Vazhaipoo thugayal/Banana Flower petal chutney

Tags

Banana Flower Chutney, banana flower petal chutney, chutney recipes, Vazhai poo thugayal, Vazhaipoo chutney, vazhaipoo thokku

Hello friends,

Been really long, absolutely no time to check my blog. Have been thinking of posting, ain’t got time to write down a post. Have some pictures taken and been there in the memory card. Little one is growing fast and I am going around her where ever she crawls. This gets the mommy tired 🙂 Anyways lets get to this recipe. This is a recipe from my dear friend PM’s mom. When she told me that is she going to make this thugayal, I got fascinated and loved the recipe. I wanted to try immediately and absolutely loved the taste. This recipe is one of the treasured recipes from her mom.

PM this is dedicated to your mom 🙂

Here it goes, remove the banana flowers and when you get to the stage you can remove anymore, just cut it in half. Use the petals which are soft. Discard those which has more fiber and can’t cut.

Ingredients:

Banana Flower and petals of medium size

Tamarind : a small piece

Salt : 1/4 teaspoon

Oil : 3 to 4 table spoons

Red Chili : 2 to 3

Asafoetida/Hing: 1/8 teaspoon

Urad dal :1/4 teaspoon

Garlic : 20 pods

Mustard seeds : 1/4 teaspoon

Water : as needed

Curry Leaves: Few

Method:

• Throw the banana flower and the petals in a pressure cooker, add salt, tamarind and some water and cook for 3 whistles.
• In a small pan, heat some oil, add urad dal, red chili, hing. Once it cracks, let it cool.
• Take out the pressure cooked flower, petals, add the above and grind it to a fine paste.
• Next heat the remaining oil, add mustard seeds and curry leaves.
• Add garlic once they start to brown, add the paste and mix well.
• Cook in low flame until it thickens.

Serve with idli/dosa.

My friend told me that , they prepare it for ladies who delivered babies. This helps cure the internal injury in new moms. As you know Banana flower is full of iron content. Though it is a little long process, it is absolutely worth it. This tastes so good. Do give it a try. You can store it for a week as we have loads of oil. Use it as thokku.

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Oats Qunioa Balls

Tags

Oats cranberry balls, Oats Quinoa Balls, Oats recipes, Quinoa, Quinoa Balls, Quinoa Indian style recipe

Most of my blog readers won’t need any introduction to Vidya @ Traditionally Modern Food , she is one good friend of mine and has always been very supportive from my initial days of blogging. We share a great bond together. I have given a guest post to her on Oats Quinoa Balls, hope you all will like it. Hop on to her blog to find my recipe 🙂

Link to her blog and recipe click here

Blog link: https://traditionallymodernfood.wordpress.com/

FB link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Traditionally-Modern-Food/762621750435010?ref=hl&ref_type=bookmark

Pinterest link: http://www.pinterest.com/tradmodfood/traditionally-modern-food/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tradmodfood

You will soon find a post from her on my blog 🙂

Coconut Rice Porridge and Coconut Dip/Thengai Kanji and Thengai Thuhayal

Tags

Coconut dip, Coconut Milk recipe, Coconut Porridge, Coconut rice porridge, food to cool down body heat, food to have while dysentery, food to have while loose stomach, Rice Porridge, Simple rice porridge recipe, Thengai Kanji, Thengai Pal Kanji, Thengai Thuhayal

This food is the most comfort food on earth I feel and it tastes heavenly and comes with lots of health benefits. If you have any digestion issues and heavy dysentery, vomiting, acidic problem the very comfort food is this. Coconut milk cools down body heat as well. We have yogurt/curd rice in competition with this, but I would go for thengai kanji any time 😉 I love this so much that I can have it anytime. And a vegan 🙂 So my vegan friends would be happy to see this.

Ingredients:

For Thengai Kanji/Coconut Rice Porridge

Raw rice : 1 cup

Water :  4 cups

Garlic : 12 to 15 pods

Fenugreek Seeds : 1/2 teaspoon

Coconut Milk : 1 to 1 1/2 cup ( I prepare fresh coconut milk which is preferable)

Salt : 1/2 teaspoon

For Coconut dip/Thengai Thuhayal

Fresh Grated coconut : 1/4 cup ( frozen is as well fine)

Red chili : 1

Garlic :2 pods

Roasted Gram/Pottukadalai : less than 1/4 cup

Water and salt : as required

Method:

To prepare Thengai Kanji/Coconut Rice Porridge

Take raw rice and in a blender just mince for 10 seconds, not more than that, so that it splits to half size.

