I came up with this recipe when deciding what would make a scrumptious (and nutritious) breakfast for my son on his first birthday. It was going to be a big day and we needed something that would suitably mark the occasion and get his chubby little hands clapping in approval.
To celebrate his new-found obsession with blueberries, it felt only natural that whatever I came up with was packed with these antioxidant-rich delights.
It was also the first time he was going to be getting his very first taste of honey and I think I was slightly more excited about this than he was. Remember that children younger than 12 months shouldn’t be given honey so you could always leave the honey out and still have a very tasty recipe (honey has been linked to botulism in babies under a year).
I used whole wheat flour in this recipe to pack in the nutrients (given that it is more nutritionally superior than the ’empty’ white flour varieties) but you really could use any flour.
It makes quite a few portions so the family could enjoy the same meal together or the left-over batter could be frozen in a freezer bag until ready to use (simply thaw in the refrigerator and then snip open one of the corners of the freezer bag and pour the batter directly onto a hot pan).
What you’ll need:
- 1 cup whole wheat flour, sifted
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 2 Tbs honey
- 2 Tbs sugar-free peanut butter (or any nut butter)
- 3 free-range eggs, separated
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 cup plain yoghurt (full fat preferable)
- 120g blueberries, chopped (to prevent choking)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 Tbs butter or olive oil for frying
Method:
- Whisk the egg whites in a bowl until stiff peaks form (you want to be able to turn the bowl upside down and for the egg whites to stay put!). Set aside.
- Then combine all the other ingredients (reserving half the blueberries for garnishing) in a food processor or using a hand mixer. You want a smooth-ish consistency with some texture from the blueberries and oats.
- Fold the egg whites into the mixture gently.
- Heat a small amount of the butter or olive oil on a non stick pan on a medium-high heat. (You want to make sure the pan isn’t too hot).
- Take a tablespoon of mixture at a time and pour it into the pan. When the mixture starts bubbling all over, flip the flapjack over with a spatula and cook for a further minute (if you are struggling, make the flapjacks smaller – the first few are always a bit of a distaster until you get the hang of it!)
- Add a little more butter or olive oil to the pan if needed and repeat the previous step until you have finished the batter.
- Serve with the extra chopped blueberries, strawberries or blackberries and a drizzle of honey.
*The above will need to be adapted should your child have an allergy to any of the mentioned ingredients.
* Never leave your child unsupervised while they are eating.
Hungry Little Monkey 