Easy and Delicious Homemade Ice Cream

I recently tried out this recipe for homemade ice cream with Little Bit and I could not believe how EASY it was, nor how tasty it turned out for being so incredibly simple to make. Your kids will love making the ice cream as much as they enjoy eating it.

First grab:

• One gallon-sized resealable plastic bag
• One resealable sandwich bag
• Kosher salt (or ice cream salt)
• Half & half
• Vanilla extract
• Sugar

Fill half of the large bag with ice and add 1/2 cup of salt.

Then pour 1 cup half and half, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract into the little bag.

Now put the little bag into the big bag...Make sure both bags are sealed tight!

And shake. Shake. Shake. Shake. Shake your bootie off. Shake for about 5 minutes.

Little Bit had a hard time shaking the bag. It was just a smidge too heavy for her. :)

After shaking for a few minutes, check the consistency of the cream mixture. Once it's nice and thick, you can scoop it out and enjoy!

This ice cream was so good. You could easily change it up by using different flavored extracts. I'm thinking a little almond extract would be yummy!

Tuesday's Toddler Tornado #3: Protein Snack

I love, love, love this book and have found so many wonderful ideas within its pages. Most recently, I served up one of the snack ideas it mentions and it totally hit the spot!

The book calls this snack, "Peanut Butter Pinwheels" but I think a better name would be "Goopy Protein Roll-ups".

Ingredients:

• peanut butter
• granola
• honey
• flour tortillas

Spread the PB, sprinkle the granola, and squirt the honey onto the tortilla shell, then roll. Slice into bite-sized pieces and serve. I made these during Little Bit's nap and chilled them until she woke up so that they would firm up a bit, thus cutting down on the gooey factor.

The first thing she said after trying them was, "More?" Which is always a good sign! However, these little bite-sized morsels of goodness are very filling and oh-so-very sweet. So, don't think you need to make a bunch at one time. I could only eat about two of the pieces before feeling like I'd had enough. I made two tortillas and it was more than enough to go around.

Enjoy!

 

Do you have any tips for parents of babies and toddlers, or even preschoolers? Parenting lessons you'd like to pass on? Snack ideas your just itching to share? Or a product you think every Mommy and Daddy of little ones should know about? Post your link here every Tuesday and check to see what others are doing!

 

 

Fun with Food

We had a blast doing this week's Unplugged Project. I was so excited about the theme, food! There were a ton of projects that I wanted to do with Little Bit, but ultimately I decided on painting with edible finger paints and making an ice cream cone bird feeder. I know, I've done painting in the past (here also), but it's fun, so why not?!

Pudding Paint

I saw the edible finger paint idea here and I thought it was the perfect trifecta: easy, messy, yummy!

What you'll need:

• Vanilla pudding
• Food coloring
• Paper plates
• Bowls for mixing colors

First I mixed the vanilla pudding with food coloring.

Then I stripped Little Bit down and let her start painting. She painted some...

and ate some...

 

and painted some more...

and ate some more...

 

and by the end she was strangely reminiscent of McCauley Culkin in that one movie:

But, she had fun

and created a masterpiece!

 

Ice Cream Cone Bird Feeder

This was actually one of our Earth Day projects, but it fit in perfectly with the food theme so I'm posting it here.

For this project you will need:

• Ice cream cones
• Peanut butter
• Cheerios
• Bird seed
• String (we used zip ties)

First I spread the peanut butter onto the cone.

Then I put the cone onto the plate of Cheerios and bird seed. I love Little Bit's expression here! It looks like she's pleading with her Daddy to please get her out of another one of Mommy's wacky projects.

But, she was a good sport and helped get the bird food onto the cone!

With a little bit of my help, we ended up with this:

I can't wait for the birds to catch wind of the sweet treats hanging from our trees!

 

We have so much fun doing these projects. To see what others did with this week's food theme, visit the Unplug Your Kids blog.

Get Out of Your PB&J Rut

Sometimes I find myself making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Little Bit day after day after day. I get so bored just serving it to her, and I can imagine she gets tired of eating it, too.

So, on days when I feel like really shaking things up a bit, I bring out the good stuff. Here are a few alternatives to the PB&J blahs:

• Peanut butter, banana, and honey- Oh, so yummy. Ok, you don't really need to add the honey, but it really does add that special something that makes you go, "Mmm, mmm, mmmmm."
• Ham and cream cheese roll-ups-  Slather some cream cheese onto a tortilla shell, add a few slices of ham, and roll!
• Turkey and cranberry relish- Think Thanksgiving dinner between two slices of bread. Get some real turkey from the deli, sliced kind of thick, then add the relish. The cranberry adds a sweet touch to your basic turkey sandwich. (Haven't done this one in a while because I can't find a good store-bought cranberry relish, but if you can get your hands on some, it's delicious)!
• Burrito- Peel open a can of refried beans, add some shredded cheese, and fold a tortilla shell around it. Lots of protein!

These are some easy lunches that Little Bit really seems to enjoy. Have any other suggestions? What foods do you find yourself serving your little one for lunch?

Putting the "Munch" in Munchkin

With fork in hand, my husband aims towards our daughter's mouth. Her nose quickly turns up in the air and his efforts are thwarted with a decisive, "Noooooo."

What is a parent to do? Make separate meals? Cram the food down the poor girl's throat?

Thankfully, neither extreme is necessary. Through a little bit of trial and error, we've found a few tricks that have helped us get through many a meal without a struggle.

1. Hide the yucky stuff. A little bit of chicken can often go unnoticed in the creamy goodness of mac-n-cheese.
2. Do the dip. If our toddler doesn't like what we're offering we'll often try to find something for her to dip it in. Some winners include ketchup, BBQ sauce, honey, and good ol' ranch dressing.
3. One bite minimum. We insist that our daughter try at least one bite of everything on her plate. Only then can she decide if she really doesn't want something.
4. Play distracting games. We like to play Big Bite Little Bite. This works when your tot starts getting antsy and wants to stop eating because it's just plain boring. Being as dramatic as possible helps in this game (think very big and very little).
5. Never surrender. Eggs were our nemesis. Our daughter spit them out every time. But, after many "one bites" and a lot of ketchup, she'll now sit down and enjoy a plate of scrambled eggs for breakfast.
6. Put those little fingers to work. We have found that when we allow our toddler to feed herself she is much more interested in eating what we put in front of her.

Of course we've also found that it helps to sweeten things up sometimes, but that only works if your kid has a sweet-tooth!

Tell me what works for you!

How to Eat Fried Worms (in Baby Food)

According to a Mercury News report, parents of an 8 month old in Pittsburg, California found maggot-like worms in a jar of Gerber's "Sweet Potato and Turkey" baby food. (article)

Yuck! That grosses me out just thinking about it. I am so sorry for anyone who has to see that when they are preparing to feed their precious baby.

Obviously these things happen every so often, even for a company as trusted as Gerber. All the more reason to make your own baby food at home. It's easy to do, and really not that time-consuming. In fact, with a good grinder and/or food processor, you can simply mash up portions of whatever is on the menu for the rest of the family.

By making your baby's food yourself, you'll have the peace of mind from knowing exactly what your child is eating, you'll save money, and you'll likely incur less waste since you'll be able have more control over serving sizes.

If you're interested in making your own baby food, check out the folks over at wholesomebabyfood.com. They've got recipes, instructions on how to prepare baby food, and recommendations on which foods to introduce when!