Chicken Rice Mash for Babies

Its been a while since I posted a baby food recipe, so let today's recipe be just that. I've introduced Chackochi to meat quite earlier than I did with Kochu. He seems to like chicken and beef but not so much the pork. I'm yet to give him some fish, but when I do I think I'll start with salmon as it has so much of essential fatty acids that helps with brain development.

This chicken rice recipe is just a basic recipe and you can add more veggies or even fruits into it and serve your baby different variations so that he does not get bored.

Chicken Rice Mash

Ingredients:
Chicken - 1/2 cup boneless
Rice - 1 cup
Butter - 1/2 tsp
Salt

Method: 

1. In a covered pot, combine water, chicken and salt(optional) . Simmer 20 minutes. Allow to cool.
2. Meanwhile cook the rice and keep it aside. 
3. Blend together cooked rice, chicken, a little chicken broth and butter(add salt if required).
4. Serve warm.

Notes

• Add the chicken broth according to the consistency of the mixture.
• Store separately in individual servings in the freezer sealed in plastic sandwich bags, or in a plastic ice-cube tray, which must be bagged and tied. Defrost a meal at breakfast, so it is ready to heat for lunch. 
• As your child gets a few months older and can chew better, you can grate these ingredients instead of blending them and you can use your leftovers, too. 

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Homemade Puffy Paint and Lots of Fun!

I know this is a food blog, but today's recipe was something so fun and interesting that I just had to share with you all. Its a great indoor activity for a rainy day and is so much messy fun that your toddler will love you for it!

The kids and I were supposed to go for a fun barbecue planned by the Jesus Youth here yesterday but the weather was pretty horrid in the morning and so I had to improvise. Of late I've been feeling like I've been neglecting Kochu a bit as I just no longer have the time to play with him and housework and office work taking precedence over some quality time with my baby. If I'm not feeding Chackochi, then I'm either cooking or cleaning or tidying up. So yesterday I thought, to hell with the dishes and the washing, I'm going to do something fun with Kochu, for a change! :) So my new mantra is

We did two wonderfully messy activities which involved lots of food color and flour and rice but today I'll share the recipe for the wonderful Puffy Paint that we made.

I've saw this recipe homemade puffy paint online, and I've been meaning to do this with Kochu for a while. There are a few different recipes for puffy paint, I opted for a recipe shared at Happy Hooligans which used self-raising flour.

We had so much fun with this, watching the colors come through as it mixed with the flour. I knew Kochu would just love the transformations that take place with puffy paint and he did!

I should warn you, it can get quite messy with this activity. I put a towel on top of our dining table so that cleanup was a breeze afterwards.

To make your own homemade puffy paints, you’ll need:

• 1 tbsp self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp of water
• food coloring

Mix the flour and salt together in a small bowl.
Add a little bit of water and stir until you get a smooth, thin paste.  Add your food coloring, and mix well.

Paint onto paper using some q-tips and get creative!

Put the painting into the microwave for 20-30 seconds. Do not leave the microwave unattended during that time. Carefully remove the painting and observe the wonderful transformation! Be careful – the paint may be hot when it is removed from the microwave.
Ta daaaaa......

 My masterpiece :P

In the end, we just chucked blobs of paint to create a layered painting! Love it! :)

After all that colorful fun, we needed a rest. So the kids pigged out on Oreo's while I cleaned up :)

And ofcourse, Chackochi wanted to cuddle afterwards and get all that biscuity gooey all over me in the process!! Aaahhh pure blissss..... :)

Here's a sneak peek into the 2nd activity I mentioned at the beginning of the post. But let's save that recipe for another rainy day, shall we? Until then....

NOTE:
I was not very precise with my measurements. I wasn't too fussed if we had a slightly heaped tablespoon or if we were slightly under with the measurements. I also found the mixture very thick so I added more water. 

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Pesarattu/ Moong Dal (CheruPayar) Dosa/ Green Gram Crêpe

Today's recipe is Pesarattu. Its a crepe-like bread unique to Telugu cuisine that is similar to dosa. It is made with batter of green gram (moong dal), but unlike a dosa, it does not contain urad dal.

But before we get into that there's something I would like to share with you wonderful mummies (and daddies!) out there.

Remember those days when you could easier get the chores done around the house in a couple of hours and have the rest of the day to enjoy a cup of tea, visit friends and come home to a spotless house? No, me neither!

