More please!

While the saying goes that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so is snack time, lunch and dinner to a toddler. Here are a few recipes that leave Reagan signing for more.

VEGGIE QUESADILLA:
Wheat tortillas
Vegetable pepperonis
Mozzarella cheese

I use a sandwich maker but you could also just cook your quesadillas on the stove using butter or cooking oil.

NANA'S CREAMED PEAS & NUGGETS

4 cups peas, fresh, frozen (or canned as a last resort)
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste
pieces of chicken

Melt butter in a large sauce pan and whisk in flour- allow to cook for 1 minute.
Slowly add milk, whisking to prevent lumps. Add salt, pepper and other spices as desired. Cook until sauce begins to thicken. Add peas, stir and cook until peas are heated through (about 5-7 minutes) Add meat Serve warm alone or over multi-grain toast. **Other veggies may be added if you desire, however - ensure that ratio of veggies equals 4 cups!**

PUPS IN A BLANKET
One pack of tofu hot dogs
Ready-to-Bake Crescent Rolls
Veggies & Cheese

Directions:
In a skillet, cook the (tofu) dogs until they brown and blister, while the dough sits out defrosting.
Wrap the dogs in a square of the dough and roll them up like a cigar with veggies & cheese.
Cut into smaller pieces to desired Toddler-friendly size.
In an oven preheated to 375-400 degrees F, bake the rolled dogs for about 25min. or until they are fluffy and golden brown.
Serve with Sweet Potato Fries or Veggie Sticks and Dipping Sauce

TOFU NUGGETS
1 package firm tofu - 1/4 cup flour (more or less)
1 egg equivalent (2 whites or your favorite sub)
1 cup fine dry bread or cracker crumbs (mixtures are fun)
1 teaspoon garlic salt - 1 teaspoon paprika - 1 dash or a few grinds of pepper
Cut tofu into your favorite configuration (my toddler likes fingers).
Spread flour on a small plate or flat dish. Beat egg equivalent in a
shallow dish. Mix remaining ingredients in shallow dish. Turn each
piece of tofu in the flour to cover, then into the egg, then crumbs, and
then to the rack. Chilling will help to set the coating, but you can just bake right away. Bake at 350 degrees Ffor 15-20 minutes until crisp. Serve with a dipping sauce

CHICKEN STICKS

Making spicy chicken breasts for dinner and your toddler won't touch it? Try chicken sticks!
Thinly sliced strips of chicken breast yogurt - plain crushed cereal - shredded wheat, cheerios, corn flakes, honey oat cereal

Roll chicken strips in yogurt then coat with crushed cereal of your choice. Bake on lightly greased baking sheet at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until done. Serve with a dippin sauce and the family veggies.

PASTA:
Whole wheat elbow macaroni
Chicken or Veggie broth
Fresh or Frozen Peas
Fresh or Frozen Green Beans
Chicken

Boil the pasta in the broth until tender. Add vegetables and cook until 10 minutes. Add cooked chicken until warm.

SPINACH NUGGETS:

1 16-oz package frozen chopped spinach, cooked, drained, and chopped further if needed
1 cup Seasoned bread crumbs - (3/4 cup breadcrumbs and 1/4 cup wheat germ or flax meal is a healthy substitution!)
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese Try tomato & basil cheddar!)
3 Large eggsor 5 egg yolks

Heat oven to 375F
1. Lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil and set aside.
2. Combine all remaining ingredients and mix well. *Add seasonings if you like - garlic powder, pepper, extra basil & oregano for example. Add a fruit or veggie puree to substitute for the eggs if desired*.
3. Shape mixture into nuggets or fun shapes such as squares or squigglies etc..and place on baking tray. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, turn nuggets over after 15 minutes. Serve warm
You can "roll" this out and then try using small cookie cutters to make these into fun shapes!


YOGURT CEREAL BARS:

2 cups corn flakes - 3/4 flour - 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon - 1/2cup butter or margarine
1 cup flavoured yogurt (banana/strawberry etc..) - 1 egg slightly beaten
2 tablespoons flour

Preheat oven to 350F
Combine cereal, 3/4 cup flour, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Cut in butter or margarine until coarse crumbs form.
Press 1/2 the mixture firmly into the bottom of a greased 8inch square pan.
Mix yogurt, egg and 2 tablespoons flour in another small bowl.
Spread over cereal mixture in pan and then sprinkle the remaining cereal mixture on top
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown; cut into bars when cooled.

*Most of these recipes were found at wholesometoddlerfood.com. They are a great resource for healthy recipes for little ones.

Chef Mama

One of my biggest surprises in having a toddler (ugh..I can't believe she's already a toddler!) is how much planning it takes for her meals. As a baby she loved fruits and vegetables but as she grew in to the toddler phase, the textures of food that weren't mashed seemed to turn her off. I realized how quickly her eating habits could get off track and so began the journey to find as many healthy recipes that she would still love. I wanted to share the successful recipes incase any other mommies out there share the same problem.

Here are the breakfast recipes that the boss approved. Snack, lunch and dinner recipes coming soon!

