My Picky Eater.... and a toddler friendly smoothie bowl!

In going with the theme of Hazel being our most difficult child, it comes as no surprise that girlfriend is picky. And picky eating is no exception.

She will eat cheese (string cheese is her favorite) strawberries, sometimes grapes, sometimes blueberries and cheese puffs.

And scrambled eggs. She is her mama's girl and could eat them every single day.

Needless to say getting veggies in her has been a struggle. She used to do ok with purees when she was younger, but she wasn't the biggest fan. She would eat the ones mixed with fruit and that was about it. A few months ago she really started fighting purees and being spoon fed. So it's been insanely difficult getting any kind of vegetable in her. I can sometimes hide them in a cheese quesadilla or in some pasta but for the most part, we fill her fill of fruits when she's in the mood to get something healthy in her.

We found these Gerber Lil Bits on our weekly strolls through Target and since they have teeny tiny chunks of food in it, I thought she might like it and thought I'd give it a try.

Well she still hates being spoon fed, but she did enjoy the chewing of the little bits. So we decided to practice self feeding since then and it's been interesting! But I did try a little something new with them and am so glad I did. I took a couple containers of the Lil' Bits apple banana,  and banana apple strawberry and made a smoothie bowl! I make smoothies a few times a week and she is always trying to steal a sip and since smoothie bowls are all the rage (or am I wrong? Totally last year?) I decided to give it a go!

I made myself my normal strawberry and pineapple smoothie with some almond milk. Next time I will probably make it a little thicker. But then I topped with it with the  Lil' Bits apple banana, and there you have it! Toddler smoothie bowl. And she loved it. She did end up drinking it out of the bowl with a straw after she had finished the little bits, but huge progress on the spoon feeding!

When she gets a little older I would love to add raisins, apple chunks and whatever else she can chew on, but for her age now, this is perfect. And super fast. Which is exactly what we need on the daily trying to get all three of these girls out of the door for drop off!