However, if you have an active baby or toddler on your hands or worse one of each, like me, :P, then getting the housework done is even more challenging than ever before. Not only do you have a path of destruction following you around the house, but you most likely also have a baby that wants to be held or ‘help.’

So nowadays, cleaning is a hurried task I have to accomplish in between the 5 or 10 minutes of peace I get soon after feeding the kids or while they are napping. In the past, you'd find a huge range of cleaning products in my cupboard under the sink. I loved cleaning and so would buy anything that promised to keep my home clean and smelling nice. But Now with the kids, i'm more conscious as to what chemicals I use, especially to clean my kitchen as I don't want anything dangerous getting into their foods.

So I've been opting more and more for using natural remedies for cleaning. If you search Google, there are countless tips and tricks for keeping your home chemical- free and yet spotless. I never knew how easily Vinegar, Lemon and Baking soda could cut through grime and make my stainless steel stove and sink look shiny and clean. I'm a total fan of  baking soda and vinegar and don't think I'd ever buy another cleaning product ever again!
And just in case you don't believe me, here are some before and after pics of my stove. All i used to clean it was baking soda, white vinegar and water.You can be the judge :)

This is what my stove looks like after a bulk cooking session in the weekend! Yuck!!

Voila!!! I rest my case :)

A similarly awesome, cheap and chemical-free method to clean the microwave is by heating some lemon slices in a bowl of water for 30 seconds. When it’s finished – leave for about a minute to ‘steam’.  Then carefully remove the bowl and then wipe down the inside of the microwave.

Your microwave will look as good as new! I absolutely swear by this. My microwave oven has never looked better!

Now back to Pesarattu.. This is a yummy dosa you can whip up easily without waiting for the whole fermenting process. It is quite healthy but still delicious. Both my kids love it, yes even Chackochi! Its goes great with some Coconut chutney. You can adjust the spiciness of it but I made it really mild this time as I wanted to give it to Chackochi as well. Another variations of this is to top it with finely chopped onions and cilantro, but I gave that a miss this time round. I got about 20 dosas with the below quantity.Now on to the recipe...

Pesarattu/ Moong Dal (CheruPayar) Dosa/ Green Gram Crêpe

Ingredients
Cherupayar, soaked overnight - 2 cup
Rice flour 3 tbsp
Rava / Semolina -2 tbsp
Green chilli - as needed according to spice level, I used 1
Cumin Powder 1 1/4 tsp
Grated ginger 1 tsp
Curry leaves , a handful
Salt
Ghee

Method

1. Soak cherupayar in water over night and rinse 3-4 times in water before use.
   
2. Grind the cherupayar, green chillies, ginger and curry leaves, in a mixee/blender, to smooth paste using little water to get dosa batter like consistency or pouring consistency.
   
3. Stir in salt, cumin powder, rice flour and rava.
4. Heat a non stick griddle.
5. Pour 1 ladle or 1/2 cup of batter in the center and spread in circular motion to make like dosa.
6. Drizzle some ghee on top
   
7. Cook for 1-2 minutes in high to medium flame.
8. Flip the dosa a couple of times till both sides are well cooked and browned. Serve hot with coconut chutney or coriander chutney.
   
   
   
   

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Banana Fritters

Chackochi is 7 months and 4 days today! Looking back through the monthly pictures is amazing to watch the changes his face and cute little body go through. I’m looking forward to lining them all up when he makes it to 1 year.
7 month milestones-

• He has been sitting up on his own  for the past month and has even pulled himself up into a seated position from his tummy
• He is still doing his zombie crawl with his belly dragging the floor as he goes. He can practically do baby yoga downward dog pose up on his hands and toes but can’t seem to coordinate hand/knee crawling lol. He gets where he wants to go.. guess that’s what counts :D
• He has been babbling quite a bit and is experimenting with sounds
• He’s eating a good variety of fruits and veggies along with breastmilk and we have started trying to encourage him to feed himself with the occasional biscuits and fresh fruit. It’s cute watching him grasp them in his pudgy little fingers!

So, today's recipe of the day is so very yummy, finger-licking-ly delicious banana fritters. Back home this is a staple tea time snack in every house hold. We usually make these with ethappazham  but today i made them with the normal bananas as that's all I had on hand. And they taste just as great. Now, I know a recipe is a keeper when my Kochu, my biggest critic, can't even wait to let the bananas cool down enough to eat! The pictures speak for themselves :)

About time you gave me something to eat!

