Pasta in White Sauce

Well, the brat loved it, so I thought why not share the joy in the blog!

For white sauce:

2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp flour (I used maida)
2 cups milk (add more depending on the consistency that you want)
salt and pepper to taste
Italian seasoning (optional, I used the small sachet from Pizza hut/Corner, whatever)

Thinly sliced vegetables (Red/green/yellow bell peppers, onions) - less than 2 cups
Pasta -200 gms
Cheese - for topping the pasta

Serves - 3 children

1. Cook pasta as per pack instructions. I cooked it a little softer, so that it is easy for the baby also to eat.
2. Drain pasta and keep aside.
3. Add butter to kadai and melt it.
4. Add flour and mix well.
5. Add milk little by little and whisk with ladle till the paste is smooth. Add more milk if you want the sauce runny.
6. Add salt and pepper and the seasoning.
7. Stir-fry vegetables.
8. Add the sauce and pasta to the veggies.
9. Grate cheese over it.

Serve and let the creamy yummy pasta work its magic.

Sooji cheela with carrots

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup sooji
2. 1/4th cup besan (optional) - it just gives different flavour
3. 1/4th cup grated carrots
4. salt - 2 tsp
5. water to make thick paste
6. Oil/Ghee to roast

Steps:

1. Sift sooji, besan and salt to mix properly.
2. Add water and make an even thick batter.
3. Add grated carrots and leave for 10 mins. Add more water if required. The amount of water to be used varies on the type of sooji being used.
4. Brush some oil in the tawa/girdle and pour a ladle of batter and spread.
5. Scatter few drops of ghee/oil on the visible side.
6. Once done, flip to roast from both sides.
7. Eat it with coriander-mint chutney or just plain ketchup.

Vegetable soup - short and simple

This one turned out lovely by fluke, so although I'm putting it up I'm not too sure of its success. Whatever it is, it's simple and nutritious!

Ingredients(measurements not at all accurate):
4 small Carrots(200g), cut into sticks of equal volume
Beans(150g), cut into about 2 inch long pieces.
Peas(200g after shelling)
1 medium Onion, cut into semi-rings of about 1/8in thickness
1 inch Ginger, cut into thick slices
4-5 peppercorns, slightly crushed.
Salt to taste(about 1.25 tsp)
Butter on top(optional but delicious).

Method:
Add salt, ginger and beans to water, bring to boil.
After about 1 minute add carrots and peppercorns. Some trial and error necessary to figure out the relative timings and how to cut the veggies for uniform boiling.
After another minute or two add peas and onions.
Boil until vegetables are soft to taste.
Remove from flame and add butter.

Using onions and ginger without garlic gave the soup a wonderful flavour. I'll try experimenting with onion/garlic and ginger/garlic some time.

Eggless Orange Cake

After lot of requests from so many of you to post the eggless orange cake that I tried recently, here is the pic and the recipe. Although the one whose pic you see above didn't turn out that soft or spongy because halfway through the baking the power went off and came back only after 30 min. So the heating, cooling and heating didn't work too well for the cake :)

Ingredients:

1. 1-1/2 cups plain flour
2. 1/2 tsp soda bicarb
3. 1 tsp baking powder
4. 1/2 cup sunflower oil
5. 3/4 cup caster sugar
6. 1/4 cup yogurt
7. 3/4 cup orange juice (I used fresh squeezed)
8. 2 tsp orange zest

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Lightly grease an 8" round baking pan.
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, soda bicarb and baking powder.
3. In another bowl, cream together the oil, sugar and yogurt.
4. Add the juice, orange zest and flour; mix well and pour into the prepared pan.
5. Bake for about 35 minutes or till the cake tests done. Let it remain in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire cooling rack.

For Microwave Baking:

1. Add 1/2 cup milk additional to the above specified ingredients.
2. And bake for about 12 min at highest power initially and do more if required.

First Award for our blog !

Hey everyone , this is the first award for Healthy and Tasty ...and it doesnot really go to me , but to all the authors of this blog. Thank you Preeti and I pass this one to all the people who have contributed atleast one recipe to the blog. Thank you ladies , for making this blog happening !

Chocolate Marble Cake

This chocolate marble cake serves about 3-4 people only. Good to be eaten at tea-time.

Preparation time - 10 mins
Baking time - 15 mins

You need-

1. 6 tbsp flour/maida
2. 2 tbsp cocoa powder
3. 4 tbsp powdered sugar
4. 1 egg
5. 3 tbsp milk
6. 3 tbsp oil
7. 1 tsp baking powder
8. 1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven at 200C for 10 mins.
   
2. Mix flour, baking powder and keep aside.
3. Cream egg, oil and sugar.
4. Add vanilla essence and slowly fold in the flour mixture.
5. Take a quarter of the batter and mix cocoa powder in it.
6. Pour the pain flour batter into the greased tin and pour the cocoa batter in cricles over the white batter.
7. Bake for 15 mins at 180C.

For Microwave:

1. Add 3 tbsp of milk if making in microwave.
2. Bake for only 7-8 min ( in 1300W). Adjust the time based on the wattage of your microwave.
   

