Here are over 30 lunches and dinners that my girls have had (and mostly enjoyed) over the last couple of months. There are two things that I have been playing around with in the last couple of months, that I wanted to let you in on. The first thing, is instead of packing Ellie's lunch to include all of the colors of the rainbow (or as many as I can get), I have been playing around with packing only ONE color in her boxes. I have done a pink, red, yellow and green box so far and they have been a huge hit! Although, it might seem intimidating to make, these one color boxes are actually a cinch to pull together. I usually start with the main dish and then pull out everything in my pantry and fridge that is the same color and go from there. Try making a single color box for your little one, take a pic and tag me @babyfoode. I would love to see what you are making! Secondly, I have been playing around with serving our dinners family style instead of plated on their usual white ...
What the Kiddos Ate
32 Healthy Toddler Lunch and Dinner Ideas
Let's just call this post what it really is - What the Kiddos Ate for October, November and December! 3 months all wrapped up into 1 pretty post, yourwelcomeverymuch! Someone is slacking off on these posts 🙋🏻🙋🏻🙋🏻 There are 2 (not-so-good) reasons why... 1) since October, my family has been having a blast playing this game I like to call - 'tag you're it, now prepare to die'. Not dramatic at all over here! All you have to do to play this game is have one person in the family get sick and then just take turns passing it around to each other. You get double points if you pass it around twice! We started with the stomach bug (two rounds each = double points), then came the cold (single points) and now we are onto croup (single points). Which if your little one has ever had croup, then you know that thing is bat-shit-crazy! I have spent waaaaayyyyyyy too much time outside in my pjs at 3am with a coughing toddler then I can even comprehend right now. 2) I decided to workout. I went to ...
16 Healthy and Easy School Lunches + 3 Lunch Making Tips
Making your kiddo a healthy, colorful and yummy school (or daycare) lunch doesn't have to be difficult - in fact, 5 minutes is all it takes to make all of these 16 school lunches!! I guess you can call me a lunch box making novice - as I have only been packing school lunches for 2 months now. But like anything, I have gone bento box crazy and completely overboard in making these the best lunches around! And even though I think I am on the verge of having hubby change my amazon password so I can't order any more bento boxes, I have so much passion for making healthy, fun and yummy lunches for my little Ellie! I just can't stop! What I have found over the last 2 months, is that it really should only take 5 minutes to make a school lunch. That's it! 5 minutes and you are done! And let's be honest, one of best parts of making school lunches is snacking on the fun treats as you put the box together (hello chocolate covered pretzels!!! YUMMY!). I also find it totally therapeutic to ...
What the Kiddos Ate – August
It took me this long, 31 days give or take, to realize that I never posted a What the Kiddos Ate for July! And honestly, the last 31 days have been a complete blur for me. When did fall happen and why do I now wake up every morning shivering in my summer pajamas and wondering how and why it is so friggin cold outside of my warm bed?? I can't say I'm jumping into this fall season with open arms, but for the sake of pumpkin themed food, warm soups and oatmeal, I will give it my best try. But I could seriously do without the frosty mornings and need for warm wool socks! So enough about fall, let's talk about August. Food wise, August was a fun one in our house as we celebrated Parker's first birthday (twice), Ellie started full time pre-school (school lunch time!!!) and Parker is now eating the same exact meals as the rest of us! That means this series is going to change a little. I am combining all of their meals into Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner categories instead of by what each girl ...
What the Kiddos Ate – June
June marks the sixth month that I have been doing this series on What the Kiddos Ate, and let's take a moment to notice (and freak out) that the year is halfway over! I am not sure how that happened either. The most fun and dramatic thing to witness over the past six months is the change in what baby Parker has eaten (or tried to eat). She started in purees and she is now eating almost exactly the same foods as the rest of the family, in fact sometimes you can't even tell which plate is Parker's and which one is Ellie's. And more times then not, Parker is eating Ellie under the table!! Toddler - Ellie's Meals (3 Years Old) Breakfast Top Left Meal- letter toast with cream cheese and homemade peach + raspberry jam, berry salad and green smoothie (2 kiwi, 1/3 cucumber, 1/2 banana, 4 sprigs mint, 1 juiced lime, 1 cup frozen spinach and 1 cup almond milk). Verdict- don't look at me like that! Usually I would never take this much time for breakfast, BUT #10 on our library's summer reading ...
