Ragi Semiya - Sweet & Savoury Version - Easy Breakfast Recipes

 Category: Kids Breakfast
Preparation Time: 5 mins  
Cooking Time: 10 mins  
Servings - 2 servings

Ragi Semiya - Savory & Sweet Version

Ragi semiya / Ragi Vermicelli is a healthy and also a very quick breakfast we can make on a busy morning. This also comes in handy for a relaxed week end morning breakfast:) 

Ragi Sweet Semiya

Kids will enjoy this, especially the sweet version :) Not only for breakfast, we can make this for evening snack or for the sudden hunger prangs.

Ragi Semiya Upma

For making it more nutritious, we can add finely chopped veggies while making the savory Upma version. For the sweet version, I usually add unrefined organic coconut sugar, but we can also add organic jaggery powder or unrefined cane sugar.

Ingredients:

• Ragi Semiya / Ragi Vermicelli - 3 cups
• Water - as needed

For the sweet version:

• Fresh Coconut, grated - 3-4 Tbsp
• Coconut Sugar / Unrefined Sugar - 1 Tbsp (Use as per taste)
• Cardamom powder - a pinch
• Ghee - 1 tsp (Optional)
• Cashews - few pieces (Optional)

For the savory version:

• Cooking Oil - 1/2 Tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Channa dal - 1 tsp
• Urad dal, split - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves - few
• Small Onions / Sambar Onions - 5-6 nos, halved
• Green chillies - 1-2 nos, halved
• Mixed veggies like finely chopped carrot, green peas (Optional)
• Salt - to taste

Varagu Arisi Pudhina Sadham /Kodo Millet Mint Rice (Mint-Lemon Millet)

Category: Rice Varieties
Preparation Time: 15 mins  
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Servings: 2 servings

Millets are very nutrient rich grains. These super grains were forgotten for a while and now they are making a coming back. 

Varagu Arisi Pudhina Sadham

This is a very easy recipe and we can call this as mint-lemon millet. For this I have used Kodo millet / Varagu Arisi, but we can use any of the millets. 

Mint Kodo Millet with Moongdal-Carrot Salad

I prefer soaking millets for atleast 2 hours so that it would help with digestion and also will get cooked faster. If we have time, we can soak for about 6 to 8 hours.

Ingredients:

• Kodo Millet / Varagu Arisi - 1/2 cup
• Raw Peanuts- 2-3 Tbsp
• Lime / Lemon juice - as needed
• Oil - 1/2 Tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Channa dhal - 1/2 Tbsp
• Urad dhal, Split - 1/2 Tbsp
• Curry leaves - few
• Red chillies, broken - 1-2 nos (adjust as per spice level)
• Turmeric powder - a generous pinch
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Salt - to taste
• Water - as required

To Grind:

• Mint leaves - 1 cup
• Ginger - 1/2 inch
• Green chilly - 1

Method:

• Cooking Millets: Wash and soak 1/2 cup of the millet for atleast 1 hour. Take 1 to 1  1/2 cup of water in a pan (if we want more grainy, we can use 1:2 ratio and for softer rice we can add 1:3 ratio) and bring to boil. Once it started to boil, add the drained millet and cook until most of the water gets absorbed. Then cover and cook in low flame for few mins and switch off. Once its done, fluff it up and spread it in a plate to allow it to cool down

Zucchini Mini Parathas (Whole wheat Zucchini flatbreads)

Category: Chapathi / Paratha   
Preparation Time: 20 mins           
Cooking Time: 20 mins      
Servings: 3 servings

Zucchini Mini Parathas

Zucchini is one of the few vegetables which I tried only after coming to US. Initially I tried Zucchini in Quesadilla, Pasta and Pizza only, Then I gradually started incorporating into our Indian dishes. It's a very versatile vegetable and loaded with nutrients.

This Zucchini Paratha is similar to our normal vegetable parathas and to make it more interesting for the kids, I prepared them as mini parathas. Bite sized foods are always hit among the kids😍 

You can view some of my Zucchini recipes here:  Zucchini

Zucchini Mini Parathas!!

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour / Atta - 2 to 3 cups (Use as needed)
• Green Zucchini - 1 no (Medium sized)
• Ginger, grated - 1 tsp
• Roasted Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp 
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Green chilly paste  - to taste (Optional)
• Ghee-for toasting
• Wheat flour - for dusting

Variations: 

• Any spice powders of our choice can be added to taste such as Cumin powder, Garam Masala Powder, Red chilly powder, Italian seasoning or just Ajwain seeds. If we are making for adults, we can add finely chopped green chillies

Dosai Pizza / Pizza Uthappam

Category: Kids Recipes
Preparation Time: 10 mins  
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Servings: 3 servings

Yummy Pizza Dosai

Dosai Pizza / Pizza Uthappam is just making Pizza with the Dosai as the base :) Whenever kids crave for pizza but we didn't have time to make one, we can prepare this Pizza dosa. 

As a south Indian, we always stock up Idli Dosa batter. But kids often got bored with the regular foods. We need to find ways to make our regular foods look fun and fascinating for the little ones 😅

Dosai Pizza

Toppings are purely of our choice, We can use Onions, Bellpepper, Mushrooms, Olives, Baby corn, Sweet corn, Paneer, Zucchini, etc., Since we are cooking in low flame and only for short amount of time, the veggies can be sauted in little oil until they gets cooked just right.

If we want thin base, we can make this with normal thin dosa too.

Ingredients:

• Idli/Dosa batter - 2 cups
• Pizza Sauce / Pasta Sauce - 1/4 cup
• Mushrooms - 4-5, sliced
• Bell pepper / Capsicum - 1/4 cup, thinly sliced
• Black olives - few, sliced
• Sweet corn - 2 Tbsp, boiled
• Mozzarella cheese - 1/2 cup, grated (Use as needed)
• Italian seasoning - to taste
• Chilli flakes - to taste
• Garlic powder - a pinch (Optional - I like to flavour up the mushrooms)
• Salt - to taste
• Cooking oil - as needed

Bottle gourd Paratha / Suraikkai Chapathi / Lauki Paratha

Category: Chapathi / Paratha   
Preparation Time: 20 mins           
Cooking Time: 20 mins      
Servings: 3 to 4 servings

Bottlegourd Paratha

Bottlegourd / Lauki / Suraikkai is one of the lowest calorie vegetables and has a lot of healthy benefits. We usually make poriyal (stir-fry), kootu, kuzhambu, rice, paratha or even raita. 

For the picky eaters / toddlers, we can make this Paratha and for sure they wont even realize there are veggies inside 😉. 

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour / Atta - 2 to 3 cups (Use as needed)
• Bottlegourd - 1 no (Small / Medium sized)
• Carrot - 1 no (Optional)
• Ginger, grated - 1/2 Tbsp
• Turmeric powder - a pinch
• Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp 
• Green chilly paste / Red Chilli powder - to taste 
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Ghee- to taste 
• Wheat flour - for dusting