Wheat Rava Idly - Godhuma Rava Idly

I came across this recipe while browsing on Facebook. My dad usually has a light dinner, and this came in handy one day when I had nothing left in the fridge. Here’s what I did.

Vegetable Stir Fry - Veggie filled Breakfast

Yes, this is what my husband eats on weekdays for breakfast. Initially, I found it hard to cut the vegetables and sauté them every morning while dealing with two middle-schoolers. It was a little overwhelming for me. But I felt bad not making it for him and giving him an unhealthy, carb-rich breakfast every day. So I started planning ahead, and I’ve gotten the hang of it now.

Oatmeal - Breakfast in a bottle!

This is another healthy breakfast recipe I tried yesterday. I got the motivation from Pavithra’s Facebook pictures. Oatmeal is my almost everyday breakfast. I usually pack one-minute oats in a container, take it to work, cook it there, and eat it with six or seven almonds.

Nowadays, after seeing so many beautiful photos of mason jar breakfast ideas online, I really wanted to try making my own mason jar breakfast. While I was filling the jar, my girls got curious and wanted to make their own breakfast bowls, too. I used an empty honey bottle to make this dish. Here’s what I did.

Vegetable Idly

This is a very easy breakfast recipe I made for my girls.  If you have Idly batter ready, it will just take less than 10 minutes to prepare and 10 minutes to steam the idly. Here goes the recipe.

Pineapple Muffins - No Guilt Snack

I call this a no-guilt snack. Why? Because I used a few ingredients that are really good for your health, so you don’t have to feel bad about eating something sweet.

First, I used whole wheat atta instead of all-purpose flour (APF). I used extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) instead of butter, low-fat yogurt instead of full-fat sour cream, egg whites instead of two whole eggs, and xylitol instead of sugar. You can read about the goodness of this sweetener here.

My husband recently read a book and came across xylitol as a sugar substitute. He told me it’s a lot better than cane sugar and brown sugar, which I usually use for baking. So I thought I’d try something with xylitol, which I bought from the Sprouts store.

I looked through several blogs for recipes and finally found one in my kitchen recipe collection. I adapted it from a book called 1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & Other Tempting Treats, which I bought from Barnes & Noble. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1.  Ashirwadh whole wheat flour - 2 cups
2. Olive Oil - 6 tbsp
3. Low fat yogurt - 3/4 cup
4. Pineapple - 1 1/2 cups (finely chopped) - I used fresh pineapple
5. Pineapple Juice - 2 tbsp (grind few pieces with a tbsp warm water. Filter and take the juice)
6. Baking powder - 1 tbsp
7. Salt - 1 pinch
8. Sugar/Xylitol - 1/2 cup
9. Egg - 2 ( I used egg whites - follow the instruction in the box for 2 eggs) 

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a muffin pan and set it aside (I used a mini muffin pan).

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar, and mix well. In another wide, deep bowl, add the egg whites and beat them lightly. Add the olive oil, yogurt, and pineapple juice, and mix well.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture. Mix gently. Add the chopped pineapple pieces and fold them in. Scoop the batter into the muffin pan.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the muffins are well-risen, golden brown, and firm to the touch. Let them cool for 5 minutes, then serve warm.

I asked my girls to eat a mini muffin with their breakfast today, and they were so happy that I gave them muffins for breakfast.

Notes:

Original recipe called for:

1. 2 cups APF
2. 2 large eggs
3. 6 tbsp butter
4. 1/2 cup sugar
5. Pineapple juice from the can.
6. 3/4 cup full fat sour cream.

Instant Oats Idly

Instant Oats Idly

My dad got his green card last year and moved to USA mid last year.  He eats light dinner everyday and I try to make some light tiffin for him.  This instant oats idly is a recipe, I got from raks kitchen.  It came out pretty good and its very easy to make within half an hour. 

I am linking this oats idly to Priya's Healthy Diet - cooking with Whole grains event and this month it has been hosted by Nupur

Idly

One of the most healthiest receipe. Its easy to make (ofcourse we need to prepare the batter!!) This is the most popular breakfast receipe. In my in laws place, we will have this for breakfast atleast thrice a week... I learned this receipe from my MIL and this is she do this everytime. The main ingredients are as follow...

Ingredients:-

1. Idly Rice or Boiled rice - 3 cups
2. Urid dal - 1 cup
3. Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
4. Salt - 11/4 tsp (or acc to taste)

Soak the rice for minimum 6 hours in water. Also soak urid dal and fenugreek seeds in the same container for 4 hours. can even soak it for 6 hours cos some people may forget to do that (ME!!). First grind the urid dal and fenugreek seeds in a wet grinder (or some kind of blender), adding water until it becomes thicker. It may take 25 to 30 mts. Urid dal needs more water than rice. When it is ready, pour it in a vessel. Now grind the idly rice in the same manner. This may take 30 to 35 mts. Now pour this batter into the urid dal batter. Add salt and mix it thoroughly with your hand(this is very important). Do not use spoon or spatula for mixing. Keep it aside, to ferment. Do not keep the batter in refrigerator before fermentation. I usually make this batter in the night around 8 pm and keep it aside. It will ready for next day evening tiffin.


