itty bitty fish

I’ve been having so much fun with my vegetable cutters, I thought I’d try them on potatoes. They worked like a charm, so I also tried using some small bear and bunny cutters (a bit more challenging, as they were plastic). Then I preheated the oven to 450 degrees, sprayed a them (and the baking sheet) with some Pam, and then sprinkled the potatoes with the magic ingredient:

I cooked them for about 20 minutes, and then my fishees and I enjoyed fresh, hot, homemade spicy chip-fries:

Both of my kids snarfed them down. In fact, I had to give them to twofish one at a time or else she’d shove them all in at once! And, lest you think I was a tater-waster, bluefish and I enjoyed the “crusts”:

There are so many combinations you can make with these cutters. I have both “A” and “B” cutters so I can do big and little shapes of each (pictured below). The big cutters work on bananas like a charm – you hardly lose any banana in the shaping. I use Trader Joe’s dried fruit bars for the center flower (small flower cutter) and their honey roasted peanuts (half of one) for the very center. It’s like a peanut butter and banana and jelly sandwich! Without the bread, of course. If you (or your bitty one) is allergic to peanuts, you can use a candy button (or just about anything) for the center piece.

Leggo that Eggo and throw out your box mix. Below is a recipe for healthy waffles that your kids will gobble up. These are so good you don’t even need syrup on them.

[itty bitty] healthy honey waffles
* 1 cup white bread flour
* 1 cup whole wheat flour
* 1/4 cup multi-grain oats (regular oatmeal is fine, too)
* 1/4 cup flax seed meal
* 4 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 large eggs (beaten)
* 1 and 3/4 cups milk
* 1/4 cup applesauce
* 1/4 cup canola (or canola blend) oil
* 2 tablespoons honey (omit if you’re feeding to babies under one year)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs then add the rest of the wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until smooth, but don’t over mix. Coat preheated waffle maker with non-stick buttery spray and cook according to manufacturers instructions (though, I noticed that these waffles took about 30 seconds to a minute longer to cook than standard recipe waffles).

You can [of course] make big waffles with this recipe, as well.

This was our dinner last night:

I wanted to make something that everyone could eat that was fun, fresh and appetizing. Onefish, bluefish and I love almost everything you see there (the turkey rolls have avocado and mozzarella inside them). Twofish, who is only 14 months old, can’t get enough of hummus and fresh fruit so she was covered with this spread. Also, that fresh garlic bread was amazing. I’m embarrassed to say it wasn’t from scratch (or even from my bread maker), but the fresh garlic butter-sauce was all mine. It was quite a hit with everyone, and everything but a couple baby carrots were gone when I carried the tray back into the kitchen.

Hello Kitty turns 35 this year! How do I know this? Well, both of us were born in 1974. Earlier this year, I bought a couple Hello Kitty shaped ice packs for the bitty fishes’ bumps and bruises. We call them boo-boo kitties. So, now onefish thinks Hello Kitty is actually called boo-boo Kitty. And, he loves boo-boo kitty. I’ve seen the hello kitty vegetable cutters and egg shapers (both are on my I Would Like list), but they are expensive for what they are… and I was really hoping for something that would make sweet treats for the kids for bento box desserts or anytime treats. I saw the Hello Kitty waffle maker on Amazon, but it was out of stock. After some searching, I found out that it has been discontinued. There are a couple being sold on Ebay for $60, but they still had some in-stock at toysRus.com (<- I was hoping to link you to the item, but they are now sold out) for $25. I snatched one up, and I'm so glad I did.

Last night we made chocolate chip Kitty, Cathy & Tippy waffles. They were so cute (as you can see) and delicious! And, Cathy and Tippy are the perfect side for toddler hands, while Kitty is the perfect size for slightly larger hands. Like mine.

I was feeling lazy yesterday so, for a late afternoon snack, I dressed up some instant Yakisoba noodles for the bitty fish. Onefish also got a hard-boiled egg (shaped with my new car egg mold) which he was so anxious to eat I couldn’t get my camera before he took a bite!

Twofish likes any and all noodles. Especially noodles with really messy sauce on them. However, she was also quite happy to nosh on these not-so-messy noodles.

(Those hard-boiled eggs are from my first try with the Dream Land Egg Shaper. It’s quite a labor intensive gadget, but how much fun are hard boiled eggs with star, heart, flower and diamond shaped yolks? I think I’m going to try a bit of non-stick spray next time in the hopes of making the process a bit less, well… sticky.)

I had to share this serendipitous baking occurrence:

I couldn’t bring myself to tear those muffins apart. However, onefish took care of that problem when I turned to put my camera on the counter. I looked back to find one lonely muffin left on the table, and a self-satisfied toddler running towards the back porch to devour his spoils.

(Toast painted with a mix of butter, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and red food coloring.)

I had some help from onefish making this delicious pizza:

We didn’t get too elaborate with the pepperoni because, as it turns out, even metal cookie cutters have a hard time slicing through the spiced meat. Still, bluefish gave it two thumbs up. Next time, I think we’ll try some different veggies and some thinly sliced chicken breast. Oh, and we’ll make the dough from scratch.