Emma doesn’t eat much.  She never has and I don’t want to make it a huge issue because I don’t want her to have problems with food later in life.  I figure she’ll eat when she’s hungry.  Matt, on the other hand, thinks that Emma is wasting away.  He says she’s getting smaller and smaller.  While I don’t think that to be entirely true, I do agree that there is room for improvement here.

My first mistake is that I usually overload her plate, giving her more food than she can actually consume at one time.  This probably overwhelms her and makes it look like she hasn’t eaten anything at all when she really has.  Next, she is extremely reluctant to try anything foreign.  If she doesn’t recognize it, she won’t eat it.  Both of these seem like two easy things to fix.  From now on, I will give her less food and will do my best to disguise new foods as something she already enjoys.  I will also try to make her food more fun by cutting or shaping it into fun shapes, and I will blog about her meals– not so much because I think all of you are interested, but mostly so that I can keep track of my recipes, ideas, successes, etc.  I came across a fantastic blog that you should check out, if you are interested in doing the same.  It is full of inspiring ideas.

While battling insomnia last night, I starting thinking of how I could make a muffin look and taste like a cupcake.  Emma LOVES cupcakes (she calls them “cupcapes”).  I came up with the following, which I thought were really, really yummy, but Emma wasn’t too interested in.  Big surprise there!

Carrot-Apple-Raisin Muffins with Cream Cheese “Icing”

3 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer

4 TB water

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup applesauce

1/2 TB white vinegar

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg (freshly ground)

1/8 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup finely grated carrot

1/4 cup finely chopped apple

1/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Spray a muffin (or mini muffin) tin with oil.  Set aside.

Combine the egg replacer with the water and whisk until fluffy.  Add the oil, applesauce, vinegar, sugar and vanilla and stir to combine.  In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined.  Stir in the carrot, apples and raisins.  Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tin(s) and bake– about 10 minutes for mini muffins; about 15 for regular muffins.

To make the “icing,” I took a few scoops of Tofutti BTCC (non-hydrogenated) and added a few drops of vanilla.  I then thinned it out with some unsweetened vanilla soy milk.  To cut the tang from the cheese a bit, I added in a tiny bit of powdered sugar.

These turned out really good.  I love them and Emma may learn to like them