Mexican for Toddlers in 30 Seconds!

I love the idea of the Gerber Graduates meals. I mean, 30 seconds in the microwave and dinner is done? No way! I actually started out buying them for the triplets when they were around 9 months.

Back then one meal would feed all three of them, and then I would feed them fruit as dessert. I always knew they weren't the healthiest, but quite frankly I wasn't motivated to change until the triplets decided one meal was NOT enough for the three of them. My dinner costs were up to $5 a meal. That's just way too much for my tastes. Then, one afternoon I decided to make my own meals and I haven't stopped since! I usually make several at a time and feed them through out the week for lunch, dinner, and even breakfast. I scoop out what I need, microwave, and Ta-Dah! 30 second toddler meals homemade!

I buy these handy dandy Glad storage containers from the Dollar Store for 3 for $2. There is a divider in the container for smaller portions of food, sides, dips, etc. I wash them in the dishwasher and heat them in the microwave and have yet to have a problem.

You will need:

Cheddar Cheese

Fiesta/Mexican Style Frozen Vegetables

Can of Black Beans

Ro-Tel

Brown Rice

The easiest a quickest meal I make is my Mexican Fiesta dish. First, I start by making a 1/2 of a cup of cooked brown or white rice. We all know brown is better, so you should probably make the leap :) I make the leap and cook it on the stove most times, but you can can cook it just as well on the microwave. Add the rice to the large part of your storage container. Once, the rice is done cooking reuse your pot on the stove and boil 2 cups of water.

I then add 1/2 of a can or 8 oz of black beans.

Next, add 1/3 of a can or 4 oz. of Ro-Tel or Salsa.

Next, in the same pan that you cooked your rice, add a 2/3 of bag of fiesta or Mexican style frozen vegetables. I used Mexican Style this time and it contained: corn, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and red peppers.

I then added 1 cup of frozen diced chicken to the boiling water, but you can also use 1 cup of browned ground beef without needing to boil.

Continue boiling for 2 minutes. During this time, if you don't buy grated cheese, grate 1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese. Add the cheese to the smaller portion of your storage container.

Remove the pot from the stove (or microwave if you couldn't bring yourself to use the stove) drain the water, and add to the large part of the storage container.

Mix the contents together in the large portion of the container and you have yourself some toddler Mexican food! I simply scoop out what I need for each meal, sprinkle a little cheese on top. Heat in the microwave for 30 seconds, and I have dinner! These can also be frozen and saved for later!

Here's the version made with ground meat instead of chicken!

Grocery List:

Cheddar Cheese

Fiesta/Mexican Style Frozen Vegetables

Can of Black Beans

Ro-Tel

Brown Rice

Mini Chicken Alfredo Pizzas

Last night I was making what I call a "white" pizza for dinner when I had the most fantastic idea EVER. I knew that the five us sharing one pizza was probably going to end in my husband munching on snacks after dinner, so I decided to make mini pizzas for the triplets. I'd bought sandwich rounds for their Easter Benito but hadn't touched them since. Then it came to me, use the sandwich rounds as pizza crust!

I put them on a pan covered in foil...which in my book means I don't have to clean the pan just throw away the foil. Lazy? Yes! Time-saving? You betcha!

Next, I added Alfredo sauce. I buy the mix packets for 80 cents on sale. All you have to do is add butter, water and stir, but you can just as easily buy the jar. It just costs more $$. I usually make a packet and freeze what I don't use for the next time I need it. I don't buy for the brand, I buy for the price... like I've said before: We're not feeding food critics are we?

or

Then add thawed frozen or fresh chopped spinach. Just enough to cover about 1/3 of each pizza.

or

After the spinach, I added a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese. Just enough to cover the entire mini pizza, about 1/3 of a cup per pizza.

Next, add canned artichokes. Yes, all of my children ate them last night! So can yours ;) They're on the expensive side for my tastes, but I wait for them to go on sale and buy a few jars. I used about 1/2 of a heart per mini pizza. So about .30 cents worth didn't seem too bad to me...

Next, I added pieces of bacon and chicken. This is usually the most time consuming part of making these pizzas. When you use precooked bacon and diced chicken it doesn't take more than a minute in the microwave. The interesting thing I have found is that this kind of bacon is actually close to the same price as the regular bacon. Also, I can catch the bag of frozen chicken on sale for $4.99... that's in the neighborhood of .20 a ounce/ $3 a pound. Kind of on the $$ side but well worth the time it saves me. I used 1/3 of a piece of chopped bacon and 5 pieces of diced chicken per mini pizza.

This is what they looked like at this point.

I then put them in a preheated oven at 400* for 10 minutes.

And with 10 minutes of prep and 10 minutes of cooking. I had a healthy meal for my toddlers!

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I added cut fruit and frozen blueberries and my kids ate every bite

Grocery List:

Sandwich Rounds

Spinach

Bacon

Canned Artichokes

Frozen Chicken

Alfredo Mix

Cut Fruit

Mozzarella Cheese

Here's some pictures of my kids eating their pizza's last night just for fun. They loved it!

