Happy Meals for Happy Tods 开心早餐

I love making simple breakies for my little ones on weekends, where I don't have to rush to work and they have off day from the preschool too. I tried to use healthy simple ingredients where possible and so far, these happy meals never fails to bring a joyous morning to us. :)

After my baby girl passed 18 months old, she get enjoy the pretty meal with her brother too.

This is a spin off from the previous post on Real Happy Meals which had expanded more than a dozen collections. Hope they bring some inspirations to you too :)

The Yellow Vroom Vroom Car

A multi color fruit platters to give the extra vitamin booster to my little boy. Banana, purple & green grapes and orange, all natural & under 5 minutes!

Hello Butterflies

A simple fruit platters to cheer up my little girl. Raisins, purple & green grapes and orange, all natural & under 5 minutes!

Hello Kittens!

The little happy kittens, made of fresh apple and dried apricot. Perfect to start a happy weekend!

Happy Chic Chic Family

Just pears, raisins and organic square cereal. Enough to cheer up my crying little girl.

Little Butterflies, again

Butterflies of guava and organic prunes. Took only 2 minutes to prepare.. Little ones love all sort of fruits but today I choose guava instead as my little captain suffered diarrhea recently and guava is said to be effective in reducing symptom of diarrhea.

Little Butterflies

Pear-ly butterflies and apricot flower for a beautiful Sunday.. excellent source of fiber and vitamin to kick start the day. Coupled with a big cup of fresh milk, just perfect!

Sail Away

Come sail with me on my potato chips under the mashmallow stars. The food art by my little Captain :)

Happy Snowmen

One apple, few dried blueberries and some puff puff stars, and Ta-da, the happy snowmen are born!

  

Five Little Ducks

Using banana, dried apricot & blueberries, small marshmallows and some star shape cereal, little one and I  created this happy meal together. The siblings were happily singing away before they ate their breakfast. :)

Under The Sea

Let's have an apple crab and Oreo sea monsters for breakfast, shall we? :)

Little House on the Sunny Hill

One bread wonder.. Wholemeal sandwich bread, apricot sun, marshmallow clouds, pear hills & some nuts and raisins. 

Spot the Odd One!
Triangular fish swimming about the deep sea corals, can you spot which of them is the odd one out?

Fish are made up of cheese sandwich with prune tails; whole meal Cherios as eyes and bubbles; fresh celery as corals.

In the Dinosaur Land I received some really cute Dino cookie cutters as Xmas gift last year, it was sold by the National History Museum of London. I have not made cookies for a while but I can certainly make some Dino french toast of my little ones. :)

Simpler version for my baby girl. Prunes, banana, cheddar cheese and French toast (hidden beneath the cheese)

The real dinosaur land for my little captain, with a giant coconut tree and a cheesy sun :)

Both of them happily chewed away their breakfast, only few slices of prunes left, I guess they must be really full!

Under The Sea
Little sea creatures.. We have happy crabs (homemade cheese nuggets), giant fish (apple) and a school of rectangular sea creatures (French toast), served with a dish of pumpkin purée as the dipping sauce.

My little boy said: "mommy this is not a fish, there is no fins!". Well he is technically correct :P

Here's the recipe for making the little nuggets.

Crazy Hair Bubu day

Little round face Bubu (cheesy French toast) has crazy curly hair made of scrambled eggs. He wears a green tie (green apples) and loves to hug.

Happy Meal time is a good story telling time :)

Watch Out for the Ambulance!

little ambulance made of French toast and banana is roaming around town, watch out for that coconut tree!!

Simple light breakfast for my little handsome, baby girl got a little "coconut tree" for breakfast too :)

Fruity Rainbow

Start the day with a colorful rainbow made of fresh prunes, apples, banana and raisins. This colorful serving is going to spice up your little ones' morning. :)

A Walk In The Park

Beautiful autumn tree and tulip flowers makes of grapes and green apples; tiny butterflies and sun makes of cherios. Simple breakfast filled with love and balanced nutrient. There's a glass of fresh milk not in sight. :)

Music for the Soul

What about some tiny music notes and keyboards for breakfast? My duo absolutely love this happy meal made of wholemeal sandwich, cherios and raisins.

This is my personal favorite to-date!

Little Strawberries Trees

A garden of strawberries trees and tiny butterflies. Served with Greek yoghurt as dip. Simple, healthy breakfast to kick start the day!

