Beat the Heat with a Cold Summer Treat!

The heat has finally set in here, and we're pulling out sprinklers, baby pools, and delicious summer treats to stay cool! The watermelon this season has been fantastic, and both girls have been regularly requesting it multiple times a day and especially for breakfast. They love to eat it sliced in wedges like this...

Yummy!

Kid Friendly Pasta Salad

Who doesn't love a cold pasta salad on a hot summer day? In addition to being tasty, cool and refreshing, pasta salad is one of my secrets for providing a variety of healthy foods my entire family will love. Don't get caught up in visions of plain jane macaroni salad from the grocery deli - come up with a list of fruits, vegetables, meats and cheeses that your family likes and group them in complimentary combinations. Then come up with a dressing that is well suited to your combination- easy, right? And the combinations are endless.

The photo above is one of my girls' favorites right now - let's call it a very grape garden salad! As this is more of a method than a recipe, here are a few tips, and then a list of ingredients:

Keep ingredients small enough for little mouths, and also easy for little fingers to pick up if the fork and spoon loose their appeal. When making these salads, I often cook 2 boxes of pasta at once and make 2-3 different salads so we can rotate flavors.

In the salad above, we have peas, corn, sliced grape tomatoes, sliced grapes and shredded cheese with a poppyseed dressing.

Does your family love pasta salad? What are your favorite ingredients?

This post was written as part of the Hungry Toddler Blog Hop. Join the fun, add your linky below!

Berry Granola Parfait

It's berry season here in the midwest, and here at the Problem Solvin' homestead we are picking strawberries and raspberries. It looks to be a promising season for blackberries as well, which is always exciting! One of my favorite quick treats with fresh berries (other than enjoying them fresh in the garden with my family) is a parfait. Easy to throw together and healthy, I love to enjoy one after the girls are in bed as I'm winding down for the day. Serving it up in a wine glass makes it extra special and helps keep my portion in check.

In this parfait, I combined roughly 1 cup of sliced strawberries with half of a cup of homemade granola and added a drizzle of warmed Dark Chocolate Dreams. I will share the granola recipe next week. Yogurt is delicious in a parfait as well, but when the berries are especially fresh I like the way they stand out against the crunchy granola.

What is your favorite late night treat?