Foodie Workz

A very simple and a healthy lunch box dish for the kids which can be prepared even in the busy morning rush.... 4 slices of bread 2 ounces of frozen chopped spinach 2 ounces of grated cheese(used four cheese mexican) salt and pepper to taste 1/4 tsp paprika powder 1 table spoon of chopped spring onions Cook the spinach in the microwave and squeeze out the water.  Combine this, the cheese and the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.  Spread this mixture between two slices of bread.  Apply butter on the outer side and toast on a medium hot tawa until golden brown on both sides. Sending this to  Breakfast Club  event hosted at  Krithi's Kitchen  and to  HLI - Spinach  event of  Kalyani  running at  Sin-a-Mon . Tip:  Add a spoon of flax seeds to the filling mixture for added nutrition

1 cup steel cut oats 1/2 of an onion chopped fine 1 medium carrot 1/3 cup each of frozen beans and frozen peas 1-2 green chilies chopped small piece of ginger grated 1/2 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp urad dal few curry leaves Heat up a spoon of oil or ghee and roast the oats till it changes color and you begin to get a nice aroma.  Keep it aside. Heat up a table spoon of oil and splutter the mustard seeds followed by urad dal.  Add the chilies and ginger and stir for 1/2 a minute.  Follow it with onions and saute it on high for a minute. Add the beans and add the carrot and peas after a minute.  Add salt just enough for the vegetables and cook covered on low to medium heat for 3 minutes.  In the meanwhile heat up about 2 cups of water and add it to the vegetables. Once it begins to bubble, add the oats and the needed salt and let it come to a nice boil.  Cover the pan with a lid and cook the oats on low heat.  It took about 20 minutes for ...

With the leftover dosa batter after making the masala dosas, I wanted to do something different.   Adding any vegetables to a dosa batter and preparing them becomes an Uthappam.  However, I wanted to try it out differently. I remembered that Kanjeevaram Idlis are done using the seasonings given below which are sauteed with some cashew nuts and then added to the batter or they are just simply added to the batter without sauteing.  I decided to use all those ingredients excepting the cashews and also some vegetables sauteed and then use it in the batter. Here is what I did: 3 cups of dosa batter 3 stalks of celery trimmed 1 small carrot peeled few sprigs or coriander leaves with the stems 3 spring onion stems - just use only the green part 1 green chili chopped finely 1 small piece of ginger chopped 1/2 tsp of pepper cumin powder coarse 2 tsp of chana dal soaked and drained Process the celery stalk coarsely and also the carrot and the coriander leaves.  C...

While the word Upma usually refers to Rawa/Sooji Upma, we have other many varieties using  ingredients like the Semiya, Sago and Poha.  Yet another variety of Upma is the Arisi Upma or Rice Upma which is a very traditional preparation in the Tamil Brahmin households.  It is done by processing the rice and the toor dal to a coarse rawa like consistency.  Usually the rice is powdered and stored for quick use and the toor dal is ground just before making the upma.  These days it is being substitued with the store bought cream of rice (raw) which is readily available.  Growing up, I was really fond of this Upma and could never say enough to it.  It tastes so good with some sambar:-) Anyway, in continuation of my Quinoa experiments and also after the conversation I had with my friend, I realised that Quinoa is a perfect ingredient for this dish....thanks to her, I now have this wonderful recipe which I will never hesitate to do whenever I want a quick fix...

In this health conscious world,every body is trying to incorporate all the good grains into their diet instead of the traditional Rice.  One such grain(or a seed I must say) that has caught every one's attention is QUINOA ( pronounced as kee-n-wah).  This is not new to many of the innovative cooks out there in the blogging as well as the non blogging world.  In fact, I have heard of some friends who eat this like the regular  rice. I have tried Quinoa Upma and Pulao and Puliyogare was my recent attempt.  There are quite a few recipes out there using Quinoa in  idlis, dosas and adais - the typical breakfast dishes of South India.  I too was keen on attempting to do this.  But I was a little skeptical given the fact that my husband does not relish  Quinoa as much as I do.  And getting the kids to eat is going to be out of question. As I was pondering, I decided to include  Quinoa into a variety of Dosa called Venthaya(methi seed)...

