Vegetable Frittata

Made this as breakfast. It includes lot many healthy options. Easy to prepare, healthy to eat. I won second prize for this recipe as part of Savory Baking Competition held by an online group. I named so since i have used wide range of vegetables along with egg. If you don't like egg, you can use egg replacements (haven't tried it though with egg replacement :) ).
Ingredients :

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 small cucumbet [i used persian cucumber; zuccini can also be used]

2 green chillies finely chopped

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms [fresh or dried]

few beans, finely chopped

1/2 carrot thinly sliced

6 bok choy florets  nicely chopped

1 tablespoon butter

8 eggs (i used 6 egg whites and just 2 full eggs)

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

small amount of Maggi Hot and Sweet sauce

Vegetable Frittata

Preparation

Pre-heat oven for 400 degrees F.

Spread butter inside [all around] 8 inch pan.

Place onion, green chillies,cucumber, mushrooms, beans, carrots, bok choy in 8 inch pan. [Arrange one by one as shown in the pics]

Cook the vegetables in oven for 3-5 mins or until they become half crunchy, half baked.

Step-by-step process of vegetable frittata

Now, in a bowl, beat eggs, pour milk, add salt, pepper, hot & sweet sauce, whist altogether until the mixture is little bit fluffy with bubbles.

Pour the mixture on to the vegetables evenly.

Let it cook for 25 to 35 minutes.

For checking, poke with a fork in the middle and see if the fork come out clearly without food sticking to it. That is the right consistency of baking.

Once it is well cooked, take out of oven and let it cool down for couple of minutes, slice it into pieces, and serve it hot with oranges on the side :)   [don't forget to switch off the oven ;) ]

Barely Bread

I made this barely bread from scratch at home. Am very happy to bake it fresh in the morning and have it for breakfast :)  This is an instant type bread, so easy to make it and enjoy the taste right away! Hope you all like my recipe...

Ingredients 

1 cup milk, 2 eggs, 3 tbsps sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 1/2 cup barley flour, pinch of salt, mustard seeds (optional)

Barely Bread

Method :

pre-heat oven for 350 degrees. meanwhile, prepare batter :
In a bowl, break eggs, add milk, sugar, baking powder - whisk altogether;
Now, add both the flours mix it without lumps. add mustard seeds.
Grease non-stick loaf bread pan or an 8 inch square pan with butter.
pour the batter into the pan and bake it in oven for 25 to 35 mins.

Basic baking done testing - poke with a fork, all the way thru the bottom of the pan and take it out; if u see liquid batter on the fork, then it still needs time to bake.
once bread is done, let it cool down, take it out from pan, cut into loafs and enjoy with the spread of your choice :)

Capsicum (Bell Pepper) Rice

It came out really good. I didn't expected this taste from bell pepper :)
Ingredients
Bell Pepper  2 (1 red and 1 green for contrast )
Onion    1
Frozen Peas  few
Oil  to saute
Salt to taste
Cashews   few
Mint leaves few, Cilantro  few
Corriander powder 1 tsp
Cumin powder   1/2 tsp
Green Chillies   4
Red Chillies     2
Whole Spices  :  Bay Leaves few, 4 cloves, Cumins, 2 Cinnammon Sticks and Kasoor Methi
Rice        2 cups

--> Take oil sufficient for saute. First saute the whole spices. Add mustard seeds. Add cashews.
--> Now add all the other ingredients except mint and cilantro and saute until well done.
--> Cook rice and add this rice to the above sauteed mixture.
--> Finally sprinkle, cilantro and mint and serve it hot.

Sabudana (Tapioca) Vada

 Ingredients :
         Sabudana   1  cup
         Rice Flour   1 1/2 cup
         Green Chillies 2
         Cilantro    few chopped
         Potato     1
         Salt to taste

Procedure
--> Soak Sabudana overnight. (pour water only until sabudana gets dipped. or else they become mushy)
--> Mix Chopped Green Chillies, Grated Potato, Cilantro, Rice flour, Salt, little bit yogurt and mix altogether.
--> Make them into small patties over a ziploc and deep fry them in the pan.
--> thats it, ready to serve it hot with Ginger-tamarind chutney or ketchup/Tomato chilli sauce.

Oats Idli

           Very healthy recipe; Lessens the spike of insulin level when consumed. Hope you will enjoy.
Ingredients
Steel Cut Oats (or Irish Oats)    1  cup
Semolina            1 cup
Baking Powder   1 and half tsp
Yogurt              as required
Salt        to taste



Prepare Oats
Blend the oats into coarse powder and use 1 cup for idli preparation. remaining you can store it in a box and use them for other recipes.

Preparation
Take few tsps of oil in a pan and put Basic popu.
Now add semolina and roast it till golden brown. Add Oats powder to the semolina mixture and let it heat up.
Let the entire mixture cool down and add Yogurt/Buttermilk until the consistency to make as idli. Add baking powder, salt to the mixture. The batter looks almost exactly like the batter for Vermicelli Idli.
Now, place the batter in the idli plates and cook them on steam for just 12 mins.
Take out idlis from plates, and serve them hot with  peanut chutney  or any other chutney of your choice.

