Going Healthy: Homemade Peanut Butter Dippin’ Dots

03/04/2014 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

Going to the mall as a kid is a lot more exciting than it is as an adult. At least for me it is. As a kid, you are overwhelmed with fun toys being demonstrated right in the middle of everything, and the food stands have such interesting food to ~~lure~~ offer you.

Poor parents, most are doomed the moment you step foot into a mall with your child unless they have horse blinders on or are really good at saying no. Sorry, mom..

One treat I remember begging to get every time we’d go to the mall were Dippin’ Dots. Those little pellets of frozen, tasty ice cream would melt in your mouth to a creamy consistency worlds beyond regular ice cream. And the flavors, oh man the flavors, how could you choose just one? But the price for these little gems was ridiculous, and therefore, I was only able to choose one……okay, two. Thanks, mom!!

As a child into my young adult years, I was a pretty hefty boy, and things like Dippin’ Dots didn’t help. Now that I’m such a food snob and scrutinize every product with an ingredient label, I’d never touch these things again. Sorry, Avery, no fun mall treats like these, if anything. If you care, here’s the nutritional information and ingredient list for Dippin’ Dots.

https://secure.dippindots.com/extranet/downloads/Nutritional_Info_Gatefold_Brochure.pdf

Despite the cold weather we’ve been having, I have been thinking of these lately and really started to crave some. If you don’t mind the dots being larger, give this simple recipe a try. You’ll appreciate the short ingredient list and guilt-free pleasure to enjoy a large portion.

The peanut flour I use in this recipe is Anthony’s Organic Peanut Flour that you can buy on Amazon. It’s a great price and can be used in so many recipes or just mixed in water for a low fat peanut butter treat.

This would be a fun, safe, and delicious recipe to make with your little ones, and I can’t wait to get Avery in the kitchen to help daddy make these delicious and healthy dots! I only have, ohhhhh, a few more years….*sigh* Oh well, until then I’ll make sure she watches as much as possible.

Peanut Butter Dippin’ Dots

Ingredients

3/4 cup Greek or regular plain, non-fat yogurt (or 2 6oz containers)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup peanut flour or 2 tablespoons natural, creamy PB (I use NuttZo); just briefly heat to make it easy to stir

Directions

In a bowl, mix together the yogurt, vanilla, and peanut flour or peanut butter until well combined. I actually had a large 32oz yogurt container with the right amount left, so I used this to mix everything.

Put the yogurt into a plastic sealable bag, and zip shut.

Cut a small corner off the bag and use it like a piping bag to squeeze out small dots over a cookie sheet. I used a silicone baking mat for ease of transfer once frozen.

peanut butter dippin' dots, healthy, recipe, ice cream

Place in your freezer for a couple hours and wait, impatiently, if you’re like me.

Fold the mat to create a “V” shape and dump (if you didn’t use a mat, use a non-metallic spatula to scrape) into a container with a lid to freeze until ready to eat. Or just eat them right away! Warning: these melt somewhat quickly, so freezing your storage device before hand will help the dots keep their shape.

If you aren’t fond of peanut butter (you’re crazy), some other ingredients you could use are:

Honey or Agave to taste; start with about 2 tablespoons
Liquid or powder stevia; I love using Sweet Leaf’s Liquid Vanilla Stevia for this
Chocolate or Vanilla (or another favorite flavor) protein powder; measure the same as the peanut flour and you’ll have a very high protein treat
If you have a blender, try pureeing fruit to mix in; I’m thinking banana pureed and mixed into the peanut butter recipe would be happiness in dot form!
Pumpkin puree with pumpkin spices; yum!

The Texas weather may not make it seem like it, but Spring is coming up fast and this will be a perfect treat to start making and enjoying soon. Too bad Avery is stuck with milk for now. I guess I’ll have to make this for Kelley in hopes to pass it through to Avery in milk form. Who knows, it must do something!

I hope you are able to enjoy this easy to make, but hard to wait for recipe. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments!

Do you have any favorite recipes to make with kids? Please share if you do, I want to start thinking of things now for when the time does come!

Parenting

Our Bear Came Out of Hibernation

03/03/2014 R.C. Liley 5 Comments

Thanks to the below freezing cold here in Texas, we had to bring out the bear for our walk today. I don’t have a problem with the bear, just the reason we have to bring it out.

I love putting Avery in this thing, I just want to pick her up and hug her tight (but enough to breathe) forever! Just look….

She didn’t mind being stuffed in her bear suit and the Baby Bjorn (really need a better carrier and can’t decide on the Ergo, Boba, or Onya) with my winter jacket zipped over her, she just chewed on my coat for a while and finally fell asleep. I find it hard to stop walking if she’s still sleeping, so after a quick pee break at the house, I journeyed back outside to “bear” the weather. See what I did there? Ha.

