Sandwich cutter

I have a set of sandwich cutters and sometimes we like to play with them. Here is just a basic sandwich with  egg and cheddar, in one of the earliest posts I cut the same sandwich into geometric shapes. Here I saved a piece of yolk and white before chopping egg for a salad to have "sun and cloud", added some radishes, green peppers and cucumbers.

Egg and toast

I learned last weekend that poaching eggs is very easy, no need for an egg poacher. Just big shallow pan and breakfast ready in 5 minutes. 

Poached egg

Half of  whole wheat English muffin, toasted and lightly buttered (or any bread, toasted as it will be easier to hold an dip into egg)

Some fruit or veggies, I used cucumber and pepper - my easiest way to to get my son eat those is: "wanna see what a funny crunchy noise they make when you bite fast?" :-)

I poached several eggs at the same time and me and my husband had them on an English  muffin with a slice of ham. 

 How to poach eggs:

Take big, shallow pan, fill with water, about 2-3 inch, boil. After it boils reduce back to "no boiling". Take one egg at a time crack it to a shallow cup and while submerging a cup into water quickly slide an egg into water. Add all the eggs you need (or as many as fit in the pan). Turn off the heat and leave eggs in water for about 4 minutes. Take out using slotted spoon. No need for anything. Some methods call for using vinegar in water to help set the egg, but vinegar can change the taste of eggs, I didn't use any and they turned out great.

Salad Nicoise

I failed so many times to convince my son to try one of my and my husband's favorite Summer dish. Got really tired of coming up with 2nd dinner just for the kid. So one day, when he was especially curious about shapes I told him he will have plate full of circles for dinner. Guess what - everything (well, except green beans) was gone! And the cute little black circles (olives, that he never ever even wanted to smell) were especially big hit, ended up asking for more and more. I hope this works on other dishes too!

 Mom's version and toddler approved version

No mess toddler sandwich

Easy to manage for little fingers and mouth. No mess. And a lot of fun with all sorts of geometric shapes and colors. Plate is usually full of squares, triangles, rectangles, and red and green circles and blue spheres or whatever is at home that day - no need for flash cards! We know all the colors etc from the plate.

You will need:

Sandwich bread

Soft butter (if using)

Paste/spread - recipes below 

 

What I found important in making it for a smaller child:

• Use any kind of sandwich bread your child will eat, but it's very important that the kind of bread you use doesn't crumble, you might need to try a couple from your grocery store before you find "the one". I found the whole wheat that is mild in taste and my child really likes also try pumpernickel (not the hard German style) just the soft black pumpernickel.
• Start with making bread slices much flatter, 2 slices of bread + whatever is in between is way to thick for little hands and mouths to manage.
• Only put in the sandwich stuff that will "glue" the 2 pieces together, otherwise it will be a "falling apart disaster".
• When cutting ready sandwich to smaller pieces use sharp knife.

Our favorite paste spreads

1. Mash hard boiled egg using a fork with finely shredded mild cheddar (or any other cheese your child likes) add just a very little amount of mayo (optional) to make it more sticky. Spread on buttered (if using) slice of bread top with another, press firmly before cutting. I don't add anything else to it, no salt, no pepper, but feel free to season if your child likes. I usually make it using 4 hard boiled eggs or more, as it keeps in the fridge of 2-3 days. If my kid is demanding attention in the kitchen when I make it I just give him one egg to crack the shells on the floor - of course the egg is wasted ... but I made  paste!
2. My son loves avocado and eats it by hand just cut into pieces but if I want to make more of a meal out of it I just mash it with a fork and put in between buttered sises of bread.
3. Any cream cheese your child likes - it has to spread well though otherwise you won't be able to put on that thinned bread.
4. Anything you child likes that will glue the bread together.
   
   

Eating cars all day long ...

My son is clearly car obsessed, and yellow is his very favorite color. One day while making scrambled eggs for the family I surprised him (and myself!) with a yellow car on a plate. What a hit! He likes eggs, but this was just soooo much more exciting. Then I just couldn't help it, I was seeing cars in everything I was putting on my child's plate. What's best about it it's so simple and doesn't add any time to making the food especially appealing to my toddler. So we had scrambled eggs for breakfast, cheese and fruit for snack and store bought meat ravioli with grilled zucchini (I put a touch of maple syrup on it after it's grilled) and honeydew for dinner. But you can use anything you have at home. I just happened to have it that day. It's also easier to convince your little one not to throw away car's wheels just because they are green ...

The other best thing about it it's all finger food = you can eat at the same time, well at least you have a better shot at that! Even the eggs! I make it now so it has easy to pick bits. Any leftover raviolis? No problem, just wait for mom to turn around and grab a pen!