Karis’ cereal in preparation today, including: cooked brown rice & millet, egg yolk, sprouted sunflower seeds, and tahini – to be combined with my mason jar on the blender trick!
Making wholesome baby cereal for my little girl has been such a fun experiment learning how to incorporate nutritious supplements that are cheap and give a well rounded breakfast. This is called “Super” Baby porridge because it has all the ingredients needed to provide good nutrition to your little one. Thanks to Super Baby Food for all the wonderful ideas of making my own homemade cereal! You can’t beat the frugal cost and nutritional value of this concoction!
Super Baby Porridge
Basic Recipe:
1/2 cup ground brown rice, millet or oats (or other grains)
2 cups water
Soak overnight with 1 Tbsp of kefir/whey for all the extra benefits, especially for oats. Cook and stir continually until it thickens. You can give it to the baby now, or add some of these boosters. This makes enough for a 2-3 meals.
Include any of the following:
Ground Sunflower Seeds
Ground Flax Seeds (1/4 tsp when first introducing)
egg yolk (hard boiled)
tahini (ground sesame seeds)
fruit (banana, or applesauce)
2 Tbsp. any bean/legume flour (for a complete protein)
Seeds are recommended to begin incorporating at 7-8 months, and egg yolk at 6 months or even earlier. I started Karis on this cereal, and gradually incorporating the different supplements at 9 months of age. At 10 months, it recommends incorporating a small portion of beans/legumes in the mixture as well for a complete protein.
At 11 months, I am using only non-glutenous grains for Karis’ cereal (at least until she is a year), so that includes: oats, millet & brown rice right now. After cooking my cereal, I place a portion of the cooked cereal (1/2-3/4 cup presently) in a small pint size jar that fits on my blender (as pictured, read how to do this here) with any of the combination of ingredients listed above. It grinds them all together nicely without having to individually grind them! You can also grind seeds in a coffee grinder. I normally chose just one type of seed, 1 egg yolk (every other day as recommended in the book), and some sort of fruit. This is all grinded smoothly together in the blender and enjoyed by my little one! She absolutely loves this!
NOTE: For those who do not have a grain grinder, try cooking the grain on the stove (like you would rice), and then blend to puree in your blender or mason jar. (For 1/2 cup rice, use 1 1/4 cup water). If you cook in too much water, no big deal…you are making a porridge anyway! I often use this method because I will be cooking up some oatmeal for Aaron & I, and just pull out a portion for Karis. You can soak the grain in the water and kefir/whey/lemon juice as well, to receive that benefit.
Further Reading:
Flax Seeds for Babies – all the benefits
I gave this to Elizabeth when she was smaller. I still do brown rice, banana, yogurt, tahini, nutritional yeast and wheat germ mixed together for her. She LOVES this!! I think following Super Baby Food is not only what has made Elizabeth so healthy, but also given her a great love for all kinds of food.
And I LOVE the mason jar idea! I definitely need to use this tip!
His,
Mrs. U
I love this! Thanks for the recipe. I’ll be bookmarking this, our little one has not started solids yet but we’ll give a try when she does.
Linds
Whew!!! Lindsay I remember when you first mentioned giving Karis an egg yolk, honest to goodness, I thought meant a RAW egg yolk!!! For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine that, or how that could be nutritious! I guess the only way to have not confused me was to say a hard boiled egg lol. W/the white removed. or hard boiled egg yolk. Which I don’t get that, the white has all the protein in it.
Wow, so glad to hear it’s a hard boiled egg, one of my fave things to eat!
Instead of a grain grinder, would a coffee grinder work?
You can grind seeds in a coffee grinder but not grains. Try cooking them first as I mentioned above.
Gotcha! I wasn’t sure if a coffee grinder would work, or if maybe you didn’t try it or something.
Is it because the grain are harder?
Yes, grain is much harder and larger than seeds, and coffee grinder blades are small. I have grounded grains successfully in my blender as well for Sue Gregg’s recipes.
Hi Lindsay,
May I ask where you got your beautiful glass containers? I’ve recently started buying a lot of things in bulk and have nothing to store them in!
Thanks,
Alissa
I purchased the glass jars with lids at IKEA. Great prices and I love them for displaying on my shelves. The other one was a craigslist.org find.
Hi Lindsey!
I’ve been using the Super Baby Food diet for my little guy and he is thriving! We (now) make Super Porridge with organic grains and legumes (favorite seems to be oat groats and lentils but he does well on brown rice and split peas as well) and I just normally make up one batch a week and we get through it! His favorite breakfast is the base super porridge with a cube of sweet potato and a hard boiled egg yolk mixed up. He gobbles it down! He also loves one kale cube plus two orange-veggie cubes mixed with yogurt with a little wheat germ thrown in.
Now that he is older he is eating hummus with whole wheat pita or crackers and loves pretty much all vegetables (he is so excited to get something green on his plate – he actually “stole” zucchini off of mine last night at dinner!) – we are so blessed and lucky! And I have to credit the use of Super Baby Food and just allowing him to try (and not making a big deal out of) almost everything (within reason of course!)
I’m so glad to know that others have found success with this “diet” as well!
Best,
Sarah
That cereal looks great- lots of healthy stuff in there. My only concern is that you mentioned you want to keep Karis off of gluten until she is one, but oats actually have gluten in them. Grains with gluten include wheat, spelt, barley, oats, kamut, triticale, and rye.
Does Super Baby Food mention which grains should be introduced earlier rather than later? Personally, we are keeping Caden off of grains completely until one year, but I think I would steer clear of oats for just a little while longer. Anyways, purely just my humble opinion. I’m glad, though, that the recipe includes soaking- perfect! Was that in the book, or your own addition?
