Allison: Toddler Muffins

Hi!  My name is Allison... I used to contribute regularly to this blog.  Remember me?  Yep, I'm back.  I have no idea how, but time has just slipped away from me these last few months.  It might have to do with sick babies and just daily life.  But I have some creative opportunities coming up in the near future, and I thought I'd better get back in the habit of blogging.

Anyone out there have really picky eaters in their house?  I knew that my little Isla (2 1/2 years old) was picky, but lately, it's gotten so much worse!  There are days where she'll skip lunch AND dinner.  My skinny little girl seems to be getting even smaller, and it's started to worry me a little.  She's definitely more of a snacker, and I've found myself giving her things I wouldn't normally, just to get her to eat something.

So when I found this recipe here for "Toddler Muffins", I knew I had to give them a try.  Here's the best proof if they were liked or not:

She loved them and ate 3 for breakfast.  The only foods we've been able to get her to eat for breakfast are cinnamon toast (or "sugar toast", as she calls them), and french toast with syrup.  Can you find the theme here??  This girl definitely likes sugar (I have no idea where she gets that from)!

I didn't modify the recipe too much.  I didn't have oat bran in the house, but saw that others had substituted oats or flax seed.  I had ground flax seed in my house (weird, I know), so I used a 1/4 cup and a 1/4 cup of oats.  I'm sure a half cup of oats would work just great too.  For the baby food ingredient, I'm sure any pureed veggie would work.  I had a baby food pouch of pear and butternut squash that I used.  I also only added a 1/4 cup butter instead of 1/2 cup.  That seemed like a lot.  They still turned out super moist and delicious.  I also added raisins.  Because of the bananas, they tasted a lot like banana bread.  Yum!  They yielded 24 mini muffins, with enough left over to make a mini loaf.

Well, I hope this recipe helps some of you with little ones that have a mind of their own when it comes to food.  I'm hoping to make a few more adjustments (maybe wheat flour?), or adding more veggies.  Whatever it takes to get them eating their fruits and veggies, right?  Until next time... have a great week!


Allison