Next in a pressure cooker, add this cup of broken rice, water, garlic pods chopped, fenugreek seeds and pressure cook for 3 to 4 whistles. Let it cool down.

Meantime to prepare coconut milk, add 1/4 cup of fresh scraped coconut and add little water and blend it to fine paste. Now pour around 1 cup of water to it and blend well. Filter this you get fresh coconut milk.

After rice cools down, add salt and coconut milk. It smells heavenly 🙂 Serve it at room temperature.

  

To Prepare Coconut dip/Thengai Thuhayal

Add fresh scraped coconut, garlic pods, red chili, roasted gram, salt and use water only as much to make the dip/thuhayal and grind it.

It is so simple and has great health benefits without compromising taste. These are so perfect with each other 🙂

Day Start Juice – 5 ingredient

Tags

Beetroot juice, Carrot juice, healthy juice, kick start juice, miracle juice, Morning kick start juice

Wanna kick start your day with a healthy juice?? Here we go with 5 Ingredients for this juice. More over I love the gorgeous color of the juice 🙂

Some benefits are below

• Beetroot helps in strengthening the immunity, reduces blood pressure.
• Carrots improves vision, anti ageing and gives skin a perfect glow.
• Ginger is a wonder medicine for me, various health benefits. You find my article on ginger earlier.
• Kiwi control blood pressure, asthma, good for heart diseases.
• Spinach , I don’t have to mention their benefits 🙂

Ingredients:

Beetroot : 1 medium

Kiwi : 1

Carrot : 1

Ginger : 1 inch piece

Spinach : handful

Honey : 1 tablespoon

Water : 1 cup

Method:

Do I have to include this 🙂 Peel of the skin from Beetroot, kiwi, carrot and ginger. Chop them roughly. Add the spinach leaves, honey and water with all others in a blender and blend it. Done with this wonderful juice to start your morning 🙂 If you want, you can filter it in a strainer. I prefer it as it is!!

Enjoy friends!!!

Good Night’s sleep

Tags

Effects of eating in the midnight, Gadget Intervention while sleeping, Good Night's sleep, How to sleep well, Mid Night snack, Sleeping, Sleeping disorder

Dear friends this is off and out of my blog’s content. But thought of sharing this awareness of sleeping in night. How many of us sleep well during the night? Do we sleep from 10 PM to morning 6? Do we get at least 6 hours of sleep? If you can do so, you are way good and on right track.

Definitely I am not the one who sleeps well. I struggle a lot to sleep. I have to roll on for hours together to get sleep. I keep myself preoccupied with so many thoughts. Its a battle between my thoughts and sleep.

Recently I watched a talk show in a Tamil channel about why younger generation doesn’t sleep on time?

Many younger generation people argued that they got sleep for 6 hours but they slept from mid night 2 to next day 8. They were quite comfortable with that sleeping time. Some said we can’t sleep at least until 3 in the mid night.  Some said they can happily watch TV programs in the night. They can play games and chat with friends. Everything was in and around gadgets.Yes I am one of them.

Just because I can’t sleep, I will watch movies, TV programs in the night. When I am on bed I get some thought and check my mobile. Check for emails. As I am awake I get hungry and snack something in the midnight. This is something worse I know it myself but I can’t help it. I am not getting sleep 😦 What ever we eat in the midnight doesn’t get digested properly and sugar settles in the liver which is dangerous. This is one reason why we put on weight.

Some experts, doctors have come to the show and they pointed few information which gave me a big time shock.

