The Developmental Doula

A few recent lunches if you’re in need of any new ideas! 🍀

We’ve been loving these brioche sub buns-largely because they are not fortified/enriched synthetic vitamins, which we’ve found are kids do better with.

We’re late enough into the school year that I have a great idea of how much to pack and how much R will eat, which realt helps reduce food waste in these high grocery price times!

🥕🐰Spring is on the way, and I wanted to share our most recent sensory bin! You don’t need a Flisat table for this, you can fill a plastic bin and just put it at the table or even outside. I did that for 2 years before getting the table.

I found the threaded 🥕🥕 at the dollar store and they inspired me to go home and dye some rice. 💚

The foam stickers keep my kids busy for hours—especially my 3 year old! Yesterday she was using the foam stickers to make a whole family and I had to sneak and video as she played house with foam eggs! ☺️ 😆

You can also add a small garden shovel to the rice to keep on theme. As an OT, I can never pass up the opportunity for some good scooping and pouring.

🍜 Lasagna Soup 🍜

This one is too good not to share! I couldn’t remember how I made it the first time, so I tried to focus more this time so that I could share it with you! I know for sure that the first time I used beef broth-which was equally as good as the chicken broth in this soup.

My 6 year old doesn’t love mixed foods, so you can see the little burger patty off to the side that I made as part of his dinner.

I drained the beef, and then added it back to the pot with onion. After that was sautéed I added the garlic—Then I squeezed about a tablespoon of tomato paste in and scraped the brown bits up with a dash of wine (or balsamic). I cut the spinach with scissors so it was easier for the kids to eat.

It’s a pretty basic soup equation! I added heavy cream at the end, which was a yummy addition. I used about 8 broken up lasagna noodles uncooked!

I’ll share some of the recipe in the comments. I’m still working on it 😆

🏈 A few recent lunches, including football grilled cheese! 🏈

R was excited to hear that the Chiefs won, because he heard the guy mention them on his Yoto player!

It also turns out that I haven’t lost my dance skills to Luda and Usher 🤣

Easy and affordable Valentine idea!

R’s class is doing a pencil swap, but I got these back in December, so his teacher said no problem. 🩷🩷🩷🩷

I’m working on some new things for the OT side of my business, which I can hopefully launch by the end of the year.
Who knew starting a business while being home with 2-3 kids 24/7 would be challenging! 🤪

My favorite job is staying home with my children, but I do have days where I yearn to use my OT brain on kids other than my own. Doing some child development coaching helps fill the gap a bit!

🫑 Stuffed pepper soup 🫑

No more wasting time stuffing the peppers. Top with some cheese, serve with a salad and some crusty bread, and you’re good to go!

My 3 yr old kept saying, I love your new recipe, mama!🤣

1 lb ground beef
Half an onion
3 peppers of any color
1 cup cooked rice
One box beef broth (4 cups)
1 can tomato sauce (15 ounces)
1 can diced tomatoes
Italian seasoning (tablespoon or more)
Salt/pepper
2 small or 1 large bay leaf

A dinosaur 🦕 with snowflakes ❄️ to represent the unexpected snow and crazy drive to school today!

We did breakfast for lunch for my 1 and 3 year old on this cozy snowy day.

An awesome 3 ingredient snack now at Costco! Only $9.99 for 24 little bags. It kind of feels like a treat for them, too! They both just crunched down a bag in no time 😆 🍠

Avocado oil is a great swap for seed oils like canola, palm, or vegetable.

Have you tried these before?

I made cookies with my daughter this morning and she kept asking where the dough went.

“It has to chill in the fridge for a little…”

And I kept picturing dough chillin in the fridge 😆

By the way, are you team oatmeal chip or oatmeal raisin?

We had to do pizza croissants again🍕 🥐

They are so yummy and I loved the feedback via messages when you made them. By the time you assemble them, the oven is preheated…it can all be done while the kids eat breakfast.

Speaking of breakfast, my 1 year old is an eating machine. He had this (Good Culture) whole milk cottage cheese and a Dave’s protein bagel. Now it’s 2 hours later and he’s having a homemade date bar and pizza croissant! 😆

Homemade beef broth 🥣

I had some beef bones to use, so I decided to make beef vegetable soup with noodles. I had some cauliflower and green beans to use up.

Making broth can seem intimidating, but as long as you’re around to let it sit on the stove, it’s pretty easy! I used a strainer at the end for the bones and saved all of the good beef pieces. They were pretty tender!

The kids and my husband all slurped it up so quickly!

Super simple lunch today with his fave salami sliders! We are trying our best to avoid seed oils-any little bit helps, right?