What I Ate Wednesday & Baby Snack: "Banana Pops"

Hey greenies! In today's post you can find my food for the day as well as one of my favorite baby snacks, "banana pops!" Let's get the ball rolling with this nursing mama's gluten-free, vegan eats for the day as linked up to the WIAW fun over at Peas & Crayons...

5:00 AM Just woke up snack: Food for Life Gluten-Free English Muffin,
with organic strawberry jelly, and Earth Balance vegan butter.

Workout: 1 hour of yoga, 2 episodes of Namaste Yoga...my favorite yoga series of all time that I blogged about here. Kind of like a chiropractor visit and a workout all rolled into one, love it.

7:30 AM Breakfast: Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie
Chia seeds, hemp seeds, raw cacao powder, rice milk,
2 frozen bananas, 5 frozen strawberries=my favorite way
to start the day.

9:15 AM First Morning Snack: Peanut Butter Cookie
Larabar...my new favorite flavor at the moment of these rocking
bars. Ingredients: dates, peanuts, sea salt.

10:30 AM 2nd Morning snack: Gluten-free, vegan pancakes
from Cinnamon Quill with Maple Agave Nectar. I make these
sugar-free by substituting the sugar out for coconut sugar.

11:30 AM 3rd Morning snack: 1 banana

12:15 Lunch: "Cheesy Casserole" with rice, tofu, broccoli,
carrots, and potatoes

Time for my snack-full afternoon...

2:15 1st Afternoon snack: Almond Dream Strawberry Yogurt

This yogurt wins my vote for best vegan yogurt right now!  Others have been watery, clumpy, or soy-full (I try to minimize my soy intake in my snacks and drinks since I often have it in meals, with tofu, tempeh, and veggie burgers). But not Almond Dream...so creamy and delicious! Maybe the hint of almond pairs well with the strawberry, I'm not sure, but the result is one delicious vegan (and gluten-free) yogurt.

Highlight #2: Becoming a ketchup-addict! I gave her a tiny bit
with her burger and she spent the rest of dinner pointing
and requesting the bottle. (My brother and fellow ketchup
fan, would be proud!)

3:15 2nd Afternoon snack: hand full of Plentils (lentil chips)
dipped in Trader Joe's Classic Hummus

Found these cool gluten-free chips at my local health food store, and they're pretty good. I'm a lentil fan...and chip fan, so double win! Here's the ingredients of the "Sea Salt" flavor: lentil powder, potato starch, safflower oil, salt, turmeric.

4:15: "Green Juice" (apple juice + green powder)

Time to come home and play with my two favorite people...

"Yep, that's my Dad."

At just the sight of the swing set, she's
GONE!

She's a pointing/grunting machine these days, pointing at
the dogs, the trees, or anything else she wants to bring your
attention to.

Catching some "air time"!

Oh yeah and she's got a new, lovely way of requesting "milk"
these days...

After feeding Avery, it was time to feed me with my favorite afternoon smoothie...

5:30 Just-got-home snack: "Chocolate Vanilla Smoothie": vanilla 
coconut milk, Chocolate Sun Warrior Rice Protein Powder,
spinach, 1 1/2 frozen bananas, 3 frozen strawberries

While I made and ate my smoothie, I gave Avery one of my favorite go-to baby snacks: a "Banana Pop" (as I call it).

Simple banana snack for my teething girl who just got tooth
#11 today!

Just take one frozen banana half, wrap a cloth napkin around the
bottom of it, then wrap a rubber band around it to keep it in place.
Then give it to your teething/or non-teething baby!

Avery loves them and will chew on them happily, while sitting in her new spot in the kitchen...the sink. I know, this probably isn't the most safe position for her to be, but it's better than being just out and open on the counter I suppose. Plus I'm always right next to her, and being down deep in the sink gives me a little extra sense of security. She loves being in the sink because it's close to the water (her favorite thing) and she can see what I'm chopping/cooking/cleaning etc.

7:15 PM Dinner: "Cheese-Stuffed Bean Burgers" from
Peas & Thank You (with gluten-free pasta/black beans,
 quinoa, onions and more) alongside some steamed broccoli
topped Cheddar Daiya Vegan Cheese.

Now dinner with Avery always has it's highlights and on this particular night, she did not disappoint.

She was full of spunk as she ate her burger and broccoli.

Highlight #1: Deciding to put her foot on the table...and then
putting food all over it. Lovely manners, I know.

Highlight #2: Becoming a ketchup-addict! I gave her a tiny bit
with her burger and she spent the rest of dinner pointing
and requesting the bottle. (My brother and fellow ketchup
fan, would be proud!)

I planned on making this frosting for some chocolate cupcakes I was experimenting with, but after storing it in the fridge overnight it took on a super-fudgy texture that tasted excellent on it's own. I tweaked the recipe by using raw cacao powder instead of carob powder, and adding one more tablespoon of coconut sugar instead of the stevia (never quite got into the taste of that). Either way, this is one delicious frosting...who would guess the base is a baked sweet potato! Give it a try.

Hope you all had a great Wednesday with lots of yummy food. See you next week!