1/2 cup Barley 2 table spoon moong dal 1 cup chopped mixed vegetables - carrots, potato, beans and peas(cut the potato bigger, slice the carrots into1/4 inch thickness and chop the beans 1 cm long) 1/4 of an onion chopped 1 tsp jeera 1 green chilli chopped or slit ginger small piece chopped 1/8th tsp ground pepper salt to taste 1 tbsp oil or ghee turmeric small pinch water Soak the barley for 3 hours.  Take a pan with oil.  Season jeera, ginger, green chilli and add the onion to saute for a couple of minutes.  Add the pepper powder, stir and add the vegetables.  Toss them for a few  minutes and add the turmeric and salt.  Transfer this to the barley and dal mixture.  Keep water in the ratio of 1:4 and cook in the pressure cooker for ten minutes.  When you remove it will be slightly watery, but as it cools down it will thicken.  I am sending this to  Wholesome Wholegrain Cooking - Barley for Breakfast event.

1 cup brown rice flour 1/3 cup barley flour 2/3 cup cream of rice 1/2 cup urad dal Soak the urad dal for about 4-5 hours. Soak all the flour and the cream of rice together in 3 cups of water. The paste should be thick in consistency. Grind the urad dal to a smooth frothy paste. Mix this paste with the flour mixture and add more water if needed to bring to the consistency of idli batter. Add salt and let it ferment overnight. It is then ready to be made into idlis.

Quick Oats - 1/4 cup(ground to a coarse consistency) Rice Flour and Fine Sooji combined - 1/4 cup Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp Salt - little less than 1/2 tsp Finely chopped onion - 1/3 cup Green chillies - 1 to 2 finely chopped Ginger - finely chopped small piece Coriander leaves chopped - 1 tbsp Mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly. Add the onions, green chillies, ginger and coriander leaves. Give a good stir. Add about 1/3 cup of water and mix it well. Leave this mixture aside for 30 mts. Have the kuzhi paniyaram pan ready with about a tsp of oil in each hole. Drop a spoonful batter into each hole after the oil is heated up. Once it is cooked on one side, turn them over and add more oil if needed. They can be served with coconut or green chutney.

Broken brown rice 1 1/4 cup Broken tuar dal about a handful Flax seed powder 5 tsp Salt to taste Mustard 1 tsp Urad dal 2 tsp Small piece of red chilli Green chilli 2 nos Ginger 1 inch piece grated Curry leaves few hing a pinch Coconut grated(optional) Oil 2-3 tbsp Water 21/2 cups Take oil in a kadai. Once it is hot enough add all the seasoning ingredients starting with mustard. As soon as you add the hing, add water and salt and let it come to just close to boiling. Reduce the flame and slowly add the broken rice and tuar dal stirring at the same time to make sure there are no lumps. Increase the heat and keep cooking until it comes together to a ball like consistency. Let this cool a bit. Once cooled, shape these into oval balls and place them on greased idli plates. Steam for 15 mts. Serve with any kind of chutney, sambar or kothsu. Broken brown rice is not readily available in stores. It has to be prepared at home. Wash the rice and let it drain thoroughly. Sp...

Parboiled rice ¾ cup Raw rice ¼ cup Barley ½ cup Cracked wheat fine ¼ cup Toor dal ½ cup Chana dal ½ cup Urad dal ¼ cup Moong dal ¼ cup Frozen turnip greens Thanks to the internet, I learned that Barley can be substituted while making idlis, dosas and adais. However, here is my version of Barley adai. Soak all the rice and the dals together and the barley and cracked wheat separately for about 3 hrs. Grind the dal and the rice first adding redchillies and curry leaves. After it becomes a bit coarse, add in the barley and continue to grind for five more minutes. Add the cracked wheat in the end and let it go for a couple of minutes. Add salt to the batter. The batter is ready to make crispy adais. Just before making the adai, add some thawed turnip greens to the batter. Any kind of greens can be added to the batter along with grated vegetables of your choice like onions, cabbage, cauliflower or brocolli. Since this was my first attempt at using barley and also because of...

1 cup fine semolina roasted 1 cup barley rawa ½ cup finely chopped onion 2 cups buttermilk ½ tsp baking soda 1 and ½ tsp salt 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp urad dal 1 tsp chana dal 2 tbsp cashew nuts Curry leaves Coriander leaves How to make the barley rawa Process the barley to the consistency of cracked wheat. This cannot be done in one stretch but intermittently. Pulse it a few times and use the fine sieve to remove the fine powder and the coarse sieve to get the coarse barley. Take the leftover barley and follow the same procedure until you get one cup of barley rawa. While doing this, I ended up with only about ¾ cup(I had only a small amount of barley in my pantry). Roast this barley and let it soak in same amount of water. Combine rawa, salt and soda thoroughly in a bowl and have it ready. In the meanwhile, prepare the seasoning. Roast the mustard, chana dal, urad dal, cashews , chillies and curry leaves. Add the onions and conti...