Blueberry French Toast Bake

Happy Daylight Savings!
If you celebrated like we did, then you were up too early, and you had nothing to do to fill up those many hours before the rest of the world woke up.
So WE made breakfast! By we, I mean that I hosted a cooking show while my kiddo sat near by rearranging my kitchen drawer.s But we both did eat it - guilty!
Breakfast for us is usually eggs, or something quick. However, in the effort to kill some time and possibly eat breakfast at our normal time, we made a special breakfast.
This was simple, delicious, and well received by all.
*Bonus points for having left overs so you can just heat this up when your kiddo still insists on getting up at the crack of dawn for the remainder of the week.*

What you need:
6oz of your bread of choice (mine was 5 large pieces)
4 Eggs
2 TBSP Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Cup Milk
2 TBSP Yogurt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Blueberries

Two separate bowls
Pie Pan

Let's Get Started:

- In your larger bowl get your bread slices, and cut them into even pieces.

- In your smaller bowl add in your eggs, milk, yogurt, vanilla, cinnamon, and brown sugar, and stir to combine.

- Pour your mixture over the cut up bread and stir to coat the bread evenly. There will be residual mixture that collects at the bottom, and that is ok.

- Pre heat your oven to 350

- While the oven is preheating your bread will be soaking up the egg mixture. Make sure to give the mixture a few stirs while you are waiting. I let it soak for about 20 mins

- After your oven is preheated add in your blueberries. Mine we frozen so it turned my mixture purple, but it didn't change the color of the final outcome.

- Pour your mixture into a greased pie dish and pop it into the oven for 50-60 mins 

- You know your dish is done when the bread is firm and a tooth pick comes out clean 

- Enjoy with some syrup or like us with 2 TBSP peanut butter microwaved with 1 TBSP of honey! Delicious!!

                                                                              

Apples-In-A-Blanket

The kiddo and I recently went apple picking with a bunch of friends. We came home with a great stash, which means we had more apples then we would ever be able to eat before they went bad. This usually means apple sauce and apple pie galore! But the kiddo is over anything pureed, and the hubby and I don't need to split an apple pie, especially with the holidays right around the corner (eek!). Which means I needed to come up with something that was handheld and freezable. I thought mini apple pies, but I couldn't bring myself to make an apple pie without all the sugary deliciousness, plus they would probably resemble the pot pie that I made (and those were deemed uneatable by the kiddo). Then it hit me - apples in a blanket!
Simple, handheld, and lightly sweetened! With a bonus cinnamon flavored dough! I thought about putting some cheese slices in there too, to make them almost dinner appropriate, but I got lazy.
I hope these are a hit for your family!

What you need:

Dough :
2 Cups Flour
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 stick Butter
3-6 Tbsp Ice Water

4 Apples
1/8 cup Sugar
Egg (For egg wash)

Food Processor
Apple Cutter
Small bowl
Rolling Pin
Pizza Cutter

Let's Bake:

- The dough needs to chill so be sure to make it first
- You will be using your food processor to make the dough (Or your store by picking up your favorite pre-made dough)
- Add your flour, cinnamon*, salt, and butter (sliced up) to your food processor
*The cinnamon in the dough does give it a brown coloring, so if you have a picky eater, skip the cinnamon in the dough, and maybe put it on your apples.

- Pulse until the ingredients come together

- Then add one tablespoon of water at a time until your dough becomes a ball ( I needed to add 6 tablespoons) 

- Remove the dough from your food processor 

- Kneed the dough into a ball, and form the ball into a disk 

- Wrap the disk in plastic wrap, and let it chill for 10 minutes minimum - I did it for about 30 mins 

- While the dough is chilling use your apple cutter to slice up your 4 apples* (you can obviously just cut your apples as well)

*I didn't peel my apples, because I wanted my kiddo to recognize the apple and want to eat it, but please feel free to peel your apples as well. I probably will next time around, because the skin is hard to bite though for little teeth

- I ended up with 40 slices of apples

- Toss the apple slices in 1/8 cup sugar. Feel free to add more or less sugar to your liking. I was making mine kid friendly, so I wanted it sweetened, but not overly sugary.

- Pre heat your oven to 350

- Once your dough is chilled, remove it from its plastic wrap and place it on a floured surface 

- Roll your dough out as thin as you can get it (I really need to invest in those rubber bands that go on your rolling pin) 

- Using your apple as a guide take your pizza cutter and cut a strip in the dough.

