{Tyke Bites} Muffins, Meatloaf & "More Pease!"

"Mmmm, mmmm, mmmmmm!"

That's what at least one or two of my tots now say when they're eating something they're happy about it. And on occasion, Trystan will pipe up in her adorable little voice with, "Trystan likes it!" and just about squeak a smile off the end of the last word. It's seriously the cutest.

So here's another Tyke Bites post featuring a random day of meals in Quadville:

Breakfast was one of our staples - blueberry muffins, Greek Goddess yogurt (the strawberry honey flavor is their favorite) and bananas (also called nannas). They've gotten pretty good at self-feeding the yogurt with their spoon. Though I won't say it's all neat and tidy.

For lunch, I served cheese, more nannas (was running low on fruits, I think), pretzel thins, cucumber and carrot salad with a soy sesame ginger vinaigrette dressing from Trader Joe's and rotisserie chicken.

Afternoon snack was a new addiction for us all, white cheddar popcorn! They go crazy over the stuff.

And for dinner, we had grapes, blueberries, Annie's organic mac & cheese and meat loaf with pleeeeenty of ketchup for dipping. The quads have all learned when they get a sauce on their plate—be it barbecue, gravy or ketchup—it's best with another food item they've been served! I've got two that will literally eat ketchup with a spoon or fork and ask for seconds before they've ever even touched another food group, shouting "More, PEASE!"

What toddler-friendly items have hit your table with success lately?

{Tyke Bites} Antipasto & Pasta Salad

Welcome back to Tyke Bites! I've got a long overdue collection of photos from a random day of meals for the quads....

Some mornings—like this particular one—I sleep right up until the babies wake up then I dash downstairs to quickly throw together breakfast. Then I head back up to their rooms to get them up and changed then escort them all down the stairs to eat at the quad table. On days I need something super fast, I rely on nutrigrain bars to get the job done! This meal included lots of fresh fruit like raspberries, strawberries and pineapple, with nutrigrain bar pieces and cheerios. Never fails me!

I have been in a major food rut when it comes to breakfast and lunches for the kiddos, so I perused the Mini Meal series over at Hello Newlywed Life—I really enjoy reading her cute blog!—for some good ideas.  One of her posts sparked the antipasto-style lunch I made, one of my favorite types of meals to eat. I did strawberries, hummus, pretzel thins, salami, olives and cheese. The kids gobbled it up! Hummus wasn't a hit with everyone since it was the first time they'd tried it but Trystan, of all people, dipped her pretzels liberally! (Normally she's pretty picky and tends to ONLY eat carbs!)

If breakfast was served late, we normally skip a morning snack. If we're on our usual schedule and they need something to tide them over, then the quads get a couple graham cracker pieces or animal crackers. Afternoon snacks are a must since they're usually hungry when they get up from naps and I've been doing little cups of goldfish medleys (whole grain fish mixed with vanilla cupcake flavored and/or pretzel fish). But I've stocked up on mini nilla wafers, mini rice cakes and yogurt-covered raisins, among other things, and intend to get a little move inventive!

Dinner on this day featured watermelon, peaches and bananas with a pasta salad also inspired by Megan's Mini Meals. I made some pan-seared Cajun-flavored chicken on the stovetop, steamed some broccoli then mixed it in with some fresh pasta, Ranch dressing, shredded carrots and shredded cheese. It was definitely edible by everyone and I also learned that Trystan likes watermelon! A big success for her in a day of food, ha.

What are your favorite meals and snacks for little kids?

{Tyke Bites} Moroccan Lemon-Herb Chicken & More!

Despite the poop-filled chaotic meltdown morning that kickstarted this particular day, I still managed to snap pics of all the quad's meals to share with you for another installation of Tyke Bites!

Breakfast was particularly delicious. I had bought a package of frozen hashbrowns from Trader Joe's and was eager to try them. You just saute them in a pan on the stovetop (I added a little seasoning) and you're good to go! The quads also got breakfast sausage, a group fave, and lots of strawberries, grapes and bananas.

Because they had such a late breakfast after sleeping in past 9am, we skipped morning snack and caught up with lunch. Grilled cheese bites, all-natural white cheddar cheetoh puffs, raisins, raspberries and a fruit/veggie smoothie squeeze pouch for each.

Afternoon snack was super healthy. Animal cookies and sips of momma's chocolate cream pie shake from Sonic. Healthy...snicker. ;) 

I had intended to make Moroccan lemon-herb chicken skewers from my latest edition of the Rachael Ray magazine, but had to ad-lib with something easier. So I copied the seasonings for the chicken and just cooked it in a saute pan on the stove and paired it with steamed garlic broccoli, pasta with a little bit of Greek dressing, blackberries, clementines and cheese. They even got grandma's homemade banana pudding for dessert! (The chicken went over well with everyone, especially the adults, and I'll definitely be making that recipe again.)

Little hands don't wait long for picture takin'!

{Tyke Bites} Lemon Orzo Chicken Soup & More!

Here's a day of meals from this week in Quadville!

