Thin poha (or thin beaten rice) Chivda aka snack in english

When we say snack in India, we get the visuals of lots of different home made Chivdas (mix). There are so many different varieties of them. Corn flakes, Puffed rice flakes (chirmura, murmura), beaten rice flakes, Sago (sabudana) and the list is endless. I am sure different states would be making snacks in different styles from these very primary ingredients. I am going to share the very basic Chivda made from beaten rice thin flakes. This one is quick, there is no deep frying involved, so its a guilt free snack and I love it.

Ingredients:

Thin poha pack from Indian
grocery store

1. Thin poha 2 lbs, get this in any Indian grocery store.
2. Peanuts 1/2 cup
3. Roasted Chana daal - 1/2 cup
4. Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
5. Dry coconut flakes
6. Green chilies 3-4, depending upon how hot they are and your liking, chopped horizontally
7. Salt and sugar as per taste
8. Oil - 3-4 tbsp.
9. Curry leaves - 10-12
10. Mustard seeds and cumin seeds each 1 tbsp\
11. Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
12. Asafoetida or "hing" - a pinch
13. Cashew-nuts - 1 tbsp (optional)

Have all the ingredients ready in a plate as you would need them quickly during making of the chivda.

Method:

1. First you have to roast the thin poha, so that they become crisp. To do this, simple put the poha a little at a time in a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 30 seconds and then mix the poha and heat again for 30 seconds. Try a little to make sure they are crisp. You will definitely feel the difference between undone and done poha flakes. If not may be you need to heat them 30 seconds more.

2. After this, heat oil in a pan and once heated add mustard seeds. When they splutter add hing, cumin seeds, curry leaves, Add peanuts, mix it well, Then add chana daal, mix and after few seconds add coconut, cashews, chilies and sesame seeds. Peanuts take more time than coconut to turn red. Make sure you are not turning any one ingredient more red or they will not taste as good.

3. Once coconut are red, add turmeric powder, salt, sugar , mix it for few seconds until l salt and sugar dissolve a bit.

4. Add the poha and mix everything properly, All the white poha  flakes should get covered with the oil mixture so that it taste evenly. Mix for a while on a low flame. Adjust sugar and salt as per taste and the poha chivda is ready.

Tips:

1. You can give this as a snack for kids in school
2. This makes an excellent tea time snack, make sure you top it with chipped onion.
3. You can also make this in Diwali.

Hridhaans 2nd Birthday Cake !!!

Birthday decoration is no fun, but I am always excited to decorate the cake. I feel taking this extra effort is a way to convey your love to your kid. I am sure like me you and many other moms feel the same. :)


Here are some pictures of his 2nd birthday cake.


First one is a simple birthday cake pendant. I got some pendant free prints online. Used some threads to put them together and the barbeque skewers to tie them too. It was fun to make this one. So many things you can hand in there. Animal cut outs, photos, numbers etc.







2) Here is the cake I decorated. Simple isn't it. I got wilton's butter cream and used it to top the cake.
Then added some food colors, used the plastic bags and decorating tips to decorate the border and the dots on the cake. In the middle I used the sprinkles to make the number 2. I used a paper cutting for the number 2, placed it on top of the cake and then sprinkled to get that number. I think its super easy trick :). You can do it with dried colored coconut flakes too or different kinds of sprinkles.







This time we celebrated the birthday by going to a Zoo. What else a 2 year old need anyways ;)

Quick and Easy, Colorful Bell Pepper Mix !!!

Diets are really hard. First it restricts so many ingredients and then you come to know that there are very little food dishes that you can really eat if you want to follow this diet. :). And I really wanted to follow this diet I did last year. I guess this was my first diet program ever and I was really excited.

I was on a non-grain diet and non-grain means you cannot have rotis. So apart from salads, I usually had moong daal cheelas as a replacement to rotis. But moong daal cheela did not taste good with various sabjis and hence I used to prepare and mix, quick and dry vegetable saute, make my cheelas and then have meal. This sabji of different capsicums tasted really well with cheelas and it made my meals more satiating during that diet.

Ingredients:

Serves 2

Bell Pepper - I used 4 colored bell peppers (Red, Yellow, Orange, Green), diced, 1 and 1\2 cup
Onion - diced, 2 tbsp
Tomatoes - chopped, 2 tbsp
Potatoes - 1 medium sized, cooked in microwave for 2-3 minutes, peeled and diced
Chopped fresh Coriander\Cilantro - 1 tbsp.
Cumin and Mustard  - Each 1 tsp seeds for tempering
Garam Masala - 2 tsp
Red Chili powder - 1 tsp or as per taste

Sugar - Pinch to taste (optional)

Salt to taste

Oil - 3 tsp

Method:

1. Mix and microwave chopped capsicum for 3-5 minutes, to semi-cook it.. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, When they splutter add cumin seeds. Now add chopped onions. Saute for a minute or two.

2. Now add the capsicum, potato, tomato and mix. Add salt, garam masala, red chili powder, sugar and mix again.Cook untill capsicums are soft but not soggy.

3. Adjust masalas and top with chopped coriander. Serve hot with plain Roti or plain Paratha.

Tips:

• Make this sabji right before you are going to have your meal. 
• It will only taste better when you have at least 3 different kinds of bell peppers. The colors also add to its nutrition and presentation.

