Oatmeal Banana Milkshake – Guest post from Sreelatha

Happy Tamil year and Vishu to all my lovely readers:-)

This new year I am starting with a guest post..After facing so many challenges in making my son eat food I decided to start a toddler friendly recipe section in my blog and asked my friends from virtual world. As i mentioned in my earlier post, happiness is when someone allocates time for me and comes up with a recipe. I feel so blessed by the way I got response from my co- bloggers. I recently decided to post guest post on every Wednesday but I am having India trip plans shortly, so I don’t want the guest posts to sit in my draft for a longtime. Let’s call it a guest post week:-) stay tuned for yummy toddler recipes for a week continuously

Today we have Sreelatha from FramedRecipes. I happen to know her through social link and became friends. I love her recipes and knowing the fact that she is a mom I asked her for a guest post. Though her son crossed toddler stage few years ago she happily accepted my offer and came up with this tasty and healthy shake. For my picky eater I always find ways to include fruits into his diet and after seeing this shake I thought she understood my mind voice 🙂

Let’s hear it from Sreelatha,

Hello Peeps,

I am Sreelatha. I blog at FramedRecipes. I recently celebrated my blog’s first birthday. So, I am new to the blogging world and each day is a learning experience.

Website: http://www.framedrecipes.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/framedrecipes

Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/111393838604867791501/+Framedrecipes/posts

Thanks to Vidya for giving me this wonderful opportunity to share my recipe on her blog.

When she contacted me about doing a guest post, I had no clue how to go about doing that. I had heard about bloggers doing guest posts for one another, but having not done one myself, I had no idea what to do. But I said yes :).

And then comes the next challenge. She wants me to do a toddler recipe!

Toddler Recipe??

OMG!! My dealings with a toddler ended several years back. I got back to Vidya trying to find whether I had a deadline to meet. She gave me the freedom to work at my pace. Alrighty. I at least have time to come up with a recipe. Phew!

I remember starting my Sonshine’s (this is my son’s Undercover ID on my blog) solid foods with raagi porridge and then later moving onto rice and vegetables puree. Once Sonshine realized that adult food is tastier than the bland (well, almost bland) puree that I was feeding him, he resisted eating the purees. So, we switched him to the regular food at home.

So, with this post, Vidya actually gave me an opportunity to relive my Sonshine’s toddler days (which I miss terribly now) and come up with a recipe that I would have loved to serve him when he was a toddler. I am very much thankful to Vidya for this wonderful gift.

I settled on Banana Oatmeal Milkshake as the recipe I want to share with you based on these:

• Easy to make (parent have to spend time with the toddler rather than cooking elaborate dishes).
• Nutritious
• Balanced
• Filling & flavorful.

Even now, I serve it to my Sonshine along with his after-school snack. When he finishes the milk shake, I know, I have served him something delicious and at the same time nutritious.

Enough of my ranting…. Let’s talk about the recipe now….

Recipe:

1/2 cup Oats

1 cup Water

1 Banana

2 cups Milk (See recipe Notes)

2 tablespoon Malted milk drink mix (See Recipe Notes),

Sugar/Honey to taste

Method

Cook the oats with one cup water till well cooked. Cool to room temperature.

Roughly chop the banana.

Blend cooked oats, chopped bananas, milk, malted milk drink mix and sugar till well blended.

Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

1. I have used refrigerated 2% milk. If you are hesitant to give refrigerated milk, boil the milk and cool it down to room temperature.
2. I have used the Nestle Malted Milk powder. If you have Horlicks or something similar, you can use that.
3. Read the ingredients and the allergen information if you are using the malted milk powder for your kid.
4. Adjust the sweetener – Sugar/Honey – to taste. This is a good recipe to use up those ripe (browned) bananas which everybody is hesitant to eat. The quantity of sugar depends on the sweetness of the banana.
5. I make it like milk shake, but if you like it thicker, reduce the quantity of milk

Cacao Banana Power Smoothie

Charanya from Yes I am vegan is our guest today. I know Charu ever since I started blogging. I believe butter, milk are key for delicious cooking, but she proves me wrong.  Being a big fan of coconut, no wonder her recipes blow my mind. Initially we started talking through our blogs and now we are talking through emails.  In one of our chats I told her about the toddler recipe series, and the reply email was with a recipe.