Yes, I understand that oats have some gluten in it, but it is very minimal. I am not too concerned about it. She has been doing fine with it.
The book does address what grains to introduce and when. Oats came in around 10 months, I believe. Unfortunately, I had to return my copy to the library, otherwise I could check.
No, the book does not talk about soaking. This is something I have done on my own!
Love the idea of adding ground sunflower, flax and wheat germ. Why shouldnt our babies reap the benefits of these power foods as well?! I was wondering about any possible problems with introducing these to a baby under 1yr. I have read, not to give too much flax meal, due to a certain compound that is in the seeds and to watch out for too much fiber – can be hard on their little livers. Any thoughts on adding ground pumpkin seeds to the mix as well?
Opps…I forgot to reply to your question. Sorry Connie. I definitely love the addition of pumpkin seeds as well. They are definitely an excellent seed to include, although I normally only use one type of seed with each batch. I recall reading in Super Baby Food to start out with just 1/4 tsp of seeds when first starting out under 1 year of age.
I LOVE this book. I used it when my twins were babies, and am now getting ready to start making it again for my almost 7-month-old. I actually ran across your blog because I went to the Super Baby Food website and she linked your blog there. I have been reading it like crazy now. I am inspired to try a lot of new things: soaking grains, making kefir and kombucha (I just ordered a kombucha mushroom and some kefir grains off eBay for a spectacular price), using coconut oil…so much to try! Anyway – my question is this: do you grind the grains first and then soak them overnight before cooking? Or do you soak them whole and then cook them and then puree? I was a little confused on that point, and I don’t have the Nourishing Traditions book (on my wish list now, though!). Thanks for sharing!
Nancy
Nancy, thanks for visiting and for your sweet comments! AS to soaking this porridge, I actually grind the grains first in my grinder, making it into a flour, and then I soak. If you don’t have a grinder, you can also soak them whole and then cook and puree. Either way works. You can also use a blender to grind with grains, water, and acid medium and that works as well as a grinder replacement.
Thanks Lindsay! That was what I was hoping to be able to do. I have a VitaMix blender (with a dry pitcher attachment) which works great for grinding grains, so I will try it that way. I love your philosophy on life and homemaking, and I am very impressed with your intelligent and well-thought out (and well researched) posts. I will be visiting very often. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Do you purchase the brown rice, millet and oatmeal from a health store or can you purchase it from a grocery store in the bulk section? Just not sure what the best is or if there is really a difference.
I purchase these items from a bulk health food co-op, Azure Standard (www.azurestandard.com). Some of these items can be found at a regular grocery store, but the best quality and freshness will be found at the health food store or through Azure Standard.
I have been feeding my toddler the GFCF version of this with kale, tahini, eggs, nutritional yeast, flax meal, vitamin a veggies, and a vitamin C fruit for ‘nutritional extras’. He eats it for breakfast and dinner and can’t get enough–and he’s TWO! He’s a soy yogurt-lover too. I love the super baby food book and super porridge!
oh, and Bob’s Red Mill will sell you certified gluten-free oats if you want. The oats themselves don’t have gluten in them–but most are processed on equipment with gluten residue. That’s what I’ve found through research, anyway. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Howdy, wanting to know after i soak my grains overnight that were grinded before hand is it the same water ratio to when the grains were whole?
I’m supppperrrrrrr excited to make your super porridge.
Cheers.
Jill Braun
I am not sure I follow your question. My recipe is using 1/2 cup of water mixed with the already ground grains. The measured amount is already ground and not whole. Does that make sense?
I’m super sorry for the confusion. When i soak my millet overnight (1/2 c to 2 cups h20) when i go to cook it the next day do i have to add any more water to cook it? Thanks
No, the soaking water is what you cook the rice in as well, so there is no need to add further liquids for cooking.
Hi there, stumbled across your site and I also have the Super Baby Food book. My baby will be 6 mos soon so I’m getting all geared up for the Super Porridge. My question is about the soaking, what is the added benefit to soaking over night?
Thanks for stopping by! You can read more about the benefits of soaking your grains here. Basically, it makes the cereal more digestible and the nutrients better assimilated into the body.
Hi Lindsay
Another question. This time about the Tahini. Do you make your own or do you buy it premade? If planning to make my own, what type of seeds should I buy: white or brown? hulled or not? I’m following your advice and placing an order with Azure. Thanks your site is a blessing!
No, I have always bought tahini at my local Fred Meyers, but your question got me thinking. It sure would be easy enough to make your own or just grind up some sesame seeds for this recipe. Here is a homemade tahini recipe that sounds very simple. Apparently, tepid water is a mixture of two parts cold water to one part boiling water.
When tahini got to be too expensive for us, we simply bought organic sesame seeds and ground it up (fresh everyday, of course, so it didn’t go rancid) and put the powder directly into the porridge. We don’t always do it this way, but it can be a money-saver, especially when your kid starts eating 2 cups of the stuff a day! I’m positive doing it this way gives you the same or even more benefits as using organic tahini.
About the super baby food diet. In the book she says the porridge is the first meal and the second meal is based on yogurt.
At what age can you give baby dairy? I thought you had to wait until 1 yr.
Also, can you substitute Kefir for yogurt?
It is really up to you as to when you should introduce dairy. You definitely want to start with cultured forms and wait till a year before introducing milk. I use a combination of kefir and yogurt all the time and started giving it to my little girl around 10 months or so.
how young can a baby be to eat this? my son is 6.5 mo and i really want to make homemade cereal. thanks!
It is totally up to you. Some people recommend you wait till a baby is 1 year old before introducing grains, but I started this recipe around 10 months old. The soaking definitely helps make this digestible for the little ones. If you have wheat allergies in the family, then I would recommend delaying your introduction of grains. That is usually the main concern.