Let me preface this: I HAVE made baby rice cereal by powderizing (I think this is a made-up word, but I'm going with it!) organic brown rice grains in a coffee grinder. However, it does not whip up in a few short seconds...it takes quite a while, actually, because it has to cook all the way through.
With baby #3, however, I had a random (and rare) "ah-ha!" moment. I had purchased some Brown Minute Rice because I thought "how nice to make rice so quickly if I forget to make a carbohydrate for the meal one day" (yeah right...like that could happen with this carb lover *points to self*) and as I was looking in my pantry I suddenly thought..."why not just powderize the minute brown rice?"
What you need (or a variation of seen objects *UPDATE* I actually use my blender first and then finish the grains off in the coffee grinder until it reaches a powdered stage...I burned out my coffee grinder only using it, plus it takes less time and it's really not too bad to clean up):
I set my coffee grinder at "Fine" and I keep holding it "on" until it reaches a fine powdered end.
I tried to show how powdered I meant...think flour consistency...mine is not that fine, but the finer you make it, the better...but it will still work if it isn't that fine, so don't worry.
I tried making the rice cereal three different ways to see what would work out the best.
1) Add cold water to the rice.......that was a major fail. It doesn't get a chance to cook that way...obviously, so it is crunchy and grainy...blech!
2) Added hot (boiling) water to rice (plus an ice cube to cool it down after letting it sit a bit). This worked great, however, it still had probably too much texture for a baby who is just starting out on solids.
3) Put water on stove to boil, added rice, mixed, brought to a boil again, and voila! Perfect consistency for a beginner baby. I added an ice cube to this after I was finished as well. All-in-all this only took like 2 minutes...
Now, I don't really measure things out. I put like a 1/4 cup of water in the pot...so it literally takes a minute to boil...then I just keep adding rice until it thickens up. I'm not too worried about how thick it will get since I add the ice cubes.
It was a huge hit! Plus, it didn't take me 20 minutes to make like the rice cereal I used to make. Now what I want to try to do is parboil my OWN rice...then I can do organic brown Basmati rice (which just happens to be my favorite and can be found in bulk at Whole Foods...whoop!)
Parboiling is very easy, actually, and it will save me money to parboil it at home instead. I am planning on just getting a canister to store the rice in once it is finished drying after I parboil it. Well, if you DO make your own baby food, or have always wanted to give it a try, then I hope this helps you.
Also, sorry that it has been SO long. I actually had planned on writing this a few days ago and I didn't...but, better late then never. I have a couple of recipes I want to put on here that were HUGE HUGE hits with my family (finally......) but I didn't take pictures. I got way too caught up in the cooking process to remember to take pictures! But I will make them again and post pictures then...meanwhile, I hope you all are having a wonderful day!
< Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:24 >
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