Happy Mothers Day

with Maggi Noodles and a small picnic.

Friday was Mother’s Day Tea at S’s pre-school. It was a rainy and dull morning but that one hour in her school pepped me up. It has been a year since S has been going to this pre-school and she is comfortable there now, I too know most of her class mates and some Moms unlike last year. So it was a happy one hour accompanied with iced tea and munchkins, it was another thing that S devoured 2 of mine. They then gave us the surprises they had made for us.

I knew about the art, but the cute photo frame made of popsicle sticks and stick-ons with a picture of S in the playground was a real surprise.
A day before S had told me, she has a surprise for me at school and she was not supposed to tell me what it is. In the next 5 minutes she had whispered in my ears, that when her teacher asked, “Why she loves her Mommy”
she had said “’Coz Mommy makes good food for me” :-)
She had drawn me and herself going to the restaurant and eating noodles that apparently I had cooked. Huh ? This girl doesn't want to miss out on the restaurant inspite of Mom's cooking, maybe she likes to have a backup plan.

Today Little S wanted to go to the park and I didn’t want to go to a crowded restaurant either so we decided on an impromptu picnic. Since there was hardly any time in hand, I made Maggi Noodles with eggs and some veggies, a favorite in our home and D made some sandwiches with fish sticks, cucumber and mustard and off we went to the nearest state park where the day turned out to be apparently cold and chilly.

S had fun and I always like a green view better than anything, so it was not all that bad and a nice way to spend a lazy Sunday

Maggi Noodles is an easy and quick lunch for my daughter too and she likes it even when I pack it for school. Of course she need huge amount of ketchup with it.

Easy Maggi Noodles

Boil the Noodles according to the package direction. Do not add the spices/seasoning in the packet. Drain the noodles and wash off the starch in cold water and toss with a little olive Oil
In a pan, heat Olive oil, add sliced onions and fry till pink. Add chopped tomatoes and sauté till soft. Add an egg and stir to scramble it. Add veggies (carrots, peas, beans or whatever you have, which have been steamed) to this.Add chopped green chillies if your kid is ok with it.
Sauté for a couple of minutes and add half of the Masala/seasoning that comes in the packet. Add salt and the Maggi Noodles.
Mix well and serve with Ketchup.
This serves as a good lunch to be packed for kids too

Hope all you Mommies had a fun Mothers Day.

(This post shared with Bong Mom's Cookbook my other blog)

Bottle Gourd Pudding/Dudhi Kheer/Sorakaya Payasam

--by Pallavi (This recipe has been cross posted at All Things Yummy)
Ah .. the Bottle Gourd.. Sorakaya.. Anapakaya.. Dudhi..Lauki..Opo.. whatever you call it.. is such a yummy vegetable. If you are a reader on my blog, then you would know how much I love it and so does my little one...and all the more reason for me to make in different ways to enjoy it with new tastes.. This is the bottle gourd dessert thats a hit with any crowd. I made this for a PotLuck dinner over the weekend, so thats why you see the proportions are enough to feed a few families :) And I overheard atleast a couple of kids say - "Mommy - some more of this ". So, thought it would be appropriate to share here. Please adjust quantities as per your needs.



Ingredients:
------------
1 small Bottle Gourd/Dudhi/Lauki (finely grated)
1/2 Gallon Whole Milk (or about 1.5 litres)

1 can Carnation Sweetened condensed milk(14oz)
1 cup Sago/Sabudana/Saggu Biyyam (soaked in about 2 cups of water)
1/2 cup rice (cooked)
2 Tbsp Sugar
3 Cardamom (de-skinned, powdered)
2 Tbsp Ghee (Clarified butter) / Butter/ Oil.

For Garnish:
------------
Blanched Almonds
Golden Raisins
Cashews, Pistachios and any other nuts you like.

Process:
-------

In a sauce pan, add 1 Tbsp of Ghee, add the grated bottle gourd and saute a little bit for about 5 minutes.
Add the milk and let the vegetable cook in it. Add the cardamom powder After about 5 minutes, add the sago along with the water. Stir frequently to make sure the milk doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
Cook on low heat until the bottle gourd and the sago is cooked completely, stirring to make sure the milk layer isn't browning in the bottom of the pan. Takes about 15-20 minutes.
Add the condensed milk and sugar. Add the cooked rice stir and continue cooking.

Simmer to desired consistency. You dont want to make it too thick when its hot. It should be of running consistency when you turn the heat off. After it cools, it becomes much thicker but it should still be of a flowy consistency thats served in bowls. Refrigerate and wait until its cold. I usually make it 12 hours ahead of time to give it enough time to be chilled.

Just before you are ready to serve, take a small frying pan, put the remaining ghee, warm it and add the nuts and raisins to it. Add it to the pudding and serve .

Serves about 10-12 people. Enjoy !

