Why I steam, How to steam?

Why  do I steam my  baby's  food?

Well, I do  so because  it is not only easy,  it also retains the moisture and does not dry out the food, as can be so easily done when you only want to warm up  5 tablespoons worth of food. Does it take longer .... YES!  but  it is  generally  a healthier  form of  cooking  than say a microwave, and it also retains  a  lot of nutrients as  it doesnt get  "washed" away  which you can get with  boiling.

I have an electric steamer , so its  quite easy for me,  but what if you don't,  or what if  there is no reliable electricity to use the  electric steamer?  Well, there  is a   more manual approach  to it and most meals  take only about 30 mins to re-heat,  maybe up to an hour if you are  cooking from scratch.

Pot steamers come in different forms, a  few of them are listed below

1. The stackable  pot/steamer sets that  many  people have but  have never used the steamer  attachment ( yes we are all  guilty, the steamer bit is  still very shiny and we  sometimes use it  to wash   carrot, cabbage and  green pepper  at Christmas/ Easter when we want to make  fried rice or salad

Single layer  steamer attachment. 

Multi- level steamer attachment

Basically water  goes into the  bottom  pot  and the perforated  pots/ bowls   are stacked over it  with the food  to be steamed  and covered.

     2.    The mesh  baskets you can insert into a  pot. Now I know most people use this for deep frying  but yes it does have  another  purpose and can  work very well as  a steamer.  

basket  attachments:  the  one in the middle is mostly used in combination with a  deep  pot  for  deep frying

You just  suspend  over your  pot  as usually and rather than fill with oil,   you  just partially fill with  water to below the  mesh and  voila!

        

 3: To even the  humble colanders that you can suspend over your  pot!

This ( picture below) is came with my  pressure cooker, it is essentially a food separator but i can also use it as  a  steamer in this configuration.

Iplace the   little  angles in the bottom of the pot  to  elevate the   perforated  bowl and add some water

Place the mesh bowl on the  angles and  place whatever I need to cook  in it.  I either use a plastic  bowl with a cover  or a  glass jar with a cover.  just  make sure  the water is below the perforated  bowl. 

Cover tightly and   put on the  hob or stove for the water to  boil.


Do I steam only baby food?

Of course not!  I use my steamer  for  other  food stuff.  I haven't  boiled yam or plantain or  potatoes in like 3 years  and i  don't think i can,  without it turning into  pottage,  i steam all my  veg - carrots, broccoli, beetroot, etc.  i also steam  fish and  chicken, and you can also steam rice, eggs, or  beans  basically anything that can be  boiled, can be steamed.

Tips:  
If you are  steaming food in containers, make sure there is a bit of  liquid in it.

For things like carrots,  potatoes, yam and  other veg, simply place in the veg in the perforated  bowl for the  steam to  cook directly.

For  meat, chicken of fish, make sure you  wrap in foil before you  do place in your  steamer  - keeps it super moist! also make sure it is completely defrosted   as well if it has been frozen.

Mixed Fruit Paste Sweetener

Mixed Fruit Paste Sweetener

I mentioned in this previous post about  making a sweetener with  dried fruits for cereals.  well  what I did was to blend a few dried  soft fruits. So into my  food processor  i have some apricots, dates, raisins and sultanas. You can get this in the baking section of your supermarket or market.  

Now, i would say  that you may want to chop the items a bit with a knife before  putting in the  food processor, as after a while it  does form it into a ball. 

After  blending, store in an air tight container.  if the fruits were  straight from the pack  it should last  a while ( about a  month or two).  however if you washed any fruits like the dates for instance, make sure that they dry off properly before you blend. 

To use the  paste, simply take a bit  into the plate and  add a bit of warm milk to  break it up.  add your  cereal and  the remaining milk and serve. 

You can use any fruit combinations  you like,  however if you are adding any nuts, make sure your little one has no allergies to  the nuts.  Also you may want to blend the nuts first into as fine a powder as you  can, before you add the remaining dried soft fruits. 

I have so much fruit paste, now  i am  looking for what else i  can use it for. if i think of anything i will let you know. 

hmmn.... thinking i may make some morrocan inspired lamb sauce with  couscous or perhaps mix with some milk, mashed bananas and  baby rice;  or  maybe even do a  sort of  steamed  pudding kinda like  Christmas pudding)  now where did i stash that bottle of brandy?!!!

If you try this,  do  let me know how it comes  out. 

Cheerio

Part 2 - Weaning Foods for babies 6 months and above - General Tips and Ideas

GENERAL TIPS.

You can start giving water a couple of weeks before you intend to introduce solids. I did that purely because i wanted to start my lo at meal times with a cup instead of a sippy cup or bottle. So we had some training with a cup prior to the actual start of weaning, so we are not struggling with too many new things at the same time.
For the actual food, start with one meal a day and gradually work up to 3, within a month or 2. You are essentially substituting a solid meal for a usual breast feed or formular. Fruit, Veggies or cereal doesn't really matter.

