Pumpkin caramalised onion soup

A rustic pumpkin caramelized onion soup is anytime comfort food during a cold winter evening.

You can also feed your baby the same soup just try skipping the spicy pepper.
2 large onions
1 tablespoon sugar
1 star anise
20 grams butter
Ground pepper and dried herbs
Half of a pumpkin deseeded, skinned and chopped into cubes
1 cup vegetable stock

Combine the onions, sugar, star anise and butter in a saucepan  with one glass of water and bring to boil on medium fame.
Ensure that the onions cook slowly and do not burn.
Cook for 15 minutes and then turn the flame off and cool the mixture
In a pressure cooker add the chopped pumpkin with half glass of vegetable stock.
Steam for 5 minutes and turn the flame off.
Let the mixture cool.

In a blender whiz the caramelized onions and cooked pumpkin together in a thick puree.
Pour in a saucepan and garnish with pepper and other mixed herbs as per your taste..
You can change the consistency of the soup by adding water or cream.
You are ready to serve.

Handmade denim satchel bag with glitter glue design

Here is a handmade bag out of denim scraps.
Few scraps of good old denim fabric were lying around in my stash and I didn't want to see them discarded so easily.

Here is a closer look at the flowery design made by applying glitter glue. It won't come off so easily. I have washed it several times.

It has been used several times. Its so handy when you can just keep in few diapers a sippy cup and other few items which makes it easy to hang cross shoulders.

Baby Biscuits

As your baby starts teething you can give some of these biscuits to gum on.

As you can see in the above image they are quite porous and easy to dissolve in the mouth, its quite comforting for babies to eat them.
Ingredients:
one cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
One small egg
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cinnamon- If your baby is allergic to it then you can skip this spice
2tsp milk

Beat egg and sugar together till it thickens.
Sift in all the dry ingredients together and knead for few minutes. Let the dough rest for around 15 minutes.

Roll the dough till its half inch thick in height. Use a cutter or just a knife to shape into any size you prefer.

Bake for 12 minutes and then let it cool.
Store in an air tight jar.
Once your baby grows a bit older you can add many variations to this raw dough. For example dates, walnuts, banana, apples and more fruits.

Nifty crafty

What to expect when you are expecting? Besides craving for orange juice I ended up getting nifty with crafty things.

Below is an embroidered 'Tree of Life' on a scrap denim fabric. I've added gold thread on to the bark of the tree just for extra effects.


crochet flower brooch
               Flowers painted with water colors







A handbag made from scrap denim fabric with embroidery work.




Denim baby booties

Cracked wheat, spinach and broccoli -baby food recipe

Another healthy tasty recipe suitable for babies above 8 months old. When your baby graduates to stage 2 level of foods you can introduce lumpy well cooked veggies.

2 tbsp cracked wheat aka bulgur

Handful of well washed spinach leaves 

Few tiny broccoli florets 

2 tbsp chicken stock

Soak the cracked wheat in a little water for around two hours. This will reduce cooking time on flame or you can use a pressure cooker if you do not wish to soak.

Add all of the above ingredients with half glass water and let it simmer for around 20 minutes. 

If you use a pressure cooker just take one whistle and switch off the flame after five minutes. 

Veggie muffins

Here is another recipe suitable for kids and adults. Healthy and delicious.

  

I strongly recommend to whisk with your hand, rather than electric blender for this recipe. Muffins turn much better made by hand :)

Ingredients:

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

43 tbsp butter

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

Handful of spinach

finely chopped 1/4 of a carrot

3 button mushrooms

4 walnuts

4 broccoli florets

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Beat the eggs, add the melted butter and milk keep beating till its all combined nicely.

Sift all the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients. Mix and beat well. A normal fork should do the work.

Add all finely chopped veggies and pour the liquid mixture into muffin tray. You can grease the tray lightly if you do not wish to use the butter paper liners.

After 25 minutes take the tray off and let them cool on a rack.

And then you are ready to go.. 

