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

Butter Corn Pasta - Easy Pasta Recipes

Category: Pasta / Macaroni 
Preparation Time: 10 mins  
Cooking Time: 15-20 mins
Servings: 1-2 servings

Yummy Cheesy Pasta

Butter corn pasta is one of the easy pasta recipes and a favourite among the kids. 

If we have pasta sauce in hand, we can do this in a jiff, if not we can also use finely chopped tomatoes or pureed tomato. 

Butter Corn Pasta

We can also add finely chopped bellpeppers to it to make it more nutritious and colourful. 

Adding cheese is an optional here, it tastes good even without the cheese.

Ingredients:

• Pasta - 1 cup (I used small Ditalini Pasta)
• Sweet corn, frozen - 1/2 cup 
• Pasta sauce - About 1/2 cup (use as needed)
• Butter - 1 Tbsp
• Basil leaves / Italian seasoning - to taste
• Salt - to taste
• Pepper powder - to taste
• Mozzarella cheese, grated - as required (Optional)
• Water - as required

 Notes:

• This time I have used store brought Organic Garden vegetable Pasta sauce here and you can find one of my home made pasta sauce recipe here: Homemade Pasta Sauce
• If we are not having pasta sauce in hand, we can replace it with pureed tomatoes or tomato paste. In that case, add finely chopped clove of garlic while sautéing and a little more Italian seasoning at the end
• For make it more interesting and colorful, we can add finely chopped coloured bellpeppers along with the sweet corn

Easy Vathakuzhambu using Vathakuzhambu Podi

Category:  Easy Kuzhambu Varieties
Preparation Time: 5 mins  
Cooking Time: 20 mins 
Servings: 3 servings

Vathakuzhambu is a spicy tamarind based gravy made with dried veggies (Vathals) like Turkey berry (Sundakkai), Black night shade berry (Manathakkali). There are lot of variations - we can use small onion and garlic or we can also prepare without onion & garlic. With regard to masala, we can either use freshly ground masala or just sambar podi / sambar masala or vathakuzhambu podi.

Sundakkai Vathakuzhambu

Here I made the easiest version of Vathakuzhambu using Sundakkai Vathal and home made Vathakuzhambu podi. 

Manathakkali Vatha Kuzhambu

You can find the recipe for the podi in our blog: VathaKuzhambu Podi

Vathakuzhambu Podi

With this podi in hand, making Vathakuzhambu is a breeze and we can use any Vathal for this. If we are not having any vathal, we can just use the sambar onions and garlic.

During this pandemic season, getting fresh Indian veggies was bit difficult so we often made this vathakuzhambu:) 

For me, the perfect combo is Hot rice with Spicy Vathakuzhambu, vegetable kootu and appalam.

Ingredients:

• Sesame oil - 1-2 Tbsp 
• Sundakkai Vathal (Dried Turkey Berry) - 1/4 cup
• Tamarind - lemon sized (Adjust as per taste)
• VathaKuzhambu Podi - 2-3 Tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
• Split urad dal - 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves - few
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Salt - to taste
• Water - as required

Vatha Kuzhambu Podi

Category: Home made Powder
Preparation Time: 5 mins  
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Servings: yields around 1 cup

Vathakuzhambu is a spicy tamarind based gravy made with dried veggies (Vathals) like Turkey berry (Sundakkai), Black night shade berry (Manathakkali). There are lot of variations - we can use small onion and garlic or we can also prepare without onion & garlic. With regard to masala, we can either use freshly ground masala or just sambar podi / sambar masala or vathakuzhambu podi.

Vatha Kuzhambu Podi

I usually prepare this vathakuzhambu podi once in a month or two months and store it at room temperature. With this podi in hand, making Vathakuzhambu is a breeze. Not only for vathakuzhambu, we can use this podi for all varieties of pulikuzhambu and for puliyodharai / Tamarind rice.

During this pandemic season, getting fresh Indian veggies was bit difficult so we often made this vathakuzhambu:) 

For me, the perfect combo is Hot rice with Spicy Vathakuzhambu, vegetable kootu and appalam.