Start with smooth mash/pureed and after a  couple of  months graduate to mashed with soft lumps before going for chopped-up soft pieces by the time baby is about a year.

Single flavours of fruit or veg are preferable at the start as it is easier to spot and identify any allergies to any foods as opposed to offering a mix of food and not knowing what they are reacting to. 

Also focus more on the veggies as it may take a while for babies to get used to the new taste. The fruits are naturally sweet so babies tend to take these easier.


Begin with a time that works best for you. I am not a morning person so i couldn't start weaning in my morning zombie mode! So we did it at lunchtime which was anytime between 12:00 and 15:00


If you want to also do baby led weaning later on and give finger foods, i would say do it just before they have their evening bath as it can be quite messy.


Just a few teaspoons at the start is considered a success. Then offer baby's usual milk afterwards. This way as they eat more solids, they drink less milk.

Also don't do it when the babies are super hungry or cranky as you will be wasting your time.

If the baby is already whimpering or crying offer breast or milk first, and then solids afterwards.
As a rough guide the timetable below was when we had established 3 meals a day:
6:00 - 7:30 Wake up/ early morning milk feed
8:30 - 9:30: breakfast - cereal/ fruit puree
11:00 - 11:30: milk feed
13:00 - 13:30 : lunch - usually containing meat or fish with a puree afterwards some times.
15:00 - 15:30 : milk feed
17:30 - 18:00: dinner - depending on my lazyness factor but mainly veg based.
18:30 -19:30 : milk feed after bath
20:30 - 21:30 : final milk feed before bed

You can tweak to suit yourself. I try to give fruit at least once a day. If we dont have it with our breakfast cereal, we have it as second course at lunch or we use it at dinner time with some baby rice.
At about 7 months i introduced formula especially for our last night feed as i noticed my little madam usually sleeps off on the breast. So i wanted to break that habit. She has her bottle of formula, burp and i put her down to sleep. After loads of rolling about she finally sleeps.

Then I gradually substituting one of the breast milk feeds to formula or expressed milk from a bottle. So in the first 2 weeks for instance, her 11:00 ish pre nap feed was substituted with formular, after about 2 -3 weeks, i will substitute another of her breast feeds at another time.... say afternoon nap feed. And so on and so forth
By 8 months we were down to breast feeding only 3 times a day, early morning, lunch time and after evening bath. I started giving bottle for her last feed as well as i wanted to break the habit to nursing to sleep.


At 9 months it was down to 2 feeds a day, and it wasnt a set feed. If she work up late, we skipped the morning feed and did it at lunch time for instance, and at other times we gave formular instead at lunch time or after her bath.
By 10 months the feed were pretty much random, sometimes once a day, sometimes twice. And when we decided to stop i started taking a small bottle of dry formular to bed, with hot water in a flask. If she wakes very early and is fussy, she has this. If not, we have normal breakfast.

We also have beaker of water so if she wakes at night, i give her some water and pat her back to sleep, she has to cry, tears, catarrh and saliva cry to get a night milk feed. ( Brutal I hear you say but it has worked for me, as we say in Naija-speak "I cannot come and go and die")

Some cooking tips:
For meat or poultry, i just pick a piece out of my usual pot when it is boiled. Remove skins, and any fatty bits before blending/ grinding. For fish i just steam a piece when i need to.

for other foods I take my baby's food out of the main pot before i add salt, stork cubes (maggi, knorr, ajino and the likes), pepper and  palm oil if the  recipe calls for it. So things like, beans, yam, spinach, amala, poundo, okra were introduced. 

This is so that she gets used to the household food. ( as i dont want her to go and get used to cauliflower cheese from hipp and the like meanwhile amala and yam  is the  menu  for the rest of the  household. I cant set myself up for future food drama. My policy is one house - one pot) so far it has  worked. 

To blend any food, you probably need to add a few spoons of water to blend.  if it gets  to waterry, dont  worry you could  thicken it back up with some baby rice or mashed  potato.  it  wont  change the taste. 

After mashing or blending i store in small individual serving quantities, so i can mix and match on the day as i feel.  For younger  babies  this  can be  the size of  ice cube,  for an older baby a  small bowl with a  tight cover  will do for  complete meals.  
If you are  making  frozen ingredients   to be  mixed later for example  potato only,  mixed  peppers or  carrots only  you may want to stick to an ice tray for freezing . Remember to wrap your  ice tray  in cling film, before  freezing, and make sure it is at the top shelf of the freezer, and not  with any raw meat or fish  products. (we don't want contamination and food  poisoning)

To prepare the food i just pop what i want onto a container, cover it and steam until heated through.( trying to reduce my use of microwave for baby food)

Also i got a few glass jar baby foods ( heinz and cow& gate  or orders), so i reuse the glass jars and covers to steam the food in when i can, so i also reduce my use of plastic to heat food in as much as i can. As glass is inert and doesn't leach out any nasties when subjected to heat as some plastics do!.

