Homemade Museli / Granola - A Healthy Breakfast | Healthy Diet Plan #1

Though there are a mix and match of healthy recipes in this space I wanted to go for a week healthy...... So whats up for the coming days - For a week, I will be posting healthy diet recipes which will comprise of a breakfast, lunch, dessert, teatime drink, a snack and ending up with a dinner idea so its going to be 6 recipes for this series . How does that sound?!

So am starting off with my favourite breakfast - homemade museli / granola. You can check out my granola bars here.These days its become very common even in india in most of homes to start off the day with healthy cereals / museli and we are no exception to it.

Homemade Museli / Granola Recipe



Ingredients:

• Oats - 1 cup
• Corn flakes - 1/2 cup
• Badams - 3 tbsp (sliced thin)
• Walnuts chopped - 3 tbsp
• Dates - 3 tbsp (finely chopped)
• Other dryfruits - 2 tbsp
• Honey - 1/4 cup
• Butter - 1 tbsp (optional)
• Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Chop all the nuts and dry fruits roughy, keep aside.
2. In a sauce pan, dry roast oats, cornflakes, walnuts, almonds , dry fruits and nuts till golden brown or till a nice aroma comes. Keep aside.
3. Now in the same pan, add butter let it melt then add honey and salt. Allow it boil till bubbles are seen it may take 4-5mins. Now add the toasted oats, cornflakes nuts mixture. Mix well.
4. Allow the honey butter mixture to coat the toasted oats, cornflakes nuts mixture. It may take 2-3 mins. Switch off and allow it to cool for few mins.
5. Bake the mixture at 200 deg C for 5 mins to make it more crispy. Cool down and store it in an airtight container. Serve it with chilled milk.

You can also see my other healthy breakfast ideas :

• Instant Oats Dosa
• Oats Idli
• Oats Appam
• Pesarattu Dosa
• Wheat Dosai
• Eggless French Toast (Sweet & Savoury)

My Notes :

• The baking at the last step is purely optional but I do this for extra crispness and this will also make the museli stay crisp for longer - Tip from Prathiba
• Store it in an airtight container for the crispness to stay longer.
• Museli is totally flexible, you can just have the cup measurement in mind and add in any nuts and dry fruits of your choice.
• Add milk preferably cold but if you like it hot, then go ahead.

Kuzha Puttu Kadala Curry

I have always been associated with lot of evergreen memories with Kerala as most of our planned trips are in and around Kerala.We have always had great welcoming experience right from the accomodation search to the tourist guides each time. And everytime we make a trip to Kerala I always remind myself that I should taste the very famous combination Puttu Kadala curry but somehow I miss it.

Before I joined my new job here, we had been to Neliyamapathy and thats where I finally tasted puttu kadala curry.So thought its time for me(us) to try it at home....amma makes puttu often but we eat with sugar and coconut but this time I made kadala curry to accompany with it. And I cudnt resist myself so clicked only few pics this time ;) the combination is a match made in heaven!

Kuzha Puttu Recipe

Makes 1 kuzha puttu

Ingredients:

• Raw rice (Pacharisi) - 1 cup
• Coconut - 1/2 cup
• Elachi powder - a pinch (optional)
• Sugar - 2 tbsp (optional)
• Salt - as required
• Water - as required to sprinkle

Method:

1. Soak the rice in water for 2 hours. Strain and spread in a cloth, allow the water to drain.
2. Then grind it in a mixer into a fine powder.Dry roast the flour for 5mins in a pan, then sieve it once to get a fine powder.Your puttu rice flour is ready.
3. Take the flour in a basin,add required salt to it. Add salt, sugar, elachi powder and start sprinkling water little by little, mix well.Keep a note that the flour should look like grated coconut or breadcrumbs.Do not add more water to make it sticky.
4. Now add a fistful of grated coconut into the puttu maker and then add rice flour till half then add another handful of coconut. Do it till you reach the top of the rim of the puttu maker.
5. Meanwhile add water to the pressure cooker and attach the puttu maker to the pressure cooker and steam it for 10mins. Check by using the stick given through the hole, the stick should come out clean then ur puttu is ready. Now careful push the puttu from the botton using the given stick. Cut into slices and enjoy with kadala curry.

