Breakfast ideas- Vegetable Upma

Isn't it nice to have a nice spicy breakfast in the morning along with some vegetables? Upma is something that I make very often over the week-ends. My kids are not very enthusiastic about the plain upma but add some veggies(peas and carrots) and they will have it for sure. Sometimes I add some ghee to the upma to give that extra flavour. I usually add a lot of vegetables to the upma like beans, carrots, peas, onions and capsicum. It makes the dish very colorful and you can also sneak in a lot of veggies into your breakfast.

You will need:

1 cup of Rava,
1 Onions- finely chopped
1 Carrot- finely chopped
50 gms beans - chopped finely
half a capsicum- chopped finely
1 green chilli chopped finely
some ginger roughly cut
Oil, salt to taste
1 tea spoon- Mustard
1 tea spoon - split black gram
1 tea spoon - Bengal gram
some curry leaves
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Juice of one lemon

To make the upma
Boil the beans, carrot and the peas separately.
Dry roast the rava in a tawa till it turns lightly golden brown. Keep the rava aside after roasting it.
In a separate vessel boil about 2.5 cups of water.
As the water is boiling, add some oil in a kadai on medium flame, add the mustard seeds when the oil is hot. When the mustard starts spluttering, add the black gram and the Bengal gram. Saute until the color changes and add the onions, chilies, ginger and the curry leaves. Sauté the onions until they turn brown. Add the capsicum and sauté for a few minutes. Add the boiled vegetables and salt. Add the roasted rava to the kadai and mix well.
Now take the water that is boiling in a separate vessel and add to the kadai. Ensure that the water is boiling when you it to the kadai. Reduce the flame and close the kadai to let the upma cook. After 2-3 minutes you can remove it from the heat. You can add the juice of lemon once the upma is out of the flame. Your upma is ready to eat.
Sometimes the way we present our food makes a great impression. To serve the upma, take some coriander leaves and add it to a small cup. Add the upma on top of the coriander leaves and firmly press down. Turn the bowl upside down in your serving plate. You can serve it with chutney, pickles or like my husband likes with Sambhar!!

Salad- Chickpeas and Mango salad with Onions and Carrot

Sometimes when I come home from work I am so hungry that I raid the fridge or the pantry for something quick to eat. Then I feel so guilty for having snacked on the wrong food. Don’t you feel the same?

Now that I have decided to eat healthy to be healthy this is a salad that I make ahead and have generally when I get back from work. This is a tasty salad that you can have as a snack or you can have it with rice. It’s filling and healthy and really something that you will enjoy if you make it at home

This is a tribute to the “Thengai, Mangai Pattani Sundal” that we get in the Marina Beach, Madras. I remember when we were growing up, the trip to the beach was not complete without this snack. Remember the small boys carrying this around in their tin boxes. This recipe uses Chick peas or Kabuli channa instead.

You would need

100 Grams of Chickpeas(Kabuli Channa) soaked overnight and cooked

1 Onion Chopped finely

1 Carrot – Chopped finely

1 Red tomato- Chopped Finely

Raw Mango(preferable “Killi Muuku Mangai) chopped finely same amount as the carrot

Salt to taste.

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Mix the Chickpeas and all the cut veggies in a bowl. Add salt and pepper and mix well. Garnish liberally with fresh coriander leaves. If you wish you can add some Lime juice and add some pepper to this salad. I generally love to have it without these two. The combination of the chickpeas, onions and the coriander leaves really enhances the taste of this salad. Serve it cold, it’s yummy!

Corn and Paneer subzi

  Gosh, its been almost 12 days and I haven't posted anything, and I thought blogging was easy. I guess it will be easy to blame my IT job, my kids, stress around the house etc, but I think its just that I haven't got into the routine of blogging. Anyway today's post is something that I make often at home to have with rotis. Its very easy and quick and is a definite hit with the kids and the hubby(believe me I have some very fussy people at home).
My memory of corn is the ones that you get in the beach "Butta", dry roasted over fire I wasn't a big fan of it. But my sister used to love it. I remember when we were growing up, my mom used to make it home for her as a snack. She used to sprinkle mirchi powder, salt and some lime juice over it.
Steamed corn is something that has flooded the Indian market in the past 10 years and its something that I enjoy more. This is something my kids love, both of them, its a regular in their snack box. We once went to a restaurant where we had this combination of Corn and Paneer subzi which I thought was very nice. It was too spicy for my kids so I decided I would do make my own recipe. So here is my version of the subzi.

You will need

200 gms of fresh Corn

200 gms of fresh paneer

1 Onion.

½ inch Ginger

2 Red tomatoes

1 green Chilli

1- 2 teaspoons of oil

2 pods of Garlic

Salt

Mustard, jeera for tempering

 Garam Masala - 1 tea spoon

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Steam the corn so that is cooked well.

Cut the paneer into small cubes and keep aside.

In your Food processer, grind the onion, green chillies, ginger and garlic to a fine paste.

Cut the tomatoes to small pieces and keep aside.

In a kadai, heat some oil and add the mustard.

Once the mustard starts crackling, add the jeera.

Add the onion, chillies, ginger-garlic past to the oil and fry well. Add the cut tomatoes and let is cook well till the oil separates out.

Add some garam masala and fry well. Now you can add some salt according to your taste. Add the steam corn with some water and let is simmer well for about 10 minutes. Do remember to close the kadai when it simmers.

Once the corn has mixed well with all tomato mixture you can add the paneer and let it simmer for some more time. Before removing from the heat garnish with Coriander leaves and serve with rotis.

First Steps

I finally took the step to start my own blog. I have been meaning to start one for so long, anyway it’s never too late for anything. I love to cook and I love to eat. I have been putting pictures on FB of all my cooking attempts and have been receiving request for recipes. So here goes my blog on food, nothing exotic, mainly what I cook every day and probably some stuff on my kids, I have two boys and maybe some rants about work and other stuff.

Cucumber, Carrot and Walnut Salad with Grapes and Apples

You will need

1 Cucumber, washed, peeled and cut into cubes, alternatively you can use the tender cucumbers, one bunch cut.
1 Carrot, washed, peeled and cut into cubes
Red or Green Grapes a handful, cut or added whole it depends on your taste,
1 Apple, washed and cut into cubes
1 Onion- cut finely
A handful of walnuts chopped roughly
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Juice of a fresh lemon.
Salt to taste

Wash all the ingredients and mix together.
Add salt according to your taste.
Add the lemon juice and mix.
Garnish with coriander leaves.

This is a good snack that you can have at 4:00pm, will keep you going till your dinner. I sometimes serve it along with lunch. I love the sweetness of the grapes and apple along with the crunchiness of the walnuts and carrots