Sweet Pea’s – Mini Jammies!

I love making healthy little snacks that our toddler Granddaughter Sweet Pea will eat. These oat and jam mini muffins that we call Jammies are toddler friendly and mother and grandmother approved! Let’s be truthful here – even the grown ups like these. There is something extra appealing about food made into miniature serving sizes. I love the built in portion control and the fact that I don’t have to cut things into servings. Plus they are just so darn cute!

This makes a lot which is great for batch cooking, pot lucks and entertaining. I try to cook smarter not harder – by batch cooking so I can freeze things ahead. It makes life so much easier. You only have to turn on the oven once, get all the ingredients out once and clean up once! Yet you get extra food made to use in the days or weeks to come. I love that. My daughter gave me the idea to make the Jammie Bar Recipe into little mini Jammies so they would be the perfect size for a toddler – who by the way – can eat 4 of these at one sitting when she is really hungry.

In addittion to making two dozen mini Jammies – I also made a 9 inch pan of bars all from one recipe of my Quinoa Banana Oat Muffin Mix. Once they have cooled down they can be placed in freezer safe containers and frozen for future use. Just set them out to thaw in the fridge or on the counter before serving. We take them on picnics with us – start out with them frozen and they will thaw soon enough and can be devoured – oops I mean served. Actually devoured is more accurate – these are so delightful – just the right amount of jam to the oaty bottom!

You will need an all fruit spread for the topping on the mini Jammies. Trader Joe’s has a couple – we prefer the Super Fruit over the Strawberry. The Super Fruit has a lot more flavor but that is just personal preference. The St Dalfour fruit spread came from Whole Foods. Apricot is also really good too. I have seen different brands in regular grocery stores as well. Just be sure to get one that is sweetened with juice – no added sugar. You can make your own Chia Berry Jam Recipe – that would work too.

For my Banana Oat Muffin Mixes I use ground quinoa – I buy the Costco Kirkland brand Quinoa that is already rinsed and I grind it in the blender into a powder. You can watch me make the mix in the Quinoa Banana Oat Muffin Video. I have since discoverd Quinoa Flakes which are just rolled and flatened quinoa – like how they make rolled oats. It eliminates one step and is very convienent and less processed than grinding the quinoa into a powder. I buy this product at Whole Foods in the cereal aisle by the oats. If you don’t have either of these products you can use ground millet or add 1/2 cup more rolled oats to the batter. I like using the quinoa to boost the nutritional profile especially when I am making things for Sweet Pea.

The Bob’s Red Mill Quick Cooking Steel Cut Oats are used in this recipe. If you have regular Steel Cut Oats you can just pop those in the food processor and cut them a little smaller – that is what they have done to make the Quick Cooking Steel Cut Oats. People always ask me if this recipe can be made with all rolled oats and I honestly don’t know because I have never tried it. I like using these products to try and make things a bit healthier.

I make these muffin mixes up when I batch prep – since I have the dry ingredients out why not make extra and have them ready to use! Now I can make muffins or fruit bars or both with this one mix. I love that! I freeze bananas in large gallon size ziplock containers so I can always make these muffins or bars. See my Quinoa Banana Oat Video and blog post.

Minnie Jammies!

Made using my Quinoa Banana Oat Muffin recipe.

• 20 ounces mashed overripe banana – about 2 1/3 cups of mashed banana, frozen bananas thawed out is fine
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup Quinoa Flakes, quinoa flour, ground millet, ground prewashed quiona or add 1/2 cup more rolled oats
• 2 cups Quick Cooking Steel Cut Oats* see note below recipe
• 2 1/2 cups Old Fashioned rolled Oats – use certified gluten free oats to make these gluten free
• 1/4 cup ground golden flaxseed meal
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg – freshly ground is best – see video
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Jars Fruit Spread – fruit juice sweetened – no added sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl mash the bananas using a potato masher or a large fork. Mix in the applesauce. Add the cinnamon, baking powder, cardamom, nutmeg and vanilla powder or vanilla extract. Stir until well incorporated. Add the quinoa flakes, quick cooking steel cut oats, old fashioned oats and ground flaxseed meal. Stir until well combined.

This batter can make 48 mini Jammies in mini muffin pans. Or you can make 24 mini Jammies and 1 – 8 or 9 inch silicone pan of fruit bars or make 24 mini Jammies and 6 regular size muffins – you can top the regular size muffins with jam or leave them plain.

Fill your silicone mini muffin pans or non stick mini muffin pans lined with parchment liners first – leaving enough room at the top for the jam. If making 24 mini muffins take the left over batter and spread it out evenly in an 8 or 9 inch silicone baking pan and top with 1 jar of fruit spread – using a spatula to spread it covering the top evenly.

The mini muffin pans bake for 20 minutes in my Breville Smart Oven Air on the bake function. The 9 inch pan of bars or regular size muffin pans take 30 minutes.

Let cool completely before trying to remove from silicone pans. Using a plastic knife cut the bars into 16 servings. Both the bars and the muffins may be frozen for future use.

I don’t have a silicone mini muffin pan so I use my non stick mini muffin pan with parchment paper liners and it works well.

* Some people have told me that they use the regular steel cut oats but first they put them in their food processor and using the pulse function they cut the steel cut oats smaller – which is what is done to make quick cooking steel cut oats. So give that a try if you can’t find the quick cooking steel cut oats. Update- a reader told me she used all rolled oats and it worked great!

A Nutmeg Notebook recipe inspired by Chef AJ‘s Oat & Jam Bars

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