I’m pulling this recipe for brown rice pudding out of the archives, dusting it off, and proclaiming it baby food. But also: Mama food, too. Belly-pleasing, soul-soothing, and perfect when Mama and baby both have a cold but one of us still has to take care of the other one. Yikes, friends, it’s been a long week. You know it’s bad when you don’t mind when baby wakes up in the middle of the night because at least you get to sit in her room with the humidifier. I’m telling you–a humidifier is amazing. I’m not sure the science behind it, but anytime Camille has a runny nose, I crank that thing all the way up during her nap and she’s almost instantly better.
Whole grain baby food.
But let’s talk whole grains. When Camille was an itty bitty baby (ok, 7-8 months old), she would eat all kinds of grains because I pureed them. Oats were easy, amaranth was common, barley, millet, quinoa–it all went in her belly. It made me so happy. Whole grains are some of the healthiest foods for you–rich in B vitamins and great for your blood sugar. Fast forward to today, and I now have an awesome eater (seriously, she ate sauerkraut the other day and begged for more)…but she is VERY into feeding herself. I can hardly offer her a bite of anything. We’re definitely in the ‘do it myself’ phase. This is troublesome for whole grains. She can’t quite wield a spoon, and so picking up tiny grains of quinoa or brown rice is near impossible. How are we supposed to get the good stuff in their bellies, Mamas? Now that she’s over the age of 1 and can handle a small amount of texture, porridge came to mind. Slow cooked whole grain porridge, especially this delicious brown rice pudding.
Brown rice pudding is a healthy take on rice pudding.
I had a pot of leftover brown rice from the night before, and I remembered this recipe from my archives. It is perfectly suitable for baby because it has no added sugar–just a mashed banana. You can top it with honey or maple syrup, if you like. I am unbelievably thrilled that Camille can eat honey now–isn’t that silly? If your baby isn’t quite ready for the texture of this brown rice pudding, make it with powdered oatmeal or powdered rice cereal. If your babe is younger than 1, don’t use honey. Never give honey to infants, ok? When Camille was under 1, she ate this brown rice pudding sweetened with nothing but mashed banana. The maple syrup or honey on top is really just for me.
This brown rice pudding is easy to throw together with leftover rice. I always cook double the amount of brown rice I need when I’m making stir-fry for dinner during the week. A little milk (or whatever nut you squeeze hard enough to get a milk-like substance out of), a drizzle of honey, and your favorite fruit and nuts to top. A handful of this, a handful of that. It’s warm, filling, and a totally guilt-free dessert for breakfast. We’re working on our iron levels, since we’re not big meat-eaters in our house. Dried figs and pumpkin seeds are great vegetarian sources of iron for mom and baby! Mix up the fruit and nuts for your topping, but don’t leave out the mashed banana for sweetness and texture—it makes the rice pudding creamy without cream.
Rice baby food recipes
If you’re looking for more baby food recipes, I have an entire section of the site devoted to them: Baby Food Recipes. I also have a great ebook that will help you ease into feeding babes solid foods when they’re ready: Hip Hip Purée: My Recipes for Feeding Bébé. I’m a big proponent of whole grains for babies. I used the fortified cereal powders a lot when Camille was little. I prefer to buy the organic boxed version of powdered baby cereal because they’re fortified with vitamins and minerals. I’ve seen some recipes on the internet for grinding your own grains for baby cereal, and I really they’re missing nutritional components. The baby cereals we loved were made by Earth’s Best. Fortified food products are an important part of our lives. Grocery store items like parboiled rice, fortified milk, juice, and cereals make it easy to make sure we hit our recommended daily requirements for nutrition.
