peasome carrotsome ..plzz

OMG ..this weather ...had a bad weekend, rain, fog and cold and now today little sunny. Its so difficult on kids with this constant change in weather, just too much to take. But it being sunny in afternoon had a chance to take kids out in the sun and get some Vitamin D ( as my daughter says) ..yippy!
Well how was your weekend, hope you all had fun doing something.
This week i am planning to put some recipes that kids would love to eat and can be made with groceries on hand. Please let me know anything that you might want me to address in this blog . Will be happy to help you out with.
Well so finally decided to make some hot soup for the kids last night..turned  out yummy but kids did not really know the ingredients and ate it !
So made peas and carrot soup with tiny elbow macaroni pasta and goldfish crackers..


Ingredients:
1 cup frozen peas,
1 cup chopped carrots,
1 cup finely chopped onions and teaspoon of ginger if desired
1 tablespoon of butter ( generous)
salt and pepper to taste
1 table spoon heavy cream to add creaminess ( optional)


Method:
Start with 1 table spoon of butter in a pot with heavy bottom and add onion ( and ginger if desired ).
Let it cook until onions softens a little bit and now add peas and carrots and cook covered for 3 -4 minutes or until the vegetable softens a bit.
Now at this point if you wish you can either add little heavy cream to add creamy consistency or just opt it out.
Let the soup cool a little bit, then blend it in the soup/ food processor . Add salt pepper to taste and guess what you have one yummy healthy food ready in minutes to serve to your kids or the entire family.
You could also boil the paste of your choice and add it at the end when the soup is ready and sprinkle some colorful goldfish crackers to make it more palatable  to the young ones.
Enjoy.


Be back tomorrow with some more.




Something you might like:


http://peasandthankyou.com/

Foggy weather !

What just happened ? yesterday was a nice summer day and today cool foggy could not believe it in the morning.. well need to cheer up still got the whole day ahead.
So thought of making something different. Today I tried the Secret Paratha (its a soft leavening bread like naan) and made it out of all mom's secret ingredients spinach, chana daal, carrot and corn ! . Its every mothers dream that my kid eat veggies every day. So this is to all the mom's out there . Good luck and savor the taste of victory, your kid will ask for more.


Ingredients :
2 cup fresh chopped spinach
1/2 cup soaked chana daal
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup defrosted corn
whole wheat flour varies on th consistency of the dough from 1-2 cups
salt to taste


for base :
1 table spoon ginger garlic paste
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 teaspoon oil


method :
Start with a little big pan . Put oil in the hot pan followed by onions and ginger garlic paste. Give it a minute to cook. Then add the chana daal , stir it, cover it and let it cook for 2-3 minutes. Do not add salt yet. Now add all the chopped vegetables , stir and cook uncovered until veggies are done. Now add salt to taste.
Let the mixture cool a little. Once cooled you can either used the chunkier version or can blend these ingredients in the food processor before kneading the dough.
Now start adding flour in the vegetable mixture and  knead the dough. The dough should be soft enough to roll in to the shape of pancake using the rolling pin.
Heat a flat pan and when hot put the rolled paratha on the pan give it a minute on each side and then cook it with 1 teaspoon of oil to give it little brown spots on the third flip.
Your secret vegetable paratha is ready.
You can serve it with yogurt and/ or fried green chillies.

Enjoy

Did you know that...

The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff on this date in 1986, killing all seven crew members. After a comprehensive examination it was determined that cold weather contributed to an O-ring failure. ( www.wunderground.com)

Stew

So finally my experiments started with making one new thing everyday for dinner. Guess what i came up with the lentil stew.
A stew is somewhere between soup and a thick gravy. It can be made with all different varieties of ingredients it can be vegetarain or meat version too. But mine was vegetarian version.
So the ingredients were:
1 cup lentil ( now you can choose from a variety ..toor dal, chana dal)
I cup chopped onion,
1 cup chopped tomatoes and 1/2 cup chopped potatoes
1/2 cup choppes carrots
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 green slit chilli
1 teaspoon tumeric powder
and salt to taste

You will need to start by soaking the lentils for about half hour followed by boiling them to that point where they are half way done , later you add the chopped onions, tomatoes, carrots and potatoes in it and partly cover and let it cook. ( you could also use pressure cooker - if using so cook lentils in the open cooker until half way done and after vegetable added to it u can pressure cook it)
Next come tadka. Tadka is like a hot oil with indian spicies to wake up the flavour ofthe vegetables and lentil. So we take about a tablespoon of good olive oil and then when it gets warm to hot add mustard seeds,tumeric and greesn chilli and ginger and add it to the daal mixture.
Voila , your stew is ready. Add salt according to your taste.

Oh, just before i forget you can also do the entire above recipe production in your slow cooker just mix everything at once except the tadka part and forget abt it for four hours on high setting and then check and later you can add tadka and salt.

Enjoy
Will be back with more tomorrow.

meal plan

last night talking to my best friend came up with a thought of making a new dish everyday. It would be very difficult considering to super picky eaters in my home..well never late to try.
My work friends always adk me what is it like to be vegetarian ? well more on the vegan side though..as i am not so much into eggs and its not so bad..
many friends still think that i am missing a lot on the part of not eating meat but honey i got my proteins from large group of lentils that i grew eating up back in india....
more info can be found on the below link if anyone interested in finding vegetarian food choices..
http://www.vrg.org/

enjoy and see ya all t/m with a new food every day for 31 days...
namaste
ishita

my morning

hello california...
what a nice day..summer in mid winter..makes me want to make some yummy food starting morning..
As a kid i always had something warm breakfast made be my mom and thought to share with you all.i made "upma" (indian cuisine)not everyone may be familiar with this term- its made from coarse suji flour with boiled carrot and peas .oh heaven so yummy and kitchen smells like yum yum...this is my first blog so not sure if including recipes would make it more exciting or not ?