Food

You all know how picky Trent is with his food now. There isn’t much he will eat as part of a big meal, so we try to make sure he gets healthy snacks throughout the day in addition to decent sized meals. It really is difficult to come up with different ideas so he isn’t eating the same things all the time, which is why we get excited when we actually take a chance on a new item and he likes it! Bonus points if it is a nutritional and healthy snack for him.

Recently, we gave Sweetie Pie Organics Fruit & Veggie Snacks a try.

Sweetie Pie Organics makes delicious wholesome snacks for toddlers. Our snacks are made from quality organic ingredients. We grow fresh fruits and vegetables on organic US farms, which are then freeze-dried and packed in recyclable packaging. Sweetie pie snacks are USDA organic, Non GMO, there are no sugars, salts or preservatives added; all you get is fruits and veggies.

The moment of conception through the first three years of life is the most critical and fragile time of a child’s development. It’s during this important stage of life that a child’s body, brain, and cognitive functions are growing and developing faster than at any other time in their life.

What you feed your baby these first few years of life can have a great impact on their current and future health. Their delicate systems are very sensitive to everything they come in contact with, such as toxins in the air, toxins in products and, most importantly, toxins in their food. It is crucial for them to get enough nutrition. That is why Sweetie Pie Organics is devoted to providing only the purest and the best quality products.

We tried all 3 flavors of fruit and veggie snacks:

Banana, Sweet Corn & Blueberry

Mango, Sweet Corn, & Apple

Apple, Green Pea & Pineapple

Trent’s favorites were, of course, the fruits. The combo that he seemed to enjoy the most (a.k.a. the one he ate the fastest) was the Mango, Sweet Corn & Apple, with the Banana, Sweet Corn & Blueberry coming in second. I took a few bites of the corn and was pleasantly surprised…it really was sweet, but not in a candy-sweet sort of way. What a great way to sneak in some veggies!

However, he wasn’t a fan of the Sweet Peas, but he has never been a fan of peas…even when we pureed them up and mixed them with his favorite food as a baby, sweet potatoes, so we were kind of expecting that.

Each piece is tiny, so it’s easy for babies/toddler to pick up and feed themselves.

I like how veggies are included in each pouch and it’s not just fruits. Looking through the aisles for snacks for Trent’s results in many items geared towards fruits, so this is a nice solution for veggies too.

Each box comes with 5 individually wrapped pouches of snacks. This makes it easy to throw a few in the diaper bag or purse, in the car or in the stroller for a healthy snack on the go.

To learn more about Sweetie Pie Organics, including their other healthy product offerings, check out their website and LIKE them on Facebook!

 

I received this product in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own and honest. Thanks for reading!

 

When it’s time for a holiday get together, Brett usually makes one of two things…mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes. And they are so so delicious. Like, so delicious that I secretly hope that no one eats them and we have a bunch left to take home. Except that never happens

For Christmas Eve, it was mashed potatoes on the to-do list. The bags of potatoes and mounds of butter were ready to be mashed into delicious goodness. But this time, Brett had a secret weapon to make his job easier…the Masha!

The patented ROTOR-CONE technology in the Masha uses a low speed rotor to force ingredients through an outer mesh.

This produces a perfect consistent mix in seconds. The Masha works brilliantly on the following: All types of potatoes, guacamole and refried beans, pastry, cake mixes, baby food and a lot more!

• Patented ROTOR-CONE technology uses a low-speed rotor to force ingredients through an outer mesh, producing a perfect, consistent mash without lumps, in seconds. 380 watts of total power for the heaviest mixing tasks.

• Metal drive gears and a powerful double reduction gearbox provide the muscle to drive the ROTOR at exactly the right speed for the perfect result.2 speed mixing bowl motor to insure efficient mixing of a variety of ingredients.

• A spring loaded mechanism locks the shaft when the power unit is detached, allowing the Rotor Blade to be removed with a simple turn and click.

