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1.09.2013

Breakfast with T

In our household, breakfast never posed much importance until the arrival of our toddler. Waking at dawn on most days, T is hungry by 7am EST. My groggy self usually whips up a suitable breakfast in automaton mode. Here are some ideas:

French Toast- Super easy with store bought bread, especially if you're close to a Chinese bakery, the high-gluten flour that they use for sliced bread gives your toast great texture. Give your slice of bread an egg bath, toss it on the fry pan with a teeny bit of oil, some cinnamon and maple or agave syrup, good to go!
Omelets- Pop an extra ingredient to make it more filling or nutritious.
Frozen Pancakes- Serve with fruit/nuts/granola and yogurt on top.
Steel Cut Oatmeal- Make enough for a couple days and store in fridge. When ready to use, heat up a little milk and pour in oatmeal to warm. Add your mix-ins.

Growing up Chinese, we have a whole other menu of breakfast items. Some to share are:

Macaroni in Soup- Use any kind of broth (chicken, usually), add cooked macaroni, cubed carrots, peas and chicken, variations aplenty, tailor to taste.
Frozen Waffles- Use for pb&j's, nutella and pb. For really special mornings, condensed milk with peanut butter.
Chow Mein- Great to heat up in nuker for a quick breakfast. Don't use the typical American-Chinese oily noodles, instead, grab the thin or wide egg noodles. Stir fry the noodles with chives, a little soy sauce and sesame oil. If that's too plain, mix with an omelet cut into strips and add some chopped up veg.
Savory Oatmeal- use a savory broth to cook the oatmeal, add chicken or pork, peas and carrots, same idea as Macaroni in Soup

Happy Brekkie!

1.08.2013

Medicine

Is medicine 'good eats'? Perhaps not. But when faced with a fevering toddler, medicine cannot be avoided. Modern parents have a menu of options in their arsenal. Pharmacies can flavor liquids with their child's favorite syrupy concoction. There are quick dissolve tablets that actually taste decent. You can drown the 5ml of Acetaminophen in a 118ml suspension of cocoa and milk. So much available and yet, nothing worked. 

Here's the trick that totally got my 2 year-old blindsided- dissolve a quick dissolve tablet in a small amount of juice. It's that simple! The tablets are much more pleasant in flavor and lacks that icky, fakey sweetness of syrup meds. Pass it on.