Getting a full serving of veggies while having fun!

This post was sponsored by Happy Family brands. All opinions are my own.
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A few weeks ago we scored an awesome deal on a Burley double bike trailer and I've made it part of our morning routine to head out for a bike ride after breakfast.

Let me be honest for a minute - yes, the bike ride is primarily a way for me to get some daily exercise in. Our house isn't set up very well for me to do a workout video during naps and I'm just not a gym person anymore. But, over the last year I've been inspired by my blogging-gal-pal to workout with both kids so the bike is where we're at right now.

But most importantly, and this is probably the clearest picture that I can paint of my season in life, this daily bike ride is my best guarantee for 20-45 minutes of peace and cooperation between the girls. That's not to say that it's the only 20-45 minutes I get each day, because I'd say that 60% of the time everyone gets along. But it's the 40% of not getting along that wears on me. So I'll do just about anything for that state of mind, and yes that even includes exercising! Gasp!

What are the key components to this peace and quiet that I'm able to achieve with fairly good consistency?

Entertainment
Just in case gazing out into the wide, wide world isn't enthralling enough, I like to pack books or their favorite dollies into the trailer with them. Two sets of each, of course, so there aren't any squabbles. Ruby gets her favorite board books and Penny packs her princess stories. Each girl gets her sister-appropriate Frozen princess and queen.

Food
Snacking on the go is also a peace keeper for my family. Mess free and safe snacks are especially important in the bike trailer, where I don't have immediate access to clean up a mess or heaven forbid aid in a choking emergency. So I'll pack reusable cloth baggies filled with snacks that both Penny and Ruby can share - pretzels, popcorn, apple slices, yogurt dots, as well as our very favorite food pouches - Happy Family brand, of course! And because of a recent bought of pickiness from both girls, I've been sneaking their veggies into their diet by way of the Love My Veggies line. We chose these pouches because they are the first toddler pouch to contain one full serving of vegetables* (*one serving of vegetables is 1/4 cup). Love My Veggies pouches are available in three varieties: banana, beet, squash & blueberry; carrot, banana, mango & sweet potato; spinach, apple, sweet potato & kiwi. Because my kids are already familiar with on the go pouches, it's easy to get them to slurp these down without any convincing.

Chatter & Interaction
Our typical bike route follows the neighborhood bike/walk trail, which is along a dike. A stream flows along with us and in the early morning we see ducks, frogs, beautiful spring flowers and even a heron the other day. While I pull everyone along, I point out different things we see so that the girls are paying attention to the outside world (and not only absorbed in their books or snacks). This is how Penny learned about stop signs, stop lights, left and right turns, and of course - where along our route we can spy mama's favorite flowers (lilacs).

For the month of April I took the #lovemyveggies challenge for myself and my kids - and we've incorporated more vegetables into each of our meals (whether they can see them or not!).

You can find 4-packs of 22 oz. Love My Veggies pouches at Target for $5.89.
Want a chance to try the new Happy Family Love My Veggies Pouches? Enter to win a fun prize pack below!

Entry-Form

Disclosure: The Pierogie Mama received product in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. See giveaway details for full rules. The Pierogie Mama is not responsible for prize fulfillment.

Happy Family Toddler Food Review and Giveaway!

Today I'm pleased to share with you a little bit about Happy Family baby food!

We first introduced Penny to solid foods at about 6 1/2 months via the baby-led weaning route. She started out with soft food, like avocado, and has since graduated to pretty close to eating exactly what we eat at every meal (reduced to bite sized portions, of course!). But as adults, we are prone to fall into our own routines and I know that not everything I eat is completely nutritious (we all know about my borderline unhealthy chocolate addiction) and certainly not organic, even though we are edging closer and closer to eating as naturally as possible.

However, as wholesome and nutritious as I endevour to be, it's not always possible. Some foods just aren't available in organic options where I live. So I decided that it was time to take a look at what kind of baby/toddler food is available on the market that fills in the gaps at home. I wanted to be sure that if I am going to be paying for baby specific food it needed be above the ordinary.

So when I discovered the Happy Family brand of baby and toddler food, I was able to breathe a big sigh of relief.  Why? Because their baby food is all organic and many ingredients are non-GMO certified (for a list of their non-GMO certified products, click here). GMOs or "genetically modified organisms" are a big deal for this mama, I've made the commitment to making sure Penny stays away from the whenever possible and am working on cutting them out of my and Adam's diets as well.

Along with having the standard flavors for baby food (pears and butternut squash), there's also a wide variety of ingredients that aren't old fashioned standard, such as kale. Or grains that I've never even heard of - like salba.







For this post we reviewed Happy Yogis, Happy Tot Meal Bowls, Happy Tot and Happy Tot Plus food pouches and Happy Munchies.

Because I am a stay at home mama and love to cook, it isn't very often that I use prepared baby food at home. But when we are out and about, it's a different story. Although Penny is still nursing, as a mama of a very interested toddler it's becoming more and more difficult to just sit down and nurse for a beat. Playing peek-a-boo with the hooter-hider is Penny's favorite game, but definitely not mine!

So for short trips away from home I keep a few different treats in the diaper bag handy. I like to use Happy Yogis and Munchies in the car. If Penny is getting a little grumpy I can pass them back without really worrying about her making too big of a mess back there. The Yogis are little freeze dried drops of yogurt and fruit with pre- and pro-biotics. We were able to try the Mixed Berry flavor and Penny is definitely a fan. They melt quickly, which is great for babies just trying out the concept. As for the Munchies, we've tried out both the rice cakes and cheese and veggie snack...Which remind me a little of Pirate Booty! These have been Penny's favorite lately as she's sprouted 4 teeth since January and is in super crunchy mode.

The food pouches are also a major hit. When we're out on longer shopping excursions and again, Penny is getting grumpy, these are a nice way to momentarily distract her and help us keep going. It seems like my coping mechanism to a fussy toddler is to shovel food at her.. lol! But I convince myself that it's ok because it's full of healthy fruits, veggies and grains instead of sugary snacks. It's also been great on the nights where I don't have my stuff together for dinner and we end up with something simple, but Penny can supplement with a Tot pouch.

Penny's favorite pouches tend to be the sweeter ones (go figure) with fruit. Her favorite by far is the strawberry, kiwi, beet and pear pouch. We've found that the green beans, pear and pea Tot pouches are a little thick and pasty for Penny's tastes, so she wasn't an immediate fan.

Last night Penny had vegetable ravioli in the Toddler Meal Bowl. The little raviolis were so darling and perfectly bite sized! Penny went pretty crazy, signing "more" as soon as each bite was in her mouth! I loved this meal bowl because it keeps in line it our baby-led weaning technique of feeding her foods as similar to ours as possible.

So in short, the Happy Family brand of baby/toddler food is a great choice for making sure your little one is getting wholesome, organic food whether you are on the go or at home.

Love what you see? Happy Family didn't only set me up with these yummy delights, they are giving away a coupon package for The Pierogie Mama readers too! Check out the Rafflecopter widget below.

This giveaway is over - thanks to all for entering! 

Keep an eye out for more Pierogie Mama Giveaways.

Open to US residents only.
Disclosure: Thank you to Happy Family for sending me manufacturer's coupons to facilitate this post and to provide an honest review.  All opinions in this post are my own.