Mashed Avocado and Cottage cheese

Like I promised in my previous post, presenting here avocado recipe for infants/babies and toddler. We knew that Avocados are so good for everyone but they are helpful for babies too! The fatty acids and unsaturated fats helps in their brain development. Cottage cheese is another source of protein for your little bean! So when combined together; this recipe is an excellent source of calcium, protein and omega3's for the growing needs of your baby.

I introduced avocado to my little one around 10th month, I know it was late; but I was in India (for 4months), so after coming back I tried giving her, I was a bit apprehensive at first, little skeptical if she will like the taste. But she surprised me!! she wanted the whole bowl of freshly mashed avocado!! I was so happy that she enjoyed eating it and eagerly waiting/looking for spoon after spoon. Eventually I tried to give her all sorts of baby food and one day I brought home this book from library called "Everything about Baby food" and it has all the fabulous recipes using cottage cheese. I tried all the different tastes for my little one to see if her taste buds were working perfectly, she ate scrumptiously what ever new recipe I made for her! She was/is a happy child when ever I fed her avocado with mashed cottage cheese. Even today when I was trying to take the pictures for this post my LO was spooning some from the dish. The recipe is very simple and no cooking involved!!

Always use fresh ingredients while feeding your baby. When feeding cheese's or milk products try to buy pasteurized and organic products which are very safe for your baby. As your baby gets older, introduce more variety into her diet by experimenting with these other types of cottage cheese.

You can see in the picture, Anshika is trying to grab a spoonful of her favorite mashed avocado


Mashed Avocado with Cottage Cheese

Servings :2 (depends on the age of your baby)
Ingredients
1/2 ripe avocado
¼ cup organic cottage cheese (I used small curd cottage cheese for this recipe)
pinch of salt and crushed black pepper (optional, if you have not introduced these to your baby/infant)

Method

• Cut the avocado into half, peel and fork mash it on a plate with cottage cheese and continue fork mashing until the mixture is at desired consistency. Add salt and pepper sparingly.
  
• If you feel the mixture is still too chunky, try fork-mashing in some yogurt, breast-milk, or formula.
• Serve it fresh. If there are any leftovers you can eat that with whole grain bread, used this mixture like a spread or just eat plain.

Check my previous post "Everything about Avocados for Infants, babies and toddlers" for more info on avocados and how to store the other half of avocado.

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Everything about Avocados for Infants, Babies and Toddler

Avocados are a great first food for your baby. They are excellent source of unsaturated fatty acids and have a higher proportion of this 'good' fat than any other fruit except the olive. Yes they are actually fruits, even though they are commonly thought of as vegetables. Try using mashed avocado as a "vegetable butter', a replacement for butter that can be spread on crackers and sandwiches.
Image source: msn.com
Info drafted from the book:"Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron


Equivalents: 1 medium avocado=1 C/1 cup.
Baby must be at least 4 months old.
Season: Available year round; peak December through May.

Choosing: When selecting avocados, look carefully for damage, which shows up as soft dark spots in the skin. Tan-colored patches are OK. When picked up, an avocado should feel heavy for its size. If you're not going to eat the avocado for a few days, select an avocado that is firm but not rock hard, and ripen it at home. if you plan on eating it immediately, select a ripe avocado as described next.

Ripening: Firm avocados will never ripen in the refrigerator - let them sit at room temperature for up to 6 days. Place them in a brown bag to speed ripening. Avocados are ripe when they yield to gentle pressure and feel soft all over. Another way to test for ripeness is to gently squeeze the whole avocado with all five fingers. (using all five fingers prevents bruises.) If the flesh feels like it is separating from the seed, the avocado is ripe. As avocado ripen, the skin becomes a darker green. Still another way to test for ripeness is to insert a toothpick in the stem end. If it moves easily, the avocado is ripe. Avocados are easy to peel when they are ripe; the peel is hard to remove when avocados are underripe.

