Once in a while, when Kenya starts to go a little batty while I’m cooking in the kitchen, I’ll stop what I’m doing to make something with him. Even at 18 months it’s amazing how much he’s capable of doing. He can totally be my co-pilot on this recipe. He helps me peel a banana and plop it in the blender. Then, I’ll wash and scoop the avocado and yogurt into the blender and then let him press the buttons so he can watch it all mix together. His eyes light up so brightly at this culinary achievement. It’s amazing how including Kenya in the process makes him want to enjoy new foods and snack on healthy favorites. Even better, helping Mommy out in the kitchen chills him out a little and takes that crazy baby energy down a notch.
Bananas and avocado are not only monsters of nutrition, but they also make a creamy and delicious combination for babies and toddlers. Avocados are rich in the antioxidants beta-carotene and vitamin C and E while bananas are filled with magnesium and potassium. This puree is so thick and rich, I decided to get all fancy and call it a mousse — yes, we’re so fancy here at weelicious :).
I wrote that this recipe makes enough for 3 toddler servings, but after Kenya and I finished making this batch and dug the spatula in the blender for bite after bite, nothing remained at the end….except for the smiles on our faces.

Banana Avocado Mousse (3 Baby Servings)

1 Banana, peeled and chopped
1/2 Avocado, peeled and cubed
1/4 Cup Whole Milk Yogurt
2 Tbsp Rice Milk (you can also use almond, soy or whole milk)

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and puree until thick, but smooth.
2. Serve.

I thought Labor Day would be a perfect time to introduce a new, once-a -week post on weelicious, snacks. I’m not talking about potato chips and candy bars. Little ones need between-meal, healthy, high energy foods that help them run around and keep their bodies growing.
I want to present snacks that are easy to prepare and can just be tossed in your bag for whenever you need to jet out the door. For me, the most important part is that whatever the snacks are, they don’t turn your car into a bottomless garbage-pit.
Most of the snacks I write about aren’t “messy” or they come in travel safe containers.
Freeze-dried fruits are one of my new favorite finds. Different markets sell variations on the product, but Trader Joe’s recently introduced their own line and I think they’re AMAZING! These freeze-dried snacks contain only fruit — no sugar. The intense flavor comes from the process of freeze-drying the fruit so their natural tastes are concentrated. They come in mango, banana, rambutan and mangosteen. I mean, how often do you eat rambutan (a tropical fruit grown in Hawaii and southeast Asia)?! Ever?
I brought a few bags to a back-to-school party yesterday and the kids went crazy for them. Don’t you just love it when kids are begging for more fruit? And the best part was that I didn’t have to wash, peel or pit anything. Just unzip the bag and everyone gets to enjoy (even the parents were digging them)!

I’m always on the search for new and exciting foods that little ones can eat (especially those who have few teeth). Well, hello, muffins!!! But not the kind of muffins you buy in the market that can be loaded with with pounds of butter and sugar, I’m talking about the ones that are actually moist, delicious, full of fiber, fruit and over-all goodness.
I grew up eating my grandmother’s bran muffins which we’re heavenly. She used to tell me they were “health food”. When I recently looked at her recipe, though, I realized that a cup of sugar for 12 muffins wasn’t exactly “healthy”.
I filled these mini muffins with tons of bananas. The thick consistency of the bananas replaces the large amounts of butter and oil called for in most recipes.
And I switched the sugar to agave which is low on the glycemic index and means your little one won’t be spinning around the room after eating one (or two, as Kenya often does).

Banana Bran Muffins (Makes 24 mini muffins)

1 Cup Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
2 Tbsp Agave
1 Egg
3 Tbsp Oil
2/3 Cup Milk
3 Bananas, mashed
2 Cups Bran Flakes

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease mini muffin tins.
2. Place the flour and baking powder in a bowl and stir to combine.
3. In a large bowl combine the wet ingredients. Whisk to throughly combine.
4. Pour the bran flakes into the wet mixture, stir and let them sit for 2 minutes to soften. Stir again, breaking them up a little.
5. Slowly pour the flour mixture into the wet mixture and whisk until all the flour is incorporated.
6. Spoon the batter 3/4 the way up each muffin cup.
7. Bake for 18 minutes.
8. Cool and serve.

