by Shelly on September 25, 2017 6 Comments

Mexican Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

Mexican Salad with Honey Lime Dressing- This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ExperienceFrontera #CollectiveBias

We LOVE Mexican food. It’s one of the only types of food our picky 3 year old will definitely eat! It is so helpful to have freezer meals on the ready for nights when you just need a break. When I meal plan and order groceries on ClickList every Sunday I make sure to add in one frozen meal that will require no additional cooking (other than throwing together a salad.) This gives me more time to spend with my family and a break on dishes!

Having the chance to go to the park or play a board game is rare during a weeknight for our family. My husband gets home at 6 and bedtime is 7:30. Dinner, bath and story time takes up that entire hour and a half. I schedule a frozen meal once per week to make family fun time possible. If I’m able to throw in Frontera® Frozen Bowl to heat up while we do chalk outside waiting for Daddy, we’re able to eat as soon as he gets home and enjoy some fun before bed. Frontera Frozen meal night is our favorite week night! Our favorite is the Barbacoa Taco Bowl. It is a signature central Mexican dish where tender beef is roasted, then slow cooked with ancho, guajillo, and chipotle chiles. This kick is paired nicely with my mexican salad.

Mexican Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

Ingredients:

romane lettuce
diced tomatoes
corn
avocado
black beans
shredded cheese

Honey Lime Dressing:

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
cilantro garnish

Sophie’s favorite is the Chicken Fajita Bowl with fire-roasted poblano peppers and chipotle chiles. It has big chunks of chicken and is served over rice. There are four flavors to choose from:

Frontera® Chicken Fajita Bowl
Frontera® Tinga Taco Bowl
Frontera® Barbacoa Taco Bowl
Frontera®Veggie Taco Bowl

Next time you’re making your weekly meal plan, plan a Frontera Frozen Bowl night. I promise, streamlining meals by using ClickList, easy pick up at Kroger and a night of no dishes, you’ll have a much happier week. Click here to save $1.00 on any ONE (1) Frontera meal. Download this awesome deal before it’s gone!

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by Shelly on August 20, 2017 4 Comments

Peanut Butter Jelly Waffle Sandwich

Peanut Butter Jelly Waffle Sandwich- This post has been sponsored by The J.M Smucker Company, Pepperidge Farm®, and Ziploc® brand. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

It’s back-to-school season and for us that means figuring out what to add to our daughter’s lunchbox that will keep her satisfied until after school snack. Our picky 3 year old does not always eat her PB&J sandwich but if I make her PB&J in the waffle iron she can’t refuse! I’m also sure to make her lunch balanced with veggies, grain, fruit, dairy and protein. High fructose corn syrup seems to be in every dessert item and most shelf items. I make it a priority to only buy breads that do not contain high fructose corn syrup like Pepperidge Farm® Farmhouse Breads.

One trick we’ve learned is to put her lunch in a bento box so each food is in it’s own special container. She gets excited to open the lid and see what treasures are in the small containers. In Japan, the word of bento, the container itself, has been around since the 16th century. The act of making a special meal with love using the compartmentalized box is what I like most about using a bento box.

With school just around the corner I will be very diligent with my Sunday meal planning and prep. Meijer has our favorite selection of exotic fruits and vegetables. Each Sunday I’ll pick up our groceries, chop the fruits and veggies and divide them into food storage containers for quick healthy snacks. For long road trips we usually pack a bento box but for short trips to the park or museum we always use Ziploc® brand containers Go To Variety Pack. Our favorite is their 14 piece variety pack that has one medium square (salad size), one small square (sandwich size), two small rectangles (strawberries or carrots) and two extra small squares (nuts & granola). Being someone that does not like to spend time in the kitchen, having food storage containers that can be tossed in the dishwasher and easily stacked in a drawer once cleaned is key.

For a video on how to make a Peanut Butter Jelly Waffle Sandwich click ‘play’ below or continue down to the recipe:

Peanut Butter Jelly Waffle Sandwich

Ingredients:

Jif® Peanut Butter (we use creamy for her but I would prefer crunchy)
Smucker’s® Seedless Strawberry Jam
Pepperidge Farm® 12 Grain Farmhouse Bread

Directions:

While the waffle iron pre-heats, spread the Jif® Peanut Butter and Smucker’s® Seedless Strawberry Jam on two separate slices of Pepperidge Farm® 12 Grain Farmhouse Bread (or any flavor you choose).
Close the Peanut Butter Jelly sandwich together and place in center of hot waffle iron.
Slowly press handle down until iron is mostly closed.
Cook for approximately 30 seconds to 1 minute or until you can smell the toasty goodness of PB&J.

