We continue with our Special on Infant Feeding in Babies and more. Last week we offered you recipes designed for children under one year, now we will dedicate ourselves to children between one and two years old.
At the age of one The child must be ready for us to stop using the porridge and purees, something that we will have already introduced in his menu as he can chew very soft things before. We can continue to use, of course, vegetable purees, as a first course, just like the older ones, but alternating with cooked or steamed vegetables. The soup is still very advisable, and we can enrich it with cooked egg for example.
In addition, it is also the time to start, little by little, one food at a time, to give it other things that before would be an additional risk for allergy or intolerance, or that, simply, your body is not prepared to assimilate: milk of cow, fish (which can take it a couple of months before according to some recommendations) and eggs. We will not use soy, nuts, or seafood yet.
One of the objectives of these recipes for children between one and two years old It is, in addition to proposing cheap and tasty ideas to cook your children, with nutrients appropriate to their age and a simple preparation, is that you only cook once, in the conviction that time is always short when we have children and that they and We eat the same thing will make us not have to resort to industrial preparations rather than in a few exceptions. The amounts are approximate, but they are intended for two adults and two small children. Come on, now, with our recipes.
Rice with monkfish
Rice contains carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Its protein content is low and its caloric power, having hardly any fat, is low. It does not contain, as I said, hardly any fat, neither sodium nor cholesterol.
It is very digestive and also is not allergenic or contains gluten, a cereal protein that can cause allergies or intolerance, especially if it is included in the diet before it is recommended by the pediatrician. Celiacs, who can't take gluten, can take rice.
Rice is a very suitable food for the whole family's diet, so we will prepare a delicious dish for adults and children. We are going to do it with a white fish, the monkfish, but we can use another cheaper white fish, or, if the child or someone at home is allergic, do it with chicken.
Young children should not take fried foods and, if we use fat to make a sauce, include very little and not overheat.
We will use a very chopped medium onion, which we will turn around with a tablespoon of oil. We will not wait, as usual, for it to be poached, we just want it to take a little flavor, although, in the first months, we can skip this step to use only crude oil, which keeps the properties better.
Cook the fish bones ten minutes and strain them. We can add a celery branch and a leek to the cooking, to give it more flavor.
On the onion we will add the broth, the rice (two handfuls for adults and one for children), preferably short grain rice, which is sweet. We can use steamed rice, but the dish will not be so soft and creamy.
If we decide to introduce brown rice, richer in vitamins and minerals, it is convenient to assess the effect it has on the child, since it has a lot of fiber, and it is not ideal for this particular recipe.
We will cook it, without salt or with very little, for ten minutes, covered, without washing it beforehand, and with approximately one third of rice for two thirds of liquid, although we can add as we see it consumed.
The fish must be in small dice, very clean, without stir-frying previously. We will add it when the rice takes about ten minutes to the fire and we will keep it covered all the time, confirming that it is well done before serving it.
The monkfish is harder than other white fish, which is why we can even put it at the beginning so that it is very soft if the child rejects foods with thicker textures, and gradually adapting his palate. It is also a fish with a strong flavor, so we can, the first few times, make the recipe with hake or whiting, always with maximum attention to remove all the scrapes.
The rice should be creamy and with a little broth. At lunchtime, the elderly can add, if the dish seems bland, more salt, a crushed garlic stir fried with bread, or chopped raw parsley. But beware, the little one who sits at the table usually knows what others eat and will want to eat what we eat, so we take care of those ornaments so that they are not inappropriate for him, so I do not encourage you to put paprika or chopped almonds while he can ask for it. The idea, precisely, is to get used to eating with us and eating the same, even if it costs some small sacrifice to adults.
If we want to make the dish with chicken, go ahead. It is delicious too, but you have to increase the cooking times, both of the previous broth, as of the pieces of meat, which we should put at the beginning of the stew, as well as the rice. What I do not advise you is to use broth concentrate tablets, for the amount of salt they carry.
The amount of fish should be proportional to the appetite of diners, but a fish fillet is enough for children and the elderly, it will depend.
Salsa sole
Sounds good, right? Well, it is. And we can also eat them all from home. Fish allergies can make this dish with very thin turkey fillets, as thin as possible to ensure they are done and increasing cooking by five minutes. And those who cannot drink cow's milk, will do it too, as I will explain in the variant of the dish for them.
You have to buy fillets of sole or rooster or hake, or, from 18 months, with fillets of turbot, increasing only five minutes of cooking. What I do not advise is to use panga or perch (be careful if they offer it to us as if it were mere, that it is not). It also comes out delicious with salmon and even with other blue fish, but we are not going to include them because they are precisely the ones that are best advised. I will tell you other rich recipes with blue fish that are recommended for children, from 18 months onwards.
We are going to make two sauces, one for everyone and one also rich for everyone, but valid for those who can't drink cow's milk.
We will make a soft sauce. A tablespoon of oil (no more), a pureed onion or a chopped leek but only the white part. As in the previous recipe, do not heat the excess fat. Even instead of fat we can use the very concentrated broth of the fish's scrapes. Dilute in the liquid a tablespoon of flour (wheat or corn for whatever they are celiac or have one at home).
We will add, little by little, a glass of hot milk or fish broth (worth the one we have made or another that we have reserved, made properly for children). The less you have cooked the flour before, the longer it will take the bechamel, so it is a good idea to make it with cornstarch, which cooks before. The fire should be soft, so that it does not snatch in the background.
When the flour is cooked, separate the saucepan from the heat and pour the contents over the fish fillets.
The fillets, very clean, passed through a stream of cold water and having reviewed that there are no spines, are placed on a refractory source or in a casserole in which they are not stuck. We will cook them over low heat until they are ready, about five or ten minutes, adding milk or water if they remain dry. Those who cannot drink cow's milk can make the whole recipe with fish stock, and those who do not take wheat, with corn, and those who do not take fish, with turkey fillets.
We can make the same recipe by changing the cream made with milk for a tomato sauce without fat, which is made simply by crushing tomato and onion and letting them cook over very low heat (without putting salt or sugar so that they are suitable for children) and also pouring it over the fillets in the last five minutes (for the fillet of sole) or ten (for the turkey or the thickest pieces of hake).
Like the first recipe, this dish is valid for the whole family and is delicious. Older people can put salt before eating it and accompany it all with some colored potatoes or steamed vegetables (zucchini, squash, cauliflower, carrot and broccoli). Who resists eating healthy and rich with our recipes for children between one and two years old?
