Are you my Mommy?

Are you my Mommy?
Are you my Mommy?

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Coffee for Babies...or just the grinder

As I was grinding coffee beans today--a much needed first second third task of the morning...Mr. B and well visiting a certain room always come first...  Back on track, I promise ;) As I was grinding those fragrant beans (I do love all kinds of bean...I am sure that I mentioned that), I remembered the trick that I figured out that saved my baby food making, yet somehow was nowhere to be found in my research.  Here's the thing:  my first inspiration to become a blogger was the frustration (mother of all invention, right?) I developed when encountering a lack of knowledge about how to make homemade baby food.  I dislike processed food, meat, additives..... so it just was obvious that I should make my baby food, but how?  So, of course I turned to the internet.  But, with being a busy mom of a 2 month old, this was easier said than done.  I had plenty of time since I planned to wait until he was 6 months old to make sure that breast milk continued to be his primary nutrient, but I knew that at 3 months old, I was back to work full-time. I found information on nutrients, when to start each food (even unusual ones like kiwi or kamut), recipes, and how to introduce.  I was so excited, until I tried making the cereals, which is the traditional first foods to offer.  I ground them in my mini food processor per the recommendation.  Then, I cooked and cooked and cooked them down, adding more water as I went, but still there were small bits of grain.  So, like a broken record I put the cooked grains back in the mini chopper (I am smart like that) with very little progress.  As luck would have it, my kiddo was particular about texture (which continued past one year of age...oh no do not give me smooth yogurt with chunks of soft fruit. I will eat them separately.).  This only marginally worked for the typical first grains of oatmeal and rice. The problem began wtih barley and continued well into kamut, until one day I was grinding spices for chili, and I had a relevation (my made up word for a small revelation).  I began grinding all his grains in the coffee grinder and life as we knew it changed and my kiddo began happily eating rice, barley, oatmeal, kamut, quiona, millet, buckwheat, flax seed, winter wheat berries....Life was easier and I knew in that moment that my previous frustration and my new found inspiration from the coffee grinder would probably lead me to become a blogger.  It only took 7 more months to get the courage and time to put my fingers in action.

The Compromise: Not being able to find all the information and ideas I needed to put my aspiration of homemade baby food into action in an easy fashion and thus resorting to trial and error, lots of error.

The Sweet Reward:  I am a blogger now...and well you know the rest of the story.

Yours trully, coffee inspired on a daily basis,
Tracy

2 comments:

  1. I've never been a coffee drinker, but the trouble I'm having keeping my eyes open after 4 months of less-than-stellar sleep makes me wonder . . . .

    Despite the lack of coffee in our house, we do have a grinder that we use for spices. Recently I've used it to turn coarsely ground grits into corn meal when I ran out of the latter, so I can see where it would help with getting a nice, fine grind for baby food.

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  2. I am now contemplating its use for rye, as I need a coarse grind to start my experimentation of rye sourdough bread since I have German friends who miss traditional bread from home. I checked WF today and they had only one grind style of rye flour, which will at least work for my current experiment of Swedish Limpa bread.

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