Fruit Pizza

Fruit pizzas are my husband's trademark dessert. He makes them a few times a year, and Oliver loves to help. This was my first time making one.

They are so easy to make, but, best of all, they're a great dessert to make if you have a little helper in your household like we do. You could even make mini-fruit pizzas for a children's party to let each kid decorate his/her own!

Here's what you need:
Crust:
1 tube of sugar cookie dough (I used Pillsbury)
Sauce:
(Note: You can just use a can of your favorite frosting.  I won't tell anybody.)
8 ounces of cream cheese or neufatel cheese
4 ounces (1/2 stick) of softened butter
2 cups of powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
Toppings:
Various fruit - We used two kiwis, a can of drained mandarin oranges, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries
Glaze:
The zest and juice from one orange
1 cups of powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)

To make:
1. Spread your cookie dough out on a pizza pan.  I had to use my knuckles to gently push the dough from the center to the edges.  Prick the dough all over with a fork.  Bake according to package directions.

2. Beat cream cheese, butter, and the 2 cups of powdered sugar together to make frosting "sauce."  Alternatively, pop the top off of your can of frosting.

3. While your cookie crust is baking and cooling, prep your fruit. Wash what needs washing and chop what needs chopping. If you're using any fruit that is prone to browning (apples, pears, bananas, etc), toss them in a bit of lemon or lime juice to slow their oxidation.

4. After your cookie pizza crust cools completely, spread the frosting all over the crust, leaving about an inch of space along the circumference of your pizza.

5. Decorate with fruit!  This is the fun part.  You can look up images of fruit pizzas online to get really fancy, or just help your kids put the toppings on.  You really can't go wrong.

6. Whisk the juice and zest of an orange with a cup of powdered sugar until smooth. This is your glaze. Drizzle it liberally all over your pizza.

7. Slice your pizza and dive in!

How to Get a Toddler to Eat Fish

Oliver actually likes tuna. I worry a bit about the mercury, so I only offer it to him occasionally. I'd prefer for him to eat other fish, but he always rejects it after a bite. Two weeks ago, I bought a little box of fish sticks and served them with Miracle Whip and ketchup. He considered eating more than a bite, but ultimately decided against it.

Well, today, I had an idea. I baked one fish stick, chopped it up, and mixed it with some Miracle Whip and mustard. It was almost like making deviled eggs, and it had the same consistency. Success! Oliver gobbled up the mush and asked for more.

Oliver's Diet

What does a toddler eat? On a good day, Oliver eats almost everything I put in front of him; on a bad day, I struggle to convince him to eat a few bites of something before he refuses it.

Yesterday, I decided to keep track of what Oliver ate. If a mom is reading this blog, it gives her a look at what another toddler is eating (quantitatively and qualitatively) in a day. For me, it will be a good reference if I ever have another baby.

Yesterday, he happened to eat pretty well. This is not always the case. My main goal is for his "good" eating days to balance out his "bad" eating days.



6am - Oliver ate about 2/3 of the banana I'd chopped for him, and he drank a few ounces of water.

8am - Oliver ate a frozen Nutra Grain blueberry waffle with about a dozen blueberries on the side and a few more ounces of water (yes, I gave him the waffle frozen--one of his molars is coming in)

10:30am - I made Oliver a "scramble" using 1 egg, 2/3 of a diced turkey dog, 1 diced olive, 2 diced broccoli florets, 1/4 slice of American cheese, and about a tablespoon of diced zucchini. I cooked it in a small pad of butter, and he ate about half of it. He also drank a few ounces of whole milk (organic and fortified with DHA) as well as one diced strawberry.

1pm - I made Oliver fish sticks. He ate two bites and refused any more. He drank some milk and ate a small amount of Cheerios and blueberries.

3:30pm - Oliver ate two Nutra Grain blueberry waffles and drank some water


5pm - I boiled some pasta wheels for Oliver. I rinsed them in cold water and then tossed them in half a container of green bean baby food for the sauce. He loved it and ate about half of it.


7am - Oliver drank some warm milk before bed

Oliver Has a Belly!

Although not every day is a success, our Ollie Bear has started eating a lot more over these last two months, and he's finally starting to develop a little baby belly. We love it! Yesterday, he discovered three new favorite foods. They are egg salad, blueberries, and chocolate chips. He couldn't get enough!

As a snack before bed, I then made him toast with peanut butter and a few chocolate chips on top. He wasn't interested in any of it except for the chocolate. I thought it made a cute photo op!

Look Who is (Finally) Eating!

