Pasta

This is another of our favourites and it's just too simple to make. I make this for dinner whenever D is not there for dinner cause he doesn't like pasta, noodles, pizza etc for dinner - he likes proper dal-chawal-roti wala dinner.

I made this last night as he had to go to his Team dinner at work.

Ingredients:

Pasta- 500gm

Tomato & basil pesto (or normal tomato paste if pesto is not available)- 50gms

spinach- a cereal bowl full finely chopped ( or more if you like - I love it)

corainder- one bunch finely chopped

Garlic- 3 cloves finely chopped ( we get really big garlics here so adjust accordingly)

cream- 100-150ml

cheese- a cereal bowl full ( grated)

Olive oil- 2tbsp.

Onions- 1 finely chopped

tomato- 1 finely chopped

ground black pepper- as per taste

Method:

Cook the pasta as per the instructions on the pack with little oil and salt. Drain the water when done, but still firm. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in a pan ( I sometimes use butter instead of oil and it tastes great). Add garlic. Once it gets slightly reddish, add onions and cook till they turn golden brown. Add the pesto or tomato paste. Keep stirring till oil seperates. Add the cream and let it boil till the oil floats.

Turn off the heat and immediately add the pasta, spinach, tomatoes, coriander, pepper and cheese. Cover. Its done.

Since I am a little lazy when it comes to cooking, I add the cheese together with that. But actually it should be added on the top after mixing everything else and should go in the oven untill the cheese starts melting ( according to the original recipe which was given to me by a chef friend). But I just mix it all together and for the kids, I add extra cheese on the top when serving them and put their bowls in the microwave for a few seconds. Still tastes great.

You can adjust the pepper as per your taste, but I like when theres lots of it so I add it generously. You can also add brocolli along with spinach to make it more nutritious. I just love spinach to I add lots and lots of it.

Beetroot Raita

Grate half beetroot. Add 500ml thick yogurt and some salt. Mix. Take 2tsp oil in a heavy bottom small pan and heat it on high. Add 1/2tsp jeers(cumin seeds) and 1/2 tsp rai(mustard seeds). When it splutters, add a few curry leaves. turn off the heat and immediately pour it over the yogurt and beetroot mix.

It tastes great and can be used as a DIP with chips too.

Veg Fried rice

I made this for the pot-luck dinner last night. And the host made the yogurt raita to go with it. I enjoy eating it without any accompaniments, just with some green chillies in vinegar.

Short grain rice - 3 cups ( I didn't get short grain so used the sona-masoori)

mixed veges- 500 gms ( I used the forzen ones from th super market - I am just too lazy to chop them all)beans, carrot, peas,corn.

Green capsicum- 1 finely chopped

Spring onions - 2 bunches finely chopped

cabbage- 1/4 finely chopped( we get really big cabbages here)

green chillies - 3 finely chopped

garlic- 3 cloves finely chopped

Soy sauce- 4 tbsp

chilli sauce- 3 spoons

tomato sauce- 2 tbsp

black pepper pdr- 2 tspoons

Ajinomoto( chinese salt) - 1/2 tsp

oil - 3 tbsp

Soak rice for half hour in lots of water. Put 1-2tbsp cooking oil and salt and keep it on stove. Let it boil and one its almost done, drain the rest of the water and keep it aside to cool.

In a pan/wok, add 2-3 tbsp oil on high heat. Put the chopped garlic. Stir fry for a minute, add half of spring onions and capsicum. Keep stiring otherwise it gets burnt due to high heat. Once that look a little soft, add cabbage. Keep stiring. once thats softened a bit, add the rest of the frozen mix veges and stir till that looks 3/4th done. Add all the sauces, pepper, ajinomoto and salt. Cook on high for few more minutes untill done.

Mix it with the cooked rice and add the rest of the spring onions on the top and mix again slightly.

aloo paratha

I made this for the lunch box yesterday.



Boiled four potatoes. Peeled. Chopped roughly. In pan, took very little ( 2 tsp) oil, added little jeera and rai. Then added 1 finely chopped onion. When the onion turned golden brown, added the potatoes, red chilli pdr, turmeric pdr, salt, I didn't have coriander in the fridge, but it tastes good if you chop some coriander and put in it. I didn't add green chillies either as the 2B's wouldn't be able to eat it otherwise add those too. fry for a minute or two and then mash it nicely and let it cool in a bowl. Kneed a real soft dough from 2cups wheat flour. Make it as soft as you can roll. That't the trick if you don't want the potatoes mix to come out of the paratha while rolling and also to ensure even distribution. I learnt it too late ( very recently) so wanted to share it. Otherwise my aloo parathas looked really horrible !


