Day 9 - Tuna fishcake bear

I decided that as the rabbit spinach pie had worked so well, and it was raining and we had time, to see what my little boy would pick for a tuna recipe. So again we google image searched for ideas and he picked out a fishcake which I decided to make using this recipe -

 

http://nomnompaleo.com/post/91332244628/spicy-tuna-cakes

 

I made them up in muffin tins with my toddler helping, then arranged them with cheese, peas, sweet potato, roasted cherry tomato eyes, courgette mouth and roast red pepper hair to make a teddy bear with a cheesy bow tie. I thought the fish cakes were a little plain on their own but they were amazing with the addition of a little sweet chilli sauce.

 

Day 8 - my toddler's rabbit spinach pie

I had a big bag of spinach and a tired toddler,  so I asked myself what on earth would he eat that I could use it all in! Then it dawned on me. Why am I trying to figure out what he would eat, why not just ask him! So, I did a Google Image Search for spinach recipes and asked him which he would like for dinner. He picked out something I would have skipped right passed, but he seemed adamant that was his favourite, so this is the spinach pie we made together while his baby sister was in her sling carrier.

 

http://www.m.webmd.com/food-recipes/spinach-quiche

 

We just used some cheddar cheese and made 5 in jumbo muffin tins. My little boy loves helping in the kitchen and seemed genuinely excited when we told daddy how he had made them e.g. grated cheese together, stirred together, oiled the tins together. Once finished, I cooked up a few veggies and turned it into a rabbit

 

Day 7 - cheesy tomato pig face

With the weather lovely and the garden full of berries, my toddler saw an afternoon outside as all you can eat buffet time!

 

 

 

This meant that there wasn't a lot of point in serving much for dinner! We just made cheese on toast with a bit of tomato sauce mixed in and shaped it into a pig with some ham ears, cucumber eyes and tomato cheeks.

 

 

 

So how has our first full week gone of making fun plates every night? There have been a couple of nights where we asked ourselves if we could be bothered every day, but by the time we had cooked, it was easy enough to take a couple of minutes to make it into a shape. Has it made a noticeable difference? Yep! We are getting half hour to an hour of extra sleep every night, less waking in the morning with screaming and less running from the table in the first half of meal time. Will we carry on? Definitely!! I've ordered a couple of cookie cutters and will keep an eye out in the charity shops near me for some more.

 

Day 6 - Breaded chicken and cheesy cauliflower trees

We spotted some breaded chicken on offer and thought they'd make some perfect tree trunks. Hubby roasted off some cauliflower and added some cheese on top for the last couple of minutes to make the tree tops... Yum yum! Paired with peas for grass and a carrot sun, this made for a very popular toddler meal!

 

 

Day 5 - Mashed sweet potato and carrot fish with coconut prawns

For tonight's dinner, I boiled up some sweet potato and carrots and mashed it with a little butter to make the fish. I threw some prawns in egg then a mix of desiccated coconut and ground almond then fried them for about 5 minutes and served up with sugar snap peas, avocados and yellow bell pepper.

Day 4 - Breaded fish butterfly

Today's plan for how to keep a toddler at the table was a breaded fish butterfly. I simply chopped some white fish into strips, broke an egg on one plate, had breadcrumbs with a bit of parsley on another, dipped in each then oven baked for half an hour. The wings were made up of roasted pepper rings, courgette chunks, parsnip slices and some boiled carrot and broccoli.

Day 3 - Baked Omelette Tractor

My plan to entice my toddler to the table today was a baked omelette tractor with hummus and grated carrot grass, a ham man and tractor wheels and spinach leaves.

I made the omelette by cooking up some onion and red pepper in a pan with a little olive oil then off the heat, mixed in egg, grated carrot and spinach leaves. I poured it in to a casserole dish that I'd lined with a silicone sheet then baked in the oven at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes. Quick and perfect for cutting shapes out of!