Chocolate Covered Banana Bites ~ Halloween Edition! *Toddler Favorite*

The other day I got a serious craving for chocolate covered bananas, and it got me thinking how I could make them more festive and fun! I first decided I would make them into bite size pieces so my daughter could enjoy them, and then I decided to add some fun Halloween decorations and colors. These were super easy and only took me about 20 minutes to make. These would be super fun for a party or just to make an everyday snack for your toddler more fun :)

I only made enough for me and my daughter to enjoy so adjust the ingredient levels to fit your needs!

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 2 palm fulls of meltable chocolate (I used a palm full of each black and green, that I got at Wal-Mart in the Halloween aisle)
•  Halloween Sprinkles 
• Toothpicks (I used the kind that only have 1 pointy end and a stub end, to ensure no one got stabbed when eating these ;)

Method:

• Cut your banana into chunks
• Place the pointy side of toothpick into banana and place on parchment paper
• Melt your first batch of chocolate according to the package directions
• Place chocolate into a ziploc bag and snip a small hole in one end (chocolate should be soft and fully melted but not liquid)
• Pipe chocolate over banana chunks
• Melt second batch of chocoalte and repeat the same steps
• Add your sprinkles
• Let the chocolate harden (about 5-10 minutes)

And you're done! You could also put these in the freezer but if you do that, make sure to serve them immediately after you take them out of the freezer.

These are such a fun treat for Halloween, I hope you enjoy! :)

Welcoming the newest addition to our family!

Things have been a little hectic around my house the past 2 weeks! Our baby boy Cash Alexander was born on September 16 at 10:19am weighing in at 9 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long! Recovering from a c-section is rough, and with a toddler running around it didn't make it any easier. I was lucky enough to have my husband home for a couple days and then my bestfriend came and helped out over the weekend when my husband was working doubles. Baby Cash is 11 days old today and I'm feeling much much better, and he is doing wonderful! He is such a calm baby, so much different than my daughter was. Jade is taking to him much better than I expected. I thought she was going to be super jealous but we haven't experienced that yet! She loves to give him kisses and bring him his binky, it is literally the cutest thing EVER. We had his newborn photos done when he was 6 days old and from the sneak peeks our photographer has posted on her Facebook page they are adorable! I can't wait to see the full shoot when I get the CD next week :) And with that said I'm going to leave this post with a few pictures of the most adorable little boy you'll ever see ;) (I may be a bit biased but he is super cute!) Have a good night/morning/day friends!

Link to our photographers Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/lovingmomentsphotography

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Toddler Eats! (Part 2)

This week I was really trying to focus on incorporating things into Jades meals that she usually will not touch. Eggs for instance, she hates them and will not touch them. Infact she screams when they're on her plate! This week though we had a breakthrough! I got her to eat eggs on three separate occasions!  I've been reading that around the age from 18-24 months kids' tastes buds start changing so incorporating new foods is important and that's exactly what I'm trying to do :)

Here's a rundown from throughout the week of some of her meals :

#1 - Banana and peanut butter quesadilla w/ half of a hard boiled egg and strawberries/kiwi on the side

#2 - Bean, cheese and ground turkey quesadilla with a small sliced apple on the side. 

#3 - Egg and cheese omelet w/ cantaloupe and sausage on the side.

#4 - Cinnamon roll waffle topped with glaze. Sausage, strawberries, and grapes on the side.

#5 - Egg w/ toast and sausage on the side.

#6 - Nachos w/ cheese sauce, shredded cheese, ground turkey, sour cream, guacamole, and refried beans.

#7 - 2 slices of ham with half of a wedge of laughing cow swiss cheese spread onto it then cut into little rolls, cheese cubes and a Buddy Fruit squeeze pack.

#8 - Turkey roast, mashed potato w/ gravy & broccoli and cheese sauce on the side.

This week was a really good week with her trying new things. I am actually really surprised at how good she did. As I said before this was the first time I have ever gotten her to try eggs let alone like them so that was a big accomplishment! Also ground turkey and mashed potatoes are a new thing that she actually devoured so I'm proud of my little munchkin! We are on our way to a non picky eater!

I hope this helps anyone looking to find some new things to try with their toddlers, and if you have any suggestions let me know. I'll be doing weekly posts on this as we try to broaden her taste buds! :)

Check out my festive Halloween/Fall inspired treats! - 
Healthy fruit candy corn - http://thelarsendaily.blogspot.com/2013/10/happy-october-quick-and-easy-festive.html
Chocolate covered banana bites! - http://thelarsendaily.blogspot.com/2013/09/chocolate-covered-banana-bites.html

Link to Toddler Eats (part 1)! - http://thelarsendaily.blogspot.com/2013/09/toddler-eats-part-1.html
Link to toddler Eats (part 3)! - http://thelarsendaily.blogspot.com/2013/10/toddler-eats-part-3.html

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2 Ingredient Chocolate Covered Banana Smoothie!

