This week is all about OATS!
I’ve got PLENTY of ideas for my week on SR Nutrition Porridge Recipes, don’t you worry. These are all great for baby/toddler/children/adults alike. Mixing up what you offer at brekkie is always a good idea to ensure baby doesn’t get bored with the same thing as well as to add variety into your little ones diet and also so that they don’t become used to just having the same thing (then it can be really tough to get them to branch out, as familiarity is what encourages kids to eat!)
Porridge doesn’t have to just be sweet though, so I’ve tried to mix and match some ideas here that are tart, savoury and even a little sour and bitter too.
I love experimenting with porridge. And creating some of these combos has been so fun.
My Porridge Recipes:
Below is a basic recipe for Raffy’s FAVOURITE porridge in the world, it’ll be basis for the other porridge inspo ideas below too, so just adapt the ingredient into this recipe, as needed!
In all honesty, I usually just chuck the oats and milk in and dollop everything else on top – I don’t measure, so it was hard working out the amounts and this below, is a rough guide. Sometimes I add a little more oats at the end if it’s too thin, and if it’s super textured you can always add a splash of milk at the end too!
So please take these amounts lightly, and work out what porridge textures/amounts work for you and your little ones – adapting is always ok!
Also, this might need to be adapted for babies who have smaller or larger portions too. Raffy tends to have large brekkie portions, but this is a “moderate” serving for him.
My basic porridge recipe is as follows and then the list of ideas below can be adapted into this recipe, as needed!
Raffy’s Favourite Porridge:
Ingredients:
- 50g oats (30-60g works)
- 90mls milk (80-120mls works)
- 1 large handful of blueberries (can chop or squish, but they do cook nice and soft)
- 1 big dollop of peanut butter
- Some seeds to sprinkle on top
Method:
- Add oats and milk to a pan and turn up the heat, stirring well.
- Add in a handful of pre-washed blueberries.
- Once it’s started to thicken, stir in the peanut butter
- Once it’s nice and gloopy, add the porridge to a bowl and sprinkle on the seeds, allow to cool before giving to baby.
You can add extra milk or extra oats towards the end if it’s too thick (milk) or too watery (oats).
Porridge Ideas for Babies and Toddlers:
I love mixing up porridge options, and over the last few weeks I’ve been trying out PLENTY of recipes to give you a real range of ideas to try with your little ones. You can always sub, adapt ingredients depending on what you have in your fridge – I do it all the time. But here are some of the combos that I’ve found work well and help me and Raffy to experiment with different flavours in the morning!
- Strawberries and cream– 5 mashed strawberries stirred in with the oats and milk. Topped with a big dollop of plain yogurt and some chia seeds
- Carrot cake porridge – See recipe here
- Beetroot Porridge – see recipe here
- Raspberry Ripple– Oats and milk with 1 small handful of whole raspberries, mashed into the oats and some grated apple. Serve with a dollop of yogurt stirred through and a sprinkling of ground almonds to top
- Hot Cross Bun – 4 small, well chopped dried apricots, 10g of raisins and 2 big pinches of cinnamon. Add to a pan with a tiny splash of oil and cook for a few minutes to let the flavours and the spices mix. Add the oats and milk to the pan and cook as normal. Once finished, finely grate a little orange zest on top!
- Sweet Potato Pie! – Remove skin from 40g of sweet potato & steam/boil until soft. Mash well and add to cooking porridge along with a couple of large pinches of mixed spice.
- Pina Colada – Idea from Joe Wicks Wean in 15! Around 40g of pineapple, chopped really well (choose the softer parts of the pineapple) mix with oats, milk and some creamed coconut/coconut milk then top the porridge once made with a little coconut yogurt and some desiccated coconut shavings
- Banoffee Pie – ½ a mashed banana with a big dollop of peanut butter
- Creamy Courgettey – 30g grated courgette (you can use yellow or green ones) with 10g of cream cheese/cheddar, finished with ground nuts (walnuts work well)
- Rhubarb and Blackberry Crumble – 30g of pre-cooked rhubarb (use this recipe, but leave out the sugar in step 2) or 2 very well heaped teaspoons of rhubarb and around 5 large blackberries. Add to the milk and oats and stir together well, mash up the blackberries if required. Finish with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of milled seeds and some oats on top to make the “crumble”.
Other Porridge Options:
You can also have other varieties of “porridge”, some of which I’m working on recipes for as well and which include…
- Quiona porridge
- Buckwheat porridge
- Bircher muesli
and
- Overnight oats
Please do let me know if you try any of these & use the hashtag #SRNutritionporridge if you share your creation on social media!
