This recipe was devised out of necessity: our toddler had all but stopped eating and if it wasn't sweet, he wasn't going to eat it. He wouldn't eat fresh strawberries (or any fresh fruit for that matter) so I devised this granola recipe with dehydrated strawberries, which have a dense, sweet flavor.

This recipe relies solely on the fruit sugar of the strawberries. For younger babies, pulverize the granola completely. For older picky eaters, consider increasing the amount of strawberries to increase the sweetness. Exact measurements don't really matter.

If you have an extreme picky eater 2 years or older, you could add white chocolate chips to the mixture before or after baking and rebrand this as “chocolate-strawberry granola”. Have them make it with you so they see that the chocolate goes in! Just be sure that the white chocolate chips are put into the food processor with the rest of the granola mixture so your child doesn't pick out the chocolate chips and only eat those. (You want them to know that the chocolate chips are in the granola so they eat it but not be able to pick them out of the cereal.) Then, over time, decrease the amount of chocolate chips in the recipe until they are gone completely, at which point you’ll say “we were out of chocolate chips but we have strawberry granola.”

Dense in nutrition, this recipe could be easily introduced as early as 6 months old if pulverized in the food processor completely, and if mixed with something easy to scoop, like Greek yogurt. But try to add fresh strawberries as well for exposure to the fresh, whole fruit.

Strawberry Granola

Ingredients

Makes about 8 cups

Directions