• The light that we get from gadget in the darkness very badly affect our retina in the eyes. Nerves in the eyes are affected.
• Eating in the midnight increases your weight.
• Not sleeping on time from 10 PM to 6 AM affects hormones. There are certain hormones which secrets only in the midnight when we sleep. If we don’t sleep at that time the hormone secretion level dips downs to a very low range. This can cause digestive problems in the younger age. Later change to fatal around 40 to 50 years of our age.
• The one which gave me a jerk is this one, If we don’t sleep well as ladies in the midnight we have a great chance of getting breast cancer. Some ladies who are prone genetically for breast cancer are asked to wear black glasses when they sleep to avoid the chances of breast cancer in them.
• The complete world operates with Sun. We need to sleep and work according to the Sun’s rules. When it sets we need to sleep and when it rises we need to wake up. Simple example are flowers, they bloom when sun rises and goes down when Sun sets.

These are the fact that we need to accept and understand. I have made a resolution myself that I will not touch any gadget once I go to bed. Try to sleep by 10 PM. I am following it for the past one week, first 2 days was difficult but slowly I can realize Yes I can sleep by 10. It’s just my mind set. Even if some thought ponders, just have to tell myself that I need to sleep. All my worries can wait.

A good night’s sleep is definitely needed for every one, those who have little kids it is difficult. Otherwise lets change our attitude towards sleep 🙂

GM Wonder Soup + Glimpse of GM diet

Tags

GM Diet, GM Diet Day 7, GM Diet experience, GM Diet Glimpse, GM Diet how to replace meat on Day 5, GM Diet Indian Version, GM Diet tips, GM Diet Vegetarian version, GM Wonder Soup

During the GM diet, we are suggested to have the GM wonder soup. This is so good , simple and tasty. This wonder soup can be had from Day 4 of the diet.

Ingredients:

Onion : 1 red large

Tomato : 2 large

Cabbage : 3 to 4 leaves chopped finely

Celery sticks : 3 to 4 chopped to small pieces

Green Bell Pepper : 1 chopped

Olive oil : 1/2 teaspoon

Salt : 1 teaspoon

Pepper Powder : 1 teaspoon

Water : 2 3/4 cups to 3 cups

Method:

• Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add onions and Bell peppers. Saute for 3 to 4 mins.
• Add the other vegetables. Saute for 2 mins.
• Mix water, if needed add salt and pepper now, else it can be added later.
• Pressure cook it for 3 whistles.

Soup is ready 🙂 It tastes really good. I loved it.

Glimpse of GM diet:

Day 1 : Only fruits, exception of Banana and avocado. Lots of water. No vegetables and milk. Unlimited fruits allowed.Drink only black tea or black coffee without sugar. No fruit juice allowed.

Day 2 : Only Vegetables. Can be taken either raw or steamed. Have one potato in the morning either baked or boiled. No fruits or milk. Unlimited vegetables allowed. Drink only black tea or black coffee without sugar. No fruit juice allowed. Avoid oil. Salt is allowed.

Day 3: Mix of day 1 and day 2. Potato, Banana, Avocado, Milk is restricted. This is as well unlimited. Drink only black tea or black coffee without sugar. No fruit juice allowed. Avoid oil.

Day 4 : up to 6 Banana and skim milk. If full fat milk restrict it to 750ml. No other fruits and vegetables. In between the wonder soup can be had. Drink only black tea or black coffee without sugar. No fruit juice allowed.

Day 5: Lean meats allowed. Since I am a eggitarian I had 1 egg in the morning, and 1 egg in the afternoon. For dinner I had Tofu. You can replace this with Cottage cheese /Paneer. You need to have 6 tomatoes compulsorily. Drink only black tea or black coffee without sugar. No milk or fruits. GM wonder soup can be had. No fruit juice allowed. Avoid oil.

Day 6 : Same as Day 5, but no tomatoes.

Day 7: We can have up to 2 cups of rice. I cooked only 1 1/2 cup which I was unable to finish, you tummy shrinks well by this time. Can have wonder soup, black tea. Any fruits allowed as usual except banana and avocado. Avoid Oil as much as possible. Lots of vegetable recommended. Today we can have fruit juice.

Remember through out to keep yourself hydrated, drink lots of water. Everyday atleast 10 to 12 glasses of water. Workout on alternative days is better. I have some foot problem so I restrained myself to only walking and walked for atleast 1.5 miles everyday from 4th day. First 3 days workout was impossible for me 😛

I am gonna have the dinner for Day 7. It really feels awesome after this diet. I am feeling very energetic and gives a lot of happiness. I am sure to have lost pounds , not sure how much I have check it tomorrow. Will get you guys my picture before and after soon. One thing I realized is not to worry about weight loss, but this have given me more energy and I feel very light. Yes in between I had the thoughts of giving up, but by god’s grace I could make it. Thanks a lot to all my friends who gave me support from day 1.

