Hungry Hungry Harpo

We love food. I love cooking, trying new foods & especially love eating. And not just toast & Fritos. Feeding a toddler is much harder than I ever thought it would be, considering we aren't always eating at the same time as her. It can be hard to find a good balance of healthy foods, foods that she will like & things that are easy to make. 

Harper is just now getting to the stage where she's becoming a little bit picky, or rather she just wants to go play & not sit in her high chair to eat. That just means I have to be creative with meals & keep trying new things.

Here is a roundup of some of the meals that I make most often for Harper.

Toast & Fruit. We both eat this often for breakfast, I like to mix it up with lots of different fruits & sometimes add peanut butter or almond butter to our toast for a little protein.

Waffles or Pancakes with Fruit. I make pancakes maybe once every other week & freeze a few to pop them in the toaster for breakfast. We also eat whole wheat Kashi waffles that are quick & easy, always topped with strawberries or bananas.

Cereal & Fruit with Yogurt. Either Chex or Cheerios with blueberries, bananas, raspberries or strawberries make the perfect breakfast finger food for toddlers.

Mac & Cheese with green beans. I make mac in a mug, a healthy substitute for easy mac. I use 1/3 cup of water, 1/3 cup of Barilla Plus Macaroni Noodles & microwave for 6 minutes, stirring every two minutes. Then I add 1/4 cup of milk & 1/4 cup of finely shredded cheddar cheese & microwave for another 2 minutes. I steam fresh green beans, cut them into small pieces & add a splash of soy sauce, lemon juice & bread crumbs for flavor. Green beans are her favorite, but she also loves steamed broccoli.

Shredded turkey, avocado, pears & goldfish. I mix it up between turkey & chicken from the deli, or sometimes shredded chicken made from cooked chicken breasts.

Spaghetti, Fajitas or some sort of leftovers. Harper eats everything we eat, even spicy foods. Since she eats dinner at five & we don't eat until seven or eight, I just make small portions for her to eat the next day. She loves all sorts of pasta, casseroles, crockpot meals. Fajitas are her favorite though, seasoned chicken, green peppers & cheese served on a soft tortilla shell.

More meal ideas can be found in this post! :)

And of course, some of our other meal time favorites...

Momma Straw Cup. After trying possibly every sippy cup on the market, this one has quickly become our favorite. Harper has always loved straw cups over regular sippys. I love these because they don't leak & can withstand being hulk smashed to the ground on a regular basis. They also make them with handles for younger babies which I would definitely recommend since these might be a bit too hard to hold with their round shape.

Boon Spoon. We don't really use this anymore now that Harper is feeding herself, but we loved our squirt spoon for the longest time when she was younger! 

Boon Grass. We've been using this drying rack since day one, I am obsessed with it! This is also my go-to baby shower gift for new mamas! :)

Beaba Utensils. The best utensils out there for little hands learning to feed themselves, love all the colors too.

Silicone Bib. Another must-have for messy eaters. This saves so much food from going on the floor & all over the high chair, especially for things like pasta.

She is also officially transitioned off the bottle, we just sorta did it one night, gave her a sippy of milk before bed instead & she was totally fine with it. #likeaboss

Sometimes utensils don't cut it & we just have to shovel it in by the handful! ;) A throwback to my childhood, our whole family ALWAYS ate spaghetti with no silverware just for fun!

 I've also mentioned a few times that our highchair is from Ikea. While I wasn't so sure about it at first, I really do love it now. It's so easy to clean since there is no fabric or cushion creases & somehow the top has remained bright white after all the messes that have been made on it. I really think it's meant for older babies though since it doesn't provide much support if they aren't comfortable sitting up on their own yet.

I hope this is all helpful in giving you some new ideas for meals to make for your babes & some fun new products to try to make meal time a little bit easier! :)