Finn’s Half Birthday + Recent Eats (You’ll Love These Lunch Bowls)

Happy Thursday. I have some exceptional lunch bowls to share with you today but first…

(this photo is the current lock screen on my phone)

Today is Finn’s half birthday so he’s officially hit 3.5! It’s funny how we go from sharing how many months our kids are to “almost three, just turned three, three and a half.” Here are 12 of his current favorite things in no particular order:

• Cars and dinosaurs
• Being outside (back yard, front yard, playground – doesn’t matter!)
• The dogs
• Reading books (loving Curious George right now)
• SNUGGLING!
• Taking showers
• Play-doh
• Helping in the kitchen
• Jamming out to music in the car (he likes to DJ and tell me what to play)
• Going to preschool
• Shows and movies (loves Blippi, Clifford, Octonauts, Go Buster, DinoTrux, Vivo, Cars, Paw Patrol and many more!)
• Playing pretend and making up games

Here are 12 words that I’d use to best describe his personality:

• Thoughtful
• Sensitive
• Empathetic
• Loving
• Affectionate
• Kind
• Outgoing
• Friendly
• Imaginative
• Smart
• Well-spoken/communicative
• Adventurous

Being his mom is the most joy-filled thing that I have ever done in my life and every day gets better and better, even though I don’t understand how that’s even possible. Of course there are hard moments, and patience is always something I am working on improving, but Finn is the absolute light of my life and I love him so much. I know it’s cliche to say but I honestly can’t believe it’s already been 3.5 years.

Happy half birthday, Finn! 🙂

Now let’s talk food!

BREAKFAST

Apple cake, scrambled eggs and grapes.

Plain FAGE 5% with honey, granola, peanut butter, dried cranberries and defrosted frozen blueberries, cherries and raspberries from the freezer.

Thought I’d throw in this photo of a breakfast Finn had recently. We baked chocolate cupcakes one night and he did so much snacking on the icing and decorations that I could tell he didn’t want the cupcake he’d asked for for dessert. I told him he didn’t have to eat it and we could save it for breakfast the next morning. He was very excited about that and woke up with his cupcake top of mind! 🙂

LUNCH

This lunch bowl was excellent! Leftover couscous, leftover steamed broccoli, white beans, hummus, avocado and feta. I am officially on a white bean kick now – they are so creamy and delicious!

Here’s another equally as delicious bowl. This is the Trader Joe’s frozen Multi-Grain Blend with Vegetables. I cooked it in a skillet with a little avocado oil until it was heated through and then topped it with Cedar’s Feta Dip, Cedar’s Organic Original Hummus, half an avocado and Trader Joe’s Green Goddess seasoning. I mixed it all together and scooped it up with a whole bunch of pita chips.

Really been digging the cooked lunch bowls lately. This one was one mashed sweet potato with sautéed spinach, leftover Mediterranean salmon, hummus and half an avocado.

This lentil, cauliflower and kale soup with chopped sweet potatoes added in. Buttered Verdant bread and grapes on the side.

Spinach and arugula tossed in olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt and topped with steamed quinoa and green lentils, smoked salmon, avocado, hearts of palm, salt and pepper pistachios, dried cranberries, goat cheese and a lemon tahini dressing.

DINNER

Toasted pine nut couscous from a box, Mediterranean seasoned salmon that I got from ALDI marked 50% off because it needed to be sold by the next day (I got a huge piece of salmon for $4!), steamed broccoli, feta and a little scoop of sun-dried tomato and basil hummus. My mom got me back into steamed broccoli when she was here in September and I’m much preferring it over roasted lately.

Trader Joe’s frozen gorgonzola gnocchi with sautéed chicken sausage, roasted cauliflower and sautéed spinach added in. Topped it all off with parmesan cheese. Loved the addition of the roasted cauliflower – it really soaked up the sauce and was so flavorful. I almost always keep a package of this gnocchi in the freezer. It’s really good.

(Quick reminder that it’s really hard to tell portions by looking at pictures…I cooked the whole package of the gnocchi and four chicken sausages and it fed me for two dinners. There was a lot of gnocchi and sausage in this bowl!)

Chicken parmesan!!!!!!! I had been craving chicken parmesan for weeks so I finally made it happen last Friday night. This is one of my all-time favorite easy and homemade dinners. I have a chicken parmesan recipe/tutorial in this post. I had some fresh mozzarella in the fridge so that made the cheese topping extra delish. I served it with roasted brussel sprouts and they were a great addition to the dish.

This was such a random dinner but a good one. I was craving a baked potato but still wanted to get some protein and veggies in so I kind of served it open faced with a Trader Joe’s frozen turkey burger (another nice thing to keep in the fridge for easy meals) and the rest of the roasted brussel sprouts. Don’t show my dad this one, haha.

Steamed quinoa and green lentils topped with braised red cabbage (this recipe, minus the apples), roasted sweet potatoes and mushrooms, goat cheese and a lemon tahini dressing.

And that’s all I have for today. Time to enjoy the last hour of this gorgeous fall day that we are having and get outside with my 3.5 year old!

QUESTIONS

Do you have kids? How old?

What are some of their current favorite things? How would you describe their personalities? 

What shows/movies are they into?