If anyone would want to go for a detox this is a great way of doing it.

Kosambari/Moong dal Salad

Tags

GM Diet, GM Diet Day 6, Healthy Salad, Kosambari, Moong Dal Salad, pasiparuppu recipe, Split Mung Bean Salad

Kosambari is a very traditional salad made in Karnataka. In my office they used to serve it during the Ugadi festival. The first time when, I saw this it was made out of the split mung bean. A salad with split mung bean, I did not like it much and was scared to touch it 😛 Later when I attended a wedding , it was a proper Karnataka wedding, they served this kosambari. Again I avoided it. I had a friend who is half Tamil and half Kannada, he was sitting next to me while having food in the wedding. He said why don’t you try , this is excellent. I said No, how can you make salad in this. He said try maadu( give it a try), if you don’t like it, leave it. He forced me to eat it, then it became my favorite 🙂 It was excellent in taste and one best salad.

For my GM diet, I need to have some protein on Day 6. So Indian version(Vegetarian) of GM diet suggested to have kosambari which is a high source of protein. I can happily have it 🙂

Ingredients:

Moong dal /Split Mung Bean : 3 table spoon

Coconut (unsweetened) : 1 1/2 teaspoon

Carrot grated : 1 1/2 teaspoon

Cucumber grated : 2 teaspoon

Salt : 1/2 teaspoon

Pepper powder : 1/2 teaspoon or Green chili : 1 small

Lime juice : 1/2 teaspoon

Cilantro leave : Few Chopped

Method:

Wash Moong dal and soak in water for 1/2 hr to 45 mins. After 45 mins drain water and set aside.

Grate carrot and cucumber.

Add the cucumber to Moong dal. The cucumber water content will soak the moong dal better, leave it for an hour.

Next add carrot, grated coconut, salt, lime juice, either pepper powder or green chili, cilantro leaves and mix well and serve.

Healthy Kosambari is ready 🙂 This serves 1 person.

The traditional recipe has green chili, I did not want to add during diet, so changed it to pepper powder 🙂

And to my GM Diet day 5 completed and day 6 going on 🙂 Day 5 was a little difficult in the evening. I thought of giving up, but finally could make it 🙂 As of now day  6 is as well going well. Tomorrow is going to be a feast day 🙂 the last day and its fully rice and vegetables 🙂 I am glad I am gonna finish it 🙂 Thank you friends for your wishes

Methi Pulao/Fenugreek Leaves Rice

Tags

Fenugreek health benefits, Fenugreek leaves, Fenugreek Leaves rice, Indian rice variety, Methi Pulao, Methi Rice, Pulao

This is the first time I am preparing Methi Pulao/ Fenugreek Leaves rice. Both the seeds and leaves are strongly aromatic and bitter in taste. But they loose the bitterness if slightly roasted. They are rich in vitamins, folic acid, riboflavin and minerals. Some of the health benefits are as below

• Reduces Cholesterol
• Increases breast milk
• Prevents Diabetes
• Maintains healthy testosterone levels
• Aids Digestion
• Cools down your body heat
• Helps ease menstrual pain for ladies

Usually we prepare lentil and fenugreek leaves dal. But this pulao was a little different for me. And this pulao didn’t taste bitter, because of the tomato added. Anything bitter would reduce its bitterness when added with something sour. Here is my try…

Ingredients:

Fenugreek Leaves : 1/2 cup finely chopped

Basmathi Rice : 1 cup ( I used brown basmathi rice)

Onion: 1/4 of a large chopped

Tomato : 1 chopped

Red Chili Powder : 1/2 teaspoon

Coriander Powder : 1 teaspoon

Turmeric Powder : 1/8 teaspoon

Garam Masala : 1/2 teaspoon (optional)

Salt : 1/2 teaspoon

Cumin Seeds : 1/2 teaspoon

Fennel Seeds : 1/2 teaspoon

Ginger Garlic paste : 1 teaspoon

Oil : 1 teaspoon

Water : 3 cups

Cilantro : to garnish

Method:

Soak Basmathi rice for half an hour.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker.

