Reindeer Food {Guest Post: Laura}

My son and me on the first day of school this year.

I'm Laura over at Now Things are Cookin', where I'm learning to cook all over again, and A Special Den Leader, where I discuss activities we do with my 8 year old son's Wolf Scout den.  It's so nice to be visiting Susie's blog again.  She featured me in her Searching for Super-Mom series a few months ago.  I'd like to thank Susie for having me here again to share with you a Christmas tradition my son and I enjoy.

Measuring ingredients.  Check out his tongue.  Is that not the cutest thing ever?

A few years ago when my son was really starting to really get into the whole idea of Santa, he wanted to know what we could fix for Santa's reindeer.  It was Christmas Eve and we had no carrots in the house, which was my first thought.  My son didn't think that was a very good idea anyway.  Probably because he hasn't met a vegetable yet that he likes.  So rather than making a frenzied dash to the grocery store for carrots, I turned to my good friend Google.

By typing in "reindeer food," we came up with several recipes for a yummy, easy treat for Santa's reindeer when they stopped by on Christmas Eve.  The ingredients are simple and it's friendly for any other critters, like my YorkiePoo, who might happen upon the leftovers.

Stirring.  And still the tongue is sticking out in concentration.

Even though this year my son "knows" who Santa is, (anyone who has love, goodness, kindness, and generosity in their hearts, of course), he still wants to make reindeer food.  In fact the other day he told me "Mom, reindeer are just like regular deer, except they can fly.  When can we make reindeer food this year?" I felt a little sad that he mistakenly thought all reindeer could fly, but very happy he would like to continue our little tradition a little bit longer.

Here's the original recipe for reindeer food that we found on Google.

1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup decorators sugar, your color of choice

Mix all ingredients together and sprinkle on lawn.

Finished.  He had to make sure I got the shot.

It's a perfectly fine recipe, but lets be honest for a moment, mommas.  Chances are, your dog, your neighbor's cat, or some random squirrel is going to end up eating the reindeer food.  Frankly, I'm not interested in feeding any of those creatures that much sugar.  So we have traditionally cut both sugars by half.  We used quick cooking oats when we made the batch for this post because I had some on hand to make my own instant oatmeal packets.  Regular oats are fine too.  And because my 8 year old marches to the beat of a drum no one else can hear, he also added some rainbow sprinkles.

The red decorators sugar is more important than the brown sugar.  It sparkles under the moonlight streetlights so the reindeer can see it and come down off the roof for their little snack while Santa is inside.  And truly any color will do.

Close up of the reindeer food.  Don't you think Rudolf will love this?

I have seen recipes for reindeer food that include real glitter.  I do not recommend using real glitter because it's made of mica or plastic particles that could injure digestive systems of wildlife or neighboring animals.  Decorator sugar may not sparkle as much, but it's surprising how much it does sparkle once you get it in the pale light of the moon or streetlight.


Thank you so much, Laura, for this awesome guest post!
You can visit Laura at Now Things are Cookin', A Special Den Leader, Facebook , Google+, and Pinterest.