Toddler Muesli

Nathan has been sick for what seems like forever.  Really its been about 10 days of events.  First he had a reaction of hives to a vaccine.  Then after a trip to the doctor and Benadryl, that cleared up but he came down with a fever and wouldn't eat.  The doctor thought it was unrelated and probably the stomach flu.  This involved LOTS of laying on Mommy time.  So after a few days of that - poor kid - he appeared better, but had tiny dots all over his body!  The rash was apparently the virus in its last stages but not contagious or bothersome to him, I guess.  I called the doctor again and that is what she told me.  Finally, today he was eating better, and the rash was mostly faded.  He ate oatmeal, yogurt, grapes, cheese, graham cracker, and dinner!

This evening I picked up a Baby recipe book that I bought about a year ago.  I was so ambitious then.  Now I look at the recipes for the toddler age group, and I think, "Good grief.  That is so much work."  Not to mention the out-there healthy ingredients that I have never seen at the store.  For instance, the author suggests making ghee - clarified butter instead of regular butter.  (Roll of the eyes.)  I'm to find adzuki and mung beans, buy tahini and soba, use almond goat soy or oat milk, find unsulfured apricots, and cook all my grains like quinoa and millet (which I do have) with kombu, a kind of healthy seaweed.  Yeah...

But I do feel like I may be offering him too much dairy, and not enough vegetables.  Tonight he ate brown rice and black beans!  (That's the Puerto Rican blood showing.)  And for awhile I was continuing to buy baby food vegetables because he would eat those.  So it is good to look at all the other recipes in the book, and get ideas.

So tomorrow I think I am going to make a baked custard or Toddler muesli.  Here's the recipe for the latter:

1 cup of long cook oatmeal flakes soaked overnight with a splash of natural orange or apple juice
1/4 cup dried raisins, diced
4 dried apricots, diced
1 tbsp ground almonds or sunflower seeds
1/3 cup apple washed peeled cored and diced

In the morning, mix with 1/4 cup yogurt and serve


Or you can cook soaked oat mixture with water, boil, then summer for about 20 minutes.  When cooled, mix with yogurt and serve.  


So, that seems easy enough, if I do it tonight.  I don't have ground almonds on hand, though, so we'll have to do without.  How about flaxseed?  That sounds pretty healthy, right?  We'll see!