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If there’s one thing I’ve discovered after weaning two kids onto solid food, it’s that even if you start off well and offer all the veggies, at some point between six months and toddlerhood your child will probably recoil at the sight of green food. 

My eldest, who used to love broccoli as a baby, can’t even look at a floret without her face wrinkling in disgust. 

She can just about handle the odd pea, but anything else green – whether that’s green beans, kiwi, cabbage, or even a measly bit of basil on a pizza – is met with repulsion. 

My youngest is slowly becoming the same. Broccoli, in particular, gets hurled across the kitchen and peas are forcibly ejected from her mouth. 

So you can imagine my delight that both children will happily sit and munch some extremely green ‘dinosaur’ muffins which I now make on a weekly basis.

What are dinosaur muffins?

The spinach, banana and sweetcorn mini muffins recipe actually comes from Joe Wicks’ baby-feeding bible: Wean In 15.

I renamed them ‘dinosaur muffins’ to try and get my toddler to eat them about a year or so ago – and the rebrand worked, along with getting her more involved in the baking process.

After trying a fair few over the years, I can safely say the muffins are pretty tasty – the banana easily masks any other flavours. 

Ingredients

You will need:

• 100g sweetcorn (I use a tin of Green Giant salt-free sweetcorn)
• 2 large handfuls of spinach (it also works with frozen spinach if you defrost 2-3 blocks of it in some water in the microwave first)
• 2 eggs (my daughter can’t have eggs so I do 2 tablespoons of chia seeds and 6 tablespoons of warm water and let the mixture sit for 10 minutes before adding)
• 100ml rapeseed oil
• 2 ripe bananas
• 160g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

Anyone who knows me well will know I am the very opposite of a culinary genius. But this muffin method is foolproof, which is why I make them on a weekly basis. (Cheers, Joe!)

Method

Simply preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan/gas mark 4).

Stick the sweetcorn in a blender first to finely chop it and then add the spinach, eggs (or chia ‘eggs’), bananas and rapeseed oil.

Blitz it all up until you have a smoothie-like paste.

Then grab a mixing bowl and put the flour and baking powder in before folding in the spinach mixture from the blender. Mix until there are no white clumps of flour left – although Joe warns not to over-mix. 

Add your Hulk-like concoction to some cake cases or a lightly-greased muffin tray and cook for 12 minutes or until risen and cooked through in the middle.

Bring them out and either let them cool in the muffin tray or pop the cake cases on a wire rack. 

According to Joe, these keep for a couple of days in an airtight container. I tend to pop mine in the fridge, but you can also freeze them – just make sure you defrost thoroughly before handing them over.

You can buy Wean In 15 here.

Or, if you’re after more weaning inspiration, Rebecca Wilson (What Mummy Makes), Charlotte Stirling-Reed (How To Wean Your Baby) and Beth Bentley (Young Gums) feature some great healthy snack ideas for little ones.

Recipe extracted from Wean in 15: Up-to-date Advice and 100 Quick Recipes by Joe Wicks (Bluebird, £20).