Quinoa Upma

I used to avoid Quinoa as I did not feel that it was tatsty. I did not know how to cook it.
Upma is the only way I could eat Quinoa. This is a recipe for 2 persons.

Ingredients:

Quinoa                              1 cup
Onion medium                   1
Garlic Ginger finely minced 1tbsp
Green chillies sliced            2
Mustard                             1tsp
urad dal                              1tsp
Hing                                    2 pinch
coconut oil                           2tsp
Turmeric                              1/4tsp
Sambar powder                   1/4tsp optional
Curry leaves


Wash Quinoa. Cook the 1 cup Quinoa in 2 cups of water. Keep it aside.

Heat oil. Season with mustard, urad dal and Hing,curry leaves.
Saute onion well and add Ginger Garlic.
Add Turmeric and sambar powder. Now add cooked Quinoa.
Mix well and cook for 5 minutes.
Garnish and serve.

Brown Rice Pilaf

Nowadays there are lots of health news saying brown rice is better than white rice. But I could never eat them with sambar or kolambu. They just don't complement each other. I was trying for a long time for a recipe to eat brown rice without making bitter face. At last I found a tasty recipe.

Ingredients:

Brown Rice - 1 cup
Onion chopped  - 1
Garlic minced - 2 to 3 cloves
Bell pepper(Capsicum)  -  1 medium
Mushroom - 1 cup
Spinach chopped - 1 cup
Butter or Olive oil - 3tsp
A pinch of Turmeric
Sambar powder - 1 tsp


Boil the brown rice in 4 cups of water as per instructions ( about 50min).
Drain the cooked rice.


Heat oil in a pan. Saute garlic for 30 seconds and add onion and fry till golden.Add bell pepper,Mushroom with a pinch of Turmeric and cook till they are soft (5min). Add spinach and saute for 5 minutes. Add sambar powder for taste or any masala powder you  like and saute till raw smell goes away. Add the drained rice to it and mix it well. Serve with vegetable or chicken curry.

Carrot Beet Muffin

When my son comes home after school hungry, he is no mood to eat rice or bread. So I thought of making muffins with carrot and beetroot. I reduced the sugar. This muffin was a hit with my son. He had 3 of them.

Carrot Beetroot Muffins
Ingredients:

Flour(Mix of All purpose, Whole Wheat, Oat Bran, Wheat germ) - 1 cup
Carrot and Beetroot grated - 1 cup
Orange zest - 1tsp
Salt - 1/4tsp
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsp to 1/4 cup
(I used 2tsp as I don't want the after school snack loaded with sugar)

Butter - 2 to 3 Tbsp
Egg - 1
Milk - 1/4 cup
Vanilla extract - 1/4tsp

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400F.  In a bowl, beat egg and add vanilla, milk, butter and sugar and mix well.
Add Flour and carrot beet and orange zest and mix.
Scoop the batter and add to muffin cups.

Bake for 20-25 mins.

Enjoy the flavorful moist healthy Muffins.

Breakfast Icecream

Few months back I came across a recipe of breakfast ice cream in tv news.
I was really amused at how much we need to try hard to get our kids to eat.
I am yet to try the recipe. I will try it out and let you guys know the recipe and how it came out.

Hello BlogWorld

Hoping to gain nice experience from my first blogging experience.