If you’re frantic with what to eat for dinner or what to put together for school lunch, I highly suggest my Sunday Meal Plan/Prep routine. When you shop at Meijer, be sure to use these special offers and your mPerks:

Jif®- $0.35 off any Jif Peanut Butter 16 oz or larger 8/27 until 9/17
Smucker’s®- $0.65 off any Smucker’s® Fruit Spread 12 oz or larger 8/20 until 9/17

I’ve always been a Jif® and Strawberry Smucker’s® girl. Isn’t it strange how you continue to buy whatever you ate as a child for your children? I’m thankful my parents fed us Jif® and Smucker’s®! What is your go-to for school lunch?

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by Shelly on August 4, 2017 19 Comments

Snack Necklace

I’ve had a super fun-filled week these past few days because my niece, Fiona, came to visit us. We love having her stay with us because she’s so imaginative and keeps us laughing. She’s the star of the show wherever she goes and I love it! I knew I’d need lots of different activities for when she came that we could do as a family, with both girls and while Sophie naps. One night we were extremely brave and attempted to take both girls to the drive-in!

Snack Necklace

One of the best parts about the drive-in are the snacks. When I was little, my parents would pop a huge paper bag full of popcorn, throw TONS of blankets and pillows in the back of the truck and bring a cooler of drinks and treats. I thought it might be fun for Fiona, who’s 4 and LOVES jewelry, to make her own snack necklace. I got a variety of snacks that had holes and weren’t all sugar. Fruit Loops, Cheerios, cookies, chocolate pretzels and salted pretzels. Try finding the small bags so you don’t have a bunch of leftovers.

I dumped all the treats into bowls so they would be easy for Fiona to grab and string onto her necklace. I also used some tape to make an aglet for the end of the string. This is a great small motor activity for any child who is a toddler or older.

It was the perfect activity for her because she got to choose what snacks she wanted AND make jewelry! She needed help with the cookies because some of them didn’t have holes big enough but I used a toothpick to enlarge the holes so they fit on the string.

The string was a little soggy for my taste but she said it was fine and she loved it. Next time I will use an elastic string. We saw How to Train Your Dragon 2 and really enjoyed the movie, apart from it storming half way through. Once it was lightening we headed inside the car, which Sophie wasn’t a fan of so Daddy had to walk her around outside with an umbrella. We knew going in that it was a long shot to see the movie in it’s entirety but had to try.

Please excuse the poor pictures but I couldn’t not share! In hind site, I should have made one of just puffs and cheerios for Soph because she LOVED it (but got chocolate everywhere!) Have you gone to the drive-in yet this summer? What kind of snacks and activities do you pack for your little ones?

Other great kid snacks:

Easy Peanut Butter Recipes for Kids

Gooey Granola Bars

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by Shelly on August 3, 2017 8 Comments

Easy Peanut Butter Recipes for Kids

Easy peanut butter recipes for kids are a must for getting protein into my child. I remember the days fondly when Sophie used to eat like a champ. She wasn’t able to verbalize what she wanted to eat but we knew her go-to foods and it helped her to sleep through the night. For about six months she has been such a picky eater. We’ve tried several tactics on getting her to eat but the most successful is sticking to the foods she likes. We wish her favorite foods were salmon and spinach but we all know a toddler’s palate is more in-tuned to milk and peanut butter. That’s why I’ve decided to get crafty with different peanut butter recipes for her lunch box and after school snack. I’m going to share three easy peanut butter recipes for kids using foods that you likely already have on hand.

Easy Peanut Butter Recipes for Kids

I love figuring out one staple food that works for my daughter and mixing it up for different recipes. Here I did 1 peanut butter 3 ways. The first recipe is:

Peanut Butter Banana Sushi Roll Ups (a favorite after school snack)

Ingredients:

Whole wheat tortilla roll
Peanut Butter
Banana
Honey

Spread peanut butter on the whole wheat tortilla evenly but not all the way to the edges. Lay the banana in the center and drizzle with honey. Roll up banana with the tortilla and cut into bit sized pieces. *Can also sprinkle coconut or sprinkles for added fun.

