Beetroot Almond Chapati

It is very difficult to make toddlers eat vegetables that are healthy. I always trick my son into eating healthy vegetables by making it as a puree in chapati. He loves coloured chapatis very much and finds it very interesting. He fondly calls this "Red" Chapati. This is healthy and colourful all at the same time and we parents can happily make it without any guilt. Kids find it very attractive and colourful and hence finish it in no time.

Recently I had come across few online products where they market readymade multigrains wheat flour for toddlers at sky rocketing price. Why buy it at such high price when making this at home is very easy and cost effective. Nothing like making healthy and yummy food for your kid all by yourself.

This contains goodness of beetroot and almond. Vegetable pureed chapatis are generally very soft and hence, kids enjoy it very much.

My son loves this recipe and I will share this fool proof recipe. I have used Aashirvaad Whole Wheat Atta and find it really good. The chapatis turn out very soft and fluffy. I have used kashmiri red chili powder as they aren't very spicy. This gives nice colour to the chapati without adding spice.

Serves: 14-15 chapatis

Ingredients

1. Whole Wheat Flour - 1.5 cups
2. Almond Flour (Blanched/Unblanched) - 1/2 cup
3. Beetroot - 1 small or 1/2 of large
4. Kashmiri Red Chili Powder - 2 tsp
5. Cumin Powder - 2 tsp
6. Salt - 2 tsp
7. Needed water for kneading the dough
8. Oil - 2 tsp for coating the dough
9. Ghee for final garnish

Method

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together - Flour, salt,cumin and red chili powder well.

2. Peel the beetroot, slice it and pressure cook for 3 whistles with 1 cup of water. After the beetroot cools down, puree the beetroot. Reserve the cooked water for kneading if required. You can even drink it as it is very healthy.

                                      

3. Add the puree to the dough and knead well. Add water depending on the consistency. It should be a smooth pliable dough. Knead well for solid 5 mins. Coat the dough with 2 tsp of oil and cover it with moist cloth.

                                    

4. After 30 mins, roll them into round chapatis and toss it on tawa.

5. You can either directly cook on tawa using ghee or try the phulka method as shown here.

6. Soft Beetroot Almond Chapati is ready. I roll it with honey and give it to my son. He loves having it that way. Elders can have it with any accompaniment of your choice and it tastes great with just a plain curd :)

Eggless Whole Wheat Almond Muffins using Flax Meal

As our kids enter toddlerhood, a major pressure or rather confusion befall on us 

(parents) - what healthy snacks can I give my child? 

My son brings back almost half of the snacks that I send him for school. However, he loves cakes, sweets and biscuits which are quite unhealthy. I thought why not make them at home with healthy ingredients so that we can give them without any guilt or fear. This is one such recipe which uses the goodness of whole wheat, Almond flour, flaxseed and butter. This makes a healthy wholesome delicious snack for kids any day.

This is one of my son's favorite snacks. He says Yummy yummy and eat it. That feeling you get when you know your kid is enjoying what you cook for him is such a state of bliss :)

This recipe is an adaptation of SharmisPassions-WholeWheat Almond Muffins. I have replaced the egg in original recipe with flax egg.

                        1 egg = 1 tbsp Flaxseed Powder dissolved in 3 tbsp of water

Yields 9 cup cakes

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

1. Whole Wheat flour - 3/4 cup
2. Almond Flour - 1/4 cup
3. Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp
4. Cane Sugar/Organic Jaggery - 1/2 cup
5. Cinnamon Powder - 1/2 tsp (Optional)

Wet Ingredients

1. Flax Egg - 1 tbsp Flaxseed Powder dissolved in 3 tbsp of water (rest for 15 mins)
2. Boiled Milk - 1/2 cup
3. Unsalted Butter - 1/4 cup
4. Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp

Method

1. Sift all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well.

2. Now add all the wet ingredients and mix well using a hand mixer or Blender until the wet ingredients and dry ingredients are combined well.

Cupcake batter ready

                              

3. Line a cupcake liner inside silicon moulds. Alternatively, you can use a muffins tray if it would fit inside your oven.

