The easiest and fastest porridge ever that babies (and not only) love
Prep: 5 min
It's easy, fast, cheap, healthy and nutritious, versatile, vegan and your kid will absolutely love it.
It has a slow release of energy that helps fuel you through the day, and is undoubtedly a great way to feed the soul, especially at winter time.
Made of just 4 ingredients, easy to find anywhere: porridge oats, banana, milk and cinnamon, this banana porridge is ready almost instantly (less than 5 mins), in 3 simple steps and has no sugar or other artificial sweeteners.
The best part? Porridge sachets are widely available (supermarkets or order from Amazon), cheap and lightweight so you can stuff them in your luggage (we literally filled our boots with sachets when travelled abroad). You will find them useful when baby food is hard to find or local cuisine is kind of weird for baby's taste buds or guts (e.g. Asia). Apart from the wide availability of bananas everywhere in the world, cinnamon is the secret that can't get you wrong. This porridge is so tasty and flavoursome that I even crave it when he swallows these huge spoonfuls.
Note: Normally it is recommended to use formula milk for babies 6-12 months and cow's milk only after 12 months. Read this before feeding babies.
We found this Tommee Tippee easy scoop pack and go feeding bowl with a leakproof lid and a matching spoon attaching to the lid; an excellent solution for travelling or being out for a walk in the park. Quite often, I'm using the lid as a working surface to aid meal prep.
Ingredients (1 serving)
1 porridge oat sachet (or 3 tbsp rolled oats)
150-180ml Formula Milk (or commercial cow's milk for infants over 12 months)
1/2 ripe banana
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Substitutes
Banana > Raspberries or Strawberries: I've tried this with mashed raspberries and strawberries and worked equally well. Make sure the berries are ripe enough to be mashed and that your baby is happy with the little seeds.
For babies older than 12 months you can replace formula milk with cow's milk or plant-based milk as a vegan option.
Directions
Prepare the oats as per sachet instructions. In the absence of a microwave oven just get some hot milk and mix it with oats until the desired consistency is achieved.
Mash half a banana with the backside of the spoon (or with a fork) and mix with the oats.
Sprinkle some cinnamon, stir well and serve with his favourite seasonal fruits and a dollop of peanut butter (optionally)
Tip: At serving, I like to improvise adding extra colour and texture. I've served this with raspberries, blueberries, a dollop of peanut butter and desiccated coconut and family absolutely loved it!
