Chaos & Confetti

Chaos here!

As a teacher, I am blessed with the opportunity not to work during my Summers.  That means that I haven gotten a lot of time to hang with my one year old this past few weeks. Yeti, our nickname in this blog for our son, is a wonderful little guy who loves staying busy. Thanks to plenty of help from Confetti, Yeti and I have been able to make the most of our Summer with plenty of activities, including: swimming, soccer, Romp N’ Roll, library visits, nature walks, playground tours, dog walks, and art classes.

Yeti loves to eat and little by little shows more interest in what is happening in the kitchen, or at least what he can eat as meals are being made. I decided to once again focus on a dinner that revolves around his involvement thanks to the use of our Little Chef: My Very First Cookbook.  

Let’s take a look at what we cooked up.

Recipe Source – Little Chef: My Very First Cookbook

Recipe Name 1: Yogurt and Granola Parfait

Ingredients:

For Granola:

• 2 1/4 cups rolled oats
• 1/4 cup light-tasting oil
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt

For Parfait:

• 2 cups yogurt
• 2 cups fresh berries
• Honey for drizzling

Recipe Name 2: Chicky Tortilla Roll-Ups (Flautas)

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 cups chicken, shredded
• 12 soft taco-size flour tortillas
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted

Making the Meal:

Before beginning anything else, we had to gather our ingredients.  Yei and I made a quick trip to the grocery store.  Thankfully, we already had plenty of the seasonings, so our list wasn’t too big.  Yeti enjoyed riding in the carts at the grocery store, especially those shaped like cars, so he was pleased with our excursion.  Along the way he tried to throw more items into the cart, but thankfully he was often distracted by trying to drive his “car” and saying hi to strangers we passed by.

When it finally came time to cook, Yeti enjoyed turning on the oven to preheat.  We decided to start first with our granola parfait, since so much of that recipe would simply be throwing things together in a bowl and mixing them.  Dumping ingredients fit perfectly into Yeti’s skillset.  He happily dumped and mixed.  The only problem is that he kept wanting to add in more of every ingredient because dropping them in was a blast.  

After everything was properly combined, we set them to bake and got to work on the roll-ups/flautas.  Once again, we got to combining and mixing ingredients.  This time around though, Yeti recognized plenty of ingredients he knew he liked, and wanted to eat cheese and cream cheese as we added it.  Everything getting mixed together, caused Yeti to try some foods he doesn’t normally eat, like salsa.  Oddly enough, he ended up asking for more salsa and more chicken.  He may have been “spoiling” his appetite, but we were just happy to see him eating and trying things.  

I say “we” because Confetti couldn’t help staying away while our little one cooked.  She had other responsibilities, but somehow she kept drifting over from time to time to get a look, help grab an ingredient, or to simply offer Yeti encouragement.

Staying true to his eat-as-you-go ways, Yeti needed to eat some tortillas as I worked to fill and roll them.  He then had to take a break to play while everything baked.  I did some playing of my own in the form of washing dishes and cleaning up any spills (parent-play is not nearly as fun as toddler-play).

Once dinner was finally done and plated, Yeti reverted to his toddler ways and played the role of picky eater again.  After a little coaxing, he ate and really enjoyed his flauta.  The granola/yogurt combo was tried, but mostly sat untouched.

All in all, both recipes were doable for a one year old (with parental supervision) and Yeti had a lot of fun getting to partake in dinner making.

Taste:

Chaos’ Thoughts:

Both recipes were very approachable with a toddler and I liked how they turned out.  The granola made a nice snack even without the yogurt and berries, but they also all came together well.  I could have used more spice with the flautas, but that would have been a sure fire way to turn Yeti off of them, so I was willing to sacrifice for his sake.  The flautas did taste good though, which is good because the recipe yielded so many, we had them for two nights.  Both recipes get a thumbs up from me.

Confetti’s Thoughts:

I didn’t try the granola, but the flautas were delicious! I enjoyed watching the cooking process unfold. 

Yeti’s Thoughts:

Yeti felt the ingredients tasted great separately and was surprised that many of them tasted good even after being mixed (he can be very anti-foods touching).  He preferred the flautas more, but the granola was still fun to make.  It’s just hard to top the masterpiece that is plain yogurt.  Many stars out of many stars (he can’t count), would definitely make a mess with these recipes again.