Healthy Food for Toddlers

A few months ago the teachers at my son’s preschool asked us to send him with more snacks. Apparently he liked to go around and take food from his friends. The kid can eat! I of course want his snacks to be at least reasonably healthy and preferably homemade. These sugar free smoothie bars fit the bill!

Ingredients

• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 banana, cut into large chunks
• 1 apple, roughly chopped
• 1 14.5 ounce can of pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup milk (any kind)
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 3 tbs chia seeds
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs honey
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground cardamom

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9×9 pan, set aside.
2. Blend the carrots, banana, milk and apple in the blender until smooth
3. Pour blender contents into a large bowl. Add the pumpkin puree, honey, vanilla extract and chia seeds. Mix well.
4. Blend the oats into a coarse flour.
5. Add the oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices to the bowl. Gently fold in being careful not to over mix.
6. Pour batter into the greased pan.
7. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a knife comes out clean
8. Let cool completely before cutting

Mix-in and substitution ideas

• Ground flax meal (up to 1/3 cup added to the dry ingredients)
• Replace the milk with yogurt (1:1 ratio) for added protein
• Replace pumpkin puree with sweet potato puree for a richer flavor

Pro tips

• This is a gooey bar recipe – be sure not to over bake the bars. You’ll know it’s starting to over bake if the edges become brown. They will firm up as they cool.
• If the pumpkin spice seasoning is too much for your taste, feel free to replace with 1/2 tsp of cinnamon or omit entirely
• Be sure to select a sweet variety apple. I normally use gala or honeycrisp