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Want a Toddler Meatball Sandwhich

So, back to our cheating ways... let's get out our left over meatballs from this meal okay? Ya know the toddler cranberry meatballs? If you don't have any left over meatballs... then pour some marinaria sauce in a pan and add meatballs. Heat on low for 20 minutes and there ya go!

Get out a hot-dog bun. The whole wheat variety. Don't even get me started on white bread. I strongly believe there's no reason for white bread in our children's bellies. If they don't know there's such thing as white bread then they won't prefer it. Stepping slowly off my soapbox....

What you'll need per child:

1 Hot-Dog Bun (wheat)

 2 oz. Cheddar Cheese

1 cup Frozen Broccoli

 1 Meatball

1 oz. Chili Sauce

2 oz. Cranberry Sauce

Okay, cut the hot dog into thirds and place a warmed up meatball into each piece of bun. Next, grate a little cheddar cheese on top. When I grate cheese for toddlers, I use thickly grated cheese. Easier for them to pick off and less chance of it being... how do you say?... MUSHED into tiny crevices. When I made this last time I actually grated using the GIANT grate. and then grated some on the side as well.
I like this kind of grater:

Next of course add your already cut fruit to the meal... or a toddler fruit stick!

Then heat up and steam some broccoli in the microwave. Usually 2 minutes in the microwave is long enough. I cover it in water, then pour the water off and run cool water over it. It cools it way down to a good toddler food temperature quickly. Again add pepper...

And there ya go.. toddler meatball sandwiches!

Grocery List:

Hot-Dog Buns (wheat)

Cheddar Cheese

Frozen Broccoli

Fruit

Meatballs

Chili Sauce

Cranberry Sauce

Frozen Rainbow Fruit Stick

This idea slowly evolved overtime, but started as a "rainbow" for the triplets St. Patrick's Day Benito lunch. It's pretty simpe, but the fruit used is more on the expensive side, so it's more of a "treat" in my house than an everyday thing around these parts.

First, you need to buy thin wood craft sticks. Like what a corn-dog come on. They're usually around $2 for a ton of them at any craft store.

We're going to be making our rainbow in the correct color order. I'm not OCD at all.... can you tell? To remember this I always use Roy G. Biv- red-orange-yellow-blue-green-indigo-blue-violet. Think Roy G. Biv as a man's name. I don't know why, but I always remember it. I don't actually use indigo AND violet because to me they're the same thing... like I've said we're not cooking for food critics right?

First, cut the strawberries in half long ways and cross-ways. We're only going to use the top pieces. Feed the bottom to the kids as a side for the current meal or eat them yourself!

Add the cantaloupe, cut into 1 inch cubes, as well as the pineapple

For green, add pieces of Kiwi. There are instructions on how to cut kiwi here.

Next, add the blue berries and the grapes threading from the top (stem side) through the bottom side.

I added a mini marshmallow or two at St. Patrick's Day to act as the "clouds".

Put in the freezer overnight and you have a frozen rainbow fruit!

Grocery List:

R-Strawberries or Watermelon
O-Cantaloupe
Y-Pineapple
G-Kiwis or Green Grapes
B-Blueberries
I-Purple Grapes
Marshmallows
Craft Sticks

Meatballs in 10 minutes--Cheater Style

I love meatballs! While I usually hate any and all red meat... not for any particular reason. Seriously, it doesn't have anything to do with health, animal rights, etc. I just don't like the taste more often than not. There are exceptions to this rule with meatballs being one of my favorites!

Let's be honest I don't have all day to actually m-a-k-e meatballs. I mean by the time I got ground meat all over my hands, I'd have a toddler screaming somewhere. It would be a never ending battle of washing my hands only to have to put them in meat again 5 seconds later after I broke up the 10th fight of the day over the Fisher Price farm set. So I naturally buy frozen meatballs from Sam's.

The flavor doesn't really matter one way or another. I mean it's not like we're feeding food critics right?

Fill a pan on the stove with about 3 cups worth of meatballs. Then add Chili Sauce. Again Heinz, Kroger Brand, whatever. You can add up to an entire bottle. I usually use 2/3 though.

Next, add a whole can of cranberry sauce... I mean I usually hate the stuff. Who likes something the shape of can right? But hey it tastes good in this! You can use the sauce or the kind with whole berries. I usually wait for it to go on sale and buy the off brand. I mean cranberries are cranberries..

Then, turn on the stove, or crock pot if you so inclined, to medium and start cooking! Stir infrequently and cook on the stove about 20 minutes or in a crock pot for around a hour.

It comes out looking like this!

Now add some fruit, broccoli, and noddles and you have yourself a toddler dinner. While I don't usually eat the same thing I feed my kids... I totally eat this. Not that my husband wouldn't eat my toddler meals... I'm just not really a dinner person.

Save the extra sauce and freeze it. We'll use it later in other dishes! Making these meatballs one time will yield enough extra sauce for weeks worth of pre-made meals! You can also add this directly to frozen stir fry with noddles for a great all around meal!

Grocery List:

• Frozen Meatballs
• Frozen Stir Fry Mix
• Chili Sauce
• Cranberry Sauce