Toddler and Baby Approved Meals - Week #4 of March

This week was the best for baby and toddler meals. Mom was on her A game and despite our desperate need to go grocery shopping I made do with major leftovers from my dads birthday supper for Jaxson and some samples and leftovers Jesse brought home from work. We were scraping the bottom of the barrel over here but somehow I made it work and made some cute and fun meals for the kids. They will never go hungry around me. My dad gave us leftover carrots, chicken cacciatore, fresh ciabatta bread a giant case of baby tomatoes and polenta. Jesse brought home these amazing kaiser rolls made by City Rye that he’s testing out for Free Bird at the Merchant Kitchen.

First meal I am about to show you is a peanut butter and honey sandwich on a City Bread kaiser bun, actual Cheetos (leftover from Jax’s birthday), carrots, tomatoes, blueberries, blackberries, baby Quinoa Puffs, and a puréed baby food pouch.

Peanut butter and honey sandwich on a City Bread kaiser bun
Cheetos
Blackberries
Blueberries
Baby Carrots
Baby Tomatoes
Strawberry beet quinoa baby puffs - Baby Gourmet Puffies
Strawberry, banana, blueberry purée - Love Child Organic

I love creamed honey more so than any other type of honey, it’s the only kind I use now. Honey is somewhat controversial in the vegan community because the majority consider honey an animal byproduct. However I have done my own research on the matter and especially if you are buying local honey they do not kill any bees to harvest the honey, or compromise their health and it can also be good for the bees. I know the majority of vegans disagree and that is absolutely fine but I do not feel bad eating honey especially when I buy from a local source. Jesse always gets gifted things like honey, jams, oils for cooking. We actually had so much honey and ran out so I had to buy Bee Maid from the store but Jesse did inform me that it is pretty local. However I am not sure how they treat their bees. But there is a new market up the street from us that opened called Black Market Provisions and they have local honey! So from now on that is where I will be buying our honey from. The Puffies are a favourite of Ash and the fact that they’re organic, gluten free and with probiotics is a major plus. He eats them daily.

Bee Maid Raw Honey - Local Safeway in South Osborne

Baby Gourmet strawberry beet Puffies - Local Safeway in South Osborne

For supper this day we had more leftovers. Whenever we eat at my dads he always make a gigantic feast and thus we leave with a bag full of leftovers. I am not complaining whatsoever his food is always really good and it definitely is appreciated on weeks when I can’t make it to the store. Jaxson for supper had chicken cacciatore with polenta and tomato sauce and carrots glazed with butter and rosemary sprigs. Asher had tiny pieces of carrots and polenta and leftover meatless chicken nuggets. Jaxson absolutely loved this supper and it is surprising to me because I remember getting this as a kid and absolutely HATING it. But this also may come from my disdain of tomatoes. No problem with my kids in that department they love tomatoes. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Asher also had an apples, corn and butternut squash purée pouch. If you are wondering if both of my boys eat everything on their plates? Not always but the majority of the time they eat most of it, whatever they don’t finish I scarf down in 2 bites so we don’t waste food.

Chicken cacciatore made by my father
Carrots with rosemary
Polenta and tomato sauce
Leftover meatless nuggets - Yves
Apple, corn and butternut squash purée - Love Child Organic from Safeway South Osborne
Bento box style apple plates - Munchkin from Amazon

Here’s another basic lunch I made with leftovers and ready made fruits and veg good to go. This one was for Jaxson. Cut up strawberries, baby tomatoes, popcorn chicken and Goldfish. Nothing fancy but he loved every bite. Bento style apple plates are Munchkin brand and I purchased 3 for the price of 1 on Amazon.