My friend is bringing a healthy drink for the post.

Over to Charu,

Vidya and I are great blog buddies. There’s not a single post in my blog without Vidya’s like on it 🙂 Thanks for your support Vidz ❤ For the toddler-friendly series that Vidya is collecting recipes for, I am very sure that I am not an eligible candidate ( I don’t have kids yet). But I know, kids love chocolate, sugar which inturn makes it junk food. How about a recipe that includes chocolate but no sugar, low in calorie, nil cholesterol and divine 🙂

Cocoa is processed form of cacao. Processing removes the goodness of cacao beans. If you get your hands on cacao powder, please stock them up. They are mostly organic, free trade (no child labour) and full of nutrients. Same applies to peanut butter. You gotta check the ingredients list. If it has sugar/salt added, they are not the best. Unless it says 100% peanuts, it is not something you need for your body. Also, this is a nil cholesterol. Instead of using milk, this uses almond milk. You can use any non-dairy milk.

I blog at http://yesiamvegan.com/ where you can check out lot of vegan and glutenfree recipes.

A like on my FB page would be great.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yes-I-am-Vegan/1413297042273349

You can also follow me on twitter(@yesiamvegan) and pinterest

https://www.pinterest.com/yesiamvegan/

Now, on to the recipe

You need:

• Cacao powder-1 heaped Tbsp/extra 1.5tsp if you want it really chocolaty
• Banana-2 medium sized ones
• Peanut Butter-1 Tbsp
• Chia seeds (optional)-1 tsp
• Non-dairy milk-1.5 cups
• Medjool Dates-5/6 (how sweet you want it to be)(soak in water for 10 minutes)
• Almond meal-to top with

Method:

• In a smoothie maker, add everything except almond meal and blend until dates is all processed well.
• Serve and top with almond meal.

Thanks once again Vidya for the opportunity.

Mango Milkshake

Today I had prepared Mango Ice Cream and kept it in the freezer to set, have to wait for 7 hours to taste! With a left-over mango, prepared a quick Mango milkshake.

Mango Milkshake

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Serves : 2

Recipe Category: Beverage

Ingredients:

Mango pulp – 1/2 cup

Cold Milk – 1 cup

Sugar – 2 tsp

Vanilla Extract – a drop (Optional)

Method:

• Blend mango pulp, vanilla and sugar in a mixer until smooth
• Add chilled milk and blend again until smooth and enjoy the cool summer drink 🙂

 

Check other Mango Recipes,

Mango Kulfi

Mango Halwa

Mango Mousse

Mango Ice Cream

Cantaloupe Smoothie

Ever since childhood, summers call for muskmelon juice. I stil remember those days, when every summer we have muskmelon juice at least once a week. While searching for muskmelon in grocery store, I saw cantaloupe and honey dew. Though both are new to me, I bought cantaloupe. Cantaloupe was sweeter than muskmelon, we loved to eat that as a fruit but tried smoothie and it turned to be flavorful.

Cantaloupe Smoothie:

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Serves : 3

Recipe Category: Beverage

Ingredients:

Cantaloupe – 1 cup

Honey – 1 tbsp

Milk – 1/2 cup

Cinnamon Powder – 1/4 tsp (optional)

Method:

• Cut the fruit into two halves and  scoop out the seeds  and discard. Then cut the fruit into small cubes

• Transfer to the juicer and add honey,cinnamon and milk. Blend to Smoothie consistency

 

My Notes:

• Sugar / Maple syrup or any sweetener can be added instead of honey
• Adding milk is optional. You can even prepare juice without milk

Check my other Cantaloupe recipes,

Cantaloupe Granita