When oil is hot, add cumin seed and fennel seeds. When they change color, add onions and ginger garlic paste. Let it turn translucent.

Add the Methi leaves/ Fenugreek leaves. Saute for 3 to 4 mins. Next add tomato. When tomato gets smashed well. Add red chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. Next add salt and saute for 2 mins.

Now drain water in rice and mix it in the cooker. Fry for 2 to 3 mins. Add the 3 cups of water. Cook it for 3 whistles if you are using normal rice, I had to cook for 8 whistles as its brown basmathi.

Garnish with Cilantro leaves and serve with yogurt or raita 🙂

 

 

Mixed Fruit Mousse (Vegan friendly)

Tags

Avocado, Banana, Berries, cashews in mousse, Dates, Fiesta Friday, fruit mousse, Gelatin free mousse, healthy fruits, mixed fruit mousse, Mixed Fruit Mousse (Vegan friendly), mousse, Pomegranate, pomegranate juice

My dear friend Lori suggested me to enter into the Fiesta Friday. She is so sweet that she gave me the details and it looks like great fun. I am not gonna wait 🙂 Here is my addition to ‘Fiesta Friday’ Thanks to Angie from NoviceGardener who hosts this party.

I prepared this mousse for my fruits Thursday, it’s already Friday in many places around the world. Here it is still Thursday 🙂 . I am sure by now my blogger friends would know that I love banana and avocado’s. Another fruit of my choice is Pomegranate. All of them are healthy fruits. Recently in my fruits list are raspberry and blueberry. Today I prepared this mixed fruit mousse. I did not want to use Gelatin, as these fruits themselves would give thicker and creamier texture. This can be had as a dessert as well. Let me know your comments 🙂

Ingredients:

Avocado : 1 medium sized

Banana : 1

Pomegranate : 1

Blueberries : 12- 15

Raspberries : 12 – 15

Honey : 1 tablespoon

Dates : 2 pitted

Cashew : 15

Method:

 

Soak cashew in hot water for 15 mins. Remove the seeds from Pomegranate and put them in a blender, without adding any water, make it juice. In a filter, remove seeds and extract the juice.

Remove the seed from avocado. Put it in a blender with banana, dates, cashew, honey, raspberries, blueberries. Use only the pomegranate juice to grind.

Once done put it in a bowl and refrigerate it for 3 to 4 hours. Then add few pomegranate seeds in top and serve at room temperature.

Mung Sprout Salad with Avocado

Tags

Avocado, Green gram salad, Moong Salad, Mung Sprout, Mung Sprout salad with Avocado, salad, Sprouts salad

Mung/Moong Bean sprout contain beneficial carbohydrates and protein, which supports a healthy lifestyle. These sprouts are low in calories, have fiber and B vitamins, and deliver a boost of vitamins C and K.The fiber in the legumes have the capacity to combine with bile acids.The decrease in bile available for digestion may stimulate the body’s conversion of blood cholesterol into bile resulting in lower levels of blood cholesterol.

But they have some disadvantages as well. If you don’t eat it properly it causes heavy gastric problems.

I have always loved mung bean sprouts. I used to eat them almost everyday few years back as my breakfast. As I had to run to office, I would eat them in a hurry without chewing properly and got this gastric problem. So in between I had stopped it.

Suddenly I had a feeling that I am eating all junk food for the past few days, so I had sprouted the mung bean 🙂 and prepared the salad. I just loved it. Today changed my fruit Thursday routine to Salad Thursday for a change 🙂 here it is…..

Ingredients:

Sprouted Mung bean

Lemon Juice

Yellow onion

Tomato

Black Pepper powder

Salt

Avocado

Cilantro leaves

Method:

I had sprouted the mung beans yesterday, wash it thoroughly. Chop onions, tomatoes, some avocado pieces. Mash them all together. Add lemon juice, pepper, salt and the mung beans.

The creamy avocado gave the salad a great taste.

I haven’t given any measurements, as you can adjust and vary according to your taste 🙂

You can add Dill leaves to it, so that you can reduce the gastric problem.

Finally chew it well and eat 🙂