Giveaway!!!

I love to cook. I think I've mentioned before that it's therapeutic for me. I've always tried to be creative with my dishes. I don't like to eat the same homemade meal twice in one quarterly, and I HATE following a recipe. Food is a blank canvas, as far as I am concerned, and there are far too many flavor profiles available to stick to someone else's idea of delicious.I'm no Iron Chef, and I wouldn't even deem to say I'm a great cook. However, the food that comes out of my kitchen is, at the very least, edible. Unfortunately, Piggle thinks otherwise.

Toddlers thrive on routine, and they become eerily attached to bland foods, like PB&J sandwiches and boxed mac and cheese...really, anything NOT overly nutritious. For those of you that stalk me, you've been privy to the tribulations of trying to feed Piggle. Once a great eater, now, I'm lucky if he'll even look in the direction of whatever I've concocted. I've tried everything! Even the Happy Meals I wrote about previously aren't doing the trick. 

That said, If you recall, in that same post, I mentioned, in passing, a book that has given me moderate success with the boy's eating habits. Toddler Cafe by: Jennifer Carden is wonderful. Not only do I actually follow her recipes to a 'T' (at least once), Piggle has not turned down a single dish, prepared from her book. The thing I love most about it is that it combines basic toddler favorites, like pasta...and mess, with healthier alternatives. 

We've tried almost every recipe in the book (only avoiding only those from which meat cannot be substituted), and are now onto making our own variations of our favorites. Not only are the recipes easy and usually pretty quick to pull off, the majority of them are wallet-friendly, too! Take, for instance, Lilypad Pancakes:

8 oz (about 1 1/2 cups) frozen peas, thawed

2 tbsp water

1 egg

3 tbsp all-purposed flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

vegetable oil, as needed

butter or plain yogurt for serving

Add peas to blender with the water and egg; puree until smooth. Pour the mixture into a medium bowl and stir in the flour, salt, and baking powder and gradually mix with a fork or whisk. Let the batter rest for 10 minutes while you clean up. Place about 2 tbsp of oil in a saute pan, warm over medium heat until shimmering, and drop 1 tbsp batter into the pan. Gently cook for about 3 minutes, until you see bubbles forming around the edges. Flip and cook on the second side until very lightly browned. Continue until all the batter is gone. Serve with butter or plain yogurt.

See? Easy and cheap!

Piggle adores these, and we add different spices each time. The original recipe is amazing, too, though. Give it a try!

In celebration of my achievements with the boy (and the 4 lbs he's gained in month), I want to give one of you, my readers, a copy of Toddler Cafe. Hopefully, the lucky winner will have the same positive experience with it and can stop trying to sell her child.

Good luck to all that enter!

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