Yum For BABY: May 2015

Friday, May 29, 2015

Apple Fritters (For age 18 months+)

It is simply wonderful to spend time around my kitchen with some music and having fun with my little-one. I’m excited every time I try a new recipe and very eager to get the taste test results from my husband and son. Yes, they are my "Taste-Testers" and they love it.

My little-one has to have an evening snack almost everyday. I usually give him berries, fruits or yogurt. But sometimes he needs something crunchy but mostly I don't like to cook that long, especially to make an evening snack. So, I always look for a simple recipe. This is one of them, something easy peasy to cook but at the same time crunchy as an evening snack. Yes, I am talking about my son's favorite, APPLE FRITTERS. It was last Friday, when I was in a mood to cook something crunchy, lightly sweet and I thought of making apple fritters. These are so delicious and you probably have all the ingredients in your pantry to make this yummy apple fritters. Enjoy them!
Have a Wonderful Weekend!

Ingredients

Apple-1 peeled and chopped.
All purpose flour-1/2 cup
Egg-1
Milk-1/3 cup
Sugar-2 Tsp
Baking powder (optional)-1 Tsp
Cinnamon, a pinch

Salt, a pinch

Process

Step 1: Add chopped apple in a bowl. Sprinkle some cinnamon and add 1Tsp sugar. Add 2 oz water to this bowl and mix them well. Microwave them until apples are cooked halfway (fork-tender). You can do it on stove top also.

Step 2: In a small bowl beat egg using a fork or whisk.

Step 3: In a medium size mixing bowl, combine flour, beaten egg, salt and sugar. Add cooked apple into the flour mixture and keep adding milk until you get a medium thick batter.

Step 4: Heat oil in a pot over medium heat. When the oil gets hot, add apple batter into the oil (I chose spoon size batter). Cook them well and flip them as needed until you get golden brown. Remove them from the oil and drain on a paper towel.

You can dust the fritters with powdered sugar if you like.

Serve them hot.

Microwave the chopped apple with cinnamon and sugar.

Ingredients: All-purpose flour, egg, milk, cooked apple

Mix all the ingredients together until you get a medium thick batter

Fry them until they turn brown color

Apple fritters are ready to serve.

Happy Cooking!

Bell Pepper Omelette (For age 15+ months)

When I was a kid my father used to make incredible omelettes for me and he taught me the way of cooking perfect omelette. It was one of my everyday lunchbox items.

There are some great ways to incorporate eggs into your baby’s daily diet. As per experts, egg white is one of the big allergy-triggering foods, so you should avoid introducing them to your baby until 12 months, though you can try egg yolks around 9 months. I waited little more time, around 14 months, to introduce egg to my son. The important thing is to make sure that the egg is thoroughly cooked until both the yolk and white are solid. When you start giving egg to your baby, one of the easiest starter is mash cooked egg yolk with breast milk/ formula.

A simple omelette is always delicious and brilliant breakfast for you and your kids. You can go on to add different ingredients to your simple recipe to make lots of lovely combinations. Personally I don’t like to add lots of veggies into omelette since I always like its plain taste. But I usually add few ingredients when I make them for my son. This Bell Pepper (Capsicum) Omelette recipe is so interesting and fun to cook with your kids. Enjoy the taste of this beautiful omelette with your little-one.

Ingredients (1 serving)
Egg- 1

Bell peppers (I chose, yellow and green)- 2 thick slices

Shallot- 1, medium size, chopped

Fresh parsley- 1 Tsp, chopped

Butter- 1 Tsp

Spices- Turmeric powder (optional) and pepper, to taste

Salt, to taste

Process

Step 1: In a small bowl beat together egg, shallots, spices, parsley and salt.

Step 2: Wash and dry bell peppers. Slice them into thick round slices.

Step 3: Place them in a microwave safe plate and microwave them for about 2 minutes (do not add water). So that bell peppers cook halfway.

Step 4: Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add butter.

Step 5: Put bell peppers into the pan and cook them for about 2 minutes each side until the bell pepper edges turn lightly brown color.

Step 6: Slowly pour the egg-beaters into the bell pepper ring (do not pour them fast since the egg will run out). Cover the pan and flip them when the egg mixture starts to solidify. Once it is fully cooked, carefully take out your Bell Pepper Omelette using a spatula.

I usually slice them into small pieces for my little-one.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

Beat together egg, shallots, parsley, spices and salt

Place the bell pepper rings into the pan and cook them

Pour egg mixture in to the ring and cook them covered

Flip them when the egg mixture starts to solidify

Bell Pepper Omelette is ready to serve!

Happy Cooking!

Rainbow Rice (For age: 15+ months)

Getting kids to eat healthy foods is not always easy. One of the tricks that you can try is to offer them a variety of colors in their meals. Yes, kids are drawn to foods with bright colors.

