Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Improvising for Harry


When I am cooking dinner for my husband and I like to think of ways I can make a version of what we are having for Harry. Last week I made us a basmati rice, eggplant and lamb mince dish which had Moroccan flavours. It was obviously too spicy for Harry and also I don’t salt his food, and I found this dish needed a reasonable amount of salt to bring out the flavour. So after browning the mince with a little garlic, I put some in a different pot for Harry and added some rice and frozen peas. I cooked this mixture until the rice was cooked through.

Now by itself, this was pretty bland as you can imagine. I thought of adding tomatoes, but Harry has quite sensitive cheeks and I don’t want to give him anything too acidic until he is a little older. So, instead, I grated some cheese and stirred this through the mince mixture. I also added a cube of mashed pumpkin from the freezer. This mince and rice dish actually turned into a very tasty little dish. Harry loved it – it was a bit like risotto. And no, I didn’t let him eat it with his hands as the photo suggests –once again, trying to capture a little of Harry, he was too quick for me and had his hand in the bowl before I knew where I was. But I always have a wet cloth at the ready for times like those. My mum always says when we were kids she walked round with a hairbrush in one hand and a face cloth in the other – I think I will be the same!

5 comments:

Zeetra said...

Kids love thr texture of food on their hands, its all squishy and they of course can eat it.

I used to grate,apple, carrot and cheese and put it on the highchair tray for my kids to eat, they loved it. Plunket recomended it to me. Of course you can grate what ever you like,but they dont choke and they love the texture of it.

Sally E. said...

Sounds yummy. Jas would have loved that too. I just wanted to say to encourage the self-feeding. I know its messy but when you start feeding finger foods if he is happy to eat it by himself then it means you can go do something else. Jas only eats with his spoon, fork or fingers now and refuses to be fed. It makes my life so much easier.

Anonymous said...

Our 18mo grandson stayed with us the other night and my husband was given the job of supervising while Josh hoovered up his dinner.He had enormous fun squeezing the food through his fingers while Poppa looked on,amused.I came back,saw the mess and said "bath".He allowed me to undress him without fuss,and got into the bath,then eyeballed me,and without breaking eye contact brought his hands palm down onto the water and drenched me...a long way of agreeing with Zeetra that they certainly do love the tactile feel of food on their hands and woe betide the Nana who comes between a boy and his Poppa having fun with food.

Harry's dinner sounded delicious.

Cakelaw said...

LOl - cute photo! I can just imagine where that rice would be if you didn't catch him with the cloth. I think I want to eat Harry's dinner!

Hindy said...

Adorable photo! It's so nice that you took time to make a child-friendly version of this recipe.