To make idly, mix the batter well. Take the idly mould, spread some oil in it (preferably sesame oil) and pour the batter in the moulds and steam cook it for 15 to 18 mts. In order to see whether it is ready or not, use the back side of a spoon or knife or toothpick or match stick and insert it into the idly. It should come out clean when you take it, without any batter. This means the idly is ready to serve. Serve it with chutney or sambar(see receipe) or Idly molagapodi.

Godhsu

This is a wonderful side dish for Pongal. I don't follow any strict receipe while making godhsu. This is how I make godhsu. The main ingredients are as follow..

Ingredients

1. Tomato - 2
2. Onion - 1
3. Tamarind - 1 tsp
4. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Rasam Powder - 3/4 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Oil - 2 tsp
8. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
9. Urid dal - 1/2 tsp
10. channa dal - 1/2 tsp
11. Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
12. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
13. Green chillies - 2 (can replace red chillies)
14. Besan flour - 1 tsp
15. coriander leaves - 2 tbsp

First finely cut the tomatoes and onion. Take a wide pan, preheat the oil add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add urid dal, channa dal, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida powder and green(or red) chillies to it and saute for a minute. Do not burn the lentils. Now add onion and tomatoes and a little bit of water to cover the vegetables. Add turmeric powder, Rasam powder(receipe already given) and salt to it and let it boil for 6 to 7 minutes. Now godhsu is ready. In order to get a reasonable consistency we add besan flour to it. Now in a small cup, mix the besan flour with 4 or 5 tbsp water and add it to the godhsu. Garnish it with fresh coriander leaves.

We can replace tomatoes with brinjal to make Brinjal godhsu. The method is same as tomato godhsu.

Pongal

This is a breakfast receipe. In south India, this is a famous breakfast dish along with Idly and Dosai. This is how I make Pongal. Most of you may know the ingredients and the method for making pongal. This is for the new cooks. The main ingredients are as follow..

Ingredients:-

1. Rice - 1 cup (measuring cup)
2. Moong dal - 1/2 dal (measuring cup)
3. Ginger - a small piece
4. Pepper - 1 tbsp
5. cumin seeds - 1/2 tbsp
6. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
7. Asafoetida powder - one pinch
8. Salt to taste
9. Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
   
10. Cashews - 6 or 7
11. curry leaves - 1- to 15 leaves
12. Oil - 2 tbsp
13. Ghee - 1 tbsp

First wash the rice and Moong Dal and soak it in water for 10 mts. In the mean time, we can finish our seasoning. Take a seasoning pan, preheat the oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters, add pepper+cumin seeds+cashews+curry leaves+curry leaves+ginger and asafoetida powder in the oil and fry it for a minute. Do not burn it. Now take a pressure pan, put the rice and dal in it and pour water in the ratio of 1:5 (Pongal should not be like fried rice so we can add 5 cups of water to 1 cup of rice. Now add the mustard, pepper etc mix to the rice and add the turmeric powder and salt to it. Pressure cook this upto 5 to 6 full whistles. After pressure is released, open the pan and pour the 1 tbsp ghee in it and again close the pan for few mts. Now Pongal is ready to serve. Serve it hot with Tomato godhsu or coconut chutney.

Note: We can also grind the raw pepper and cumin seeds before adding it with mustard seeds. In that case, it will easy for the kids to eat pepper. Try this and lemme know your comments

Idly - Sambar

This sambar is different from the sambar we make everyday. Thought would share this with you. The main ingredients are as follows:

• 1 cup Moong dal
• 2 tbsp toor dal
• 10 pearl onions ( Chinna onion)
• 5 drumstick pieces
• 1 carrot chopped into 1/2 inch
• 1 eggplant chopped into 1/2 inch
• 11/2 teaspoon tamarind paste ( if necessary)
• 1 big tomato chopped
  
• 1 teaspoon sambar powder (can use coriander powder+Chilli Powder instead)
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• salt for taste

Thalikka

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard
• 1/2 tsp urid dal
• pinch of asafoetida
• 1 red chilli and some curry leaves
  

Method

Take a medium size pressure pan and fry the moon dal for 3 to 4 minutes. Then add Toor dal, vegetable, Turmeric powder, Sambar powder (or coriander + chilli powder) and salt. Pressure cook the above ingredients upto 2 whistles. This finishes the sambar. In a small kadai pre -heat 1 tbsp oil, then add mustard, urid dal, red chilli, curry leaves and asafoetida. Fry them for 10 seconds. Add these to the sambar. Serve this with hot idly or dosa. This sambar can be used as a side dish for pongal also. Try this and lemme know your comments.