I am always amazed to see variety of beautiful colors when I go for shopping at local farm market with full of veggies and fruits. I used to shop too many veggies and fruits every week, but when I get home I will think, “what do I do with all these veggies”? Haha..

It is always not easy to incorporate variety of vegetables into every meal, especially into one meal. But what about rice? Yes, rice is like a blank canvas, a great way to sneak veggies in your meals. If you add anything to rice, it will be flavourful. How many of us like to have plain rice without any side dish? Not much, right? We always like to have rice with some savory, salty side dish. We can offer them to our kids too. But if you don't have a whole lot of time to put too much thought into a side dish, an easy solution is adding the vegetables and fruits into the rice. You can call it as Vegetable Rice or Fruit Rice or Vegetable Fruit Rice or Rainbow Rice, whatever you like, but it is HEALTHY.

Try this rice recipe and enjoy with your kids. You can use whatever veggies your little-one prefer or what you have on hand. Here I used a combination of green beans, green peas, carrots, sweet corn and apple. Offer this Rainbow Rice to your kids and let them enjoy this healthy and tasty meal.

Ingredients (4 servings)

Rice- 1 cup, Basmati rice

Water- 1 ½ cup

Butter- 1 Tbsp

Vegetables - Green beans, green peas, carrots and sweet corn. 2 Tbsp each, wash and chop them.

Apple- 2 Tbsp, chopped

Dry fruits- Black raisins and golden raisins, 1Tbsp each

Salt, to taste

Process

Step 1: Wash rice and soak it in hot water for 10 minutes. Drain and keep aside.

Step 2: Heat a pot or pan in a medium heat and add together butter and all the vegetables.

Step 3: Add salt to this and saute them for about 5 minutes.

Step 4: Add 1 ½ cup of water and make it boil.

Step 5: Add the drained rice to the boiling water and give a small stir. Cover the pot with its lid tightly, and cook it for about 7 minutes (in medium heat).

Step 6: After 7 minutes, open the lid and gently stir the rice.

Step 7: Add chopped apple and raisins and mix them with rice.

Step 8: Now close the lid again and cook the rice for about 3-4 minutes in low heat (add a small amount of water to this, only if you see the rice is sticking on bottom of the pot). Once it is ready, take the pot off from the heat and let it stand for 5 minutes covered with lid.

Rainbow rice is ready to serve. Serve it with Yogurt.

Ingredients

Saute the vegetables with butter and salt

Add rice to the boiling water vegetable mix.

Mix the vegetable rice with chopped apple and raisins

Rainbow rice is ready to serve. Serve it with yogurt

HAPPY COOKING!

Mango Strawberry Yogurt (For age: 9+ months)

I have not given my son whole strawberries until he turned ONE, since as per experts, fresh strawberries can sometimes cause food reactions in babies. But cooked strawberries, on the other hand, usually do not. So, once it is little steamed, you can mix with variety of fruits or yogurt and give it to your baby may be after 9 or 12 months.

I usually make strawberry smoothie for family. Nowadays our son takes that too. I usually add little honey to the smoothie to make it sweeter, but what I noticed was, if you add mango to the smoothie you don’t need to add any other sweetener. Since this is mango season, we are in a mango fever, LOL, so I never miss a chance to buy mangos.

Ingredients (1 serving)

Mango-1

Strawberries-2 medium size, washed

Yogurt, Plain-2 Tbsp

Process

Step 1: Peel off mango and cut into cubes.

Step 2: Cut the strawberries into pieces.

Step 3: Place fruits into baby food steamer and steam them until the mangos are fork tender (or you can directly microwave them with a little water until the mangos are fork-tender).

Step 4: Blend the steamed fruits with yogurt until the desired consistency is reached. Serve it fresh!.

You can make them in large quantities if you wish. Once you pureed, transfer to baby food storage container and freeze. Defrost in microwave before serve.

Ingredients

Cut mango and strawberries into small pieces and place them in a steamer

Steam the fruits until mangos are fork-tender

Blend the steamed fruits with yogurt

Serve fresh!

HAPPY COOKING!

Strawberry bouquet (Mother’s Day Special)

What changes after you have a baby? What not, right? The other day, I was reading a book “The second nine months” by Writer and Mom, Vicki Glembocki. In this book the author shares her experiences of motherhood with extreme honesty, which makes this book an interesting and enjoyable read. Yes, that is true, having a baby changes everything. For me, after I had my baby, I started to respect my parents and love them in a new way. When you have a child, you realize how much your mother means to you and all the things she has done for you. There is no way we can ever really thank our mother. So, just love and treat our Mother !

Planning to make something special on this Mother’s day? What better Mother's Day gift than making something beautifully delicious with your kid? Take a look at my Mother’s day special Strawberry bouquet. Your Mom will also love this special treat.

