Oats is a grain which is very nutritious and tasty in nature. It is a good source of vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, iron, protein etc.
Milk oats was one of my baby's early food and my baby has always liked it with added fruits (banana and mango particularly). In fact, not just my son, now our whole family eats it this way i.e. with fruits in place of sugar.
I knew very little about oats when I introduced it to my son but later I got to know a lot about it. Hence I decided to write a post on this.
which one is good for your little oneoats recipes
Oats are available in 3 varieties in market that differ in terms of their cooking time, processing etc.
- Steel cut oats: These are whole oats cut into 2-4 pieces with steel blades. These are least processed. It takes long time to cook (30-40 min).
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| Figure 1: steel-cut oats |
- old-fashioned (rolled oats): These are lightly processed and takes lesser time to cook as compared to steel cut oats. Steel cut oats are steamed and pressed into flakes to make rolled oats. It takes ~10-15min to cook them.
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| Figure 2: Rolled oats |
- Quick oats (instant oats) : These are highly processed and gets cooked easily that's how they got their name. It usually takes ~5 min to cook it.
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| Figure 3: Instant oats |
Which one is good for your child?
Although steel cut oats are least processed but they can be heavy for your little one's digestive system. Best is to offer rolled oats to your child as they are not much processed and can be digested easily. Avoid giving instant oats as they are highly processed and some of quick oats available in market contain salt which is not good for babies.
Oats recipes
1. Overnight oats : This is one of the easiest oats recipe that I have come across recently.
- Take a glass jar and add 1 cup of rolled oats along with 2 cups of milk and 1 teaspoon of chia seeds.
- You can add sugar/jaggery powder for sweetness as per your taste. I don’t add sugar, instead add fruits while serving.
- Keep it in refrigerator for whole night.
- In the morning your dish is ready.
- You can keep it outside refrigerator in the morning for half an hour or so before serving.
- Add fruits and nuts of your choice while serving.
2. Fruits Oats cooked in water and milk : This is our all time favorite.
- Cook 1 bowl of rolled oats in 2-2.5 bowl of water until the water is dried.
- Add 1 cup boiled milk and add sugar/jaggery powder (this is optional, you can add fruits for sweetness while serving)
- After few minutes, your dish is ready.
- Add fruits (banana, mango etc.) while serving
3. oats cheela : you can grind oats in mixer for oats powder or you can directly buy oats atta.
- Mix oats powder and wheat atta/besan in 1:1 ratio
- Add vegetables of your choice (tomato, onion, capsicum, beans, carrot etc.)
- Add spices of your choice (ajwain, hing, black pepper, jeera etc.)
- Add water to make a smooth paste. It should neither be too runny nor be too sticky. It should be such that you can easily spread it on tawa. I use non stick tawa as it is easy to make cheelas on it.
- Spread it in round shape on tawa with the help of ladle (kadchi)
- flip it when one side is cooked.
- when both sides are cooked, your dish is ready. serve it with any vegetable, curry or curd.
A quick advice
- don't make very thin cheelas for kids. It should be little thick and soft so that they can easily chew it.
- if you find it difficult to spread, it means batter is sticky and you need to add little more water.
4. Masala oats/ oats upma : This is normal tadka recipe. you can customize as per your taste.
- In pan, add 1 tbsp of desi ghee or any oil that you use.
- Add jeera in it.
- After a couple of min, add garlic and ginger.
- When it is sautéed, add onion and let it sauté.
- Add tomato and let it also get sautéed. It will take 7-10 min to make proper masala.
- Now add vegetables of your choice (peas, capsicum, bell pepper, beans etc.)
- Sauté it for couple of minutes.
- Add salt (recommended only if your child is 1+ year old).
- Add a cup of oats and add 2-3 cups of water.
- Let it cook. When water is completely eliminated, your dish is ready.
- You can serve it with curd.
5. Oats cookies : click here to check oats peanut butter cookies recipe
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