Gadgets
One does not need a whole range of kitchen utensils to prepare baby food. However, two things will come in very handy, i.e. the slow-cooker and a hand-blender. These are multi-tasking kitchen gadgets which can be used for the whole family food preparation and cost less than RM100 each. One just needs to toss in the ingredients like rice or oats into the slow-cooker to make a porridge and add the rest of the ingredients. In the earlier stage, baby food needs to be blended into very smooth consistency and thus, the hand-blender will come in handy.
Time saving tips
- To save time on cooking rice or oats, I wash a batch of rice, dry them in the oven, blend the rice/oats to powdery, and keep them in airtight container. Cooking time is very much lessen.
- When Matthew was younger and only took small serving of food, I cook extra portions, freeze them in ice tray, store the frozen food cubes in plastic bag, and kept in airtight container. However, label with the date and avoid storing frozen cubes longer than 1 week. Fishes do not store well. To heat up the cubes, one just has to pop it in the microwave and reheat for 1 minute or steam it. (Caution: One ought to be careful when giving food heated in microwave because sometimes, there are 'hot spots' that can burn because of uneven heat distribution. Always stir the food well.)
- At times, I will cook for the family, dish out a small portion of food before I add in any salt or flavourings and blend the food for my baby.
- When I prepare soups made of vegetables and meat/bones stock, I will dish out some before adding salt and cook porridge with it.
- As baby food is not supposed to be flavoured with any salt or soy sauce, I use herbs and spices like garlic, onion, bayleaf, cinnamon powder, celery etc to enhance the flavour.
- One readily available ingredient is homemade ikan bilis powder. I will soak the ikan bilis for a long time until all the saltiness is removed, dry them in the oven till crispy and pound them into fine powder. A pinch added to porridge not only makes it tastier, it is full of calcium too.
- Babies love the taste of soft fruits like banana and papayas. All one need to do is just to scrape the fruit with a spoon and fed to the baby.
Puree Baby Food Ingredients
250g carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash or pumpkin, peeled
Method
Chop the vegetables into small pieces. Put in a steamer set over boiling water and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes or until tender. Alternatively, place in a pan, pour over just enough boiling water to cover and simmer covered for about 15 minutes until soft.
Blend the vegetable to a puree using some of the liquid from the bottom of the steamer or the pan.
Spoon a little puree into your baby’s bowl and serve lukewarm. Pour the remainder into an ice cube tray and freeze.
Information:
From 6 months
Suitable for freezing
Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 15 – 20 minutes
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