This past week I have been craving bananas like crazy! In my cereal, with peanut butter, in smoothies, everything! So today I decided I was going to try a smoothie where the banana wasn't really competing with other flavors. I realized I had chocolate almond milk in the fridge and it just seemed like a match made in heaven! This smoothie is super quick and healthy for you too! Added bonus it tastes exactly like chocolate covered bananas!

Ingredients:

- 2 small ripe bananas

- 2 small frozen bananas

- 1/2 cup dark chocolate almond milk

- 2 tsp coconut flakes (optional for topping)

We always have frozen bananas in our house, we buy them in bulk when they go on sale and freeze them when the get extra ripe. We use them in our smoothies pretty much everyday, and when you add frozen fruit you don't have to add ice! 

We also have a Blendtec blender which is pretty powerful, it doesn't have a problem chopping up half frozen bananas. I would suggest chunking or slicing your bananas prior to freezing them if you have a regular blender so you don't end up with big chunks of banana or burning up your blender.

Pretty simple just add all of your ingredients to the blender and blend until it's smooth! :)

And that's it! I chose to add 2 tsp of coconut flakes but you could add any topping you want, sliced almonds would've been nice as well! Or you could just leave it plain and omit those extra calories ;)

This will make about 2 1/2 cups of smoothie so enough for 2 servings. Each serving without the coconut is 205 calories and with the coconut is 265 calories.

Enjoy!!

Family Beach Day & What To Bring!

Our life as a family of 3 is quickly coming to a close, we are about to begin a whole new chapter as a family of 4! So with that being said we've been trying to spend extra quality time with our daughter while we can when my husband isn't working. This past Wednesday we went to Treasure Island, and even though we've lived in Florida our whole life we had both never been and this was our daughters first BIG beach trip. She's been to other smaller beaches last summer when she was still a baby but this was her first real experience at the beach, and she absolutely loved it!

The weather was beautiful. Low 90's and lots of sunshine! We had lots of fun playing in the sand, collecting sea shells and playing in the water. I think Jades favorite part was chasing all the birds, she was so intrigued by them! My favorite part besides spending it with my loves was seeing a group of sting rays swimming on the shore line, I have never seen anything like that before! (sting rays are known to be on this beach so it wasn't a surprise to see them, I had read up on the beaches website the night before that it's a common thing there).

While our time at the beach was fun, I was overly stressed the night before making sure I didm;t forget to bring anything. There is so much to bring when you have a toddler and are almost 9 months pregnant, gone are the days of just getting up and going on a moments notice! Now we need (or I should say I) need a plan to keep myself sane! 

The night before I packed our lunch/snacks. I also packed both of our beach bags and the diaper bag. The morning of we ate breakfast, put everything in the cooler and packed everything into the car and we were off! I find that having everything done the night before makes getting ready in the morning so much easier and faster. 

For lunch I packed for us - 

• Spinach salad with brown rice, corn, grilled chicken and alittle bit of blue cheese dressing.
• Grapes, strawberries, blueberries with vanilla greek yogurt and sunflower seeds.

For Jades lunch I packed - 

• Ham slices
• Diced cheese
• Strawberries and grapes

I also brought some extra snacks to be safe -

• Pretzel rods
• Mandarin oranges
• Oreos 
• Lots of water and juice boxes 

In our beach bags I packed - 

• Swimmy Diapers
• Sunscreen and lots of it!
• Wipes
• Sunglasses
• Water shoes for Jade
• Towels
• Beach blanket
• Extra clothes for everyone
• Umbrella and umbrella stand

And if you have a toddler or baby you know all the necessities that go into a diaper bag ;)

And of course I'm going to share our fun pictures and the amazing view from the beach! If you're ever in the area I would definitely recommend going to Treasure Island it is beautiful!

Toddler Eats! (Part 1)

When it comes to getting my daughter (or any toddler for that matter) to eat different foods that can be tricky! I've been trying to incorporate new foods into her daily routine to get her taste buds used to them, it does't always work but I try and that's all that matters right?! I've found that one week she'll love something and the next week she won't touch it so I'm constantly trying to switch it up.

