Author Topic: making cereal  (Read 1730 times)

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Offline hotmama

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making cereal
« on: November 15, 2005, 23:14:36 pm »
I've made most of the food my daughter eats myself. I enjoy making the food...plus its cost effective! (4 cents an ounce or so versus 25 cents an ounce to buy it...) anyway...wondering about making cereal...I know you have to grind the grain of choice to consistancy then cook it but after that can you bake it and store it as a powder cause I am seriously running out of room in my freezer!

Thanks
Tanya :D


Offline cwolff

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making cereal
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2005, 02:58:06 am »
Hey Tanya,

Here's a thought.  If you are going to feed Caroline cereal daily, than what you can do is make up a batch that lasts in the fridge for 2-3 days.  Then you can grind up the grain you need only for that batch and you don't have to worry about storing it.  Then you just need to find a place to store the whole grains, like an airtight glass jar.  You can also grind the grains up in advance and place them in a sterile mayo jar in the fridge, they will keep for up to a month.

As for making the cereal, I'll tell you how to make a small batch of rice, oatmeal or barley cereal.  You measure 1/4 cup of whole grains, and grind them up.  Spinkle the powder into 1 cup of boiling water, turn heat to lowest setting, cover and cook for 10 minutes.  Use a whisk and stir frequently, like every minute or two.  Then remove from heat, put the cereal in the fridge if no one's going to eat it.  You can use individual containers if you know how much she eats at each sitting.  Then you can just take it out, no measuring and heat it up.  For millet cereal, you will use 3 TBS instead of 1/4 cup.  And that's it.  I made brown rice cereal and oatmeal for Rachel.  She much prefers the oatmeal.

You don't need to bake the grains in order to store them as a powder, you just have to make sure that they are in a sterile jar in the fridge.  Also, when grinding the grains, grind for no less than 2 full minutes for beginning eaters.

Let me know how it turns out.
Chloe

Offline Gracie'sMama

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making cereal
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2005, 21:21:49 pm »
Hi Chloe,

I'm trying to make cereal for my sweet one, using exactly the way you mentioned.  I have the Super Baby Food book, and so far Grace and I are having a ball with it.  When I have tried to make the cereal, though, it's been super lumpy and not-edible!  Brown rice has been my grain of choice, and I've ground it up super-fine in a coffee bean grinder, so it's like flour.  Then when I put it in the boiling water -- whammy!  There's lumps everywhere and whisk as I might, they just won't go away.  Have you had that problem?  What do you do??

thanks much!

Offline cwolff

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making cereal
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2005, 23:32:54 pm »
Well, I sprinkle it a little at a time into the water, and I whisk a lot too.  It seems to take most of the lumps out.  Plus, if they are soft enough Rachel can eat them and doesn't mind the texture.  The only problem I've had so far is that it doesn't keep so well in the fridge.  It gets to looking like jello.  It never looks as appetizing as it does freshly made.  Also, I've tried oatmeal, and it makes a better cereal.  If your lumps are tiny and your LO doesn't mind them, I wouldn't worry about it.  They aren't going to choke on tiny lumps, but some babies prefer the really smooth texture.  I have also tried the commerical boxed baby oatmeal, and it gets lumpy too.  And Rachel doesn't seem to mind it either.  I'm trying millet next, so we'll see how that goes.  Have you made other foods yet?