Leslie Wolf Steiger : Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

 Q + A

Tell me about yourself!

I have a son named Xander who is 2 years old and a baby girl named Vivi! Cooking, baking and food culture has been my passion for as long as I can remember. It’s always always on my mind, so recently dedicating my account to easy elevated recipes, ideas, and inspiration for little families has been a dream come true for me. Pint-Sized Provisions is a passion project, and I went in thinking of PSP as somewhat of a public journal so I could share my passion with others, and I can’t really believe the positive ways that people are engaging and responding to it in such a short amount of time. I am excited about it all and everything to come! 

What do you love about this recipe, and how has it helped you with feeding your toddler?

Super easy 7 ingredient cookies that I feel good giving my son as a treat since they’re sweetened only with a little maple syrup and the chocolate chips (we used dark from Enjoy Life) - no refined sugar! I feel good knowing these cookies have quality ingredients and will give X a calorie boost, AND he enjoys it so much. I think of this meal as a treat, sometimes X will have his treat for snack, sometimes after dinner, depends! They’re soft, melt in your mouth and have a texture and taste like cookie dough, which means they’re addictive, but that’s ok because as far as cookies go, they’re healthy!

What is your biggest tip when it comes to feeding a toddler?

Fun around food = positivity around food = interest in food. I’ve found that this is what works for us. When I involve X in the fun of the process or the fun in the ingredients, I notice it builds such a positive connection to the food and it makes him want to interact with it. We have FUN together in the kitchen and around food in general.

What is your current eating challenge and how are you working to overcome it/how did you overcome it?

Xander is adventurous and wants to try everything, but sometimes quantity is a question. I wasn’t too worried because I know he has a genuine desire to eat and loves food, but when he dropped in weight on the charts, I did/do the following:

Presentation: I try to make this fun too. Serve out of different little cups and sometimes I use measuring spoons or different sized spoons so that he can engage with the food in different ways. Switching up the plates the food is served on. I make little “do it yourself bars.” Even cutting up the same food in different ways. 

Play and conversation: we play with our food. By that I mean, we might line up all of our edamame beans and make a “choo choo train” or we might talk about all the different colors of certain foods and have a crunching contest to see which makes the biggest crunch or noticing when things don’t crunch at all and different foods have different textures. This all builds a food connection and interest for us. 

How do you keep your child entertained when prepping a meal?

When possible (and it’s not always possible), involve him in the process! I try to save anything he can help with for when he’s up from nap and do what he can’t help with while he naps (even if him helping is literally just moving broccoli florets into the steamer bowl - even this is great because he’ll try it raw and he feels like he “helped” which toddlers his age love to do). This is not always feasible nor do I always want this because I want him to also do his own thing too so I can do my own thing - moving his play kitchen super close to my real kitchen changed the game because then he was able to pretend make dinner while I make real dinner! The proximity of his play kitchen to the real kitchen made a difference. I love listening to the conversations he has with himself in his kitchen while I am in mine.

Follow Leslie at: @lesliewolfsteiger