Baby Led Weaning - Quinoa

Made  a dish for the fam that Silver could enjoy too!  The recipe called for brown rice, but i'm not giving Silver that just yet, so instead I substituted quinoa.  Have you heard of this amazing stuff?

Quinoa (it's pronounced keen-wa) is an amino acid-rich (protein) seed that has a fluffy, creamy, slightly crunchy texture and a somewhat nutty flavor when you cook it.  It is a recently rediscovered ancient "grain", dating back over five thousand years and once considered "the gold of the Incas."  It's cool because it contains more high quality protein than any other grain and contains no gluten.

Loved it!  It cooks up just like rice - a cup for a cup.  When you cook it do one part quinoa and one part water, stir it and cover.

I bought the kind from Ancient Harvest because it is pre-washed, so you don't have to rinse it (with other kinds you need to rinse it to remove the natural bitter saponin coating - I thought this might be difficult because they are pretty tiny.)

http://theamateursdish.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/quinoa2.jpg

I made a pilaf with the quinoa and left out some of the things that Silver shouldn't have just yet, like almonds and soy sauce (salt).  So... T.J. thought it was pretty bland.  My mom likes bland though so I gave her some to try and after tasting it she sweetly asked, is it pretty healthy?  Lol.  Yes, it was pretty much straight up vegetables.  :)

That's one thing that's going to be great about baby led weaning for all of us - it's going to keep our healthy eating in check!

Baby Led Weaning - Rolled Oats

Made Silver some rolled oat bars today!  I also learned why it is important to soak oats before you cook with them.

The merits of soaking oats

All grains contain an organic acid known as phytic acid. Phytic acid stops our bodies from efficiently absorbing essential minerals like iron and zinc, which can eventually lead to mineral deficiencies.  Soaking grains reduces their phytic acid, which means that their nutrients can be properly digested and absorbed by the body.

This is by no means a modern concept - our ancestors either soaked or fermented grains before cooking with them - and it is still common practice to do so in many parts of the world.

So, I prepared the soaked oats last night, then this morning I added some water and then boiled it for a bit.  Then I sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon into it and put it into a small 8x8 pan and pressed it down flat with a spatula.  Baked it on 350 for 5 to 10 minutes (just wanted it to thicken up a little bit so that I could cut it into pieces that Silver could pick up without them falling apart too badly).

It was a success!

Baby Led Weaning, Day 1

Silver ate some real food today!  A little bit of cucumber and avocado, more of the avocado.  She made a mess and got more of it on her than in her mouth, but it was so cute!

We're doing baby led weaning, which I've posted about before, but basically Baby Led Weaning means offering your baby (age appropriate) foods that are soft-cooked and sometimes cut or mashed into small easily manageable pieces. You then offer the food to your baby to eat, and then, this is the important part - your baby does the rest. In short, Baby Led Weaning is skipping thin and runny purées and not feeding your baby with a spoon – it's where you rely on your baby to self-regulate and lead the way.

It will be a bit before she's actually eating, instead of playing and discovering, but we will be giving her the opportunity every once in a while.

Yeah... next time mama will remember to roll her sleeves up.