Sweet & Cheesy Ladybirds 
Pretty ladybird made of strawberries and dried blueberries, served on cheddar cheese slice over butter cookies.

That's all for now peeps, more to come!

Happy Meal {Christmas Edition} Snowman is Here!

We are all in the mood of Christmas, so while having fruits after dinner, I cut the apples into round slices so I can arrange them into these cute little snowmen (just cut apple into half and scope out the core with a spoon. No special tools required).

Little Snowmen playing under the starlight and snowflakes..

Says who that preparing Christmas food is time consuming? This took me only 5 minutes and my duo had fun munching away their apple snowmen. :)

Happy Meal: 5 Little Ducks

Want to make a breakfast that will brighten up the day? Why not try some simple food art, all you need is some ready ingredients and 5 minutes of cutting and arranging, and put your own creativity to test. 

I got my inspiration as I was cutting the banana for my little girl, and few minutes later, Ta-Da... We've got school of happy ducklings swimming under the bright blue skies, conttony clouds & a river full of fallen stars. 

"5 little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away...". 

My duo were happily singing along when the breakfast was served.

Check out more homemade happy meals here, hope these bring your little ones many happy mornings. :)

Tips to Introducing New Vege to Little One

Does your little one eats leafy veges? Not mine, they have difficulty chewing the fibers, while my 4 years old eats more variety of veges, my younger is very much confined to root veges or beans, like carrots, broccoli, cauliflowes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, potatoes, sweet peas, French beans, corns, asparagus. All the leaf-less veges!

However, I'm determined to introduce more greens into their daily diet at young age. So here's my first attempt with Kai Lan.

Kai Lan (芥兰), also known as Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale, has high vitamin C, K and also a good source of acid folic. It is also one of my favorite vegetables. To make my duo accept this leafy vege, I stir fry the baby Kai Lan with mushroom, carrots and chicken cutlets, then cut the Kai Lan into small circular shapes before serving to my duo.

See the Froggiee face in the rice? My boy said it's an alien. Whatever, they ate it without any complain. *wink* My little girl just popped every pieces into her mouth and emptied the plate. Well, except the mushrooms. They still don't like mushrooms. *sigh*

Food art is one good way of introducing new food to the little ones by blending it into the art. They will not even noticed there is something alien on the plate!

This is the portion for big guy and me. Quite a lot, I know. I mentioned I like Kai Lan, didn't I? :)

Next, I will use the same method to introduce other leafy vege to my duo, like Pak Choy, Choy Sum, which are currently growing in my garden (finger crossed they can survive the rainy weather.). Besides, you can also add the vegetables cutlets into fried rice, extra nutrition and nice color blend.

Here's the Kai Lan fried rice served with honey glazed chicken drumstick, they chomped down the fried rice without realizing I've added vege in there. 

Recipe for the chicken drumstick is available here http://food4littleones.blogspot.com/2012/06/honey-roast-whole-chicken-thigh.html

No recipe sharing for the Kai Lan as this is just a simple stir fry dish. However if you would like to know the method, do drop me a comment and I'm happy to share (when my duo would leave me alone..)

Lastly, when doing grocery shoppig with your little ones, do take the chance to introduce the vege to them; read the name aloud and let them touch, carry or weigh the vege, it helps them to understand what they eat and have a sense of involvement. This is all part of the learning experience in their growing years.

That's all peeps. Have a great Monday!

Tea Time Idea: Banana and Fruit Trees

Here's a really quick tea time idea that takes almost no time to prepare yet is healthy for the little ones. 

Banana & fruit trees... 

Consist of banana, organic raisins, organic pumpkin seeds (I used this for fried rice too!), crunchy cookie sticks and organic apricots.

My duo loved these snacks, so I had a peaceful time cooking without their constant interference thanks to these pretty treats and the sesame street.

A little close up.

Happy weekend!

Crabby Meal

When I'm out of idea on what to cook, fried rice is one of the usual that I fall back on. It's fast and nutrition pack with all the fresh ingredients used. For today, I used broccoli, carrots, onions, long beans, bacon, egg omelette and a dash of anchovies powder. Now you see why I said its nutrition packed? *wink*

To make it more exciting for my duo, I deployed the same tactic as rainbow rice today.. covered it using a bowl to let them explore what's underneath.

For my elder, I decorated it like a crab. Hence the name, crabby rice. He started by eating the limbs, then the eyes and finally the body. Chuckling all the way. :)

Good thing of using a bowl to cover up, it keeps the rice warm and you serve just the right amount of rice within a bowl.

