I found a fun little recipe contest the other day. Instead of submitting your actual recipe, the contest consists of using one of the contest sites recipes as inspiration for your own. I had a great time with my son browsing through the pictures and stories and finally deciding on one that appealed to us both. Below is my official entry to the contest.
The image that caught my eye (and my almost 2 year old son) was the Oatmeal/Granola Lake. I have had pretty good luck with getting my son to eat anything I put in front of him, my husband, well not so much. So again, my two year old was the lucky taste tester. One of my son's favorite snack items are freeze dried strawberry bits. I started by making a pretty thick consistency of plain oatmeal and granola. I find when my son has a belly full of thick oatmeal, he goes to bed a little earlier! I added in a few shakes of the strawberry bits, all the while my son is near climbing my leg saying "Bite! Bite!". Then I slowly add some heavy cream to give it a rich creamy flavor, creamy obviously. I whip up a a little bit of fresh ricotta cheese with some powdered sugar and about a teaspoon of fresh strawberry juice and make a little "puff" (my son named it) in the middle. I give a little sprinke of warm honey across the top and a sliced strawberry to make it look pretty and that's it! My son eats of full bowl of him own strawberry cream oatmeal puff and I get to have a little extra quiet time tonight!
