Mashed Potato with Cream Cheese

Have a skinny baby? Or a slow weight gain baby? Fret not, this mashed potato recipe is superb for you to add extra calories into your baby's food! I used Tatura cream cheese because this is the cheese with the lowest sodium content (300mg/100g) that I can find on my local supermarket shelf.

Ingredients:

1 small potato

1 tablespoon Tatura cream cheese

Method:

Peel potato and cut it into cubes. Steam for 10 minutes or until cooked. Add cream cheese. Mash with a fork. Add warm water if desired. Adjust the consistency to your tiny human's liking. Serve warm.

Minced Meat Porridge with Dates

This is another recipe that delights Baby V! I figured that she likes sweet stuff (or perhaps all babies are like that? Haha) so I tried to add dates into her minced meat porridge. And yes, I'm so glad that she takes more porridge than usual! If your tiny humans have a sweet tooth too, read on! 

Ingredients:

Minced meat (chicken or pork is fine, I used pork this time)

1/2 cup rice (mine is a combo of pearl rice, purple rice, and millets, but any type of rice is fine)

5 Dates 

Water

Method:

Wash the rice. Cut dates into half and remove the seeds. The rice to water ratio is roughly 1:10. Bring water and rice to a boil and lower the heat. Add minced chicken and dates. Stir it occasionally to prevent sticking and burning. Cook until desired consistency. Blend the porridge together with a few dates.

I used 1/2 cup rice because Baby V shares her porridge with her mummy. You can adjust the portion of rice and water accordingly. Packed with vitamins and minerals from the dates, this recipe is certainly worth trying! :D

Owl Pillows

I'm so excited to share my latest owl pillow project! So that explains why I have not been updating much about my "Under the Sea" quiet book pages. Haha, apologies for that. Bear with me and look out for future updates on the quiet book pages, OK? :D

Back to our owl pillow topic. This is how my cotton-linen fabric looks like.

I did not take picture of individual steps this time, but I promise the owl pillows are really easy to make and any sewing beginner can complete this project in no time. So, here goes.

1. I cut the fabric based on the outline of the owls.

2. Pin the owl on a piece of plain fabric and cut along the owl.

3. Now, sew right sides of the owl together. Leave an opening for insertion of stuffings.

4. Flip the pillow inside out.

5. Add stuffings to the pillow.

6. Hand sew to close the opening.

I do hope that my owl pillow project can inspire you to make your own pillow. Just go to your local fabric store and look for fabrics with large animal prints (each of my pillow measures about 30 x 40 cm), or any object of your liking, and get your own pillow project started! Happy sewing!

Tomato and Celery Pasta: Tiny Human Version and Big Human Version

Let's start with the tiny human version which is super easy.

Ingredients:

1 tomato

1 celery stick

Pasta (I use spirals so that it will be easier for Baby V to self feed)

Method:

Cut tomato and celery into small pieces. Blend and steam the puree for 5 minutes. Add a bit of oil to boiling water and cook pasta until al dente. Mix the steamed puree with cooked pasta. Bon Appetit!

Baby V enjoyed her pasta although like usual, half of her food ends up on the floor. Haha. I used the leftover steamed puree for the big human version pasta. This recipe is perfect for a quick lunch!

Ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic

5 prawns

5 mushrooms

2 tablespoon tomato ketchup

Steamed tomato and pasta puree

1 slice of cheese

Method:

Mince garlic, peel prawns and slice mushrooms. Sauté garlic until fragrant, add prawns and mushroom. Add tomato ketchup and the steamed puree. Add some water if the sauce is too dry. Season to taste and pour the sauce over cooked pasta. Add a slice of cheese on top and bake at 200^oC for 2 minutes or until the cheese melts. Remember to use an oven safe dish. Voile! The cheese baked pasta is now ready to serve!

Quiet Book Page: Fish Puzzle

This is another page from my "Under the Sea" quiet book. Let's get started.

1. Draw and cut template. 

2. Using a glue gun, assemble the patterns on your fish. I did mine in thick and thin strips.

3. Now glue the front and back of the fish together.

4. Cut the fish into three parts, or as many as you like based on your fish design.

5. Hand-sew outline of the fish puzzle piece on your page. I place a piece of puzzle on my page as I sew. Once I'm done, I switch to the next piece and start sewing again. The stitches do not need to look perfect. That's the beauty of hand-stitching, no? I call these perfectly imperfect stitches! Haha. And trust me, tiny humans wont't even notice it.

6. I machine sew along the edges of all pieces. You may hand stitch if you don't have a machine. It's fine too if you prefer not to stitch. Just make sure the front and back piece of the fish puzzle is strongly glued together.

7. Lastly, attach velcro on the back of the puzzle pieces and on the quiet book page.

There you go, a nice fish puzzle page.

Banana Pancake

I've recently read that eggs in baked goods are OK for 8-10 months old babies that do not have family history of food allergies. Well, pancakes are not exactly baked goods but the actual amount of whole eggs ingested is little and comparable to that of baked goods. Since Baby V is now 9 months old, I decided to give it a try but that's just me. If you are concerned about allergy issues, consult your paediatrician. Anyway, if your baby can't  have it, you can try the recipe for yourself. It's equally palatable to big humans!

This is a simple pancake recipe that take no more than 15 minutes to prepare and cook. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana

1 egg

2 tablespoon all purpose flour

A tiny pinch of baking powder (optional ingredient that adds fluffiness to the pancake)

Unsalted butter

Method:

Mash banana with fork. Mix all ingredients except butter. Melt butter over medium fire. Scoop batter onto the pan. Brown on both sides. Serve hot. This recipe yields about four small pancakes. Double the ingredients if you want more pancakes. You may add fruit puree as topping. I serve mine as it is because it will be less messy since Baby V prefer to self feed. Haha.

Here's Baby V enjoying her afternoon tea!

Baked Potato Wedges

Good day!

How was your New Year holiday? I sure hope it went well. We enjoyed ours by attending a good friend's wedding dinner on New Year's eve. The next day, we attended the birthday party of another friend's son, who just turned one. I am glad that Baby V managed to make a few new baby friends at the party. Haha.

Today, I'm gonna do a throwback of Baby V's New Year lunch of baked potato wedges and steamed broccoli. Baby V loved the potato wedges so much! I hope your tiny humans will love it too.

Ingredients:

1 small potato

1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter

Method:

Peel the potato and cut it into quarters to get four wedges. Rub the surface with butter. Bake at 200^oC for 25 minutes or until they lightly browned outside and tender inside. Serve with lightly steamed broccoli. 

And this is my cheeky Baby V enjoying her lunch! Remember to watch your tiny human eat when serving finger food. :D