The quads love breakfast sausage and get it about once or twice a week, since a one-pound case now only gets us through one meal! This particular morning they had that paired with buttered blueberry biscuits, raisins, clementines and diced apples as well as honey orange-flavored Greek yogurt. My kids gobble down the Greek Gods brand of yogurt (their favorite flavor is honey strawberry), which also has the highest fat and protein content of most other yogurts I've checked. Good news for my skinny babies.

For lunch, I used an apple corer to punch out mini PB and honey sandwiches—I always use local honey for natural antihistamines to help stave off allergies. They can't have sandwiches without their beloved all-natural white cheddar Cheetoh puffs! Also served were fresh blueberries and grapes and a couple Smarties candies for dessert.

Snack time wasn't very inspired. I went with a quick and easy sweet and salty combo of pretzel goldfish and frosted animal cookies. Though the babies mostly drink milk with meals and water in between, sometimes I give them caffeine-free herbal tea (either unsweetened or with honey or Truvia) or watered down juice. I recently discovered an organic cranberry-blueberry juice blend that's really good, so I fill a community cup with half water-half juice for their afternoon beverage.

The photo of dinner was blurry (hungry hands were reaching!), but it was a delicious lemon orzo chicken soup recipe I found in an insert booklet in my latest Rachael Ray magazine. Anytime I make soup, I just strain out the good stuff for the quad's plates. We added blackberries and cheese for a very filling and very successful meal!

What's your favorite soup recipe?

{Tyke Bites} Greek Pasta Salad, Salmon & More

This Tyke Bites features a day of meals in Quadville starting with a banana bread breakfast, complete with fresh strawberries and scrambled eggs. The most popular way to make the eggs in our house so the babies will eat them! They literally won't touch them if they are not scrambled.

Morning snack included pomengranate fruit bites and animal cookies with an applesauce drink I learned about from a quad mom friend of mine. Sippy cup filled with 1/2 applesauce, 1/4 apple juice and 1/4 water. The slushy consistency is fun and different for them, adds a serving of fruit and also helps strength oral muscles!

Lunch was cheese, clementines and grapes with a quick Greek pasta salad I threw together. I boiled some pasta and sauteed some cannellini beans in seasonings, then combined everything with some Greek salad dressing and sliced olives. Normally I'd add shrimp or chicken for extra protein, but the beans had to do since that's all I had on hand!

For afternoon munchies, I filled their snack catchers with pretzel goldfish, regular goldfish and dried apples and pineapple pieces.

Lastly, dinner was blackened Cajun-seasoned salmon with roasted fingerling potatoes and yellow squash (seasoned with olive oil and rosemary salt) and berries. My crew has been gobbling up the salmon like crazy these days and it makes me so proud! Such a great food source for them.

What are you most proud of that your tyke loves to eat?

And don't forget to enter my jewelry giveaway! It's open a few more days!

{Tyke Bites} Breakfast Edition

Since I'm not a big breakfast eater, it can sometimes be difficult for me to come up with meal ideas or fresh inspiration when it comes to the quads first food of the day. I always serve fruit and tend to swap out things like eggs, waffles, biscuits, sausage, turkey bacon and oatmeal. But there's a couple newer go-tos that have gotten rave reviews from my four hoodlums, so I thought I'd share a Tyke Bites: Breakfast Edition in the spirit of changing things up. And because it's Saturday morning. ;)

The babies had never had whipped cream before and I thought it was cute that Megan over at Hello Newlywed Life often dollops on a bit with sprinkles for her cute tyke, so I followed suit. Their strawberries got a squirt of whipped cream and colorful sprinkles, which they all stared at for a few seconds before slowly giving it a one-finger-tip taste test! The babies also love cheerios and cereal in general, so I served a mix of cheerios and cinnamon toast crunch with their berries as well as grapes, high-fat Greek yogurt and milk. Success! Plus it was super easy and literally took me less than 10 minutes to throw all four breakfasts together.

Another long-time fave in our house has been banana bread. But with the new variations I've been trying when I bake it now—which include whole wheat flour and honey and applesauce instead of oil and sugar—it's now becoming a healthier option and the babies love to chow down on it for their morning meal. I recently served it with scrambled eggs, cantaloupe and a big serving of raspberries since that's one of their can't-get-enough-shove-a-fistful-into-my-mouth fruits right now.

Lastly, several of my quad moms rave about the new way to serve cereal to toddlers. Simply mix it with yogurt and toss in a spoon! Mine didn't take to the idea so well the first time we tried it, but when I revisited the concept several weeks later they were sold! I plan to do a little less yogurt and a little more cheerio next time, to make it easier to spoon out. I use Greek Gods yogurt since it's got the highest calorie and protein content, and on this morning we did the strawberry honey flavor with honey nut cheerios. They also got turkey bacon and milk. Since there's so many yogurt and cheerio flavors out there, this could be a fun combo to mix up once in awhile! Plus it really helps with their spoon control, since they've gotten pretty good with their forks at dinner...

What are some of your toddler's top breakfast picks?

