Cranberry and goat cheese cutlet from Quorn

The cranberries in this cranberry and goat cheese cutlet from Quorn are soft and sort of blend in texture-wise. I loved these, the kids though hated them.

Both of them took one bite and refused them every time I offered after that. I will reintroduce them after a couple of months - this packet Iam finishing.

Puffets from Peas of Mind

I read about Peas of Mind products is some parenting magazine a long time ago. So when I finally found them in the local grocery store I jumped.

I only tried the 'eat your greens' puffet so far because the twins absolutely hated it. It had a strong egg smell and I didn't like that it has 55% cholesterol for the day. Not that Iam concerned with the kids cholesterol intake at this point that much, BUT, they eat eggs, full fat yogurt and whole milk every day already.

I still want to try their veggie wedgies though if I find them.

Mini sandwich crackers from Late July

Now that the twins are at the 'picky toddler' stage, Iam always looking for good snacks for them.

These mini cheese sandwich crackers from Late July are great, both in taste and size. My daughter forgets to take bites when she is hungry and gets frustrated and clumsy. So these are perfect for her .

Wild blackberries

We were walking around our new backyard the other day and discovered wild blackberry bushes. Now the twins always want to go 'out' to eat 'baabies' all the time.

My son is not crazy about them - he likes the act of going out and picking them but my daughter loves them.

Wow - 200th post!

Mango orange fruit smoothie from Fruit Simple

It had mango in it (and no added sugar) so I had to bring it home to try. Nobody really liked it - it was too much orange (was hoping for more mango) and it had no pulp (we all like pulp.)

My son finished his 'juuch' but my daughter didn't.

Maple Agave syrup from Trader Joe's

An impulse buy (price reduced,) this maple agave syrup blend from Trader Joe's is a miss. It is just too thin and too sweet. Yes, yes I realize it is 'syrup,' but …..I thought it would be more like pure maple syrup.

I spread a little on a piece of toast for the kids - my daughter loved it, my son not so much.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from Country Choice

I bought these oatmeal choco-chip cookies from Country Choice for myself but the second the twins saw me eating they demanded (a very rare thing for them - asking for what an adult is eating) a 'cookie' (another rare thing, because they hardly hear the word cookie.) How did they even know that this was a cookie?

So I caved in and gave them a piece each. My son actually stomped around in glee - I consoled myself that there was some oatmeal in there and that a not-so-good dessert once in a while is not the end of the world.

Van's 8 grain frozen waffles

Iam somewhat obsessed with whole grains in the twins diet. These Van's waffles caught my eye with their 8 whole grains - wheat, oats, bown rice, dark rye, barley, quinoa, amaranth and millet.

They are a bit dry but the twins don't seem to mind. Since they are already sweetened with a bit of honey and brown sugar, no syrup is needed.

Animal crackers from Wild Harvest

The twins can identify a hippo now! Well, almost all the crackers in these animal crackers packet from Wild harvest get called a hippo.

The twins like them a lot but I try not to offer them too many times (just like adults and potato chips, they can't seem to stop at a few.) Sure, they are made with organic ingredients and have no preservatives, artificial colors or sweeteners, but they are still basically flour, sugar and oil.

10 grain Muffins

The recipe is for 10 grain muffins but I don't have a muffin pan yet. So I improvised and substituted. I used whole wheat flour instead of unbleached flour and two small eggs instead of one XL egg.

I baked the whole batter in a square cake pan and cut the cooled 'cake' into 'fingers.' These 10 grain muffin-cake-fingers freeze and thaw (in a toaster oven) beautifully. The twins love them and some days it makes up their entire breakfast because they refuse to eat anything else.

Hungry Girl

My nutritionist (sis-in-law) is always sending me links from a site called Hungry Girl. It's a great site crammed with all sorts of tips, reviews and strategies to help one eat right.

'Chew the right thing' has popular recipes redone to swap out the calories. Even though I don't make a lot of those items (calzone? moo shu? onion blossom?), I read them to find healthy substitutes.

And there are pictures - lots of pictures. I love it when there are pictures.

Roasted broccoli

This really was the best broccoli of my life.

Don't wash the broccoli (I know, I know but the temperature will kill everything.) Cut into pieces, toss with olive oil and salt. Bake at 400F (the recipe says 425, but I used my toaster oven) till the edges brown. That is all I did since I was making it for the kids - I decided to spice it up later which I never did because it was incredibly good with just salt and olive oil.

My daughter could not have enough of it. She just kept going and going and asking for more. My son ate it all but wasn't as crazy about it as her.

Pineapple greek yogurt from Chobani

Another great product from Chobani - 2% greek yogurt, probiotics and live cultures, no artificial flavors or preservatives, no gelatin……… it does have 18 grams of sugar but I split one between the twins and add some full fat yogurt.

Pineapple flavor is one of the kids favorite - there are pieces of fruit in this which the twins didn't really like.

Chobani champions

During the move, since I could not make yogurt, I switched back to flavored yogurts. These Chobani champions are made with 2% greek yogurt and no preservatives or artificial sweeteners.

Since they were really thick, I added some kefir and the twins liked honeynana the most.

Baby rice rusks from Hot-kid

Even though these are for much younger babies, I picked them up because the twins had never had them. They look exactly like the rice-cake jokes - hard, dry, tasteless, white and textureless to boot because they are made for babies.

These baby mum-mums are surprisingly tasty and the twins totally took to them.

Can we still eat that?

Before our move, in anticipation of it, we started to eat our way through the pantry and freezer. I came across a few items (OK, more than few) past their expiration dates. Some should have been eaten a couple of years ago and some a couple of weeks ago. Since I really don't like to waste food (always clean my plate, thank you) I went looking online to figure out if I can still eat some of the stuff.

There is an entire website devoted to just that. StillTasty, an 'ultimate shelf life guide.' They have a 'your questions answered' page (does vinegar ever go bad? what about pure honey? olive oil?) and even an iPhone app.