What to do with old packs of pudding mix

I have had this pack of fat free-sugar free vanilla pudding in my cupboard for a couple years now. My husband accidentally bought it and I just couldn't bring myself to throw away a fine pack of pudding mix. So one warm day I needed something to keep little A occupied so I broke out the pack of pudding and made some pudding finger paints. Since he is still in the "everything goes in my mouth" phase, he could paint and I could relax and not care if he tries to eat any!

Pudding Finger Paint

1 package cheap instant vanilla pudding

2 cups cold milk

2 or 3 different colors of food coloring

Pour milk into medium bowl and whisk in pudding mix for 2 minutes. Working quickly, divide and pour into as many small tupperware containers as you want different colors. Mix about 5 drops of food coloring in each container. They are pretty much ready to use right away. 

My son's Occupational Therapist loved this idea and said it would be really great for him to be messy and feel the slimy texture. I took little A outside and put him in just a diaper, because this is pretty messy. I was covered in pudding by the time it was all done with, too. He painted on cheap little flexible plastic cutting boards and when he was done, I sat with him and gave him a little bucket of water to splash and clean off in and then let the dog do the clean up of the pudding paintings :)

Best Cookies Ever. No Really.

I think I need some milk, please...

These are easy, and yummy fresh and warm out of the oven as well as a few days later. And the dough is pretty darn good, too, if your into that sort of thing, which I am :)

Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup toffee bits (I use health)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together butter, sugars and vanilla. When mixture is light and fluffy, beat in eggs, one at a time. Measure 1 cup of flour and mix in salt and soda right into the measuring cup. Add to butter/sugar/eggs and mix. Add remaining flour and mix until completely incorporated. Gently stir in chocolate chips and toffee bits.

Here is where you get to eat some of the dough (this step of course, is optional). Drop cookies by the tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet, preferably lined with a baking mat or parchment paper. Bake for about 10 minutes - depending on your oven, start watching around 8 minutes. Cool on wire rack and enjoy. Makes about 4 dozen.

Basic Chicken Puree

The only ingredients you need!

I won't lie, making pureed meat is not my favorite thing to do. I much prefer making fruit purees or cupcakes. Pureeing meat is yucky and messy, but I realize that protein is a necessity of my baby's diet and helps him develop and grow, so i suck it up and make it. I can't wait until the day that little A is OK with shreds or cubes of meat. It is actually really easy, I am just kind of a baby when it comes to meat ;) This is a basic recipe for chicken but it works for turkey as well. Oh, and just a tip - you can blend this for hours and it will NEVER be as smooth as the jarred baby food...which is fine with me because adds a bit of texture to things like sweet potatoes, and since little A loves the taste, it really helped him get past the "smooth puree only" phase.

I use chicken thighs instead of breasts because they are moister, more flavorful and yep, have more calories and fat. I read that poultry thighs have more iron, but breasts have more protein - which I thought was interesting, and since little A is a little low in iron from time to time, that is another reason I chose thighs.  Occasionally, I throw in a chicken breast if I happen to have an extra one in the freezer.

1 - 1 1/2 lbs. of boneless, skinless chicken or turkey thighs 
2-3 cups of low sodium chicken broth - I use organic, but you can use your favorite or home-made if your the "Martha" type ;)


Place the chicken thighs in a large saucepan and pour in enough broth to cover the chicken and turn the heat to high. Bring the broth to a boil and reduce heat to medium low. Cover and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink when you shred it with a fork.Take them off the heat and let them cool for 15 minutes.  

Take the chicken out of the pan, reserving the broth. Chop the chicken and put into the food processor. Using a soup ladle, ladle in enough broth to almost cover the chopped chicken. I use a ladle because I like to get has much of the top of the broth as possible (again with the calories!) but, you could also just pour it in. 

Blend the chicken until it reaches your desired consistency - it takes a little longer than fruit or veggies. Spoon into ice cube trays to freeze.

Tip: I hate, hate, hate tossing leftover broth, not only because the organic broth is more expensive but also because I have a lot of recipes that call for a tablespoon or so of broth - no one wants to open a whole carton/can of broth for such a small amount! I always freeze the rest of the broth in an ice cube tray and store them in a freezer bag to use later and to save a little cash.

To make lower cal use unused broth -not the cooking broth - to puree the chopped chicken or use a combination of thighs and breasts.

RazzMelon Puree

The whole time I was making this I could not get the Price song "Raspberry Beret" out of my head...only I was singing "RazzMelon Puree" instead. Yep, sometimes I entertain little A by singing horribly while I cook ;) Anyway,  I bought a melon at the farmers market, as kind of an afterthought on my way out. I was just planning on eating it myself but, later that day I was outside looking at the little raspberry bush that I planted in the beginning of the summer, and noticed it had a few berries on it.  So I decided to pair them with the melon and make it as a cool puree for little A. It turned out to be a really easy, sweet little summer puree.

1 small melon of your choice - cantaloupe, honeydew or whatever your favorite is

1 basket of raspberries

Cut the rind off the melon and scoop the seeds out. Cut into 1" chunks. Put into a food processor along with the raspberries and puree. No liquid is needed - the melon makes this a pretty thin puree. Little A likes this added to whole milk yogurt, it can be mixed with oatmeal or baby cereal also. I was a little concerned about how melon would freeze, but it actually turned out great.

