Aiden, who is currently obsessed with seeing his own name in print, is tickled by the new Mabel’s Labels on some of his belongings. We bought a Basic Kit with a variety of tags and stickers to put on items that may go with Aiden to preschool. The labels are fantastic!
We have run the Skinny Mini labels through the dishwasher without any fading or peeling. Can’t wait to get more of these – particularly around Christmas!
Although we often default to White Spot for a quick & easy family meal, particularly in groups, I really have to give props to Boston Pizza for catering to kids. It’s not my favourite restaurant for food for myself, but their kids menu is great.
Although the menu features the regular unhealthy kids fare options of all other restaurants, they do offer baked salmon for those kids who’ll eat it, and Aiden will most definitely eat their steamed veggies. Unlike the stale veggie sticks at White Spot, he actually gets his veggies this way.
The restaurant will offer crackers before the meal, wipes for after, and a whole mini colouring book for the little guys. It’s quite a nice set-up. The only downside to the menu is that a drink isn’t bundled into the meal price, like it is at some places. But, it’s not a dealbreaker.
I was recently given the Black & Decker Convection Countertop Oven along with 19 other Canadian bloggers as part of the Black & Decker Ultimate Sandwich contest for Mom Central Canada. We were asked to use this awesome new convection oven to come up with a delicious sandwich recipe. I wanted to try to make my favourite kind of sandwich – a torta!
A typical Mexican torta is served on a crusty roll and is served hot. Some aspects of the sandwich may be deep fried or covered in butter. We try to be health conscious in our family, so I challenged myself to come up with my favourite torta (the Milanesa, a breaded and fried chicken or steak) in a healthy way. The convection oven allowed me to make a breaded cutlet that was crispy – not soggy – and delicious!
Healthy Torta Milanesa
Serves 2
This recipe features warm fresh bread filled with a breaded cutlet, melted cheese, black beans and avocado. The flavours are accentuated by the adobo sauce and a splash of lime juice. Great to adapt to any taste and welcomes additions of shredded lettuce, spicy pickled carrots or tomatillo salsa. Makes a great stand-alone meal or main to go with a black bean soup.
Ingredients
Directions
For additional photos, please visit my Flickr set.
Disclosure: I created this post as part of the Black & Decker Ultimate Sandwich contest as part of a Mom Central Canada program. I received a Convection Countertop Oven Courtesy of Applica Canada Corporation, exclusive licensee of Black & Decker Home. The opinions on this blog are my own.
North Shore Green Markets, a program to bring healthy and local food as well as arts and crafts to North Vancouver, is currently running summer markets all across North Vancouver. We visited our first Green market, the Friday Night Market, held at the Shipbuilders plaza down by Lonsdale Quay.
Local performers took stage while booths were set up with arts, clothing, local produce, baked goods and a number of food vendors. We came away from the night with some local strawberries (most of which were in the bin, some of which were on Aiden’s face), a fantastic homemade drink syrup, some bread and full tummies from the Chili Tank chili we had for dinner. It was a wonderful way to spend a summer night – next time, I’m getting some chocolates!
The Friday Night market is held each Friday until September 23rd from 5pm – 11pm. The most up-to-date info about the Markets can be found on Facebook.
I admit it. I’ve been a judgmental non-parent and even a judgmental parent about what I see other kids eating. “I would never let my child eat that,” I’ve thought. “All that toddler food is just marketing,” I would say. Oh, how I’ve eaten my words.
When Aiden was first introduced to solids, he’d eat just about anything. So, I gave him healthy choices – food we ate, but chunked or pureed up a bit. I definitely adhere to the “eat what we eat” philosophy.
As he grew older, and went through picky stages, I’ve relaxed a bit. Rice crackers and bananas may have cut it for snacks when Aiden was younger, but he demands more variety now. Trying to come up with 3 meals and 2 snacks a day is exhausting, so pre-packaged snacks, in particular, have invaded my home. I’ve also realized that a few “bad” foods are really not a big deal if the overall week-long diet is pretty balanced.
So yeah, I let my child eat THAT.
Lest you think I feed my child a horrible assortment of foods, his most common snacks at home are cucumber and edamame. We don’t eat fast food, though fries and burgers may adorn our plates at restaurants. We try to eat organic, though not to extremes.
At the end of the day, Aiden eats, and mostly well. I’ve learned that keeping him happy and full is worth relaxing my standards a bit.
P.S. – I also provide a snack cup in the car more frequently than I’d like to admit.
What about you? What foods do your kids eat that you never thought you’d “let” them?