Munchkin Meals

I follow several blogs, but one of my favorites is from a first-time mom who is an inspirational health and fitness nut. Every once in a while she posts Munchkin Meals. I love this. She basically highlights what her toddler eats in a typical day. I thought I’d borrow her idea and highlight what I feed Jackson (now 1 year old) during specific mealtimes. I’m going to start with breakfast.

Enjoying breakfast

 

I’m doing this because I am ALWAYS looking for good healthy food ideas for Jackson. I’m trying to introduce more and more protein into Jackson’s diet because he is so skinny so I’ve been doing research and trying to stick to healthy grains and more natural foods, that also taste really great.

BREAKFAST

To me, eggs are a great source of protein but we haven’t yet incorporated them into Jackson’s diet. Now that he’s a year old, I WILL be making these Mini Quinoa Egg BLT BITES this weekend. http://iowagirleats.com/2012/10/16/mini-blt-quinoa-cups/

BLT Quinoa Cups

 

Otherwise Jackson will get one of these dishes for breakfast regularly:

1.       Spiced Breakfast Quinoa  - http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/breakfast_quinoa.html

Spiced Quinoa

 

2.       Whole wheat oatmeal pancakes with blueberries - http://christiekoester.blogspot.com/2011/06/oatmeal-buttermilk-cinnamon-pancakes.html

Blueberry Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes

 

3.       Overnight steel cut oats with a fruit cooked in - http://christiekoester.blogspot.com/2012/10/pumpkin-steel-cut-overnight-oats.html

Overnight Steel Cut Pumpkin Oats

 

4.       Two cubes of frozen pureed fruit, heated and then mixed together with ground oatmeal. I stir in Yo-Baby Whole Milk yogurt.

Oats

 

5.       Cottage cheese and a fruit chopped up and cheerios

 

All of these are served with a cup of breast milk, but we’ll soon be moving over to organic whole cow’s milk.

What do you serve your toddler for breakfast?

Tweet

Read More

Spring, Are You Out There?

This weather is killing me. Anyone else with me here? I know this is somewhat expected in Minnesota, but this cold snap seems a lot longer than usual. Is it me? And more snow is coming our way( in mid-April)?? I try not to complain because I do love our seasons but winter is hogging way too much time and eating away our already short summer.

Sun is nice, but a little heat would be good.

 

 

The forecast doesn’t even look promising. I keep searching for hope every single week… Hoping there is a 60 somewhere in the extended forecast. Not a one.

I wonder if this season feels longer than normal because I had Jackson in April last year and I didn’t get a whole lot of time to run free outside? I felt like summer was spent catching up on sleep and when I somewhat woke up, it was already fall.  Once fall hits in Minnesota, the skies get dark even before we get home from work so getting outside is harder. And then the weekends were spent catching up on a bunch of stuff.

Yes, we went on walks a lot when I was on maternity leave and even when I’d get home from work but IT IS COLD OUT. And these haven’t been my normal long walks because I never know how long Jackson will last.

I haven’t been to the gym as much as I’d like and I noticed when I don’t get there regularly, things on my body droop. This has never happened for me because I always had volleyball to tone me up – and I haven’t played in almost a year!!! My butt is sagging. So depressing. I feel like I’m about to jump out of my skin. I miss the sun. I miss the warmth. I even miss the SMELL of spring and warmer weather.  I miss my endorphins. I’m popping Vitamin D but even that doesn’t seem to be working. We’re trying to eat more fish too…  

I’m trying to find activities to get us moving more. Maybe a trip to the zoo? Or Underwater World at the Mall of America? Who has suggestions of inexpensive things to do inside with a one year old that almost feels like we’re outside?

Tweet

Read More