Then also some cow and gate  or  other brand food jars. Just a few for out and about days or when food inspiration fails me.

Please do not leave babies alone un-supervised with food at any time. Choking is a real hazard and a  quick response can  save  lives.  

Part 3 will discuss some recipes and combinations and how to manage some baby sized portions.


Thanks for reading!

Part 1 - Weaning Foods for babies 6 months and above - Supplies

Hi  there!

Following  some of  my posts on the NairaLand (NL) Forum  regarding   weaning  food ideas,   I have  decided to collate all I have posted  as  means of  creating an  archive  of  sorts  as it can be  quite  tricky trying to find the  right post on NL,   so   for   new and old   "newborn thread   followers" and  any others looking for tips   for what  to  feed  their  babies,    here are a  few tips.
here  we  go.

These  are  food ideas    for  babies  that are  6 months+,  and   the  menu is varied  to include  both western  and Nigerian  cuisine. 

First  of all  lets look at  some  supplies you may need these are not essential, however  they do make  life far easier:

There are baby food blenders which are essentially mini blenders.... and some can be quite pricey. I think they are an unnecessary gadget  especially if you have other alternatives... save your money to use on other stuff.

What i found works for me is a hand held blender.... i got one few years back and its been gathering dust until now.... so glad i didn't throw it out!
I just put what needs to be blended in large high sided mug, add some water if needed and pop it in till I get the consistency I need.  its really good for small portions blending or making purees. You just need a piece of kitchen towel to hold over to prevent splashes. This is an alternative to a specialized baby food blender. 

Its a very versatile tool as you can also use it to blend other stuff as well other than baby food as well as blend quantities both tiny and large that a normal blender wont handle. I got mine to make  soups in one of my culinary adventure modes.

Oh! you can also try using the chopper attachment that comes with some blenders (the small bit used to grind egusi/ogbono/ pepper at home) although it will need to be washed well to get any pepper or previous food residue out. You will need to add some water and blend in short bursts

a mash bowl can also be used, as  it  is a small  bowl with a  pestle-like  attachment  that you can used to mash up really soft  baby food.


An electric food steamer to heat up food is also very useful, or as an alternative you can get a small pot version of a  steamer  that  goes on your  cooker or a steamer insert to use with your normal pot. ( we  cant  let lack of  electricity  spoil our   groove.) 
plastic  plate  or  preferably a bowl.  it  should be  small enough to hold comfortably and securely with one hand.  this is very handy if you are  feeding baby  off your  lap. 

Electric  steamer

Steamer  insert  to  use  with   a  normal pot

Silicone ice cube trays. To freeze excess baby food.  silicone is preferable as  it makes removing the  frozen food  loads easier.   I only have one ice tray so i sometimes just twist a teaspoon or tablespoon of the prepped food in some cling film to make a "pellet" and freeze in a container or tie up in bag. 
Caution: Take care to defrost (at least) partially to allow the clingfilm come off easily. You don't want specs of film in the food as it breaks easily when frozen. Also make sure you label the containers.... everything tends to look the same when its been frozen. 

A drink muddler - now this is really not essential, but if you or hubby are into cocktails and have one lying around especially the plastic ones with the spiky base, they are actually fabulous at mashing the odd single portion of baby food.


A silicone bib with the crumb catcher.   this is  easy   to wipe clean and   catches  all the  food and  water that  your  baby  spits and  spills out.    A   wipe-able  bib with  crumb catcher is also useful   for   days out  as  these are  very easy to fold, wipe and  can even wash in the washing machine after  a  few uses. 

Doidy cup, muddler and wipeable bib

Other  things  to have.  include:

A soft tip spoon in the early days, this is  very flexible and  is  gentler on tender gums. 

A doidy cup - if you can find this it is absolutely worth it! This has made our cup drinking so much better and easier. Alternatively you can use a transparent cup, or i sometimes use the cover of the feeding bottle when we are out and about so i can see the level of the water. 
Note: Most disposable cups have a rolled edge but  the   cut end is unfinished and is slightly sharp so be careful if you wish to go down that route as babies cant really control their tongues to avoid them injuring themselves.  


A small  bowl with a   tight  fitting cover  to use in the  steamer,   the lid needs to be  tight to prevent  excess water getting into the  food. it  could  also reserve a few empty glass jars and their covers of baby food if you buy them. They are really handy for use in a steamer. 



I hope this has been useful to you,  Part  2  will  be on general tips before and  during weaning. 

Thanks for reading!