Aval Nanachathu

I am still feeling sick !!! Now I truly understand why good health is such a wealth. Sigh.. I wake up feeling groggy, start feeling better by afternoon and then by night starts feeling sick again !!! This has been going on for days...And I am stuck in the house , not able to enjoy the good weather also... Sigh... 

Baked Veg Samosa

Happy Holi every one :) Even though we dont celebrate Holi at my home, I just love the festival. The Vibrant colors and the way the people enjoy splashing water colors on every one... Sounds very much liberating to me.. I guess may be, in every one there is a hidden wish to break free from the monotonous day to day life and have some fun and that is what holi sounds to me about... Fun or Masti !! 

Bread Pakora

Today when I woke up, I didnt feel like having any of my usual break fast items like Corn Flakes, oats, smoothies or my favorite bread and peanut butter. Stared at my bread for a long time thinking what I should prepare and then thought of making Bombay Toast. But I felt the sudden need to try out something new and decided to make Bread Pakoras. 

Palada Pradhaman

Around 3 months before, I got a packet of ready made Adas during our regular trip of grocery shopping. Thought that I will make the Ada payasam either the Palada (One using Milk) or Ada Pradhaman ( Made using jaggery and coconut milk) for some occasion. How ever that never happened. Now that Vishu is approaching, I started thinking about which payasam I should make for the day and then I thought about the so far forgotten pack of Adas. As a trial for Vishu, I prepared Palada Pradhaman using a quarter of the Adas and it turned out great. To tell the truth, this is my third attempt in making Palada. I think it turned out well today to my satisfaction.  

Rava Dosa

We used to have mostly the plain dosa and wheat dosa at home. Very rarely my mom used to make wheat dosa with coconut-jaggery stuffing or egg dosa or Masala dosa. And at restaurants we used to have ghee roast. I must confess, I was not familiar with other varieties of dosa till I came to Hyderabad. My room mates at Hyderabad used to buy the Rava dosa mix and used to prepare it at home and I got hooked onto them in a big way. Also that was when I learned that not all dosas are made the same way. For Rava dosas, we dont spread the dosa batter in a circular manner once we pour it on the Tawa like other dosas. Instead while pouring, we do the outer layer first and then fill in the middle part so that the dosa turns out very thin. When I set up my home here and went grocery shopping I didnt find any rava dosa mix in the shops and decided to make my own batter. And the dosas turned out crisp and perfect, just the way I like it. Takes a little practice to make them but you will get it soon. Here's a step by step recipe. Check it out and let me know how it turned out for you. 

Oats Masala Pancakes

Today I prepared Oats Masala Pancakes for dinner. These pancakes can be had as a healthy break fast item or evening snack or dinner. It is yummy, filling and also very easy to make. 
We have got into a routine these days preparing an item for dinner with oats atleast once in two weeks. The first time I prepared these pancakes, I refused to tell my hubby what these were made of and asked him to guess after tasting. He gave answers ranging from besan to most other varieties of flour commonly used in our house hold and couldnt imagine that these were made from oats!!!  I guess that its ideal for all those (kids and adults) who hate oats :) Do try this out as a healthy snack for kids and let me know if they like the dish. I am sure they will !!!

Sabudana Khichdi

Sabudana Khichdi is a dish that brings several memories to my mind. My good old Hyderabad days and the people whom I met there and became friends... Staying in Hyderabad, I happened to meet people from both southern and northern parts of India and had the fortune to see and taste dishes from various cuisines. Learning to use Sabudana (Chowarry in Malayalam, Sago in English) in recipes was something that I learned from my Marathi friend. In Kerala in my home, all I have seen Sabudana being used was in Payasams as an add on. I had heard the word chowarry being referred in my home and all the while I was at home, I must confess that I never paid attention to food or cooking :). 

