Yum For BABY

Saturday, August 22, 2015

ABC Vegetable Soup (For age 15 months+)

Summer is almost over. But in Texas, it feels like, still summer is in a full swing. My favorite seasons are still quite distant. But I like warm whether, especially when I visit farmers markets. Farmers markets are more active in summer and with full of fresh produce. All of the produce is very fragrant, especially I love the smell of fresh berries and melons. Always I buy many different kinds of veggies and fruits, so that I can incorporate all the veggies in our meals.

Few days back, I was thinking of making something different or something new for my son maybe myself too, and SOUP came to my mind. I occasionally make chicken and vegetable soup, but this time, little different, “ABC Soup” or “Alphabet Vegetable Soup”. It is a great way to use up any leftover veggies in the fridge. The kids love to play with the alphabets and it is a fun way to practice letters too.

ABC Soup

Ingredients (for 5 servings)

Alphabets pasta- 100 Gram

Grape tomatoes- ~30, cut them half.

Onion- 1 large size, chopped

Celery stick-1, cut into very small pieces.

Carrot- 1 large size, chopped

Potato- 1medium size, cut into small pieces.

Garlic- 1 large clove, chopped

Paprika or Chilly powder- ½ Tsp

Black pepper- ½ Tsp

Turmeric powder- 1/3 Tsp

Salt, to taste

Oregano leaf flakes, a pinch

Method

Step 1: Heat a medium size pot over medium heat and cook pasta by adding salt. It took around 10 minutes to cook my alphabets pasta. Drain off the water and keep them aside.

Step 2: Heat olive oil in a pan and saute onion and garlic. When onion turns brown, add salt and spices (paprika, black pepper and turmeric powder). Stir them for 2 minutes and add ½ portion of tomatoes. Saute them well and add ½ cup of water and bring it to boil. Switch off the stove and allow this to cool. Put them in a blender and puree them.

Step 3: Cook all the vegetables (carrots, celery, potato and tomatoes) in a pressure cooker by adding salt, pepper and 1/3 cup of water (you can cook them in a large pot if you like). Wait for one whistle then switch off the stove and bring it to cool down. Open the lid and slightly mash the cooked vegetables.

Step 4: Heat a large pot over medium heat and add onion-tomato puree, pasta and cooked vegetables. Mix them together and add oregano flakes. Bring this to boil and season with additional pepper and salt as needed.

So healthy and yummy ABC Soup is ready to serve. Serve warm.

This is a perfect summer soup. So delicious, and if you make in large quantity, you can freeze them and could use later.

Ingredients

Cook alphabets pasta by adding salt

Saute onion, garlic and tomatoes

Puree the onion-tomato mixture

Cook vegetables by adding salt and pepper

Mix onion-tomato puree, pasta and cooked vegetables. Bring this to boil.
ABC Soup is ready!

HAPPY COOKING!

Scrambled Egg with Roasted Tomatoes (For age 15 months+)

How many of you cook a separate meal for your kids? I know, there are many parents spending hours and hours in the kitchen preparing 3 or more separate meals for their kids and adults. Yes, we have to please our fussy eaters. Well, unfortunately, I too make separate meal for my son. Everyone including my mother told me not to cook separately for the kid and offer him what we eat. But for me it is heartbreaking to watch my son leaving his dinner table without eating. So I always make sure that, I have something on the table that my son can eat, like something which is not too spicy. Nowadays I started encouraging him to have at least a mouthful of whatever we are eating.

For me, one of the biggest challenges is finding out what to offer him for breakfast? Cereals and oats are very common choices, but getting him to eat oatmeal same day is not easy. We always have to make sure that they are getting enough protein and fat as nutritional boost at breakfast. Egg is a wonderful choice; eggs are packed with powerful nutrients and are a great source of protein as well. There are so many ways you can offer egg as breakfast. Scrambled egg is so easy to make and yummy too. But when I offered for the first time, he liked it but not up to my expectation. Ya, he didn’t like the plain taste of egg. So I made roasted tomatoes and served with scrambled egg. YES, that worked, a great way to serve egg and veggie as breakfast.

Scrambled Egg and Roasted Tomato

Ingredients (1 serving)

Egg- 1

Milk- 2 Tsp

Salt and pepper, a pinch

Parsley flakes or curry leaves, to sprinkle

Tomato- 1 medium size or 5 cherry tomatoes

Butter- 1 Tsp

Process for making Scrambled Egg

Step 1: Crack the egg and beat it with milk.

Step 2: Add a pinch of salt.

Step 3: Heat the pan in low heat and melt the butter. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook for few minutes with constant stirring. Do not overcook the egg since it will loose the soft texture.

Scrambled egg is ready now. Sprinkle some pepper and parsley flakes on top.

Process for making Roasted tomato

Step 1: Cut the tomato into medium size pieces.

Step 2: Heat a pan over medium heat and add tomato pieces. Sprinkle some salt and pepper. Add few drops of cooking oil and cook them until they turn brown in color (turn them as needed, but do not stir constantly).

Roasted tomato is ready to serve.

Serve them together.

Ingredients for Scrambled Egg

Whisk egg with milk

Butter the pan and cook egg mixture until you get soft scrambled egg

Heat a pan add tomato pieces

Roast the tomato until they turn brown in color

Scrambled Egg and Roasted Tomato

HAPPY COOKING!

Beetroot Rice (For age 12 months+)

As per experts we can introduce beetroot to our babies at around 8 months of age. Kids will love this since it has a velvety color and beautiful texture and of course yummy too. While I introduced beetroot to my son, I started with beetroot puree. Very easy recipe. Wash and peel off beetroot, cut them into medium size pieces and cook/ steam them. Mash or puree them until you get desired consistency.

