Hello little foodies!
Today I made Jackson some rice balls using a new food he hasn’t tried yet – turkey!
The recipe is from mjandhungryman who I have been following lately on Instagram (@kidfriendly.meals). She has so many amazing recipes that I have saved and can’t wait to try.
This was my first recipe from her site, and it was very easy to follow. I did make some adjustments though because the recipe makes quite a lot and I didn’t want to make too many in case, so I estimated one third of the ingredients and ended up with seven rice balls.
You will need (for 7 serves) –
150g turkey mince (lean)
1/4 cup finely minced mixed vegetable (I used broccoli and carrots)
1/4 cup cooked rice (I used white jasmine rice)
1tsp sesame oil
Pinch of garlic powder
Method –
1. preheat oven to 170 degrees
2. Fry up vegetables in cooking oil until soft, roughly 5 minutes
3. Add vegetables, rice, sesame oil and garlic powder to a bowl and mix before adding turkey
4. Add turkey and mix with hands gently and don’t overwork the meat.
5. Using wet hands, roll into small-sized balls (I used an icecream scoop)
6. Place on a tray. Place an oven proof bowl filled with water alongside the rice balls.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, flipping over halfway
8. Once cooled, serve as is or with a dip.
I served it with a white bean dip (really it’s just a white bean purée I had made days before).
This is a pretty mess free meal, until I added the dip. You can go without, but since Jackson isn’t familiar with that texture, I was worried it might be too dry on its own and cause him to gag.
He did gag on the rice ball regardless, but recovered nicely and I was so anxious the entire time, but refrained from interfering and kept a happy face on.
Jackson also had grapes in their natural form for the first time as well. I have offered it to him in the past, but they were so slippery he gave up on them pretty quick. I have previously been giving them to him in a baby feeder and he loves them.
I’m so glad he finally managed to pick up the grapes (quartered lengthways) and feed himself. He did however swallow a big piece after chewing and sucking the juices. I was a bit worried, but I got reassurances from a friend whose baby does that and says he’ll be fine. She usually finds them in her baby’s poop the next day.
This was probably the first meal that jackson gave attention to all the food I offered him. Usually he will be fixated on one or two items, but this time he gave everything a try.
It definitely makes you feel great and worth all the time and food waste that goes into letting baby self feed. I feel like we are finally seeing progress and Jackson is getting the hang of meal times.
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