101th post! And a lovely toddler recipe! Fish Sticks!

Hi everyone! Wow! I missed the fact that my last post was the 100th so I will celebrate the 101th!! Tonight we had GREAT success with a new recipe and I would love to share it with all of you! It is another in my quest to create "normal" toddler food, as well as a dinner the whole family can enjoy! Here we go:

Fancy Fish Sticks (3 4oz servings)
3 fish fillets, fresh or frozen (we used cod)
1 cup quinoa flakes (could use potato flakes, millet flakes or rolled oats)
2 Tbsp corn starch (could use potato starch or arrowroot)
1 cup safe milk (we used coconut)
1 Tbsp arrowroot
coconut flakes (optional)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. If frozen, defrost fish. Rinse fish and pat dry with paper towels. Cut fish into 1inch wide strips or into "nugget" sized bites. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together milk and 1 Tbsp arrowroot. Set aside.

In a second bowl, mix cornstarch and quinoa flakes until well blended. Set aside.

Prepare large cookie sheet by covering with parchment paper, or grease sheet with canola and sprinkle on corn meal (if corn isn't safe, you could use ground up millet seeds in a pinch). I did try one batch without the corn meal and just the canola. The fish sticks did stick to the pan a little (with only the canola) but I was able to get them off of it without leaving much of the breading behind.

Dip each piece of fish into the milk mixture and then roll in the flake mixture until completely covered with "breading." Place finished fish sticks on cookie sheet. If using coconut flakes, sprinkle over the top of the fish sticks.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until breading is nicely browned. If lemon is safe, squirt a little lemon over top of fish sticks.

We didn't have a dipping sauce for B, but she loved the fish sticks plain, so that was fine. For N and I, I made a dipping sauce out of the following:

Dipping sauce
4 Tbsp mayonaise (here is a recipe for vegan mayonaise-- you can use a safe milk in place of the soy milk the recipe calls for)
Juice from 1/2 lemon
3/4 tsp Herbs de Provence
Dash of garlic pepper

Whisk together and refrigerate. Not sure if this will EVER be safe for B, but it was tasty for N and I.

The fish sticks looked like "real" fish sticks and it made me so happy to see B mowing down on them. I am willing to bet that you can follow this recipe and use other meats and even veggies in place of the fish. Make a sweet potato nugget, a chicken nugget, etc etc etc. Experiment and Enjoy!

Happy 101th post to all! Thanks for visiting Baby B's FPIES test kitchen and keeping us company!!!