In this post I am sharing a very simple and easy "Beetroot Rice" recipe with you busy Moms. Hope your little-one will enjoy this!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Beetroot rice

Ingredients (For 2 servings)

Beetroot, grated- 3Tbsp

Cooked rice- 3Tbsp

Salt, to taste

Process

Step 1: Wash and peel off beetroot and grate them (using a grater) into very small pieces.

Step 2: Heat a pan over low heat and add grated beetroot to the pan. Add pinch of salt and cook it until the raw taste of beetroot gone (no need to add water). Stir in between with a spatula. You can add few drops of oil if you find the beetroot pieces are sticking on bottom of pan.

Step 3: When beetroot is fully cooked, add cooked rice into this. Now you can switch off the heat and stir them gently.

Wow beautiful beetroot rice is ready to serve.

Serve with yogurt.

Ingredients: Grated beetroot and cooked rice

Cook grated beetroot in a pan

Mix cooked beetroot with cooked rice and Beetroot rice is ready!

HAPPY COOKING!

Sardine Shallow Fry

Sardines are incredibly nutritious and inexpensive too. This fish contains lots of calcium and vitamin D. Sardines also boost energy by providing plenty of protein, iron, vitamin B12 and good fat (in the form of omega-3 fatty acids). Omega-3 fatty acids are not only help with the development of your baby’s brain, but are also a great immunity booster. Since sardines are low in mercury, these are allowed to include in your little-ones diet.

Sardine fry

My mother used to make me eat sardine when I was a kid and still that is one of the everyday fishes in our family. You can find them fresh everywhere in south

India

, and they are so delicious. Sardines marinated with few spices, salt and fried up in coconut oil and served with a squeeze of lemon juice. Ahaa, so simple and so delicious. Here, fresh sardines are not as common as canned. So I used to buy canned sardines.

Since most of the canned fishes are prepared by steam, cooking these are edible and we don’t have to cook them again. But what I noticed was, without any ingredients these canned fishes are not YUMMY to eat, especially when you buy “Sardine in Water”. So I usually shallow fry them by adding few spices and salt. This is a good way to serve for your kids.

Ingredients

Canned sardine, in water- 2 cans, 4.25 OZ each

Paprika or chilli powder- 1/2 Tsp

Turmeric powder- 1/3 Tsp

Pepper powder, a pinch

Salt, to taste

Coconut oil or any cooking oil- 3 Tbsp

Process

Step 1: Open the can and decant water. I usually wash off the scales from sardine and pat dry them.

Step 2: Make a paste of all spices and salt in water.

Step 3: Marinate sardines with spices paste and keep them aside.

Step 4: Heat a pan over medium heat and add coconut oil. When the oil becomes hot add marinated fish pieces. Shallow fry them (turn them as needed) until the fish turns lightly brown. Do not over fry them since the kids usually like the soft texture of fish.

Step 5: Dry them on a paper towel and sardine fry is ready to serve.

Pull out the soft bone from sardine before you serve them to your kid.

Serve with rice.

Canned sardine in water

Spices needed

Washed and scales off.

Marinated sardines

Shallow fry them in oil

Serve them with rice

HAPPY COOKING!

Homemade Green Gram Sprout

Sprouts are wonder food due to its high nutritional value. These are rich in fibre, protein, minerals, vitamins and enzymes. You can sprout nuts, seeds, grains, and beans. The nutrients get enhanced when they are sprouted and are considered to be one of the best foods for everyone including kids. There are many different varieties of sprouts we can buy from farmers market. I used to buy bean sprouts from farmers market, but nowadays I do it at home. Very easy and we can have fresh sprouts. You can have fresh sprouts, also there are many ways we can cook sprouts. I usually make green gram sprouts at home since green grams will sprout easily.

My two easy sprouts recipes are green gram sprouts salad and stir fry. My son does not like to eat fresh green gram sprout. So I usually steam the sprouts and mix it with yogurt. Also we share stir fry with him. He enjoys that too. In this post, I am sharing the step by step instructions to sprout the green grams / Mung beans.

Process

Step 1: Select good quality whole green grams/ Mung beans to sprout. Wash them thoroughly and soak them overnight (6-8 hours).

Step 2: After 6-8 hours, drain off the soak water, and transfer them to another bowl or jar. Close the bowl with lid and keep them in a dark warm place.

Step 3: If you check after 6-8 hours, you will see the sprouts appearing. Let them sit for another 12 hours for long beautiful sprouts. For longer sprouts, you can keep them for one more day. I gave totally 24 hours to sprout them.

Use the sprouts fresh/ Cook them soon. If you want to use them later, transfer them to a container and close it with lid and keep in the refrigerator. It will stay fresh in refrigerator for 2-3 days.

Choose whole green grams/ Mung beans to sprout

Soak them in water

Sprouts after 6 hours

Sprouts after 18 hours

Sprouts after 24 hours

Happy Cooking!

Fish Fingers (For age 18 months+)

Most experts agree that during early childhood, the benefits of eating fish usually outweigh the risks. Fish is a major source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are important for a child's brain and eye development. Fish is also a good source of protein, essential vitamins and minerals. But some kind of fish contains mercury, which should be avoided for kids. In high doses, mercury is harmful to child's brain development and nervous system. So for kids, parents should choose fish that are lower in mercury.

It is good to serve your toddler with a variety of fish two to three times a week. You can offer them any fish you cook at home. But if you have a little picky eater at home, you need to find some special recipes to satisfy your little one. This Fish Fingers (Fish sticks) are so delicious and cannot be avoided by any one. Yes, these fish fingers are perfect for the entire family.