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Brynnley’s Breakfast Muffins | Baking with a Picky Toddler

Brynnley and I kicked off our domestic afternoon with a baking session, intending to get a freezer stash of toddler-friendly breakfasts for my postpartum season coming up!

My two year old is very picky, and happily favors all food void of nutrition. You know, the toddler staples: buttered toast, tater tots, Mac n’ cheese, and chicken nuggets. And don’t you dare try to pull a fast one and sneak in those “hidden veggie” nuggets. Her healthy-detector is fine-tuned. 😉

I have found a loophole in her palette, however. The secret seems to be chocolate chips. So in an attempt to add some nutrition to her future breakfasts, we whipped up a double batch of these Sweet Potato Peanut Butter muffins – with mini chocolate chips.

She DEVOURED one with a glass of milk the moment they cooled off. Success! I found them just as tasty as she did, so we are sharing the recipe:

Sweet Potato Peanut Butter Muffins (Picky Toddler Approved)

Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 18 minutes
Servings: 20 muffins
Course: Breakfast, Snack

Ingredients
  

  • 2 large sweet potatoes, roasted and out of skin
  • 1.5 cups natural creamy peanut butter
  • 3/4 cup maple syrup (honey can be substituted)
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Method
 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees & line a cupcake pan with muffin liners.
  2. Once your roasted sweet potatoes have completely cooled, remove them from the skin and add them to a large mixing bowl.
  3. Add peanut butter, eggs, maple syrup (or honey), baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice and chocolate chips.
  4. Stir until well-combined and smooth.
  5. Fill your muffin tins 3/4 of the way full with batter.
  6. Bake for 18 minutes, then allow to cool completely.
  7. Store in fridge. Enjoy with a cup of yummy coffee or milk!

I’m not sure how this recipe works because it’s nearly all wet ingredients. It must be the six eggs that really add the muffin texture!

We packaged them in individual baggies and stored them in the freezer so that we can easily pull out one at a time to heat up for Brynnley’s breakfasts over the next couple of weeks.

You can also always order my Strong Like My Coffee mugs from my little boutique page here: Strong Like My Coffee boutique. They come with a wooden topper and a golden stir spoon ☺️

In my last blog post I mentioned that I would be attending a Meal Prep class to help get my freezer stocked with some meals for those first couple of weeks after the new baby arrives (due early July.)

Overall I think the concept is really good & I got 10 different dinners all packaged up in the freezer, ready to be thrown in a crockpot or sheet pan. Each one says 4-6 adult servings, though I would say 3-4 would be more accurate. It was very rushed though – we assembled all 10 different dinners in under 75 minutes and the assembly line-style process meant you really couldn’t catch a break to wipe off your cutting board or clean up your work station throughout. I would have preferred they use all allotted 2 hours and gone a little slower.

Each dinner incorporates meat and veggies (though not as many veggies as I would have included) and I achieved my goal of getting some healthy dinner options at the ready, so I’ll call it a win. I’m not sure yet if I would attend again though; I will need to wait until we cook them up!

We have not been interested in many shows or movies on TV lately, so I’ve opted to read more instead. I’ve finished 8 books in the last 6 weeks which is really good for me! I typically always reach for thrillers or romantic comedy fictions. However during pregnancy and postpartum, I seem to develop a kind of anxiety where I just come up with the most ridiculous but scary scenarios of terrible things that can happen to my toddler or baby. I also have pretty vivid and scary dreams too, wake up easily, and take hours to fall back to sleep. So I try to limit the thrillers I read or anything disturbing on tv – even the news.

That’s meant I’ve actually been reading more non-fiction lately. I’m starting the audio version of The Anxious Generation. Most of what he’s sharing so far about the negative effects of social media and smart phones on kids going through puberty is not surprising or new at all, but there are many studies that show how strongly kids ages 9-14 specifically are impacted by living in a screen-based world rather than a traditional play-based world. Even though we have many years until we have to navigate this with our own kids, it’s still interesting to think about as a parent now!

