Here's a snack your kids will love. I used to make these for Caleb all the time when he was younger, but it had been a while since I last made them! I forgot how much he liked them. Today I made a batch and not only did he really like them and asked me to put them in his lunchbox for snack tomorrow, but Chloe liked them a lot, too - and she is my picky eater. 

They're pretty simple to make and they're a healthy alternative to chips and goldfish! 

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 400°F. 
2. Rinse and drain the chickpeas. 
3. Dry the chickpeas. Pat them very dry with a clean dishtowel or paper towels. They should look matte and feel dry to the touch. Remove any skins that come off while drying. 
4. Toss the chickpeas with olive oil and salt (or spray with your cooking spray) and make sure they are evenly coated. 
5. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes. Stir the chickpeas or shake the pan every 10 minutes. The chickpeas are done when golden and slightly darkened, 20 to 30 minutes total. 
6. Toss chickpeas with the spices. (I put the spices on before and they burned.) Stir to coat evenly. 

​
Enjoy!!

xoxo, 

​Jenise

Deconstructed Smoothie Bowl 

Ingredients
1/2 cup whole milk plain Greek yogurt
2 tbsp of your favorite peanut butter
​Fresh fruit (we used strawberries and blueberries)
​1 tbsp local honey (only if baby is over 1 year old)
1/2 tsp chia seeds


Directions

1. Put yogurt in bowl.
2. Drizzle peanut butter over the yogurt
3. Sprinkle berries over the top. 
4. Drizzle with honey.
5. Top with chia seeds. 

Click below for the printable version!

It's so easy and Chloe has devoured this every time I've prepared it for her. 
​I first tried Pic's Peanut Butter a couple of years ago and we loved it. It's an Australian company that only uses 100% Australian Hi Oleic peanuts. This smooth no-salt peanut butter (they have a salted option, and a crunchy one, too), is so smooth and has such a rich, nutty flavor. The ONLY ingredient in this particular one is peanuts. That's IT. So I know exactly what it is that I am giving my kids. 

I like to use local honey because it helps with allergies and also because I want to support local growers as much as possible. The one we buy is an Orange Blossom Honey and it's delicious. 

Let me know if you try this recipe, and how your kids like it! 

xoxo, 

​Jenise

On Sunday, May 5, I had the chance to celebrate the third anniversary of the blog with some friends, family, and followers that I was able to put faces to. It was a great day, and I'm so grateful for all the people who came out to say hi and show their support, as well as all the amazing people who helped make the event a success. 

We were hosted by Cao Bakery in their flagship location on Miami Beach. If you grew up in South Florida, you know the iconic Vicky Bakery, and this is a branch of Vicky Bakery. They have some of your classic favorites like pastelitos and croquetas, but they are also bringing new items to the table (no joke, they bring it out to you!). We are so grateful for their hospitality and for the beautiful location and tasty bites they gave us to sample. 

The first 15 guests to arrive received goody bags, filled with all kinds of awesome stuff. We had items from Johnson's Baby, Neutrogena, Clean & Clear, and Aveeno.  There were discount cards for a photo session with me, and discount cards for an organizing session with Jessica of Thoughtfully Organized. There were full sized Mary Kay products thanks to Mari Grenillo, a travel-sized bottle of Erase makeup remover from Selah Skin Studio, and mini liquor bottles thanks to my friend Mari of Royal Liquors. 

Our guests enjoyed some bubbly and rose from Obvious Wines, courtesy of my incredible husband and his company, Freehold Real Estate. Parents could also have some of the great sitters from College Nannies Sitters and Tutors watch their kids so they could enjoy some time socializing and grabbing a bite! My beautiful friend Sasha De Almagro was snapping away throughout the entire event to capture all these awesome photos for me to share with you!

We also had some great prizes to raffle off, and I couldn't have done that without the generosity of so many of my favorite brands! 
You definitely want to check them out!

• Rodan + Fields (Veronica Linette)
• Shop Blop
• RYLA Pack
• The Little Armoire
• LP Original
• Selah Skin Studio
• Bookroo Box
• Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science
• Miami Children's Museum
• Taudrey

I am eternally grateful to all of you for your continued support and for trusting in my recommendations and what I share with you. YOU are the reason I continue to do this. I couldn't do it without the support of my family and friends, and I hope that I can continue making you proud for many years to come! 

xoxo, 

​Jenise

When it comes to starting solids, it seems like there are several schools of thought. There’s the traditional route of rice cereal and purées, and within that category are those who make all their purées from scratch and then there are those who use store-bought purée. There’s baby-led weaning, which is considered progressive in some cultures, but if you talk to any mom with more than two kids you’ll probably hear something about how their third started on table food much more quickly than their other children did. There are those who say, “Food before one is just for fun,” and those who feel like their babies need more than breastmilk or formula to stay satisfied. 

And I’m going to tell you that however you decide to start feeding your babies solids is for you and your child’s pediatrician to decide. I like to do a large combination of all of these things because I am all about balance, reality, and the ease with which I can adapt my kids to everyday life. 
But I’m also going to tell you that amidst writing this post and introducing solids to Chloe, I also had to change my entire approach. So take it all with a grain of salt, and modify when needed. There's a saying in Spanish, "Cada hijo es un mundo," and it translates to "Each child is a world." Basically, no two children are the same, and what works for one of your children may not work for another. So like with anything else related to children, adapt adapt ADAPT. 

