Healthy Homemade Cerelac Recipe

How True it is When We Say, the Best Food is Homemade, for it’s Made with Love

We live in an age where the packaged foods we consume have a lot of additives and preservatives in them. We as parents always wish to give the best to our kids, then why compromise on food? WHO recommends exclusively breastfeed your baby till 6 months.

After 6 months the best foods to offer to your baby are dal, vegetable puree, and cerelac/multigrain health mix. Many health mix powders in different mouth-watering flavors are available in the market. They are easy to prepare and tastes delicious.

But some are full of sugar and compromising on your infants’ health will not be the choice of any parent. A mouthwatering multigrain health mix recipe can be prepared at your home. It will be loved by your baby. So come on let’s prepare this healthy recipe together for your infants to relish.

What is Homemade Cerelac/Multigrain Health Mix Powder?

It is a mixture of cereals, pulses and dry fruits powdered together and mixed with water or milk to make a healthy porridge for your baby. If you make it at home you can customize it according to your baby’s necessity and palate.

Why Cerelac for 6+ Months Baby?

Your little angel was getting all the nutrients from your breast milk all these months. It’s not an easy task for mothers to prepare a meal that has equal nutritional value. Their rapidly developing body needs nutrients for better growth. A multigrain health mix can do justice to this as it has a mixture of protein, calcium, and vitamins. Multigrain health mix,

• Helps in child’s weight gain

• Helps in growth with the protein composition.

• Good for baby bones and teeth with the calcium composition.

• Builds up the immunity with vitamin composition.

Ready to Make Cerelac at Home?

The recipe for cerelac is pretty simple and also you can always add your preferred ingredients or remove ones that don’t suit you. They are free of the sugar overload unlike the store-bought. It’s a pocket friendly and most importantly healthy recipe. It’s the best food while introducing solids for your baby. So here is the much-awaited recipe,

Ingredients

• Brown rice – 1 cup

• Ragj/Finger millet – 1 cup

• Black urad dal/ whole unskinned black gram– ½ cup

• Toor dal/yellow split pigeon peas – ½ cup

• Moong dal/yellow lentils – ½ cup

• Almonds –10

• Wheat -1/2 cup

Recipe

• Inspect all the ingredients for stones and remove them.

• Soak Ragi overnight and let it sprout a little.

• Wash all the ingredients thoroughly with running water

• Let it sundry for a while

• Dry roast the ingredients separately one by one in medium flame.

• Keep stirring and be cautious to not burn them. Roast till they turn color mildly. They give away a very

  nice aroma after they are roasted.

• Let the mixture cool by spreading it in a steel plate or dry clean cloth

• Once they are at room temperature, add all ingredients in a mixer jar and powder them.

Tada your homemade multigrain health mix powder is ready.

The ingredients are chosen to suit the delicate gut of the infants. When you are preparing for adults or for kids above 2+ years you can add more pulses. You can add red rice, fried gram dal, sorghum/Cholam, horse gram/Kollu, barley, pearl millet/Kambu, sago, foxtail millet/Thinai, chickpeas /black channa and green lentils/whole moong dal each quarter cup, 50g of cashew nuts and 1 tablespoon of cardamom powder.

While making the toddler multigrain recipe also follow the same recipe of dry roasting them separately and powdering them together once they cool. The aroma will be mesmerizing, relish it with your kids. While roasting Sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet take extra care because they may pop when heated.

Multigrain Health Mix Porridge Recipe

• Add 1tbs of the mixture in one cup of water and mix it thoroughly without lumps

• Boil it on the gas stove and keep stirring for about 5 to 10 mins

• Add some milk/water depending upon your child’s preference and make the porridge runny or thick.

• You can add some Jaggery/dates syrup based on your child’s age and preference.

• Once the mixture is cooked fully add few drops of ghee. It will taste and smell better.

Yummy hot porridge is ready to be served.

Precautions to Be Taken

• Check for your baby’s allergies especially to nuts and avoid them if so

• Roast the cereals and pulses thoroughly

• Do not add milk for children below 1 year, instead, you can add breast milk or formula milk once it cools down.

• Avoid jaggery powder/dates syrup for children below one year

• Avoid honey for children below one year

• Test your child for any kind of lactose intolerance before adding milk

If your child is 12+ months you can add some natural sweetener. Here is a recipe for dates syrup which is a healthy alternative for sugar

• Soak about 5 dates in hot water for an hour

• Remove the seeds

• Grind it into a fine paste.

Your healthy dates syrup is ready which can be used as a natural sweetener in the cerelac. Trust me it enhances the taste of the porridge and it’s rich in iron which is an added advantage.

Tips to Store the Cerelac

• Store them in a dry airtight container preferably glass or steel for better shelf life. It is good to have them within 2-3 months of making. You can sun dry them every month to extend their shelf life.

• Avoid using wet spoons or hand in the mixture

• Do not store the prepared porridge for more than 2 hours

Homemade cerelac will definitely be a great meal for your baby. Protect your baby from preservatives and additives. We as parents will be truly satisfied if our baby has a homemade healthy meal. A happy tummy is equal to a happy baby is equal to a happy Mumma.

So what are you waiting for?

Prepare this yummy dish and enjoy it with your happy baby.

Happy parenting!!!