Red Red Rice + Weekend at Home

Saturday

A hungry Arthur woke up a bit after 7:30. He was a bit fussy in the morning, but sweetened up after some napping. We spent quite a while with him just chilling in the crib, dangling a leg out the side contentedly while occasionally smiling at me or reaching for the mobile.

Chillin' like a villain

For his afternoon snack, Arthur first finished off the parsnip purée, mixed with a bit of olive oil. He was still hungry after that, so we followed it up with some more Weetabix, which I think is his current favorite food. Not that I blame him - it's good stuff (although it might be the fact that I mix it with breast milk that really sells it). He wanted more after that, so I fed him a bit more of the egg scramble I prepared yesterday. I think he could have eaten even more, but I wanted him to have some appetite for his next nursing session, so I ended snack time there. He did do two major poops right before and after his snack, with nice little chunks of tomato in there.

The lucky duck had more Weetabix at dinner - in fact, I let him finish off the whole jar! He was very happy to do so, and I was glad to finish off yet another jar of his food in the fridge. He was still hungry afterwards, so I let him have some more scrambled egg for dessert while we finished off our dinner.

So, on Saturday, Arthur therefore consumed:

• parsnip

• olive oil

• Weetabix

• egg

• nutritional yeast

• ghee

• tomato

• turmeric powder

• garlic powder

Sunday

Arthur woke up right after his mama (and possibly because of her), just a bit before 8. He was in a sweet, smiley mood pretty much the whole morning, which is always nice. However, as the day wore on and he didn't manage to get any napping in, he got fussier and fussier.

Deep morning thoughts while we grab our toes

I'm blaming the lack of naps on his reaction to cottage cheese during his afternoon snack time. I really thought he'd like it, but he reacted with lots of disgusted faces, and didn't ask for more or anything. He still ate a few spoonfuls, but I kind of had to push him to do so. We'll have to keep trying, though; túróscsusza is going to be a staple food for him.

Arthur didn't nurse terribly well on Sunday either, so I wonder if there's something going on with his stomach or something else.

At our family dinner, we all had eggs: the grown-ups enjoyed our usual Sunday sweet potato quiche, while Arthur enjoyed the rest of the scrambled egg from a couple of days ago.

So Arthur's Sunday menu was rather less varied than his Saturday menu, and consisted of:

• cottage cheese (new food!)

• egg

• ghee

• nutritional yeast

• turmeric powder

• garlic powder

• tomato

As always, Miklós cooked Sunday, and I cooked Saturday. I opted for a dinner of veggie burgers, green burgers, and my favorite starch of all time, which is always the star of the show: red rice. It's a favorite from my childhood on Guam, and since learning how to make it myself a couple of years ago, it's been a repeat on our dinner menus. Not sure if it's the most authentic red rice out there (I used basmati instead of short-grain rice, and olive oil instead of a neutral oil), but it sure tastes good! Here's how I make it:

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Red Rice (serves 2)

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry basmati rice

• 2.5 cups water

• 1 tbsp achiote seeds (also called annatto seeds)

• 1 small onion, minced (about ¼ cup minced - traditionally it's yellow, but sometimes I use a red one)

• ½ tbsp salt

• ½ tbsp olive oil

Instructions

1. In a small bowl or large mug (make sure it's big enough to fit a hand in!), soak the achiote seeds in 1 cup of boiling water.

2. When the water gets cool enough to touch, put on a plastic glove (you can do it with your bare hands, but these seeds STAIN) and rub the achiote seeds between your fingers while they are still in the water. Keep rubbing them until the water turns reddish orange.

3. Pour the red water into a pot, straining out the seeds with a fine sieve or strainer. You can discard the seeds.

4. Add another 1.5 cups of water to the bot, along with the salt.

5. Bring the water to a boil.

6. Dump in the onion and olive oil, and bring to a boil again.

7. Dump in the rice, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook until all of the water is absorbed, and the rice is tender.

8. Enjoy with protein and veg of choice!