Now that Anouk is ‘one,’ she has upgraded from mashed baby food to toddler food. Truth be told, I was never into the idea of baby-led weaning, but one fine day, she wanted to pick up food by herself, and we let her. Although it all sounds very romantic and adventurous, mind you, she is still a (stubborn) toddler. One day she is gorging on stuffed paratha, and the very next day, she does not want to touch it. I am sharing what her pediatrician shared with us.
- We introduce the same food a few times, although she protests initially. Introducing her several times gives her the idea of loving a food than rejecting and moving on to the next one.
- We let her eat until she wants – sometimes it can take up to an hour. One of us monitors her that time, and we don’t allow any screen time during eating.
- It is very messy, but nothing an excellent hand-held Dyson (not sponsored) can solve.
- Once she is done, we feed her the remaining amount. Sometimes she does mild protesting, but often she finishes the bowl.
- Lastly, if she is not finishing a meal, we don’t fuss over it. My mum was worried about it a bit, but her doctor said not to worry. He asked us to aim for ‘one good meal’ a day and one out of 3 days for having ‘a good day’. She drinks 24 ounces of milk, so he asked us not to worry much about her solid intake.
Now that we are done talking about the basics let me share quickly what she eats in a day. I will soon share a few more ideas, and hence this post is labeled as version 1.
Meat Recipes
Mild chicken curry recipe
- Here I used grilled chicken, but poached or shredded chicken will work just fine.
- ¼ yellow onion or shallots, finely chopped
- ¼ inch ginger, grated
- 4-5 cloves garlic, grated
- 1-2 teaspoon ghee or coconut oil to fry
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1 -2 teaspoon Thai red curry paste (organic)
- 2 tablespoon carrot purée
- ¼ cup coconut cream
- Sauté onion in ghee or coconut oil until it’s translucent. Add grated ginger and garlic and cook until the raw smell is gone.
- Add curry powder, red curry paste, carrot purée and coconut cream. Cook it for 4-5 minutes or until it’s well cooked.
- Add chicken pieces and cook it for 4-5 minutes more.
- We don’t add garnishes such as cilantro. But you can absolutely do it.
Rice pilaf
- 1 teaspoon ghee
- ¼ cup basmati rice
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- A pinch of authentic saffron
- Water
Fry the rice in ghee until it’s slightly toasted and brown. Add water, saffron and cook for 25-30 mins in medium-low flame or until rice is very soft. Close the flame and keep it there for 15-20 mins. Pilaf should be soft enough for young toddlers.
This dinner is very popular here. She licks clean a large bowl and asks for more. Her dad also loves this and eats the leftover with gusto.
Ground Meat Recipe
I use this ground meat for paratha stuffing and on top of puff pastry sheets.
- ¼ white onion, finely chopped
- ¼ inch ginger, grated
- 4-5 cloves garlic, grated
- (I use a mini garlic chopper for both)
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 1 tablespoon carrot purée
- ½ pound ground lamb
- Whole spices – cinnamon, cardamom, cloves
- Ground spices (to taste) – all spice, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon
- 1-2 tablespoon coconut cream
- Dry fruits – raisins, apricots
- In a non stick pan, over medium heat, Sauté onion in ghee until translucent. Add ginger, garlic and cook until the raw smell is gone.
- Add carrot purée, ground lamb, whole spices, ground spices, coconut cream. Cook until the meat is no longer pink. It will take close to 10-12 mins or more.
- Add dry fruits and continue to cook for 3-4 more minutes. As I was cooking for Anouk, I cooked a bit longer to cook it well. Extract whole spices before serving.
- (I added carrot purée to make this a tad bit more sweet. But you can completely skip it)
Mild Ground Lamb Curry
- ¼ white onion, finely chopped
- ¼ inch ginger, grated
- 4-5 cloves garlic, grated
- (I use a mini garlic chopper for both)
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 tablespoon carrot purée
- ½ pound ground lamb
- Whole spices – cinnamon, cardamom, cloves
- Ground spices (to taste) – all spice, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon
- 2 tablespoon coconut cream
- Dry fruits – raisins, apricots, finely chopped
- Water
- In a non stick pan, over medium heat, Sauté onion in ghee until translucent. Add ginger, garlic and cook until the raw smell is gone. Add tomato paste and carrot purée and cook until oil separates for about 3-4 minutes.
- Add ground lamb, whole spices, ground spices, coconut cream. Cook until the meat is no longer pink. It will take close to 10-12 mins or more.
- Add dry fruits and continue to cook for 3-4 more minutes.
- Add water and cook it for 10 more minutes so the meat is well cooked and soft. Extract whole spices and serve with a rice pilaf.
