Just Perfect

PERFECT - A perfect day, a perfect person, a perfect life - how does one define the word perfect?
We hear so often about someone having a perfect life. What makes it perfect? Is it just a notion?

I have been wondering about this, and today finally I decided to jot down my thoughts. I like certain amount of discipline in my life. Since last week, I have started getting out of the bed early, and going out for a walk with my little one. I realize that the first thing we do is so important to kickstart a beautiful day :)

So, the point is, I have started having some kind of a routine. Today, after the walk, I wanted to give egg to my little one, but it did not work out. So finally I made his usual breakfast - ragi (with fresh thick milk and dryfruits powder), fed him, and he threw up the whole thing! Cleaned the whole room and tried not to let it affect me. Later on, he had lunch and started playing. At this point I caught myself thinking that it would have been a perfect day if he had not thrown up his breakfast. A perfect day in my life (at this stage) is - my boy drinking milk in the morning, having his breakfast, eating his lunch, drinking milk in the evening, eating a fruit, having his dinner - WOW - that is my definition of a perfect day :) :)

Life is hardly a straight line. So what makes life/something perfect? And how many people feel that their life is perfect? A told me that "perfect"ism is in the mind. If one believes that their life is perfect, then definitely it is!


Raising a baby - part 2 - baby food

I suddenly felt that I need to start writing part 2 of raising kids :) My little one has changed a lot. He seems like a big boy, with a mind of his own! 

Feeding has become the most challenging part at this phase. Making him drink milk is also a tough job :) So giving him the same dish daily will never work. I have decided to prepare different dishes, while ensuring a nutritious diet. So this is going to be a food post for babies :)


Veggie Rice

Heat 2 spoons of ghee in a pan. Add 1 spoon of cumin seeds (jeera), a pinch of asafoetida (hing), ginger, turmeric. Cut onions into very small pieces and add them in the pan, fry till they turn golden brown. Add cut tomatoes to the pan. Cut carrots, beans, soaked double beans into small pieces and add to the above mixture. Add washed rice and split green gram (moong dhal) to the pan, and fry till the raw smell is gone. Add water and salt and pressure cook in a cooker. Before feeding the kid, mash the food and add more ghee. 


Spinach Paratha

Kids usually prefer to pick and eat with their fingers. Our boy likes to eat small pieces of chapathi on his own. So I decided to make it more nutritious by adding palak. Cut spinach (palak) leaves - 2 small cups and wash them. Grind spinach in a mixer along with half spoon cumin seeds (jeera), half onion and little bit of ginger. Add few drops of water while grinding. In a vessel, add 2 small cups of whole wheat and salt. Knead the wheat flour by adding the palak mixture gradually. Leave the dough for 30 minutes before making the parathas. 

To make the parathas, make small balls from the dough. Roll them flat using a rolling pin. Add ghee, and fold twice. Roll again to make thin parathas. Heat them on the pan, by adding ghee. 

I had extra dough left, which I refrigerated. The next day I made paratha from this dough and cut it into very small pieces. I took rasam liquid in a small cup and soaked the paratha pieces in the rasam for 2 minutes. I mixed this with rice and dhal and fed my kid.


Beetroot/sweet potato rice

Earlier I used to mix all kinds of vegetables and give it to my kid. But now that doesn't work. So I am trying to see which vegetable combination tastes the best. Beetroot and sweet potato are naturally sweet, so they both go well together. Keep rice and split green gram with water and a pinch of turmeric in one vessel. In the 2nd vessel, keep beetroot and sweet potato, that are washed and cut into small pieces. Keep both the vessels in the pressure cooker and cook till 6 whistles. 

Mash rice and dhal in the serving plate. Add boiled beetroot and sweet potato to this and mash them as well. Add salt, ghee and little bit of pepper powder and mix well. If you have adult rasam, instead of pepper powder, you can add very little rasam liquid and feed.


Strawberry/banana milkshake

Add 4 strawberries, half a banana, milk and sugar in the mixer to get a smooth yummy and healthy milkshake. One can use either regular milk or formula milk. I started off by using regular nandini milk, and later shifted to formula milk.


Vegetable Sambhar

Cut different vegetables into very small pieces (so that it is easy to mash later). Boil them in a pressure cooker. Add the boiled vegetables into a vessel along with the water in which it was boiled. Add sambhar powder, rasam powder (optional - I feel adding rasam powder gives a better taste), curry leaves powder, salt, a small piece of jaggery, tamarind water (if I have boiled tomatoes, then I use that instead of tamarind water). I let this mixture boil for 15 minutes till all the ingredients are absorbed by the vegetables. And the sambhar is ready :) I mix this sambhar with rice/dhal and feed my kid.

Few things to note:
1. I cook rice and dhal together in a single vessel. So the sambhar recipe mentioned above does not contain dhal. If one plans to mix sambhar with rice only, then pressure cooked dhal has to be added along with the vegetables.
2. Adding half onion gives a slightly sweetish yummy flavor to the sambhar. And it is good for the baby's health.


Easy Spinach curry with rice

Cut and wash spinach leaves (around 10 leaves). Pressure cook the spinach along with the below ingredients - 
half onion, half tomato, 1 small sweet potato cut into small pieces, salt, pepper powder, ginger powder (or grated fresh ginger), cumin powder (jeera), coriander seed powder (dhaniya).

After the above vegetables cool down, put them in the mixer and grind them. The curry is ready to be served. There is no need to boil the above since all the ingredients were pressure cooked and would have mixed well. The rawness of the masalas will not be there. 

I mix the above spinach curry with rice, dhal and ghee and feed my kid.



Vegetable dosa

This is my favorite till now. I had always wanted to try this dish, but finally got myself to make it today.

According to me, this is the most nutritious dish. And it makes a great finger food as well. My little one likes to pick small pieces and eat (if he is in the mood). So he likes sprouts and pieces of chapathi, dosa (again only if he is in the mood). So I decided to make nutritious dosa and see if he ate on his own.

Pressure cook all the below ingredients in one vessel:
rice, moong dhal, oats, carrots, beans, spinach, sprouts, a small piece of pumpkin, tomato, onion, few curry leaves, pinch of turmeric powder, jeera powder, dhaniya powder, salt, pepper powder (or chili powder), ginger powder.

After the above cools, add the cooked ingredients in a mixer and grind to make a paste. Heat a pan, and wait for it to be very hot. Smear the pan with onion (cut in half, using a fork) and grease the pan with ghee. Spread the dosa mix on the pan. Add more ghee on top and cover the pan. After one side is brown, flip the dosa to cook the other side. I made many small size dosas, as its easier to flip. I feel crispier dosas are better enjoyed by the kids :)