Can you see the coconut layer in between? I always mess up when I push the puttu from the kuzha so this time I asked amma to do it carefully as I wanted to click and I could see her hands shivering while pushing it hehe

My Notes:

• If you dont have puttu maker then just sprinkle it in idli pan and steam it for 10mins
• Alternatively you can use idiyappam flour or readymade puttu maavu also for making puttu. If using idiyapam / readymade puttu flour continue from step 3.
• Adding elachi and sugar is purely optional when you have kadala curry as sidedish but I like the slight hint of sweetness in my puttu :)
• We have tried in the kudam kuzha puttu maker too but it got misplaced when we relocated. So we got a new one as a attachment with the cooker and it works like a charm every time, its easy too.

Kadala Curry Recipe

Recipe Reference : Mirch Masala

Ingredients :

• Kadala ( Brown Channa) – 1 cup. soaked in water overnight atleast for 8 hours
• Shallots(Chinna Vengayam) – 2
• Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
• Salt - as required

To roast and grind to a fine paste:

• Grated Coconut – 1/2 cup
• Shallots(Chinna Vengayam) – 4 cut into half
• Coriander Seeds – 1 tbsp
• Dried Red Chilies – 4 or 5
• Cardamom – 1
• Cinnamon stick – 1/2 inch
• Cloves – 2
• Fennel Seeds – 3 tsp

To temper:

• Coconut Oil – 1 tsp (I used normal cooking oil)
• Mustard Seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves –few

Method:

1. Pressure cook channa with water(till immersing level) until soft, keep aside.
2. Heat a pan , dry roast coconut till slightly browned. Add onions and roast till golden brown. Keep aside to cool. Now in the same pan add coriander seeds, red chillies, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and fennel seeds till slightly golden browned. Allow this to cool, add it to coconut and grind to a smooth paste with very little water.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and curry leaves, allow it to crackle. Then add the pressure cooked channa, add little water, turmeric powder then add the ground paste and let it continue to boil for 5-7mins in simmer then add the ground paste allow it to boil. Add required salt. When the curry starts thickening a bit, switch off. Serve hot with puttu or aapam.

My Notes:

• I used normal cooking oil as I didnt have coconut oil.
• Kadala curry serves as a nice sidedish for rotis, puttu, idiyapam or even aapams.
• When I googled for kadala curry there were many sites which even suggested to add red chilli and coriander
  as powders but this freshly ground spice powders gives a very nice flavour.

Cabbage Paratha (Cabbage Square Paratha)

Does just changing the visibility settings for picasa albums change the urls for the images leading it to broken urls?! OMG I faced a really challenging task of reverting back all the urls(for almost 230 posts) again for each post, spent around 5 full long hours yest evening to fix up this as I cudnt see the site with broken images. Has anyone faced this issue?! If please let me know how you solved the issue.

Packing dinner for hubby is a mind puzzling task thats when I started trying different types of parathas as they are sure to keep well for a long period of time. As cabbage is his fav veggie, with no doubt he loved the parathas. I cant even stand the slightest raw smell of the veggie, but he loves eating raw cabbage. Still I sauted the cabbage till raw smell leaves just for my sake :)

Cabbage Paratha Recipe

Makes around 8-10 parathas

Ingredients:

• Cabbage - 3/4 cup (grated/chopped finely)
• Wheat flour - 1.5 cups
• Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp (optional)
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Turmeric - a generous pinch
• Coriander Leaves - 1 tbsp finely chopped
• Oil - as required
• Salt - as required

Method:

1. Heat a pan, add 1/2 tsp oil add the cabbage and saute well until it shrinks and raw smell leaves

2. Then in a bowl add wheat flour, salt, garam masala powder, chilli powder and turmeric powder, coriander leaves, and sauted cabbage mix well and add water little by little and knead to a soft dough.Leave it aside for 15-30mins.