- Cut that strip in half, and then wrap up your apple piece

- Trim your strips as you see fit

- Each strip I had could cover two apples

- Using your egg wash, gently cover each apple in a blanket 

- Place in your 350 oven for 25 mins, or until your dough is nice and browned 

- Try not to eat all of them at once!

Enjoy! 

Zucchini Bread Pancake

Breakfast is a great meal to sneak vegetables into. Our kiddo loves scrambled eggs, little does he know that they are packed with shredded zucchini or spinach. I wanted to spice up breakfast one weekend and I thought how can I sneak some veggies into a pancake? This is what I came up, I'm thinking of doing a carrot cake variety too!

What you need:

1 cup flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 cup shredded zucchini
Unmelted butter for cooking

Skillet
Shredder

Let's bake:

- Start by mixing together your dry ingredients
- In a separate bowl mix together your wet ingredients
- Add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients

- If your batter seems thick, make sure you added all the ingredients. My batter was really thick, and it was because I forgot to add the eggs

- Now shred your zucchini, I was aiming for a cup, but I was a little under, and add it to your batter 

- Butter your skillet and measure your batter onto the skillet

- You know they are ready to flip when they start to bubble

- Once they are cooled they are good to serve

Things to be aware of:

1. The cinnamon makes the pancakes have a "whole wheat" look, so if you have a picky eater, I would put less cinnamon into your pancakes. 

2. My kiddo doesn't seem to care that the pancakes have green flecks in them, but if you have a visual eater, I would recommend using a very fine shredder, and even peeling your zucchini prior to shredding to eliminate the green color showing. 

Enjoy!

Blender Banana Bread (with Almond Flour)

So I had 3 super ripe bananas just begging to be made into banana bread... so says every other blog. What really happened is that I picked up my banana bunch, and they all fell off the stem and on to the floor. The ones that didn't explode upon impact, got put into a plastic bag so they could be frozen and made into banana ice cream.
Then I thought, maybe I can make a nice snack with these bananas. Thats when I thought of banana bread, so no it wasn't my first thought like all the other bloggers out there - clearly they are far superior to me.
I wanted to make the banana bread without flour, because I've been noticing that the kiddos snacks and meals have been grain heavy lately. But this recipe can easily be made with flour as well. Added bonus - I made this all in the blender! Easy to make and easy to clean up! Win. Win.

What you need:
Blender
Loaf Pan
Parchment Paper

1 1/2 cups almond (to make into almond meal)
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Olive Oil
3 Bananas
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt

Let's Bake:

- Preheat your oven to 350
- Grab your blender
- If you are making your own almond flour add in 1 and 1/2 cups of sliced almonds into the blender

- Blend or pulse until you reach a find powder.

- When you have reached your desired consistency of almonds flour, you can add in the rest of your ingredients - Eggs,  Olive Oil, Bananas, Cinnamon, Baking Powder, and Salt.

- Blend your ingredients until smooth and pour into your loaf pan that is lined with parchment paper

- Bake for 35 mins, or until a tooth pick comes out clean 

Just look at the golden brown deliciousness! 

- Enjoy! 

Granola Bars

I love granola bars. The chewy one preferably. The crunchy ones are just one mistake away from being granola, and then I'm going to need yogurt or milk, and that is a whole thing. Especially for a kiddo. So soft and chewy granola bars are the way to go for us!

I do have to confess. The first time I made these I made the mistake of putting the oats in first, then my wet ingredients. And I over estimated the amount of oats that I needed, so I was stuck playing catch up with my wet ingredients, and I just ended up with a crunchy granola bar. While my kiddo could have cared less, and loved eating his granola bar, I had a huge mess on my hands. I needed to find a way to keep this snack intact - for my own sanity, and so more than a crumb got in my kiddos mouth at a time.

Here is my final recipe. I am much happier with it, and my kiddo can't get enough of them! They keep fantastic in a plastic bag, and freeze even better. My kiddo even eats them frozen (which gives me more than two seconds before he needs a second one!)

What you need:

Small sauce pan
Large Bowl
3 quart Corning ware baking pan (that's what the bottom says)
Parchment Paper
Pizza Cutter
2 cups Oats
1 cup Peanut butter
1/2 cup Date Paste (or honey if your kiddo is old enough)
2 TBSP water

Let's Bake

- Set oven to 350
- Into a large bowl measure out 1 cup of your oats and set aside.
- Scoop out your second cup of oats, but DO NOT add it to the bowl.
- In a small sauce pan, and your 1/2 cup of date paste and your cup of peanut butter and melt on medium heat.