Now took a small part of the dough to make a ball. Pressed it to make it flat and kept pressing around the corners to make it slightly bigger. now took the same amount of aloo mix and placed it in the centre. brought all the sides together and close it properly.





Placed it upside sown and started rolling it lightly. Placed it on a hot tawa and shallow fried both the sides till golden.





I cut it in half on the tawa itself if I am putting it in the lunch box. Just roll it once they are slightly cold and put it in the box. And offcourse add some butter on top of the parathas.

Hyderabadi tamatar ki chutney

I learnt this very simple recipe from a Hyderabadi friend of mine. It goes really well with khichadi which I made for dinner last night and served it with this chutney and papad.

2 cans chopped tomatoes - I used tinned tomato but 500 gms of fresh tomatoes can also be used.

1tbsp - ginger garlic paste

1/2 tsp turmeric pdr

1tsp red chilli pdr ( or as per your taste)

1/2 tsp jeera ( cumin) pdr

salt to taste.

a handful of curry leaves.

put all of these together in a pan and let it cook till the tomatoes are really soft. pour this into a serving bowl.

Take a small pan or kadhai for seasoning. Add 3 tbsp oil, when it's hot, add 1tsp jeera, 1/2 tsp rai ( mustard seeds). when it splutters, add 3-4 dry whole red chillies, 1tsp grated or minced garlic, once the chillies are dark brown, turn off the heat and add 1/2 tsp red chilli pdr. Pour this immediatley over the cooked tomatoes and close the lid. Its ready to be served.

pav bhaji

I made it on the weekend and it is super easy and super fast and super yummy !

2-3 potatoes - peeled and roughly chopped
1cup - peas ( I used frozen)
1cup - chopped beans ( again I used frozen)
1cup - cauli florets ( yep, frozen again )

It was faster cos all I had to chop was potatoes, the rest came out of the freezer. Now, pressure cook the above, mash it and keep it aside.

In a pan, add some butter ( 50 gms) and immediately add 3 finely chopped onions. Fry till it turns golden. Add 3 chopped tomatoes, 3tbsps pave bhaji masala, a pinch of red chilli pdr ( if you want it spicy), 1/2 tsp turmeric, cover and let it cook till tomatoes are sift and butter floats on the top. Add the boiled veges. Mix properly and let it simmer for 10 min. Adjust the water according to how runny you want it. add salt and some lemon juice.

Cut the pav/hamburger buns, butter and cook on the tawa till it is golden. Serve with bhaji, some chopped onions and lemon.

CACTS sandwich

CACTS is the name I gave to this one - Cheese, Avocado, Cucumber, Tomato, Spinach sandwich !

I took two slices of white bread, buttered them. Spread a good amount of baby spinach leaves, arrange slices of cucumber and tomato on it. Cut some avocado and arrange on top of it. Grate some cheese and spread it on the sandwich before covering with the other slice. You can see some gree chutney on top too instead of cheese but since the 2 B's don't like it, I didn't.

Cut them in two halves and gladwrap them for the lunch box. I usually add a fruit, a fruit juice, a breakfast bar/one serve size chips packet/crackers to make it a healthy yet appealing lunch !

A filling salad

I eat this on its own as a light dinner. You need:

boiled chick peas - 1 cup
half telegraphic cucumber - chopped
1 carrot - chopped
1tomato - deseeded and chopped
spring onions - a handful ( chopped)
2 cloves garlic - minced
1green chilli - minced
a pinch of salt.

Mix it all together and its ready. Just for a change, I sometimes add 1tbsp of yogurt and finely chopped coriander too.

banana cake in a jiffy

I made this yesterday after having a sudden craving for eating a banana cake. Alright, alright, it wasn't a sudden craving, I was browsing the net for some easy banana cake recipe as I had three bananas browning up. Had no intention of making it straightaway but looking at all those mouthwatering pics along with the recipies, I jsut had to have one straightaway. And this one took 10min flat to prepare ( not counting the baking time ). I was planning to make some lemon icing too when I was browsing. But I didn't have icing sugar in the pantry, so we just ate it without icing - as usual :-)

You will need:

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup milk

150gms melted butter ( I used only 100 gms though)

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs ( I used egg replacer as usual)

1 cups self raising flour

3 large mashed bananas

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 C. grease and flour a 20cm baking ring tin. Dissolve baking soda in milk. Beat the butter and sugar till creamy. beat in eggs. Stir in sifted flour, soda milk, banana. Turn into tin and bake for approx 45 min or untill a toothpick comes out clean from the centre of the cake.