On some days during the weekends it is tricky and challenging to keep our 3.5 year old occupied. He is so used to his friends, teachers and school during the week days that he is crest fallen during the weekends, especially in the mornings. Thankfully most of the days, he does a good job of playing on his own and keeping himself entertained. But then there are other days, when he is miffed and does not seem interested in anything and those are the days when he literally keeps me on my toes.
On a good day his morning starts off by coloring some 5-10 sheets of paper, cutting paper, doing puzzles, running around the house, pouring water between containers, playing with his toys etc.
Talking of cutting, some times the activity gets a bit too far, as on some occasions he has even managed to snip some parts of his hair J When confronted he said with all innocence that his hair has grown and he was feeling sad that we did not take him out for hair cutting. So he decided to cut the hairs by himself. We had a hard time trying to contain our laughter.
Last weekend he was not his cheerful self. So I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone by making cake and also keep him busy by involving him in the baking process. That way he could bake a cake and eat it tooJ. He has shown little interest in the kitchen, mixing a thing or two, rolling out chapathis etc. But this was the first time he would be involved from start to finish. I was skeptical, but decided to try him out anyway.
For this project I looked for some easy, eggless and little healthy recipe idea and zeroed in onto this recipe here. I tweaked it a bit to cater to my taste and decided to make it into a muffin, so that it is easier for the little one to eat.
The baking with the little boy was fun. He started with interest, but then became his usual curious, mischievous self. For most part I was engaged in pulling out unnecessary things from his hands, cleaning and shouting “NO”. I think I will wait and give him another six more months; hopefully he will be a better helper and also much more mature in handling baking projects J
Ingredients:
- 1 cup All purpose flour (Maida)
- 1 ripe banana
- 2/3 cup orange juice
- ¾ cup sugar ( I used brown sugar)
- ½ cup pecans (chopped finely)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- 4 tsp shredded coconut
- 4 Tbsp Olive oil
- Salt a pinch
Yields:
12 medium muffins
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- In the meanwhile smash the banana with a fork or a spoon, making sure there are no lumps.
- In a mixing bowl add the dry ingredients All purpose flour, Sugar, Cinnamon powder, Baking powder, salt, chopped pecans and mix well.
- In another bowl, mix the Orange juice, mashed banana, coconut and whisk together. Stream in the oil and mix well.
- Now add the dry ingredients in bits to the wet mixture and mix well. I used a hand mixer for this.
- Grease 12 muffin pans. Now spoon the muffin mix into muffin cups until 2/3 full.
- Place in the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the knife/toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Hi Supriya,
LOL…it was an entertaining read about ur kiddo:) aww…the hair cut thingie was ssssssshhhhho shwwwwwwwweet 🙂 lol…Tha’s the advantage of Montessori method teaching, they can tackle almost every practical life items on their own…hmmmm can get a bit funny and extreme at times:)
wow…you kept him engaged in cake baking that’s cool! hard to cope with their attention span…nave! so yup!he made a cake and ate it too!!;)
Pic look superb, good one supriya.
TC
Yummy and healthy muffins and that too eggless 🙂
Hi, I was just browsing ur Healthy Strawberry Yogurt recipe.:) Nice muffins with nice pics.
Sonu (sevenspice.wordpress.com)
those are awesome pics!! love the muffins too 🙂
Amazing muffins!The basket is very pretty..Nice shots 🙂
Gorgeous Muffins RC..Wat a lovely combo of ingredients, its absolutely delicious, seems u had a great time ur little prince..lovely presentation too!
Ha ha snipping his own hair, love the pic of the muffin and it looks beautiful and delicous.
Muffins look great. Yup activities with a pair of scissors usually end up with snipped hair. That story by him is really good 🙂
Supriya at least you dared to bake with him! I keep the little one away by saying that she will get to ice it after i am done, & then she waits (im)patiently.. or i get her busy with fetching things & stirring water etc.. LOL not that she is very happy to do those as dd1 helps me.. cutting his hair… !! i still do not give her scissors inhand only for the fear of her experimenting on things she should not… her ideas scare me. yesterday while bathing in the tub, she put her hand on the tap from where the water comes out & made a Huge what she called “big rain” & a “fountain” & had the entire bathroom, from the ceiling to the floor wet! it was an accomplishment for her to create a fountain inside the house… not not me:0(
these muffins i need to try..looks so cute, & love the flavors.
muffins looks tempting & delicious …. will try some time
It is really difficult to keep the kids entertained during weekends.My daughter is of same age, and we were trying to get her a hair cut this weekend. She starts screaming when her hair falls on her. Cutting his hair and confronting with a story was really cute.
