Healthy recipes for baby and toddler food

[dhakiyya]

Post your recipes and meal ideas here :up:

[dhakiyya]

Here's one I made for Ruqayya today, as I arrived home from town with very little time to prepare lunch.

tuna, pasta, rice and broccoli salad

1. Put 1 teaspoon of baby pasta, 1 teaspoon of white rice, a few pieces of normal sized pasta shapes and two pieces of tenderstem broccoli (cut into mini pieces that are a size your baby/toddler can cope with) into a small saucepan. Cover with boiling water from the kettle.

2. Bring the water back to the boil, and simmer gently for 10 minutes.

3. Due to the small amounts, it is probably easier to remove with a slotted spoon rather than drain in a sieve, but either way is good.

4. Put onto your baby's plate and mix in 1-2 teaspoon of tinned tuna. (important: tuna must be tinned in water or oil, with no added salt. NOT tinned in brine. Especially for babies under 1 year)

5. Leave to cool down, check the temperature of each ingredient before serving to your child. Serve with tomato pieces or carrot sticks or whatever your child likes and is able to chew.

Adjust the amounts to suit your child's appetite. If this is too much for your child, leave out the rice.

[dhakiyya]

Mini pasta sauce

1. In a small saucepan, cook the baby pasta according to the instructions. (Quantity to suit your baby's appetite)

2. Chop one mushroom into little mini bits.

3. Chop up one spring onion.

4. Get a very tiny clove of garlic and cut it into seriously little tiny mini pieces (small enough so you won't notice them in the actual sauce)

5. Sprinkle in a pinch of dried mixed herbs, then fry these in a small frying pan in 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. Make sure the onion goes transparent (well the white bits of the spring onion that is, the green bits will stay green lol)

6. Add 1 teaspoon of tomato puree, and mix in, add a little hot water (from the kettle is best) until you have a fairly runny, tomato-y sauce with vegetables in it. Cook for a futher 2-3 mins on low heat, keep adding water as the tiny quantities mean that it will reduce down very quickly.

7. Drain the cooked pasta and mix into the sauce. Put into your baby's bowl, leave to cool down, check that it has cooled sufficiently right through before serving it to your baby.

Tips: Add a small amount of chopped tofu or cooked fish for extra protein. Alternatively for protein in the meal, serve yoghurt for pudding, or mix in a little plain yoghurt before serving.

[dhakiyya]

Avocado toast

Very simple:

1. Make sure the avocados do NOT come from Israel before buying them. http://www.bigcampaign.org/

2. Put a slice of bread in the toaster. (or two slices if your baby/toddler is really hungry)

3. Mash up some avocado with a fork. (1/4 of an avocado does one small-medium slice of toast)

4. Spread the avocado on the slice of toast, then cut into little mini baby sized pieces. Arrange on a plate and serve (the toast should have cooled sufficiently by then but its worth checking inshaAllah)

5. Serve as an accompliment to a small piece of fish or meat. Or for an older child as a snack.