Sprouts Dosa

Spread dosa batter, sprinkle a table spoon of mung sprouts, sprinkle a tea spoon of peanut chutney powder, flip over - eat. Regular dosa made healthy. Yet another way to eat your sprouts and love it too.

Chickpea sprouts and Sweet Potato Soup

Half a cup of chickpea sprouts +  one sweet potato + chilly morning = 1 steaming bowl of soup. Looks good, tastes good and as a bonus makes you feel good too. Made this for self - family not too much into soups unless they have a cold. Even then, it is the regular hot and sour or tomato soup.

Tofu Manchurian with Broccoli Macaroni

Yet another twist of the classic and ever popular - Gobi manchurian.  Made from scratch without the dreaded MSG found in pakcaged food, it can be made healthy without the guilt and the effort involved in deep frying. Of course, Gobi is replaced with Tofu and served with Macaroni. Bland tofu actually tastes very good in this dish.

Khakra with Salsa

Cruncy, munchy snack without the guilt of deep fry - that is Khakra for me.  Plain Khakra served with fresh and spicy tomato salsa made for a quick tea time snack. The salsa was made without onion, garlic and coriander because I did not have the patience to peel and chop on a growling stomach.

Pasta and Sprouts/Spinach stir fry - Lunch box

Trying to incorporate proteins, carbs and as much nutrition as possible is the only rule I have when packing lunch box. Left over pressure cooker fusili and a sprouts, spinach stir fry seasoned with peanut chutney powder  - was my lunch today. I had refrigerated the pasta immediately after cooking the night before. By lunch time, it was at room temperature and tasted more like a pasta salad.

Picture is hazy and I finished eating before I could take another one. Recipe for the stir fry follows.

Khakra with chutney dip

Two tablespoons each of mint chutney, meetha chutney and curd mixed together and served with khakras. We like the khakras from Sriram sweets, a small sweet shop near Shoppers Stop on Bannerghatta road.

Lady's Finger/Okra/Bendakaya Gojju

I have started using my 1 litre prestige pressure cooker for everything these days including making ragi mudda. Reduces the cooking time and the need for stirring. The okra cooked perfectly in the cooker without any hint of gooey that it is associated with.  The gravy is made from peanuts chutney powder, sesame and poppy seed (gasagasalu in telugu). We had it with chapathi yesterday and tastes equally good with hot rice.

Spring Onion Paratha - Lunch box

I do not always get time to click the picture when the lunch box is packed and ready to go. Especially if it is paratha or chapathi as they need time to cool a bit before packing into the box. In the morning frenzy, remembering to take a picture itself is a task.The picture does not do justice to the taste. Just adding spring onions enhanced the taste so much that I wondered why I never tried it.

Followed the recipe given in Mahi's Kitchen. I omitted green chilli and added 1 tbsp of sesame seeds. I just rolled them into circles and roasted on the tawa. Served it with a side of tomato peanut chutney.

Soy Chunks Manchurian and Macaroni - Lunch Box

Fried rice style Macaroni and soya chunks manchurian for a special lunch. This was S's request for his special lunch box treat on his birthday. I packed it for my lunch too and was surprised that it tasted pretty good even when the food was luke warm. It is a pretty healthy too as no deep frying is involved.

Mung and Matki Sprout Snack - Manchurian Flavor

Bananas

It took longer to type the title of the post than making dish. Faster than 3 minute maggi noodles, finger licking tasty and high on nutrition. Our neighbor's 10 yr old asked for 2nds and 3rds. Please do try it and let me know how you liked it.

Peanut chutney powder - Sanakkaya chutney podi

This is a signature dish of my mother in law. Spicy, sweet and sour at the same time. Can be served as a side dish with dosa, idli or added to any vegetable stir fry to boost the protein content. This is the seema style powder - so expect the heat. If you are from other regions - pls reduce the chilli quantity.

Idly with oats and leftover dosa batter

Recycle the left over dosa batter into yummy idly for breakfast. This dish is for people like us who cannot look beyond the idli/dosa options and yet want to jump on the oats band wagon.

Pressure Cooker Fusili

One pot meal that can be completed from start to finish in 20 mins with only 5 mins of prep time. Cooking pasta in a pressure cooker is not for puritans but it drastically reduces the cooking time. Can be made kid/spice/diet friendly without any additional effort. We have all the three groups represented in the house - so this gets done regularly. The glorious yellow color, not properly captured, is because of addition of turmeric powder.

Disclaimer: This method does not work for all types of pasta. At least I have not tried it.

Honey Nutmeg Eggless Cake

My search for a spring form pan ended right in my neighborhood store where I did not expect. It is not a high end store or anything like that. Had a few steel boxes and plastic ware etc and two Ghidini Spring Form pans. Celebrating my all new cake pan and more importantly that I got it right next door - a moist, aromatic eggless cake. I know I am sounding like the hosts or cooks on the TV shows. And when you read the details you will know how I "grilled" the cake.

Sprouts stir fry

There is really no recipe here. Quick sprouts stir fry with garlic, curry leaves and chilli flakes. That's it. 5 mins start to finish including peeling garlic. Of course this does not take into account the time for sprouting.

Spinach and Paneer Paratha

Quest for an all in one paratha and having to make something tasty for dinner led to this. Veggies, protein and carb all in one dish. Good option for a breakfast, snack, lunch box, dinner - yep anytime anywhere dish. High on taste, high on health.

Sprouts stir fry and curd rice - Lunch Box

Sprouts stir fry and curd rice - picture says it all. Protein, carbs, vitamins etc etc - all in one lunch box. Recipe for the stir fry - here.

Sesame and Oregano Paratha

This is an effort to get more sesame seeds incorporated into our diet. There are quite a lot of benefits of eating sesame. There are quite a few traditional south indian foods that incorporated sesame. This dish has the oregano spice mix that is used in pizzas and the goodness of sesame rolled into a paratha. Anytime snack or a meal in itself if served with a bowl of dal/sabzi and curd. This is a picture when the paratha is rolled and the filling is spread. Will take a picture of the final product and publish next time.

Sprouts Curry and Roti - Lunch box

Quick 5 minutes curry with sprouts and left over roti from dinner - whole some and colorful lunch. That the lunch box is green adds to the effect. I started eating before remembering to take a picture and that explains the torn roti.

Small Onion Sambar

Small onions, freshly made sambar masala - do you need more. Making the sambar masala fresh is quite easy actually though it sounds like it is too much of a pain.