What the Kiddos Ate – May
It was funny, when I posted the bottom right hand photo from Ellie's Breakfast on Instagram I got some slack (and some unfollowers) for feeding Ellie too much meat and dairy and overall just way too much food for breakfast. It kinda just made me laugh because I guess I am totally un-phased by how much my little ones can pack away - meat and all. The thing is, my girls (and all babies and toddlers) have a great 'stop' button in them, so when they are full they are full and they will stop eating. This means that sometimes they eat a ton and other times they don't eat at all. I see no problems with this and I fully encourage them to listen to this 'stop' button in them (because I wish my button was louder, especially around sweets). I usually say in the Verdict section how much they eat and most of the time if they don't eat something for one meal, I save it and they have it for snack or in another meal. On the other matter, I fully support vegetarians and vegans (I was a vegetarian for ...
What the Kiddos Ate – April
I made it! Just shy of the end of the month, here is April's addition of What the Kiddos Ate (boy does April seem like forrrrever ago). And while we are talking about my delinquency, I apologize in the late for not being around the last couple of weeks. I have been having some health issues that I needed to deal with and put on the front burner. Seems like no matter how much I work out and how little I eat, I was still having trouble losing my baby weight. To be more accurate, I am struggling to keep the scale from going up because no matter what I do, it is only going in one direction. And that direction is not down. So I sought out the help from the amazing Sara to see what was really going on with me. Turns out my body and I are in a fight and it is hating me and my need to do it all - having babies, working almost full time on the blog, being a full time mom, writing a book, and the endless amount of other crazy things we all tend to put on our shoulders. After she knocked some ...
What the Kiddos Ate – March
I know you are tired of hearing me say this and I sound like an annoying broken record, but here we are in mid-April and sick again!!.. arg!!! We are in a vicious cycle of sick for a week, recover for a week, feel better for a week, rinse and repeat, over and over for 5 months now. I would have started to pull my own hair out by now but that is already happening so I will be good and leave it alone. When I have felt like cooking, this are the meals I fed my kiddos this month. It is spring and that shows in our food - a mixture of winter meals and fresh almost-here summer meals. Transition months are always funny because you go and make a big pot of soup when it is snowing out and then the next day it is 70 and sunny and there is no way my body wants something so warm. Toddler - Ellie's Meals Breakfast I feel like I am in an oatmeal and yogurt breakfast rut! Do you ever feel that you serve the same thing for breakfast every morning? I need to amp up my game - maybe some eggs, some fun ...
What the Kiddos Ate – February
It has been really fun over the last two months taking pictures of most of the meals we eat. Hopefully you can see that we are nooooootttt perfect eaters. No, not us! That would be no fun. My firm belief on eating food is 80% healthy 20% fun. I will say that getting these 3 section plates has made a HUGE difference in the different variety of food I serve, especially to Ellie. Before we just served her meal on one of our white Crate and Barrel plates because almost all of them have chips on them so what harm would a toddler do? But by using these 3 section plates, I really have to think about what I am going to fill in those extra spaces. No lie, sometime this is a challenge! But a good challenge. It makes me think about her meals as an entirety, having me make sure that she has enough healthy fats, greens, vegetables, and fiber in her diet. And because there is always room for some fun, I sometimes throw in a dessert!!.. and by dessert I mean an orange, applesauce with yogurt and ...
What the Kiddos Ate – January
I have been blown away by how much people have been into my posts on what my kids are eating on instagram [follow me @micheleolivier for pictures of food, babies and my life in general:] but I am also blown away by how many questions, comments and overall well wishes I get from you. While Pinterest is by far my top link for people to find my site, I feel like in Instagram, there is a sense of community that I don't get on Pinterest, plus it's always fun for me to see pictures of your cute baby! So this post, which I am thinking will be a monthly post [let me know what you think of that] is really just a visual food journal of what my baby and toddler are eating these days. But first things first, In theory - I trryyyyyyy to feed my daughter healthy, colorful and diverse food all the time. In reality - this happens maybe 80% of the time. Life happens. We eat out. I have a rough day and pop some chicken stripes into the oven [which is more for me since Ellie won't eat them]. I do ...