Homemade Rice Cereal

I had a tough time too, because the kernes are so small they just bounce arround in the food processor. I had better luck with a coffee grinder, you have to do smaller ammounts but it works better.

OOh! I love this topic. I didn't make any baby food for my 3 year old and this time around I have embraced homemade baby food with open arms. I love wholesomebabyfood.com. Lots of recipes and tips. I tried making my own rice and that is the one thing that I just don't do for a few reasons: 1. It takes a lot of time 2. when you freeze it, it is really hard to reconstitute the texture to a smooth cereal. The best way to do it is to grind the rice and cook it for every meal (who's got that time?)
However, if you want to try it this is what worked best for me. First, go and buy a Magic Bullet! It is so simple, amazing, wonderful....It's great for making rice, fruits, and veggies! Take organic brown rice and grind with the big blade until powder. It only takes like 30 seconds. Take 1/4 cup of it and add it to 1 cup of boiling water. Simmer and stir for 10 min until smooth consistency.

Here are a few of my favorite recipes:
Pears/Avocados/Mangoes- SO easy to just peel and puree. My 7 month old loves finger food and these are soft enough to cut up small and let him eat himself
Apples- Peel and cut in chunks. Add just enough water to cover them and boil for about 10 min until soft. Puree until desired consistency. You can use some of the water to help puree. Add a touch of cinnamon! Also, I like to bake them. Just cut up (don't need to peel) and place in baking dish. Add a touch of butter and sprinkle some cinnamon. Add enough water to just cover apples. Bake at 400 for 30 min. You can cut up for finger food or puree.
Squash- Cut in half. Lay face down in baking dish and add an inch of water or so. Bake at 400 for 40 min or so until skin puckers. Scoop out seeds then scoop out meat and puree
Sweet Potatoes- wash, cover in tin foil, poke with forks and bake at 375 for about an hour until soft. Scoop out meat and puree
Broccoli- I use frozen steam fresh. I steam for the whole family and save a few for baby. Just throw in Bullet and puree.
Carrots-wash, peel, and cut up into chunks. Fill pot with water just above the carrots and boil for about 20 min until soft. Puree. Don't use the water from boiling to help reach desired consistency. Use fresh water.

All of these freeze really well too!

Hope this helps and have fun!!

I'd recommend purchasing an actual grain mill for this. Grain mills are used to process grains into flour, and can also be adapted to just hull grains as well.

Bosch, Back to Basics and I believe Northern Tool's generic grain mill are all under $60. Otherwise they are fairly expensive. If you research grain mills, you will find they are worth the investment when you discover all the many delicious and healthy things you can make and do with the grinders. They're yet another great way to avoid processed foods from the grocery store.

Check out www.pleasanthillgrain.com to see a wide variety of grain mills, where to buy grain berries and even rice, and books on how to cook and prepare grains. There are alot of icons on the page for food prep products. Just look for two separate icons; one says grain mills and the other says baking and grain supplies and click on that for more info.

Good luck!

The Super Baby Food book is a great resource for all things food realated. I highly recommend it! In the book it says about how long you need to grind rice for and I remember it taking a long time :( -haven't done it again for the new little guy yet.
In this book it also gives recipes for additional ingredients to add to your cereals to give your child even more of the good stuff.

I also have a 3 year old and a 6 month old! :)

Try using a mortar and pestle. You can find them in the pharmacy section if not in the food section of most stores.

Consider buying brown rice flour. Bob's red mill has it, or sometimes you can find it in bulk. I'm sure you know this already but this must be cooked. I used to feed this to my kids.
A

I make my own baby food, but cereal is so cheap I can't justify not just buying that. I have a cuisinart coffee grinder that is fast and quiet, try a nice coffee grinder and then you can use it on your nice coffee beans when the babyfood stage is done.

Try a coffee grinder. I believe that it is better suited for something hard like brown rice. It will still make noise, however. Also, try doing it in short bursts rather than just running it for a long time. Hope this helps!

I used my coffee grinder to grind up oats and rice. It worked way better than my food processer or blender because it was specifacally made to grind to a powder! :) I just cleaned it really well and started buying ground coffee instead. :) I used the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron for the recipe.

I still use the ground up rice cuz i dont think the whole stuff gets processed as well. I cook it kinda thick and put it in the fridge and then cut it up and it makes great finger food! :)

The only other thing i would suggest is to keep the boxed stuff on hand to thicken other things and to ocassionally get the additional iron into baby cuz i dont think homemade has as much.

Have fun makin your own babyfood! :)

K.,
I made almost all of my own baby food, and will certainly do it in the future. When it came to rice, however, I just didn't want to bother. It seems to be quite a process, and the Earth's Best Organic Brown Rice Cereal is quick, easy, and not too expensive. My advise would be to stick to the boxed stuff and use your food processor for all other fruits, veggies, and meats. That being said, a friend of mine made her own rice cereal, and I think she just cooked it FOREVER with more water than usual and once it was really soft, she processed it in the food processor. I'd imagine you'd have to add milk or water to thin it down from there. You can also check out www.wholesomebabyfood.com - the best website for mamas making their own baby food!
Good luck,
Amy

look into getting a Coffee Grinder i bet that would work really well just get one with an ajustable grind setting

Maybe you're supposed to lightly toast the rice first??