3. Divide the dough into equal portions and then make small lemon sized balls and roll them into slightly thin parathas or as shown below as square parathas.

4. Heat tawa add the rolled parathas add oil, cook on both sides until golden brown spots appear.

Serve hot with pickles or curd.

To be frank I am comfortable in getting the square shape better than the circles :) Hope that looks squares to u all too :)

My Notes:

• Sauting cabbage is purely optional but I recommend doing it as however finely grated it gives a raw smell when added without sauting.
• You can add ghee to cook the parathas for kids. You can also make it stuffed and roll it like we do for aloo parathas. But I prefer this as its messfree :)
• Cabbage will also leave water so be very careful in adding water, so add little by little.
• You can skip garam masala and also add a tsp of sambar powder.
• Folding and rolling the paratha in square shape makes the paratha very soft.

This is sure a easy way to make kids eat veggies as when folden in parathas it not only makes the parathas soft but tasty too.

Chapathi Noodles (Chapathi Vegetable Noodles) | Leftover Chapati Recipe

The first time I had chapathi noodles was during my 10th std at my aunts place but her version was slightly varied which was more indianised. I modified the recipe a bit and followed my fried rice recipe for this chapathi noodles and have been following it lately as we are hooked on to the taste.I am rushing to the recipe as I've to go to make granola bars(before mittu wakes up) as amma had been asking for it since 2 weeks and I cant delay anymore.....And also my craving cant wait anymore :) So when I am off to make my/our fav granola bars you check out the recipe :)

Chapathi Noodles Recipe :

Serves 2



Ingredients:

• Chapathi / Roti - 4
• Onion - 1 chopped lengthwise
• Cabbage - 1/4 cup
• Carrot - 2 medium sized chopped lengthwise
• Capsicum - 1 medium sized chopped lengthwise
• Garlic - 5 pods chopped finely
• Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp
• Pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Soya Sauce - 1 tsp
• Tomato sauce - 2 tsp
• Salt - as required
• Olive oil/ Cooking oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Stack the 2 chapathis and cut into four squares and then cut along thin strips lengthwise
2. Chop all the veggies lengthwise and keep aside.
3. Heat oil, add onion and garlic saute until browned. Now add carrot, capsicum and cabbage, saute them for a minute.
4. Then add soya sauce, tomato sauce and pepper powder , mix well. Add required salt.Saute till the veggies are slightly soft and raw smell of the veggies leave, sprinkle little water if you want at this stage.
5. Now add the chapathis cut lengthwise and mix well. Simmer for 2mins, give a quick stir and switch off.

My Notes:

• You can garnish with spring onions at the end, I didnt have so skipped it.
• Olive oil gives a nice flavour to the chinese dishes so I prefer using it. You can use normal cooking oil also.
• The veggies are upto ur choice, you can plus or minus the quantity as per your taste.
• You can also add egg with the veggies while sauting.
• On the whole the chapatis and veggies should not be very soft it should be crunchy and slightly soft like in noodles and veg fried rice.

This is the best chapathi leftover idea I have found over the years. Sometimes I just add sambar powder, coriander powder and make it indianised. So no more second thought when there is left over chapathi at home :) This is sure another take for our kothu parotta which is coming up soon.

