Battling With Homemade Rice Cereal

So, after several successes in making Michael homemade pureed foods, I decided I wanted to go all out. I didn't want to buy any pre-made foods. This meant stop buying Beech Nut Banana Rice Cereal and start making stuff at home.

Baby Bullet thought of this. Included in the mini cookbook you get, it had directions on how to make rice cereal. I was very excited. So, when I made the grocery list for the week, I left off the box of cereal for Michael.

In the morning I made 1 C of brown rice, without reading the directions in the cookbook.

This was Mistake #1 (aka Batch #1).

Once I read the directions and it explained that you didn't cook the rice first, but in fact milled the uncooked rice, I was discouraged. However, I thought it'd be ok. This way it would just make the cereal creamier.

Oh, bother.

I stuck the cooked rice in the Batch Bowl with a thawed (once frozen) banana. I did this so the flavor would be there that he was used to.


It was way too runny. And even though I had cooked the rice, there was a weird grainy texture to the cereal that Michael was not used to and I was almost afraid he'd choke on. Plus, the one banana in the whole batch of cereal was just not enough.




First batch, after taste tested by Michael and definitely not approved, was tossed out. I saw no reason to save it.

The second time I followed the directions. I milled 1/4 C of rice and slow cooked it on the stove like you would oatmeal or porridge (I'm only assuming since I've never made porridge).

This was Mistake #2 (aka Batch #2).

While the cereal was supposedly cooking, I used the short cup and mixed up 3/4 of a banana. (I ate the 1/4th that wouldn't fit into the short cup... oops.) However, this was not enough banana to go with the amount of water I had put in the short cup. But I decided that I'd make the cereal a little thicker and then add the banana to it.


Well, even though the cereal "cooked" for as long as it was supposed to, and even longer, it was still too runny. But I thought I'd give it a try. I added the watery banana mixture to it.

Needless to say, Michael did not approve the second time.

Yuck.

The last time I really thought I had it. I realized that I needed to mill the rice, like the directions said, but needed to cook it differently.

The directions said to add the milled rice to water and bring it to a boil, then reduce it and let it simmer (like oatmeal, basically). This time, however, I cooked it like Cream of Wheat.

What does that mean? Well, for those of you who have not had Cream of Wheat, I brought the water to a boil FIRST and then whisked in the cereal and let it cook for a good three minutes. I really thought this did the trick. The consistency seemed to match the consistency of the boxed stuff.

I mixed in pear since we were, at this point, out of bananas.



As I served it into the bowl, I noticed it still looked a little grainy, like the first batch. However, it seemed so close I figured this was the result of making it at home. I was sure Michael would love it and wouldn't mind the slightest difference of texture.

Mistake #3 (aka Batch #3).




Michael didn't like it.

He wanted the boxed stuff.

(By the way, this was over the course of two days. Mistake #1 was in the afternoon of day 1, Mistake #2 was in the evening of day 1, and Mistake #3 was the next morning.)

Michael had pear for breakfast and we moved on to oatmeal the next morning.

If you know the secret to homemade rice cereal, please share!