Home Made Dry Fruit Powder Mix for Toddlers and Kids

What are the benefits of home made dry fruit powder mix?

How to prepare dry fruits powder at home?

When can I include dry fruits powder in baby’s diet?

How to use this homemade dry fruits powder?

In today’s post, I give you a step-by-step method to make homemade dry fruit powder mix for toddlers and kids.

When I started giving cow’s milk to my daughter Tejaswini, my pediatrician suggested a very popular dry fruit powder mix brand available in the market. But as a parent who believes in everything home made for the baby, I planned to make the dry fruit powder mix at home.

With a little research and a little help from my Amma, I made a healthy and delicious substitute to the tinned health mix powders available in the market. I found the combination of nuts powdered at home much better than the products available in the market.

Nuts contain good fat, Vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants and along with milk can help your baby meet the nutritional requirements when taken on a daily basis. 

Benefits of dry fruits and nuts for babies and kids

Dry fruits and nuts are powerhouses of essential vitamins and minerals. They are also high is fiber and can help ease constipation which is a common problem among kids.

Dry nuts are good sources of protein and can be beneficial to vegetarians in particular as they miss out the proteins from meat and eggs.They are also rich in iron and other minerals like manganese, potassium etc. They also contain omega 3 fatty acids and are high in calories.

A handful of nuts consumed daily can help in proper weight management and also improves immunity.

Benefits of Home Made Dry Fruit Powder Mix for Toddlers and Kids

Homemade dry fruits powder is the best you can give to your child along with milk. It gives a nice flavor and aroma to the milk and will tempt your kid to drink his daily glass of milk.

• Filling for the tummy
  My daughter used to get up at least 3 times at night earlier. After I started giving this milk before bedtime at night, she rarely gets up ensuring a good night sleep for us too.
• Can be used multiple waysThough this powder is the best when mixed with a warm cup of milk, it can be used in many different ways. It can be added to porridge, home made cerelac, vegetable mash, raw banana porridge and this will increase the nutritional value too.
  Dry fruit powder mix can also be used to make halwa, laddoos, chapatti, as topping for kheer, custards etc.
• Good for weight gain
  Dry fruits and nuts are high in calories and fat content and hence they are good for weight gain in kids.
  
  Read: Top 50 Foods for Weight Gain in Babies and Kids
• Travel-friendly food
  You can carry dry fruits powder while you travel with kids and make the dry fruits milk whenever you want. This dry fruit mix helped a lot during our train journeys too as it was pretty easy to mix it with milk and feed my child.Read: Travel-Friendly Porridge Recipes for Babies
• Improves immunity
  
  A better energy drink than the packaged once, the milk with dry fruits powder can help improve the immunity of the kids.
• No preservatives and chemicalsThe so-called nutritious supplement energy mixes that we get from the market is full of preservatives and artificial flavors to lengthen shelf life and enhance the taste. This load of preservatives and chemicals can at the end prove harmful for the child.
  The dry fruit powder we make at home will have no preservatives and artificial flavors. It will be a much healthier alternative to the store-bought energy mix.

Nutritional Information of ingredients used in Homemade Dry fruits powder mix

I made the powder mix with four types of dry nuts with a little dry ginger. Let us take a look at the nutritional information and benefits of the ingredients used in this homemade powder mix.

• Almonds
  
  Almonds are rich in fiber, healthy fats and protein. It also contains magnesium and vitamin E. They also have an appreciable amount of calcium. Of all tree nuts, almonds top the list when it comes to the amount of protein, calcium, vitamin E, riboflavin, niacin and fiber content by weight.Almonds are good for the heart, helps fight diabetes, are healthy for the digestive system, promotes hair growth and rejuvenates the skin.
  
  Read: Homemade Almond Powder in Plain and Chocolate Flavor for Kids
• Cashew
  
  Cashew nuts are rich in vitamins E and K and also contains vitamin B6. It also contains essential minerals like copper, phosphorus, magnesium and zinc. Iron and selenium are also found in cashew nuts.The manganese in Cashew t helps regulate metabolism, blood sugar, and promotes normal skeletal growth.

