e are variety of Ready made Baby food available in the market. Still I prefer to feed my 15 month old the self made one which is not only highly nutritious but also satisfies tasty buds of little ones. The popular Nepali Baby food is called ‘Lito’ (ln6f]) which has many kind of beans, maize, rice and dry fruits as the ingredients high in fiber and nutritional value. Mostly all of the Nepalese have tasted it in their lives.
For my baby, my mother is always there for me whenever i am out of stock of the power packed baby food ‘Lito’. While on the vacation, i have learnt with her how to prepare Nepali baby food and stock it for at least 2 months period. It is not as difficult as i had thought still requires effort for preparation. Here, i am presenting the step by step guide to prepare ‘Lito’.
When to start feeding Lito :
Every child is different. While some may start digesting solids from 4 months onwards, it is recommended to feed Lito to babies after completion of 5 months. It is because prior to 5 month of age, introduction of solid to babies may cause constipation and digestion problem. Lito can be fed to babies twice in a day.
How to start feeding Lito:
While you begin to introduce Lito, like other solid food, make sure the paste is thinner and easy to swallow for your baby.
Ingredients to prepare ‘Lito‘ : Nepali baby food
Grains
- Rice (rfdn)
- Maize or Corn (ds})
- Gram (rgf)
- Soybeans (e6df;)
- Wheat (ux’F)
- Green Gram Beans (d’Fusf] bfn)
Dry Fruits
- Cashew Nut (sfh’)
- Dates (5f]xf]8f)
- Almond (abfd)
Preparation process of Lito:
- Wash all the ingredients and let it dry in the sunlight separately. It will take 3-4 hours approx. to completely dry the grains.
- Meanwhile the grains are in the natural light of sun, Take out the seeds of Dates and cut into small pieces.
- Similarly Chop the Cashew nuts and Almonds in the pieces as well.
- Let the Frying Pan or Kadhai warm, then stir fry each dry fruits separately. No need of butter or oil, or else the Lito will not last for 1 month or longer. Adding Ghee, butter or oil will make it contaminated easily.
- After the grains are dried completely, stir fry them as well. Remember to fry each item separately. Otherwise, some of them will be burned and some will remain raw.
How long should the ingredients be fried for ?
When each of the ingredient of Lito starts to leave strong aroma (not of burning), that is the accurate time to stop frying. The point is neither of the items should burn.
- Mix all the fried ingredients and make fine & smooth powder in the grinder.
- The powder should look like Wheat Flour after grinding.
- Make sure there is not any items remaining to be grind ed in the Lito Flour.
- Transfer Lito Floor in a Air Tight Clean Container/Jar. This is ready to be fed for 2 months of preparation. After 2 months, taste it yourself, if there is any sour taste, you need to make another Lito again.
This is the recipe of my mother and i will love to see your comments for any extra items needed to prepare Lito. See you in next post for the methods to prepare Lito. Have a nice day and thankx for the read.