Halloween 2013 | Easy Homemade Toddler Yoda Costume
October 31, 2013 at 10:46 PM | Posted in Baby Romaezi | Leave a commentTags: costume, costume ideas, easy, halloween, homemade, how-to, no sew, toddler, tutorial, yoda
So it seems I’ve been a very bad blogger lately! I find myself wearing several hats (pun intended) lately and starting up my new little business has lots of my energy going away from this blog. Sorry! I’m still here!
So this Halloween was Kamran’s first true time trick or treating. He had an absolute ball–so did my husband and I! Little guy dressed up as Yoda in a costume made by yours truly. He spent a good few days practicing his light saber sounds and breaking in his Yoda hat.
One thing little man said quite a lot tonight was “Hi Ms. Ya-yen! Tank ew Ms. Ya-yen!” As he helped himself to **more** candy from the neighbor’s dish. (Don’t worry, the candy is for ME, not him–he gets raisins and organic lolipops.) In addition to candy, he also took “Ms. Ya-yen’s” nose. Don’t worry, he gave her his in return. Two is honestly my favorite age so far.
I have to share this costume and how I made it because it was probably one of the easiest things I’ve ever made.
Necessary Skills:
To make this costume you need 3 real skills. You *do* need to know how to crochet and make the hat. (Or you could just order one from me www.facebook.com/loopsidaisy) The other two skills are fairly easy–cutting and hot glue.
Materials:
Green yarn for the hat.
2 medium sized mens t-shirts. One brown and one tan.
3 glow sticks, preferably green–we didn’t have green.
Electric tape
Some sort of belt/rope/twine
Instructions:
I typically don’t use patterns for my crochet work. I wanted to get this hat done quickly so I opted to use a pattern. This pattern from Knot Your Nana’s Crochet. It took me a day-ish of working on it as I had a minute. I crochet rather fast, so perhaps give yourself and extra day if you think you need it.
For the robes. The men’s brown shirt is the base. Just put it on your child. The tan shirt should be cut up the front and center so it opens like a robe. I just eyeballed it. You could hem this (sewing or adhesive, iron on hem tape) if you want, I just tucked the raw edges under once it was on my little guy.
I just happened to have the perfect belt for my little dude to borrow. If you don’t have one, tan colored rope or twine would work just fine. It wrapped around his waist twice and had plenty of room for the ends to hang once tied.
You see 2 light sabers in the photos above. The big one is a geek-item belonging to my husband. Little dude actually walked around the neighborhood with 3 glow sticks, hot glued together. The handle is just black electric tape wrapped on itself.
Cooking for Kam: Lamb Meatballs in Gravy
June 26, 2012 at 2:09 AM | Posted in Baby Food | Leave a commentTags: Baby food, Ground lamb, homemade, recipe
I could go all Bubba Gump here and list all of the ways one could possibly cook a meatball. The opportunities are endless really. Meatballs are a staple in this house. We always have at least turkey or beef meatballs handy–always. I typically purée a veggie or two, toss in wheat germ, an egg and bake in the oven. Tonight I decided to try something new. Lamb–covered in gravy. Swedish style almost.
Every time we go to the pediatrician he asks if Kamran has had lamb yet. I always tell him no. I don’t think I tried lamb until I was about 24 and just didn’t see it as necessary for a toddler. (Yes, I said that, the woman who makes her child quinoa burgers.) I found some lamb hanging out in the organic meat section the other day and said what the heck, it’s just like ground beef, I’ll give it a whirl.
Now, let me tell you, I personally DO NOT LIKE TO EAT LAMB. I don’t like the taste, texture, smell or anything else about it. So the entire time I spent cooking tonight I was also gagging. The things I don’t like about cooked lamb are even worse raw. Ick. I’m not selling this, I know.
Ingredients:
1 lb ground lamb
1/2 small diced onion
1 clove diced garlic
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 medium egg
1/2 cup water
A few tablespoons of sifted flower
Pinch of salt optional
Mix all ingredients and roll into meatballs. Spray pan with cooking spray, add meatballs and cook covered on medium low stirring to cook evenly until meatballs reach an internal temp of 160 degrees F. Remove meatballs and set aside on paper towel.
