Zuccinni and Lentil Rice

This is the easiest dish to make for your lovey. This is my go-to recipe when I am out of ideas and just want to make something quick because I have laundry to fold, errands to run,  and my own lunch awaiting me. :)
Okay so do you stock lentils? Lentils are so healthy and super fast to make. They taste amazing especially when you season them with sauteed cumin. I have an entire shelf of different kinds of lentils and I use this recipe with any one of them. Today I used a kind of a round brown lentil.

Ingredients
Brown Lentils; Zuccinni; Brown rice; Cumin seeds; Ghee;


Cooking
Take a small steel bowl. Add in diced zuccinni. Throw in a tablespoon (desired amount) of brown rice and brown lentils. I like to keep them in proportion meaning if I put in 1 tbsp of lentils then I add in 1 tbsp of brown rice. 


Have you pressure cooked things? Do you own a pressure cooker? I have to tell you that it's the easiest and fastest way to cook lentils. If you don't own one, no problem, just take a deep saucepan and add enough water for this steel bowl of baby food to float in. You don't want to get the water level too close to the rim of the steel bowl because water may seep in your food. So just add enough so your bowl actually becomes buoyant. :)


Then close the lid and cook on high heat. This is indirect gentle way of heating baby food. Again this helps keep the nutrients of the cooked food.


Once your lentils are mashable and 'done' go ahead and heat up some ghee in low to medium heat. Add a few sprinkles of hand crushed cumin and watch it sizzle. It's the pretties sight and don't even get me started on the aroma that fills your kitchen at this point.


Be careful not to burn the cumin. You will see the sizzle and just turn off your stove and once the sizzle calms down - add this to your baby food. Just pour it over your love's food and that's it.


Mix it all well. Blend it if you like. 

You can use any type of lentil or even white rice if you like. Brown rice just has more fiber.

The brown rice has settled all the way down here.

I like to hand crush my baby's spices right before his meal because the aroma and spice release right then and there.

Actually I give Arnav a variation of blended food and 'adult food'. I don't want him to think that food is always 'mashed' or in some goopy liquid form. So I take great care to give him a variety of food. This one I just mashed with a fork. This way he can entertain texture in this mouth which is very important to their food experience. Remember they too get 'bored' of eating the same thing. Like us they want food excitement.