Baby food recipe 6: Chicken Pasta

Baby food recipe 6: Chicken Pasta

Ingredients: 

• 1/4 cup cooked pasta
• 1/4 cup cut vegetables (grated carrot, sliced yellow squash, chopped spinach)
• 1/4 piece cooked chicken breast
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp mixed herbs
• 2 tbsp pasta sauce

Method:

• In a skillet, heat olive oil, add cut vegetables and herbs. 
• Add fine chopped chicken. 
• Add pasta sauce and stir fry for 2 minutes. 
• Add cooked pasta and cover and cook for another minute. 
• Add little water or more pasta sauce if you need more moist pasta.

To serve: 

Transfer pasta in a plate and place a cheese slice immediately on the top and let it melt.

Please note:
I usually pressure cook the chicken to make sure the meat is well cooked.  Also, I use the left over water for moistening the pasta.

Usually I use any organic pasta.
If its not tiny shaped like mini pasta shells, then after the pasta is cooked and cold, I pulse it in vegetable chopper, to chops it in tiny pieces. It saves me time to cook 2 different pastas,I for the baby and one for us.

Any mom out there is welcome to try these out - of course as always, do keep in mind what your baby might be allergic to and as always, consult the pediatrician before introducing any new food.

Baby food recipe 5: Boiled egg in pasta sauce

Okay I think I mentioned how much shreeya hates eating boiled egg. But we recently found a trick to feed her the boiled egg. This worked like charm. Here it goes:

Baby food recipe 5: Boiled egg in pasta sauce

Ingredients: 

• 1 hard boiled organic egg
• 1 tbsp tomato garlic pasta sauce
• 1/2 tsp olive oil
• Pinch of oregano and parsley
• One Cheese Slice

Method:
In a skillet, add olive oil,add a pinch of oregano and parsley and saute the pasta sauce for about a minute. Add mashed up boiled egg and saute for another minute.

To serve: 
Place the cheese slice in the bowl, add the egg pasta and Serve warm.

Any mom out there is welcome to try these out - of course as always, do keep in mind what your baby might be allergic to and as always, consult the pediatrician before introducing any new food.

Baby food recipe 4: Vegetable - egg omelet

Well, when it comes to eating eggs, Shreeya is not a big fan of eating boiled egg. But you make an omelet and just watch! Out of no where we suddenly get all interested in eating :).

This is a very simple omelet recipe which seems to be her favorite too.

Baby food recipe 4: Vegetable - egg omelet

Ingredients:

• One Organic egg
• Organic baby spinach leaves 2-3
• Tomato 1/2 peeled and diced
• Green bell pepper 1 tsp chopped
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil
• Cheese single

Method:
In a skillet, saute tomatoes, spinach and bell pepper till they are tender. Add beaten egg. Sprinkle salt and pepper. Let the omelet cook till the mixture thickens. Flip the omelet. Cook it for another minute. Make sure the egg is no longer raw. Flip it back and remove it on the serving plate. Place a cheese single immediately on the omelet and let it melt.

To serve: 
Cut the omelet to bite size pieces and serve warm.

Any mom out there is welcome to try these out - of course as always, do keep in mind what your baby might be allergic to and as always, consult the pediatrician before introducing any new food.

Baby food recipe 3: Zucchini in olive oil with cheese

Baby food recipe 3: Zucchini in olive oil with cheese (Age 8 months and up)

Ingredients: 
Organic zucchini
Olive oil
Cheese single

Method: 
In a skillet, add a tsp of olive oil. Grate zucchini and stir fry for a minute or till zucchini becomes tender. You may cook it covered if you prefer. Once cooked, add a slice of cheese single and let it melt.

To Serve: 
Serve as snack or as a side with soup.

Please note:
Salt is not required here, since the salt in cheese is just enough to make up the taste.

Any mom out there is welcome to try these out - of course as always, do keep in mind what your baby might be allergic to and as always, consult the pediatrician before introducing any new food.

Aloo Palak Thepla (Paratha)

Instead of making plain chapati everyday, adding little flavor to it makes your mealtime (and cooking) more interesting. This is a great way to add spinach to your baby's meal too. This recipe makes about 12-13 thepla.

