Mango oatmeal aval upma / Mango oatmeal poha

Ingredients :

Poha / Aval (thick that doesn't need soaking) - 1 cup
Oatmeal - 1/2 cup (optional)
Raw mango - 1 (chopped into small pieces. Reduce the qty if it is very sour)
Green chillies - 4
Roasted peanuts - handful
Salt to taste
Mustard seeds, urad daal and channa daal for seasoning
Hing - a pinch
turmeric powder - 1/4 spoon
Curry leaves and Cilantro (Optional)

Method :

Wash the aval / poha in water and keep it aside. Heat little oil in the pan and pop mustard seeds. Add hing, turmeric powder, urad daal, channa daal, green chillies, peanuts and curry leaves and fry till the daals are golden brown.  Add the chopped mango pieces and saute till they are cooked. Add water if required. Add the wet poha and the dry oatmeal. Add salt and sprinkle some water. Sprinkling water helps in cooking the oatmeal and prevents it from becoming mushy. Garnish with cilantro.

Note : I had given an alternate email id for the feedburner and i had not checked it in a while. I just saw that there are recipe requests and wishes from some of my readers in that email id. Thanks for all the wishes and i will try to get to the recipe requests as well. Sorry for not responding earlier.

Healthy spicy roti with added Protein

Hi everyone!! Hope you still remember this almost abandoned blog. I keep thinking that i should start blogging regularly, but never happens. With all the things going on right now, the blog takes the backseat as always. We have relocated and the commute to work has increased. So, i'm trying to get used to the new routine, new place, etc. End of march, i travelled to London and Chennai to visit family and on the way back i got my mom with me. The last two times my mom came here was when i had my boys and it was hectic for her taking care of us and also the kitchen .This time i thought i should not let her enter the kitchen, but work got way too hectic and i had some issues with my hand and as usual, she ended up taking care of me (us). I could only make something for her once in a while. One day, i made this spicy roti, which was already tried and tested before she came. She loved it. I hope you all like it too.


Ingredients :
Wheat flour : 2 cups
Besan + Oatmeal : 1 cup
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder : 1 spoon
Onion - 1 large (finely chopped)
Spinach/Methi leaves - 1 small bunch (finelly chopped)
Water : as required
Turmeric powder - few pinches (optional)

Method : Mix all the ingredients except water and set it aside for few minutes. Add water little by little and make it into a pliable dough. Cover it and keep it aside for 1 hour. Divide the dough into small discs/ balls and pat them in wheat flour and roll them into thick rotis. Cook it in a hot tawa for approximately 30 seconds. Flip and apply few drops of oil. Cook for another 45 secs to 1 min - basically it should be cooked well and golden brown. Flip again and apply oil on the other side. Both sides should be golden brown.

Tastes good with just yogurt and pickle, if you dont have time to prepare any gravy :)

Idli made healthier!

I read somewhere that idli is one of the top ten healthy breakfasts in the world. I decided to make it healthier by replacing a part of the rice with oats and after few experiments i found out that 1/3rd of rice replaced with oats produces almost the same result. You can taste the oats and if you dont like oats you may not like this. It is soft and fluffy, but regular idlis are fluffier and whiter. That's something i can live with :)

Ingredients :
Parboiled rice (Idli rice) - 2 cups
Urad daal - 1 cup
Methi seeds 1 spoon
Salt to taste
Water
Oats - 1 cup

Method :

Soak Rice and urad daal + methi separately for 6-8 hours. Just 15 minutes before grinding it, soak the oats in just enough water to cover it. Grind the urad daal + methi first till you get a fluffy batter. Remove it from the grinder / mixer. Add rice and the soaked oats and add enough water and grind it well. Mix this with urad daal batter and add salt and mix well. The batter should not be too thin. It should be little thick. Let it ferment overnight.

Apply few drops of oil in the idli moulds and steam it for 15-20 mins in the idli cooker.

To check whether it is done, insert a fork. It should come out clean.

Note : Depending on the brand of rice and urad daal use the quantity may differ. Use the rice and oats in 3:1 proportion. After couple of days, you can use the same batter to make dosas and with added oats you get golden brown, crisp dosas To make dosas, add little water to the batter to make it slightly . I forgot to take pictures of the dosa.

Oatmeal Paniyaram - a healthy and yummy snack

I made these from leftover oatmeal rava idli batter and it was totally yum. You can add grated carrots to it too.
Here is the recipe recap :
Ingredients :
Toasted Oats - 1 cup
Rava (Sooji) - 1 cup
Yogurt - 1 cup
Water - as required
Salt - as required
Mustard seeds, urad daal, channa daal, hing for seasoning
Eno salt - 2 spoons
Grated carrots - as desired



Method :Mix oats with rava, salt and yogurt.Add water as required. The consistency of the batter should be similar to idly batter.Let it sit for an hour.In a pan, heat little oil and pop mustard seeds.Add urad daal, channa daal (Approx 1 spoon each) and hing and fry till they are golden brown.Add to the batter.Add 2 spoons of eno salt and sprinkle some water and mix well.The batter will raise and look like fermented idli batter.

