When my daughter was almost 6months, I was looking for the perfect food to wean her. Something nutritious and healthy. I started inquiring from friends, colleagues and experienced moms. Most people said they use Pap, but I wasn’t comfortable with giving Pap only. Some other friends said they gave tom brown to their children. They shared their tom brown powder recipe with me.

 I am the kind of person who loves to eat healthy food. The light at the end of the tunnel came when I found a perfect Tom brown recipe sent by my mom. I was excited. My daughter gained a healthy weight after she started taking the tom brown. Tom brown powder when made into pap is perfect for weaning babies. I will be sharing this recipe in this article. Before I share the recipe, let us consider the health benefit of the tom brown recipe.

Featured Image Credit Mamalette

Health Benefit of Tom Brown Powder

Tom Brown has a lot of health benefits. I believe this is why it is used to wean babies. Tom Brown is also healthy for adults, especially those on a weight loss diet. It contains a sufficient amount of nutrients.

• It contains antioxidants
• High Protein
• High fibre content
• Packed with Micro and Macro Nutrients
• High carb content

Ingredients for Tom Brown Powder

The ingredients for tom brown powder are readily available in the market. It is important to go for stone and dirt free variety.

Yellow Maize (4 and half milk cups / 1 Derica / half congo)

Millet (2 milk cups)

sorghum (2 milk cups)

Soybeans ( one milk cup) 

Preparation of Tom Brown Powder

There are variants of ways you can make this powder. I will be sharing the processes of how to make tom brown powder in three different methods.

Method 1

1. Pick out the stones and dirt from the ingredients. The powder must be free of dirt. Please do not mix them.
2. Wash each of the ingredients in water.
3. Drain out the water and spread them in the sun. Make sure they are completely dried.
4. Put a pot on the fire and pour the dried ingredients one by one. (Note: Don’t let it get burnt)
5. spread them and allow them to cool down completely
6. Take it to the mill to be grounded to powder, or you can also use a powerful blender to ground.

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Method 2

1. Pick out the stones and dirt from the ingredients. The powder must be free of dirt. Please do not mix them.
2. Put a pot on the fire and roast the ingredients. Make sure they cook well. You will know it is well cooked when the Millet, sorghum or maize starts to pop. 
3. Spread out to cool
4. Ground all ingredients together into powder 

Method 3

1. Pick out the stones and dirt from the ingredients. The powder must be free of dirt. Please do not mix them.
2. Ground all ingredients together into powder 

I’m sure the last method comes as a shock. I adopted the last approach after I couldn’t continue with the other process. I was a working mum who left home before 7 am and returned around 6 pm. weekends were meant for house cleaning. I don’t even bring the ingredients home; I pick the dirt in the market myself. I would sit down at the mill to make sure I picked the dirt. After which, I ground them into powder and took them home. If you have more time, you can follow through with method 1 or 2.  Make sure to store in an air tight container.

Other Added Ingredients

When making tom brown powder for children, I advise you to experiment with ingredients your child has tasted before now. I also recommend making these other ingredients separately if your child doesn’t like them or cannot tolerate them. Ground them into powder and add them separately when you want to feed your child.

While weaning my baby, I made a powder where I added groundnut as one of the main ingredients. I noticed that the leftover she brings from the creche usually have this smell I didn’t like. That was why I stopped adding groundnut as the main ingredient.

Ingredients

1. Crayfish ( dirt free)
2. Dry fish 
3. groundnut ( roasted )
4. Dates ( dry)

 Preparation

1. Spread the crayfish and make sure it is dry.
2. Debone the dry fish and set aside
3. Break the dried dates and remove the seed
4. Ground all these ingredients together into a powder.
5. Store in an air tight container

Would you please let me know when you try out this method?

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