Cooking with Toddlers: Building a Yum Bowl

Fig isn’t a huge fan of “mixed bowls”. I’m not sure if it’s due to the fact he can’t distinguish what’s in the bowl, that all the different ingredients are touching or even that the flavors are too intense because he get’s several ingredients with each bite. Either way, he’ll typically eat a few bites ( if we’re lucky) and then run off to play only to promptly return and beg for cookies ( which is always met with a negative by us and “omg you guys are the WORST” glare topped with a bit of crying).I try to be somewhat sensitive to his likes and dislikes but ultimately I’m not a short order cook and sometimes a mixed bowl is what’s on the dinner menu for that night .

Recently I’ve been having a bit of nostalgia for the Pacific Northwest where I grew up. In my totally biased opinion there is no better or beautiful place than the rugged coastline that stretches from Oregon up towards British Columbia and Alaska. I grew up in Seattle but spent much of my childhood traveling between Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

It was on one of these adventures as a highschooler that my older sister took me to a Cafe Yumm! where I was introduced to one of the most delicious meals I’ve ever tasted. The Yumm Bowl. This bowl is pure genius and pure deliciousness. Despite only having eaten a Yumm Bowl twice or three times in my entire life nearly a decade ago, I’ve NEVER EVER stopped fantasizing about them.

And then I discovered this and this. Firstly, you can actually buy the sauce directly from Yumm Cafe! Secondly, you can make it yourself thanks to a wonderful recipe I found online. I chose to make it myself for the purposes of immediate cravings ( and it tastes pretty darn close to the real thing) but sooner or later I’ll probably buy the original sauce to save myself some time.

So, this weekend we embarked on a Yum Bowl ( without the extra M since it’s not the original!)  adventure and I decided that letting little Fig build his own bowl might just entice him to actually eat it. And guess what? It totally worked! He probably ate a solid 10 bites; which is a full meal in toddler land. Another plus, it’s super easy to prep everything yourself and just set everything out for your toddler on a small table. Being able to actively develop his own bowl was super exciting for him. We kept admiring his bowl saying “wow, did you make that yourself? It looks delicious!”. He kept proudly nodding his little head; clearly pleased as punch at his own little dinner creation! This is definitely an activity/tactic we’ll employ more often.

Yum Bowls:

• Fresh Tomatos
• Fresh Cilantro
• Brown Rice
• Black Beans
• Black Olives
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Avocado
• Yum Sauce  ( found here or here)

Directions: 

• Cook beans and Rice
• Add all ingredients together in desired proportions
• Drizzle sauce over bowl
• Mix
• Enjoy!