Peanut butter and 'naner sandwich

I often eat breakfast on the go while pushing E in her stroller. Muffins and bagels fare well, but we had none of either in the house this morning and I wanted to save the cash on picking something up while we were out. Naturally my mind went to peanut butter and jelly (or peanut butter and jam, or simply "pubbers" as it's known in my house). But when I got to the fridge I realized we were out of jam. Now what? Thankfully I'd read a back-to-school article in Newsday the other day which had all kinds of lunch ideas - takeoffs on regular sandwiches. One of the ideas was peanut butter with bananas and honey. I don't keep honey in the house, but I sure do have agave nectar, which works as a perfect substitute. So one slice of bread got a schmear of smooth peanut butter and then covered in slices of ripe banana. The other slice of bread got a quick squirt of agave before I put it all together and threw it into a zip-top bag. Into the diaper bag it went and we were off!

One-hand meals

When I was pregnant, I filled my freezer with as much food as I could to keep myself nourished when my baby prevented me from cooking. I made ziti, soup and muffins - the foods I know freeze well and are easy to make in large batches. I had no idea how smart I was with the muffins. While in the hospital, they would bring E in at 6:30 am and visitors couldn't come until 8am. I had a hard time getting out of bed to put her in the bassinet, so I would end up holding my baby for an hour and a half while starving. So I learned to eat the things I could with one hand. While opening a banana with my teeth, I realized how unintentionally genius it was to have four batches of muffins in my freezer.

In addition to muffins, I've started scrounging up ideas for other one-hand meals that I can prepare ahead of time and leave in easy-to-reach places (which does not include any shelf in the fridge except the top one, for fear of leaning over too far and dropping E on her head or the freezer, for fear of hard, frozen things falling on us). Baby carrots, cut up fresh fruit and pb&j sandwiches top the list. Extra points for anything that won't stain if I spill it on myself, because it's pretty much a given that I will spill it on myself. These things also end up in zip-top bags thrown into the diaper bag when E and I take our morning walk (at which point they become diaper bag snacks). Keep posted to the blog for new and exciting one-hand meals and diaper bag snacks and share your ideas in the comments section!