eat Archives – Page 3 of 3 – The Pinterested Parent

I am going to gush for just a moment about my husband. I like to poke fun of him a lot in my posts. He is a really good sport about it. I tease about him being a “Yes daddy”, which he is, but he is the best “Yes daddy” out there. The truth is my husband is amazing. I often don’t give him enough credit for all that he does for the family. Lord knows, I am not always a picnic to be around, but he is consistently loving & supportive and I adore him for it.

Let me let you in on a little secret, I am not the greatest home maker. After the birth of our daughter, my housekeeping skills have become virtually non-existent. Thankfully, my husband helps with the household duties. He does the laundry & I hate doing it. I clean the bathrooms and floors & he rarely picks up a broom. We have a great balance for keeping our happy, messy home.

We also share in cooking duties. This weekend daddy did all the cooking. He made two of his specialties. He made his family recipe for venison mostaccioli, which unfortunately I can’t share & he made his famous crock pot turkey soup.

I am not much of a soup fan. It has never been a meal that excited me or filled me up, but my hubby’s soup is hearty & delicious and I love it. It is also a healthy and low fat meal option for those watching their diets.

Slow Cooker Turkey Soup

Ingredients:

Leftover turkey carcass (12-14 lbs starting weight)

3 whole celery stalks

3 whole & peeled carrots

2 whole medium onions (peeled)

2 bay leaves

1 tsp dried minced garlic

1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper

1/4 tsp celery salt

1 tbsp chicken bouillon powder

1 tbsp salt

1 15 oz can of Veg-all (mixed vegetable blend)

1 14.5 oz can of chicken broth

1 2.25 oz pack of dry noodle soup mix (Lipton or store brand)

1/2 cup of pearled barley

Place all ingredients except last 4 to the bottom of a 6.5 quart slow cooker, with the carcass being added last. Fill the slow cooker with water. Cook on low for 6-7 hours. After 6-7 hours, strain the loose meat, whole vegetables & bones. Pick out the bones carefully, return the meat. Chop up the cooked carrots & celery stalks and add to slow cooker. Add the remainder of the ingredients & cook on low for 1 more hour.

The soup was delicious as always. Our picky girl even enjoyed two bowls. Thanks daddy.

Up Next: Don’t Forget Your Furry Babies

http://theculinarycapers.com/2013/12/07/best-tomato-soup-i-ever-ate-how-to-make-awesome-grilled-cheese/

http://whatsintheoven.wordpress.com/2013/12/07/bacon-cheeseburger-soup/

http://meggsalad.com/2013/12/07/creamy-butternut-cauliflower-soup-with-chicken-and-kale/

Meal times are a stressful time in our house. My daughter is not the most cooperative eater and it is often a high point of anxiety for myself and my husband. She goes in phases. Sometimes she will surprise me & eat well for 3 days in a row. I get hopeful and think maybe we have had a breakthrough and then she will go into the next 3 days without touching anything on her plate again.
We try to make meal time as entertaining as possible for our finicky daughter. She is a busy little girl and is not a fan of having to sit still for a meal. We often do meal time dinner theater, where we read to her as she eats. She has a favorite selection of books reserved just for mealtime.
When possible, I serve her food in muffin or bite sized form, which she shows a preference to. We make her dips and sauces because she enjoys dipping her food. Unfortunately lately, she has realized that she can keep dipping the same piece of food without actually biting it and she just licks off the sauce. “What did your daughter have for dinner, tonight?”… “Ketchup, why what did yours eat?”

I am always trying different ideas to make meals more appealing to her.
In my Pinterest travels, I have often come across different example of toddler food art. The meals contain different healthy foods arranged to form pictures of animals, cars, cartoons, etc on the plate. This always looked interesting to me. The meals looked cute, but would cute be enough to win over our daughter. Let’s find out.

For snacktime we went with owl. The owl’s head was formed using wheat bread with peanut butter. I used american cheese, raisins and Cheerios for the eyes and a raisin for the nose. The body is made with a half of a graham cracker. The wings are formed using a heel of wheat bread and banana & the feet were slivers of carrot.

Mommy gave this to Miss Mai . She laughed and pointed and said “bird, bird” and then very promptly looked up at me and said “phant, phant, phant” “Ok honey, an elephant it is.

I told you she was picky.

I recut and rearranged some of the pieces and added a fruit roll up for the tail.

The elephant is served.

The verdict…

She did like the fun shape of her snack but all our little snacker was interested in was the fruit roll up tail.

The moral…

The shape of your snack has no impact on whether they will eat their meal or not but it will sure make them smile.

Bearing that in mind, this was still a fun project & I wanted to give it one more try.

Thanksgiving is nearing, so I thought a turkey would be a suitable choice.

The turkey’s body & head are again made of bread, but this time I toasted the bread. The turkey’s wattle is made from a red pepper and the feathers are fish sticks with pieces of cheese & green pepper.

My daughter likes fish sticks and peppers, so this one worked much better for her.

Like I said before, this was a fun project. Mai did enjoy the funny appearance of her food & I enjoyed creating them. I will continue to practice this interesting art form.

Up next…Chick Pea french fries

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eat

Daddy’s Slow Cooker Turkey Soup

Fun Food Art