Foodie Workz

I decided to prepare this poha for lunch one day for myself as I usually never get to make this.  My kids are not a big fan of the Poha dishes, though this can be a good snack when they get home hungry.  However, as this poha alone would not quite keep me filled up, I decided to add some cooked lobiya to it.   This was quite delicious and enjoyed it thoroughly with some usual seasonings. 1 cup thick poha - washed and soaked in abt 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup of cooked lobiya water drained(I soaked 1/4 cup of lobiya just for this purpose and got a 1/2 cup heaped amount of lobiya -cooked with little salt) 1 tsp mustard seeds 1.5 tsp urad dal hing powder 1 red chilli curry leaves salt to taste 1 tblsp oil grated coconut to taste crushed black pepper to taste Take the oil, splutter the mustard, urad, red chilli, hing and curryleaves, add the poha and salt needed and stir till it combines well.  Add the lobiya, crushed pepper and stir once again....

This traditional lentil masala vada has been prepared mainly using dried green peas.  This is equally flavorful but more light and crisp in texture compared to the traditional counterpart. 1 cup dried green peas 2 tblsp each of tuar and chana dal 1/2 of a medium onion 1 tsp fennel seeds 2-3 garlic clove 3-4 green chillies small ginger piece salt to taste chopped coriander leaves Soak the green peas overnight.  Soak the tuar and chana dal 3 hours before grinding.  Drain out the water completely from both the dals and grind with the fennel seeds, garlic, ginger and salt.  You can reserve little bit of the tuar and chana dal to add in the end to the batter and use the rest in the start.  Towards the end add the coarsely chopped onion and coriander leaves. Take about a spoonful of the batter, flatten it into a 1/2 inch thick circle and deep fry in hot oil. Remove when golden brown in color. Enjoy these vadas with some ketchup or chutney.

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

A snack cannot get any better if it is just steam cooked with lot of vegetables and these Muthias are all about this.  Muthias is one of the most popular Gujarati recipes which is traditionally made with vegetables like lauki or methi leaves and gramflour. They are  just steam cooked with very little oil added for binding the dough.  Ever since I came upon this recipe on Manjula's Kitchen , I have been a fan of this simple and healthy delicacy.  Having tried these using cabbage and methi leaves, today I experimented with some radishes.  As always, the taste was just awesome!!!    5 oz red radish( I used 6 oz but felt could have used less - hence 5 oz) 1/2 cup besan 1 tblsp wheat flour 1/2 tsp salt 1 green chili chopped 1 tbsp crushed kasoori methi 1/2 tsp jeera 1/4 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp lemon juice 1 tbsp oil Seasoning 1 tbsp oil 1/4 tsp mustard 1 tsp sesame seeds chopped coriander leaves 1 long red ch...

Ragda Patties, a very popular Indian street food, is typically made with dried white peas.  But I have made these using some dried green peas.  This makes a wholesome and a healthy snack for the kids coming home hungry from school.  This dish goes to CWS - Peas event of Priya  and  HLI  event hosted @  Veg Junction  originally started by  Kalyani . For the ragda: 1 cup green peas 1 small tomato 1 small piece ginger 1 green chili 1/2 tsp each cumin and coriander powder 1/4 tsp chili powder 1/2 tsp paprika 1/4 tsp black salt(I did not have any) 1/2 tsp garam masala 1/8 to 1/4 black pepper powder salt few sprigs of coriander leaves chopped finely chopped onions green chutney and sweet chutney if preferred Sev For the patties: 2 medium to large size potatoes 4-5 green chilies grated 1 tsp grated ginger 3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves some lemon  juice salt to taste Oil for frying Preparation of the Ragda: ...

I came upon this simple recipe on the net, while I was just looking for some recipes with dates.  They turned out to be really wonderful and I could never tell that there were dates in them.  It is one good way to get the kids to eat dates which are known for its essential nutrient, mineral and vitamin contents.  I just felt I should have gone with my intuition of toasting the chopped walnuts before adding them.  That would have really brought out the nutty flavor in the cookies. 1.5 cups flour(combined all purpose and whole wheat pastry flour equally) 100 gms softened butter 1/2 cup sugar 1 egg(substituted with a tbsp of milk and 3 tbsp oil combined) 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp cinnamon powder(i used 1/2 tsp) 1/2 cup tightly packed chopped dates 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips(optional) pinch of salt Cream the butter and the sugar in a bowl.  Add the egg to it and beat it further.  In another bowl mix the flour, ...

I had these sprouted moth beans sitting in my fridge for a few days now.....hence decided to make some vadas in combination with green gram.  And they turned out to be the perfect snack for a cold day!!! 1 cup sprouted moth beans 1/2 split green gram with skin 1/4 cup of chopped spring onions(white part) handful of small broccoli florets processed 4 green chilies(about3/4 inch in length) few corinader leaves small ginger piece salt to taste Soak the green gram for 2 hrs.  Drain the water completely and grind into a coarse paste along with moth beans, chilies and ginger.  Towards the end add the coriander leaves and process it further.  To this paste add the onions, broccoli and salt and mix well. Take a small portion of the mix, flatten it in your palm and deep fry in hot oil till a nice golden color. Enjoy these crispies with some chutney or ketchup!! This one is off to CWS-Mung Beans event  at Priya's blog.

