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 :)
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