The things you do to get a kid to eat fruit

When Ryan is home, my main goal besides trying to make him smile, is to try to fatten him up.

Food has always been a big issue for him, he has a lot of sensory-motor issues and didn't learn to chew until he was about nine years old.

Most fruits, and vegetables are on the "won't touch it with a ten foot pole" list and I think the only way we have avoided scurvy is because he absolutely loves my spaghetti sauce.

He won't drink juice or smoothies. To try and get a little fruit in him this morning I made oatmeal blueberry muffins to go with the couple of hot dogs he had for breakfast.

Hot dogs for breakfast? When you have an autistic kid, you learn to go with the flow.

Oatmeal-blueberry muffins

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup rolled oats

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 beaten egg

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup cooking oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 tsp cake spice or nutmeg or cinnamon

3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions:

Grease twelve 2-1/2-inch muffin cups or line them with paper bake cups; set aside.

Stir together flour, rolled oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the center of the mixture.

Combine egg, milk, brown sugar, oil, and vanilla in another bowl. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy.) Fold blueberries into the batter. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each three-quarters full.

Bake in a 400 degree F oven for 16 to 18 minutes for 2-1/2-inch muffins or 10 to 12 minutes for 1-3/4-inch muffins or until done. Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes; remove muffins from cups Serve warm. Makes 12 to 15 regular-size or 36 small muffins.