Homemade Honey Blueberry Jam Another Style

I used to make blueberry sauce for waffles or pancakes but since I had a loaf of failed brioche (texture resembled more of normal bread) on my tabletop, I needed jam so I tweaked my precious recipe to present you this.

Ingredients:

1 cup of fresh organic blueberries

1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice

1/2 tbsp of lemon zest (about 1/2 a lemon)

1/2 to 1 tsp of Origins Organic Raw Honey, to taste (please omit honey if your lil' one is less than 1yo)

1/4 tsp of pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp of Bob's Red Mill All Natural Cornstarch (optional)

Directions:

1. Pour the blueberries into a pot & mash them up depending on whether you prefer your jam to be smooth or slightly chunky.

2. Add everything in, except corn starch, then mix well.

3. Bring mixture to a boil & simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring regularly. You may add corn starch for it to thicken faster or just cook till it reduces to your desired consistency.

Ta-dah! Your homemade jam is done in just 15 minutes & you know exactly what went into it \(~.<)/

Other than the jam sandwich, I also gave him some cottage cheese & organic raisins. 

As expected, he targeted the raisins, one of his fave regular healthy snacks, first. Then, he explored the sandwich & I knew without a doubt that my lil' bread lover will enjoy it. It's not difficult to see from the following collage that it is fingerlicking good too..lolz! The cheese was the last item left but it did not take him long to empty his plate when I handed him a spoon. In fact, it was the first sign that he's almost ready to spoon feed himself =)

Last but not least, I'm so loving my Munchkin's Silly Sandwich Cutters! They come in 3 different designs & yes, I've succumbed to temptation & bought all 3..hee ; ) The elephant & penguin ones will enable me to make simple food art in no time & BB can entertain himself while doing his puzzle sandwiches ~.^

Beneficial Combination:

Honey + Lemon = Detoxification & treatment of common flu

My First Attempt at Food Art with Homemade Light Whole Wheat Bread & Edamames

So sad T.T My 2nd attempt at baking a light whole wheat bread failed again. It turned out "flatter" & tasted more like kueh especially with it's texture. I won't be sharing the recipe of my bread till i get it right. Lucky for me, I've a rather supportive hubby! He ate 2 pieces for supper & commented that he still liked it.

Since it's still edible, I gave BB a bit to try to see if he would eat it. Surprisingly, he liked it too & kept going 'Mum-mum', asking for more. It was too late for me to make any jam to accompany the bread  as my boy is not exactly the patient sort to wait for it to be ready. I opened my fridge to see what I could find & saw that I still had some cream cheese left. In the end, I decided to try a cream cheese with honey spread (slightly soften 2 tbsps of cream cheese & mix well with 1/2 tsp of organic honey). 

I also used one of my new cookie cutters to cut out some small rabbits. Come to think of it, i still have an entire bag of kitchen accessories, mainly from Diaso, waiting for me to unpack. Bread, cookies,  seaweed & vegetables cutters, rice molds, food picks, food dividers, side dishes cups, silicon cups etc, loots accumulated over the months from countless visits to Diaso. It's high time I start putting them to good use.

Recalling that I've a pack of frozen edamames, an idea struck me. I could do a simple food art! I'm not exactly the artistic sort so don't expect anything too elaborate..lolz!

I call it ''Lil' rabbits hopping through the fields". How is it for a first attempt?

BB finished everything & asked for more so i added another portion of edamames. This is the third time he's having them. In fact, edamames were the first kind of table food he had outside. We were dining at a Japenese restaurant & he was kinda cranky after waking up from his nap. Remembering that edamames are pretty nutritious, I ordered a plate of unsalted ones for him. By the second time he ate them at another Japanese restaurant, he imitated us & was able to push the peas out of the pods by himself. However, he seemed to have forgotten all about it as he put the entire pod into his mouth when I handed him a pod today..hahaha! Upon eating the rest, he pointed to the bread & asked for more but I didn't accede to his request since he had just got well & shouldn't be overeating.

Edamames are here to stay for good in BB's list of healthy snacks. They are easy to prepare, simply by adding them into a bowl of boiling water for a couple of minutes, and they're ready to be served! Furthermore, it'll also help to improve his motor skills as he tries to get the peas out of their pods & subsequently picking them up as well. Lastly, it'll keep him entertained for a while as we R&R & enjoy a cuppa..hee ~_^

My 15M20DO BB Self-Feeding Sweet Potato & Organic Apple Purée with a Spoon

I prepared one of BB's favourite purees for breakfast - steamed sweet potato with apple! Sweet potatoes are packed full of nutrients but can be a tad too dry though. Apples seem to be a perfect complement to them as they introduce more moisture to the purée. This purée can also be added into oats porridge, used as a dip or even as a jam to be spread onto bread.

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato, peeled & cubed

1 organic apple, cubed

Some toasted wheat germ

Directions:

1. Steam the sweet potato cubes for 10 minutes.

2. Add the cubed apples & steam for another 5 minutes.

3. Blend (I'm using my Avent Combined Steamer & Blender), top up with wheat germ & serve warm.

After feeding BB a couple of mouthfuls, I noticed that the mixture sticks on to the spoon which made it an excellent choice for him to learn how to spoon feed himself. I hesitated no further to let him give a go at it. He did manage to scoop some to feed himself but still tends to fall back using his hands many a times. It was a wonderful sensory exploration experience for him but I couldn't say the same for myself. Yes, you probably guessed it. The cleaning up of the aftermath was certainly no joke. As the purée dried up, it actually stuck to whatever surface it was on, which happened to be almost everywhere..lolz! Straight to the showers he went, of course. Well, it could have been worse, right? At least it wasn't oily..hee ~.<

1st Homemade Bread & Blueberries with Chia Seed Jam

Bread fever is on! Finally managed to lay my hands on a Tesco breadmaker & this was made possible all thanks to a very kind mummy who got her friend to help us bring in all the way from Malaysia.

I had wanted to make a flavoured bread but Daddy-O said that I should just start with a simple white bread for my 1st try. Thus, I simply followed the white bread recipe provided in the manual. It was so effortless. Just measure & pour in the ingredients in the proper sequence & it'll do all the hard work for you. Kudos to the inventor of the bread machine!

What's the point of having home baked bread without homemade jam right? So, after the breadmaker started to do its magic, I proceeded on to do a super duper easy "no cook" organic blueberries with chia seeds jam.

Ingredients:

1 cup of organic frozen blueberries (I bought fresh ones & froze them myself)

3 tbsp of chia seeds

1 tbsp of honey (optional)

1/4 cup of water

Juice of 1/2 a small lime

1/8 tsp of cinnamon (optional)

Directions:

1. Blend (I used my Avent Combined Steamer & Blender) blueberries until you get your preferred consistency (smooth or chunky) & transfer to an airtight glass container.

2. Add chia seeds, honey, water, lime juice & cinnamon. Stir well, cover & put into the fridge till the chia seeds swell up.

After a long wait of 3h, my loaf was finally ready! Looked great from the outside but I still had to wait for it to cool down before I could slice it. Alas, the moment of truth . . . It was soft on the inside but I found the crust a bit too thick to my liking. Guess I'll have to choose the light setting instead of the medium one for my next attempt. I couldn't wait till breakfast to try them out so I had a slice for supper at 1.30am. Nice! 

Daddy-O had it for breakfast & brought 4 slices as well as half of the jam to let my in-laws try. So glad they all enjoyed the healthy breakfast. As for my lil' food critic, he had it with jam & cream cheese . . . &, he loved them both!