Running out of options for breakfast - try this, "Sevai Upma" (Vermicelli Mix)

Sevai is a tricky item to work with. I had about 4-5 failed attempts of Sevai upma before I could make it right. This is usually a rare dish people make, at least I have not seen people make Sevai upma as frequently they do Poha or regular Upma for breakfast. This, therefore makes, a good dish for guests too. The only tricky part is how much water you put when you cook Sevai upma and the lesson I learnt is to start with small amounts or try the microwave version of cooking it.

Ingredients:

Thin Vermicelli \ Sevai - 2 cups

Chopped Onion - 1\2 cup

Frozen Peas - 1\2 cup

Green chillies - either slit or in a paste form, as per taste

Roasted Peanuts - whole or crushed

Salt per taste

Sugar - 1 tsp

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 3\4

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Oil - 3 tsp

Chopped Coriander

Method:

1. Put vermicelli in a microwave safe bowl. Add 1 tsp oil to it and mix it so that all sevai is greased. Microwave this for 1-2 minutes stirring every 30 seconds. Stop when you see the sevai getting red. Add 1\2 cup water to this bowl and then continue cooking. You will require 2-3 minutes for the vermicelli to be cooked. Add water if necessary. Eat a little sevai to check if its cooked.

2. Heat oil in a skillet and add mustard seeds. When they splutter add cumin seeds and curry leaved. Add chopped onion and saute till onion turns translucent. Add turmeric powder, green chilly paste\slit, peanuts (whole\crushed), salt, sugar and mix well.

3. Now add cooked vermicelli and mix again delicately, making sure everything mixes well. Adjust salt, sugar to taste. Cover for 2 minutes. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Tips:

You can also add roasted split chana daal when sauteing onion, for that extra and different flavor.
Additional veggies of your choice will add colors and nutrition.

All I wanted to know about Antioxidants!

I been upto a lot of things lately and definitely this is not the post I want to resume my writing with.
I was reading about Green Teas (as I have started drinking it instead of regular tea) and that directed me to read about antioxidants. This topic, like many others, had always been dwelling in my mind but its just today that it surfaced and I thought this is good to write about.

I want to write down about it in the language that I can clearly remember and explain others.

What is oxidation:

What I knew - Rusting of iron or a peeled apple turning red is related to oxidation. So definitely oxidation is a chemical reaction, that is related to oxygen (as the name suggests) and could be slower or a faster process. Definitely it is not good as nobody likes a rusted iron or a peeled apple that had turned red. :)

What I learnt - Oxidation never occurs on a painted iron object or not on the Apple that has skin, which means, it occurs when some kind of cells\molecules come in contact with oxygen. As we know any burning process requires Oxygen and so does the food (glucose) in our body requires oxygen to ignite itself and generate energy that body requires for functioning. We also burn the energy resulting into heat that can damage cells. This process is nothing but oxidation.
The damaging of the cells actually occurs because of the electrons that are generated during these reactions of molecules and oxygen. These free electrons are also called as free radicals.

Prolonged damaging of cells can cause serious injuries.
 
Effects of Oxidation:

What I knew - Nothing

What surprised me - As the oxidation\burning can occur anywhere in the body, the effects could also been at any place or of any kind. Here is the list which is literally shocking and if we correctly know how tackle the oxidation we can at least eliminate a good chance of these disease ever happening and lead a healthy life. (source- http://www3.amherst.edu/~dmirwin/Reports/BetterHealth.htm)

• Deterioration of the eyes, which contributes to blindness.
• Inflammation of the joints (rheumatoid arthritis).
• Damage to nerve cells in the brain.                   
• Acceleration of the ageing process.
• Increased risk of coronary heart disease, since free radicals encourage low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol to adhere to artery walls.
• Certain cancers, triggered by damaged cell DNA.

What are antioxidants ("free radical scavengers"):

What I knew - I should eat antioxidants like berries to have healthy life.

 

What I learnt - These are the chemicals that are responsible for removing the free radicals that cause disease. Many vitamins act as antioxidants. Antioxidant supplements do not work as well as the natural sources of them found in vegetables, fruits, etc.
Antioxidants block the process of oxidation by neutralizing free radicals and themselves become oxidized. That is why there is a constant need to replenish our antioxidant resources.

 

Sources of antioxidants:

 

Type	Source
Allium sulphur compounds	Leeks, onions and garlic.
Anthocyanin	Eggplant, grapes and berries.
Catechins	Red wine and Tea.
Cryptoxanthins	Red capsicum, pumpkin and mangoes.
Flavonoids	Tea, green tea, citrus fruits, red wine, onion and apples.
Indoles	Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.
Isoflavonoids	Soybeans, tofu, lentils, peas and milk.
Lignans	Sesame seeds, bran, whole grains and vegetables.
Lutein	Leafy greens like spinach, and corn.
Lycopene	Tomatoes, pink grapefruit and watermelon.
Polyphenols	Thyme and oregano. Grapes, all berries
Beta carotene	Pumpkin, mangoes, apricots, carrots, spinach, parsley.
Vitamin C	Oranges, blackcurrants, kiwi fruit, mangoes, broccoli, spinach, capsicum and strawberries.
Vitamin E	Vegetable oils (such as wheat germ oil), avocados, nuts, seeds and whole grains.
Copper *	Seafood, lean meat, milk and nuts.
Selenium *	Seafood, offal, lean meat and whole grains.
Manganese *	Seafood, lean meat, milk and nuts.
Zinc *	Seafood, lean meat, milk and nuts.

* Need only in small amounts.
 

• Know it right and do it right !