I never post many pictures of breakfast because it is usually either toast and fruit or cereal. Some days we do eggs or pancakes or oatmeal but for the most part it is pretty basic. Toast and fruit or cereal and fruit. Always with soy milk and vegan butter. Neither my boys know the difference. We strictly use City Bread in this household. Their rye bread is the best bread I’ve ever eaten, especially as toast. Nothing will ever compare and no one can ever tell me that there is a better bread out there. The other thing that I love about it is that it is vegan and made with legitimate real wholesome ingredients. It is not overly processed and I feel good about serving it to my boys. It is local to Winnipeg so if you have not eaten this bread you need to try it. Another day this week I made blueberry waffles (let’s be real they were Eggos) and fruit. Jaxson had blueberries and a banana and Asher had blueberries with little pieces of the waffle torn up.

City Rye Bread - You can find this bread at either Safeway or Walmart I never see it at Superstore

Look at those amazing ingredients. Simple, basic and ingredients you can actually pronounce.

Blueberry waffles -Eggos from Safeway
Blueberries
Banana
Spider spooky plate - Home Sense
Skeleton ballerina plate - Home Sense

The next 4 plates are all lunches for my boys. We have leftover pizza, apple slices, baby tomatoes and Goldfish for Jaxson and polenta, ciabatta load torn into pieces and chopped up baby tomatoes for Asher, with an apple, corn and butternut squash purée. Half a turkey croissant sandwich with, turkey sausage, cheese, Sociable crackers and grapes for Jaxson and basically the same thing (minus the sandwich) for Asher just cut up into tiny little bite sized baby pieces. Next we have a vegan corn dog with baby tomatoes, carrots and blueberries for Jaxson and a vegan hot dog wiener, carrots and blueberries for Asher. Cut into pieces and with a side of apple, sweet potato, beet and cinnamon purée. The last lunch dish was vegan grilled cheese made with Daiya cheddar style slices, baby tomatoes and baby garlic dill pickles. It is truly amazing how much my boys eat. Especially Asher, he basically eats 3-4 meals a day and is quickly ditching the milk. Our doctor has recommend that we switch the formula to actual mill and I am trying to figure out how we are going to wean him, whether with cows milk or soy milk.

Leftover pizza for Old Spaghetti Factory
Granny Smith apple slices
Baby tomatoes
Goldfish - Costco
Polentta - made. by dad
Ciabatta bread - Piazza de Nardi
Apple, corn and butternut squash purée - Love Child Organic

Turkey croissantwich - Safeway’s ready made meals
Turkey farmer sausage - Costco
Marble cheese cubes
Sociable crackers
Red and green grapes

Vegan corn dogs - Yves from Walmart
Baby tomatoes
Carrots
Blueberries
Vegan hot dog wieners - Yves from Walmart
Apple, sweet potato, beet and cinnamon - Love Child Organics
Unicorn toddler plate - Skip Hop from West Coast Kids

Vegan butter - Becel from Walmart
Vegan cheddar style slices _ Daiya from Walmart
Rye bread - City Bread from Walmart
Baby tomatoes
Baby garlic dill pickles
Ballerina skeleton plate - Home Sense
Spooky spider plate - Home Sense

I am going to end this post with tonight’s supper because it was soooo delicious, and vegan. I was going to make Kraft Dinner because like I said we are scraping the bottom of the barrel and there wasn’t much for us to have tonight for dinner. But I did thoroughly think it through and realized I had everything to make homemade vegan mac and cheese. I will post the recipe for my vegan mac n cheese sometime this week but for now it’s a secret. I will say however that it was damn good and a dead ringer for the real deal. I also found these battered dill pickle bites that I bought from Walmart a few weeks ago that I forgot about. I was happy I was able to come up with something for the boys rather than processed Kraft Dinner (which is not a bad thing I actually love Kraft Dinner) but if you can make a homemade meal when you can why not?

Dill pickle bites - Walmart
Mac n cheese - made by yours truly and will post the recipe right away
Cucumber slices
Baby tomatoes
Leftover french fries
Pear, carrots, green bean and prune purée - Love Child Organic
Apple bento box style plates - Munchkin from Amazon