I live by the golden rule that 'An egg a day keeps every illness away'. And someplace, I did read an ad released by the National Egg Co-ordination Committee which said, 'Tasty treasure of mighty minerals'. Rudra ate his first egg when he was about seven months old. Some of my mommy friends felt its too young an age to eat egg. But it's done now and the boy is three plus years of age and three and a half feet tall. Am only happy about my son's progress upwards and across, but is it because of all the eggs? Can't assure an answer there. Well, I did not boil the egg. I poached only the albumen (egg white) in water. The result was extremely soft, firm and jelly like egg that was easy to eat for the baby. Recipe: Ingredients: - One Egg of course, only the white and no yellows for babies below one year of age - Water - 2 cups - A hint of pepper and a touch of salt Method: Boil the water in a deep dish till it is bubbling over furiously. Make

Late in summer, when the first sprinkles of monsoon sign in...when monsoon is just about the corner...thats when I see these glorious orange-yellow mangoes. They have a mature, robust, full bodied flavour that lingers. These are my favourite. My son lapped up mango mash as an infant, but after a season away from the divine fruit, it took some time to get him to fall in mango love again. Here's my recipe for a Mango finale with some Cashew fanfare: Ingredients: Fully ripe mango - 1 cut into bite sized pieces Cashew - half cup soaked for about three hours Sugar - To taste Milkmaid - Two tablespoons (optional) Process: Grind the soaked Cashew first in a mixie, then add the sugar. Add mango pieces and the milkmaid to the jar and blend till silky smooth. Adjust the quantity of sugar according to taste. Those who are concerned over the sugar intake can skip adding any. What comes out is flowing mango garbed in heavenly yellow. The cashew flavour is just a hint and the milkmaid gives a fr

An Apple a day keeps the doctor away. No arguments there. Which is why I fed my son Rudra a mashed apple everyday for his first eighteen months. Thanks to Ms Gamedar, my son was fortunate to have a balanced diet comprising of Uggu, properly cooked fruit and other yummy food that was very very good. Here is the recipe for ' Apple mash ': Ingredients: . 1 Apple peeled, cored and cut into tiny pieces . One teaspoon sugar . One or two tablespoons of milk Process: Take the apple pieces in a dish that has a tight fitting cover. I used a steel tiffin box. Put this box in a pressure cooker and add water to the cooker. About an inch's depth should be fine. Do not add water inside the dish with apples. The moisture in apples is enough to cook them. Pressure cook for about five whistles. Remove the apple pieces, allow them to cool a little and then blend them with the milk and sugar in a mixer or a blender. Remove the mash to a bowl, drizzle a lil honey on top and feed baby while the

Its all things tomato for my family. And my son Rudra is no better. Tomato rasam is his all time favourite. There are a number of variations to tomato rasam recipes and this is the one specific to my family, the one I learnt from Rangamma, my peddamma. Dressed in vivid Gadwal sarees, huge moon sized bottu and traditional telangana jewelry, she has to only touch a dish to make it taste like heaven. Here goes: Ingredients: 2 Large ripe tomatoes - this makes enough rasam for two people. Masala: Peppercorns - 1/2 teaspoon Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon Coriander seeds - 1/2 teaspoon Garlic pods - 4 to 5 Tadka: Cumin seeds - 3 pinches Red chillies - 2 long ones Black gram - 3 pinches Mustard seeds - 3 pinches Preparation: Boil tomatoes with the skins on in three cups of water. Once the pulp starts to seep out of the skins, the tomatoes can be considered done. Wait till the tomatoes cool down and then squeeze them to extract the juice. Separate skins and other undissolved fibrous content from

My son is a fussy eater. Consequently, I have had to hone my cooking skills almost to the point of perfection. Cooking is not a difficult job. At the same time, its not as easy as it seems. The outcomes can be seen sitting pretty on the dining table but the invisible chores are indeed back breaking. A lot of new mommies, who are bodily-iron-compromised do lament over the lack of cooking help. Simple and quick recipes prove to be a boon here. Again, offering variety is a tricky game. Many babies do not like to eat the same food over and over again. Nutritionists too suggest varying diet content with each day or every two to three days. Thankfully, the matrons in my family tree contributed extensively to my repository of baby recipes. Not to mention recipes picked up from neighborhood ladies, off conversations in buses and public transport, from friends, from nice gentlemen, doctors, nutritionists...... I have to mention that every recipe here is whetted by a professional nutriti

I am a mother of a two year old. In the last couple of years, I have had times ranging from awesome to awful bringing up baby. There were occasions where I had plenty of advice to rely on and there were times when I had to simply rely on intuition. This blog is a compilation, a diary of sorts, of how I brought up my baby the telugu way. From food to fashion, from entertainment to education, all my experiences are here. The inspiration comes from my circle of girlfriends who are mothering babies just like me. We have reached out to each other for support and advice and I hope this blog will reflect the shared knowledge. Hoping to be useful to all u girls....