Bread Pizza

Bread Pizza is an easy snack/light meal for kids and adults alike. Here's how I make it:

Toast bread slices till crisp. I usually use whole grain bread and toast in my pop-up toaster.
Cool and smear with a tbsp of ready-made pizza sauce. Yesterday I used Trader Joe's pizza sauce. Most store bought sauces are a little bland for our taste, so I add a pinch of salt, pepper and Mrs. Dash original seasoning blend.
Toppings - try to keep them as colorful as possible. Yesterday I used onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, green and red bell peppers, frozen corn, spinach leaves and shredded carrots. I like to chop the veggies fine since they do not get cooked much.
Lastly sprinkle the cheese. I think fresh mozarella tastes the best on pizza, but any other kind will also work. Like yesterday, I did not have fresh mozarella on hand, so I used a shredded cheese blend.
You can either microwave the bread pizza for 30 secs per picture above or cook it covered on the stove top on medium low heat with a little butter till cheese melts.

Serve immediately.

I find that the stove top method result in a crisper crust than the MW method, in any case, neither results in soggy crusts.

These Bread Pizza slices go to the Kids Delight - Colorful Fruits/Veggies event at Give Me Some Spice. This event was started by Srivalli.

Adorable Rotis

These are made with beets & tofu, which gives them a pink hue. My daughter nicknamed them "Adorable" rotis. The idea came from a friend - the moment she mentioned the this combination & the pink colored rotis, I wanted to try them myself.

Here's how I make them:

1 heaped cup wheat flour
4 small beets drained from a can of beets
1/2 block tofu
Seasonings to taste - salt, cumin pwd, coriander pwd, red chilli pwd, amchur pwd, ginger-garlic paste

The canned beets are cooked and very soft. I just mashed them up by hand and combied with the rest of the ingredients to form a dough. No additional water is needed. Let the dough rest for 1/2 hour. Then roll out into rotis and roast as usual. Smear with some ghee and serve hot.

Goes well with yogurt/pickles/curries.

Also good as a lunch-box item.

These Adorable Beet-Tofu Rotis go to the Pink Food event at Torview.

Strawberry Muffins

This delightful recipe came about from a combination of recipes I had seen online and my basic recipe for eggless cake.

1 cup APF
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking pwd
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp melted unsalted butter
3 oz milk
1 cup strawberry flavor yogurt
few chopped strawberries

Mix all the dry ingredients from APF to salt in a mixing bowl. Add the melted butter, milk and strawberry flavor yogurt. Fold the mixture gently. Add the chopped strawberries.

Fill the mix into muffin pans filed with paper cups. Bake in a pre heated oven at 350F for abt 30-40 mins until tops are lightly browned.

Cool completely before serving.

This yields me 12 mini muffins and 4 regular size ones.

Mung Beans Dumplings



I found this unusual & interesting recipe in my current month Kalnirnay calendar. I was looking for ways to use up a batch of sprouted mung beans and decided to give it a try.

Here's how I made these dumplings:

For the mung bean filling -

1/2 cup sprouted, boiled mung beans
1 inch piece of ginger
big handful of cilantro
1 green chilli pepper (increase for more heat, deseed & derib for less heat)
Seasonings to taste - salt, coriander pwd, cumin pwd, pinch of turmeric pwd, little jaggery
1 tsp oil

To make the filling, grind the ginger, cilantro and chilli pepper with 1 tbsp water.
Heat the oil, fry the ground mix for 2 mins, add the mung beans. Add a little water, cover and cook 10 mins. Then add the seasonings, mix well, cook some more till the water is absorbed.
Mash part of the mung beans mix with the back of a spoon.
Allow to cool.

To make the dumplings -

Heat 1 cup water along with pinch of cumin seeds, salt to taste and 1/2 tsp oil. When it boils, add 3/4 cup rice flour. Stir quickly to mix well. Cover and let steam on medium low heat for 10 mins, stirring occassionally. Take off heat and cool to room temperature. Wet hands and knead well for 5 - 7 mins.

Cooked Rice flour mix and mung beans stuffing

 To proceed -

Take a lemon sized ball of the rice flour mix. Flatten on a wet plastic ziplock bag. Fill 1 - 2 tsp of the mung beans mix. Shape the dumplings as desired. As you can see in the picture below, I made a few "modak" shaped and "karanji" shaped ones.

Ready to be steamed

Steam for 10 -15 mins. in pressure cooker, without the whistle.

Steamed dumplings

These Mung Bean Dumplings go to the MLLA 34 event being hosted by Desi Soccer Mom.

MLLA is the brainchild of Susan, The Well Seasoned Cook.

