Quick And Easy Snacks For Your Toddler

Your growing toddler needs to snack quite a few times a day in addition to eating regular meals with the rest of the family. Here are a few quick and easy snack ideas that you can put together in just a few minutes. You toddler will enjoy these yummy snacks.

Ham and Cheese Crackers
Cut up some pieces of ham and cheese and serve them with some crackers. If you want to make it fun, use a cookie cutter to cut fun shapes out of the cheese.

Fruit Dip
Caution, this can get a little messy!
Cut up some fruit in bite size chunks and serve with a small bowl of yogurt. Encourage your toddler to dip the fruit in the yogurt. This is an easy way to get your toddler to eat a serving of fruit, while also getting some extra calcium and protein in his/her diet from the yogurt.



Low Sugar Cereal
I always keep a box of low sugar cereal like cheerios in my pantry. They make a great snack with a little milk, or even just a bowl of dry cereal. Dry cereal also make a great take-along snack. Just throw a serving in a Ziploc bag and toss it in your purse.

Veggies and Dip
Keep some cut up veggies in the fridge. Small pieces of carrot, peeled cucumber, celery as well as small sections of broccoli and cauliflower all make great finger food for toddlers. Make sure the pieces are very small to prevent choking or steam them to soften them up. Serve with a little ranch dressing if desired.

Peanut Butter Sandwich
A PB&J has been a snack staple for ages. Mix things up by toping the peanut butter with some thin slices of apple or banana instead of the jelly. Or try smearing the peanut butter on a tortilla. Add jelly and roll it up. Cut the rolled up tortilla into strips for a fun new way to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Quick Cheese Quesadilla
Place a soft tortilla on a microwave safe plate. Top one half with cheese and fold the other half over it. Microwave 30-60 seconds or until the cheese is melted. Cut into wedges and let it cool a little before serving.

Quick Smoothie
Throw half a banana or some berries in a blender along with some vanilla yogurt and a splash of milk. Add a little ice if desired and blend until smooth. Serve in a sippy cup or with a straw for a quick fruit smoothie. Your toddler will love drinking a milkshake for a snack.

Give these fast, easy and healthy snack ideas for your toddler a try. By the way, these make great snacks for everyone else in the family as well including mom.

By: Christine Steendahl

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Some Simple Easy Wine Recipes

If you're into homemade wine, you know the importance of getting some good homemade wine recipes. Just throwing some fruit juice and a fermenting agent in a jar and letting it sit for awhile will get you nothing but nasty fruit juice. You can of course try your own mixtures if you're adventurous, and of course doing so is part of the fun of making your own wine, but especially if you are a beginner youll want to follow the easy wine recipes to the tee. Once you're a bit more experienced, you can start experimenting with different fruit mixes and sugar levels, and who knows - you may even come up with some of your own homemade wine recipes over time! But to get you started, here are some basic recipes you can try.

Mulled wines are a great alternative to hot cocoas, ciders, and other such drinks. They are very easy to make, and once you get the hang of it, you can come up with your own mulled wine recipes. Usually you just take one regular bottle of any red wine and put it into a large stewing pot.

Add a quarter cup of brandy, about 10 cloves, 2/3 cup of sugar, some whole cinnamon sticks, and about a teaspoon of ginger or allspice. Let it simmer over very low heat, stirring it occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. You can experiment with this type of easy wine recipe by adding some favorite pureed fruit or fruit juice, or by using honey instead of sugar as a sweetener. By using different types of red wines, you'll also be able to get either stronger or mellower flavors.

Apple wine is also a favorite for homemade wines, and while these easy wine recipes are a bit longer, they yield a very good product. Your wine mix is merely 2 containers of frozen apple juice (thawed) and 4 cups of sugar, more or less to taste, with about 2-1/2 quarts of water. As with most easy wine recipes, you boil the sugar in about a quart of the water until it is dissolved, and add this to the apple juice. Add about 6 teaspoons of acid blend, a campden tablet, a quarter teaspoon of grape tannin, a half teaspoon of pectic enzyme, and a package of wine yeast. You then prepare it as you would any other wine. Since this is one of the most basic homemade wine recipes there is, you can experiment with it by mixing the apple juice with other fruit juices. Half apple juice and half grape juice is good; cherry or blackberry juice works well too.

You can also adjust this homemade wine recipe by eliminating the apple altogether and using half grape juice and half grapefruit juice.

The important thing to remember when mixing up the fruits that you use in your homemade wine recipes is that you don't want to use all tart fruits or all sweet fruits. A good way to remember this is to think of the colors of the fruit, and use two from different colors. For instance, grape and apple, banana and cherry, and so on. These types of mixtures usually make the best easy wine recipes for homemade wines.

By: Alyssa Nair

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Easy Vegetarian Recipes Fast Delicious & Easy!

Easy vegetarian recipes. Millions of vegetarians are eager to find delicious and easy vegetarian recipes. Vegetarians, like other Americans are busy. With work, kids and extracurricular activities, having adequate time to prepare meals is difficult Thats why finding easy vegetarian recipes is of paramount importance. This article will provide you with a few delicious options. Note, these recipes assume that you eat dairy products.

Easy Vegetarian Recipes

Cinnamon-Sugar Tortilla Crisps

5 Tortillas

2 Tbs butter

Sugar and Cinnamon to taste

2TBS oil

Butter both sides of each tortilla. Sprinkle both sides of the buttered tortilla with sugar and cinnamon. In the meantime, heat pan to medium. Fry tortillas for about 1 minute on each side. Make sure not too overcook. Your tortillas should puff up when they are ready to be turned over.



Bean Burritos

Package of tortillas

2 C of cheese

1 Can of rotel

1 Can kidney beans

1 Can navy beans

1 Package of enchilada seasoning

? C of water

Mix navy and kidney beans, rotel and enchilada seasoning. ? cup of cheese and water. Bring to a simmer. Fill and roll tortillas with mixture. Top with remaining cheese. Cover for 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until the cheese melts.

Easy Blueberry Pie

1 Package of ready made graham cracker crust

1 Can blueberry pie filling

2 Tbs cream cheese

1 tub whipped cream

Let whipped cream and cream cheese soften. Spread cream cheese along the bottom of the graham cracker crust. This should only be a thin layer. Add blueberry pie filling. Top the pie with softened, whipped cream. Loosely cover and let sit in fridge for 1-3 hours.

By Roxanne Manning

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