I use banana to sweeten things quite often, but if you are not careful baby will become sick of the flavor of banana. It has its own flavor that is not easily disguised to allow the flavor of other foods to shine.
We could have just made this banana oatmeal and moved along but I think I figured out a way to give baby a clean version of brown sugar oatmeal without the brown sugar. Dates!
Dried Medjool Dates taste like brown sugar. Throughout the cooking processes they release their sweetness in the oatmeal and add to the creamy texture! Really dates are the perfect way to sweeten oatmeal, granola bars, and cookies without adding cane sugar or the over powering banana flavor.
Try this super easy slow cooked, gluten free, steel cut oatmeal and you will see what I mean!
1 cup gluten free steel cut oats
3 cups filtered water
12 pitted chopped dates
1 cup milk Coconut, Cows, Breast Milk, Formula
1 tbsp Butter or Earth balance
1 tsp cinnamon optional
1- Collect and measure your ingredients. Chop and pit the dates, saving 1/3 for the end.
2- Add everything else to the slow cooker and set to 4 hours. Stir occasionally. To cook overnight I suggest adding an extra 1/2 cup of water and omit the milk until morning.
3- If you waited to add the milk, do so now and allow it to absorb.Turn off the slow cooker and add the oatmeal and the rest of the chopped dates to the blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
4- Transfer to your Twist bags using the Foodii system. You can refrigerate these for up to a week and reheat using the Kozii bottle warmer.