• The Masha is compact, great to hold and easy to use with a forward-biased, non-slip handgrip and balanced weight distribution.

Normally, mashed potatoes involve mashing using a hand tool and lots of arm power. The Masha cut the prep time considerably and required hardly any effort whatsoever. Like a power tool for the chef.

Brett had his boiled potato pieces in a bowl, ready to be mashed.

You plug the Masha in and just stick the bottom into the potatoes. You’ll immediately start seeing it get to work, turning the pieces into perfectly mashed goodness.

The Masha has a comfortable hand grip and works so well that it never got clogged and didn’t spray any pieces outside of the bowl.

Just move the Masha around to get all the potato pieces and no time, you’ll have a bowl of perfectly mashed potatoes.

To clean, just pop the bottom off and clean in the sink or dishwasher.

The sleek design means it doesn’t take up much room at all in your kitchen. As mentioned earlier, the Masha would work great with cake/brownie batters (as opposed to hand mixers that make a big mess). As a parent that made most of our baby food, this would have been fun to try new recipes and methods of cooking for various baby food. I wonder if this would be good to mix drinks…hmmmm???

 

Buy:

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I received this product in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own. Especially the one about Brett making the best potatoes…mmm.

Seeing as Brett is such a picky eater, it’s no surprise that Trent is too…combine that with being a picky toddler and I often feel like Trent doesn’t eat as well as he should. He loves fruits, like peaches, strawberries and bananas, but we also try to sneak in ways to get him more nutrition. One of those ways, especially when we are traveling, in Disney or out and about in town, is to give him those little pouches of fruit from the grocery store. He really likes the applesauce in the pouches, but we also try to get some combo varieties to switch it up and see what he likes. And as he grows older, he eats them so fast and will sometimes eat two at a time!

To stop going through so many pouches that get thrown away, we love the idea of reusable pouches, especially because they hold more food and we can get creative with recipes for them. All in our quest to find more things for Trent to eat and enjoy.

We recently received a pack of Little Green Pouch reusable pouches and made a really yummy recipe for him to enjoy from the pouches…Peanut Butter & Jelly Smoothie!

Little Green Pouches are like those pouches of food you see in the store, but much better for the environment and easier on your wallet! They can hold up to 6 ounces of pureed food and are made of durable, BPA-free, PVC-free & phthalate-free plastic. They are reusable…they have a resealable top, are dishwasher and freezer safe, and are easy for kids to use. I like being able to fill the pouches with a treat, and have them in the refrigerator ready for snack time!

Here is what you’ll need for the recipe:

Peanut Butter & Jelly Smoothie (derived from this recipe)

Grapes

Banana

Milk

Peanut Butter (or almond butter)

This is really easy…just combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Open up the pouches and pour the smoothie in each one, then close them up.

You can put them in the fridge or in the freezer for later…but not before letting your little one enjoy some first!

I love how we can now give him these pouches without worrying he’ll squeeze the contents out everywhere. He can run around and still enjoy a delicious, nutritious snack.

And yes, after filling all the pouches, I enjoyed what was leftover. Not just for kids!

 

Buy:

LittleGreenPouch.com

Amazon.com

Connect with Little Green Pouch:

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of PAM Cooking Spray.

One year, I made the mistake of not eating at all on Thanksgiving morning, hoping to save the most room for the delicious feast later that day. It totally had the opposite effect…I definitely could not eat as much. So now, given that it’s a nice family day at home before gathering with everyone later, Brett makes a tasty breakfast for us to enjoy…nothing too heavy and nothing too tedious.

This year, he made a breakfast casserole and it was so delicious. Given our itty bitty family of 3, we had leftovers the next few days too…perfect for a long holiday weekend of decorating the house in all it’s Christmas merriment.

I received 2 cans on Pam Cooking Spray, Original formula and Baking formula. Both formulas (and the Butter formula) now leave up to 99 percent less residue buildup than margarine or bargain-brand cooking sprays, while still offering superior no-stick results. There’s also zero calories…not that I count those on Thanksgiving, but I’ll take the savings wherever I can get them.

