Tag
picky
Hershey Kiss Pancakes
The battle at mealtime continues…
As most of you probably already know, I have a picky eater on my hands. I have tried doing everything. I have tried doing absolutely nothing as well. For those of you out there that also have a finicky child, you know how frustrating it can be. Luckily, there are a few mealtime gems that always win my daughter over.
Just like a typical woman, my little girl loves chocolate. For Christmas she got a plastic cane cane filled with Hershey Kisses, so we made some pancakes with them. They were a home run. This weekend my husband requested them & again they were a huge hit with the family. Mai of course helped make them. She ate all of hers & even stole some of daddy’s.
Hershey Kiss Pancakes
Ingredients:
1 cup of flour
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt
1 cup of milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 ripened bananas
1/8 cup peanut butter (this offers a subtle taste, if you are a peanut butter lover you may opt for more)
1 egg white
Hershey kisses (one kiss per pancake.)
Directions:
In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, vegetable oil & vanilla. In a separate bowl, mash the ripened banana using a fork. (If you have an eager little helper, a potato masher works well for them to lend a hand.) Stir in the peanut butter until smooth. Add to the flour mixture & stir until evenly distributed. Stir in the milk & egg white. Heat a griddle or frying pan at medium – high heat. (Test with a few drops of water, the water should dance across the cooking surface for best results) Add 1/8 cup at a time. When the edges of the pancakes start to bubble and firm, flip them. Lightly press a Hershey kiss into the center of your pancake. Cook until the bottom is golden brown. We ate these plain, but of course top with butter & syrup if that is your preference. Enjoy.
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Peanut Butter & Jelly Pancakes
Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of the day. I love eggs, french toast, hash, home fries & pancakes. I am getting hungry just thinking about it. The best thing about breakfast is our daughter also loves it. It is the one meal that I can usually count on her eating. I will admit that we have made breakfast for lunch & dinner on occasion just to ensure that the kiddo would eat.
Pancakes are one of our daughter’s favorite foods & they are one of my favorite things to make. They are delicious, easy to make & a lot of fun to experiment with. Today we made PB & J pancakes.
Peanut Butter & Jelly Pancakes
Ingredients:
1 cup of all purpose flour
3 tbsp peanut butter
3 tbsp jelly
1 tbsp of brown sugar
2 tsp of baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 1/4 cup of milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Directions:
In a small mixing bowl, beat the egg & set aside. In a medium bowl combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt & oil. Add the peanut butter & break up the clumps with a fork while mixing. Stir in the milk & stir well until smooth & peanut butter is broken up. Stir in the egg & jelly. Break up the jelly with a fork as well. It is ok if it is a little clumpy with the jelly. Pour 1/8 cup of batter per pancake onto a hot skillet set at medium-high heat. When pancake bubbles and edges start to firm flip & cook on the other side.
The pancakes were a hit. Next week we will try them Fluffernutter style.
Our Sunday Menu – Toddler Victories & Failures
There are some things in parenthood that do not make sense to me. The most recent in a long line of things that puzzle me is this, you have all heard me cry & whine over what a difficult eater our daughter is, then how do you explain this…
If the daily battle with my daughter at mealtime wasn’t frustrating enough, I now find out that she is capable of eating at each meal, just not for us. Siiiiggh! There are a few foods that I can count on that she will eat, pancakes, French toast & spaghetti. As you can see she likes her carbs. When possible we try to sneak in meat and our fruits & veggies, but it does not always work. Today’s menu had a couple of wins and a definite loss.
Breakfast: Banana & Nutella Pancakes
I had a couple of over-ripened bananas that needed to be used, so pancakes were a great place to use them.
Smash the bananas with a fork in a small mixing bowl. Add the egg & beat together & set aside. In a medium sized mixing bowl add 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1 tbsp of brown sugar, 2 tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt, 3/4 cup of milk & 2 tbsp vegetable oil & stir. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture & stir well. Stir in 1/3 cup of Nutella. Pour about 1/8 of a cup of batter into a griddle or in a frying pan set on medium heat. Cook until the pancake is bubbly & the edges are cooked. Flip the pancake & cook on the other side until cooked all the way through.