PS: This is gonna be a looong post.. You can skip to the bottom and simply check out the recipe if you wish :) Here's a pic :)

Hot Cocoa

It has been a gloomy week with rain and heavy clouds and the cold and that has brought all gloomy thoughts and laziness on me... To cheer one up and to get warm in the cold weather days, I usually have a cup of hot cocoa. What do you guys have ? Masala Tea or Coffe Latte? 

Oats Halwa - 15 min easy cook sweet recipe

In the afternoons after lunch, most of the days I get an irresistible craving for sweets. I think I got this habit unfortunately from my hubby who loves sweets and would like to have something sweet after every meal... Sighh... Since we dont buy that much sweets and keep at home for snacking( We know it will get over in just 1 day), this craving I have, forces me to cook some sweet... And I try to make it less fattening thus involving a lot of work... Sometimes what happens is When I get this craving, immediately I start thinking or searching recipes to cook... But I may not have most of the ingredients at home that time ( just my luck!!) and may not be able to find suitable substitutes or the sweet may take a very looong time to cook.. .Ha lazy as I am, immediately drops the idea and still keeps on wondering what else to cook... 


Finally I have an easy to cook recipe that is partly healthy too and satisfies my sweet cravings as well. And that recipe is for Oats Halwa... A really yummy sweet and I take consolation in the fact that I am eating oats disguised in the form of delicious Halwa and stays happy... 

Prawns Fry

Tried a simple prawns fry as side dish today. Turned out great. A simple recipe with very few ingredients needed. Loved it. I am sure you will love it too... I dont remember prawns being cooked often at my home. May be one or two times during my childhood.  Thats all I guess. Till I reached college I never knew that people cook non veg either fish or chicken so often in their homes. I started noticing what my friends used to bring for lunch and almost every day they had fish. And if they didnt have fish for lunch, they used to say that there is nothing special for lunch today. My bench mate cum best friend loves prawns and she used to bring prawns fry atleast once in two weeks. Her mom was an excellent cook and we used to grab her food like anything and she will be saying leave something for her.. its her favorite and all and we used to disregard her and leave the tiniest portion possible for her :) He he... 

Prawns are my hubby's favorites as well. I had the initiative and enthusiasm to cook non veg earlier during the initial days of marriage but soon found that I couldnt tolerate the smell :( So now we rarely prepare non veg at our home. Either my husband will prepare the curries or like for prawns today, I asked him to clean it and marinate it and the remaining cooking I take care of my way. So this recipe is similar to how my best friend's mom's prawns fry. 

Parippuvada - Baked, Healthy version

Yesterday my hubby expressed a desire to eat some spicy snacks along with his usual evening Tea. I realized the complete absence of any kind of spicy snacks in the house that time.  Started thinking about the usual snacks that we used to have during childhood and suddenly remembered Parippuvada (Lentil Fritters), my favorite snack.My mom used to buy packets of parippuvada from her office canteen and I used to have it almost every week during my childhood. I was so fond of the parippuvadas that my mom used to put the ones that were not eaten that evening in Rasam for lunch the next day which I used to love as well. I guess, I had parippuvada so much in the childhood that when I started consciously staying from oily and deep fried food, it didnt take much effort from my end for stopping it completely.  It also helped that I was not staying in my home town because there were no easy availability of parippuvada in Hyderabad as per my knowledge ( good thing!!! otherwise I may have succumbed to temptations :) ) and those were the bachelor days when we didnt know cooking and was struggling... 

I remember that after my marriage when I was making an effort to learn something new, parippuvada was one of the dishes that I tried first. Needless to say, it was a flop. The vada didnt stay together. All I had to show my husband was a crumble of deep fried Dal and onion which tasted good I must say. 

After almost 2.5 years and after improving my cooking skills a little bit, I decided to make parippuvada today. How ever by now, I have developed a deep distaste for deep frying in oil which complicated matters a little bit. As usual I decided to replace deep frying by baking and I must say my baked parippuvada gave the same taste as the deep fried ones and did exceed my expectations. Here goes the recipe.