Eggless Omelet

This is a very popular breakfast item, made of gram flour instead of eggs. Its called dhirde in Marathi, you could say its a kind of instant dosa or pancake also. It can be made plain or with addition of desired finely chopped veggies & herbs. It can be eaten with any kind of chutney/ketchup/butter etc.

Here's how I make these eggless omelets:

1 cup gram flour
2 tbsp rice flour
2 tbsp any other flour like soy flour etc. (optional)
2 cups water
1 tsp salt or to taste
pinch of sugar
1 tomato - finely chopped
1/4 cup onions - finely chopped
handful of finely chopped cilantro
1 green chilli pepper (finely chopped)/ red chilli pwd/black pepper pwd to taste

Mix the flours with water to form a runny batter. Add the seasonings and veggies, stir well.

To make the omelet, heat a non-stick or cast iron griddle on medium heat. Pour 2 ladleful of batter in the center and spread into a circle with the back of the ladle. Drizzle some oil around the edges and cook for a few minutes until golden brown. Flip the omelet over, drizzle some more oil and cook another few minutes.

Serve hot with chutney/ketchup/butter.

These Eggless Omelets go to the Breakfast Club - Pancakes event at Krithi's Kitchen. This event was started by Helen.

My daughter loves this as an omelet sandwich for breakfast and in her lunch box. For this, I make the omelets much smaller in size to fit the bread I am using. I usually toast the bread a bit, add 2 small omelets, slice of cheese, some lettuce and thats it. A real easy option for weekday breakfast and/or lunch. Actually this idea came from her, one day she said to me "Mom, I have a tip for you when you don't know what to pack for my lunch. You should pack an omelet sandwich"!

These Eggless Omelets and the Omelet Sandwich goes to the Breakfast Mela at Cooking 4 All Seasons.

Microwave Pulav

I'm back after a prolonged break. Been busy at work the past 2-3 months with tax return prep. Now that the tax season is over, I've reduced my work hours greatly.

As a much-needed break, we went on a weekend trip to Great Wolf Lodge. Had a thoroughly good time there - getting soaked in the water park and going on the magical runes quest with my daughter.

Coming to the recipe, I had carried this quick, easy pulav that I cooked in my microwave. The recipe is adapted from Tarla Dalal's Microwave Desi Khana. Here's how I made it:

1 cup Basmati rice
1 tbsp oil
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup paneer - cubed
1 tbsp tomato ketchup (optional)
1 tsp salt or to taste
pinch of sugar
1 tsp cumin pwd
1 tsp coriander pwd
1/4 tsp red chilli pwd (increase for more heat)
1/4 tsp garam masala pwd

Wash the Basmati rice in 2 - 3 rinses of cold water. Then soak in warm water for 10 mins. Drain and keep aside.

Combine oil, onion, ginger and garlic pastes in a microwave safe glass bowl. Microwave, uncovered, for 2 mins.

Add the tomatoes, rice, salt, sugar, ketchup and masalas. Stir to mix and microwave, uncovered, for 1 min.

Add the paneer cubes and 2 cups hot water. Stir, cover and microwave for 10 mins., stirring atleast once in between.

Add the frozen peas and microwave another 5 mins till rice is cooked.

Let stand for 5 mins before packing/serving.

This Microwave Pulav goes to the MEC Lunch Box event at Flavors and Tastes. This event was started by Srivalli.

Rocket Dosa

I first saw Rocket Dosa on the kids menu at our local Indian Restaurant Spice Route. My daughter always orders this when we dine there. She's just recovering from the flu, so I thought to make this at home in an attempt to get her to eat something. This is usually made from regular dosa batter, but I did not have this ready on hand. So I made an instant dosa batter this way:

Heat 1 tbsp oil, saute some cumin seeds and 1 dry red chilli in it for 2 mins. Discard the chilli and add this to 1 cup rice flour mixed with 2 cups water. Add 1 tbsp fresh grated coconut, handful of chopped cilantro and salt to taste. Stir till you get a smooth pourable batter.

I made the dosas in my non-stick pan. Spread 2 ladleful of the batter on medium hot tava in a circle. Drizzle some ghee around the edges. Cook till underside gets golden brown, then flip over and cook another 2 mins.

To make the conical rocket shape, cut dosa from outer edge to the center with a pair of kitchen scissors. Then roll into a cone.

Thats it. I served it to her with some mild coconut chutney and bell peppers chutney. Rocket dosa zoomed off the plate and down her tummy in a jiffy!

This Rocket Dosa goes to the Kids Delight event at Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen. This event is the brain child of Srivalli.