Apple Breakfast Bars

1 1/2 cups quick rolled oats
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups raw apples, shredded

Combine all ingredients. Let stand 10 minutes. Press mixture into 8" x 8" baking dish. Bake at 375? until lightly browned, about 25 minutes. Loosen with spatula, and cut into bars while warm. Serve hot for breakfast or snack **Freezes Well**


Applesauce Pancakes
1 cup flour –
1/4 teaspoon salt –
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon melted butter –
1/2 cup milk –
1 beaten egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla –
1 1/4 cups applesauce

Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a medium mixing bowl. Combine butter, milk and egg. Stir into dry ingredients. Add vanilla and applesauce; beat well. Spoon batter into a hot, well greased griddle, enough batter to applesauce pancakes about 4 inches in diameter. **Freezes Well**

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins:
 3/4 cup fat-free (skim) milk
1/4 cup canola or soybean oil
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1 cup Gold Medal® whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh blueberries

Heat oven to 400°F. Spray 12 regular-size muffin cups with cooking spray, or place paper baking cup in each muffin cup.


2. In large bowl, beat milk, oil, honey and egg with spoon until well blended. Stir in flours, baking powder and salt just until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy). Gently fold in blueberries.

3. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (cups will be full).

4. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and muffins are golden brown. Immediately remove from pan.


Butternut Squash Muffins
1/2 pound peeled, seeded and cubed butternut squash

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon butter, melted

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan.


2.In a medium saucepan with enough water to cover, boil squash 20 minutes, or until tender. Remove from heat, drain, and puree in a food processor.

3.In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, white sugar, salt and pumpkin pie spice.

4.In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix together milk, egg and butter. Stir in squash. Fold the squash mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.

5.Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan, filling cups about 1/2 full. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from muffin pan and cool on a wire rack.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 C whole wheat pastry flour - 3/4 C unbleached white flour
1 Tbs baking powder - 1/2 tsp salt (I omitted)
2 tsp cinnamon -1/2 tsp ground ginger -1/4 tsp allspice - 1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
1 C pureed pumpkin or winter squash
1 tsp vanilla
2 C milk
3 Tbs canola oil

Stir (and sift) together all the dry ingredients in a med. size
bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs with the pumpkin & vanilla.
Beat in the milk & oil until smooth. Add to flour mixture. Cook as usual. **Freezes well**

Cheesy Scrambled Eggs

3 eggs
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup milk
dash of pepper and/or garlic powder (optional)

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl until frothy then pour in a warmed frying pan. Stir as the egg mix is cooking. Eggs are done when firm and not runny.
Add veggies or even crumbled turkey sausage to this recipe if desired.

Of course if all else fails the girl loves a good bowl of instant oatmeal with banana.

I'd love to hear other tried and true recipes if you have any!  Bon appetite!

Tennessee Bound...

Well our family is now Tennesseeians, though half the time we still spell Tennessee wrong. Ben is convinced that there is only one 's'. I guess I better back up and explain what the heck we're doing here...in the King's home (Elvis..not Jesus).

Ben was asked 7+ months ago if he would be interested in taking the management position at the Memphis store. I was still working at this time but was desperately wanting to be home with Reagan. I mean have you seen her? She's pretty stinkin' cute. I digress....Anyway, so we prayed and talked and prayed and talked and prayed and talked (repeat x million) and we finally decided that this would open the door to allow me to stay home with Rea so we were a go. And then....we never heard another word about it from anyone at his company for several months. Go figure. So, we continued praying for another door to open for Ben's job to allow me to be home. As if this blog hasn't proved this already, God is so good and faithful. If you read two blogs up, I proclaimed that we both felt God leading me to quit my job before we were able to sell the truck and before Ben had a new management position, and we followed the call. Update: we sold the truck two weeks after I quit and got the call for the new job two weeks after that. Hello? God? You there..absolutely! November was a whirlwind of planning Reagan's party and then waiting for the final call to find out when we would make the move. It was filled with a lot of tears and even more prayer. Reagan had a great party, and we started packing up shop immediately after all of the guests left..literally. Ben moved the first week of December and Reagan, Emmy and I followed a few weeks after. We live in a super cute town called Collierville. It's a little like Southlake, a little like Grapevine and a little like Mayberry. So, here we are....Tenneessians..or whatever they call us. It's definitely an adjustment...okay a HUGE adjustment...but when I look at Reagan and how much she is flourishing with having me at home with her, I am convinced that we made the right decision. We are so proud of Ben and what a leader and provider he has become for our family...and he's pretty cute too. How lucky are we to have him?

Spending everyday with Reagan, I am still constantly amazed at how quickly she learns and all of her new skills. She's quite the chatter box and loves to sing and dance. Her vocabulary consists of the following words:

Mama, Dada, Puppy, No No (hmmm...wonder how this one got there?), book, duck, teddy, all done and wee. She also signs for milk, more and all done. Brilliant I tell ya!

Since we are so far from family and friends now my goal is to keep this blog updated so everyone can stay in touch with the exciting happenings of the Murray family. So, to make you feel apart of our family even though we're hundreds of miles apart, I'll let you in on our daily schedule. Today we are going to begin cleaning house for my mom and sis to visit (WOOHOO!) and we're going to wash diapers. I know...jealous much? :)