Muffins looks awesome. Lovely picture. I too have posted a similar muffin but with banana – apple.
LOL…..Oh wow muffins looks soft and yummy….
Those muffins look gorgeous. I guess the banana substitued for the egg and also lends its wondeful flavor.
nice one..& nice pics
My son loves to bake from preschool, I just give the spatula to mix, or mesuring cup to scoop the flour, now he breaks the egg, but be sure to clean up the mess.
I love the shot taken outside!
kids are soo much fun .. he cut his hair LOL .. Guess hez too young to be interested in cooking .. nice muffins there
nice looking and healthy muffins…………..
Suparna thanks a bunch. It was very funny indeed and we did not know whether to laugh or cry for that incident. But I guess i will use his help after 6 months. We had way too much fun 🙂
Parita thanks. True, this does not have eggs or butter and is considerable healthy.
Sonu thanks. Thanks for visiting and your warm comments about the pictures and the recipes.It keeps me going.
Superchef thanks a lot. The weather outside was good that day and got a chance tp click some pictures.
Madhumathi thanks for the warm words. The weather outside was just fine on that day and that helped 🙂
thats so lovely Rc..nice idea to get the kiddo interested!…and you can send this to my mithai mela…:)
Priya thanks a lot. I like the title of little prince. He is quite a handful sometimes 🙂 but fun to be around.
Happy Cook thanks. Kids ! what do we say right? We cannot live without them and are a great source of entertainment 🙂
ISG thanks. It was funny and luckily it was not much. I will not be surprised if he does that again.
Soma ROFL, the little one’s antics just cracks me up. Please give her a big hug on my behalf. I know mommy is not pleased, but I could not contain myself. The kids have such wonderful curious minds isn’t it? my little one hates water and so his experiments in water is limited 🙂
Kalyani thanks for the words. I know I still owe you an answer 🙂
AShwini thanks. I know how you feel, it is quite tricky. So your little one hates hair cutting eh? That is cute. My little one loves cutting, but hates water though. I will check your version of muffin 🙂
Lubna thanks. Banana makes this very soft and dense and it is healthy too right 🙂
Anudivya thanks. You just got it right on. I always like to substitute eggs with something else and bananas always work for me.
Mala thanks. The wether was very nice that day and gave me the chance to take pictures.
Cham thanks. That is very cute idea. I think I will give him a spatula next time. But not the egg 🙂 cleanup is pain really!
Deesha thanks. Yes indeed, the kids are bundle of action and entertainment. Never know what you get next 🙂
Sanjana thanks. Orange and banana does make it healthy. Maybe I will try with wheat flour next time around.
Srivalli thanks. i will definitely send it to youe mithai mela, wonder why i did not think of it before?
Love the post and the first pic is very VERY VERY EYE CATCHING.For the first 5 minutes I simply looked at the pic then only read the post.LOVED hearing the TALES OF THE LITTLE PRINCE.My own princess here is a bit similar.Kids are kids.If they do not make any naughty things then only we should be worried.LOVE the muffins PERFECT Supriya.TOO GOOD I must say
Thanks a bunch Shweatha. Your warm words mean so much to me. Hey, I did not know you had a princess 🙂 For some reason I pictured you as a newly married coy bride 🙂
I agree with you 100%. Waht are kids without some mischief?
Such pretty pictures! Makes me wanna go on a picnic.
I’ve baked with my kiddos since they were as young as 2. Yes, I yell no, no as well. But I think it’s fun for them, and also helps them understand some of the ground rules in my kitchen. It’s the rules or no baking and most of the time they oblige ’cause they love baking so much.
Moist and yummy muffins and click is awesome
Great for breakfast!!
And bread baking is a high!! 🙂
sounds great.. will bookmark and try.
Great to read abt ur kid!! And muffins look yummy! Great picture too!
Kids this age are such fun:)
orange, pecans, cinnamon & coconut-this has got all my favourite flavours in there
oh, give him an extra cookie, will ya, for saving you a trip to the barber? he’s a smart kid.
Nice clicks……n a very good healthy recipe…