I even surprised myself at how delicious this puree turned out. I had
5 people in the kitchen while I was making it and like good testers, we all took our spoons, tried a bite and in unison exclaimed, “WOW”! I don’t know whether Kenya was starving or just really loved it, but he insisted on eating an entire cup’s worth. There goes the theory that toddlers don’t like purees. Even though there’s no orange in the recipe, it totally reminded me of drinking an Orange Julius (a drink from a restaurant that I grew up near).
Since cantaloupes are 90% water, it’s nice adding banana and yogurt to give it a little extra body, rich flavor, and end up tasting like cream.
Cantaloupes are also a heavyweight when it comes to potassium and vitamin A. This is a perfect breakfast or snack food for the 10-12 month-old set or a great for dessert for a toddler (as Kenya so brilliantly demonstrated).

Cantaloupe Cream (6 Baby Servings)

1 Cup Cantaloupe, chopped
1/3 Cup Banana
1/4 Cup Yogurt

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and puree
until smooth.
2. Serve.

I have been on a huge almond butter kick ever since I tried Barney Butter, which I think is the best of all the brands that I’ve tried. Still, my husband has always loved almond butter and he thinks he knows what tastes best, so just to make sure, I did a blind taste test with seven people of different ages (Kenya included!) to see what they thought. It was so much fun! I hid the three different nut butters we were testing (raw almond butter from Trader Joes and Mara Natha no-stir almond butter were the other brands) and let each person try a spoon full of each brand and let them decide which they liked the best. Incredibly, it was unanimous, Barney Butter won each time — even with my husband!
Besides the fact that this almond butter is smooth (not the kind where the oil and nut butter separate and you have to stir for ages to get it to a normal consistency). Even better, it’s produced by a California mother of four, has less saturated fat then peanut butter and its high in magnesium and vitamin E which amongst other things helps to protect skin, circulation, brain and hormones against pollution.
These pops are a perfect energy treat for your little one because they have a fruit and protein. Try pulling them out at a kids summer party and I guarantee you’ll hear oohs and ahhhs from the crowd.

Banana, Almond Butter Pops (Makes 8 Pops, depending on the size of your molds)

3 Bananas
1/4 Cup Almond Butter
1/3 Cup Rice or Almond Milk (Plain or Vanilla)

1. Place the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.
2. Pour several tablespoons of mixture into popsicle molds (follow manufacturer’s directions for your mold).
3. Freeze overnight (or a minimum of 4-5 hours).
4. Serve.

I literally have hundreds of cookbooks I started collecting when I was a 
little girl and continue to this day. I admit that after all these years, it’s gotten a little out of 
control, but I love the endless variety and different styles of books out there. There are also some genuinely odd and funny ones as well. The Elvis 
Presley cookbook “Are you Hungry Tonight” is great. Just looking at the table 
of contents makes your arteries feel like they are clogging, but the one recipe Elvis is best 
know for is the “fried peanut butter and banana sandwich”. I’m not 
saying that it doesn’t sound incredibly delicious, but it’s not 
exactly one of the first dishes I would want to turn my son on to given the “fried” approach. So, always in service of trying healthy approaches to not-so-healthy classics, I think I came up with a good one: Mini Elvis Paninis.
I recently had over a group of 
little ones ranging from 15 months to 4 years old and they devoured 
these sandwiches faster then I could make them. Since I still haven’t 
given Kenya peanut butter (our Doctor recommended we wait until he’s over the age of 2 in case of allergies), I made his with almond butter (feel 
free to replace it with peanut, soy or cashew butter if that’s what your 
little one prefers). Almond butter is an ideal first nut for babies to 
try since it has a low allergic potential and almonds are packed with 
calcium, vitamins B and E. 
By using the panini press, the heat melted the banana and almond 
butter together while pressing the sandwich together for smaller 
mouths to get bigger bites. And….same great taste, no frying. These mini sandwiches are delicious and 
will give your little one tons of energy for playing.

Elvis Panini (make 4 mini sandwiches)

2 Piece Whole Wheat of Ezekiel Bread, 7 grain or cinnamon raisin
1 Tbsp Almond Butter
1/3 Banana, cut into several slices cut lengthwise

1. Spread almond butter on one side of one the bread and cover with 3 slices on banana.
2. Place in a panini press on medium/high heat (level 5)
3. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until sandwich is pressed and golden.
4. Cool throughly.
5. Cut into 4 squares and serve.

This weekend my mother said to me, “I was an awful cook when you were 
little”. I admit, part of that statement is true, but there were actually 
some things my mother made for breakfast that I loved. I was a bit of a garbage can as 
a kid, eating anything and everything on my plate, unlike my little brother who 
wouldn’t eat a thing. There were a lot of cereal mornings — I mean a lot. BUT, there were 
also those mornings when my mother would muster the energy to make 
fresh muffins, omelets and my favorite, pancakes. Somehow those times seemed so important and someday I want Kenya to have nostalgic breakfast
 memories of his own.
Yesterday morning I whipped up his first batch of pancakes. I didn’t 
want them to be out-of-the-box Aunt Jemima style, but I also had a busy morning, so 
they had to be quick. 
This recipe is a perfect option. In minutes I had delicious pancakes 
that he could hold and much on while I ran around trying to get our 
morning started. If you know you’re really going to be in a 
hurry, you could also mix the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls the night before and combine them in the morning.

Whole Wheat Banana Cinnamon Pancakes (Makes 16 Mini Pancakes)

1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tbsp Wheat Germ
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Egg
1 Cup Whole Milk
1 Tbsp Oil, plus more for greasing the pan
1 Banana, sliced

1. Whisk the first 4 ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Whisk the egg, milk and oil in a separate bowl.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until
combined.
4. Heat a non stick pan or a griddle to medium heat. Pour a little oil
(or butter) in the pan and take a paper towel to evenly coat the pan
(make sure not to overly grease the pan).
5. Pour 1-2 tablespoons of batter into the pan to make one pancake and
let it cook until tiny bubbles start appearing and it firms up. You can make
several pancakes in the pan at once.
6. Place 1 or 2 bananas on top of the pancake. With a spatula,
gently loosen the pancakes and flip them over. Continue to cook until they appear
firm and cooked through.
7. Cool and serve.

I couldn’t resist the gorgeous pineapple I found at Trader Joes this morning. There’s nothing more fragrant then slicing a ripe and juicy pineapple. Pineapples are rich in Vitamin C and in the plant enzyme Bromelain which helps breakdown protein in the body, thereby aiding digestion.
This cooling smoothie is delicious for babies to eat with a spoon, for toddlers through a straw or as Kenya did by dipping his fingers right in a licking the smoothie off his little digits.
*When you slice the pineapple, remember to cut out the “eyes” (the little brown pieces all over the pineapple).

Pineapple, Banana Yogurt Smoothie (2 Toddler Servings or 3 Baby Servings)

1 Banana, peeled
1/2 Cup Pineapple, chopped
1/3 Cup Whole Milk Yogurt
1 Tbsp Wheat Germ

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth.
2. Serve.

I was at my best friend Jillian’s store, Maxwell Dog, when I came up with this idea. Instead of giving out dog biscuits to visiting “customers,” they give them dehydrated sweet potatoes to gnaw on. She gave one to Kenya and he spent a good hour teething on it. He loved it and I knew somehow it comforted him.
I do realize that most people don’t have dehydrators, so if you don’t you can try this on the lowest setting of your oven, but it won’t be exactly the same.
I put every fruit and vegetable I could find in it over night. It was like a science project. Let me tell you, though, avocados are down right nasty dehydrated. On the other hand kiwis and cucumbers were delicious. Below is a list of my favorite, but feel free to try different produce to see what your little angel will love.
I cut everything lengthwise so baby had a big piece to gnaw on for a long time.

Fruit Teether

Bananas
Kiwis
Strawberries
Watermelon
Sweet Potatoes
Cucumbers

1. Set dehydrator to 135 degrees.
2. Slice fruit and vegetables into slices about 1/8 inch thick or smaller, lengthwise.
3. Place on trays and put into dehydrator (cooking time will vary, so check the dehydrator every few hours).
4. Serve.