Bread Burji

Hmm, today I came up with very simple recipe, which could be even easy for bachelors to prepare as weekend breakfasts. Do no worry about big list of ingredients, as all of them are easy to process :)

Ingredients

6 Bread Slices (I prefer wheat bread with no grains)

2 potatoes

5 Thai Green Chillies

1 big Onion

3 Egg whites (reduces cholesterol. U can add yolks if u like)

Oil for saute

Cilantro few leaves

½  tbsp  Kasoori Methi

Salt to taste.

1 tsp Black Pepper

1 tsp Corriander Powder

Tempering Ingredients (urad dal, cumins, mustard seeds)

Mint few leaves

Method:

• Cut the bread slices into small pieces and toast them with little amount of oil. Let them turn golden brown.
• Extract egg whites, add entire required salt, whisk it thoroughly and keep it aside. (PS: remember do not add any more salt to the recipe)
• Take oil in a pan and put tempering. Add green chillies, Kasoori Methi, Mint leaves, black pepper.
• Add chopped potatoes; Let them half done, then add chopped onions. Let the onions become tender.Add corriander powder.
• Now add egg whites, stir it until it becomes scrambled egg.
• Now add toasted bread slices to the above scramble and let it cook for 5 mins or till the bread slices absorb the flavor.
• Finally add cilantro and serve it hot with Hot n Sweet Sauce.

Garelu

Raw Material
Urad Dal(whole)              2 cups
Oil                                  required for deep frying
Salt                                 as required

Preparation:
--> Wash urad dal and soak them for atleast 5 hours.
--> Grind them with very little amount of water. Be careful batter should be very thick; shouldn't be loose at all. Add salt during blending itself.
--> Pour oil (sufficient for deep frying) into a pan and let it heat up.
--> Now take a ziploc and rub it with water.
--> Take a small dumpling of the above prepared batter and press it on ziploc make it like patti.
--> Take out each patti carefully and put it in heated oil. Let them fry until golden brown, take out of oil and serve them hot with ginger chutney.

Vermicelli Idli

Ingredients
Vermicelli         1/2 cup
Sooji                1/2 cup
Cashews           few
Baking powder  1 tsp
Yogurt/Buttermilk    atleast half carton
Salt                   as required

Procedure:
--> Roast Sooji in a dry pan with med-hi flame. Let it become half roast and then add vermicelli.
--> Let the vermicelli get roasted;
--> Once vermicelli is half done, add cashews and let them roast altogether until golden brown.

--> Remember to stir on continuously, otherwise, sooji and vermicelli gets burnt soon.
--> Once the entire mixture is roast and ready, let it cool down completely. (i usually do this roasting part the night before making idli)
--> Now add baking powder and yogurt/buttermilk until the consitency of the batter is good to pour as idli.

Batter for Vermicelli Idli

--> Pour the batter into idli plates and steam idli in pressure cooker for 10 minutes and switch off the flame;
--> Open the lid after 15 minutes and serve it hot with split dalia chutney and ginger-tamarind chutney.
Here is the link for  Chutneys
Enjoy different chutneys acc., to ur taste.

Sabudana Kichidi

Ingredients

Sabudana           1 cup (8 oz)

Potatoes             2 small

Onions               1 medium

Green Chillies     5 thai or acc to your spice

Tempering Ingredients  Urad dal, jeera(cumin seeds), mustard seeds, curry leaves

Oil                     5 tbsp

Cashews            few

Salt                    to taste

Kasoor Methi(optional)    few

Turmeric       pinch

Cilantro      

Procedure
1) Wash sabudana and Soak it overnight.
Soaking instructions :
--> Pour sabudana into a bowl and pour water "just until the sabudana gets dipped".  Do not add too much water as it becomes soggy.
--> Let them soak it for atleast 3 hours. Usually i keep it overnight so that next morning i can make it as breakfast.
--> Once they get soaked, they should be like dry, not sticking to each other; Separate lumps with hands if any.

Soaked sabudana should look like this individual balls. shouldn't stick together

2) Chop the green chillies, Onions, Potatoes and keep them aside.
3) Now, take oil into a pan (wide opened pan is preferable, as it makes cooking sabudana easy to stir more space to move around.) and let it heat up.
4) Add Cashews let them half roast then add tempering ingredients and green chillies. Add few leaves of Kasoor Methi.
5) Now, add potatoes, salt, stir altogether; close the lid and let it cook on Medium flame for 5-7 mins or until the potato pieces becomes tender.
6) Now add chopped onion pieces close the lid again and let it cook until the onions become tender/transparent. You can add corriander powder/peanut powder for taste.
7) Open the lid, add soaked sabudana, stir altogether once; This time do not close the lid. Let the sabudana cook with open pan.
8) Let sabudana cook for 7-10 mins on medium high flame and open pan. Stir occassionally or else, sabudana gets sticked to the pan.
9) Cooked sabudana becomes tender and transparent(while raw sabudana looks pure white in color). that is the right time to switch off the flame.
(If you are not sure about right consistency of cooking, you can taste a little bit, it should be like little bit gummy instead of startchy.)
10) Now, your sabudana kichidi is ready; Switch off the flame and add chopped cilantro;

serve it hot with Tamarind-Ginger chutney for elders;
serve it warm for kids. Kids will like it as the texture would be little bit gummy. (may be they will be in the illusion that they are eating spicy yummy special gummy bears :-) )