Ingredients:

• Organic baby spinach - chopped approx 2 cups
• Organic potato - 1 medium sized peeled (optional)
• Ginger - about an inch
• Garlic - 4-5 pieces
• Chapati flour (whole wheat flour - no maida added)- approx 4 cups
• Besan (Chana flour) - 1/2 cup
• Salt to taste
• Red Chili Powder - approx 2 tsp (optional if this is a baby food)
• Oil - approx 4 tbsp
• Curd - 2 tbsp (optional)

Method:

• Pressure cook chopped spinach and peeled potato.
• Once cold, strain and transfer the spinach and potato in a  large flat vessel to be knead. Save the stained water aside for kneading the dough.
• Mash the boiled potato coarsely.
• Grind ginger and garlic into paste and add it to spinach - potato mixture. Add salt and chill powder. Taste the mixture and make salt and spice adjustments if required. Remember we still have to knead the dough, so this mixture must be little salty and spicy, since adding flour will tone down the taste.
• Add oil, curd, chapati flour and besan to this mixture and head the dough. Add the strained water if needed. 
• Split the dough in small balls and make paratha using a rolling pin.
• Heat a tava/ skillet, and bake one side of the paratha till its slight golden. Flip and bake the other side. Brush oil on both sides and transfer it to a container.

To serve:

• Serve hot thepla with chutney and curd.
• For babies: cut the thepla in bite size pieces and serve it with ghee.

Please note:

• If you intend to cook this as a baby food, do watch the salt and spice before kneading the dough.
• This recipe works without potatoes too. However, adding potato gives a binding and also extra taste to the thepla. 
• This recipe works without curd too. However, Adding curd while kneading the dough will result in softer thepla.

Baby food recipe 2: Mixed daal ghaavan / pancake (unfermented dosa)

Baby food recipe 2: Mixed daal ghaavan / pancake (unfermented dosa) (Age 10 months and up)

Ingredients:

• Toor dal (Split Yellow Pigeon Peas) - 2 tsp
• Moong dal (Split Green Gram) - 2 tsp
• Masoor dal (Split Red Lentil) - 1 tsp
• Chana dal (Split Bengal Gram) - 1tsp
• Rice flour - 1 tbsp

Method:
Dry roast the dals. Grind them to powder once they cool down. Add rice flour to dal powder and mix well.
This is your basic ghaavan mixture. You can now get creative and add any vegetable to it.

Plain ghaavan: Add salt, Jeera powder (Cumin powder) and water to the mixture.
On a skillet or tava, brush some oil and make ghaavan/pancakes.

Zucchini Carrot ghaavan: Grate some organic zucchini and organic carrot into the basic ghaavan mixture. Add some oregano, parsley and make ghaavan/pancakes.

To serve: I like to serve it with ghee. Cut the ghaavans into bite size pieces and generously add ghee and serve.


Please note:
The basic dry ghaavan mixture can be stored in an air tight container and can be used as needed.

Any mom out there is welcome to try these out - of course as always, do keep in mind what your baby might be allergic to and as always, consult the pediatrician before introducing any new food.

Baby food recipe 1: Butternut squash vegetable meal

It has been really really long since I posted a recipe. Well, with a 10 month old baby, the time just flies! Anyways, once we started giving her solid foods, I have been cooking some really nutritious foods for her. Not that I am against store bought ready to eat baby foods, I just prefer cooking and giving her home made baby food. Since I love cooking, why not make different varieties of food and keep her interested in eating? You know babies do get bored of eating same thing every meal (breast milk is of course an exception to this!). Shreeya is no different. She loves trying out new foods, tastes and definitely appreciates the surprises in her meals. This absolutely keeps me motivated to cook different types of meals for her. I am going to try and post some of the recipes which she has loved. Many of these are an inspiration from my mom and grand mom (Thanks aai and aaji !!!), with a variation of my taste. Any mom out there is welcome to try these out - of course as always, do keep in mind what your baby might be allergic to and as always, consult the pediatrician before introducing any new food.

Baby food recipe 1:  Butternut squash vegetable meal (Age 8 months and up)

Ingredients:

• Rice 1 tbsp
• Organic Butternut Squash(or pumpkin) 2 tbsp.chopped
• Organic green beans - 4-5
• Organic baby spinach  4-5 leaves
• Tomato 1 medium size
• Organic Sour cream - 1 tsp
• Salt.

Method:
Pressure cook rice and all the vegetables. Mash them to make a puree. Add salt as per taste.
Let it cool. Add Sour cream before serving.
That is it! It is ready to be served.

Please note:
You may skip salt if you prefer.
You can create any combination of vegetables along with butternut squash.
You may puree the cooked vegetables with a blender if you want to really really smooth.