Toddler Egg Scramble

Another great tip for adding in iron is using eggs. I have not really cooked with eggs much, mainly because I do not like eggs! I do not mind them in meals, but just eating eggs for breakfast is not something I am fond of.

However, we are now trying new food items to help balance my son's diet.

I decided to try this Ham Egg Scramble.

I used 1 egg, 1/4 cup of rice milk,ham, and chopped spinach. I used nonfat dairy free cooking spray to grease the skillet and then added the egg and milk and scrambled it. Once it was nearly done cooking, I added in the ham and spinach. This made a nice little egg scramble great with some whole wheat toast.

Next time, I'm going to conquer the omelet!

Steak Kabobs

My hubby and I decided we would try making steak shish kabobs this past weekend. They turned out really well, we were both impressed.

We used:

2 Top Sirloin Steak Strips 6oz, cut into cubes

1 Tsp of Rosemary

1 Tsp of Celery Salt

1 Tsp of Oregano

1 Tsp of Sweet Basil

1 Yellow Squash, sliced

1 Apple, Sliced

2 Celery Stalks, sliced

1 Banana Pepper, sliced

These would be really good with Green Peppers, if you make them, add that too. I will also be adding some pineapple next time. This was our first time ever making these, so they were good considering we were newbies to this!

We found the skewer sticks at the local grocery store.

After preparing the meat and veggies, we started putting our kabobs together. We basically just went in a veggie and meat pattern. We were able to make 8 kabobs with these ingredients above. Use more or less spices depending on your preference. I have learned that you can pretty much use the spices you have on hand and most meals will come out tasting yummy. Once we had the kabobs prepared, we put them on the grill for 20 minutes and they were ready to eat!

We had extra veggies that we did not use for the kabobs. We put the same spices we used for the kabobs along with 1/2 Tbsp of olive oil and wrapped them in foil. We put this on the grill too and it was delicious! I fixed 2 cups of whole grain minute rice and dinner was served.

We did overcook the veggies that were on the kabobs because they cooked so much faster than the meat. They were still good though, just crispy!

For my son, I gave him some chicken we had in the fridge, and then he had veggies with rice. The steak was tender enough that it was very easy to chew, so we gave him some bits of it. My son thought it was pretty tasty!

This was a great summer recipe, and the good thing about shish kabobs is you can basically do anything with them and they turn out good. I have seen chicken and sausage kabobs as well and the variety of veggies to use is endless!

Go start grilling!

Dairy Free Pinwheels

This past week, we found out that my son is anemic and needs more iron in his diet and a little less dairy. Now, I have been on a quest to add as much green veggies as possible to his meals and a little less vitamin D and calcium. We need a better balance!

After posting about toddler pinwheels, I realized my son really loves these and would be easy to make dairy free with more green veggies.

To make these I used market pantry tortilla's, French's honey Dijon mustard, ham, and spinach.

I laid out the tortilla as I did in the previous post, but instead of cream cheese I used the French's Honey Dijon mustard and instead of cheese I used spinach. I used the ham the same as I did previously. These turned out so good and just like my son loved the last batch, he is equally excited about this dairy free alternative!

These will be a staple in our house and a great way to get some extra iron in his diet.

Sweet Potato Cakes

I read today that Sweet Potatoes are one of the super foods for young children since they are packed full of Vitamin A. It just happened that I had some in my fridge, so I started to look at different recipe ideas. I found a recipe for Sweet Potato Cakes, and it seemed extremely simple; however, it did not work at all! I am not sure if it was my skillet but the potato cakes did not stay together. Don't fret, I moved on and made my own version!

You will need:

1 Large Sweet Potato

1/4 Cup of Milk (I used Rice Milk)

Spray Butter (Optional, to make dairy free omit this)

Cinnamon

-Using 1 Potato made 10 small cakes

Preheat the oven to 350*. I filled a large stock pot with 2 cups of water, enough to cover the potato and brought it to a boil until the potato was soft. Once the potato is soft enough to mash, drain the water out of the pot and let the potato cool. Then, take the skin off the potato, you can also do this before boiling if you prefer that.

Cut the potato into quarters, place back in the stock pot and add 1/4 cup of milk. You may need to use more or less milk depending on the size of potato, basically use enough to skim the bottom of the pot. Then, I used a hand mixer and mashed the potato.

I lined a cookie sheet with foil and sprayed it with non-stick cooking spray. I made small patties out of the potatoes and placed those on the foiled cookie sheet. I used the spray butter and sprayed the tops of each of the small patties. Then, you can sprinkle cinnamon on each one. I used bread crumbs, but I would use cinnamon next time. I did not think to do that until after it was too late. I had originally added the bread crumbs just to give it some crunch; however, cinnamon would have added a really nice flavor.

Bake this in the oven until the sides are a bit browned. I baked mine for 45 minutes.

I was not sure what my son would think of these, I tried one and it was a bit sweet for me; however, I believe that was due to the rice milk. I gave one to my son and he could not eat it fast enough. First he took a small little bite and next thing I knew he was woofing it down! He ended up eating 3 of them. These were really easy after an initial trial and error with the recipe I was using. I will be making these again with Cinnamon, a sweet and healthy treat!

Quick Snack

One of my son's favorite snacks is graham crackers and sliced banana. This is a quick snack for a busy day, and healthy!

Blueberry Smoothie

We recently took a trip to a local blueberry farm, which was featured on, KOTV, Channel 6. Click on the link to see the story and the video.

We were able to pick several blueberries, along with the employees picking us several more blueberries. Which means, we left with A LOT of DELICIOUS blueberries!

I have been trying to think of recipes to include blueberries in and recently read about making smoothies with them. I had never really thought of using blueberries in a smoothie; however, I am not a huge fan of fruit so really most fruit does not sound good to me. Although, I thought this cold smoothie would be a brilliant idea for my teething toddler.

I blended 1/3 cup of fresh blueberries, 2/3 cup of rice milk, and a handful of ice cubes in the blender. If you would like a more creamy taste use nonfat vanilla yogurt, and you can also use regular milk with this. I prefer to use yogurt, but my son does not tolerate it well, so I avoided that. It turned out pretty well and more like a slushy without the yogurt. My son LOVED it. I gave him 1/2 a cup of the blueberry smoothie and as soon as he drank that he was begging for more. This will be a usual snack for us or breakfast item. I will be trying some some different fruits as well.

What kind of smoothies do you like? Any good fruit combinations?

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