I always cook my grains with more water because it makes digestion an easier process….
1 cup of Orzo
3 cups of water
2 tsp of grape seed oil
1/2 cup chopped watercress
sweet white miso (optional)
Bring water to boil and slowly add orzo and oil to water, turn heat down to med, Cook Orzo in water and oil about 10 minutes
add watercress and cook another 5 minutes
turn stove off and add 1 1/2 tsp of sweet white miso and let cook itself for about 2-3 minutes
My daughter has decided that she is going to eat tempeh, seitan, tofu only. So I figured out if I don’t let her see that she is about to get either one of those proteins, then she will eat her veggies and grain first. She loves feeding herself now, so I think that is another reason she enjoys those three proteins.
Grains: Her grains have changed from the brown rice “mush” to brown rice cooked with more h2O, millet, orzo, quinoa. She has figured out how to use her teeth and she wants to!
When they are ready to change textures your cooking style has to change too.
While I was cooking Corinne’s dinner last night, I decided to make a millet mash as her grain. I created this using leeks, carrots, onion, cauliflower, and millet. It turned out to be a hit. I put some aside for my husband and myself and then packaged the rest away for my daughter. She had a total of 8 veggies for dinner! And of course her grain and protein – which was a combo of seitan and tempeh.
Now that my daughter is 12 months I am allowing her to eat most everything I do. She is snacking on Nori sheets (sea veggie), kale chips, and other veggies.
Here is a quick recipe for kale chips. EVERYONE’s oven is different, so for your first attempt in making kale chips stay close by!
Kale Chips
3-4 Kale leaves (remove the stem at the base of the plant), chopped into bite size
place a little olive oil in your hands and toss the kale with your hands
Place kale on cookie sheet (make sure you don’t have any kale stacked on one another… that causes them to “steam” instead of get crispy)
Place in oven at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes or until the kale is crunchy.
After a 5 min battle of my daughter not wanting to open her mouth to consume ANY food, she decided to give in and have dinner. We started with finger foods. I steamed some tempeh, edamame, and carrots for her, and then she ate a brown rice pasta stir fry with about 7 different veggies. The stir fry was cooked inwater with just a little sesame oil and shoyu sauce. After picking through and eating every piece of tempeh and a little of everything else, she destroyed the carott/kale purre. I actually gave her her first bite of peaches tonight from the local produce place. Funny thing is she spit the peach out and stuck another bite of veggies in her mouth 🙂
Macro Baby Food, LLC 