Diwali is a time for joy and celebration and it is never complete without sweets and snacks.  Snacks being a favorite in my household, I usually end up preparing more snacks than sweets.  Kai Murukku is a very popular South Indian snack and is also well enjoyed by all of us at home.   Not many people prepare this at home as making them as it is a time consuming effort which requires patience and practice. 2 cups Rice Flour 2 tsp Urad Flour 2 to 2.5 tbsp butter brought to room temperature 1 to 1.25 tsp salt 2 tsp cumin seeds 2 tsp sesame seeds two pinches of hing powder Begin my making the urad dal flour. Roast some split urad dal on medium heat till it becomes light reddish brown in color.  Cool this down and ground to a fine powder.  Seive out the coarse parts.  Any extra can always be used the next time or added in kootu.  If using store bought flour,  roast the flour till it slight changes color.  Combine both the flou...

I prepared thsese namakparas many months ago which I had not posted in my blog. Now with the Healthy Bakes event going on it was apt for me to post it now and send it to the Healthy Cooking Challenge-Healthy Bakes an event of Smitha and guest hosted by Priya of Easy and Tasty recipes. 1/2 cup wheat flour 1/2 cup all purpose flour salt to taste chilli powder to taste 1/4 tea spoon garlic powder or 1 clove of garlic 2 handfuls of mint leaves 2 table spoon oil or softened butter Grind the mint leaves coarsely with garlic if using the fresh one or chop it fine.  Mix the flour with salt, chilli powder and garlic powder if using the powder.   Add the oil and rub it in thoroughly till all the flour is well coated with the oil.  Add the mint and very little water to knead it into a tight dough. Roll it out into a thin roti and cut them into 1 inch by 2 inch strips.  Transfer these to a greased baking sheet. Stick into a oven preheated...

One can never forget the vegetable puffs which we have enjoyed during our childhood days.  Now the wonderful Frozen Puff Pastry sheets have made it easier to prepare these mouth watering snacks at home.  When I started using these sheets after coming to the US, all I would prepare was a potato filling.  However as times passed,  I learnt that the filling need not be restricted to just potatoes to be tasty.  My kids like these so much that they prefer them over the potato filled puffs. 1 Puff Pastry Sheet from the packet 1 1/2 cups tightly packed thawed (frozen) cut spinach leaves 3/4 cup of grated cheese tightly packed(I used 4cheese mexican) salt to taste 1/2 tsp paprika powder 1/2 of a very small onion finely chopped Take the spinach in a microwave safe bowl and heat it up for a couple of minutes.  After a while, squeeze out all the water from it.  Process the leaves till it looks like it has been finely chopped.  Add the onion,...

As mentioned in my other MAITRI post, I made these onion fritters and it came out really good....it was all gone in a few minutes!!! 1/2 cup besan/gramflour 1/4 cup corn flour 1 medium onion chopped into thin 1 inch slices 3/4 tsp chili powder 1/2 tsp salt pinch of baking soda, turmeric, hing and orange food colour water for the batter oil for frying Transfer the chopped onions into a bowl, add 1/4 tsp salt and set it aside.  I did this step in the beginning thinking I will do the crispy pakoda which uses almost no water.  Later I changed my mind to do the soft pakoda variety(which is liked by all of us at home).  So,  I added all the dry ingredients in a different bowl.  To this I added 1/2 cup water and made into a thick batter.  As the onions let out some water because of the addition of salt, I added 2 tablespoon of rice flour.  I then combined this with the batter and fried them in hot oil till golden and crispy. Drop the onions into ...

This recipe goes towards MAITRI, a friendship chain created for food bloggers across N America.where a bogger sends a mystery ingredient to another blogger who then whips up something with it and blogs about it.  For more details on MAITRI, visit the blog site of Priya or Reshmi   who are behind this. As a part of this chain, I was matched with Shylaja who had sent me a packet of cornflour and a cute little bunch of decor grapes.  Eventhough I could tell right away, I made sure it was cornflour by tasting it and getting a confirmation from Shylaja.  The bunch of grapes are sitting along with my other artificial fruits on the center of the dining table. Well coming back to the food part,  I was not quite sure what to do with this flour as I am not a big fan of corn.  After about three days since I received the packet, I came upon with this idea of using them in a Dhokla.   As I decided to combine cornflour with some besan,  I was le...