Well that catches us up this week! Let me know if you make the muffins and if you like them :) I have a couple other picky toddler recipes to try out, but they don’t involve chocolate chips so we will see how they are received….

Xoxo

Kenz

Homemade Energy Bites {Clean Eating Recipe}

Confession: I eat and love packaged protein bars way too much. The nuttier, chunkier, chocolate-ier, the better. Mint Chocolate Quest Bars are my crack.

My favorite aisle in the Sprout’s store is the ‘nutrition bar aisle’ because SO MANY new brands and flavors of protein bars have popped up in the last couple of years. Anytime I see a new brand or flavor, I just have to try it. Luna, Clif, Quest, Kind, Larabar, Pure Protein, Raw Revolution, Nugo, Balance, Kashi – you get the picture.

Anywayyyys, my dependency on packaged bars to supply my protein and energy (or just satisfy my sweet tooth) sort of contradicts my goal to create a more ‘natural’ diet. I’ve been experimenting with lots of colorful and nutrient-packed Clean-Eating recipes over the past couple of years, and these power balls are my new clean alternative to the delicious-but-processed bar aisle!

Homemade Clean Eating Energy Bites on Strong Like My Coffee  Stronglikemycoffee.com

On Thursday, I left you with a little throwback post of my mom’s Power Balls recipe. As promised, I recreated the recipe this weekend with some modifications to lighten the calories and fat content. Even clean recipes can be unbelievably high in calories, because nutrient-dense ingredients tend to be calorie packed. For example, chia seeds pack 60 calories per tablespoon, medjool dates 120 calories for 6 dates, and nut butters around 200 calories for 2 tablespoons. Though quality trumps quantity when it comes to fueling our body, I use bars and protein bites as snacks or pre-workout fuel so I would like to cut out some calories and fat where possible.

Homemade Protein Bite Flavors on Stronglikemycoffee.com

New modifications:

Substitute 1 Cup Powdered Peanut Butter (2/3 cup powder + 1/3 cup water) for 1 cup regular nut butter

*The process of dehydrating the nuts removes 75% of the fat content, leaving a 2 Tablespoon serving with 55 calories.

Substitute 1/2 cup of food-processed medjool dates + 1/4 cup agave for the honey as a sweetener.

Add 2 Tablespoons Chia seeds.

Remove 1/2 cup ground flax seeds (I don’t care for the stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth texture).

Optional: Add 1/2 cup protein powder of choice

Homemade Clean Eating Energy Bites Ingredients on Strong Like My Coffee  Stronglikemycoffee.com

Find your favorite mix-ins.

I used some clean, some not-so-clean mix-ins. This batch was broken up into 3 flavors: Chocolate Cherry Chunk, Pecan Chocolate Chip, and Coconut Pineapple. The chocolate chips aren’t considered clean and could be removed or replaced with cacao nibs if you want to be really strict about it. The possibilities for mix-ins are endless! Cocoa powder…goji berries…get creative!

Homemade Clean Eating Protein Bites Mix-ins on Stronglikemycoffee.comHere’s the recipe I followed, but like I said, it’s really just a rough guide that you can add and change however you want!

Homemade Energy Bites:

  • 2/3 powdered peanut butter (I used PBFit) mixed with 1/3 cup water
  • 10 medjool dates, ground in a food processor to make date paste
  • 1/4 cup agave nectar
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1.5 cups rolled outs
  • 1/2 cup ground flax seeds
  • 2 Tablespoons Chia Seeds
  • 2 Tablespoons cinnamon
  • Mix-ins of choice: mini chocolate chips, pecan pieces, dried cherries, coconut flakes, protein powder, etc.

1.) There really aren’t any “directions”…..mix all above ingredients, roll into 1-inch balls, and store in the fridge or freezer! :)

Ready for the week:

Homemade Clean Eating Protein Bites Recipe  Stronglikemycoffee.comAnd I’ll leave you with a quick question: What’s your favorite store-bought protein bar?