My little girl had the same surprise too, she was actually screaming in joy as she lift up the cover, bringing joy to the little one can be this simple. :)

I added few drops of raisins as sweet treat.

Simple meal, but everyone was happy.

Have fun cooking! You may refer to the rainbow rice here

http://food4littleones.blogspot.com/2012/12/rainbow-rice-with-fish-nuggets.html

Happy Meals: Little Strawberries Trees

It's Sunday, and it's time for another happy meal. Since I bought some fresh strawberries yesterday, we are having them for breakfast today. But in a rather pretty way. :)

The little strawberries trees made of fresh strawberries and toasted whole meal bread. Served with Greek yogurt as dip. Added some little cherios butterflies.

The big ones are not left out. We too had a nice breakfast.

A beautiful morning, starts right now. :)

Happy Meal: Let's Play Piano!

As I was accompanying my little boy at his usual piano lesson, a new idea struck. I could make him a playable keyboard for meal time.

So here it is, Music Feast for the weekend happy meal.

With 2 slices of wholemeal bread, spread, some raisins and cherios, we made the keyboard and the music notes. Some happy cheesy fish swimming beneath. :)

My little boy was doing his "practice". 

 

Fun & healthy happy meal, snacking at home can be fun too. :)

 

Happy Meals - Fruity Rainbow for Breakfast!

Yippie, it's Sunday!

How do we love Sunday? With rainbow and fruits. Hence the little ones are having a big fruity rainbow for breakfast today.

A rainbow made of green apples, nectarines, organic raisins and banana, and some cute animal fruit picks. It's not a surprise when my little boy came into kitchen, saw the colorful serving and immediately offer to bring it out with a fork in his hand. :)

Simple, healthy, happy meals begin from a happy home. 

Happy Sunday peeps! 

Happy Burger for Happy Tot 笑脸蛋堡包

It's a leisure morning, sun is shining bright and birds are chirping in the garden. So I thought, hmm, why not a happy burger for my little boy?

Here it is, the happy egg omelette burger for my happy tot.  Served with organic prunes (for the hair) and organic cherios (for eyes and body). I used two little chocolate chips for the pupils and Nuttela for the lips :)

To make the "eyes" stay in place, I cut a small hole using the tip of the knife before I stuffed the cherios in place.

The egg omelette is full of goodness. I added a palmful of cheddar cheese, chopped celery, capsicums, fresh herbs and a little fresh milk into 3 eggs; mixed well, melted a teaspoon of unsalted butter and cooked the egg mixture for 2 minutes each side, or until golden.

Happy Meals 开心营养餐

I love happy meals that are healthy and pretty to the eyes. They are the weekend treats I made for my Captain E & Princess C, I thought it's an healthier option than bringing them to the McD happy meals. Homemade happy meals are fun to make (especially when little ones participate in the making) and needless to say, way healthier as I can be assured there is no junk used.

Here are different series of happy meals that I have made in the past few months. Click on the title to link to the respective post. Hope you get some inspirations from here & do visit this page often for latest updates! :)

Real Happy Meals: The Original

Happy Meals for Happy Tots

Real Happy Meals: Little Animals See the World

Happy Food Face Series

Happy Meal: Smiley Face Series

Ethan received this smiley Food Face plate as early Christmas present from his favorite uncle living abroad. I saw this online a year ago but was not keen to get one as it is made of porcelain and I though that is too fragile for little ones. Well, now that we have got one, I can offer alternative option to little Ethan's weekend Happy Meal and since my little boy is much older now, let's hope he will not drop it.. *fingers crossed*

Since there are so many possible combinations to make with this plate, I shall be uploading more photos from time to one, so stay tuned ;)


Happy Mustache Man

Smiley man with curly hair (scallop noodles and stripes of fried eggs), brown mustache (sausage) and green collar T (broccoli).

With the same soup base (using only veggies and homemade anchovies powder), my 1yo baby girl had her share of this yummy meal too. Minus the sausage and eggs of course.

Refer here for the anchovies powder recipe.


Interested to get one for your little ones too? I was told quite a few kitchenware stores in KL carry this product, so here's how the packaging looks like. Good luck hunting!

Mrs Happy 
Meet Mrs Happy Food Face, she loves to smile and she has lots of jewelry.. ;)

Mr Happy Hawaiian 

Mr Happy with blond beard and a messy hair made of fried rice and raisins :)