Dahi Sandwich

Last weekend I made this Dahi Sandwich (Curd Sandwich) totally desi style and it was yumm.

Here is how I made it -

You need

1. 1 cup curd
2. salt to taste
3. black pepper to taste
4. bread slices
5. rye seeds
6. Heeng/Asofotedia powder - 1 tsp
7. 3-4 tbsps oil/butter

Steps

1. Mix yogurt with salt and black pepper
   
2. On the girdle/tawa brush up some oil/butter.
3. Sprinkle some rye seeds till they splutter, sprinkle some heeng powder.
4. Put the bread slice and spread curd over it.
   
5. Put the other slice of bread and move it to the side.
6. Again brush some oil and let the rye seeds sprinkle and heeng powder and then flip the bread and roast it.
7. And then..what are you waiting for..just eat it! :D

Variations:

1. Add chopped coriander, grated ginger and finely diced green chillies in the curd for enhanced flavour.
2. You can add chopped onion for a crunchy bites.

simple noodle soup with lots of veggies

I made this soup for sunny boy one afternoon, when he hadn't gone to the kindergarten and was home. I didn't wish to make an elaborate meal, which I do in the evenings usually when we all eat together. After asking sunny boy, I choose to make this soup and he liked it a lot.
Although there are many ways of making it, I made it this time with the Indian tadka in the beginning and you can always replace broccoli with cabbage or beans or any veggie of choice.

For 2-3 persons

Ingredients:

a few broccoli florets, cut into small pieces
3 small carrots, thinly sliced or cubed
a few mushrooms, chopped or thinly sliced
2 handfuls soup noodles (or vermicelli)
salt, to taste
400 - 500 ml water
2 tbsp coriander leaves (I had none)
1 tsp organic vegetable broth (optional)

Tadka
1 tbsp mustard oil (use any other)
1 tsp cumin
1 pinch hing (asafoetida)
1 tbsp coriander seeds, ground
1/2 tsp turmeric
chili powder to taste

Method:

• clean, wash and prepare the vegetables
• in a large sauce pan heat oil and splutter the cumin
• reduce heat and add the remaining spices,
  
• stir quickly and immediately add the veggies,
  
• stir for a few minutes on medium heat
  
• add water, broth and salt and cook till the water begins to boil
• add the soup noodles / vermicelli and cook till done*
• if you wish, you can add a teaspoon of mustard oil, olive oil or ghee to the ready soup at the end and some chopped coriander leaves to garnish

Bon Apettit!

*NOTE: depending on the cooking time of the noodles and the type of veggies, the cooking time of veggies before adding the noodles could change. Adjust accordingly.

Quick corn snacks

A very very simple & quite healthy recipe for evening snacks of toddlers and kids. I know you might already know this or a variant of this but still I am writing for people like me who discovered it quite recently :-)

Ingredients :

Potato : 1 small
Frozen Sweet corn : 1 tbsp
Frozen Peas : 1 tbsp
Butter : 1/2 tsp
Roasted and crushed cumin seeds : 1 pinch
Salt to taste

Optional :

Chat Masala
Black Pepper

Steps :

1. Cut potatos in small chunks.
2. Mix protatoes, corn, peas, butter and water in a microwave bowl.
3. Microwave for 3 minutes.
4. Add salt and roasted cumin seeds.

a quickfix meal with scrambled bread and veggies eggs

Before I begin with the actual post, let me just inform you that after a few exchange of emails we have sorted out things and everything is fine! :)

I made this meal for my sunny boy in a jiffy as we had been out of the house in the afternoon and by the time we came back it was late and he was hungry, a bit early for dinner, but that's how it is with children. So, I had to make something quick which was wholesome too. And this is what I made:

For 2 servings

Ingredients:
1 tbsp ghee or oil
2 slices of bread (white , whole wheat or gluten free), cut into small or large squares
2 eggs, beaten to make very frothy, like with a twirl whisk
1 small onion, finely chopped (optional)
6 mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 small carrots, grated
1/2 tsp cumin (optional)
1 tsp ground coriander seeds (optional)
1/4 tsp pepper, or to taste
1/4 tsp turmeric (optional)


Method:

• cut and prepare the bread and mushrooms and carrots
  
• you can also choose veggies of your own choice like very finely cut cauliflower, cabbage, zucchini or green beans, or peas
• heat the ghee or oil in the pan and add cumin so that it splutters, add coriander and turmeric, stir shortly, add onion and veggies and stir and cook on medium heat till done
• add the bread pieces, stirring for another one minute
• add salt and pepper and stir to mix
  
• add the beaten eggs and either prepare like scrambled eggs for another one minute
• or just simmer till the eggs have been cooked through
  

I initially thought of making a french toast with the egg mainly on one side and veggies on the other, but then it didn't work out, so I cut up the bread into small pieces and mixed with the eggs.
Sunny boy enjoyed it a lot. He ate it with some home made apple onion and tomato chutney, but you can substitute it with anything else you have handy at home.