Franklin Goose

Packing Toddler Lunches

(sheri)

On Thursday night we hosted a class about packing toddler lunches. It was a great class to discuss how to pack wholesome and interesting lunches for your little one. Kathryn, the teacher, explained that she, like many of the parents at the class felt like some times she gets into ruts with her lunches. I knew many parents felt the same way. What I didn't know was that these ruts can actually be detrimental to our little kiddos. It can often have a negative effect on their willingness to try different foods, closing their minds and stomachs to many things early on. Kids will not starve to death, as hard as it may be to let them go without meals it is important to let them know they can't just eat hot dogs and pancakes.  Eventually their biology will take over and they will eat so don't feel pressured to give in to demands.

Find places that inspire you for recipes and ideas. Keeping kids lunches interesting and fun can help win the battle over picky appetites!

Here are a few of our favorite blogs for inspiration:

• Out of the box Food
• 100 Days of Real Food
• Weelicious
• Central Eats

• Yummy Mummy Kitchen
• Love and Lemons
• Sprouted Kitchen
• Edible Perspective

 

A few tips we learned from Kathryn:

1. Find ways to hide veggies in their food. (Try the veggie cream cheese recipe below for inspiration)
2. Add nutritional yeast to their food, it is an amazing way to get omegas and nutrients and they will think it is a special topping!
3. Kids love to dip so use hummus, or other things in their lunches for them to dip their veggies into
4. Oatmeal with fruit is a great toddler lunch. For a boost of vitamin B12 make with coconut milk
5. Freeze leftover veggies and fruits for meals later on
6. Send greek yogurt for lunch as an alternative to other yogurts, it is lower in sugar
7. Baby lead weaning recipes are great for little ones and the whole family
8. Freeze smoothies in a Silisqueeze container and then pack for lunch in the morning and it will thaw by lunch time. 

Here are a few of the products we love for packing lunches:

1. Kids Konserve Insulated Jars
2. Kids Konserve Nesting Trio
3. Kangovou Dishware set with a great lunch tray!
4. Dabbawalla Washable Lunch Bag
5. Eco Lunchbox Bento Box

 

Here are two recipes from the class that we were lucky enough to sample:

The next two recipes are from weelicious.com

 

Do you have recipes or tips you would like to share? We would love to hear your ideas! We wanted to thank Kangovou and Kids Konserve for their great donations!

 

 

 

 

Homemade Vanilla Extract Recipe

(sheri)

(The vanilla bean flower blooms only in the morning for one day before it starts to die and produce a bean.)

Recently I visited a Vanilla Plantation in Costa Rica (which I will blog about on Monday). During our visit we learned how to make our own Vanilla Extract. It was so easy Icouldn't believe it. If you make your own vanilla extract you not only get to use the whole vanilla bean, not wasting a bit of this precious spice, you also get complete control over what is in your extract, no fillers, sugar added etc.

Here is how you do it:

1 inch of vanilla bean (seeds removed, use for ice cream, baking or other goodies)

1 ounce of high proof alcohol (suggestions are 90 proof grain alocohol or 150 proof rum)

 

Place the vanilla bean in a glass jar and pour the alcohol over the bean. Let the liquid steep in a spot away from heat and light for 6-7 weeks. After this you may use the vanilla extract. Leave the bean in the liquid, as it only gets better with time. You can use this extract for up to 2 years. Once you have finished with the liquid you can use the bean to make 1 or 2 more batches. (If you make 1 more batch take the vanilla bean after you finish the extract and add the bean to sugar for a fantastic vanilla flavored sugar.)

(The vanilla bean before it is dried in the sun.)

 

I always feel so good when I use something to its full potential before discarding it. This recipe certainly takes this amazing spice and uses it to its limit. The vanilla bean is such a beautiful creation, which takes a great deal of labor to become what we use in our cooking, it would be a shame to waste even an inch of this delicacy.