You will be left with stock in a pan. Reduce heat to low. Add water and stir well. Sift flour into pan (add optional salt) while stirring until thick. Take care not to clump. Continue to cook on low to thicken. Return meatballs to pan, stir to coat and enjoy!!
I have to say, Kayvan liked the meatballs though he said they were bland–duh because I made them for the baby. So I tried one and am so incredibly grossed out. I really don’t like lamb. Hope my kid does though or his dad is going to be eating bland lamb meatballs!! The gravy is pretty good though!!
Cooking for Kam: Quinoa Burgers
April 23, 2012 at 3:16 AM | Posted in Baby Food | 4 CommentsTags: Baby, Baby food, food, homemade, quinoa, toddler food
Quinoa Burgers
I’m a working mom so all of my cooking for the boy is typically done on weekends. I didn’t do a very good job of planning out meals for the week this week and tonight was at a bit of a loss for what to feed Kamran at daycare tomorrow. I have a few meals still frozen from previous weeks and technically could have given him turkey meatballs a few extra times. I don’t like to be as low on food options for Kamran as I currently am so I whipped something up. Tonight’s recipe is brought to you by my “oh no, what do we have in the fridge” moment.
Quinoa burgers. Quinoa is one food I can’t get my husband to eat but Kamran and I both really like it. I love that it is such a versatile food and is packed full of nutrients. You can really mix it with anything. So, what did I have in the fridge? Quinoa, carrots, asparagus, egg and bread crumbs.
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked quinoa
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup shredded asparagus
2 medium eggs (I buy medium because Kamran never eats all of a large egg)
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup wheat germ (optional)
small diced onion (optional)
pinch turmeric
1 tbsp olive oil
Cook quinoa per instructions on the box. Basically, just like you would rice. Shred all veggies (carrot, asparagus, onion (optional)) then saute in olive oil with a pinch of turmeric.
Add quinoa, cooked veggies, bread crumbs, wheat germ (optional), 2 eggs to large bowl and mix well. Flatten quinoa into small patties by first rolling into a ball then flattening as you would hamburger patties. To cook you can either fry in a pan or bake on 350 for 20 minutes. I had Kamran sample these before he went to bed and he LOVED them.
As I mentioned, one great thing about quinoa is that you can cook it so many ways. It also tastes great with several different ingredients making it really easy to just throw something together using the stuff you have on hand in the fridge. Try these alternates:
Sweet – Substitute veggies (carrot, asparagus, onion) for shredded apple and raisin. Lose the turmeric. You could add cinnamon.
Savory – Substitute veggies for butternut squash. You could keep the carrot if you wanted. Lose the turmeric and use cinnamon instead.
Zucchini is also great with these instead of asparagus.
Cooking for Kam: Lasagna Roll Ups
April 14, 2012 at 6:50 PM | Posted in Baby Food | Leave a commentTags: Baby food, homemade, organic, recipe, toddler meals
Now that he’s getting older and can “eat what we eat” as everyone keeps telling me I’ve been working on finding baby friendly recipes. If I come up with them myself I’ll share the recipe. If it’s from a book I’ll just share the photo. Some of these will just be inspired by something I saw, not measured out and loosely thrown together. Like this one.
Lasagna Roll Ups
I saw the recipe for spinach and cheese roll ups in a baby cook book, was inspired and threw these together.
1 carrot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 onion, minced
Pinch basil
Pinch oregano
4 tomatoes
Ground beef
Lasagna noodles
Shredded mozzarella
Boil water for lasagna noodles, place noodles in water and removed when fully cooked. Drain, lay flat and cut in half.
As noodles cook, brown ground beef. Drain.
In a separate saucepan sauté carrot, clove, onion, basil and oregano for 5-10 minutes. Add diced tomato and simmer until a chunky sauce. (short cut to this is to use the stuff you can buy in a jar–I wanted to go easy on the tomato and heavy carrot) Blend in food processor, return to pan and add fully cooked ground beef. Stir.
Now we assemble. Place a layer of shredded mozzarella into the middle of the noodle, add beef and sauce mixture and roll. Do this for all noodles and bake on 350 in the oven until cheese is melted. Let cool then refrigerate or freeze for later.
You could probably use shells to stuff instead if you wanted.
Now that I made them, Kamran might be too young at 13 months to eat these often. It’s just going to be a really messy meal.
For bigger kids I would probably serve them in extra sauce and more cheese on top.
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