Tomato Pasta | Penne Pasta Recipes

I love to try different recipes using pasta, have already tried Pasta in white sauce. Though pasta in white sauce is regular in our menu atleast once a month, this tomato pasta satisfies the craving for a spicy indian flavoured pasta and hubby loves all pasta savoury recipes so the experiment continues.....:)

Ingredients:

• Pasta - 1.5 cups
• Onion - 1/2 chopped finely
• Pasta sauce - 1 tbsp
• Tomato Sauce - 1 tbsp
• Olive oil - 1 tbsp
• Cheese - 1 tbsp grated
• Pepper - 1/2 tsp (optional)

To grind:

• Tomato - 1 big sized
• Onion - 1/2
• Red Chillies - 2
• Garlic - 4 flakes

Method:

1. Grind the ingredients under 'to grind' to a fine paste and keep aside.
2. Bring a saucepan of water with salt to boil, then add the pasta and a tsp of oil. Cook for 10mins or until the pasta is soft yet firm enough to bite. Strain water and keep aside.
3. Heat oil in a pan, then add the onions fry until slightly browned. Then add the grinded paste and fry for 5mins until raw smell of tomatoes totally leaves.
4. Then add the tomato, pasta sauce and pepper, mix well, now the sauce is ready. Now add the cooked pasta and mix well until the sauce coats well with the pastas.
5. Sprinkle grated cheese and serve hot.

My Notes:

• Take care while cooking the pasta not to make it mushy. It should be soft but still firm enough to bite.
• You can even use shell or disc type pasta.
• Add a tsp of oil while cooking pasta is to avoid the stickiness.
• You can also skip the pasta sauce and add garam masala to make it indian flavoured.
• Adding olive oil gives a nice flavour to the pastas but if you can use normal cooking oil also.

Pasta is my favourite for breakfast. It easy to whip up and filling for the morning dose.Though I have tried different pastas penne pasta is my personal favourite. I have tried few readymade pastas in maggi to and have adapted few recipes from them :)

Instant Tomato Dosai (Thakkali Dosai)

I like to experiment on new dosa varieties and one such try was this tomato dosai. When I saw this dosa in a tamil magazine, I noted down the recipe, tried it recently and got hooked on to the recipe since then. So wanted to share the recipe here.....

Instant Tomato Dosai Recipe:

Makes 4 dosas

Ingredients:

• Dosa Batter - 2 cups
• Tomato - 2 roughly chopped
• Garlic - 4 chopped finely(optional)
• Coconut - 1 tbsp
• Red Chillies - 2
• Jeera - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves - few torn into pieces
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - as required for making dosa

Method:

1. Saute the tomatoes in a tsp of oil until mushy and raw smell leaves.Allow it to cool and grind the tomatoes with coconut, garlic and red chillies to a fine paste with little water.
2. Now add jeera, curry leaves , red chilli powder and tomato coconut paste to the dosa batter and mix well.
3. Heat a dosa tawa, keeping in low medium flame take a laddle full of the batter and spread it evenly starting form the center slowly outwards in circular motion.
4. Drizzle some oil along the edges and cook for 2mins. Flip on the other side and cook until done.
5. Serve hot with any chutney of your choice.

My Notes:

• Spread the batter thin to get a crispy dosa.
• You can also add more coconut if you want.
• You can also add chopped onions to the batter which adds nice flavour to the dosa.
• The batter consistency should be like the normal dos batter consistency so add/minus water accordingly.

You can also spread the batter thick to get oothapams.. This dosa is very flavourful and best when combined with sambar and coconut chutney. Also use the grinding part while grinding the batter itself but since I wanted a instant version I like making it this way.

Oats Appam | Oats Recipes

I've to mention, my cousin is one of the supporters for this space. She gives me tips, suggestions and pings me whenever she comes across any new recipes. Few months back, on our usual phone chat sessions, she mentioned about the wheat flour appam and the idea of using of paniyaram pan. She also suggested me to try oats combination with it, I did and totally loved the taste. What more is needed to tempt me when the recipe has oats :) I tried with a pack of saffola oats and it worked like a charm.