Oooo that's HOT!!!

Amma, please stop asking me to pose and let me eat!

Banana Fritters

Ingredients:

2 bananas

3/4 cup plain flour (for batter)

2 tsp baking powder

1  cup water

Vegetable oil for deep frying

1/2 cup plain flour (for dusting)

Method:

1. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and whisk in water until batter is lump free. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.

2. Halve bananas and dust in plain flour.

3. Heat oil for frying. Dip the bananas in batter to coat and drop them into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown. (2-3 minutes)

4. Drain on paper towel. Let it cool for a bit before serving.

Notes:

• Don't forget to let the batter stand. It gives the baking powder time to do its thing.
• Be careful when they come out of the fryer. The centres are very, very hot.

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Yummy Pasta Muffins

 P.S. I wrote this post a week ago and forgot to put it up! :) So when I say "today" I actually meant "last week"!

Its a public holiday here today and so the start of a very long weekend for us as both my husband and I don't work Friday's. That means lots of cooking today. I try and get all my cooking at the start of the weekend so that I can enjoy the rest of the days without having to stress out about cooking for the kids and us after a long day out. Here's a sneak peak into what's's cooking in our kitchen today :)

Pasta Muffin

Chocolate cake

Meatballs

Lemon Pickle

Mix for Fried Rice

As you can see from the picture, I've been extremely busy! Let me know if you'd like the recipes for any of the above and I'll put them up.

Now, since I can't have sugar, I'm on the lookout for interesting savory recipes for Kochu so that I don't get tempted to cheat. There are just so many great food blogs out there with so many wonderful recipes. I must take this opportunity to say that I'm no good at inventing recipes on my own. I've had my moments when inspiration's hit me but a majority of recipes for Kochu are borrowed from these other food blogs and then adapted to Kochu's liking.

On such a hunt for a recipe, I came across these delicious looking Pasta Muffins at Raks Kitchen. Her blog is purely vegetarian and has awesome recipes for parathas and the like. I followed her recipe to the letter and only thing I changed was adding some meat into my version.
These taste best when served warm. You can make a batch and store in the fridge for up to a week. Just heat in the microwave for 20 - 30 seconds and then serve.

Pasta Muffins

Ingredients:
Small macaroni pasta - 1/2 cup
Minced Meat - 200 gms
Grated mozzarella - 1/4 – 1/2 cup
Grated Parmesan - 2 tblsp
Bread crumbs-1/4 cup
Olive oil
Chopped vegetables as needed for topping. I used capsicum and red onion.
Salt
Italian herbs - 1 tsp (optional)

Method:
1. Cook pasta shells with salt. I cooked the pasta a bit more than just al-dente as baking it later will make it a bit tough.

2. Drain and keep aside. After cooled down, mix with grated mozzarella.

3. Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Generously grease your muffin pan with olive oil or butter.

 Dust it with bread crumbs and  tap off the excess crumbs. Keep aside.

4. In another pan, heat some oil. Add the diced onion, capsicum, salt to taste and saute. Once the onion and capsicum are soft add in the minced meat and stir until brown and cooked through. You can add in some Italian herbs to season the meat if you like. 

5.  Fill  the muffin pan with the pasta & cheese mix. Then add in the meat and vegetables mix. Top it off with some Parmesan cheese. Then sprinkle bread crumbs evenly over every muffin and drizzle some olive oil over it.

6. Bake until golden . Let it cool for a few minutes and spoon out each one carefully. Yummy treat all ready to be devoured!

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Baby Pasta Bolognese

I was brought up eating a wide range of nutritious foods. My parents worked a lot and yet my mother always found the time to cook delicious meals for us. Takeaways and junk food of any sort were never a part of my life until I moved out and lived on my own.

Whereas with Kochu , I put  way too much importance on his weight because everyone was always telling me how thin and sickly looking he was. That made me stress out and made me feel I wasn't feeding him enough and that I was failing as a Mother. And so lets face it,I spoiled him with junk food, my motto was “as long as hes eating something I'm happy”. And him being a fussy eater did not make things any easier for me!

I meant well but Kochu didn't develop tastes for good, healthy foods. So, it has become one of the most important missions for me as a Mother to offer Kochu & Chackochi the best foods and find ways to see that both of them are getting variety even if they turn their nose up to the veggies, mix them with some fruit and see what happens. Find ways to show them that our body is an amazing machine and we have to fuel it accordingly.

