hey dudes


I was just wondering if anyone had been feeding their babe Quinoa? (pronouced Keen-Wah apparently)

I found a recipe for millet, quinoa and mashed banana porridge in my baby food book called "boost your child's immunity" - great book BTW. heaps of recipes and ideas.

Anyway - i haven't been able to find any millet ANYWHERE!!!! apparently there is a shortage and no one has any....but i'm still looking. I did find some quinoa though. It looks kinda like cous cous but when you cook it it goes flat and has a little tail that looks like a 'c'.

I googled it this morning, coz I was making the quinoa and banana porridge and I thought I should know a bit more about this grain I'd never seen or heard of before...turns out its some kind of super food.

The annual plant is one to two metres high with large seed clusters at the end of the stalk, similar to millet. In fact, the most popular strain of Quinoa is pale yellow in appearance, and does resemble millet in colour and size, although quinoa is more flattened than spherical.

So far as its food value is concerned, one researcher has said, “ while no single food can supply all of the essential life-sustaining nutrients, it (quinoa) comes as close as any other in the vegetable or animal kingdoms.” It contains more protein than any other grain: an average of 16.2 %, compared with 7.5 % for rice, 9.9 % for millet, 8.2 % for barley, and 14 % for wheat. It has a good balance of the amino acids that make up the protein and is high in lycine, an amino acid not overly abundant in the vegetarian diet.

Quinoa is easy to cook, and like rice, blends well with other grains or whole-grain pilafs. The cooked consistency is light, with a texture resembling caviar.

I didn't even know it existed!!! but i reckon that i'll be using it more. Luxxe didn't seem very interested in her breakfast... but food doesn't seem to interest her at the best of times... so i ate it and it was delicious!! is it bad to eat your babies food?

anyway- i thought i'd share... in case anyone else hadn't heard of it and wanted to try the most complete food known to man.


xxx
L