Weaning Diaries: Poached Fish in Milk

This recipe does not use Indian spices at all, however I wanted my son to try fish for the first time today. So why poach it in milk? The problem with fish is that it can be very bitty in the mouth and a 7 month old needs the consistency to be creamy and easy to swallow. Hence, the use of milk.
I would recommend using white fish else salmon would be lovely too. I have come up with this recipe and will feed it to him at lunch time today. It smells beautiful, and now I wish I had made this for the rest of the family!

I used:

6 tablespoons full fat milk
knob of butter
1 small crushed garlic clove
small piece of white fish, seasoned with black pepper
handful of washed and chopped spinach

1. In a small saucepan, add the milk and once it starts to bubble, add the garlic.
2. Next, add the fish with a knob of butter on top.
3. Then add the chopped spinach.
4. Put the cover on add the flame on low, allow to gently simmer till the fish has cooked through (around 6 mins)
5. Blend and serve.

Weaning Diaries: Week 4

Its been 4 weeks now since my little boy has entered the world of food, and what has happened since my last entry you ask? He has tried a number of new tastes: pears, apples, bananas, plums, kichdi (overcooked dal and rice), courgette, apple, red peppers, sweet potato, spinach and both chicken and lamb. I learnt that my son really enjoys spinach and courgettes; and plums go down a treat as well! He wasnt too keen on lamb, so I will re introduce it in a few weeks time.

Today I decided to make a typical Sindi ( from the area of Sindh, now in Pakistan) dish called sai bhaji, which is a blend of spinach, vegetables and whole chana or gram lentils. This recipe tends to vary from household to household. It's not as good as my grandma's of course, but we seem to like it! This went down a treat with my son and for the family meal, chillis and salt were added. This saved mama alot of time and my boy was happy! Perhaps this is the way to make meals from now on...?

For a family of 4:

250 gram bag of spinach leaves
1/2 cup of soaked overnight or for a couple of hours chana lentils
1 cup of chopped vegetables: carrot, beans, pumpkin, potato, aubergine.
handful of freshly chopped dill
2 large pinches of dried fenugreek leaves (methi)
1 onion
2 inches of ginger
2 garlic pods
1 cup of water

1. In a pressure cooker, fry the chopped onion, ginger and garlic till brown.
2. Next add the chopped vegetables
3. Add the chana dal (remove the water) and the spinach leaves.
4. Once they have wilted add the dill , the fenugreek leaves and cup of water.
5. Close the pressure cooker and give it 4-5 whistles, then turn off.
6. Open and blend with hand blender

The Weaning Diaries...

Its been exactly 10 days since my little boy has started weaning. He was having some baby porridge a month before I started, but now he is onto fruits and vegetables. I have started him on one meal to get an idea of how hungry he is. The verdict so far? My boy is hungry! He first started slowly taking in each mouthful, gagging on the spoon and making a mess everywhere. In this short span, he has learnt how to hold the food in his mouth and swallow. The first food he had was butternut squash, and this was easy to make (chop up, steam in colander and blend with some water) and he had no reaction (allergy wise) and he easily expelled it in his poo an hour later. So that was simple. Then there was avocado, which he loved but rather rich and heavy on his system which took over 36 hours to come out but with some advice from a dear mommy friend some steamed pear did the trick. Of course there was banana, but I was wary as this too can constipate the baby so I mixed this with his porridge in the morning. I did try some rice with steamed carrot, however he found this hard to eat, even after the rice had been over cooked and blended. And his favorite so far has been steamed courgette and steamed sweet potato.

I am leaning towards introducing more vegetables than fruit in his diet simply because babies tend to like more sweet flavours. So far, my boy has eaten everything except for the rice. I did find another recipe suggesting to put the rice in a spice grinder and then cook it. I think I will try this and it will keep him fuller for longer.

And now portions, started with 5 teaspoons and now its already over 10-12 teaspoons followed by 5-6 ounces of milk. Since yesterday I noticed he wasnt satisfied  after his food, so today I have increased the portion. And tomorrow I will introduce the third meal and see how satisfied he is. My guess is that he needs it!

At the same time, I am working on dropping his night feeds, and I feel there is a difference now that he has started eating solids. Wish me luck out there, I hope to have some uninterrupted sleep! Its been six months and my brain is slowly frying....

Tomorrow's menu: Breakfast: Porridge with steamed pear and cinnamon;
Lunch: Yellow lentils
Dinner: Steamed sweet potato and courgette
Followed by usual milk feeds...