Storing: After ripened, store the whole avocado in the refrigerator in the vegetable crisper for up to two weeks. Your very young baby will certainly leave you with avocado leftovers. Store cut avocados by leaving the skins on and keeping the pit in the uneaten portion. You can brush the fruit part with lemon juice (if baby is old enough for citrus) to keep it from turning brown. It's OK to eat the brown part, but you can scrape it off with a knife. Wrap tightly in a plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.

Freezing using the Food Cube Method: The easiest way I've found to freeze avocado in food cubes is this:

• Take a sharp knife and cut avocado in half crosswise so that you have tow 'cups'.
• remove the huge seed. Use a spoon to scoop out flesh from peel and place on a flat dish.
• Use a fork to mash flesh on dish. Spoon into ice cube trays and pat flat with your clean fingers.
• Freeze for up to 3 months. I suggest that you give your baby 1-2 tablespoons or 1/2 to 1 food cube every day for some of the fatty acids she needs for brain development.
  

Feeding Avocado to an infant: Mashed ripe avocado is an excellent first food for baby. They are so nutritious that some claim humans can live on them exclusively. Fork mash the avocado flesh and feed it directly to your infant /baby. Avocados are also an excellent source of unsaturated fatty acids that your baby needs for brain development

Grow an avocado plant? check the video link



My next post is Mashed Avocado with cottage cheese for babies and tots, stay tuned!!

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Moong Dal Soup

Ever since my little one 'Anshika' started eating solids I was in search of tasty, delectable and appealing baby food to make eating more interesting for her. Some days she eats and some days she doesn't and moreover making your baby eat is always time taking process but sometimes very challenging and frustrating too. Cooking homemade baby food became very interesting when Anshika started liking new foods.

I started gathering recipes from friends, experienced moms, my mother, older sisters in the family, books on baby food for over a year now, reinventing and recreating the old recipes with a new twist was like experimenting flavors in your lab (kitchen). So I thought why not introduce my new line of recipes especially for babies,toddlers and kids on Padma's Kitchen. You can find many interesting baby food recipes going forward, that's my promise to all the new parents, Good Luck and Happy Parenting!!

Baby Food - Moong dal soup with Carrot and Spinach

Moong Dal Soup with Carrot and Spinach is a hearty soup which is rich in protein from lentils, Vit A, iron from spinach and Vit A , beta carotene from carrot. You can feed this soup to babies from 9 months and up. As the age of the baby goes up you can make this soup even chunkier and add more veggies to it. If your baby is older than 18 months you can mix it with some cooked rice and feed. It is a very common recipe in India and moong dal helps with digestion and produces less heat to the body compared to any lentils.

Source: My Mother
Cuisine: Indian
Prep & Cooking time: 20 mins
Servings: 3

Ingredients:
½ C split yellow moong dal (lentil)
½ C shredded organic carrot
handful of spinach, roughly chopped
a pinch of turmeric powder/haldi
a pinch of crushed black pepper
1½ C baby water
salt to taste
2 tsp of ghee (clarified butter)

Method:

• Rinse the split yellow moong dal and soak it in one and half cup of water.
• Meanwhile shred or grate the carrot and clean, also rinse and chop the spinach.
• If you have a pressure cooker, combine all the ingredients except salt and ghee. Pressure cook till 4 whistles, takes around 15 mins.
  
• If you do not have a pressure cooker, cook it in a medium sauce pot with double the water over medium heat for 30-40 mins or till the lentils are tender.
• When its done add some salt and ghee and feed your baby when the soup is still lukewarm.
  
• Consistency of the soup should be easy flow like tomato soup. As the age of your baby goes up you can thicken it by adding less water and also some spice too, like garlic or ginger!
  
• You can store the leftover in refrigerator and feed it in 2-3 days, but heat in microwave or stove top every time you feed your baby. You may notice that the dal solidifies once you cool it so you may add some water to loosen up but at the same time add some salt.
• You can also feed this soup with cooked rice to babies older than 1 or 1½ year and who are eating chunkier foods by now.

These homemade baby food recipes are simple and rewarding to make - become head chef for a very special little customer!

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