Toddler Meals // Little Lunch

I mentioned in the first Toddler Meals post I shared in August that Romy's nap time is smack bam in the middle of the day and she doesn't wake up until around 3.30pm, but  lately with this bout of teething I've been getting four hour naps out of her. So by the time sleeping beauty wakes up, it's actually not too far off dinner time. So we started giving her a 'little lunch' around 11-11.30 am, and a lighter 'lunch' after her nap. So basically she eats two small lunches & sleeps for 3+ hours - she really is living the toddler dream!

We're always up for trying different methods to try & achieve success at meal times, & currently the two-part lunch method is working best for us. Before we implemented the 'little lunch' - which is different from a snack - we were finding that after a long nap & a late lunch come dinner time Romy just wasn't overly hungry, and it was making us all frustrated. I really didn't want to accept that we had a fussy eater, because I think that you can get a little too deep into the 'fussy eater' hole and it ends up giving the 'fussy eater' power to pick and choose & ultimately they won't try anything new. So before we gave into that idea, we tried a different method & it was that simple. Now (most) evenings Romy will eat her dinner, which has taken a lot of stress out of the evenings. 

I know this looks like a lot of food to be 'little lunch' but it is actually only a small amount. On this little lunch plate is one slice of cheese cut into super small pieces, grated apple, a couple of strawberries cut into smaller pieces and a small slice of toasted homemade banana, blueberry & orange bread. 

And as you can see, the grated apple was not a hit. Romy cannot get her head around apple, every time she tries it she pulls this shocked look as though she is thinking, "what the heck have you given me!". Every. Time. So I tried a different approach and grated the apple to serve and she still wasn't sold on it. You win some you lose some right?

The Perfect Mug

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Most coffee mugs last about a year or so in my house, we have a coffee mug chipping curse in our kitchen cupboards I'm beginning to think. Most recently my favourite lemongrass coloured mug that I picked up for a raging price of $2 at a  home wares clearance sale last year acquired a chip rendering it basically useless now. I see a chip and I know what happens next. And because it is my favourite coffee mug I have to replace it with something that is a little bit cuter, and something that Luke won't silently claim. The Ron Swanson mug above would be perfect, but Luke & I both share a love of RS so I can just see what would happen there. So I'll have to keep that one in mind for next Father's Day & use it during the day when Luke isn't home! I am loving the jade disolve mug currently at Freedom, it has that set of mugs at a holiday beach house feel to it, and even though I'm not into the beach, I really like it.  

Hello, October!

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Isn't this year just passing by so quickly?! Especially the last two months, we have been moving at a fast pace here that I didn't even realise the first of October had already been & gone until yesterday. This month is going to be wonderful because our good friends Renee & Simon are getting married! Renee has been sharing her wedding planning over coffees with me for months now, and she has some pretty neat ideas underway that I can't wait to see it all put together in just a couple of short weeks! Also, a handful of my extended family will be visiting Newcastle for a wedding & during their stay we'll be having a little get together at my sisters new house. And then I'll be going to see Miley with my bff in the city. And at some point we'll be squeezing a visit in to go meet our friend's new baby boy that was just this second born.

And just lastly, a couple of things from last month; 15 Ways To Be A Good Human Today, The Girl With Three Boobs, 33 Reasons Why Mighty Ducks Is The Best Movie Trilogy Of All Time, Stay Away From Microwaves, and this great Homemade Body Scrub.

Lately

1. We broke in our juicer for the first time since purchasing it almost two years ago. Why did we wait so long?!
2. Family pizza night at Aunty Ash & Uncle Al's house
3. Grazed knees is where we're at right about now
4. Day visits from Oscar & Renee
5. Books before bedtime with Daddy
6. Busting out the Boleslawiec tea cups for morning tea with Elle

Simple Kale Chips

For the past couple of weeks I've been obsessed with making these super simple kale chips as an afternoon snack, and some days I make a batch up as my lunch. I've previously avoided making kale chips because whenever I've googled 'simple' recipes they always end up requiring multiple ingredients I don't already have in the pantry, and I'm not very confident to improvise with recipes just yet (unless Luke is here to help me!). Kale is a vegetable we usually buy each week, and after we scored a plentiful bunch a couple of weeks back I started to get the kale chip nagging itch again. I looked through a handful of helpful recipes but ended up going rogue and making my own simpler version.

All you need to have on hand to make these simple kale chips is a couple of leaves of kale and coconut oil. If you don't have coconut oil you can use olive oil instead, I've made batches using both and they do the same job.

1. Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees

2. Roughly tear up your kale leaves into small pieces discarding the stem. I found it was much easier & less time consuming to just tear the pieces off the stem rather than cutting them up with a knife. The smaller the piece of kale, the more likely it is to get burnt so keep your kale pieces relatively bigger

3. Heat a heaped teaspoon of coconut oil in a pan over the stove. If you're making a bigger batch of chips you'll obviously need more oil than a teaspoon

4. Using an oil brush, lightly coat the kale pieces with oil on both sides 

5. Lay out the kale pieces on a baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes. Keep your eye on them, kale chips can be pretty easy to burn. You don't necessarily have to season your chips as they already taste great on their own, but if you do prefer to season them try sprinkling a little bit of taco seasoning for a little bit of bite. Or salt, salt is good too!

Simple, huh?

Brunch At Aunty Ash's House

My sister Ashleigh scored herself a long weekend off work to go to Kanye West, but before she set off on her exciting weekend with her girlfriends Romy & I spent the morning visiting and we had a little brunch date together.

On her morning travels Ash picked up some delicious jalapeño & cheddar bagels for our  brunch date. It's been a good couple of months since my last bagel and now that I've had a taste for them again I can feel a little bit of bagel fever coming on. I'm sure if I ask nicely Luke might bake a batch on his day off.

While Romy usually doesn't shy away from spicy foods, today she wasn't open to trying the bagels and stuck to her banana, blueberry & orange bread I baked during the week. I most definitely will be sharing this loaf recipe in the next couple of weeks because it would be extremely selfish of me not to considering how darn tasty it is!

During our visit Ash picked her first homegrown blueberry, it wasn't quite ready but it was still pretty exciting none the less! Ashleigh just recently bought her first home & the previous owners had planted a pretty extensive fruit & vegetable garden that has all kinds of things. I'm looking forward to our family dinners made using their garden produce.

I hope you enjoyed your Friday too & have a wonderful weekend ahead of you. I'll be working all weekend & Romy will be spending that time with Luke for the first time all by themselves. Fingers crossed I come home to a batch of freshly baked bagels!

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Spring, You're Here!

Today was the first real day of spring. For the past couple of weeks the weather here in Newcastle has been miserable and frustrating. During the middle of winter we were fortunate to have a good month of nice sunny t-shirt wearing days that unfortunately racked up a mighty fine cold & rainy debt. And for the past few weeks we've been shut inside watching The Wiggles waiting for the storm to pass, so to speak. I usually love winter, give me a cardigan and a hot water bottle any day & I'm happy. But its days like today where the temperature isn't bothersome in the slightest that wins me over - that and a good bunch of perfectly arranged (thanks Renee!) spring fresh flowers!