Brain Jello Halloween Fun

Halloween is just around the corner, which meant that it was time to bust out the brain mold and get busy making some slimy, bloody, gooey, delicious brain jello....

Boy, my kids were excited when they found out that we were going to make and EAT some brain (I know that sounds kind of nasty....hahaha...)

All you need to do is follow the instructions on the box to make the jello, and instead of putting it in your usual molds, let the Jello set in your awesome brain mold.

In case you are wondering why there is a piece of tape on my brain mold, a while back my kids decided that it was a good idea to use the mold as a stepping stool (not a good idea) and it ended up cracking the mold a little.....hahaha....

After the jello has set in the fridge, flip it over onto a plate and try to get it out of the mold if you can. Or you could just "eat the brains out" of the bowl if you want.

I learned the hard way that it was probably a good idea to use some cooking spray before pouring the Jello liquid into the mold.

Here is one of my very enthusiastic brain surgeon-SLASH-'brain'ivore who just couldn't wait to dig into the Jello brain :)

Pumpkin Apple Fritters - Delicious and Nutritious Snacks for Picky Toddlers

The other day we finally got a chance to harvest what was left of our apple tree.
I say "what was left" because this year there wasn't much left to pick, since a certain 2 and 4 year old kept snacking on the green apples all summer long....hahaha....

Oh well, at least they are learning a thing or two about growing your own food and eating it, mainly the eating part 😛.

I was trying to figure out what recipe to use them in, when I came up with the idea of making fried doughnut balls. This is a perfect snack recipe for picky toddlers and adult because who doesn't like doughnuts??? I can already picture myself making these again and enjoying it with the family on a chilly fall evening with some hot chocolate 😁.

To make this recipe, you start by preheating the frying oil. I usually get this started first because it takes a while for the oil to get all heated up. You can use an electric fryer such as the Hamilton Beach deep fryer, or any other method of your choice for deep frying.

Next, mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, and add the eggs, milk, oil, and chopped apples.

Once the oil is heated up, drop spoonfuls of batter into the oil and fry for 2-3 minutes on one side before flipping the fritters over and letting the other side fry for a few more minutes until golden brown on both sides.

Once the fritters are cooked, you can either toss them in cinnamon sugar while they are still warm or eat them as is.

The first time I made these pumpkin apple fritters the bowl was empty so fast, because the boys were so excited to eat doughnuts. These really are awesome snacks for picky toddlers to get more veggies into their system without them knowing it :P

Pumpkin Apple Fritters - Delicious and Nutritious Snacks for Picky Toddlers

1 and 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp pumpkin powder

2 eggs

2/3 cups milk

1 cup chopped apples

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the eggs, milk, and apples. Stir until combined. Drop by the spoonful into heated oil. Fry for 2-3 minutes on one side. Flip and fry on the other side for a few more minutes until golden brown throughout. Toss in cinnamon sugar or serve as is.

Here is the printable version of the recipe.

Pumpkin Blueberry Pancakes - Perfect Fall Recipe for Picky Eaters

Can I just say that I LOVE the fall season. All the different Fall activities to do with your kids, beautiful leaves, nice cool weather to replace the extreme heat of summer, and most importantly all the wonderful Fall/holiday foods to make and enjoy with your family.

Another reason why I love Fall is the many opportunities we could get creative with recipes for picky eaters. I mean, when else can you go crazy with all kinds of pumpkin recipes? 😃

This pancake recipe I am sharing today is super duper fast and easy to make, with only 3 ingredients needed: pancake mix, pumpkin powder, and milk.

(Check out my previous post about how to make home made pumpkin powder. It's a great recipe for picky eaters and I absolutely love having it on hand for whenever I need to add some extra veggies into my recipes).

I happened to have some Krusteaz Blueberry Pancake mix  in my pantry, so that's what I used this time around, but you can use any kind of pancake mix you happen to have.
You could also use water or any type of non-dairy milk to replace the dairy milk.

All you have to do is mix all three ingredients in a bowl, let sit for a few minutes, and fry em up in a buttered pan as you normally would make your pancakes.

You can serve them with any pancake condiments of your choice or just eat them as is (my kids' favorite way of eating pancakes)

Pumpkin Blueberry Pancakes - Perfect Fall Recipe for Picky Eaters

2 cups Krusteaz blueberry pancake mix

1 and 1/3 cup milk

1 tsp pumpkin powder

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Let the batter sit for a few minutes. Heat some butter in a pan and fry as you would usually fry pancakes. Serve with your favorite pancake condiments or eat as is.

