Recipes and Complementary Food for Babies

I did this project with Pigeon Malaysia early this month at My Town in Kuala Lumpur.  The event location, Good Times was a colorful and fun filled location for our event. 

A complementary diet introduces semi solid to infant who is ready to take food besides breast milk or formula during their forth to 6th month of life. Sharing as a feeding therapist cum a senior dietitian made me better able to share a full story about feeding our babies.

My sharing was followed by a cooking demonstration by Chef Samantha and parent-child hands on session.

Watching mom and child interaction during the session was the most rewarding for me. There were dad who took active roles in child care to support their spouses who were listening attentively during the sharing. 

  

The following recipes were developed for this event. We demonstrated two out of five below.

Recipe #1: Pear-y Brown Rice Puree Complementary food suitable for 4- 5 month old babies

Main Ingredients: Brown rice, cooked         ½ cup      Pear, ripe                          ¼ piece Full cream milk/EBM       ½ cup Ikan bilis                           10 1.      Cook brown rice with calcium rich ingredient (ikan bilis) 2.      Cut and slice pear, fresh on the spot. 3.      Blend all ingredients to create watery porridge. 4.      Serve/store in 2 oz tubs or bowl.

Recipe #2:  Green Congee Complementary food suitable for 4- 5 month old babies

Main Ingredients: White rice, cooked          ½ cup      Baby spinach                   3-4 leaves Full cream milk/EBM       ½ cup 1.      Cook rice porridge with kelp 2.      Off the fire on the stove. Add baby spinach to cook for a minute. 3.      Blend all ingredients to create watery porridge. 4.      Serve/store in 2 oz tubs or bowl.

Recipe #3:  Fruity Lunch Complementary food suitable for 5-6 month old babies

Main Ingredients: Brown rice, cooked         ½ cup      Green apple, ripe            ¼ piece Full cream milk                 ½ cup Banana, ripe, sliced 1.      Cook brown rice till soft. 2.      Scoop and stir soft brown rice with full cream milk. 3.      Peel, chopped and steam green apple. (optional) Sprinkle with cinnamon powder. 4.      Add green apple into soft porridge. 5.      Add sliced banana on top. 6.      Serve in bowl.

Recipe #4:  Mashed Potato Pumpkin Porridge Complementary food suitable for 7-8 month old babies

Main Ingredients: Peel, 1cm Cube, potato              1/3 cup Brown rice porridge (grainy)       1/4 cup      Pumpkin                                            ¼ cup Full cream milk/EBM (optional)  ½ cup 1.      Boil potato and brown rice with calcium rich (chicken bone/fish bone)  2.      Steam pumpkin. Scrap off flesh and serve with porridge. 3.      Mix milk for taste or texture. 4.      Serve in bowl.

Recipe #5:  Crunchy string beans and mushroom porridge (Vegetarian) Complementary food suitable for 9-10 month old babies
			Portion size: 1	Preparation time: 15min
	Steps	Ingredients	Amount	Utensils needed
1	Cook soft rice and kelp together	Rice	5 tbp	Pot with lid
		Warm water	160 ml	electric kettle
		Kelp
2	Chop string beans finely	String beans, young	3	cutting board #2
3	Cut mushroom finely	button mushroon, fresh	2	pairing knife
4	Steam all vegetables in a bowl for ~10min	Goji Berry	8 pc	bowls x 3
5	Mix vegetables into porridge and serve warm			Bowl (presentable)

Recipe: Vegetarian Tomato Tofu Wrap

This recipe was created for my talk with pregnant moms during a recent prenatal workshop with new parents. It's not exciting to talk about food without having to taste them. And it's a plus if i could show the audience nutrition balance vegetarian meal is very tasty.

This vegetarian dish serves us just right amount of taste and nutrition. Almost everyone who tasted it loved it. Replace the cheese with toufu cheese for vegan version of this.

Ingredients:
1 square Firm toufu 
2 tsp Soysauce
Dash of Turmeric powder
Dash of Pepper
Triple washed salad green.
1/2 Red tomato, freshly sliced

1 pieces Multigrain Tortilla Wrap

1/2 tsp Olive Oil Spread

1 slices Cheese, firm/sliced
2 tsp Sesame seeds/ dressing

Steps:
1. Slice firm toufu horizontally. Cut each half to 4 pieces of ¼ inch thick toufu
2. Grilled toufu slices dressed in soy sauce, in non stick pan. Sprinkled with tumeric powder and ground pepper.
3. Wash salad greens and whole tomato in 1% baking soda solution for 12-15 minutes.  
4. Slice clean tomatoes for immediate use.
5. Spread tortilla with olive oil spread
6. Layer with slices of grilled toufu, tomatoes, salad green and cheese.

7. Optionally, spinkle sesame seeds or oil.
8. Wrap and serve fresh (within 2 hours)

This recipe makes 1 tortilla wrap. It's a great snack that provide about 300kcal, 10g of protein, and 5g of fat. Just great for pregnant moms in their 2nd and 3rd trimester.

Tips for Food Safety at Home - some advice for those at risk.

Have you had tummy ache, vomiting or diarrhea after eaten unclean food? Food borne illness can be avoided by practicing safe food handling. These tips will keep your food safe while you enjoy cooking and nutritious meal.

1.               Wash your hands before cooking or eating

Your hands carry bacteria on them especially after playing sports, gardening and playing with your phones or pets. If you do not wash your hand before food handling, you will pass on the bacteria to food and then to your stomach

Remember to wash your hands after handling raw food, before moving on to handle ready to eat item. Pay extra attention to those areas often missed during hand washing.

2.               Keep hot foods hot

Cooked food if left to room temperature for more than 2 hours, may cause food borne illness as bacteria grow well at this temperature. Make sure you reheat leaf over food thoroughly before eating.

3.               Keep cold foods cold

Salad, milk and yogurt need to be kept in the refrigerator. Make sure you keep them back to the fridge right away after using them.

4.               Keep raw foods away from cooked food

Do not keep raw food and cooked food in the same plate or chopping board; bacteria from raw food will likely transfer to ready to eat cooked food.

5.               Expiry date

Expiry date is valid for packaged food in its unopened packaging. Food once unwrapped, exposed to air, or handled has a shorter expiry date, usually within 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator. 

6.               Thaw food safely

Frozen meat or poultry should be thawed in refrigerator rather than on the table. Bacteria can grow to dangerous level if raw or frozen meat has been left out at room temperature for long hours.

7.               When in doubt, throw it out

Never taste food that you think may be spoiled. If you are not sure if the food is safe to be eaten, throw it out.