Mixed Vegetable Upma

For Day 3 of BM# 16 under "breakfast" theme, I made a super simple and comforting upma. Growing up, I was not a big upma fan. But now that I'm older and wiser, I realized how quick and easy making upma is and the dish can be dressed up or down as per the occasion.

As I was looking for breakfast recipes in Mallika Bhadrinath's "100 Tiffin Varieties", I found this vegetable upma variation. I thought the addition of tamarind with mixed vegetables was interesting and decided to give it a try. This upma is slightly spicy and tangy and a great variation to regular plain upma. Definitely worth a try!!

Read more »

Five Grain Cereal with Dried Fruit

For Day 2 of BM# 16 I made this healthy and delicious 5-grain cereal with dried fruits. We just came back from our vacation to Disney World in Orlando, Florida and I can't seem to forget the oats that I ate for breakfast in the resort for almost everyday. It was just simple cooked oats and they would add your favorite toppings on it -- either fresh berries/ dried fruits/ nuts etc. It was very filling and would keep me going until afternoon.

So when we got back I wanted to make something similar but more hearty and healthy. I found the recipe for this 5-grain cereal in "Cooking Light - Way to Cook Vegetarian" cookbook. Recipe makes about 10-12 servings, I made me a whole batch and stored it in an air tight container in the fridge, this way I can make my bowl of cereal whenever I feel like it.

Read more »

Idlis (made with Par-boiled rice) and Peanut Chutney

I’m back for another round of Blogging marathon, BM# 16. Thanks to Valli for organizing and coming up with some very interesting and challenging themes. My theme for this week is “Show your Breakfast”. I have a variety of breakfast dishes lined up for this week. 

Breakfast in my house on a weekday is usually quick and simple – toast with peanut butter and jelly/ veggie cream cheese/ butter and jelly/ nutella or some Swiss Oats or quick-cooking oats. My policy is not to turn on the stove on weekday morning and only utilize the services of my trusty microwave and the toaster oven. On the weekends, the story is not drastically different: we usually end up waking up late and I’m the kind of a person who would rather have an early lunch than late breakfast, so we end up having a quick cereal or skipping breakfast altogether.

So when I saw that one of the themes for this month’s BM is breakfast, I thought it would be a nice change to treat my family with a hearty breakfast over the weekends (for a change). For Day 1, I made some good ol’ idlis – every south Indian’s comfort food. I’m sure there are a million ways/ recipes for making idlis, but I’ll go ahead give mine anyway. I started making idlis with par-boiled rice (idli rice) and found that they turned out much softer and fluffier. 

Here is the recipe that I usually use, but when I saw Nupur’s post with a different proportion of par-boiled rice, I wanted to try that too, to see the difference. I’ve to say there is a big difference in the texture and I would probably use my new measurements going forward. Check out Nupur’s post for mouthwatering chutney and restaurant style sambar recipes.

Read more »

Dish it Out Event Announcement-Eggplant & Tomatoes

"Dish it Out" is a monthly blog event started by Vardhini of Cook's Joy. I will be guest hosting it for this month and my choice ingredients are "Eggplants & Tomatoes". Being a eggplant lover, I want to see what all of you  can dish out with Eggplant and Tomatoes as star ingredients.

So go ahead, start cooking with these 2 ingredients and send in your entries to me by May 31st.

Here are the rules:

• Eggplant and Tomatoes have to be the star ingredients in the dish. You can use other ingredients, but we should be able to taste the aforementioned ingredients.
• Only Vegetarian dishes are allowed. Eggs are allowed in Baking ONLY.
• Use of the Logo is appreciated.
• Link to Vardhini's Dish it Out announcement and this announcement are mandatory.
• Archived entries are accepted as long as they are updated with the above links.
• If you don't have a blog, you can send in your entries via email.

Send your entries to cookshideout@gmail.com with below details:

• Your Name
• Your Blog Name
• Dish Name
• URL for the recipe

Big Thanks to Vardhini for giving me this opportunity to host the event. Looking forward to all your delicious entries.