Here is a printable version of the recipe. 

These are my little pancake monsters gobbling up some pumpkin blueberry pancakes:

For some variety of vegetables and nutrition, you can use other veggie powders in place of pumpkin powder such as carrot powder, or any greens powder of your choice such as this super greens powder.

Homemade Veggie Tortilla Chips

I've been wanting to make the boys a salty snack, and thought of making some home made tortilla chips with a little bit of veggies incorporated in em.
This recipe is very simple to put together, with just a handful of ingredients.

Start by combining all the seasonings and veggie powder together in a bowl. I've used homemade pumpkin powder and carrot powder made with my beloved Excalibur dehydrator, and it worked great with this recipe.

Then cut the corn tortilla into wedges with a kitchen scissor or even a pizza cutter. I typically cut each tortilla into 6 wedges.

Then place the wedges in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, and mix to lightly coat the wedges. sprinkle in the seasoning mixture in batches, and mix well. Place on a baking sheet, bake, then let cool before serving.

My family loves anything crunchy, and this definitely hit the spot. The best part is that they have no clue there are veggies in it. I am excited to try this recipe with some of my other veggie powders such as greens powder, spirulina powder, spinach powder, or tomato powder in the future. I'm sure it would be just as great.

Homemade Veggie Tortilla Chips

5 corn tortillas

olive oil to drizzle

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp seasoned salt

1/2 tsp veggie powder

In a bowl, mix together all the seasonings and veggie powder. Cut the tortillas into wedges, place in a bowl and drizzle with some olive oil while mixing to coat the wedges. Sprinkle in the seasoning mix over the tortilla wedges little by little and mix well. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake at 400F for 8-12 minutes until light brown and crisp.

Here is a printable version of the recipe

Peanut Butter and Veggie Chocolate Dessert Bars

After the long wait for the DVD to come out, we finally get to watch Moana again, and my kids are super excited. My oldest requested to accompany our Moana movie night that I should prepare "popcorn and lots of chocolate" like in the movie theater....hahahaha....

Since we couldn't do a grocery store run to get the chocolate he requested, I decided to make my own Peanut butter chocolate dessert bars with a slight veggie twist to it, that you won't even know is there.

I started by roughly crushing some oat square cereals in my food processor, transferring the crushed cereal into a bowl and mixing it with melted butter, powdered sugar, peanut butter, and some veggie powder. I then transferred the mixture into a parchment lined 9x9 pan.

Next, I melted some chocolate and mixed in some more veggie powder, then poured it on top of the cereal peanut butter layer in the pan. I let the bars cool in the freezer until it was time to serve them up while watching the movie.

This time around I used my homemade pumpkin powder in this recipe, but you could use any powder you have in your pantry. Or if you don't have any homemade veggie powders, you could also use greens powder such as Spirulina powder, etc. Note that different veggie powders have different intensities of flavor and smell, so if you were to use spirulina powder, you may want to reduce the amount you put in, if your family isn't familiar with the flavor yet. I personally have used spirulina powder in many of my recipes and my kids seemed to be fine with the flavor so far.

Also, in retrospect, since we were watching Moana, perhaps I should have used some coconut oil in place of the butter, to give it a little bit of an island taste. Perhaps I will give that a try in the future to see how if would turn out :)

Peanut Butter and Veggie Chocolate Dessert Bars

2 c oat squares (roughly crushed in a food processor)

1 stick of butter (melted)

3/4c powdered sugar

3/4 c peanut butter (or other nut butter)

1/2 tsp pumpkin powder (for peanut butter mixture)

1 c melting chocolate

1/4 tsp pumpkin powder (for the chocolate mixture)

Mix the crushed oat squares, melted butter, powdered sugar, peanut butter, and pumpkin powder in a bowl until well combined. Transfer to a parchment lined 9x9 pan and set aside.

Melt the chocolate and stir in the pumpkin powder, then pour on top of the peanut butter mixture.

Let set in the freezer. Serve.

Here is a printable version of the recipe.

Cottage Cheese Carrot Easter Bunny Pancakes

All week we've been having fun making Easter-themed recipes and the kids and we have been having a blast.
This morning we made some yummy and healthy cottage cheese carrot Easter bunny pancakes. The kids had fun decorating them and eating them (mostly eating the decorations...hahaha)...

I started by blending all the wet ingredients (cottage cheese, baby food puree, banana, eggs, honey, and a few splashes of V8 carrot blend juice) until smooth. I used the biggest blender cup in my Ninja blender system.

