Green Monster Oaties

My original plan for these was just to make a quick and healthy pram snack to take out and about with us. The result ended up so delicious that I’ve ended up making so many of these over the past few weeks, and everyone’s been enjoying them! I just kept using the excuse that I had to keep tweaking the recipe a bit… “hmm, too green… not green enough… needs to be a bit more chewy etc etc”.

These might look a little odd and savoury but the apple and raisins make these a soft, sweet and totally scrummy (as well as super healthy) treat!

The most impressive story of these oaties so far is that they even passed the test of my 9 year-old nephew who “absolutely, under no circumstances, will EVER eat anything GREEN!”.

Although not a huge quantity, the addition of raisins in this snack does up the sugar content a bit and it’s not advisable to offer lots of dried fruit to babies and young children, so we recommend not including if making for babies younger than 10 months. The result obviously isn’t as sweet, but still works perfectly as a baby led weaning snack!

Ingredients
2 granny smith apples, cored and sliced (leave skin on)
40g curly kale, washed and stems removed
50g spinach leaves, washed and stems removed
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
130g (1 cup) cashew nuts
50g golden raisins (for babies over 10 months)
1 tbsp coconut oil
40g instant oats
60g rolled oats

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 18cm square baking tray
2. Place the sliced apple in a steamer and steam for 3-4 minutes until the apple starts to soften
3. Chop the kale and spinach and add to the steamer with the apple for 2-3 minutes until the leaves wilt
4. Remove from heat and decant into a separate bowl (for stick/hand blending) or blender
5. Blend the apples, kale and spinach with the lemon juice until smooth. Set aside to cool
6. In a food processor, add the cashew nuts, raisins and coconut oil. Blend until sticky and starting to come together and sticking to the sides (about 2 minutes)
7. Decant the nut mix, green apple mixture and oats into a bowl and stir together thoroughly
8. Spoon mixture into a lined baking tray and press down firmly to flatten (if you do not have a 18cm square tray, use a larger one but do not fill completely, instead squash the oatie mixture into an approx 20 x 20cm square with a palette knife – you want the mixture to be about 1 inch thick)
9. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes until the top is starting to turn brown
10. Remove from oven and leave to cool slightly before removing from baking tray
11. Leave to cool completely before slicing into fingers or squares