Apply 1 or 2 drops of oil to each impression in the kuzhipaniyaram pan (or Aebleskiver Pan). Fill the impression with batter. Fill it only half way as it puffs up. Cook for about 2,3 minutes and turn each paniyaram with the wooden spoon and cook for some more time. Check by inserting the back of a spoon to see if it sticks. If it doesn't, then it is done and you can remove them from the pan.

This is a yummy variation to the idli as it is crispy and kids love it. My kids call them salty balls and it's their favorite snack now :)

I am back with Oats Rava Idli

Hello everyone!! Sorry for disappearing all of a sudden. I was not planning to take a break and was thinking of blogging atleast once a week, but i just could not squeeze in any time. Usually when i take a break from blogging, i used to blog hop atleast, but i could not spend a minute on blogging or blog hopping. I really missed a lot of yummy recipes, yummy events and so on.
I hope i can get back to blogging (and blog hopping) now..atleast once a week.

Some of you have given me some wonderful awards and i truly apologize for not acknowledging them here. I am sure it's gonna take me some time to recollect all of them. I feel little lost now.

Hope you all are doing good and thanks for those who were checking on me. I will start visiting your blogs regularly too.
I thought i will start with a healthy, tasty recipe...

Oats Rava Idly :
Toasted Oats - 1 cup
Rava (Sooji) - 1 cup
Yogurt - 1 cup
Water - as required
Salt - as required
Mustard seeds, urad daal, channa daal, hing for seasoning
Eno salt - 2 spoons


Method :
Dry grind toasted oats.
Mix it with rava, salt and yogurt.
Add water as required. The consistency of the batter should be similar to idly batter.
Let it sit for an hour.
In a pan, heat little oil and pop mustard seeds.
Add urad daal, channa daal (Approx 1 spoon each) and hing and fry till they are golden brown.
Add to the batter.
Add 2 spoons of eno salt and sprinkle some water and mix well.
The batter will raise and look like fermented idli batter.
Pour them in idli plates and steam them for 15 minutes.
When you insert a skewer, it should come clean.

Tastes yum with chutney and/or moongdaal sambar.

I have included a closeup photo of the idlies to show how soft and fluffy they are.

They tasted very good too. I liked them better than the regular rava idlis and my kids loved them too.

Oatmeal Poha - Revisited and entries for two events

My kids don't like Rice that much, that is if the rice looks like rice :) So, i use Rice flakes (Aval) and Rice noodles (Sevai) very frequently and here are few recipes that they love.

1. Oatmeal Poha - Version 2.

I added onions and carrots to the original recipe and it was healthier and yummier.

Ingredients :


Thick Poha (rice flakes) - 1.5 cups
Oven toasted oatmeal - 1 cup
Green chillies - 4
Salt to taste
Mustard seeds, curry leaves, urad daal, channa daal and hing for seasoning
roasted peanuts - a handful or more
Cilantro - to garnish
Turmeric powder - a pinch
lemon juice - to taste.
Onion - 1 (large)
Carrots - 2 (grated)

Method :

Wash poha in water. Sprinkle some water on the oatmeal to make it damp and mix the washed poha which is also soft now.

Meanwhile, finely chop the onions and grate the carrots.Heat some oil and pop mustard seeds. Add green chillies, turmeric powder, urad daal and channa daal and fry it till it is golden brown.
Add the onions and cook till they are translucent. Add carrots and cook for couple of minutes. Turn the stove to sim and add the poha-oatmeal mix, salt and cook for couple of minutes. Since it is soft it gets cooked in a jiffy. Add roasted peanuts and garnish with finely chopped cilantro and add some lemon juice to it and mix well.

My kids love rice flakes and here are two more of their favorites :

MW Chivda

Tomato Poha : It's a family favorite and it tastes as good as tomato rice and can be made in a jiffy.

After Poha, next best way to make them eat rice is by Sevai (rice noodles) and here are few types of Sevai that my kids love.


Lemon Sevai

Coconut Sevai :

These are my entries to CFK : Rice an event started by Sharmi and Mahi's 15 minute cooking event.

Protein added Oatmeal Rava dosa

Though my kids are picky eaters, they seem to like some good stuff too :) Oatmeal is one of them. I used to make Oatmeal Rava Dosa once or twice a week to avoid dinner time battle. I wanted to increase the protein in it. I modified my earlier recipe and added 1 cup of Besan to it. I love besan because just one cup of besan has 21g of protein (almost 3 times the protein in 1cup of milk). Dosas came out well and tasted good. Best part -the kids love it.




Here's the recipe for it :
Toasted Instant Oatmeal - 1 cup (dry grind it)
Rava (Cream of wheat) - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1 cup
Besan /Chickpea flour - 1 cup
Buttermilk - 1 cup
Water - as per the consistency
Salt to taste
Cumin seeds- 1/2 spoon (approx)
grated carrot - 1 cup (optional)
green chillies - finely chopped and as per taste (optional)
cilantro - finely chopped
fenugreek leaves or baby spinach - finely chopped (optional)
Mix all the ingredients and let it soak for atleast an hour. Add more water if necessary. The consistency should be as thin as rava dosa batter. Heat the dosa girdle and make dosas.

I am sending this for Ramki's Recipes for the rest of us

I am also sending this for JFI Chickpea hosted by MS and Srivalli's MLLA, an event started by Susan and JFI Chickpea hosted by MS.