Recipe: Pizza Sauce with Lentils

Lately, Liam has been going through this picky eater phase where he will only eat fruit, grains, and dairy.  Unless it's a sweet potato or spinach, he will not touch vegetables despite how many times I've placed them in front of him.  And proteins like meat or beans.....forget it!  I'm a firm believer of offering your child vegetables and other nutritious foods in order to encourage nutritious eating.  However, I'm also a firm believer of sneaking in certain foods when your child won't eat any.  My method is to offer some foods in their visible form and sneak some in somewhere so Liam will get some sort of balanced nutrition.

This lentil pizza sauce is my way of getting Liam to eat legumes since he loves pizza.  It's simple and nutritious.  Plus, Liam never even realized that there were lentils in it since the sauce was pureed.

Here I used the sauce on english muffins for a quick lunch "pizza".

Pizza Sauce with Lentils

15 ounce can of tomato sauce
15 ounce can of diced tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 onion (diced)
1-2 teaspoons of dried oregano (depending on your taste)
1 heaping cup of cooked lentils
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

1.  Heat the olive oil in a medium pot.  Saute the onions for about 3-4 minutes.  Then, add the garlic and saute for an additional minute.
2.  Add the remainder of the ingredients to the onion and garlic mixture.  Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to medium.  Simmer the sauce for about 20 minutes.
3.  Remove the sauce from the heat and allow to cool for about 15-20 minutes.  After cooled, use your food processor to puree the sauce.  Do this in batches to ensure that the sauce doesn't leak out of the food processor.
4.  Use the pureed sauce on any pizza recipe or on english muffins for a cute take on a quick and easy pizza.

Toddler Fun: Cardboard Box Activity

It has been a very long time since I posted last.  Frankly, I almost gave up on this blog due to limited readers, but I decided that blogging simply for the intrinsic reward is good enough for me!

There are so many different pre-made activities that you can buy in the store to entertain your toddler.  However, I found that buying all of those things can really add up.  The best thing about toddlers is that they are super easy to please as long as they're having fun!

Here's an inexpensive way to turn a cardboard box into a play center.  I just used a box that we used recently for moving and toys that I had stored for next week's toy rotation.  If you use toys that your little one has not seen in a while, it will make the activity much more appealing.
 
Materials

Cardboard box
Scissors
Toys, small books, and other toddler safe items

1.  Cut out different shapes (circle, square, rectangle, triangle) in different places on the box.  Make sure that the holes are big enough for your toddler's hand/arm.  Also, try varying sizes of shapes to make the activity a little more challenging for your toddler.  He or she will figure out that certain items will not fit in some of the holes allowing the use of problem solving in order to get that pesky toy out!

2.  Place toys and items of varying shapes, sizes, and textures inside the box.

3.  Model how to pull the items out of the box and allow your toddler to explore.