Poha Vada

Sounds Interesting? Ingredients would be even quite simple;

Ingredients

Poha 3/4 cup

Cooked Rice 1 cup
Corn Flour   2 tsp
Rice Flour   1/3 cup
Oil    as required for deep fry (i prefer Canola oil as it is very lite and good for health compared to other oils)

Green chillies 3

Onion 1
Salt    1 and half tsp or as required

Mint leaves few

Ginger small piece

Cilantro few

Procedure
1) Chop green chillies, onions, ginger, mint and cilatro into small pieces.

2) Clean poha. Mix cleaned poha with rice and blend it altogether into paste (you can make it either to smooth paste or a little bit granulated as we do for Urad vada. I prefer little bit granulated)
3) Pour some water while blending. (do not add too much water, as the batter becomes very loose and absorbs more oil). You should get the batter as thick as possible.
4) Mix  all the chopped onions, ginger, mint, cilantro, corn flour, rice flour and make it into thick batter.

5) Now take small dumplings from the batter and spread them on a small ziploc. rub the ziploc with wet hand so that the batter doesn't stick to ziploc.

6) Take oil as sufficient for deep fry and let it heat up
7) Now place the above spreaded rings into the heated up oil slowly. You can do without holes in the middle; I put holes bcoz, the batter in the middle also cooks perfectly with holes.
8) Let them fry for atleast 7 mins on medium flame.
--> if you cook on medium to medium hight flame, then vada becomes crispy and makes the taste even better;

9) Let them cook until they become golden brown; then take them and serve them hot with chutney of your favourite.

 that's it, delicious and hot poha vada ready to eat;

Cracked wheat upma

Friends, today, i came up with a regualr breakfast variety  -     Upma. Are you bored of upma? just make it delicious with small changes.

Ingredients
Cracked wheat         :             1 cup
Onion                       :             Half medium onion
Green chillies            :             4 thai
Cashews                  :             few
Oil                           :             4 tbsp
Salt                         :              1 tsp
Water                     :              1 and half cup
Cilantro

Procedure

--> Take oil into a pan; let it heat up; Add the tempering ingredients (urad dal, jeera, mustard seeds,curry leaves)  and add cashews.
--> Add green chillies.
--> Add chopped onions to the tempering ingredients and cook for 5 mins on medium flame.
--> Let the onions become tender.
--> Add 1 and half cup of water and add 1 tsp of salt.
--> Close the lid of pan and put the flame in medium-hi.
--> let the water comes to bubbling.
--> Now, open the lid and reduce the flame to low. (because, now you need to add the cracked wheat flour)
--> Add the cracked wheat flour with left hand, while stirring it simulatenously with a spatula in right hand.
--> Make the flour mix properly without any lumps. If you got any lumps, try to smash it with spatula pressing towards the pan.
--> now, close the lid and let it cook for 3-5 mins in low flame.
--> Open the lid and stir once again, and take a pinch of upma with a spoon, let it cool down and taste it if it need to be cooked. if it needs, close the lid again and let it cook for couple of minutes.
--> Switch off the flame and sprinkle cilantro and stir it.
--> Serve it in a plate with few sliced lemons.
hope you will enjoy the taste :-)

Khaddhu Puri

Preparation Time: 10mins

Cooking Time: 15mins

Serving: 2 persons

Ingredients
 
Bottle guard          small
Baking Powder     1 tsp
Cooking Oil         sufficient for deep fry
Corriander Leaves bunch
Cumin Powder       1 tsp
Ginger                    small piece
Green Chillies         5     (thai chiilies taste better. 3 can be added according to spice level)
Kasoor Methi         to taste
Onion                     medium
Rice Flour              1 and half cup
Salt                        2 tsp

Procedure

• Peel off the bottle guard and grate it finely. 
• Once done with grating, slightly squeeze the grated bottle guard just to remove excess water(Do not squeeze too hard). Set it aside. 
• Chop the green chillies, onion, ginger, corriander leaves very finely. 

• Add the chopped ingredients and mix well with the above dough. 
• Add the rice flour to the grated bottle guard according to the consistency to make dough similar to poori dough. 

• Pour sufficient oil into the frying pan and let it get heated. 
• Make small dumplings(like you make for puri) and press them upto puri size on a ziploc bag/plastic bag. Slowly place the puri into the heated oil and let it fry by tilting both sides until light brown.(you can fry even more than one puri at a time basing on ur pan size.) 
• Take out of the oil and serve it hot with Ginger chutney. 
• Might be a litle bit tricky for first time, bcoz, if u leave the mixture of grated bottle guard and rice flour for long time, it might become watery;

PS : Do not add any water as it becomes very loose and u can not make dumplings accordingly;