I am not sure about how your kids react to eating healthy foods, but my nine-year old will do about anything to get out of eating healthy snacks and meals. She even does the gag-noise when we roam the organic aisle in the super market. Now perhaps its due to my own upbringing, which was unless you covered that veggie in dip or coated that raisin with chocolate, I wouldn’t dare eat it!
Now that I am an adult, I see how healthy eating really is a non-negotiable! I haven’t found many recipes that disguise that healthy bland taste of some items. Luckily my sister-in-law is a magician in the kitchen and always shares new recipes that she thinks my family will eat. Last week we were talking about how my daughter’s breakfast options are starting to get boring and with winter sports starting up soon, I wanted to find something new that would energize her and spruce up her morning meal. My sister-in-law sent me a granola recipe and at first, I was like ‘no way will my daughter eat granola,’ but sister-in-law said I just had to try it. So I went to my local store and picked up the ingredients. I also read on another blog that when your kids can help in the making of healthy meals, the more likely they are to eat them! So, my daughter and I got on our aprons (not necessary, but we felt official wearing them) and made the recipe below.
Once it was ready, we both took out a spoonful and my daughter’s initial reaction was ‘hmmm, I don’t hate this!’ That was music to my ears, she took a second spoonful and said ‘good work Mom, this was fun.’ My daughter is naturally sweet, but I think she may have laid it on thick just so I would relinquish her from clean-up duty! Oh well, at least we found something healthy that she will actually eat!
The mixture has lasted us a few days since, my daughter and I are the only ones enjoying it. So we have tried it with the following:
- On top of vanilla yogurt
- With milk, just like cereal
- On top of sliced bananas
- On top of an English muffin with peanut butter (my daughter doesn’t have a nut-allergy so this was fine for her).
Nut-Free Granola Recipe
Ingredients:
- 5c. steel-cut oats
- 1 1⁄2c. crisp rice cereal
- 1⁄2c. ground flax seeds
- 1⁄2c. brown sugar
- 1⁄4c. maple syrup
- 1⁄4c. honey
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1⁄2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine steel oats, rice cereal, and flaxseed in a large bowl. (I let my daughter do the mixing on this part, but be aware that some may come out of the bowl if your kid mixes anything like mine)
- In a medium saucepan, heat brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, oil, and salt in saucepan just until sauce melts together. (This part was a little tricky and make sure that the heat is on a low setting to avoid burning it).
- Carefully remove from heat, add the vanilla extract and stir.
- Take the mixture and add it into your large bowl with the oat mix.
- Thoroughly fold sauce into the cereal. (This was probably the hardest part since the mixtures are hard to combine nicely and it seemed pretty dry).
- Once mixed as best as you can do, take the mixture and spread it on to greased cookie sheet.
- Bake approx. 20 minutes, but make sure you toss the mixture around every 7 minutes just to keep it from burning. (Caution: pan and oven will be hot so be careful).
- Remove from oven and while it cools, stir it around a little bit to prevent it from clumping. (The finished product is a loose tasty granola)
- To keep fresh, store in an airtight container.
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