Baby Friendly Complete Nutrition Fish n Chips

This dish is a little tedious than my usual dishes.

It was London theme day on school and I was going to make fish n chips. I was thinking about how I could work in the vegetables when I decided to switch to fishcake instead. It was convenient since my 10 months old baby was going through a phase of self feeding finger food. This fishcake is baby friendly if your baby would gnaw and chew on his food.

Here goes. London inspired fish(cake) and (sweet potato mini) chips.

Prep time: 10 mins
Steam time: 15 mins
Bake time: 20 mins (if you bake together.  I was cooking in big batches and had to do twice)

1. Steam lemon sole, sweet corn, potato and purple cabbage.
2.Mash above ingredients together, add corn starch to bind and coat with a layer of bread crumbs. Bake at 175 degrees Celsius for 15 mins, or till crunchy and golden.
4. Shred sweet potato to desired. In my case today, these are closer to flakes. Add extra Virginia olive oil,  a dash of paprika, toss and bake at 170 degrees for 20 mins.

This dish was well received by both babies and the older kids. So the extra effort is worth it. :)

High Iron Pasta for the family, including the baby

I try to cook every meal for the family. Cooking nutritious meals for my child is probably one of the reasons I set up a school, ha. I am often asked how do I find time to cook when I am working? I don't know, I find eating out takes up more time. Slow cooker is my best helper for soups, stews, braised meals etc. But sometimes I prefer to cook certain ingredients only briefly to preserve as much nutrition as possible.

Anyway, here's a quick pasta I whipped up last night. My version of Beef Bolognaise with English parsley, lentils, millet, red capsicum, spinach, tomato and pasta of course. 

Do you know
- Spinach, lentils and beef are high in iron, but iron is best absorbed if taken with Vitamin C? Tomato and red capsicum contain Vitamin C and pairing these food together help the body utilise iron better.
- Red capsicum is a decongestant, thins mucus and phlegm and has anti-cancer properties.
- Lentils are legumes, packed with fiber and protein. My favourite thing about this is that it stabilises blood sugar and is awesome for young children. It evens their sugar level and prevents mood swings from sugar high sugar low effect.
- English Parsley has wonderful healing properties, and I love it so much I have it growing t home. It purportedly neutralises carcinogen, is packed with anti-oxidants nutrients and vitamins B, C.

Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil and add in chopped garlic and onions. Boil pasta separately.

2. Add lentils, millets and ground beef. Season with salt if you wish. I don't add any salt.

3. Add canned tomato pomodoro, red capsicum and finely chopped English parsley. Add two cups of water.

4. When beef is cooked, add in chopped spinach. I turn off the flames as soon as the spinach wilt because I don't want the high heat to kill the nutrients. Actually the whole cooking process probably took me 20 mins or less.

5. Serve with pasta. 

Yes, this portion is for my 3 year old girl. She has a hearty appetite and is blessed with a high metabolism.

When I am prepping ingredients, I like to put aside those that is suitable for my baby. Food high in iron is added bonus for breastfed babies. In this case, I set aside the pasta (boiled a little longer so they are softer), spinach, red capsicum, onion, garlic and millet. I dropped them into the boiling water after I scooped out the cooked pasta, did a quick hand blend when cooked. My 9 month old baby has moved on to chunky food and loves this. He ate 8 tablespoon (4 ozs) easily and I am a happy mother. :)

Food that gets rid of phlegm

My 9 months old baby started the sniffles and I could hear the phlegm building up.

Congestion in a young baby is a mother's nightmare because he only knows how to breathe via the nose. If the nose is blocked, everything comes to an abrupt halt. Can't breastfeed. Can't eat. Can't sleep. What's worse is the phlegm tickling the throat, and triggering the body's natural response to cough it out.

To get rid of phelgm, there are 3 things to keep in mind. 
1) Mucus and phlegm creation needs to be reduced. Dairy products and sugar are the two biggest culprits in phlegm creation. You need to limit or eliminate such food to slow down the creation.

2) Dissolving or thinning the phlegm. Drinking plenty of fluids thin the mucus. Food such as cauliflower, red capsicum, celery, asparagus, onion, garlic, ginger help to dissolve mucus too.These are natural mucalators. There are synthetic ones you can get from pharmacy but not that I will feed that to my children.

3) Dispelling the phlegm. I said earlier the body coughs to get rid of the phlegm. But our children do not how to spit the phlegm out. Instead, they frequently trigger the gag reflex and end up vomiting when coughing.

What I find work best is focus on 1) and 2), then the phlegm is controlled enough for the child to swallow and poop out. I get a lot of satisfaction when my baby poops out mucusy slimy poop. Haha, the avenues a mother derives satisfaction from!

An additional tip for sleeping at night with a phlegm cough is to let the child sleep on an inclined angle. When we sleep at night in a horizontal direction, the backflow of the phlegm and the accumulation of the mucus at the head worsens congestion. Sleeping elevated helps mitigate this. Using a diffuser with a decongestant essential oil such as eucalyptus and lavender help too.


Here's a meal that reduces phlegm and helps combat flu. Cauliflower (50%) rice porridge (15%) in chicken broth (15%) and poached chunky salmon (20%). Salmon contains anti-inflammatory properties and protein, which are essential in the recovery process.

Ingredients:
- Salmon fillet, choose the tail end which is the part of the body which contains least mercury
- Organic cauliflower
- White rice porridge (white rice is easier for digestion when one's body is under the weather. By all means, use other grains)
- Home made chicken broth. Baby friendly with only antibiotics free chicken, no salt

Instructions:
1. Poach salmon fillet. Mine is loosely flaked because my baby likes textured food.
2. Steam cauliflower. Steaming helps retain heat sensitive vitamins. Mash with fork or with a food processor.
3. Heat rice porridge, add in home made chicken stock. Please see separate recipe for my porridge.

Poached Salmon, Cauliflower mash

I fed this for dinner and didn't hear a single throat-tickling cough all night. Thank God.