Basic Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are a staple of little A's diet. He is not a big fan of green veggies, so I make him a lot of orange & yellow veggies to make up for it. I make sweet potatoes several different ways, but this one uses coconut milk, which makes me feel a little better than loading them up with butter and cream. Although, I have been known to do that, too! Again, if you are not trying to fatten up your baby, just replace the full fat coconut milk for low fat or just use whatever you child's usual milk is or breast milk/formula for the under 1 crowd.

I always bake sweet potatoes, there is such a big difference in the taste of baked vs. steamed or boiled - baking brings out the sweetness. And can I just say - I still don't know the difference between yams and sweet potatoes, I call these sweet potatoes, but I use yams?!?! I don't get it ;)

Baked Sweet Potatoes with Coconut Milk

3 medium sized garnet or jewel yams (the ones with the red skin)

1/2 of a 14 oz. can of full fat coconut milk, about a cup

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Wash and dry the sweet potatoes - do not poke them! Place them on a piece of tin foil on the center wrack of the oven. The tin foil catches any juices that would otherwise light your oven on fire (just kidding, but they can make a mess). Bake them for 45-60 minutes, depending on how big they are - a fork should go right through them. Remove them from the oven and let them cool for 15 minutes.

Peel the skin off, it is usually pretty easy to do with just your fingers, but use a knife if you need to. Cut then into 1" chunks and place them in a food processor.

Add the coconut milk and puree until you reach your desired consistency, stirring occasionally. You may need to add a bit more milk to get a smoother puree.

 

 

Serve or spoon into ice cube trays for freezing. So easy! Minimal ingredients and not a lot of prep time! 

The best thing is that you have a good building block for a baby meal. Little A likes them with chicken and broccoli and LOVES them with apples or pears and a little cinnamon.

Homemade Strawberry Milk

Makes a good afternoon snack :)

I have a picky drinker. He doesn't like juice or water. Just milk. I know he loves chocolate milk - but don't really want him to have too much of that. I have been wanting to try strawberry milk with him for a little while now but was having trouble finding whole strawberry milk (found lots of 2%). Plus, I am not really sure what is in store bought strawberry milk. So I was talking to my sister in law about it and she said "is there some way to make your own?". She is a genius.

So here it is, homemade strawberry milk! And it was EASY! And it tastes GOOD! And I know that he is getting REAL fruit in it! Imagine all the possibilities - raspberry milk, blackberry milk - maybe even vanilla peach milk...

1 small basket of strawberries, stems cut off, preferably a little overripe

2-3 tbls. vanilla flavored agave nectar

Your preference of milk

Puree the strawberries. Puree em' good, make sure that there are no chunks and that it is as liquid-y as possible (liquid-y is probably not a word, is it?). 

Then run it through a sieve into a small bowl, pushing it through gently with a spatula. When it is through the sieve, add in the agave nectar and put it back into the RINSED food processor. Puree again for a minute or two, just to get it smoother. 

Run the berry puree back through the RINSED sieve. There will still be some small seed parts in it, but it should look a little something like this...

Stir in a heaping tablespoon of the puree into 4 oz. of milk and stir well. If there are still too many seed parts for you taste, run the milk/puree mix through the sieve and serve. Yum! I froze the rest of the puree in an ice cube tray in single serving amounts (which was a little messy, since strawberry does not freeze that solid - it took a knife to get the cubes out). When you are ready to make another glass, just thaw the puree cube and stir it into milk. Makes about 10 4oz. glasses of milk. Tip: if you are putting it into a sippy cup or bottle, run it through a tea ball strainer to get out all the pulp/seeds.

Banana Pudding Parfaits

One of my son's nutritionists suggested I make him pudding when he was going through one of his "no liquids" phases because it is a way to "sneak" liquid in and when made with whole milk or cream it can be quite calorie dense. I don't know about you, but I don't have a ton of time to make homemade pudding and every time I would go to buy a pack of jell-o pudding I would look at the ingredients on the back and put it right back onto the shelf. Luckily the other day I finally found organic pudding at the store! I was beyond excited and bought a few different flavors. First up to try was my son's favorite flavor of everything, banana.

I also knew that adding fresh fruit to the pudding would be a must to add a more nutritional value.

1 box of organic banana pudding

 Whole milk or cream

2 yellow peaches, peeled and cut into slices

1 tbls unsalted butter

1 tbls agave nectar

1 banana, mashed with a fork

Make the pudding according to the directions on the box using whole milk or cream. Follow the directions for the peach puree in the Tiny Toddler Turnovers - or better yet, use the leftover puree!

Use a small ice cream scoop or large spoon and put one scoop of putting the the bottom of 4 small bowls or ramekins. On top of the pudding put 1/4 of the mashed banana, followed by 2 scoops of the pudding. Next up is a large scoop of peach puree followed by 2 more scoops of pudding. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours and Ta-Da! Pudding parfaits. If you want to make it a little special put a spoonful of whipped cream on top :)
 

You can really use any flavor of pudding and any of your child's favorite fruit for this. Another idea - layer the pudding and fruit into Popsicle molds instead of bowls and freeze them for a healthy pudding pop in the summertime!


For a lower calorie version omit the butter and agave and use low fat milk in the pudding.