Oats Appam Recipe:

Makes around 15-20 appams

Ingredients:

• Oats - 3/4 cup
• Wheat flour - 1/4 cup
• Banana - 1 small
• Cooking soda - a pinch
• Rice flour - 1 tbsp
• Jaggery powdered - 1/2 cup
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Coconut - 1 tbsp
• Elachi powdered - 1 tsp (optional)
• Oil - as required

Method:

1. Dry roast oats until color changes slightly and a nice aroma comes. Cool down and grind it to a fine powder.
2. Mix oats powder with wheat flour, add water, jaggery, cooking soda and rice flour. Mix well.
3. Smash the banana and add it along with grated coconut. Add powdered elachi and mix well until a batter of the below shown consistency is formed.
4. Take a paniyaram pan add little oil in each hole. Fill each hole with 3/4th of the batter. Allow it cook, then turn over and cook on both the sides. Serve hot.

My Notes:

• I didnt use banana but it is preffered as it gives the appam a nice soft and fluffy texture.
• You can replace oats with wheat flour and make it as regular gothumai appam.
• Usually appams are deep fried, but I wanted to make a low calorie version so added oats and roasted them in paniyaram pan. You can alternatively deep fry them too.
• Adjust water according to the consistency of the batter. If the batter tends to thicken in between then add little more water.

This is sure an alternative to the usual oats recipes, quick to make and filling for breakfast or teatime snack.Oats has a lot of health benefits so try to include it your daily diet. I love oats in any form right the oats porridge to the granola bars. I recently tried even a fudge brownie with it, which I'll be posting soon :)

Pasta in white sauce

I can never forget the first time I tried this. I saw this recipe at the back of the pasta wrapper but it was a baking recipe. I was about to start baking and the current went off so went ahead with this recipe and now this has been regular in our weekend menu whenever pasta is in stock.I have made a tomato based pasta but still this is hubbys favourite.

Pasta in white sauce Recipe:

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• Pasta - 1 cup
• Carrot - 1 chopped lengthwise
• Onion - 1 chopped finely
• Pepper - 1/2 tsp
• Chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp
• Seasoning - 1 tsp (optional) - I used the seasoning sachet that comes with pizza
• Olive oil - 1 tbsp

For the white sauce:

• Cornflour -2 tsp
• Maida - 2 tsp
• Cheese - 1 tbsp
• Milk - 1/2 cup

Method:

1. Cook pasta in water until soft yet firm enough to bite. Add a tsp of oil and salt while cooking pasta.
2. In a mixing bowl, first mix little milk with cornflour and maida so that there is no lumps , keep aside.
3. In a pan heat olive oil, add onions saute until lightly browned then add carrots and saute until it shrinks and raw smell leaves. Then add the milk-maida-cornflour mixture with remaining milk and mix well.
4. Add the cheese at this stage and allow it to melt.
5. It will start thickening at this stage - Add cooked pasta, required salt, pepper powder,seasoning, chilli flakes. Keep in low flame and cook for 3mins mixing well continuosly. Switch off and serve hot.

My Notes:

• Adding seasoning enhances the flavour if you have just ignore that and go ahead with pepper and chilli flakes, it will still taste good.
• Serve immediately as the white sauce thickens faster when kept for a longer time. If it becomes dry, add little more, heat it and then serve.
• You can include any veggies of your choice.
• Adding cream also makes it more rich and tasty.

The first time I made this, I added cooked peas and carrot. So adding veggies is totally your choice. You can add sweet corn too. Its easy and messfree as there is no grinding part :)

This is easy for breakfast and am sure kids will like it as the combination of milk, cheese and pasta can never go wrong. So what are you waiting for?! Try it out and see

For the spicy lovers, my version of spicy tomato pasta is coming up soon, so stay tuned.

Mixed Vegetable Paratha

Paratha or roti is my all time favourite esp the ones with veggies in it. You dont need any side dish at all just raita is enough to finish off the dinner or meal. At the same time its wholesome and healthy with all the veggies.I'm sure kids who hesitate to eat veggies will like this paratha with pickle and raita.