Here is a run down from over the past week of some of the things she's eaten:

#1 - Is a snack of Mandarin oranges and pretzels. 

#2 - Grilled Chicken w/ a side of BBQ sauce. Grilled asparagus, corn and macaroni and cheese.

#3 - Cheese ravioli w/ Alfredo sauce and broccoli. Homemade garlic bread on the side.

#4 - Turkey chili on top of sweet conrbread topped with cheese. (I have a recipe post on this)

#5 - French toast w/ sausage and berries on the side. Topped with a little bit of maple syrup.

#6 - Silver dollar pancakes topped with some whipped cream, strawberries and banana w/ sausage on the side. Topped with a little bit of maple syrup.

#7 - Grilled ham and cheese sandwich cut into strips w/ grapes, strawberries and blueberries on the side.

#8 - PB&J on honey wheat bread w/ banana on the side. 

(Quick tip, we cook all of her pancakes at once. We will set aside about 30-45 min one day to cook up enough mini pancakes to fill a huge freezer bag with. We freeze them then pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds wrapped in a paper towel when we need them. It's so easy and way cheaper than buying the already pre-made pancakes! This is one of our go to breakfasts for her)

 As you can see she loves fruit, we're still working on incorporating more veggies. Also the chili was the first time she's ever had chili and she surprising loved it! Jade is also pretty much the queen of "dipping" she always wants to drip her food in something whether it be BBQ, ketchup, maple syrup, whipped cream, yogurt, honey mustard etc. She is always saying "dip it, dip it" when we sit down to eat, my crazy girl :)

I hope this helps anyone looking to find some new things to try with their toddlers, and if you have any suggestions let me know. I'll be dong weekly posts on this as we try to broaden her taste buds! :)

Check out my festive Halloween/Fall inspired treats! - 

Healthy fruit candy corn - http://thelarsendaily.blogspot.com/2013/10/happy-october-quick-and-easy-festive.html

Chocolate covered banana bites! - http://thelarsendaily.blogspot.com/2013/09/chocolate-covered-banana-bites.html

$10 Deals sale at Crazy 8
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$3.99 Stock Up Sale at Crazy 8

Link to Toddler Eats (part 2) post! -
http://thelarsendaily.blogspot.com/2013/09/toddler-eats-part-2.html

Link to Toddler Eats (part 3) post! - http://thelarsendaily.blogspot.com/2013/10/toddler-eats-part-3.html

Turkey Chili with Cornbread Waffles

One of my favorite crock pot meals of all time is chili. You can throw it together in a matter of minutes and let it go for hours and not even have to think about it! I like to make a big batch and put a big tubber wear bowl full of it in the fridge for the next day and then freeze the rest for a later time.

I always like to make cornbread with my chili and our go to cornbread mix is the little box of Jiffy you find in the baking aisle for .50 cents. That cornbread just brings back childhood memories and I remember my mom making it for us all the time, not only is it cost efficient but it's quick. I've seen a lot of pins going around on Pinterest with putting your cornbread in the waffle maker, it seemed like a fun idea and something a bit different then making them in my mini muffin tin. My husband said he preferred the corn bread in the form of muffins that way you could dip them but we still enjoyed it.

Ingredients:

- 1 1/2 lbs ground turkey
- 2 bell peppers (I used a yellow and an orange pepper)
- 1 package of mushrooms
- 1 large can of diced tomato
- 1 large can of crushed tomato
- 1 large can of tomato sauce
- 1 large can of your choice of beans
- 1 packet of chili mix
- 1 box of cornbread mix (you will need an egg and 1/3 c milk if you use the Jiffy brand)

Additional Ingredients:

- Mrs. Dash Table Blend seasoning (I seasoned the ground turkey with this)
- Diced onion (for topping)
- Shredded cheese (for topping)

Once you get all of your ingredients prepped, throw it all in the crockpot on HIGH for 4 hours.

 Making your cornbread waffles will only take about 15 minutes so make them right before you're ready to eat. Make sure to spray your waffle maker liberally with cooking spray so the cornbread doesn't stick. I also found that you should cook them a little bit longer than you think you should because if you try to take them out to soon they will break and crumble.

While your cornbread is cooking, prep all of your toppings. Today I used onion and shredded cheese. You could also use avocado, sour cream, olives, lettuce or anything else your heart desires get creative! :)

The end result is so delicious! I can't wait for fall and winter to roll around so I can enjoy this on a cold day, but until then I will enjoy this in the comfort of my air conditioned house as it is in the 90s here and super humid!!

                                                                         Enjoy!

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