3/4 cup boiled kidney beans 3/4 cup boiled black eyed beans 2 medium potatoes 1/2 cup chopped onions 1/2 of yellow capsicum/peppers 3-4 green chillies 3 tsp grated ginger 3 big garlic cloves 3 tsp lemon juice salt to taste chopped coriander Take oil and saute the onions lightly. Add green chilli, garlic and ginger, stir for half a minute and add the the finely chopped capsicum. Add a pinch of salt for it to cook faster. Turn off once it is done and leave it to cool. Take the beans in a food processor and run it to get a coarse mixture. Add the cooled vegetables and pulse for it to process lightly and get mixed. Transfer these to a bowl of coarsely mashed potatoes. Add the necessary salt, the lemon juice and the coriander leaves to combine well into a dough. You can always check if the salt and spices are well blended by tasting a small piece. Make big lemon sized balls and shape them into round patties. I baked half of them and cooked the rest half on the stove top with a teasp...

Here in the US you get something like the kuzhi paniyaram pan called the filled pancake pan....these are used to make paniyaram like pancakes with fresh fruit fillings of your choice. I came across this in a cookware catalog and fancied it so much that my friend gifted it to me for my housewarming party. Since the time I got this pan, I have not only made the stuffed pancakes but made all kinds of quick paniyarams using pancake mix, paniyarams with idli, dosa and adai batters.....and low calorie bondas and koftas. Anyway, I had to get rid of this lovely pan once it started to wear out. I now have the non stick kuzhi paniyaram pan from India. The holes in this are very much smaller than the pancake pan. Nevertheless, they still give the delicious treats that we are looking for. The quick banana paniyaram is much liked by my kids that I never hesitate to make when I have ripened bananas and some store bought multigrain pancake mix. I very much like this multigrain mix from the l...

Whenever I come across any cooking events in the food blog sites, I begin to think as to how I can come up with recipes or variations of recipes that will be apt for the event. So when I heard about the Herbs and Flowers in my platter event, I was very excited and without any hesitation immediately sent in my Coriander Pulao and Coriander Mint Paste entries. However, I wanted to cook up something different and decided to try out the very famous Dhokla with lot of coriander leaves. To add more interest, I also decided to use some capsicum/bell peppers - the green variety. In the past, I have substituted these peppers for the regular green chilies to get the similar flavors without the heat with the intention to avoid spicy foods. However, today I was using them partially for the above reason and also to get the benefits of this vegetable....each 100 gm of these peppers contain 80 mg of Vitamin C which is 134 % of the daily value......compared to green peppers, red peppers have mor...

Yesterday being Rama Navami, I decided to make some Medhu Vadas....however they ended up being Bondas as I got little extra water in the batter.. along with Neer Mor and Paanagam... the traditional offering to Lord Rama.  I was not too keen on making any sweets as I am the only one gulping it down. Anyway, having decided that, I wanted to get in some veggies into the bondas and decided to use the zucchinis for a change and lot of chopped coriander.  Eventhough the traditional bondas have only urad dal(black gram lentil), I decided to add some toor dal for color and rice for crispness.  They were indeed nice and crispy!! 3/4 cup urad dal (split or whole) 3 tbsp toor dal 1 tbsp rice 2 green chillies(increase it for more spice) 1 inch ginger piece handful of coriander leaves chopped 1 medium zucchini grated with skin salt to taste oil for frying Soak the first three ingredients for 3-4 hours.  Drain and rinse and grind this into a smooth fluffy paste....

To me muffins are a versatile food in that it can be had for breakfast, as a snack or as a dessert.  I enjoy making them as much as my kids enjoy eating them.  I got hooked to this muffin recipe on  Zesty South Indian Kitchen as it has very less oil and used a combination of wheat flour and oats. Having tried this, I decided to send this to Priya's Bookmarked Recipes - Every Tuesday .  But I made a few changes like replacing the egg with milk and oil and some pecans instead of walnuts. Here is what I did: 1/2 cup wheat flour 1/4 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup quick oats(powder it coarse) 2 ripe bananas 1/3 cup packed brown sugar 1/8 cup oil 1/4 cup milk(can use fat free) 1 tbsp milk plus 3 tbsp oil(instead of 1 egg) 1/4 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp cinnamon powder 1/8 tsp ginger powder 1/8 tsp clove powder 1/4 cup chopped pecans 1/4 tsp salt Pre heat the oven to 375 degrees.  Combine all the dry ingredients well...

 Who does not love the yummy aloo bondas from the south or the very popular batata vada....I decided to recreate this fried treat with as little oil as possible and came up this version.   It is no wonder that I am tempted to send this entry to Fast Food NOT Fat Food 2011 (March 1 - April 15) run by Priya of Now Serving 1 big potato 1" piece ginger grated 2 green chillies(increase it if you want it more spicy) 2-3 garlic cloves(for batata vada) lemon juice to taste salt to taste pinch of hing and turmeric powder 1/2 tsp garam masala powder(for batata vada)(optional)  2 tbsp chopped coriander 4 bread slices 2 tbsp corn flour salt to taste 1/2 tsp paprika powder little water Boil the potato, peel and mash it coarsely.  Season some mustard seeds, the green chillies and ginger and cook the mashed potatoes on the stove top for a while with some salt, hing and turmeric and add the lemon juice in the end.  I was in a hurry to get this thing done f...

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.