Saturday 22 September 2007

Couscous with mozzarella and tomato

This recipe is in Amanda Grant's Baby Healthy Eating Planner, linked on the left. I have actually tweaked this recipe to suit P a bit better, so hopefully it works for you as well. Grant includes this recipe in her Second Stage Weaning section of the book, encompassing the 7-9 month range. It is suggested by quite a few different sources (laregely American-based) that babies are not introduced to tomatoes until they are at least 10-12 months of age due to acidity rather than any potential for an allergic reaction. P has been eating this meal since she was about 8 or 9 months old with no ill effects. I have opinions on the paranoia of the American medical community when it comes to foods you should or should not feed your baby, but I'll get to that at another time.
Couscous with mozzarella and tomato

My apologies for the usage of the metric system. Believe me, it would make my life so much easier if they used measuring cups. I am no cook and yet I have a scale in my kitchen. A scale, people.

50g couscous
1 ripe tomato
2 slices mozzarella
Put the couscous into a bowl and add 50ml of boiling water. Cover and leave for at least 10 minutes. Fluff the couscous with a fork. Peel and de-seed the tomato.

Add the flesh (ew) to a pan with a little olive oil or low/no salt butter and cook over a medium heat until softened. Tear mozzarella into small pieces and stir into tomato mixture. I added a few pieces of mushroom to it this time, hence the little brown dots in the mix this time.

Once the mozzarella has melted sufficiently, pour the mixture onto the couscous and stir.

Depending on the baby's ability to chew, you may need to blend or mash the couscous. When I first started feeding this to P, I would blend the tomato/mozzarella mixture and add it to the couscous. Now I just give the tomatoes a quick mashing with a fork when still in the pan, which just serves to break up the tomato chunks a bit. Please note - mozzarella is a very stringy cheese, so blending the tomato and cheese might be recommended for most younger babies as it prevents stringiness but still maintains the flavour.

I love this recipe because it's not one you have to abandon once your child moves onto the next stage of foods. The texture is unique for a younger baby and makes a change from other textures they may have experienced, plus it's quite an "adult" food for older babies when there is no longer a need to mash or blend things.


YUM!



5 comments:

Eva said...

You two are making me hungry! And see, you can do photos, too.

PiquantMolly said...

Seriously, I would eat that. Mozzarella? Yes, please.

rockmama said...

That looks awesome! Glad to have these recipes; just trying now to wean the Prawn. There was a regrettable spaghetti incident (I'm sorry, obviously not terribly knowledgable health visitor, there is not such a good way to "mash" spaghetti so that a 6 month old with eat it without throwing up) but since then, I've been trying to find stuff she'll actually eat.

Amanda said...

Lucky babies. I had high aspirations of doing this sort of thing, but I cannot seem to choreograph free time and non-rancid produce. Sigh.

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