- Constantly stir the mixture. You will be stirring for longer than you think necessary. This is when you add in your water slowly if you feel that they mixture is seizing. I added in one tablespoon at a time.

- You are looking for the two to combine, and then for the oils in your peanut butter to start to come out. Since we aren't using honey the texture is going to be a little thicker. I hope the picture helps

- When you have reached your desired consistency scoop it into your bowl with your one cup of oats

- Incorporate your mixture with the oats, then add more oats until your dough comes together completely*. 

*This means that all the oats stay in the mixture AND your dough stays together when you grasp it in your hand. 2 cups was enough when I did the recipe, but always be prepared for surprises. You can always add more oats - you can't take them out :(

- Once you have your dough, press it into a parchment lined dish - smaller dish for thicker granola bars

- I pressed raisins into mine, but they all fell out after. Maybe I will mix them in next time.

- You can go no bake with these and let them sit in the fridge before serving, but I cooked mine for about 20 mins to have them come together. 

- Let them cool, then pull the parchment paper out of the dish and cut with a pizza cutter!

- The finished product! I hope you enjoy them. My kiddo did! 

Date Paste

So I've been meaning to try this recipe out for a long time. I saw it a long time ago on Pinterest, and in true Pinterest fashion, I pinned it, and never looked back.

Then the other day I wanted to make the kiddo a granola bar. All the recipes called for honey. As we all know honey is a hard no until kiddos are at least one. You know botulism.

So it got me thinking, what can I use as a honey substitute? This wasn't an easy task. Honey is unique. It is sticky and creamy all at the same time. It can be melted down and it can be hardened. I knew that whatever I came up with, wouldn't hold a candle to honey, but I was going to try.

This seemed like the perfect time to try out date paste. I figured that the dates would simulate the sweetness of honey, but I wasn't sure about the stickiness.

Turns out that this date paste is delicious! I've used it in yogurt to sweeten it for the kiddo, and I even have plans to make a cinnamon roll! However, the granola bar is to die for and I will be posting that soon.

But first, the date paste!

Date Paste 

What you need:
16 Dates
2 Cups Water
Bowl
Food Processor
Tablespoon

Let's Bake:

So this recipe is great, because you can make it and forget about it. The recipe I worked off of said over night is best, but my life got a little busy, and well it sat for longer than that oops. I'm sure no one can relate.

- Pit your 16 dates and place them in a bowl

- Add 2 cups of water to you dates
- Cover and let sit

Are you back with me? I hope that you have found so free time to get to the second part of this recipe!

- Place JUST your dates into your food processor

- DON'T DISCARD THE WATER THEY WERE SITTING IN
- Using your tablespoon slowly add in water until you reach your desired consistency

With no added water 

-Mine was 8 TBSP

After adding 8 TBSP of water

Enjoy! Let me know all the ways you decide to use date paste!

Cheese-It's (No added salt, no coloring!)

The other day I found myself finishing a box of cheese-it's. Every time I brought another handful to my mouth I was saying this is the last one. But it is never the last one, because, well, they are cheese-it's. Luckily I was snacking sans baby, but in retrospect, I probably would have eaten less because I wouldn't have enough time to snack. Anyway, after scanning the ingredient list, I figured I could do myself a favor and make my own cheese-it's.

The recipe is crazy simple, and baby friendly! I made sure to use white cheddar to avoid color additives, and grated my own cheese to nix those pesky anti-caking ingredients, like potato starch. Added bonus this recipe only has 4 ingredients. Four!

What you need:

Cheese Grater
Food Processor
Silicon Baking Sheet
Plastic Wrap
Flour for dusting your working surface
Rolling Pin
Cookie Cutter of your choosing (Smallest you have)

4oz Shredded Cheddar
2Tbsp Cold Butter
1/2 Cup Flour
1Tbsp Cold Water

Let's Bake:
- Grate your cheese
- In your food processor add your grated cheese, cold butter, and flour

- Pulse until you have a very fine dough

- Slowly add in your water until the dough comes together. I added in one tablespoon at a time

- The dough should stick together, and shouldn't fall apart when picked up

- Form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and let it chill in the refrigerator for about 20 mins

- After your dough has chilled, Set your oven to 350 degrees 

- Put some flour on your working surface and roll out the dough.

