Triplets Self Feeding

Triplets are 20mth old now.. (corrected age 18mths)

Recently had been very busy with them and also making some photobook.. Didn't really get the time to update the blog. However, yesterday manage to record a video of them self feeding (thick porridge), so... enjoys the video clip.

Video was taken at the beginning of meal time, by the end of the meal... the table, floor, face, hair.. everywhere are in mess... (should have taken a photo of it)

Meals time is always not easy.  Have to prepare some nutritious meal and yet something that suits all of them. Although 3 of them are identical, but they do have their own personality and liking.  
Self Feeding is another stage of learning which involves a lot of patience, time and mess.  However, it is still good to start them early, especially if you are having multiples.

Pasta: Cheesy Macaroni (Elbow Pasta)

 

Suitable for 1yr old toddler

(My triplets love it very much!!!) 

Ingredients: Macaroni (Elbow Pasta), Carrots, Apples, Cheese

Method:

1. Boil the pasta for 15mins (to get it really soft)

2. Boil carrots & apples, in the photo below, I boiled the carrots and then add on frozen apple puree

3. Blend the boiled carrots & apples into puree

4. Rinse the cooked pasta will cool boiled water

5. If your toddler is able to chew the pasta, then skip this step.  I find the pasta quite difficult to chew apart with the gums, so, to make my life (feeding time) slightly easier (the triplets tend to choke quite often), I'd decided to blend the pasta as well.

Do add in some water while blending it.

6. Finally add on a slice of cheese (while the puree are still hot)

7. 'Ta-Da'.. The final result after mixing all up

Could frozen up the pasta & carrot puree sauce.  Add in cheese when heating up.

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Good Morning

Good Morning Everyone!

We are having garden (car porch looking at garden to be exact) breakfast again today.

We are having rusk and rice cereal with milk.

Solid Food - Bananas

Cubbies are trying new food again...

Today is Bananas!

Early in the morning, after changing cubbies into their playsuits & send them downstairs, I start to prepare their breakfast.

Breakfast:
Rice Cereal with Banana Puree

6 tablespoon of rice cereal mix with milk

2 ripe bananas - blended (suppose to mash it, but it is too time consuming)

Mix the banana puree with the rice cereal

Final result - Banana Rice Cereal

Cubbies love it.  Bananas gave the sweet & fragrant flavouring to the plain rice cereal.
The cons - have to serve fast, cos the bananas will turn brown in very short time.

After breakfast, wanted to try if cubbies ready for some munching action.
Tried letting cubbies biting the whole banana (of course, with me holding on to it)
To my surprised, cubbies know how to bite the banana from my hand & start to munch it.
They love it, especially cubby HungHung, he kept asking for more.

Hence, I'd decided to give lumpier food for cubbies during lunch time.

Lunch:
6 Tbsp Smashed Potatoes &
Munchy Bananas

This time, instead of blending or mashing the bananas, I use cutting method.
I cut the bananas into very small cubes - the size that brings no choking hazard.

small tiny cubes of bananas

Cubbies took some time to get used to the lumpy texture.
Will try it again tmr.

Homemade Cereal for Triplets - Barley

Trying out new grains for triplet's porridge - BARLEY

This requires slightly more tedious steps in preparation.

Barley

After grinding it with blender - several time of grind & sieve

Results of quite fine barley powder

Cooking the fine barley powder gives very smooth creamy texture. Sometimes I do add in a bit of the less fine barley pieces to create slightly lumpier texture.

Optionally, I tried cooking the barley from the whole barley and then blend it. It looks like Barley Purée! Texture: very smooth & starchy (add in more water to reduce the starchiness)

Cubbies prefer this texture

1st Attempt making puree for cubbies

Cubbies has started on solid on their 7mth birthday.

They had been on rice cereal for a week. Time to introduce new taste/food.
Many websites recommend serving pears or sweet potatoes puree as baby first solid (after rice cereal) because these foods have natural sweetness which is easily acceptable by babies.

However, cubbydaddy is not around these few days to help in buying the ingredients. So, I just have to start them off with whatever ingredients that I can find in the fridge.
The 2 types of fruits which I found are Apples & Mango.  Since there are also websites that had introduce Apple Puree as 1st Food, I just start my 1st puree making with apples.

Apple Puree Recipe

Apples - I used 4 apples in this recipe

Steam for 10-15mins

Peel off the skin & cut into small chunks

Put cooked apples into the blender

Blend the chunks into smooth paste, add some water for easy & smoother blending

After blending

Serve warm, add luke warm water for slightly watery texture

Cool the remainder in ice cube tray,
Put the tray into a ziplock bag, frozen the puree,
Remove the frozen puree from the tray & store it in freezer (up to 2mths)

Cubbies Reaction towards Apple Puree

Hung

1st spoon: Frown

2nd spoon: Still frown

Following spoons: Frown, but still opens his mouth when spoon is near. Less anticipation as compare rice cereal

Syuen

1st spoon: Frown

2nd spoon: Less frown

Following spoons: Seems enjoying the new taste.

Juin

1st spoon: Frown, shiver

2nd spoon: Frown with mouth opening very small

Following spoon: Refuse to continue.... 

CubbyAngel's findings:

Smell: smells good during steaming & blending

Taste: sweet & slightly sour taste, may be due to the type of apple. Should try dark red apples as well

Texture: very smooth after blending, however there might be still some fibrous in the puree

Appearance: creamy colour, I was expecting it to turn brown, but it did not.