Mum’s NumNums: Toddler Friendly Smoothie

After hitting the Mickey D’s drive-thru last week for a smoothie, I’ve discovered my toddler’s love for all things frozen. Especially of the mango and banana sorts.

What better way to get him to enjoy his fruit (and maybe even sneak in a veggie) than a smoothie?!

So after a few failed attempts and some funky tasting smoothies, here is the final recipe.

Ingredients:
1 medium size ripe mango
1 ripe banana
2 scoops vanilla frozen yogurt
1/2 Cup Carrot Juice (I love Bolthouse brand!)

Preparation
Slice the mango and banana and place in blender. Layer the frozen yogurt on top. Pour in the carrot juice. Purée until smooth, adding more carrot juice if needed. Serve chilled.

You can freeze any leftovers and reblend with a little more carrot juice as needed.

Easy squeezy! And it takes all of 5 minutes to wash, dice, and blend. Take that, McDonald’s!

What is your fave smoothie?
What combos would you make?

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Welcome To The Jungle: Birthday Decorations

After all of the blood, sweat, tears, and planning that went into Chazz’s First Birthday party, it’s time for a birthday tour. All the inside scoop on his monkey birthday party and jungle theme.

(Where we dipped everything in chocolate. Muahhahaha!)

This post will cover the details and the decorations for Chazz’s monkey birthday party. There will be a second post to cover the yummy food and the candy buffet.

The Decorations:
I was deadset on turning our kitchen into a jungle, so we saved all of our paper grocery bags for months to twist into fake jungle vines. I tore down each side of the paper bag, and crinkled them up to get a good texture.

I twisted them to look vine-y and used the twine handles to wrap around the vines.

I attatched felt leaves and a few flowers with good ol’ Glue Dots. Pin a few thousand to the ceiling, and Voilá! Insta- Jungle.

I cut the leaves out of felt. To give them more shape I tugged on the edges with a little twist to make them life-like.

I was more than lucky to find a ton of monkey and jungle type stuff locally. Wood monkey and palm tree cutouts and bamboo mats all added to the theme. And course, nothing is complete without adding a little coordinating ribbon. JoAnn’s had the cutest monkey ribbon.

I also made a mini palm tree out of a tp tube and brown and green felt. And lots and lots of glue. It was perfect for holding the toothpicks. I slipped the tree/tube over a salt shaker to raise up the toothpicks.

The Favor Bags:
I foung clear bags in packs of 12 at the dollar store! A freakin’ steal if you ask me. Just a simple something-something to take home candy in.

¡Monkeys!
It’s important to carry your theme throughout the entire party to tie it all together. Everything was monkeys. From the invites and coordinated ribbon, to the cupcakes, right down to the stuffed monkeys hanging out through the house.

See the candy buffet? Yummm! I had so much fun planning and decorating for our own little monkey. I would say “I can’t wait” for his next birthday, but I SO can, haha.

You can look for the second part of Chazz’s birthday tour this week. Come back and drool over monkey cupcakes, candy buffet ideas, and chocolate fondue!

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Mum’s NumNums: A Quick (Freezable!) Toddler Breakfast

Breakfast at my house is usually in a rush. We’re always go-go-go in the mornings. To have something on hand for Chazz to eat makes the morning a tad less hectic. A tad.

Mini pancakes are easy to make, easy to freeze, and even easier to prepare.

Make all of the varieties below in bulk on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and be set for a while!

You will need:
Whole Foods Organic Pancake Mix or your favorite mix or recipe.

Mix and match from the following to add variety:
-Grated Carrots
-Grated Apples or Pears
-Grated Potatoes or Sweet Potatoes
-Squash Puée
-Banana Purée
-Applesauce and Cinnamon
-Mixed Berries
-Apricot or Peach purée
-Pumpkin
-Flax seeds
-Tofu

Make the pancakes according to package directions. Quarter to silver dollar size works best, to fit your toddler’s needs. Chazz seems to like them quarter size right now, so I spoon about a 1 Tablespoon of batter at a time.

Make and freeze (up to 3 months.) To prepare after freezing, pull one or two out to thaw in the fridge overnight. Or in a pinch, you can wrap two in a paper towel (to keep them moist) and microwave for 15- 20 seconds. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR CHILD’S FOOD TEMPERATURE AFTER MICROWAVING! No need for burns.