Blueberry Orange Smoothie

--posted by Pallavi
[This recipe has been cross-posted at All Things Yummy]
As the weather gets warmer, its nice to have a refreshing and cold drink. Here is an easy and quick mixed fruit recipe. It is one of the many combinations created by my darling husband... I will be posting more of these mixed fruit smoothie recipes as the summer comes along...! Are quite refreshing, healthy, easy to make and the little ones will love them...


Ingredients:
-----------
1 Cup Blueberries(Fresh/Frozen)
1 Orange (peeled/de-skinned) (Sweet ones work great)
1 Cup Grapes(Seedless Green / Black) - we used both
1 Banana
1 tsp Honey
some crushed ice(optional) - we skipped it this time.

Process:
---------
Add all the ingredients to the blender/juicer and blend to form a thick yummy smoothie. Thats it !
Serve it with a toast for breakfast, after lunch, as a quick drink after school, or after supper.
Its absolutely delicious and quite healthy. Enjoy !
Servings : 4

Birthday Cakes For Kids (and grownups too)

A few days ago, I wrote this post about baking and posted a picture of a cake (see left) I baked for my son’s (Chip) first birthday. A lot of people asked for recipes and directions, so I decided to do a post on it. Since I don’t want to put everything in one long post, I am going to do three small posts – Cake recipes good for birthday cakes, filling and frosting recipes, marshmallow fondant figures.




Nutfree ,Eggless, Dairy-free Chocolate Cake (Yield: 2- 8” rounds or 1- 9X13 inch)
This is very easy to put together and great for kids with food allergies.

INGREDIENTS
3 cups white sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda (NOT baking powder)
1 teaspoon salt (kosher preferred)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups water
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar (I use Heinz)
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa.
Add water, vegetable oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Beat by hand until smooth.
Pour into a 9x13 inch pan or two 8” round pans. Bakeat 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.


Butter Pound Cake (Yield: 2-8” rounds or 1-10” Bundt cake)
If you are not in a hurry or on a diet, this recipe will yield a moist, dense and delicious, all purpose pound cake. The secret to making a good pound cake is to cream the butter and sugar well until silky. There are no leaveners in a pound cake.

INGREDIENTS
3 cups all purpose flour
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 ¼ cup butter
¼ cup buttermilk
8oz cream cheese
2 tsp Vanilla or almond extract.

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C).
In a large bowl, cream butter, cheese until smooth. Add sugar in small quantities and beat until silky and fluffy. Add the buttermilk beat again until fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time beating well with each addition. Fold in the flour gently. There are no chemical leaveners in this cake (baking powder, baking soda). So be sure to beat well as only this will make the cake rise.

Pour into 2- 8” round pans and bake for about 50-55 mins. Check for doneness at 40mins. A toothpick inserted in the center of the cake should come out clean.

Do try these recipes for the next birthday celebration and let me know how it goes.

From a budding chef's kitchen

[Crossposted at My Two Cents]

Note: I posted this on my blog some time ago. Thanks to Sandeepa who reminded me to post it here for Kids Food Festival :)

Lately there have been more updates about M than there have been about S and while that is natural, it isn't fair. So here is a tid-bit about S.

She created this snack ALL ON HER OWN!! She took foods that she likes - bread, butter, sugar, chocolate syrup, chocolate chips and bananas and put them together to create a yummy (her words, not mine) snack! I leave you with a mouth watering picture of the same. :D

For the record, I have tasted it sans the chocolate chips and chocolate syrup (did I ever tell you I HATE chocolate flavor - except in a cake??) and it indeed was very, very, very delicious. S is proud of the fact that this is a very healthy recipe because it has whole grain bread and a fruit! I really loved the look of pride on her face when she presented this snack to me and later when I photographed it.

Hope to keep this interest alive and maybe she will be competing on "Top Chef" one day.... :D

Sprouted Ragi Porridge

Ragi (or nachni) is an excellent source of nutrition and I recommend all mothers to try it out in their recipes. Here is one method of preparation of ragi porridge which can be fed to babies right from 6 months -

Soak the ragi overnight and in the morning, drain the water and put it in a closed vessel. The ragi would have sprouted by next morning. Put the ragi in a mixer and grind it with a little water till it becomes a thick paste. Put this paste through a coffee filter or a muslin cloth. Leave this liquid for a while and the ragi 'paste' will settle down.

Take some spoonfuls of the 'paste', add water/milk/ vegetable broth and sugar/salt and cook on low heat with constant stirring till a thick porridge consistency is reached. Add some ghee if required.

As the baby grows, you can add other pulses like green gram, wheat, channa, etc along with the ragi and follow the same method. You can also soak badam, cashew and dates and grind along with the ragi.

Sprouting makes the porridge easily digestible and improves the nutritional content.

Though the process looks elaborate, it is only about 10 minutes of effort to grind and filter the paste. You can refrigerate and use it later.

Dosai Sandwich

Making elaborate meals is easy to deal with, plan a menu and start cooking and most times it somehow comes together alright. Except perhaps when cooking for a crowd when a few recipes that have been tried and trusted simply don't rise to the occasion. But well I was not intending to complain about slips in well planned meals. I was just trying to say that elaborate meals are easier to deal with than getting lunch packed for school that actually get eaten. So...