I used banana-carrot-mango baby food puree and the carrot mango V8 veggie blend for the carrot components, in keeping with the Easter bunny theme.

Then I added the oats and blended the mixture again until smooth.

All you have to do next is cook them like you regularly would cook pancakes in an oiled and heated pan.

Next comes the fun part of turning them into Easter bunnies and decorating them. Each bunny is made of two pancake circles. One is for the head, and the other circle is cut into three pieces: 2 ears and a neck.

I happened to have some marshmallows and raisins, so that's what the kids used to decorate the bunnies with eyes and mouths, but you can use anything you want such as nuts, dried fruits, candies, etc.

Cottage Cheese Carrot Pancakes

1 and 1/2 cup cottage cheese

1 banana

2 eggs

1 tub banana-carrot-mango baby food puree (4oz)

1-2 tsp (or more) honey to taste

1-3 splashes of V8 carrot mango veggie blend juice

6 pouches oatmeal (about 1 and 1/2 cup oats)

Blend all the ingredients together except the oats until smooth, then and the oats and blend again until well mixed. Cook pancake circles in a heated and oiled pan until done.

Here is a printable version of the recipe.

Easter Granola Eggs

Last week we bought some plastic eggs in preparation for Easter, and since then my kids kept wanting to play with them. They hide little lego pieces in the eggs, calling them Easter surprise eggs and take turns opening the eggs to see what surprises are in them. They even had fun mixing an matching the colors of the bottom and top and bottom parts of the plastic eggs to create new color blends.

Since the plastic Easter eggs are always lying around the house anyway and the kids have so much fun playing with them, I thought of putting them to good use by making some Easter granola eggs for the kids to snack on as well.

I used my basic veggie granola bar recipe and shaped them into Easter eggs rather than the usual square shapes I typically make.
In keeping with the Easter theme, I used the carrot-mango-banana baby food puree this time around, but I've used several different kinds of baby food purees in this recipe in the past, and they have all worked great.
.
The recipe is very simple. I like to pre-toast my oats before mixing in the wet ingredient mixture.

Before shaping the granola mixture into the plastic Easter eggs, I oiled the inside of the plastic eggs to prevent the granola from sticking. Alternatively, you can also use cooking spray to coat the inside of the eggs.

To shape the granola, I filled both halves of the eggs with the granola mixture, making sure that one of the halves is filled a little higher than the rim so that when we press both halves together to close the plastic eggs, the granola mixture in both halves will stick to each other and not create a gap in between them.

I refrigerated the filled eggs for a few hours for the mixture to set into the egg shapes.

The hardest part for my kids is to wait patiently for the time that they can eat these :)
These are fun healthy snacks not just for Easter time, but all year round.

Homemade Veggie Granola Bars

Whenever I get store bought granola bars, my kids are always excited to eat them. But with all the extra ingredients in those bars, I decided to make my own with simple nutritious ingredients for a much healthier treat for my kids.

This recipe is very simple and you can customize it however you want. I started by opening 6 individual packets of oatmeal (about 1 and a half cup of dry oatmeal) and spreading them out on a cookie sheet. I toasted them for a few minutes and then let them cool.

Next I pulled out my beloved Ninja food processor attachment (which came as a bundle with the full size blender and blender cups) and processed the dates until it formed a sticky ball, which I then transferred into a bowl,  and mixed with baby food puree, peanut butter and some maple syrup.

 My favorite part about this recipe is to try out different kinds of baby food purees. I generally use the vegetable and fruit blends such as carrot-banana-mango, etc to give it a little extra sweetness along with the veggie component. Once the wet mixture is fully combined, I added the toasted oats, mixed well and placed in a lightly greased pan to let the bars set in the fridge. The last thing to do is to cut into squares and enjoy.

 The dates add a great sweetness to it, and I love that it also has vegetables in it. This is great for breakfast or for an anytime healthy snack.

Homemade Veggie Granola Bars

6 pouches (or 1 and 1/2 cups) oats (toasted at 350F for 15min)

1 cup dates

1 pouch / 1 tub baby food

1/4 c peanut butter

1 Tbsp maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener)

Spread the oats on a cookie sheet and toast for 15 minutes at 350F. Set aside to cool.

Process the dates in a food processor until finely processed and it forms a sticky ball.

Mix the processed dates with the baby food pouch, peanut butter, and maple syrup until well combined. Mix in the toasted oats, place in a greased pan, and let it set in the fridge. Cut into squares and enjoy.

Here is a printable version of the recipe.