5 nutritious, yummy, easy peasy baby food recipes for your 12-Month old

I won’t be the world’s first-ever mother to probably state that feeding a 12-month old baby is positively maddening! There are so many hurdles such as teething, choking hazards, incapacity to communicate properly with your baby, picky eating, and so on.

When my oldest kid turned one, my husband said that we were probably not eating healthy enough! Since transitioning into a toddler can be a difficult phase, I wanted to cook nothing but the best meals for her. Whether or not your one-year-old is a fan of your cooking, we (Community of the Anxious Mothers) certainly need some awesome, quick meal ideas that we can put together in a pinch! So, I have compiled a list of some of the yummiest, easiest meals that my daughter loved when she turned one and that can be made effortlessly:

Ragi Porridge

Health Benefits – Fibre content is high which helps in muscle building and increases toddler’s bone density!

Ingredients – Ragi seeds, milk, jaggery, salt, curd, and water

How to make:

1. Grind sun-dried ragi with water to make a paste.
2. Pour enough water in a bowl and boil this paste very properly.
3. After a few minutes, the paste will become thick.
4. To sweeten the deal, add some milk and jaggery.
5. As an alternative, you may also add a pinch of salt and curd once the solution cools down.

Banana Rice

Health Benefits – Both banana and rice are easy to digest!

Ingredients – 1 cup rice, 2 cups of coconut milk, 1 tbsp of jaggery, 1 medium-sized or 2 small bananas, 2 tbsp of thickened coconut milk

How to make:

1. Soak the rice in the diluted coconut milk overnight.
2. If you are not able to soak it overnight, heat the coconut milk until it is lukewarm and soak rice for at least 2 hours.
3. Once this is done, pressure cook the rice with additional water.
4. Heat the thickened coconut milk, pour some jaggery into it.
5. Add the rice once the jaggery is properly mixed in with the coconut milk.
6. Before serving, squish some bananas on a plate and pour the rice mixture onto it.

Carrot, Onion & Tomato Soup

Health Benefits – Filled with vitamins, this dish is as tasty as it is healthy!

Ingredients – 2 carrots, 1 tomato, 1 tbsp finely chopped onion, 1 small clove of garlic (finely chopped), ¼ tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp butter, a dash of black pepper powder, salt to taste, and water

How to make:

1. Wash the vegetables in running water and pat dry them, then dice them up.
2. In a pressure cooker, heat some butter and add the cumin seeds.
3. When the seeds start spluttering, put in the chopped onions and garlic.
4. Wait till they turn translucent, then add the tomato and carrots.
5. Add enough water.
6. Add the pepper and salt to taste.
7. Let the mixture come to a boil.
8. Cover the pressure cooker with a lid and cook it up to 3 whistles.
9. Remove the lid and let the mixture cool down.
10. Grind and strain it.
11. If you do not want to strain the mixture, make sure to blanch the tomatoes and remove the skin.
12. Heat up the strained mixture and serve it warm.

Dal

Health Benefits – Makes for an excellent blend of proteins and carbs!

Ingredients – Toor dal (pigeon peas), moong dal (green gram dal), cumin seeds, ghee, turmeric, and water

How to make:

1. Clean the pulses very properly (preferably 3 times).
2. Put them in a pressure cooker along with a pinch of salt and turmeric.
3. Pressure cook up to 3-4 whistles.
4. Add ghee in a pan and temper the cumin seeds.
5. Add it to the pressure cooked dal.
6. Check the salt and add more if required.

Scrambled Eggs

Health Benefits – It is an excellent choice when you want to introduce complex food to your baby’s diet!

Ingredients – 1 egg, a pinch of black pepper powder, 3 tbsp of boiled milk, ½ tsp butter, and salt to taste.

How to make:

1. Beat the eggs very nicely with warm milk to make them puffy.
2. Melt the butter in a pan and add the beaten eggs.
3. Stir constantly until scrambled.
4. Do not overcook the eggs.
5. Add some salt.
6. Mix it in before serving.

Feeding protips to avoid an angry baby:

1. Do not force-feed your child.
2. Make sure the food is adequately cooked since one-year-olds are extremely prone to choking.
3. Cool the food down before feeding your baby.
4. Avoid using excessive salt, spices, or sugar. Your toddler’s constitution is very different than yours!
5. Supervise meal times to avoid any mishaps.

I am a mother of 2 on a mission to feed my family nothing but the best home-cooked food. I believe you can manage to indulge in healthy cooking while still being able to spare time for your loved ones.

Let me know if you guys have any other quick-fix recipes for toddlers!