Superfoods are a myth. There is no one food item that can provide everything one needs (except breast milk of course!!). The key to a balanced nutrition is "variety". The more diverse food items you eat, the more nutrients you get. It is as simple as that. The same holds true for babies as well.
If you notice our daily food pattern, you will realize although you make different recipes, the core ingredients are the same.
This does not constitute diversity. For example, when you eat chapatti, bread, pasta, upma etc you are eating Wheat. Though the dishes look and taste different, nutritionally it’s wheat mostly.
So, adding diversity to your babies’ or toddlers’ food is essential and my home-made cerelac recipe does exactly that!
This recipe has sprouted flours. Sprouted flours are easier to digest and have a higher protein content. Also, the cooking time for sprouted flours is almost negligible. If you decide to use regular whole flours instead, make sure you roast the grain well before grinding. I usually buy my sprouted flours from mynutricion.com or www.naturesbasket.co.in on. I like to use sprouted amaranth, pea, jowar, bajra, ragi and green mung (lentil). You can also use sprouted rice and wheat if you like. I don’t use them because we generally eat them a lot in our diet.
This recipe also has roasted almonds and cashew. Both pan roasting and oven roasting will work. You can also add roasted walnuts and pistachio to it.
To my cerelac mixture I also add raw banana powder which you can get in local stores or on Amazon.in. It is extremely nutritious for babies and adds bulk to the mixture as well.
When using this as a weaning food (which you start around 5-6 months), start with one ingredient per 8-10 days. Keep adding the ingredients to it one by one to make sure the baby is able to digest it well.
PS: You can mix and match different ingredients each time and make your own nutritionally diverse home-made cerelac.
Ingredients:
Sprouted jowar flour (2 cups)
Sprouted Ragi flour (1 cup)
Sprouted amaranth flour (1 cup)
Sprouted pea flour (1 cup)
Sprouted green mung flour (1 cup)
Raw banana powder (optional)
Roasted almonds (1/2 cup)
Roasted cashew (1/2 cup)
Roasted chutney chana (chana daliya) (1/2 cup)
Elaichi powder (1-2 tsp)
Directions:
Mix all the flours in a dry container (make sure there is no moisture)
Grind the dry fruits just to a powder (be careful to not over-grind it because it will leak oil and reduce the shelf life of this mixture)
Grind the chutney chana into a powder.
Mix everything and the elaichi powder and store it in an air tight container
The shelf life is longer if stored in the refrigerator.
How to use it?
Dissolve the required quantity of powder in water. Make sure there are no lumps.
​​
Keep it on simmer on the gas and stir it continuously till it thickens. Remove from heat and add jaggery/ palm sugar for taste. You can also add salt if the child prefers savory taste to sweet. You can now add either milk or water (for those who want vegan) to get to the feeding consistency.
Hope your babies enjoyed this recipe! leave your feedback in the comments!
Comments