It was important to use a non-stick spray like Pam since we were using the Le Creuset Pie Dish we also received and didn’t want any of the cheesy casserole to stick to the pan and/or get burnt. Burnt cheese = no bueno.

Cheesy Breakfast Casserole

6-8 eggs (depending on size of baking dish/pan)

Large bag of shredded hash browns

Turkey breakfast sausage (you can also use regular sausage)

Bacon (we opted for the pre-cooked variety to save time)

Cheddar cheese

1/4 cup milk (not shown)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Dice the bacon into little pieces.

2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the milk.

3. Spray the pie dish with Pam.

4. Brown the shredded hash browns according to the package.

5. Brown the ground sausage.

6. Add the bacon and hash browns to the sausage and mix together well.

7. Pour the mixture into the pie dish and cover with the eggs.

8. Bake for 30-40 minutes until eggs are firm.

9. Cover with cheddar cheese and melt in the oven.

10. Cut your piece and enjoy!

 

Each piece slid right out thanks to Pam. Clean-up was super easy, too. Often, the right preparations before a meal can make it much easier to clean up afterward and save more time for friends and family. Last Christmas, we tried making a red velvet cheese roll and that thing stuck to everything so much that we had to trash it and make another one. We don’t want to do that again, so we make sure we spray everything and follow any recipe advice that we find online…if you find a recipe online that has comments on it, make sure you scroll through them to see if anyone offers some words of wisdom. Brett has found some great modifications to recipes in the comments!

We also used this pie dish later on in the day for our sweet potato dish for Thanksgiving - yum!

How would you like to win your very own Pam Cooking Spray kit to help with your holiday cooking and baking? Check out the giveaway below!

 

***GIVEAWAY***

Up for grabs: A Pam Cooking Spray Kit valued at $50

• Full size sample of Pam
• Le Creuset Pie Dish

Eligibility: All entrants must be 18 years+ and reside in the continental US. (view the full terms & conditions here)

Contest Ends: Wednesday, December 11, 2025 at 11:59pm

How to enter: Simply leave a comment on this blog post with the answer to this question: “What is your favorite dish to make (or eat) during the holidays?”

One winner will be selected at random from the comments on this post and announced as an update to this post and on Facebook/Twitter. I will also contact the winner by email. See full giveaway terms & conditions here.

Good luck!!

 

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of PAM Cooking Spray.
For more information, visit http://www.pamcookingspray.com.

November was MY month, apparently. Well, I guess me and millions of others too, since it’s National Peanut Butter Lovers Month and I am definitely a peanut butter lover.

When I became a Hormel Extended Family Blogger, I was surprised to learn about all the other brands that are in the Hormel family of brands. Perhaps the brand I was most excited about and knew I would definitely be posting about at least once during my tenure was Skippy peanut butter. Imagine my delight when I received a jar of it this month from Hormel as part of my Hormel partnership!

And after visiting the Skippy website, I was even more surprised at the number of varieties of peanut butter they offer. Why oh why have I never heard of the Skippy Natural Peanut Butter Spread with Dark Chocolate?! Publix needs to carry that asap!

I was going to come up with a great recipe to share, but besides the fact that the jar was consumed entirely too fast (don’t judge me!), I figured I’d share the delicious recipes available on the Skippy website.

At our Thanksgiving meal dessert, we had a dessert dip with Nilla wafers, apples and chocolate wafers to dip with.

It was so tasty and can be an easy anytime treat. Here is a similar recipe from the Skippy website for Peanut Butter S’mores Dip.

As stated in the recipe, you can pair it with graham crackers, but you could also pair it with bananas, apples, or wafers. You can also form it into a ball and roll it in chocolate and peanut butter chips and place it on a serving platter to make a peanut butter “cheese ball” for gatherings!

 

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I am currently a member of the Hormel Foods Extended Blogger Program and this post is part of my involvement with the group.