Eat it happily.

Let me know how the recipe turned for you.

Thanks

Rice with Spinach

In this recipe you can learn how to prepare and store dried rice cereal for future use. You can later cook the ground cereal with any other variations you prefer. Besides, your baby is going to need all those carbs to work out on learning to walk around.

Take half a cup of rice grains. (It can be of any brand basmati or normal rice, fine grain rice would be more preferable)

Just whiz it in your dry grinder mixer nearly 3 or 4 times.

Ensure you do not make it into a powder. Once your baby is above 8 months old you would prefer him/her to learn to chew food, so its better to have smaller grains rather than just powdered rice.

2 tablespoon fine ground rice

Handful of fresh spinach leaves 

3 tablespoon of chicken stock

1-/4 cup water

1/4 of a ripe de-seeded tomato

I use the pressure cooker a lot. It saves time and energy.

Mix all the above ingredients in a pressure cooker, crank up the heat to high, just take a whistle and switch the flame off after 5 minutes.

When the pressure is down from the cooker open the lid and let the food cool down. 

Its ready to serve.

Fish and Couscus

1 tbsp couscus
quarter cup water
quarter cup chicken stock
small fillet of poached salmon fish

Heat the chicken stock and water together in a small pan. Add couscus when hot and switch the flame off after 10 minutes. Strain the excess liquid if needed.
mash the pre cooked poached fish and serve along with the couscus.

Baby Food Recipes

Note- All recipes mentioned here in this post are just titles for below twelve months babies do not include sugar and salt. Recipes will be posted in detail in separate posts.

In case your baby is allergic to certain foods that you are aware of due to any family history then, its better to avoid those food items.

As my doctor suggested its advisable to offer a fully proper cooked egg around twelve months of age before that its risky for the baby to get affected by salmonella.

Try introducing your baby to drink water after six months of age. It will help wash out the mouth of any food particles stuck in the baby's mouth and help cleanse the palette.


The recipes are classified into two monthly stage. This is the method I followed by introducing new textures and tastes after two months.

Around Six months

Carrot puree


Apple Puree


Six to eight months
Feel free to cook the earlier recipes starting from six months onward.

Sweet potato

Pumpkin Puree

Mashed Avocado

Mashed Banana

Mashed rice porridge

Soup-carrot, spinach and tomato

Eight to ten months
Feel free to cook the earlier recipes starting from six to eight months onward

Bulgur (dalia aka cracked wheat) in chicken stock


Sweet potato and chicken puree

Pumpkin and carrot puree

Mashed rice, Pushkin, chicken and carrots

Semolina in chicken stock

Rice in yellow lentils

Soup - rice,pumpkin and carrot in chicken broth

Ten to twelve months
Feel free to cook the earlier recipes starting from six to ten months onward

Finger foods- Small pieces of very ripe fruits or cooked veggies like carrot sticks, broccoli florets and other soft textured food.


Above twelve months

Feel free to cook the earlier recipes starting from six to twelve months onward

Feeding your baby

Feeding your baby can be a fun process. Be prepared for the mess.

Get a large bib and keep a small cloth napkin ready as well to wipe off food that sticks on to the face.

You can choose ro get a high chair or if you feel your baby wont run around, get a mess mat and sit down with your baby.

Be careful while serving hot food directly to your baby, its better to test it yourself first and then serve it to the baby cause, at times the spoon could be too hot for the baby. Choose a soft rubbery plastic spoon if possible without BPA. I had this wonderful spoon by Mee Mee where it changes color according to the food temperature. If the food was too hot the orange color would fade away meaning that the food was too hot for the baby's mouth and when it cooled down the color of the spoon returned to its original orange colour just like magic!

You can use a bowl with a lid to feed the baby. I used a tiny ceramic bow with a lid which kept the food warm while i fed the baby. Babies can take their sweet own time to eat, but when they get fussy over eating do not spend more than half an hour forcing them to eat. When they feel full they will eventually turn away from food.