Breakfast was a success. She ate 4 pancakes of her own & a few bites of mine too. Score one for mommy.
Lunch: Monte Cristo Roll Ups:
Preheat the oven to 375. Cut the crusts off of 6 slices of bread. With a rolling pin, roll out each slice off bread. Beat an egg in a medium sized bowl. Brush one side of each slice with the egg. Cut a slice of ham so that it fits inside the slice. Cut a slice of Swiss cheese so that it only covers half of the slice. Roll the bread started at the cheese end. Dip the whole roll into the egg mixture covering the entire roll-up. Place on a greased cookie sheet & dust with confectioner’s sugar. Bake for about 7-8 minutes until golden brown.
While this was a big hit with mommy & daddy, Mai refused to try it. I tried bribery & pleading. “Just take one little bite.” Negative. This was a lunch time fail. The score now is 1-1.
Mexican Chicken Rice Bake
Ingredients:
1 cup of uncooked white rice
1 pound of chicken cut into strips
1 cup of water
1 cup of milk
1 can of regular tomato soup (10.75 oz)
1 can of corn drained (8.75 oz)
1/4 cup of diced red peppers
1/4 cup of diced orange peppers
1/4 cup of diced yellow peppers
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 cup of shredded Mexican cheese
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 375. Dice your vegetables & cut your chicken into strips & set aside in a casserole dish (I used a 9×12) add the rice, water & taco seasoning, stir well until seasoning is broken up & evenly distributed. Stir in the tomato soup & milk. Pour the corn & peppers over the top. Place the chicken strips over the top. Cover with foil & bake for about 45 minutes (cook times may vary). Remove foil, add the cheese & bake for 5 more minutes. Remove & let sit for a few minutes to cool. The top may appear slightly watery. The sauce will thicken upon standing. Scoop & serve.
It was a pretty good eating day other than lunch, but you win some & you lose some.
Crescent Roll Breakfast Muffins
The battle at mealtime continues… Here are few funny things about my daughter and food. She will not eat a plate of macaroni because she says it is disgusting but she will dip Frosted Flakes in ranch dressing and tell me “Mmmm Mmmmm, it is so delicious.” She boycotts certain foods because she says they are “Too cheesy, but will ask for a slice of cheese each and every time we go the deli department at the grocery store.” and then a food that was her favorite last week, she will push a way from her this week with the claim “I do not like this.” Siiiiiiigh!
Mealtimes are tough. Our daughter rather be doing anything else in the world than eating. We entertain her during meals with books and talking about our day, but most of the time she just wants to jump down and play. I also have noticed the larger variety of foods given to her on one plate the more she scoffs at it. We try to keep it simple. Bite sized foods work best & of course whenever I can throw something into a muffin tin or roll it into a ball, I do it.
When Mai first started her path into pickiness, there was one thing that usually never failed, wrapping her food in a crescent. I made crescent stuffed everything for a little one. I had almost forgotten about this. We had a can of crescent rolls in our fridge & I thought we could re-visit our old trick & see if it could still work it’s magic.
Ingredients:
On can of crescent rolls or crescent dough
4 eggs
1/2 cup of ham finely diced
1/2 cup of finely chopped broccoli
1 tbsp of parmesan
1 tsp of water
Pepper to taste
Cheddar cheese optional
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. In a medium mixing bowl beat the eggs & water. Add the parmesan, ham, broccoli & pepper. Stir well. Roll out the crescent dough (If using crescent rolls, pinch the seams together & join into one sheet. Slice into 24 squares about 1 1/2 on each side. Push each square into a mini muffin tin opening working it around to form a cup. Pour the egg mixture into each cup filling almost to the top. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese if you desire. Bake for about 10-15. Cooking times will vary.
Mai made mommy very happy by gobbling up my muffins & daddy liked them so much he started a list of different varieties we could use to make for football parties.