P.S. Posts you may have missed: our entry table Easter decor, my newly blonde hair and what's in my nightstand.

{Tyke Bites} Red Velvet Pancakes & More!

I've really been enjoying my Tyke Bites series, where I share a random day of meals from Quadville. It's been great hearing that others have tried out some of our recipes and snack ideas and even better to get inspiration from those who share their go-to eats! Feel free to fill up my comments section with feedback and food tips!

This day's breakfast started off with delicious chocolate chip red velvet pancakes (we were not counting calories that morning!) along with bananas and apples. The pancakes were a box mix from Target.

Mid-morning snack was graham crackers and applesauce. Lunch included rotisserie chicken (I buy the all-natural rotisseries from the grocery store every now and then for easy go-to meals and salads during the week), rotini pasta and veggies, clementines, blackberries and cheese.

Afternoon snacks, which are typically given to them in the play room while they watch Baby Einstein or Bubble Guppies, was goldfish, raisins and Ritz peanut butter cracker sandwiches. It was their first time to ever have the latter and they gobbled them up!

Dinner was super yummy, I cooked a steak in a saute pan on the stovetop for the first time and it turned out great, very nice and tender. We paired it with fresh corn with a little butter, rosemary and salt, steamed carrots, cheese and cheesy garlic toast.

Slowly but surely, I'm determined to start making more smoothies for the babies to enjoy as a daytime snack, since the protein and extra calories would be really good for my skinny minnies. They've liked one I made with Carnation Instant Breakfast mix before and I have plenty of those in my pantry. I also heard from a fellow quad mom about mixing yogurt with milk so a thicker "treat drink" and wonder if my kiddos would like that as well. 

Plus, I'm starting to add fresh fruit into their afternoon snack cups. Just a little bit here and there to get them used to eating more. Most of their snacks are carb-based, but I don't worry about it too much since we do so many fresh fruits and veggies at all their meals. But it's always good to continue working toward eating better, a goal I have set for myself, too!

What foods do your tots love?

{Tyke Bites} Banana Bread French Toast & More!

Welcome back to Tyke Bites, my new series on a day of meals for the quads!

Alright, so I can't take credit for this genius idea. My nanny is actually the one who invented it for breakfast one morning then shared the goodness with me. It only took about three months for me to finally getting around to making some fresh banana bread (I've been trying new recipes using whole grain flour, honey and applesauce, instead of sugar and oil) and give it a shot the next morning. And let me tell you, banana bread french toast is delicious.

I treat it the same way I make regular French toast, with my very exact recipe. Two egg whites, a glug or two of milk, a generous helping of sugar and cinnamon and a hot pan. Told you, it's pretty exact. ;)

(Pardon the off-color in these breakfast photos, guess the lighting wasn't so great in my kitchen that morning. And the bread on the kid's plates looks super dark!)

Needless to say, breakfast was a delicious combo of scrambled eggs, bananas and banana bread French toast drizzled with honey!

It was a late breakfast that particular morning, so we did a light snack of a couple animal cookies.

Lunch consisted of grilled cheese, sweet potato puffs (I like the all-natural Alexia brand in the frozen foods section at the grocery store), apples, raspberries and clementines.

The quad's afternoon snack was honey nut cheerios, raisins and a couple frosted animal cookies.

The dinner menu on this day is quickly becoming a favorite around here, the husband requested it! I made my Greek one pot chicken pasta and served it with cheese, raspberries and blackberries for the babies. They wolfed it down!

Find any new snacks your tyke(s) is loving? I'm always searching for fresh, fun additions to our menu, so please share any ideas in the comments section!

{Tyke Bites} PB&H, Lemon Salt Zucchini & More!

Welcome back to the second installment of my new series, Tyke Bites, where I occasionally share what the quads eat in a particular day. Some meals are more creative than others, some are healthier than others, but it's all in a day's work!

This day's meals started off with buttered biscuits, clementines and bananas for breakfast along with a community bowl of vanilla-flavored Greek yogurt that I mixed with a chocolate-flavored packet of Carnation Instant Breakfast. The quads were a little hesitant about the choco flavor, but we're working on it!

Mid-morning snacks are typically handed out to the babies while they're in the play room and I think they had graham crackers this day. Lunch was one of the quad's favorites: peanut butter and honey sandwiches (cut using an apple corer to make little button sandwiches!), hardboiled eggs, fresh strawberries and pomegranate fruit bites and a couple Cheetoh puffs (they go crazy over those).

This day's snacks included strawberry-banana flavored teddy grahams, honey nut cheerios and cranberry-flavored raisins.

Dinner was a refreshing meal on the grill! I made grilled chicken—flavored simply with garlic powder, sea salt, pepper and a little red pepper flakes—and grilled zucchini with Pioneer Woman's lemon salt. So good! The quads also got raspberries, apples and cheese with their dinner and gobbled it all up pronto.

And that's Tyke Bites!

What's your kiddo's favorite snack?

P.S. Posts you may have missed about my fave new face, hand and body lotion products and the quad squad's 20 month update!