• Pistachios
  Pistachios are a nutritionally rich and contains a good amount of protein and dietary fibers. It also has high copper content that can aid in better iron absorption.
  Pistachios are good to improve eyesight and also boost immunity.
• Peanut
  
  Peanut, which is also known as groundnut/ goober, is a legume that is rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acids, dietary proteins, vitamin E and B. It also contains minerals like calcium, iron, manganese, potassium, magnesium, zinc, copper, and selenium, which are all essential for healthy growth and development.Read: Homemade Peanut Chikki Recipe for Toddlers
• Dry ginger
  Dry ginger is good for improving digestion and helps curb gas related problems. It also helps improve immunity and is good to reduce and cure symptoms of flu and the common cold. It is also known as chukku, sukku, or sonth.Adding dry ginger to dry fruit powder mix lessens the chances of indigestion and gas.Read:
• 3 Ways To Use Dry Ginger and Thippili for Cold and Cough in Toddlers
• How to make raw banana powder at home for babies?
• Everything about home made cerelac for babies you need to know

Home made dry fruit powder mix recipe

The process of making dry fruits powder at home is not a tedious one. It is simple but requires the correct technique.

Once your child starts to drink milk with this dry fruit powder you will be satisfied that you have put in the efforts to make this at the first place.

Ingredients Required

• Almonds – 1 cup
• Cashew – 1 cup
• Pista – 1 cup
• Peanut – 1/2 cup
• Dry ginger – 2 to 3 inch

How To Prepare Dry Fruit Powder Mix at Home?

• Dry roast nuts one by one till it attains a crunchy texture
• Crush dry ginger and heat it for a few seconds.
• Let the dry fruits and dry ginger cool a bit
• Powder it in a mill/mixie. It will not be a very fine powder but a slightly coarse one.
• Store the powder mix in an airtight container once it is completely cool.

Things to take care

• The powder will be coarse in nature. Don’t over grind the nuts as it will start separating oils and the mixture will become oily and too much sticky.
• Use the pulse mode to powder if you are using a mixie. Powder the nuts mixture in intervals and not at a single stretch.
• You can also add cardamom to this mix. It gives a good aroma.
• Dry fruits like walnut, hazelnuts etc. can also be added.
• A pinch of saffron can enhance the flavor and color and this can also be used if you want.
• Peel peanut skin and remove pistachio from shell before making
• You don’t have to soak and peel almonds. You can powder it as it is after dry roasting.
• You can use dry ginger powder instead of the dry ginger piece.

Precautions to be taken while using dry fruit mixture

Dry nuts top the list of allergens. If your baby is allergic to nuts, please refrain from giving this mixed dry fruits powder.

Make sure the final product doesn’t have any chunks of dry nuts and is an almost powder form as to prevent choking.

Too much of nuts are not good for babies or adults. So this powder mixed milk once a day is fine.

How to store the dry fruits powder mix?

Store the powder mix in airtight containers. Use a clean moisture free spoon whenever you scoop out the powder for use. If handled and stored in a proper and hygienic way, the homemade dry powder mix can be stored for 3 to 4 weeks in a refrigerator.

When can I start giving dry fruit powder mix to my baby?

This powder mix can be given to babies above 10 months. Make sure that your baby is not allergic to nuts and each of the ingredients used to make this powder mix is introduced separately to the baby.

Always follow the 3 days golden rule when you introduce anything new.

How to use this homemade dry fruits powder?

You can mix the powder in milk if your baby is above one year and have already started to take milk. It gives a nice flavor to milk and also helps increase weight gain. This powder is way better than the health powders we get in the market considering the fact that the supplement powders in the market are mostly sugar, preservatives, and artificial flavorings.

For kids above 10 months, you can use this to make porridges, kheer, pancakes, etc. Mix a teaspoon of this healthy nuts powder mix while making porridges, kheers, sweet dishes, pancakes etc.

How to make dry fruit powder milk?

• Dilute 1:1 ratio of milk and water.
• Take 1 to 2 teaspoons of dry fruit powder mix and add it to milk without any lumps.
• Turn on the stove and let the milk boil.
• You can add jaggery powder or sugar to this dry fruit powder drink if required.

Read: Milk for Toddlers and Kids in 8 Unique Flavors

Hope you liked this article on homemade dry fruit powder mix.

Also, let me know which supplement do you use in your toddler’s milk? Do you prefer homemade energy mixes or store bought ones?

How do you flavor your toddler’s milk?

Please share this nuts powder recipe in your Facebook and Twitter.

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