How does BLW work with rice and couscous?

[helips]

Have been doing blw with my 11 month old ds, all going well but feel that all I give him is pasta, potato, omelette and toast. Would love to give him rice and couscous but he refuses to be spoon fed. How can I serve this so that he can feed it to himself? He is great at eating small things such as peas and sweetcorn but can't yet master a spoon. Any recipe ideas would be a great help too!!

Thanks!

you put itr on his tray and he will love it, and the best thing is it will take him ages to pick up every grain while you do something else

messily

my ds just used his fingers. risotto is good as the rice is a bit clumpy anyway.

with a big mat on the floor!

if you melt some cheese on you can squidge into balls. they're a bit loose and messy but it does mean they can eat small grains as finger food. We do the same with morning porridge - make it quite dry so it can go into balls. DD devours them.

Right, basically prepare myself for more mess then

Will give risotto a go , anyone got any good recipes?

Ta!

Oooh thanks teapot, will give that a go, ds loves cheese!

in morocco cous cous is eaten with hands anyway. they squidge into balls in the palms of their hand. in fact they only use one hand to eat so it's quite a clever thing to master. blw babies are eating cous cous the 'right' way. it would be wrong to use cutlery

top risotto recipe - substitute the bacon and tomatoes for anythign else you fancy - leftover roast chicken with mint and peas is our favourite.

Thanks MrsBadger, that sounds delish and I have all the ingredients so will definately try that out!

You can mix a little egg in with the couscous and make mini couscous 'pancakes', ie. put small dollops on a frying pan and wait till they set. DD loves this!

gave ds coucous tonight and he loved it! mixed it with some philidelphia and rolled into small balls. There is loads left over, can I give it to him cold tomorrow for lunch or should I re-heat? I know rice is dodgy to re-heat but not sure if this applies to couscous. Like the idea of making couscous pancakes, will defo give that a go! Thanks for all the ideas!

basic risotto

chop onion
stir fry with rice, add stock cook
when liquid absorbed add butter and parmesan

a few variations:

• grate courgette with onion and add peas

• grate pumpkin with onion and add rosemary

• add saffron and red peppers for paella style rice

you can also add flaked fish ( and a little lemon juice and zest) or any cooked ground meat

or you can simply do old fashioned milky rice pudding

I've given dd cold couscous the next day but wouldn't leave it another day after that. glad he enjoyed his balls! I'm def gonna try the pancakes too.

picnic