I usually do not buy sugary cereals. It is always Fiber One and plain old Cheerios. My son likes both. Others which I get occasionally are corn flakes, puffed brown rice, puffed millet and puffed corn. I once tried the cocoa pebbles and felt that it way too sweet. My son keeps asking for chocolate flavored cereal and I keep telling him that I cannot get it because it is not healthy. Finally I got the idea to make my own chocolate cereal.

I decided to mix cocoa powder with ragi flour; sweeten it with maple syrup; form a smooth dough and try to cut out small circles and bake it. After I was done preparing the dough, I was able to roll it out but was not able to remove the circles off the surface. It was sort of sticky. So I decided to score it into diamonds instead and bake it like crackers. Even though I was not able to do exactly what I had planned to but the experiment did end well. My son loved this homemade chocolate cereal. Keeping the recipe I have given as a base one can try this with a variety of flours and come with a lot of healthy variations.

My son is 3 years and 3 months old and like many kids of his age he is also a picky/fussy eater. Meal time is definitely a battle time. The problem with him is, he doesn’t have a favorite food. If he had a favorite food, I would simply prepare it for him everyday until he is bored. Earlier broccoli, cauliflower and pasta were his favorite. But not anymore. I think I’m never going to understand his mind in this matter.

I have a very good desi neighbor, whose daughter R is also my son’s age. She also stocks up a lot of fruits and when my son goes there she offers him a fruit and he eats it very quickly without hesitating. So what I do, the very same evening I ask my husband to pick up that fruit on his way home and I give it to my son for breakfast the next day, and he disappoints me by not even taking it to his mouth. Last week I bought cherries for the first time, to try a cake recipe. I was sure that he is not even going to taste it. I was removing the pit in the cherries and I gave him one and he ate it and asked for some more to my surprise. This continued for sometime, I was pitting and he was asking for more. So what do I do, I don’t proceed with the cake. I simply put it back in the fridge and offer it again the next day and you know what, he didn’t even eat one piece. Kids, definitely have their own thought process and they want to show us that they are in control.

Now here comes the rescue in form of a book called “The Sneaky Chef” by Missy Chase Lapine. She discusses about various simple strategies for hiding healthy foods in kids’ favorite meals. She masks spinach and blueberries in brownies, cauliflower in Mac and Cheese, cherry juice in chocolate milk, white bean puree in chocolate chip cookies, etc just to mention a few. This book has definitely made me think outside the box.

I started with the cherry chocolate milk recipe first because he drinks chocolate milk daily in the afternoon after his nap and we had cherries at home. I’ll post this one shortly. Just as it was mentioned in the book, neither of us were able to taste the cherry juice in the chocolate milk. Both the flavors blended so well. So I decided to try the blueberry flavored milk next.

The blueberry juice when mixed with the milk gave a nice violet color. But it was not sweet enough, so I mixed in some maple syrup. I liked it very much. Of course, you will get a mild blueberry smell. I was really excited to see a purple colored milk, more than he was and I asked him if he wanted to drink purple color milk. He too agreed without fussing, but once he tasted he said that it’s not nice. So I had to get him all excited about the color, but no, he wouldn’t drink. Then I got this idea, I told him that his friend R’s mother brought it while he was sleeping and she told that R loves this milk and she drinks it very quickly. And that did the trick, he gulped it down very fast, telling that it was very good. Can you believe this? I’m not sure if this is right or wrong, or how long this trick will work, but I think we have to take baby steps when it comes to kids and their nutrition. We have to pick our battles and should also let them win sometimes. Now coming to the recipe:

This is my entry for Sunshinemom’s FIC – Purple and Black.

Yes, it was totally worth every penny, when I saw my son having fun trying to carry the box (or rather dragging it) all by himself, picking the berries and correctly putting it in the carton, with a sense of pride! 

As always I found this amazingly simple and healthy recipe in the July 08 issue of Parents magazine.  I reduced the quantity of ingredients because it was my first try.  But the end product was so good, I wish I had followed the original recipe!

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.