I am excited to share with y'all one of my favorite recipes that I make for my daughter, Homemade Oatmeal Cereal with Avocado. I do modify it a little now that she is not a baby, however her little brother will need the baby version as shown below. I began making this particular concoction when she was about 6 months old. I chose to exclusively breastfeed her until she was 6 months and introduced meats when she was 8 months. This was my own personal decision, she was thriving and that's all that matters! Once I introduced food it was generally as a snack, not meal replacement until around 12 months. Now that my little guy has turned 13 weeks, starting him on solids is just around the corner!

I'm starting to get really excited because I used to love coming up with new ideas for how to feed my daughter regular food, baby-style, not "baby jarred nastiness". I typically would make her combinations of what I would eat, because if I wouldn't touch it why should she?! Plus, she got used to what I cook daily and you should see her eat now!

My next favorite part of making baby food is using my squeeze pouches. I wrote about both in my previous blog about Fall Pumpkin Banana Puree. We are a family on the go, and when it comes to feeding my kids, our favorite go to snack is our homemade recipes using our squeeze pouches! These squeeze pouches are so easy to grab and go...even for us adults! Store bought pouches can costs anywhere from $1.25 - $3 and that just adds up. That's why we make our own at home using our squeeze pouch station. I am a huge fan! I can puree fruits and veggies, fill them myself so that I know exactly what I'm feeding them. You can purchase it using my link above! I highly recommend this system!

So without further ado, here is my recipe for Homemeade Oatmeal Avocado Puree.

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups of boiling water
1 medium avocado
1-2 ripe organic bananas
Nutmeg (optional)
Cinnamon (optional)

1. First I measure out the rolled oats and place in a medium bowl or your Cuisinart chopper/grinder attachment.

2. Using either a handheld blender or food processor, blend the oats until they become a fine consistency. Similar to the boxed baby oatmeal.Done! You now have baby oatmeal. Now you're ready to boil the oatmeal in a medium saucepan bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil. Stir in the processed oats. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 5 minutes, stir occasionally. Remove from heat.

3. Peel your avocado and place into a medium sized mixing bowl or the saucepan with oats. Add 1-2 bananas. Using your handheld blender again, blend the ingredients together. Let it cool. While cooling set up your squeeze station and label your  squeeze pouches. Finally, using your squeeze pouch station fill your  squeeze pouches and serve or store in your refrigerator or freezer using the recommendations provided by the  squeeze pouch manufacturer.

​We are a family on the go, and when it comes to feeding my kids, our favorite go to snack is our homemade recipes using our squeeze pouches! These squeeze pouches are so easy to grab and go...even for us adults! Store bought pouches can costs anywhere from $1.25 - $3 and that just adds up. That's why we make our own at home using our squeeze pouch station. I am a huge fan! I can puree fruits and veggies, fill them myself so that I know exactly what I'm feeding them. 

​Ok, now on to the recipe! This recipe can be modified accordingly for children 6 months and up. My daughter's favorite food right now is Bananas. Bananas morning noon and night...avocado and banana, oatmeal and banana, the list goes on. Today I'm sharing a super easy recipe using just Organic Canned Pumpkin, 2 Organic Bananas and some cinnamon. This recipe fills about 4-5 food squeeze pouches which measure 3.5 oz each. I actually cook mine down a little in my electric pressure cooker, but you can simply put it in a food processor, then fill each squeeze pouch and serve! I also started adding organic Greek yogurt once my daughter turned one to really get a power packed breakfast and/or snack.

It is snowing hard outside and I think it calls for a little Snow Ice Cream!  Typically I would be sitting in my classroom at school teaching my marketing students, but Mother Nature had her own ideas on what I would be doing today. I have updated all of my lesson plans and class website...now what?! I can't give swim lessons today because we are under a Winter Storm Warning and there are about 3-4 inches on the ground. No one is driving and we are anticipating the dreaded ice this evening..eeek!

My 8 year old niece Frankie has called me non-stop today (they are out of school as well), and I'm not complaining. She and her daddy were on their way outside to whip up some snow apples (more on that later) when I suggested "snow ice cream". She said "Make it and send me a pic!". I said "Yes ma'am!" So, here's what I came up with using a basic modified recipe from Just a Girl Blog. The recipe listed on her website is awesome! I just don't have all that goodness in my pantry at the moment. Enjoy!

Using only fresh white snow: