Homemade Teething Biscuits

With three kids 4 and under mealtimes sometimes get a little hectic, especially when I'm not prepared, which happens more than I'd like to admit. Someone often ends up waiting and not always patiently - can't blame em. Today I happened to have it very much together. Probably because we were all home all day. We had no play dates, no errands, no maintaining rental properties, etc. The hubby worked a few hours from home, but it was a pretty laid back day and feeding the fam was a breeze.

While everyone was eating happily I got thinking about those days when mealtime doesn't go as smoothly. I thought that it might help to have something Buddha could snack on if she was the one who had to wait. She's had Plum Organics Super Puffs, but she can't quite pick them up on her own so I still have to feed them to her and they're pricey. She's 7 months and has suddenly developed a healthy appetite and a strong desire to chew on ANYTHING (brother's foot included), so I thought maybe some teething biscuits might do the trick. Being that she is our third child and we've made all of their baby food you would think that I would have made teething biscuits before - nope, never even thought to try. So today I hopped on Pinterest to find a good recipe. I found a few that sounded promising and ended up choosing a recipe from Momtastic's Wholesome baby food. I tweaked the original recipe, Nutritious Teething Biscuits from Vicki Lansky's "Feed Me I'm Yours, because of the ingredients I had on hand and personal preference. Here's my version:

Homemade Teething Biscuits*

1 beaten egg yolk

1 tbsp maple syrup (optional)

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tbsp canola oil

1/4 cup (2 oz) breastmilk

1 tbsp uncooked oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbsp flax meal

1/2 tsp cinnamon (can substitute other spices)

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a medium bowl mix wet ingredients. Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl and then add to wet. I started mixing the dough with a spoon, but to get it thoroughly blended I ditched the spoon and used my hands. The dough was pretty firm. On wax paper I rolled out the dough to about 1/4 inch. Then I used a mason jar lid to cut out circle shapes and the lid to the maple syrup to cut an inner circle making an O shape. I thought that shape would be easier for Buddha to hold than a traditional rectangle.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes. I left mine in for about 17 minutes and they were perfect, but I'd check them at 15.

There you have it. It was quick, easy, inexpensive and she LOVED them. I froze about half of them and figure that might feel good on her gums at some point.

*Pieces of biscuits can break off and become a choking hazard so ALWAYS supervise baby while she's eating. After some gumming biscuits will soften and break apart easier.