I know what I want for my kids and I will continue to work on my own eating habits as well. Which is why I've started out on doing this Sugar Free diet. Speaking of which, I'm on Day #5 now and ain't doing too bad. I've taken my coffee this morning, with no sugar, mind you, and it wasn't as disgusting as I thought it would be! :) So proud of myself!!

Back to the kids, I’m very pleased to say that I have found ways to sneak in more veggies for Chackochi by mixing them with fruit and I plan on gradually decreasing the amount of fruit mixed in so that the taste of the vegetables alone can hopefully be something that he grows to enjoy. It is a work in progress and so far Chackochi has tried and liked-

• Rice cereal and oatmeal cereal with breast milk and fruit puree *his favorite!
• Carrots
• Apples
• Pears
• Pumpkin
• Bananas
• Mango 
• Blueberries
• Spinach
• Parsnips
• Peas
• Beef
• Chicken
• Pasta * his favorite!

He does not like avocado or sweet potato but I'm trying not to  force anything on him. I just keep offering it in different ways on other days and hope that by not forcing but letting him come to it on his own terms he will have a better relationship with food, which I think is where I went wrong with Issac :(

I could keep going on and on about this but I think you  might have heard enough for today. So lets get into it shall we? Chackochi's favorite food at the moment is pasta, in addition to cereals mixed with fruit purees. So here's my recipe for a simple baby pasta bolognese that he loves. While it may be tempting to just puree the family version of pasta , your baby may find the flavors of Italian herbs too strong. You’ll have more success with this plainer version.

Baby Pasta Bolognese

Ingredients:
1 small carrot
2 tablespoons Pumpkin Puree
32g lean beef mince
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tomato, diced
20g frozen peas
Ground black pepper to taste
50g  Baby Pasta (I used  the Orzo variety)

Method:

1. Peel the carrot and finely chop. Fry the mince, garlic and carrot together in a non-stick pan until brown. Add the tomatoes, peas, and pepper and cover and simmer for a further 5 mins or until the meat and carrot are tender. Add the pumpkin puree to this.
2. Cook the pasta according to pack instructions. Drain.
3. Mix the sauce and pasta together then place everything in a blender and puree as much as possible - there may be some lumps. Serve at room temperature or warmed.

Notes:
* Make your own Pumpkin puree 

*Can be frozen for up to four weeks - You can make a batch of this Bolognese and freeze in cupcake tins or ice cube trays. Once frozen, pop out of the tins/trays and store in freezer bags. These perfect portions of homemade goodness will last about 4 weeks and can come quite in handy. Just reheat and serve. 

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Creamy Oatmeal with Banana & Peanut Butter

Today is Day #4 of my Sugar Free February. Yep, you read right, SUGAR -FREE February. I've decided to give up all forms of sugar for a month. For those of you who know me well, giving up sugar for me is almost as equivalent to asking me to give up breathing.

I don't know how I'm going to do it but I'll try as hard as I can to stick with it. A few of my colleagues from work and other friends are doing it with me so I do have moral support and also will have to answer to them if I cheat!

The hardest bit for me would be giving up the sugar in my morning coffee. I can't drink coffee without sugar and I can't work without coffee... Now, that's going to be tricky! That's the one thing that's doing my head in the most today. Will keep you updated as to how my days are going but totally ignore me if I seem cranky and unsociable, which i presume will be most of the time this month! :)

OK, so now for today's special. This one is a simple yet yummy twist to your toddler's boring oatmeal breakfast. This is absolutely delicious and you'll have your toddler licking the bowl clean. I had to use all my will power to stop me from eating any of this today :(

Make a big batch for the family, everyone will love this take on your everyday Oatmeal.

Creamy Oatmeal with Banana & Peanut Butter

 Ingredients:
1 large very ripe banana, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tsp butter
1/2 tbsp natural peanut butter
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch of salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
toppings: heaping 1/2 tbsp peanut butter, nuts, cinnamon, pure maple syrup or golden syrup (optional)

Method:
1. In a medium-sized pot over medium heat, cook the banana and butter for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
2. Stir in 1/2 tbsp peanut butter, and add the oats, milk, spices, and a pinch of salt. Whisk well until combined.
3. Bring to a low boil and then reduce heat to a simmer, stirring often for 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
4. Scoop into a bowl and top with peanut butter, nuts, cinnamon, and maple/golden syrup (optional)

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