To make this Strawberry bouquet,

You will need

Medium-Large size strawberries- 10

White and dark chocolate chips or bars- 6 oz in each bowls

Red, liquid food coloring

Skewers, cut them to different lengths

Glass, to hold the strawberry skewers

Lettuce for decoration

Sprinkles

Coconut flakes

Follow these steps

Step 1: Wash and completely dry the strawberries.

Step 2: Put white chocolate chips into two separate bowls and dark chocolate chips into another bowl. Microwave them for 15 seconds intervals (removing and stirring at each 15 second interval) until you get smooth chocolate melts.

Step 3: Place the strawberries on skewers, do not put skewer through the entire strawberry.

Step 4: Add red liquid food coloring into two white chocolate melts bowls to dye the chocolate melts until you get Barbie pink (light) color in one bowl and baby pink color in another bowl. Keep the dark chocolate melt aside.

For making Chocolate covered Strawberry Roses, follow these steps

Step 5: Dip the skewered strawberry in Barbie pink chocolate melt and drizzle the Baby pink chocolate melt on top of it using a spoon (or put them into a zip-top plastic bag and snip a hole in one corner of the bag). Place the decorated strawberry skewers in the glass to get dried.

For making Chocolate covered Strawberry Coconut, follow these steps

Step 6: Dip the skewered strawberry in dark chocolate melt and sprinkle coconut flakes over this until well coated. Place them in the glass to get dried.

For making Chocolate covered Strawberry with Sprinkles, follow these steps

Step 7: Dip the skewered strawberry in dark chocolate melt and sprinkle them with Sprinkles. Place them in the glass to get dried.

Step 8: Place all the decorated strawberry skewers in a Vase or Mason jar and keep them in the freezer for about 20 minutes to completely dry them.
Arrange the jar with lettuce and skewered blueberries.

Wow, how gorgeous this strawberry bouquet!

All you need

Skewered strawberries

Put the chocolate chips in each bowls and melt them

Dip the strawberries in dark chocolate melt and sprinkle with Sprinkles

Sprinkle coconut flakes over chocolate dipped strawberries

Dye white chocolate melts and decorate the strawberries with them

Decorate the dipped strawberry with dark chocolate melt

Place them in vases and keep them in freezer

Strawberry Bouquet is ready!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Mini French Fries (For age: 15+ months)

It was such a great Kite Fest we had in the community last weekend. That was our son’s first Kite Festival. He was so excited and I never thought he would enjoy it that much. There were many of them in different colors and shapes also there was a booth where children could decorate and make their own kites.

We didn’t fly one this year but hope to fly one next year when he becomes big!. It’s definitely fun for kids and adults too. If you haven't been to Kite Festival, go next time.

When we got back home in the evening after all that fun, I thought of making something crunchy to munch. OK, why not some mini French Fries, I was sure that our little-one will like it. French Fries are easy to make, but to get them perfectly golden and crispy, is not that easy. The starch in the potatoes interferes with the texture of the Fries and never allows them to become nice and crisp. But no worries, there are few tricks and tips to make them perfect.

Here are my tricks and tips for making perfect crisp French Fries!
Enjoy them with family!

Ingredients (3 servings)

Potatoes- 2 medium size

All-purpose flour- 1 Tsp

Lemon juice- 1 Tsp

Oil, for frying (I chose canola oil)
Parsley flakes, to sprinkle

Salt, to taste

Process

Step 1: Peel the potatoes and cut the round edges off them, so that you have a fairly solid rectangle. Cut them half and then cut each pieces into sticks (your little-ones bite size).

Step 2: Soak the sliced potatoes in cold water for about 15 minutes and drain them well. This will help to remove excess starch on the outside of the potato.

Step 3: This is the tricky ingredient for perfect crispy French Fries. Take a small bowl and mix together all-purpose flour and water until you have the runny consistency. Keep them aside.

Step 4: Heat water in a sauce pan, add salt, all-purpose flour liquid and lemon juice. Stirr them well and bring it to boil.

Step 5: Add all the drained potatoes to this boiling water and cook it for about 4 minutes (fork-tender).

Step 6: Drain them on a bunch of paper towels to dry them off.

Step 7: The tricky step of the process is, you need to keep the drained potatoes (Step 5) in the freezer for about half an hour.

Step 8: Heat oil for deep frying over medium heat (around 320 degrees). Add frozen potatoes to the boiling oil and fry them until they turn golden and crisp. Do it in batches.

Step 9: Remove the Fries from oil and transfer them to the paper towel. Sprinkle with salt and dried parsley. Your crispy French Fries are ready to serve.

Serve hot. Keep them in tight container and they will stay crispier longer.