Busy Weekends, and Quick Dinners

The lil munchkin and I decided we needed to keep writing in this blog if for nothing else than to hold us accountable for actually making something worthwhile for dinner.  As most weekends this one was busy, and therefore, usually results in meals on the go.
Friday, Munchkin and I went to the zoo with some friends.  After eating a chopped up hotdog, and spitting out anything I tried to put in her mouth that was green (Broccoli... someone please tell me this is a phase) we set off to explore the animal exhibits.  Here's a little clip of what we saw...

Saturday, we visited Grandma and Grandpa, and ate dinner on Lake St. Marys.  Dad's dinner request was fish, and we ate at a place called Behm's that I probably havn't eaten at since high school.  Munchkin had applesauce, a taste of grandma's salmon, a little of my tenderloin, and some of grandpa's fries (every time he snuck her a fry she would let out a little devious giggle like she just could not contain her french fry bliss).

And now it's finally Sunday, and I figured we should probably eat something at home.  Uh oh, it's also time to go the grocery again, but then I remembered a couple weeks ago my dad brough us some burgers from the store near them (pizza burgers).  So I threw those on the Goerge Foreman, and when I asked dad what he wanted as a side and was not at all surprised by his answer... mashed potatoes.

So Munchkin and I set to work...

Mommy's side

My Grandma had just given me a cucumber from her garden, and I picked my first tomato from mine so I knew I was going to make cucumber salad for myself; however, Daddy and Alex won't eat that so I was on my own. 
First, I cut up and mix together the cucumber, tomato, and just because I was feeling adventurous I threw in some blueberries.  Munchkin helped me put them in the bowl, and take them out, and put them back in.  And just for anyone who is worried I am always right there with her the whole time so she does not touch the knife, and she will not fall off the counter.

She thinks she's so funny

Then, she helped me add some balsamic vinaigrette (which she loves), and a little dill.  YUM

Daddy's side

OK, now listen closely to my secret, really difficult, mashed potato recipe (seriously, if you think instant is easy this is even easier).

1. Put one whole clean potato in a bowl (no need to peel)
2. place bowl in microwave and hit the baked potato button
3. remove from microwave and add milk and butter while mashing until it is the consistency you like
4. YUM

 I didn't get a picture of this, but she got into the butter container, and it was one the funniest things I've ever seen.  She kept trying to pick up the butter, but it was just too slippery.

This meal was just the right amount of healthy for me, and filling for Dad.  Oh, and Munchkin ate mashed potatoes,  a mixed berry fruit squeezer, and some ham (she also loves ham).  I know the meal was a little hodge podge, but it was Sunday night, it was homemade for the most part, and everyone ate something.

Her new favorite thing to do!

Breakfast Muffins

The lil munchkin and I had a busy day today so in order to get some cooking in and a healthy breakfast we made some strawberry oat muffins.

This was a very easy recipe since literally all you do is mix together the ingredients, pour it in a muffin pan, and bake. Come on anyone can do that, and mixing ingredients is the best thing to do with a little one. Cooking can sometimes be hard with small hands when heat is involved, but mixing is such a fun tactile experience. 

Strawberry Oat Muffins

2.5 cups of oats

.5 cup of sugar

1 cup of Greek yogurt

2 eggs 

Diced strawberries

.5 tsp baking soda

1.5 tsp baking powder 

What a great helper I have. I diced the strawberries and she threw them in the bowl.

Now if I could just get her to leave them in there. 

But adding the oats was my favorite part...

Sorry this is so blurry, but I had to get it quick.  I was about to pour the first half of oats in the bowl when she reached her whole hand in the canister, pulled out a hand full of oats (these are just regular rolled oats), and preceded to shove the handful in her mouth.  The first thing I thought was "oh sweetie you are not going to like that" (I mean if you let your one year old sit on the counter while baking you cannot get mad when they do something like this).  However, my adorable lil munchkin always surprises me...

As you can see she loved them!

What a mess

Then we added the eggs. Now, remember the other day we learned all about cracking and cooking eggs... well, this little one forgot apparently.

"Oh yeah, now I remember."

And of course she loved adding the yogurt.

(top chef in the making)

Mix it all together, and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes

Yum, and I think next time I may try adding different fruit. 

Quesadilla Night!

We visited Great Grandma today, and Alex crawled up on the table, and took a cookie out of the cookie jar.  She devoured it like it was her job.  She knows she only gets cookies at other people's houses so I guess she is always on the lookout for them.

Tonight is quesadilla night in the Anthony house, and  for those of you who don't know us that is a favorite (especially with Dad). It was the first meal I ever cooked as a WIFE that my husband raved over and has requested ever since. Therefore, it is also a meal that I could probably make in my sleep, but this will be Alex's first time helping me.

