Quinoa, barley and wild rice salad

another light lunch for Red Chilies

My five year old loves going to the museum and can spend hours roaming the corridors. Before you get any ideas about his artistic abilities, let me explain. It is a children’s museum which allows him and kids like him to play and experiment with things one doesn’t normally get to do at home. There are basins of water with toy boats to study water flow and mechanics of water dams. There are rooms filled with crayons and scissors and balloons and wooden blocks to build lofty buildings and break them down.

Water fun at the museum

For once, the parents trail behind the kids while they lead the way from one room to another. I have to admit sometimes we too get sucked into the excitement of building a castle with disposable plastic glasses. What kid would not like to spend hours in a museum built just for him and his friends?  We make a trip down to the museum at least once a month if not more.

Quinoa, wild rice salad with curly fries

For all the good things our city’s children’s museum offers, it lacks sorely on the good eats front. The café offers greasy cheese pizzas and sad looking macaroni and cheese for the kids, both of which my kid refuses to eat (not that I am complaining). For the adults, especially if one is vegetarian, there is very limited offering and what there is of is loaded with grease and salt. They do make excellent curly fries and the kid will eat them happily with ketchup. To supplement the fries, I carry a healthy snack for him and he eats that with the fries. For the adults, I make a quinoa salad with lots of fruits, veggies and nuts. I vary the salad ingredients, sometimes adding wild rice to it, sometimes barely and other times, all three of them.

With strawberries

Weight Watching: Day Three

Click here for Day Two

I usually eat two rotis for lunch and dinner but today I had enough dough left over from the night before to make only one. Also, I have started brushing my teeth once I have finished a meal. It helps me not crave snacks between meals besides keeping my breath minty fresh.

Breakfast: One cup of tea, a hardboiled egg and a cup of cereal (1/4 cup raisin bran and 3/4 cup cheerios with one cup of 1 % milk).
Lunch: One roti with left over batata ros (potatoes in onion tomato gravy), half a cup of homemade yogurt with a teaspoon of sugar. A few pieces of watermelon for dessert craving.
Evening Tea: 1 cup of tea with 2 tsps of sugar.
Dinner: Two rotis with toor dal and broccoli, potato sabzi. Half a cup of yogurt with a teaspoon of sugar.
Exercise: 20 min brisk walk around the neighborhood, again in flip flops.
Dessert: A nectarine before flossing and brushing teeth.

Potato broccoli sabzi (stir fry)
Serves : 2 as a side dish and 4 as a main dish.
This is a very simple Indian style of making stir fry in which, unlike the Chinese stir fry, the vegetable are cooked tender. You can interchange cauliflower and broccoli; add peas and any other left over vegetables in the fridge. I had an orange bell pepper and some button mushrooms left over. The spices are not many and when I cook a couple of different veggies together, I like to add the salt and masala powder in increments to each veggie as it goes in the pan. This way all the veggies get spiced up equally.
Ingredients:
2 potatoes, diced into small cubes
1 bell pepper, cut into long stripes
1-2 cups of broccoli, chopped into bite size pieces
4-5 button mushrooms, chopped

For tadka:
1/2tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp sabzi masala/ garam masala (I used Everest sabzi masala)

Method:
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a deep karahi or wok and add the mustard seeds. As they start to sputter, add the cumin seeds and turmeric powder. Roast on medium heat for a minute before adding the potatoes. Add a little bit of chili powder, sabzi masala and salt. Cover and cook for a few minutes, before adding the broccoli. Once again season with chili powder, sabzi masala and salt. Cover and cook for a few more minutes before adding the bell pepper and the mushrooms. Finish off the seasoning and cook till all the veggies are cooked through.
Garnish with cinlantro and serve with toor daal (lentil soup) and rotis.

The broccoli potato sabzi goes to Viki's Side Dish with Chapati event.

Tri Color Bell Pepper and Paneer stirfry

I don’t remember how I started making this recipe but it must have been because at our local “Sprouts farmers market” bell peppers (red, orange, yellow and green) are always cheaper than even at Walmart. A couple of months ago Tushar got me “Everest Sabzi Masala” from the grocery store and I love it for my stirfrys and dry sabzi’s. If you want to use garam masala instead that’s fine too. For that matter any other masala of your choice will do. This is a foolproof recipe.
Tip: It is a good idea to precut all the bell peppers and onion before you start cooking since the gas is always on high to medium high for a stirfry.

1 large onion
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Orange Bell Pepper
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Cup cubed Paneer
1 small tomato
2-3 cloves of garlic

For Tadka
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
½ tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 – 2 tsp Everest Sabzi masala

Chop the onions and the bell peppers lengthwise. Chop the tomato and mash the garlic cloves.
Heat oil in a non stick karahi or wok and add the cumin seeds. Add the onions and mashed garlic when the cumin has stopped spluttering. Wait for ½ min before adding in the chopped bell peppers. Stir and add the sabzi masala, red chilli pwdr and salt. Keep stir and cooking on med high heat for about 5 min.
Add the cubed Paneer and cook for another 3 min. Now add the chopped tomato and cook for another 5 min befor turning the heat off. Garnish with cilantro.
I like my bell peppers crunchy but if you like them fully cooked you can increase the cooking time.
I added peas instead of green bell pepper the last time I cooked this dish.

Hummus with Roasted Red Bell Peppers

This humus is not only healthy and easy to make, it looks very appetizing. I always have it in the refrigerator and I eat it smeared on some whole grain bread or pita or add it to my sandwiches or use it as a dip for carrots and cucumbers.

1 can of garbanzo beans
1 clove of garlic
½ jar of a 15 oz jar of roasted red bell peppers
1/8 cup of olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Blend all the ingredients in the blender till smooth. Depending on the strength of your blender you may have to add a little bit more or less of olive oil.
If you don’t have access to jarred red bell pepper it’s ok. You can add some cilantro and green chilies. Squeeze juice of ½ a lemon to give it a tangy flavor.