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Macaroni & Cheese Bites With Ham
Being a working mom, it is hard to be away from my daughter all day. It is a struggle for me to walk out that door every morning. If I am lucky I get to see her wake before I walk out the door. Most evenings I do not return home until almost 6 pm. When I get home from work, I am so excited to see my munchkin. The last thing I want to do is spend all my time worrying about dinner & then getting into our usual battle over her not eating it. It is exhausting. I try to opt for quick kid friendly food during the work week. It is difficult with my daughter’s picky diet. It is honestly a roll of the dice as to whether she will eat or not. Even her old standby foods sometimes fail us, but still I try. I am always trying to re-introduce foods even the ones she hates in hopes that she will learn to like them. One food that she has never liked & has often puzzled me is mac & cheese. What kid doesn’t like mac & cheese? Mine apparently.
My daughter like most toddlers loves bite sized foods. For some reason it is not simply enough to cut the food into small pieces, it must be formed this way from the get go. I am not complaining though, I find the little morsels to be fun to eat as well. Our last experiment was bite sized macaroni & cheese with ham. Would this fool my little food diva into eating it? Let’s find out.
This is a quick & easy one.
Ingredients:
1 box of Velveeta shells & cheese
1 6 oz ham steak thinly diced (about a cup – 1 1/4 cup)
1 egg
Pepper to taste
Directions: Preheat the oven to 400. Prepare the boxed mac & cheese. Mix in the diced ham, stir until ham is evenly distributed. Stir in the egg & add pepper to taste. Spoon the mixture into a greased mini muffin tin filling to the top. Bake for 15 minutes. Use a spoon to slide out the bites.
Did my bite size treats impress my tough little food critic? Unfortunately this experiment failed me. She took a bite & said, “I don’t like cheese.” & then spit it out. The good news is they were a big hit with my husband. I did get Mai to eat at least an ear of corn on the cob. Back to the drawing board, but for those of you with mac & cheese lovers in your midst, they might enjoy these bites. The battle continues.
My Picky Toddler Woes & Baked Corn Dog Bites
I hate to sound like a broken record… I know you have heard me complain about this many times…BUT I have to say it again, my daughter is a picky eater. I can’t even imagine the amount of time & food I have wasted trying to get my child to eat a good meal. I have many sneaky ways & tricks that I use to help with the process, but that only works if she likes what she is eating.
She has a long list of gripes about her food:
“It’s too spicy.”
“It’s too cheesy”
“Not warm”
“Too hot”
“Noodles are disgusting”
You get the idea. Planning meals just plain stresses me out. At 2 1/2 years old our little girl still only weighs 25 pounds, so I will pretty much feed her anything that will get her to eat. Here lies the challenge. It is not uncommon for me to have several different meal options out at one time.
After rejecting meal 1 & meal 2, we try for a 3rd option. It is very frustrating. People tell you, they will eat when they are hungry, but yet I have seen my girl goes days without barely taking a bite.
I try to make food as fun & easy to eat as possible. She has recently taken a liking to hot dogs, just the hot dog, no bun. Tonight’s menu, corn dog bites. These are fun & super easy.
Ingredients:
2 boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix (2/3 cup of milk & 2 eggs)
1 package of hot dogs
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp ground mustard
pepper to taste
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Slice hot dogs into chunks about 1 1/2″ long about 1/5 of the hotdog. Prepare the corn muffin mix according to directions. Mix in the parmesan cheese, ground mustard & pepper. Dunk the hot dog chunks in the mixture one at a time coating them well. Place on two greased baking sheet. Do not worry about them being covered perfectly. You can top off any bare spots my spooning mixture over the chunks once on the sheet. Leave plenty of space on the baking sheet between corn dog bites. Bake for about 10 minutes. Let cool & serve with ketchup or mustard.
It was a dinner time victory tonight. It even warranted a thumbs up from my finicky little girl. A sigh of relief & one more meal down. Until tomorrow….