Because of the cooking time, I usually make the second recipe for Saturday breakfast or after school snack.

Strawberry Peanut Butter Quesadilla

Ingredients:

Whole wheat tortilla
Peanut Butter
Sliced strawberries

Warm a pan on stove top to medium heat. Spread one half of the tortilla with peanut butter and the other half with sliced strawberries. Fold in half and cook in the warm pan. Flip the quesadilla once it starts to brown slightly. Cut into triangles and serve. *Can swap out the strawberries for any fruit. Sophie really likes blueberries or bananas as well.

The third recipe is more of a dessert but I will give it to Sophie as a special after school treat sometimes. She thinks it’s really special because it’s frozen but it couldn’t be healthier!

Frozen Peanut Butter Banana Bark

Ingredients:

Freeze dried banana chips
1-2 c plain greek yogurt
Peanut Butter
1 tbsp Honey
Unsweetened shredded coconut

Line your pan with parchment paper. Add one layer of banana chips along the bottom of the pan. Heat your peanut butter until it’s slightly melted. Mix the peanut butter and honey with yogurt until desired consistency (can add more peanut butter for a nuttier taste). Dollop spoonfuls of yogurt mix onto bananas and carefully smooth over top. Sprinkle shredded coconut over the yogurt and stick in the freezer over night. Break apart bark and serve. *Bananas can be substituted for any freeze dried fruit. You can experiment with fresh fruit but you will get a different consistency because of the added moisture.

My favorite part about each of these recipes is how healthy they are. They seem like treats to her because they’re so sweet but they have fresh, whole ingredients that help fuel my growing toddler. She has been eating this crunchy peanut butter better than the smooth. It’s also a win in my book because there are no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives so I’m confident in feeding it to my little girl.

We’ve been working on going through the entire process of our activities with Sophie because that is what she is learning at her Montessori school. I took Sophie to our local Walmart to have her grab the ingredients and put them in the cart. We checked out, headed home and laid out all of the ingredients for one recipe on the island. Sophie cut the strawberries with an egg slicer while I spread the peanut butter. She laid out all of her strawberry slices and helped me fold the quesadilla in half. Soph helped me load our dishes in the dishwasher. I cooked and cut her quesadilla and we shared the meal we had just made together. Having her help with each part of the process through the end helps her understand that there are many steps in her food being laid in front of her at snack time.

Do you have your kids help you in the kitchen? What about buying the food, helping with the meal and doing the clean up? It’s a long process but we’re focusing on making sure we do this once per week with Sophie.

Looking for similar kid-friendly recipes?

Gourmet Campfire S’mores

Nutella Parfait Dessert

Gooey Granola Bars

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by Shelly on July 21, 2017 5 Comments

Gourmet Campfire S’mores

Gourmet Campfire S’mores- Summer is coming to an end so we’ve been trying to squeeze in a few last camping trips. Back yard camping is one of our favorites. We’d had this trip planned for a year and it turned out so different, yet exactly how I would have wanted. Growing up, my parents took my sister and I camping often, and I wanted to share that experience with Sophie. Staying at Camp Robertson allowed for us to play outside all day, have camp fires, go on walks, pick flowers and blow bubbles all day long while having the convenience of AC for sleeping. To make things a bit easier, we divided the meal prep ahead of time so everyone had a chance to help out. I gladly volunteered for dessert and chose to make gourmet campfire s’mores!

There is no camping without s’mores. There’s also no reason to have the traditional chocolate + mallow + graham when there are so many wonderful choices out there!

Some of my favorite toppings are:

Hershey’s Cookies n’ Cream
Reese’s Bar
Butterfinger Bar
Nutella
Peanut Butter
Crunch Bar
Carmelo Bar
Toasted Coconut

Prep is key in making the perfect s’mores. Getting the graham prepared with the toppings ahead of time makes the transition from campfire to s’more much smoother. Quick tip: I like my chocolate a little melted, which is easy to accomplish in the summer months, otherwise, I balance my chocolate on my roasting stick over the fire for a few seconds.

It’s true, I may go a bit overboard when it comes to s’mores, but they only come around once per year, so I’ve got to make them special. What are your favorite s’mores toppings? Did you go camping growing up or are you taking your children on any trips this summer?

Want more Camping Tips?
Camping at Brown County State Park
What to Pack: Family Camping Trip