First Time Mom and Losing It

Thank you Del Monte for sponsoring today's post.


Now that the holidays are over, it is time to focus on getting healthy and starting the new year right. My family has been on a weight loss journey since August 31 so we ended 2015 with success! We want to continue with losing weight, getting active and giving our preschooler healthy foods. One of the meals we always struggled with was lunch because she is so picky. It is a new year and a new us so I wanted to make her lunches more creative and nutritious with the help of my favorite brands.


Young children are visual little people so it helps to make their lunches fun and colorful. Instead of a boring sandwich I took the Pepperidge Farm® Swirl Bread and made little cream cheese roll ups with them. All you have to do is take a slice of bread and roll is flat with a rolling pin (or cup). Then you spread a thin layer of cream cheese and roll it up.


My daughter loves all kinds of fruit which I am pretty proud of but sometimes it is out of season and really expensive. I am glad I have the option of the high quality fruit cups from Del Monte. Now with the Del Monte® Fruit & Veggie Fusions not only is she getting nutrients from the fruits but she is getting nutrients from the vegetable juice. Since the vegetable juice is infused with the fruit juice she doesn't even know it. To decorate the top of the fruit cup I love to add a special little note attached with a sticker.


Frigo® CheeseHeads® Cheese Snacks are one of my daughter's all time favorite snacks. I love that they are packed with calcium and protein and in a single serving package.  I like to wrap the napkin and utensil onto the cheese snack with a couple of pipe cleaners. After she is finished with her lunch she can entertain herself with the pipe cleaners.



What do you do to make your kid's lunch boxes fun? 

I love crafting and creating cute holiday themed outfits and treats for my daughter like my "Bow"Tiful Valentine and Valentines Day Shirt. I also love creating holiday themed recipes and treats to continue with the festivities the entire day. Last year we made special Valentines Day Pancakes and Toddler Friendly Valentine Cookie Bars.

Since my daughter loves fruit I decided to present it in a way that would be perfect for the day of hearts and love instead of the standard bowl of fruit that I usually give her. I also wanted to make it fun for her to eat.


I went out to my local discount store and found so many Valentine decorations. I picked up some cupcake wrappers that came with these cute heart picks and some glittery hearts that we could tape to the windows. I thought the picks would make festive little skewers and the wrappers would be the perfect little holders.


I always have fruit in the fridge especially strawberries which are my daughter's favorite. I took out some blackberries, strawberries and blueberries and picked though them to find the perfect ones. I cleaned them and then cut the strawberries in half.

I wanted the red of the strawberries to pop so I skewered them in between the deep colors of the blackberries and blueberries. Then I popped about four of them into the little cupcake wrappers.


As soon as I gave them to my daughter she said "Ooohhh hearts!" I took one and showed her how to eat it. (Make sure to supervise your kids eating them with the skewers. The tips were not super pointy but you never know.) She gobbled them all up and started playing with the skewers and counting them.


Stay tuned next week where I will show you a deliciously sweet and easy Valentine Day treat!