I am not a food blogger. I in no way attempt to claim it. I have an inability to identify substitutes or be creative about cooking. I love baking because you need to be precise. Follow the recipe. But I’m not ever going to be able to come up with my own recipe.

I found this recipe at the Test Kitchen of Melissa Fallis. I have shared it with several people, as C eats one or two of these muffins each day. I can tell she is in a growth spurt if she eats two. Along with a pouch of yogurt, and potentially some fruit, and we have an easy breakfast that is low-mess. Anything that I can feed to her in the car seat without a serious disaster is a win. Occasionally we have an accident with the yogurt, but we haven’t had one in the last few months as she has approached 2 years old.

We tried the egg muffins originally, but C hates all things egg or chicken. It did seem like a good idea, but we couldn’t get her to eat them, even with a heap of ketchup. She wouldn’t even lick it off.

I always double this, as we do not use the coconut milk for anything else. Nate has a thing about hating all things coconut. Weird. I tried to triple it once and it overflowed my mixer. We keep them in bags in the freezer, and it works great. C knows to ask for a “muffin” in the morning and starts pulling on the freezer drawer.

Baked Banana Apple Oatmeal Muffins
Makes 24

Ingredients:

• • 3 Cups Old Fashioned Oats
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 tsps baking powder
  • sprinkle of salt
  • 1 1/4 cup Unsweetened Coconut Milk
  • 3/4 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
  • 1 banana mashed
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Spray two regular sized muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Mix all of the above ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
3. Distribute evenly between the 24 muffin tins.  (She usually uses her cookie scoop and put a heaping scoop of the mix in each tin – I use a giant spoon) She recommended filling them about 1/2 full. I rarely get exactly 24 trying to follow this–again, I am not an expert.
4. Bake 18-20 minutes or until done.
5. Let cool and then transfer to cooling rack.   Once cool, transfer to cutting board/baking sheet that will fit in your freezer and flash-freeze.  Once frozen – transfer baked oatmeal to a Ziploc bag.

*She recommended defrosting these in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. I find it takes that long for one muffin, but increase the time 15-30 seconds for two or if it is a thicker muffin.

I was telling a friend about these last weekend, and she thought that additional healthy (veggie!) ingredients could be added. Not being the expert, I wanted to share this recipe with you… so you can share what other things you added in the comments for me. Enjoy!

 

Original post here: http://melissafallistestkitchen.blogspot.com/2014/01/toddler-breakfast-ideas.html