Andrew and I have been working so hard on getting Oliver to eat. His eating habits have typically been this: we dice up something we know he likes, like a turkey dog or a banana, and watch as he eats four tiny pieces of it. We'd give him Cheerios, and he'd eat about 6 and then throw the rest on the floor. We'd give him a waffle, and he'd eat a quarter of it. We'd follow him around with baby food and try to slip in a spoonful when he wasn't paying attention. The boy would not eat, which made me feel bad trying to push his nursing times farther apart.

At Oliver's 12 month appointment, he was at 21 pounds. That's not ridiculously skinny, I know, but it puts him in the 20th percentile.

It sounds stupid, but I get frustrated with people when they comment on his weight. Some people (who see his middle) comment on how skinny he is. He is--you can see his ribs!--but we try so hard to get him to eat! Other people (who notice his cheeks and/or ankles) comment on how chubby he is. This also makes me mad because I just want to say, "But he's not! He won't eat!"

Anyway, finally, finally, Oliver has started eating food this week. He's like a bottomless pit, and I'm not used to it! I'll dice up an inch of turkey dog, and he eats the whole thing. I'll put a handful of Cheerios on his tray, and he eats them all. I put more Cheerios on his tray, and he eats those, too. Then, I think he might need some fat to make him feel full. I put a few ounces of whole milk (organic with no growth hormones) into a sippy cup and hand it to him, and he drinks it down. I'll wait an hour and then open a package of vegetable baby food (he still eats baby food because I get it with WIC), and eats the whole thing (I have to spoon feed him myself again because when I hand him the spoon, all he wants to do is try to spoon out the food from the container--which I let him do sometimes--and won't actually eat any of it).

When I'm eating, I have to constantly hand him bits of my food. He probably eats a quarter of all my meals! It's crazy. Yesterday evening, after a meal of turkey dog pieces, sliced green beans, and Cheerios (so, so many Cheerios), he also got a jar of baby food, and then he ate about a quarter cup of black beans and a few hunks of tomato and tofu from my tacos.

I thought the WIC people and the people at the pediatrician's office were off their rocker when they handed me a list of what Oliver should eat in a day. It would list multiple items for breakfast, like cereals, fruit, and milk, and I thought, "Dude, I'm lucky if he eats more than a spoonful..." Literally, he'd only eat a spoonful of most baby foods, and just a few pieces of finger foods. Of course, I asked them all about it. At WIC, they said, "Just keep offering him foods." At the doctor's office, they said, "He's fine. He knows how much he needs to eat."

Although we never expected Oliver to eat this much, it's such a relief to us that he's eating. We feel like we don't have to stress about cutting back his nursings, and we don't stress about him getting enough nutrition and calories to grow. Hurray to my little man who has discovered the joy of food!

He Only Eats Cheerios

Yes, Oliver has decided that he will only eat Cheerios with the occasional exception of some non-food items he's found on the floor. No, he will not eat bananas! He does not care if I mash them or carefully chop them into soliders and roll them in rice cereal for his little fingers to grasp. No, he will not eat steamed and pureed peas! Don't even think about giving him steamed carrot pieces or hunks of turkey dog. Oliver says no to almost everything...

...except Cheerios.

Cheerios it is then. I guess.

Pictured: For lunch, I tried to get Oliver to eat bananas. I even tossed a few Cheerios on the tray to get him going. He only ate the Cheerios. So, I took the Cheerios and mashed a little banana in the middle of them. He inspected them and began throwing them onto the floor. His message was clear: no bananas.

Peanut Butter Continued

Oliver continues to eat a little peanut butter every few days. I've slowly increased the amount each time, and I'd estimate I now spread about a teaspoon of peanut butter on his toast. I think that's a good amount for a little guy, so I doubt I'll increase it more than that.

In other peanut butter news, he now sucks the peanut butter off of his toast soldiers and then spits the toast out. The photo above is of said sucked-on toast pieces. Ha.

Peanut butter = noms
Toast = not noms

6th Month Well Visit & the Crying Baby

Let me begin by saying that Oliver almost never cries anymore. He cries on occasion when I lay him down in his crib, and that's it. If he's ever unhappy about something, he lets me know by grunting or making other "protest" noises. However, any time I leave him with a "stranger" (i.e., grandparents), he freaks out and doesn't stop crying.

Today, we went to the doctor for his 6 month well visit. It was our first time to this pediatrician's office, and I loved it there. They had separate offices for well visits and for sick kid visits. Sweet!

Anyway, Oliver was his usual curious, content self. Then the doctor came in. She turned him towards her, and he started shrieking. He didn't stop until she was done and he was "safe" in my arms. Then, every time she's start talking to him, he'd start flipping out again. I'm so out of practice with calming him when he's crying that I got flustered and didn't know what to do. I didn't feel in control until she finally left and it was just Ollie & me.