First things first. Talk to your child's pediatrician. Make sure your pediatrician thinks your child is ready to start solids. With both of my kids, since I was exclusively breastfeeding, my pediatrician's recommendation was to wait until 6 months to introduce solids. I also feel more comfortable waiting until my kids are sitting up a little better, even if it's with support, just so that they aren't flopping over. ​

​Decide on how you will start and gather what you need. If you're buying foods, figure out which ones you need to buy. If you're making it yourself, you'll need a few additional supplies! You don't need a special baby food maker - but you will need something in which to steam your veggies, a good blender, and containers to store and freeze the foods. You can check out my Amazon Idea List to see some of the things I use. 

Just start! Don't overthink it too much. If your baby is showing interest in foods, it's probably a good time to try it. 

A couple of key points I follow, regardless of what methods I'm trying: 

• I only try one new food every three days. This is to rule out any allergies. If you're trying too many foods at one time and your child has a reaction, it might be difficult to rule out what caused the reaction. 
• I alternate fruits and veggies. My pediatrician recommended fruits first, and I know there are others who recommend vegetables first so kids don't get used to the sweetness first. So, I alternate.
• I skip cereal. This is totally up to you, but I'm just telling you how I do it. Rice/oatmeal cereal is recommended first because there's a low chance of an allergic reaction. I think it was also recommended as a first food when foods were introduced at 4 months because it was more bland and again, less chances of a reaction. I personally see no nutritional value in it, and I don't feel the need to "fatten my kids up". I'd rather start with something that will give them actual nutrients. The only issue with not giving cereal is that cereals are usually fortified with iron, and breastmilk iron stores usually start to deplete around 6 months. To balance this out, once I've introduced plenty of foods, I do a lot of iron-rich foods (leafy greens, meats, lentils). I also make bone broth and freeze it in cubes, and mix it into whatever foods I am giving them to add some additional iron. 
• I start with one feeding a day. The first couple weeks of trying foods are pretty disastrous. There's tons to clean up and more often than not a post-feeding bath is required. So until they get the hang of it, once a day it is. 

When I was ready to introduce solids to Caleb, I did a lot of reading up and came across baby-led weaning (BLW). I thought it had some really great merits, but I was still a little hesitant. I had a conversation with a great friend about it and she told me she had done a combination of BLW and traditional purees with her twins. After talking about how she did it, I knew it was something I could really get behind. 

Some of the things I liked about BLW: 

• Self-feeding. Obviously at first, you are sitting there watching them like a hawk. But Caleb was eating on his own so quickly that I don't remember spoon feeding him very often. But letting them feed themselves helps out in several ways, including in helping them to develop their fine motor skills.
• Hunger/fullness cues. Allowing babies to feed themselves allows them to recognize their hunger cues and let you know when they are ready to stop. 
• Ease of everyday. Its easy to go to a restaurant and let a baby pick off your plate. You don't have to carry anything extra and you don't have to ask for anything to be warmed up. It's also easier at home to not have to prepare a separate meal. 

So how did I integrate the two?

Whenever I tried a new food, I introduced the "solid" first. These are finger-sized pieces of food that baby can grab and bite. Vegetables are steamed or boiled so they are soft enough for baby to chew. I prepared half of the food this way and then pureed the other half. After they had a chance to explore the new food, I would give them some in puree form so that I could make sure they ingested it. So I basically combined the best of the two methods and found what worked for us. 

Again, this may or may not work for you, and for Chloe, it's been an adventure. I finally figured out that she likes fruits, but she isn't crazy about veggies, so if I mix the two, she will eat it. Of course she wants nothing to do with homemade food! 

If you are in the process of starting solids with your little one, I hope this helps. But again, please please please check with your child's pediatrician before you introduce solids. This is simply me experience with my children and I am not a medical professional. 

Good luck, mommas (and daddies, too!)! You've got this!

xoxo, 

​Jenise

As a mom to young kids, I don't often have a ton of time to prepare meals for myself on a daily basis. Most days I'm okay with leftovers or some eggs for lunch, but sometimes I want something different. When PerfectFit Meals reached out to me, I thought this was something that I could really fit into my day-to-day.

Unlike a meal delivery service, I can find these at my local Publix grocery store, and I can keep as many or as few on hand as I want. They give me the option to have a nutritionally balanced lunch, designed by a dietician, and filled with the same ingredients I might use at home. 

They are sealed for freshness, so they don't have to be frozen, and they take less than three minutes to heat up and be ready to eat. They use a process called high pressure processing to kill off bacteria and make the food safe to eat and keep in your refrigerator longer than most meals.  All of the meals I tried were delicious, and I was actually able to eat them all one-handed because of the way they were prepared. 

My husband actually tried some of the meals as well and he was really impressed with the taste. While some of them have a higher sodium content than I would like to consume on a really regular basis, they did have some options that had a lower sodium content. If you're worried about sodium, the Roasted Pork Loin meal has the lowest sodium content of all the meals and was so tasty (it was actually my favorite!).  I also don't eat a diet high in sodium, so that's not really a concern for me if I'm eating a couple of these a week. They have a couple of Paleo options if you're on a Paleo diet. A couple of the meals (like the Turkey Skillet Scramble I'm pictured eating) had a little more of a kick than I'm used to, but they were still good and didn't have enough of a kick that it affected Chloe when I nursed her. 

I thought the meals were filling, and hearty enough that I wasn't hungry afterwards. The meals didn't taste like they had been sitting around forever, either. I can honestly see myself keeping a few of these in my fridge for the days when I realize it's 2 pm, I have to pick Caleb up from school, and I haven't had lunch yet. Because they are ready so quickly, they're just a really good option so I'm not eating fried eggs or peanut butter and jelly five days a week (clearly I have a very grown up diet lol). 

So if you're struggling to eat a balanced meal a couple times a week, grab a couple of these and keep 'em in your fridge. I don't think you'll be disappointed! You can find out if your local grocery store carries them here. 

xo, 

Jenise