Seriously, no more pictures... — Seriously, no more pictures…

Today was going pretty well until later in the afternoon when Avery started having bad gas and screaming fits. I know it was gas since she was busting out burps and farts that put me to shame! I feel it has to do with how she takes the bottle sometimes and I’m trying to make sure she gets as little air gulped in as possible. But with a squirmy baby, this is not an easy task.

After nap time in her crib was disrupted, I ended up holding her in the rocking chair until she fell asleep again. She was in and out along with the audible gas passing through our poor baby, but at least she got a little more rest.

Once Kelley got home, she took her and was able to feed her the good stuff sans bottle, which helped with the gas problem. I also gave her some Tummy Calm which I’m not sure if it helps or not, but it doesn’t make things worse.

So, I guess Monday’s can suck for the At-Home crew just as much as the working force! It’s Monday night as I write this and we’re hoping for a peaceful, gas-free night. Crossing fingers!

Have you ever used Tummy Calm or another homeopathic for your baby?
How’s the weather in your area? Do you like it hot or cold? I’m a heat lover way more than a cold lover; let me sweat!

Parenting

Ninja Turtle Puzzles at G-ma’s

03/02/2014 R.C. Liley 5 Comments

If weather here could talk, it would’ve said “Screw you, suckers!” this weekend. Saturday’s high was in the low 80’s and beautiful for our drive down to G-ma’s. Then, the very next day and we’re in the single digits! Thank you, Texas weather, for teasing us with 2 wonderful days of gorgeous weather and then WHAM!, we’re slipping on ice as we step outside.

Weather aside, we had a pretty good visit at G-ma’s. Avery wasn’t quite the outstanding baby I asked for in our conversation the day before, but she did flash us some smiles and let G-ma hold and feed her.

The only time Avery visited G-ma’s house was at 5 weeks old. Now that she’s 15 weeks old and aware of her surroundings, we think she was a little overwhelmed and got upset as night came around. One minute Avery was enjoying her time with Kelley and my mom (G-ma), and the next minute she bursts into crying.

Avery showing her Liley lip curl with G-ma

Of course, we never really know what makes a baby burst into the cutest yet nerve racking ball of tears, but we do our best to act like we do. We’ll say “Oh, it’s just colic.”, or “She probably has a dirty diaper.” Or maybe it’s because we missed a spot while dusting the mantle! Hell, babies just cry sometimes because that’s what they do. Yes, it sucks, and yes, I also try and make my own diagnosis for screaming baby syndrome.

Kelley and Avery chillin at G-ma's — Kelley and Avery chillin at G-ma’s

Although, Avery’s outburst was something abnormal for her at that time, so it just seems fitting to say it was from being a different environment. She carried on for a good hour as we passed her around like a hot potato trying different “techniques” (i.e. the same damn thing we all do with a crying baby, make weird sounds in her face and offer a boob or bottle while sniffing her diaper), until Kelley was finally able to soothe her to sleep. Oh yes, miracle boob strikes again!

Since Avery was sleeping in the room next to the living room, we kept the T.V. off for a while to make sure she was in a deep sleep.

Crap! What do we do with no T.V., you ask? What any normal group of adults would do….. We had drinks and put together 3 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) puzzles, of course!

Drinking and cartoon puzzles is where it's at! — Drinking and cartoon puzzles is where it’s at!

Growing up, I was a huge TMNT fan like most boys around that time. I remember my mom bringing me to Toys R’ Us if I had a good report card to let me pick out a TMNT toy. Lately, since we had Avery, I’ve been turning back into a kid again and have been hoping my TMNT toys were stowed away somewhere at my mom’s. I was determined to find something from my past when we visited.

Not long after we arrived, I was on the hunt for my childhood toys. After rummaging through the house and attic, I only came up with 3 Ninja Turtle Puzzles covered in dust. It was apparent that the original owner (me) didn’t do a good job at putting the right pieces back in the box, so we made a night of putting the puzzles together.

As I’ve mentioned in a past post, puzzles mean a lot to Kelley and me, and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening with her and my mom as we worked on these together.

We eventually retired into the living room and Avery slept better than expected through most of the night. We woke up in a seemingly different state with freezing rain and blistering winds so coffee was a given before we were going to do anything else. After a cup of coffee (three for me), we visited a little longer while Avery had a Cliff’s Notes version of her usual morning nap, and then we trekked our way back home in the cold.

Overall, we had a pleasant visit with my mom and hopefully next time Avery will be familiar with her surroundings and not transform into a ~~wicked terror~~ cute little crying baby. But if she does, I’m sure it will just be because she’s colicky….. 🙂