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour - 2 cups
• Turmeric powder -a pinch
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Garam masala powder- 1/4 tsp (optional)
• Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
• Onion - 1
• Cabbage - 1/2 cup
• Carrots - 2 medium sized
• Capsicum - 1/2 medium sized
• Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp
• Salt - to taste
• Water - as required
• Oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Chop/grate the vegetables as finely as possible using a chopper/ food processor and keep aside.
2. Heat a tsp of oil and saute the veggies with a pinch of turmeric powder till raw smell leaves completely.
3. Then add this is to the wheat flour and add chilli,garam masala powder, jeera and coriander leaves and mix well.Make this like a chapathi dough consistency.Leave aside for 3omins.
4. Pinch a lemon sized ball, roll it into thin/thick parathas of your choice.
5. Heat oil in a tawa, and cook the parathas on both the sides. Serve hot with curd and pickle.

My Notes:

• You can alternatively pressure cook the veggies until soft, mash it and then add it to the wheat flour and follow the same procedure. But it depends on the veggies you use..... If using capsicum add it raw and pressure cook the other veggies.
• For 2 cups of flour see to it that your sauted veggies comes to 1 cup atleast.
• Veggies is totally of your choice, you can even use green peas, beans,paneer also etc

Homemade Granola Bars (Healthy Chewy Snack Bars) | Oats Snack Recipes

We are just back from a short trip to Palakkad and Nelliampathy the much needed break from the usual routine I would say! I'm back only physically :) the mountains, valleys, mist, monkeys ,deep forest areas,greeneries all around is still passing by my eyes.And my long time desire of eating puttu with kadala curry has finally happened and I thoroughlly enjoyed it that I forgot to click them;)

Okay coming to these tasty granola bars...me and amma are greatly addicted to it. Everytime there is no snacks at home with no second thought I would jump to make these tasty and healthy bars. And my lil one likes it in the form of museli.

I've been experimenting these bars many times and finally here I am with the recipe with correct measurements.

Granola Bars Recipe

Makes 5 small bars

Ingredients:

• Quick cooking oats - 1 cup
• Cornflakes - 1/4 cup
• Honey - 1/2 cup
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Brown Sugar - 1 tbsp (You can use normal sugar too)
• Water - 1 tbsp
• Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Nuts & Dry Fruits :(this should come to a round of 1/2 cup)

• Almonds - 5 chopped finely
• Walnut - 2 tbsp broken into tiny pieces
• Golden, black raisins and Dates /(any other dry fruit) - 1/4 cup

Method:

• First dry roast oats, cornflakes, nuts and dry fruits in a pan until a nice aroma comes and oats starts slightly browning up. Keep aside.
• Now in the same pan, add butter heat it till it melts. Now add honey, sugar, vanilla essence and water, heat it until the mixture starts bubbling up.
• At this stage add the roasted oats, cornflakes and nuts mixture and mix well until the honey mixture is coated on all sides of the oats cornflakes mixture.
• Then transfer to a butter paper and spread it using a spoon or a wooden laddle to 1/4 or 1/2 inch thickness. Straighten the edges and make it as a square or rectangle.Cover it with another butter paper and press them down gently.
• Allow them to cool for 5mins then cut into bars and store them in airtight container.

You can make these bars in oven too but I prefer stove top method easier than the oven method.I like my granola bars for munching during tea time with a cup of milk.Its your choice to make them into bars or squares as per your convenience. If you like oats then am sure you will like these bars too.

Granola bars are readily available in super markets with different combinations of nuts and dry fruits.

My Notes:

• Dont over roast , as it will give a burnt flavour and spoil the taste.
• If you try to reduce the amount of honey then it will be hard to make pieces/bars.
• You can use any type of nuts and dry fruits, the only thing to note down is the quantity.
• Store them in an airtight container and enjoy them any time.