Morning Mush

Even during the darkest times in my quest to feed my Music Man, he usually was a champion breakfast eater. This never shocked me since he would barely eat anything for lunch or dinner. My best shot at getting quality food into his belly was when he woke up starving. He absolutely LOVED oatmeal and millet. I would cook up both of these grains in huge batches and add bananas, cinnamon, peanut butter, honey, and milk. Some mornings he would inhale three huge bowls. On the weekend the Hubs would keep track and some Saturdays our Music Man ate more than his 200 lb dad!

So when I decided to remove all grains from our diet, I was nervous about breakfast. But I can honestly say, it really hasn't been an issue. For awhile, my little guy was totally content eating grain-free pancakes, sausage, bacon and just recently he's been digging scrambled eggs. But I always felt a little bad taking away his beloved "porridge" type meal so I went searching for an alternative. What I'm about to describe down here may sound odd and like it has 4 too many ingredients, but I promise it actually tastes good. And my son eats it by the bowlfuls a few times a week.

I found two recipes through Paleo sites and cookbooks for grain-free porridges. I basically combined the two and then added a few other ingredients to make my own. We'll call this:

Music Man's Morning Mush!

Ok, so you start with an almond meal based porridge that I got from Paleo Parents. I forget the exact recipe but I think it's pretty close to this:

3 cups almond meal

3 cups water

2 T cinnamon

2 apples (grated)

Mix all ingredients in the slow-cooker. Set on LOW for about 6 hours, or until a porridge consistency is created.

This is the base for the Morning Mush. Put a few big scoops into a saucepan. To this add:

1/4 c shredded coconut

2 T almond butter

a few splashes of coconut milk or raw milk

a few sprinkles of cinnamon

spoonful of honey (optional)

Mix together over low heat and you've got a coconutty porridge that my little guy loves!

But that's not all! So one aspect of the Paleo diet I am very conscious about is just how many carbs my kids are getting. I clearly don't limit this at all for growing kids, so I am always looking for ways to get high carb root vegetables into their bellies. To this porridge I add a huge scoop of either mashed up butternut squash or sweet potato. If I don't have any on hand, I use the butternut squash or sweet potato pouches put out by Plum Organics.

And then there's one last ingredient. I know, it's sounding ridiculous but all the flavors blend together. Sometimes the Music Man needs a little motivation with his meals. And breakfast is no longer the exception since he's actually eating lunch and dinner now so he's not always starving first thing in the morning. He likes to "find" bananas in his porridge so we cut up some bananas, stir them in, and he happily searches for them while he eats up his mush.

So with this breakfast you get:

FAT - almond butter, coconut

PROTEIN - almond butter, coconut

CARBS - apples, bananas, squash/sweet potato

FIBER - apples, bananas

Add a scrambled egg to this for an extra punch of protein and I promise this will fill your little one's bellies for the morning!