Experimenting with Oatmeal

Continuing with my quest to vary our breakfast routine, I moved on from muffins to oatmeal.

For our first try, I made a bowl of oatmeal for myself with cinnamon and raisins, and set aside a small portion for Henry. I started by preloading a spoon for Henry and handing it over, but he was much more interested in inspecting the spoon than tasting the oatmeal. So I took away the spoon and put a few small scoops of oatmeal on his tray.

Two bowls of oatmeal.

Unfortunately, this was the day Henry learned how to smash things. He swung his arms up in the air and banged them down on his tray. That was fun – let’s do it again! Oatmeal splattered everywhere! I even found oatmeal in my hair later that morning.

Henry bangs on his tray and sends his oatmeal flying.

For our second morning of oatmeal, I made oatmeal fingers from “The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook”. I soaked the oatmeal in milk, pressed it in the bottom of a dish, and microwaved it on high for two minutes. Once heated, I cut the oatmeal into sticks and let them cool. I found that I needed to slice the oatmeal fingers and remove them from the bowl immediately after taking them out of the microwave. I had to make this recipe twice since I was too slow the first time and the oatmeal stuck to the bowl.

Henry picks up a raisin.

I thought the oatmeal fingers were very plain and dry but they seemed to work for Henry. He also started practicing his pincer grip with the raisins that I set on his tray.

This morning, we tried our third variation with oatmeal rounds. I combined equal parts oatmeal and milk with a dash of cinnamon. I used quick (1-minute) oats and microwaved them on high for 30 seconds. Then, I stirred them up and heated them another 30 seconds. I mixed in a small scoop of raisins and then molded the oatmeal into balls using a baby spoon. I let them cool for a few minutes while I sliced a nectarine and prepared the table for breakfast.

After his first bite, Henry considers an oatmeal round.

The result was a moist, chewy oatmeal round that Henry and I both enjoyed. We will be adding this recipe to our fall breakfast menu.

UPDATE 11/5/12: I have found that some brands of oats require more liquid than others. If the oatmeal rounds are too dry, just mix in a bit of extra water.

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