My little baby girl used to love porridge - one of her first words, one of her daily favourite foods. But at 3 and a half she's a bit more picky and some days breakfast is a scant affair and I'm left to eat the porridge she didn't touch. As I was pondering this dilemma I came across Nadia Lim's super breakfast muffins in her Good Food Cook Book (Random House, 2013). I used her recipe as a base but reduced the sugar content by 1 whole cup; I don't think you need it with the dates and banana in there.
1 c dates, chopped
1/2 c water 
1 tsp baking soda
50g butter
3 Tbs rice malt syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 banana, mashed
1 c grated carrot
1 c chopped nuts (walnut are good but my girl prefers cashews)
1 c wholemeal spelt flour
3/4 c oat flour (oats ground in a coffee grinder)
1/2 c bran, optional (if you use bran, reduce flours)
2 Tbs ground chia seeds
2 Tbs ground flax seeds
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
Place dates and water in a saucepan and boil for about 5 min stirring frequently until dates are mashed. Add baking soda and mix well.
Beat butter with rice malt syrup and vanilla until thick and creamy, then beat in egg. Mix in banana, carrot, nuts and date paste.
Sift in flour, oat flour, baking soda and spices and add ground seeds. Mix together with a metal spoon until combined but not overmixed.
Spoon into muffin tins and bake for 16-20 min or until muffins are cooked through.
These freeze well, I just take one out at night and in the morning our daughter can have her healthy breakfast muffin full of superfoods and fibre.