Always on the lookout for healthy but tasty and easy to eat, a snacky dosai sandwich fit this to T, another item that I often pack to school. Any spread that is a favourite would work be it cream cheese, peanut butter, honey, sugar or podi. One very good thing about using dosai is it does not get soggy like bread.

Ingredients
1. Dosai batter
2. Idli Podi, ghee
3. Sugar

Method
1. Make Small dosais
2. Spread some ghee on one dosai, sprinkle idli podi or sugar
3. Slap the other dosai on top


Pack it in a lunch box with loads of love and hope it will be all finished when the box gets home in the evening.

Also posted in Daily Musings

Kids Food festival

Hi Ladies,
The DesiMomzclub is proud to announce "Kids Food festival". This is a unique online food festival hosted for the first time on DMC and we would like to get inputs from all members. I request each member of DMC to contribute a kid-friendly recipe every week on Saturday, complete with pictures and method of preparation. If you do not have the time or opportunity to post the recipe, please email me (mnamma@gmail.com) the recipes and the pictures and I would post it on DMC on your behalf. So ladies mark your calendars for every Saturday starting from today as ‘Kid food festival day’ and share with us some of your wonderful recipes and let us make this food festival a huge success. All the food bloggers who have yummy, kid-friendly recipes posted on your blog – you are welcome to repost it on the DMC blog. The rules for participating in the food festival are pretty simple as outlined by Sandeepa of Bong Mom’s cook book:

1) Food should be healthy.

2) Food should be suitable for infants who have started on solids or lunch dishes for toddlers and preschool kids.

3) Food should be such that, it can be packed for lunch and be eaten with minimum mess.

4) Food should be primarily Indian in nature as we want the kiddies to develop a love for Indian food.

5) Food should be fun. Colorful foods decorated in creative ways are bound to be well liked by toddlers and preschoolers.

6) Food should not be very spicy, keep in mind the target eaters.

7) Mom or any one should not spend more than 30-40 minutes on preparation.

8) Please use the label ‘kid food fest’ on all your posts related to the food festival.

9) Please specify the age group for which he recipe you would be posting is appropriate.



I am pretty sure most of the Moms reading this would have experienced the dismay of opening the lunch boxes of their toddlers or preschool kids who have returned from school, only to find it untouched or half eaten. The child returns homes cranky, hungry and tired and almost the entire day is ruined because of that. I have faced that situation a lot of times myself. Our wonderful Tharini of Winkies-Way fame had posted on this topic , a few days back on her blog space.

My twin daughters have strong likes/dislikes with regard to food and it is quite a challenge to keep them happy and cater to their taste and at the same time be uncompromising in nutrition. They want their food not too hot or spicy, not too bland, not too hard to bite, not too mushy but just right – like the story of 'Goldilocks and the three bears'. I have a few recipes that have been a hit with my 4 year old daughters and I would like to share them with you. The recipe that I am posting here is the ubiquitous 'vegetable rice' or 'vegetable pulao'. This one has a lot of nutrients in it and is also very easy to prepare. This dish is suitable for toddlers and preschoolers in the age group of 3-6. This is how I prepare it:

Ingredients
Basmati rice – 2 cups
Cardamom – 3
Cloves – 2 or 3
Bay leaves – 1 or 2
Cinnamon stick - one inch piece
Mustard seeds, cumin and fennel seeds for seasoning.
Garam masala powder – a pinch
Salt – according to taste
Olive oil – 6 teaspoons
Butter or ghee – a small quantity for the aroma.
Onion
Ginger garlic paste – about half teaspoon
Green chilies (minced) – 1 (This is optional and if your toddler or preschooler doesn’t eat hot food you don’t need to add chilies)

Carrot
Beans
Cauliflower
Red Bell pepper (I use this because of the sweeter taste and the color)
Potato
Peas
Coriander – for garnishing
Any other vegetable that your child may prefer.





I use about 3 cups of all these chopped vegetables. You may add more according to your taste. Cook the basmati rice separately in a rice cooker with a little bit of salt, bay leaves, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon stick added to it.
In a pan, sauté mustard seeds, cumin and fennel in a little bit of olive oil. Add onions and ginger, garlic, green chili paste. Sauté it until the onions change color. Then add the veggies. Cook until the veggies are cooked and then add salt and the garam masala powder. Mix the cooked rice with the veggies and then add the butter or ghee and mix together well. Garnish with coriander. Serve with cucumber or onion raitha. This recipe takes about 40 minutes including chopping the vegetables.

Posts from Moms of Infants who have just started solids are also very welcome. We would love to hear about a tasty and nutritious first food you made for your baby. I remember Poppins posting a recipe like this a while back. So come on ladies – put on your chef caps and show us the magic you can create to bring a contended, well-fed smile to those little faces.