Top with vanilla or plain yogurt, jelly, fresh fruit, or even cheese.

I usually cook up a 1/2 pound of lean ground turkey sausage as well, and freeze 1 oz servings in baggies to pull out as a side.

Scramble up an egg or dice up an avocado to keep your toddler guessing. Chazz loves avocado!

With just a little preparation and time, you can have a simple toddler breakfast ready for “those” mornings. Enjoy!

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Mum’s NumNums- Finger Foods

Chazz now has a total of EIGHT teeth, and is SO ready for some finer fair. He has almost mastered feeding himself little bits of food, and loves trying to get a spoon to his mouth. I usually give him an extra spoon with a dab of food on it while I feed him as well. I can make sure he is getting enough in, and he gets to be somewhat independent.

With all of this eating and snacking, it’s easy to fall into the habit of making him the same foods. Where is the variety??!
I stick to alternating colors of food every time, but we seem to be running out of ideas. So here I am, turning to my trusted Twitter and blogging mamas for help. What are you serving up these days for your little one?

And for the mamas who are just as stumped as me, here is a list of *finger foods* I have brainstormed so far:

• Broken up plain Cheerios

• Toasted bread spread with veggie puree

• Small chunks of soft fruit- mostly banana, mango, pear, peach, papaya, cantaloupe, and seedless watermelon

• Small cubes of tofu

• Pasta spirals, cut into pieces, with veggie purée for sauce

• Cut-up raisins. They help get things a-movin’, ya know?

• Small pieces of cooked veggies- like carrots, peas, squash, potato, or sweet potato

• Small pieces of cooked chicken and turkey carefully hidden in applesauce.

• Rice cakes broken into small pieces.

• Fruit purees mixed with oatmeal and rice cereal for more texture. The same with veggie purees and rice.

• Frui or veggies rolled in ground Cheerios or “Puff’s dust.”

• Ground up whatever-we’re-having, pre-spices.

Wow, eating may have just gotten interesting!!
This should keep Chazz’s taste buds on their toes for a while, but I would love any other ideas for some fun transitional foods. Thanks! ❤

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Mum’s NumNums- Bananacado Puree

TGIF! Here is a great baby food recipe for the weekend. Chazz didn’t really like avacado by itself, so I mixed it in with a little bit of banana. We both love this Bananacado, its been a race to see who can eat it faster!

Bananacado

What I Used:
3 Bananas
2 Avacados
BM or formula to thin
3 Ice cube trays

What I Did:
Dice bananas and scoop avacado into a blender and blend with BM until smooth.
Pour into ice cube trays and freeze for easy 1oz servings. Just pull out a few to thaw overnight in the refridgerator.

*this makes a great “diaper bag meal”- just throw a banana and an avacado in your bag and go. Mash up what you need for baby, and eat the rest!

Banana and avacados are both perfect for baby food. Bananas are known as the fruit of the wise.
Avocados have 14 minerals that aid growth, including iron and copper for blood. The sodium and potassium keeps the body balanced and their low sugar content and absence of starch make them an ideal fruit. Vitamins in both fruits include A, several B-complex, C, and E, as well as phosphorus and magnesium. Both bananas and avacados easily digestible fat, so it’s easy on a little tummy.

Mum’s NumNums- Banana

This is something I have wanted to do since we first found out we were pregnant. Not only are we saving money, but it is comforting to know that Chazz is getting wholesome food with no fillers. I can make sure only quality organic food is going into his tiny tummy!
He hasn’t had many solids yet, just squash, sweet potatoes, and bananers, but I just had to do something, so I’m starting with bananas!

What I Used:
-10 ripe organic bananas
-4 oz. BM (or formula)
-blender
-2 ice cube trays

What I Did:
*I first sliced the bananas and then mashed them in a bowl.

*Then simply blended with BM until it was really smooth.

*I poured it into 2 ice cube trays and let freeze over night.

I transported the cubes into ziplocks to store.

Just pull out a cube or two and let it thaw overnight in the fridge for fast meal planning. How easy!

Total Savings: about $8.64
The average cost for 5 ounces of Gerber- $1.40
That’s $0.28 per ounce!
VS
1lb (yield 32oz) organic bananas- $0.49
That’s $0.014 per ounce!