I don't mind making quesadillas because they are literally probably the easiest thing I could make...

Ingredients
 One can of Black beans
One can of RoTel
Three small can of shredded chicken
One package of shredded cheese (won't use all)
One package of Tortillas (won't use all)

 We don't hardly eat anything out of cans, so I call this our "can" meal.

First, open all the cans and drain the juice.  Alex and I were hit with a pleasant surprise today when Dad showed up in the kitchen AGAIN to help out.  He and the munchkin opened the cans (the crank was a little hard for those little hands so Alex was glad to have Daddy's help).  No, you are not seeing things we still use the hand crank can opener. 

Next, pour all the canned ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

 Then, of course, stir them together (Munchkin's favorite part next to eating).  We let her stir for a while until she realize that if she took the fork out of the bowl she could get quesadilla mixture all over the counter (and don't worry that drool coming out of her mouth did not make it into the bowl). 

Next, spread mixture on tortillas, and sprinkle with cheese.  Munchkin thinks we can eat them now, but I promised her they would be better if we cooked them first.  Which brings us to our final step...

I usually grill them on the George Foreman because they are pretty hard to flip with all that filling, but I have done them in a pan on the stove before.  I wish I had something that I could fit multiple quesadillas on at once, because one at a time takes a while.

 So, while the lil munchkin waited she munched on a little shredded cheese...

Bad Banana

     While we were making the banana pudding the other day my loving husband pointed out the our bananas were getting brown, and then quickly followed up the statement with, "are you going to make banana bread?"
      I always buy bananas with the intention of soaking up the many health benefits of eating a fresh banana; however, I always forget that I don't really like bananas that much.  Therefore, they usually end up getting brown and mushy.  The end result of this being perfect banana bread bananas, because you need them nice and ripe in order to be mushed into the batter.
      Therefore, as you have probably already guessed the munchkin and I made banana bread today!

Here is the recipe I used...http://www.livealittlewilderblog.com/2011/06/banana-bread-recipe.html

"Mom are we really going to eat these mushy bananas?"

We learned Four valuable things today...

1. How to mush bananas with a fork so our hands don't get all messy

      2. How to crack an egg

      3. We must cook eggs before we eat them 

      4. How to measure and add in dry ingredients

 

 

 

 

Instead of pouring in the whole thing she thought it would be better to scoop it in with her itty bitty finger.

"mmm, looks good!"

        

"UMMM, Mom, we're going to eat this right?"

 I explained to her that banana bread takes a good bit of time to cook (1 hour), and we headed outside for a little bit of swinging.  It was the perfect time of day to swing because her swing set was in a nice shaded part of the yard.

The banana bread was delicious!  Of course after a nice dinner of...

SPAGHETTI!

A Little Dessert...

Alright, it's Saturday night (or it was when we started this), and munchkin and I thought that called for dessert. And what is for dessert?

Banana Pudding!

First we had to make the pudding. We just used vanilla cook and serve. Alex had a lot fun helping me pour the pudding mix and measure the milk.  

Of course she dropped the whole pudding packet in the pot and thought it was hilarious, so I helped a bit.

How ornery does this little girl look?

(Dad even came to stand in as photographer)

While we had Dad in the kitchen we put him to work stirring the pudding (it had to be stirred continuously until boiling). As he mastered the art of stirring munchkin and I got to work crushing graham crackers for the bottom layer. Well when I asked Alex to help me crush she decided to eat instead (I am beginning to feel a little like the red hen baking bread). I guess that's what I get for making dessert during snack time, and Alex loves graham crackers. 

So, I crushed, munchkin ate, and Dad stirred. However, this perfect picture disintegrated pretty quickly once the pudding was done, Dad disappeared from the kitchen, and the Lil one started screaming for more.  However, the screams were silenced when we tasted the pudding, and proceeded to pour it over the graham cracker layer. 

Next, we cut up the bananas and strawberries to place on top of the pudding. Can I just say that I love how when we put fruit on a dessert our minds all of the sudden tell us that this is a healthy dessert. Therefore, we continued to construct our healthy dessert with the final layer of... WHIPPED CREAM!

And this brings us to my favorite part. I placed the almost empty bowl if whipped cream in front of my Lil munchkin.

Going in for a taste...

"I'm not sure what to do with this so I think I will smear it on my tray."

"Wait, I wonder what this would taste like."

"WOW!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Oh I better get this stuff I smeared on my tray, and eat it too."

 We had fun, and the ens product was pretty tasty (and healthy too, right?).