In other news, she cleared him to start some basic finger foods like Cheerios, peas, small peach pieces and small banana pieces. She asked me how he does with grasping very small objects like those, and I told her I didn't know because he's never had anything small before. She told me to try it. Also, she told me I can increase his food feedings to twice a day!

I have Cheerios at home, so as soon as we walked in the door, I put him in his high chair and set Cheerios out in front of him. Yeah... he couldn't grab those. He smashed them and flung them on the floor. I put one in his mouth, and he loved it. He mashed it all around until it was soft. How cute! I gave him another and another. When I held one out on my hand, he didn't try to reach for it himself. Instead, he just opened his mouth and tried to get it that way. Ha! This is fun and new, though, and I'm very excited to try finger foods once a day.

Pinching Pennies

A large part of being a stay home mom (for us, anyway) is learning to save money in as many ways as possible. One of the biggest ways we've done that since having Oliver is rarely going out to eat. We went out to eat last weekend as a treat from Colleen; it was a thank you to Andrew for assembling her toilet (she just redid her bathroom). Before that, I seriously can't remember the last time we went out to eat. Wait, yes I can. It was for 5280, when we met up with friends and spent way too much money (but had a great time) at an Italian restaurant downtown.

At home, cooking, I've been learning to save money, too. Whenever there's a big sale item, I stock up on a lot of it. Last week, for example, there was a big sale on cheese at Safeway (and not because it was going to expire, either). Bags of cheese are normally about $3.50 a pop. They had bags of cheese for $1.49 if you bought at least four. So I did. Whenever there are frozen lunch meals on sale, I buy a bunch of those. That way, even if we're in a hurry in the morning, Andrew has a lunch to take with him to work.

Before, when we had a little extra money, I'd follow recipes exactly, even if that meant going to the store to buy a few extra ingredients. Now, I play with recipes. I use dried herbs instead of fresh. I'll chop the tomatoes I have in the fridge instead of buying a new can (even though canned tomatoes aren't that expensive, it still saves to not go out and buy more!). If I have regular onion in the fridge, I'll use that instead of green (or vise versa). It doesn't matter what kind of cheese a recipe calls for; I use what I have.

I've also been working very hard at not wasting food. Before, I might have half of an avocado left from a recipe. It'd sit in the fridge, unused, until it went bad. Now, I search for recipes by ingredients online. Last night, for example, I made soup because I had an extra bunch of kale in the fridge. The soup recipe I found called for tomatoes and onions and kale, which I had in the fridge. Also, it was mostly water based. To use the kale, I just had to go to the store and buy a can of beans and some vegetable boullion. The soup was good for dinner last night, lunch today, and lunch tomorrow. Each time I do this, I probably save about a dollar or so by not throwing out an item. It adds up, and I feel much better about not throwing out any food, too.

Last week, Andrew and I had date night at home. I spent a little extra and bought stuff to make a nice torte for dessert. Today, I'm meeting up with a friend for tea. I decided to bake a treat here to bring with me rather than spending a couple dollars on a single cookie (Yes, I'll be spending a couople of dollars on tea, which you can easily argue is expensive. However, I say spending $2 on an evening out with a friend is relatively cheap). A quick survey of my pantry showed me that I had flour, sugar and cocoa. I also decided to use up the extra semi-sweet baking chocolate I'd purchased for the torte. I found a recipe for brownies at allrecipes.com, and I halved it because I only had two eggs instead of four. It's OK if it doesn't turn out perfect. I chopped the semi-sweet chocolate and used that instead of chocolate chips. And, you know what? It smells wonderful. Once they're cool, I'll cut them and package them for lunch treats, and I'll take one with me tonight to enjoy with my tea.

I'll be sure to update my blog on occassion to include the various ways we work to save our money. I might not be able to stay home with Oliver forever, but the more I penny pinch, the longer I can be here with the little man. Besides, I've come to enjoy penny pinching. I see it as a challenge.

Doctor's Appointment Today!

I have my first doctor's appointment for the pending baby today at 3pm. I'm so excited and nervous for it. Andrew's getting off work early to meet me there; we're hoping that everything we hear is positive (nothing scary!).

My appetite has been next to nothing this week. I keep forcing myself to eat because I know I need to, but that's about it. Food will sound good, but as soon as I sit down to eat anything, I don't want it anymore. I've lost 2 pounds this week, and I know that's bad news. My doctor will probably tell me I shouldn't lose any weight while pregnant... I'll have to try to finish my meals.

Right now I'm trying to at least eat a grapefruit. It tastes good, but I don't seem to want anymore :( I've only eaten half of one. Is this complete loss of appetite normal?