Easy Fruit Yogurt

Since we are in the middle of a move, I have been trying to find, quick easy meals to prepare for Little Frances that don’t require a lot of ingredients, I don’t have to make in bulk, and are still really healthy. Its been challenging, but also FUN! I love looking through my fridge and seeing what tempting treat I can whip up for her.

I am a huge yogurt lover, so much in fact, that a lot of the time I just make my own. This way I can cut down on all of the extra unwanted ingredients that usually come in yogurt, and I never buy artificially sweetened or flavored yogurts. Here is a quick, easy recipe that is also healthy and without extra sugars or preservatives! I may do a post later on making your own yogurt, but for now, I am just buying the regular, plain yogurt at the grocery store.

Ingredients:

• Whole-fat, plain, all natural yogurt
• Fruit or fruit puree of your choice! For this recipe, I used frozen blueberries that I already had in the freezer and a banana

Steps:

1. Heat the blueberries in the microwave until fully cooked and somewhat syrupy.
2. Puree the blueberries and banana in a food processor, blender or chopper.
3. Pour the mixture into the yogurt, little by little until you are happy with the yogurt/fruit ratio.

Miscellaneous: I usually store some of the puree in the fridge for later use with the yogurt. These also make great pops if you have a mold! Frozen yogurt pops are great on gums that are sore from teething.

Timing: 9 Months

Storage: I keep the fruit puree in the fridge for up to one week and the yogurt until its expiration date. I would store the puree in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Epicutie Rating: Yummy in the Tummy! This has become a staple at our house. Little Frances loves this, and she especially cannot get enough of the yogurt in pop form.

The first time she tried it! She could not get enough.

The first time she tried a yogurt pop! She had two and still wanted more. I also enjoyed one with her :). Warning – make sure you have a bath ready as soon as your baby gets finished with these… things get a little messy!

Homemade Teething Biscuits

Little Frances is currently gnawing on anything and everything she can get into her chubby little paws!  I am at my Mom’s house for the holidays and, silly me, I forgot to bring her mesh teething bag so that she could gnaw on something that might add some vitamins to her diet.  I thought it might be fun to look up recipes for teething biscuits, and I found this great recipe on WholesomeBabyfood.com.  Luckily we already had all of the ingredients in my Mom’s kitchen so we decided to give it a try!

WARNING: Make sure watch your baby as they eat these!  There is a risk of choking if you give them to your baby in anything other than bite sized pieces.  We decided to give them to Little Frances whole, but we made sure to carefully watch her while she ate them.

Ingredients:

1 cup quick oats
1 cup ground oats (grind oats and make a coarse oat flour)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon (or ginger or cardamom)
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup (approximately 2) overripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp oil of choice (I used olive since it’s the healthiest we had, I would not recommend using peanut oil as peanuts are a common allergen)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grind 1 cup of oats in a chopper, blender, or small food processor
• Mix the oats, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder in a bowl
• Mix the bananas, vanilla extract, and oil in another bowl
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until well mixed
• Place approximately 1 tbsp on a baking sheet
• Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Yield: Approximately one dozen cookies depending on size.

Storage: This is not scientific fact, but I am going to freeze mine and I expect to use it within a month.

Epicutie Rating: Yummy in the Tummy!  Little Frances loved these, and she quickly gobbled up two!

 

Difficulty: 1 out of 5 for me because my mom actually made them!   However, I would say that it is a 4 out of 5 compared to most baby foods because there are several ingredients and it involves many more steps than most baby food.