaaaaa…” and a sweet little smile on her face, in obvious approval. Then she’d go on to point out the colours and pictures she saw {and shared those she wanted to see in the very near future – my apple, tree, birdie, and banana were all ideas she offered}.
The finishing touch was to happily sprinkle her entire rim with dots of different colours. She’d stop a moment, glance at it sideways, then pick up another Sharpie and add more. This continued again and again until one time she took that same sideways glance, then very nonchalantly announced “All done”. And that was that.
Before we could get it in the house to cure in the oven, she wanted to put her new dish to use, so she carefully browsed through the garden for a handful of ripe strawberries and a sprig of mint.
With her snack gone in less than a minute (yes, she shoved that entire thing of mint in her mouth and chowed down on it like the 
One final touch to add – our names, the year, and for Grae, her bright green signature.
And then into the oven they went. In attempt to “bake the marker on better”, I amped up the heat to 400 and left the dishes in for 45 minutes, despite the general recommendation of baking them at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Bad idea. Although Miss G’s came out fine, my lighter colours really, really faded, some to the point of becoming nearly invisible. Learn from my mistake. The good news is that there’s an easy fix for mistakes such as mine. Just simply redraw your design and then pop it back in the oven for another 30 minutes at 300. 
We let our bowls cool, gave them a good {hand} wash, and used them for dinner. I did try washing them (okay, maybe I even scrubbed a little bit), and so far, so good. The designs still look exactly as they did, and I’m hoping they stay that way for a while at least.
moving in // lounging
First, we gathered our ingredients – organic baby spinach, olive oil, sea salt, asiago cheese, basil, lemon, a couple of cloves of garlic, and some walnuts. (I did consider using the pine nuts I have stashed away in the freezer, but those things are like gold nowadays, so walnuts it was. On the plus side, my mom, a health fanatic of many, many years recently told me that everyone should be eating a few walnuts a day, so there you go. Our walnut intake for the day is covered.)
Start out by placing your clean, dry spinach leaves directly into your food processor.
Next, add the walnuts…
And asiago. (Parmigiano would obviously be the more traditional choice here, but I like to change things up now and then.)
Next, add a couple of whole raw garlic cloves. Just be warned that the finished result is quite garlicky. If you prefer a more subtle garlic flavour, I suggest just adding one.
Next, give your fresh basil a good whiff…
And then add it to the food processor.
Grind in just a touch of sea salt.
And add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
Give everything a couple of pulses first, then turn it on while slowly drizzling the olive oil in. Blend until your desired consistency is reached. We made ours quite smooth this time around, but slightly chunky is just as good.
Next, take a little spoonful and let your toddler dip her finger in.
When you receive enthusiastic nods of approval and shouts for “More!”, you know you’re done.
Transfer into a mason jar for storage in the fridge, or use immediately for lunch (in this case, a warm orzo salad with spinach pesto, roasted red peppers, and toasted pine nuts).
Our line up of ingredients: bananas, all-natural peanut butter, wooden popsicle sticks, and toppings. (Grae picked sesame seeds, organic raisins, sunflower seeds, and organic brown rice puffs, but almost anything would work… Dried cranberries, chopped nuts, and granola would be yummy too.)
To get started, peel a couple of bananas.
And then chop them roughly in half.
Now for the messy part… Spread your peanut butter on the banana halves. (Gracen started by spreading peanut butter on one side, then I’d insert the popsicle stick, flip the banana over, and gently cover the other side.)
It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you want most of your banana covered in a layer of peanut butter by the time you’re through.
Next, take your banana and roll it in the topping(s) of your choice. Larger items, such as raisins, can be added by hand afterwards.
Place your pops on a tray and pop them in the freezer for at least an hour or so.
In the meantime, let your little munchkin {messily} lick the spoon and snack on the leftovers.
Once they’re at least semi-frozen, serve them as a snack or for dessert.
Or heck, why not breakfast?! If there’s ever been a breakfast-appropriate popsicle, this has got to be it.
The best part is that it’s really simple. Here’s everything you need: edamame beans, olive oil, fresh-ground pepper, sea salt, and some cheese (we used asiago).
First things first, run your beans under some cool water for a few minutes to thaw them.
Next, have your sous chef place them all in a large mixing bowl.
Add a drizzle of olive oil…
Your cheese…
A generous grinding of pepper…
And just a tiny touch of sea salt.
Then mix everything together.
Lay your beans out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (who doesn’t love easy clean up?!) and pop them in the oven, flipping them once about half way through.
Take them out when they’re golden brown and have a good crunch to them.
Let cool for a few minutes and serve while still warm. Mmmmm!
It was a breeze to set up. We gathered up a few materials we had around the house – a bowl, magnets, scissors, embroidery floss (any string would do), a large paperclip, and a piece of drift wood from Gracen’s 
These alphabet magnets, made by Gracen’s 
WIth our fishing rod built and our pond freshly-stocked with fish, we were ready to go.
Caught one!
After she’d fished standing up for a while, she decided to try fishing while sitting down. Looping the line around the rod a couple of times made this a much more manageable task.
Caught another.
Gracen thought this activity was a lot of fun. As she pulled the magnets out of the pond, she’d remove them from the paperclip, announce their colour (older kids could do colours and letters), and add them to her caught pile (often giving herself an enthusiastic clap afterwards). She enjoyed it so much, in fact, that she insisted that it stay in her room until her Papa returned home from work so she could show him. And that’s exactly what she did. 
Giant sunhat: Baby Gap / Button-up sweater: Levi’s / Ruffled denim tank: Joe / Blush shorts: Baby Gap / Gladiator sandals: Joe
Crossover ballet sweater: Baby Gap / Striped baby doll dress: Old Navy / Polkadot tights: Baby Gap / Glittered Flats: Payless / Recycled milk pouch book bag: 
Floral sunglasses: Joe / Striped dress: Baby Gap / Tights: unknown (gifted) / Glittered flats: Payless
Ruffled cardigan: unknown (gifted) / White blouse: Old Navy / {Still very big} floral skirt: Old Navy / Brown tights: H&M / Glittered flats: Payless
Straw fedora: H&M / Floral sunglasses: Joe / Plaid button-up: Joe / Pink tee: Next / Denim shorts: Baby Gap / Pink gumboots: SportTek (can never be too prepared when visiting a farm!)
Black cardigan: H&M (boys’ section) / Polka-dotted tunic (used to be a dress): H&M / Black leggings: H&M / Fluorescent runners: H&M
Coral ball cap: H&M / Striped dress: H&M / Coral shorts: Old Navy / Gladiator sandals: Joe
I’m not ashamed to say that we were back at