- The dough should be thin enough to see through. It you want to keep it thick, then your cheese-it's will come out puffier 

- Once your dough is rolled out to your desired thickness, use your cookie cutter to cut your cheese-it's out of the dough.
- I only had a piping bag tip on had so, that it what I used. But next time I'm thinking a pizza cutter might be a easier option. Especially since these don't look anything like cheese-it's, and I know that might make some kiddos say "no way!"

- Place your cheese-it's on your silicon tray, I used a tooth pick to add the center dot to make them more cheese-it authentic. 

- Put these bad boys in the oven for about 15 mins, they should crisp right up, so watch them if you have a temperamental oven. 

Don't these look great?! I had to remind myself on multiple occasions that these were for the kiddo, not me. I only made 3 dozen out of this, and froze the rest of the dough. I wanted to see if it froze well. It does. 

The second time I made them I didn't put the enter hole and I used a convection oven. I think the center hole kept them flatter and crispier, but I could be wrong. Either way my kiddo loves the crunch and the flavor. I store them in a plastic bag or tupperware in the fridge, and they retain their freshness, flavor, and crispiness!

Enjoy! 

Carrot Chips

Ever have that moment when you missed the mom newsletter a few weeks back, only to suddenly realize you've been happily doing a big "no, no"? Of course you haven't. There is no mom newsletter. This moment did happen to me the other day though, I found out that raw carrots are one of the "worst" things you can give to a baby. Well, my kiddo LOVES carrots. It was one of the first finger foods that we gave him (oops). He would just hold it and be so proud of himself! It was adorable. Now he shaves it down with his teeth until there is nothing left. Just a nub. What can we say - he enjoys it. Just goes to show you that all of us are incapable, right? Oh well...

It got me thinking that he would probable really enjoy a carrot in a softer form. So here it is - a carrot chip. Easy to hold and eat, and loved by all! He eats them warm or cold. So they are the perfect snack to have with us at all times. Bonus - simple ingredients! I'm not going to lie, they are a tad bit labor intensive. The first time I made them I kept saying to myself "he better like these," and "I'm not making these ever again, ... unless he likes them." Well, jokes on me. He can't get enough of them. So when I made them again I tried to stream-line the prep process. Hopefully, they are easy enough to make now, and you won't be cursing me under your breath when you make these.
I haven't experimented yet with adding more veggies or using just a different vegetable, but that is next. Maybe broccoli? Or brussel sprouts? Or cauliflower? And I bet that I can make them into more of a "cookie" by adding cinnamon!

What you need:

Vegetable Peeler
Food processor
Bowl
Cookie Scoop (optional)
Parchment Paper
Baking Sheet Pan

1 and 1/2 cups shredded carrots (about 12 oz)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup oat flour

Let's Bake:

- Set oven to 350
- Peel your carrots

- Using your food processor grind up 1/4 cup of oats into oat flour
- Pour your oat flour into a bowl
- Using your food processor pulverize your carrots. It should look like you are an expert chef and know how to dice up your carrots into perfectly diced pieces.

- Throw your carrots into the bowl with the oats
- Next grab your cheese, cube it, and throw it into your food processor. If your cheese is pre-shredded or you want to shred your own cheese just skip this step and put your shredded cheese into the bowl with the carrots and oats
- Add in your 2 eggs
- Roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. They best way to work this dough is to get your hands in it!
- All the ingredients should come together easily, but not be too thick

**
- Now here is the labor intensive part. You take a cookie cutter and press a thin layer of your dough into it, then gently pull the cookie cutter away. This takes for-ev-er. Please feel free to do it this way.
**
- OR Using a cookie scoop (mine is pretty big) scoop some of your dough out, then split it into two balls and place on your cookie sheet with parchment paper

- Once that is done, go back through and press down each ball so it is more chip like

-Try to make all patties the same thickness, this way they will cook evenly
- Pro tip: when pressing your carrot balls down, start at the back of your tray, otherwise all of your chips will have an upward slop from where you tried to avoid hitting the unflattened ball behind it.

- Cook for 20-25 mins, or until the edges get a golden brown

Yum, golden deliciousness!
These freeze great, and I am very happy with my adjusted way of making them!

Enjoy!