Ingredients: 

• Channa dal- 1/4 cup
• Toor Dal - 1/4 cup
• Whole Urad dal - 2 Tbsp
• Coriander seeds- 1/4 cup
• Dry Red chillies- 10 - 15 nos (adjust as per spice level)
• Cumin seeds- 1/2 Tbsp
• Black Pepper- 1/2 Tbsp
• Fenugreek seeds / Methi seeds -  1/2 Tbsp

Method:

• Heat a wide pan, add the Channa dal and roast it in low flame for 1-2 mins

2 in 1 Pongal - Sweet Pongal & Ven Pongal (Instant Pot version)

Category: Pongal Recipes / Festive Recipes
Preparation Time: 10 mins  
Cooking Time: 30 mins  

Servings - About 4-5 servings

2 in 1 Pongal

During festivals we would be making different types of pongals, especially Sweet Sakkarai Pongal, Kalkandu Pongal and Spicy Venpongal. 

Instead of making it separately and also to save time, we can just cook the rice and dal in instant pot/ pressure cooker and use it up to make two different pongal.

Sakkarai Pongal

This also helps when we plan for making ven pongal but kids want sweet pongal :) Or when we want variety for a special day.

Ven Pongal

This is not a recipe as such, just an idea to make easy & save time :)

Ingredients:

• Raw rice - 1 and 1/2 cups (Ponni rice / Sona masoori rice)
• Yellow Moong dal - 1/2 cup (can use upto 1 cup)
• Water - 6 cups 

For Sweet / Sakkarai Pongal:

• Jaggery - 1 cup
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
• Ghee - 3-4 Tbsp
• Cashews, broken - 10-15 nos
• Raisins - 2 Tbsp

For Ven pongal:

• Ghee - 3-4 Tbsp
• Cumin - 1 tsp
• Black pepper - 1 tsp

Oatmeal Nutella Smoothie (using home made Nutella)

Category: Breakfast/ Oats 
Preparation Time: 5 mins  
Cooking Time: 5 mins  
Servings: 1-2 servings

Oatmeal Nutella Smoothie

Oatmeal Nutella smoothie is a quick and easy on the go breakfast / after school snack for the kids. 

Store-brought Nutella is loaded with refined sugars and palm oil, so I never buy it. This is made with home made Nutella and you can find the recipe here: Home made Nutella.

Home made Nutella with Almonds

Ingredients:

• Oatmeal (Quick cooking or old-fashioned) - 1/2 cup
• Milk / Non-dairy milk -  1 and 1/2 cups (Use as needed)
• Home made Nutella - 1-2 Tbsp (Use as needed)

Optional Add-ins:

• Dates 
• Soaked Chia seeds
• Apple 

Parangikkai Pulikuzhambu (Butternut Squash in Tamarind-Coconut Gravy)

Category:  Kuzhambu Varieties
Preparation Time: 5 mins  
Cooking Time: 20 mins 
Servings: 3 servings

Butternut Squash- Kondakadalai Pulikuzhambu

Pulikuzhambu is an easy South Indian kuzhambu and we usually add veggies like brinjal, drumstick, lady's finger, bittergourd.

I tried pulikuzhambu with Butternut squash and it turns out good. Butternut squash is similar to Manjal Poosanikkai / Parangikkai / Orange pumpkin. 

Yummy Pulikuzhambu

Addition of  cooked brown channa and ground coconut makes it more yummy :)

Whenever I soak this brown channa, I usually add more, cook and freeze in it. You can view my earlier post on freezing beans here.

I love to add these Channa in other dishes like Kurma, kuzhambu, rice varieties or even in kootu:)

While cooking this, make sure that the Butternut squash / pumpkin pieces are not got overcooked and turn mushy. Since there's sweetness in squash, I didn't add any jaggery here

Ingredients:

• Butternut Squash/ Orange pumpkin - 2 cups, cubed 
• Brown Channa / Kondakadalai - 1/2 cup, cooked
• Tamarind - Size of a Gooseberry (Use as needed)
• Sambar Powder - 1-2 Tbsp (Adjust as per spice level)
• Turmeric Powder- 1/2 tsp
• Sesame Oil - 1/2 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Channa Dal - 1/2 tsp
• Urad Dhal- 1/2 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/8 tsp
• Curry leaves -few
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Small Onions - 7-8 nos, halved