mini muffins for little hands

Feeding my little girl, who is now 15 months old, is no mean feet. Phases in a toddler's life last about 5 minutes, and then it all changes again. Completely.

She was a very difficult eater when we moved to solids. I picked up lots of books at the library about how to feed a baby naturally. Meaning, organically, the time consuming and hands-on way. Making all purees, and later meals, from scratch. Eating wholefoods as much as possible. Avoiding sugar, preservatives, nasties, and then trying to avoid the other pit falls in bought baby food - they add so much 'stuff' to everything, like natural apple juice is everywhere, even in the savoury products.

She wouldn't have a bar of it. Nada. I couldn't make my puree as smooth and perfect as the bought stuff, and if so much as a tiny lump passed her lips she would retch and vomit everywhere. Not a lot of encouragement for the hard labour involved in making the food for me, so I gave up.  So until she was turning 1 she ate shop bought puree, natural yogurt, and some fruit.  Even mixing fruit and puree was not to be toyed with.  It was frustrating to watch other babies gobble everything their mums put in front of them, but then my mum tells the same story of me, only that I was even more difficult!

Teeth changed our world again, suddenly everything was game. But on her terms. She wanted to be deciding what, how much, how and when. Finger food is everything these days. And we are slowly getting there with a spoon, but it's a slow process. I love seeing her enjoy her food though, and trying new things at the moment is no problem. Especially if it's from my plate.

These mini muffins are for her. Something pretty, that she can pick up and play with, and a more than good enough to eat. I might have shared a few with her too.

This recipe is originally from Australian Women's Weekly - but I have it roughly jotted down in a notebook only.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour - or as I did do half/half wholemeal & plain flour

1tsp baking powder

1/3 cup rolled oats

3 eggs

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup natural yoghurt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

180g fresh or frozen berries of you choice (for frozen, you can use ones straight from the freezer). I used raspberries, but often mix them with blueberries.

Makes 24 mini muffins, or 12 normal size

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Place patties in your muffin tray, or grease tray if preferred.

Sift the flour and combine with the oats. 

Then gently stir in the baking powder, sugar and other wet ingredients (eggs, sugar, yogurt, oil & berries)

Place the mixture into the patties and place in the oven.

Bake for 18-20 minutes (depending on size chosen)

Allow to cool for 5 minutes before tasting!

These also freeze really well.

PS Easter is going to be so much more fun this year. Little girl adores rabbits, and gets totally over excited when we go to the shops that are full of bunnies, bunnies and more bunnies.
This cut out of a rabbit was a great buy at Target - toast is suddenly the best thing EVER. x