4. Fill each of the mould upto half of the volume as the batter would rise during baking process.

Batter filled in the moulds

                                 

5. Once filled, decorate them with your choice of sugar sprinklers as shown in the pic.

                          

6. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees celsius for 10 mins.

7. Place the cupcake tray inside the oven and bake for 30 mins at 180 degrees Celsius.

8. After 30 mins, remove the cup cake and allow it cool to room temperature.

9. Can be refrigerated in an airtight box for about a week.

10. Keep one daily for your toddler in his/her snack box and see them glee :)

Notes,Tips & Add-On's

1. Each oven temperature and heating capacity is different. My oven cooks only after 30 mins. However, I request you to keep checking on the cup cakes every 10 mins.
2. Gently press the top of the cake to see if it is firm, alternatively you can also use tooth pick to check if the cake is cooked in the center. The tooth pick has to come out clean.

Cup cake with icing done

Pudhin Ki Roti

Mint is one of the most flavorful and aromatic greens packed with loads of goodness. I had once stocked some fresh pudhina/Mint leaves from market and was wondering what I can do with them apart from making rice. Just then an idea stuck, why not minty flavorful rotis instead of boring plain rotis:) Here is the recipe to a delicious minty Chapati that can make your dinner healthy and interesting.

serves: 6 rotis

Ingredients

1. Whole Wheat Flour - 1 Cup
2. Fresh Mint leaves- 1 Cup
3. Green chilies-1
4. Salt to taste
5. Ghee for spreading on roti
6. Oil for kneading- 1 tbsp
7. Water as required for kneading

Method

1. Grind Pudhina/mint leaves and chilies together.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add wheat flour, needed salt and the ground paste and knead well by adding water little by little until it forms a soft dough. Coat the dough with some oil so that moisture is retained. Cover the dough with a moist cloth or store it in an air tight container.

3. Let the dough set for 20 mins.

4. Divide the dough into equal parts and roll them into flat circular shapes.

5. Heat a tawa and place the roti on it and cook both sides until brown spots appear.

6. Spread a tsp of ghee and serve hot with any curry bowls from our menu card.:)

Whole Wheat Bread Upma

When it comes to bread, we always eat it either as sandwich or toast, but there is an interesting recipe that you can make with bread which forms a wholesome breakfast or an evening tiffin. I had some left over wheat bread at home and didn't really know how to use them. That is when my husband came up with this idea of bread upma. Here, I list below my version of bread upma.

Serves:2

Ingredients

1. Whole Wheat Bread- 6 slices (sides removed)
2. Bangalore Tomatoes-2 (finely chopped) 
3. Green capsicum - 1/2 of small capsicum (chopped)
4. Onion-1 large (roughly chopped) 
5. Butter - 1 tbsp
6. Mustard seeds-1 tsp 
7. Cumin seeds-1 tsp 
8. Sugar - 1 tsp
9. Hing-pinch 
10. Coriander leaves-1/4 cup chopped
11. Curry leaves-4
12. Green Chili -1 (chopped finely)
13. Turmeric-1/2 tsp 
14. Red Chili Powder-1 tsp 
15. sambar powder - 1 tsp (optional)
16. water-1/4 cup 
17. Oil - 1 tbsp 
18. Salt to taste 

Toast the bread on tawa with some butter

Turns golden brown and crisp

Cut them to cubes

Saute Vegetables

cook with covered lid

Mix the sliced bread with sauteed veggies

Method

1. In a pan, heat cooking oil. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and hing.

2. Once they splutter, add curry leaves and green chilies and saute for a min on a low flame.

3. Add onions and saute until they become translucent.

4. Add the tomatoes, capsicum and saute well. Add turmeric powder, chili powder, sambar powder, sugar and required salt - saute well.

5. Add water and cover the lid and cook tomatoes until they become soft and mushy.

6. Toast the bread sliced with butter until they become crisp. Chop the bread into cubes or you can roughly tear into small pieces.

7. Now add the chopped bread slices to the above mixture and mix gently. Ensure the bread slices are uniformly coated with the mixture and blended well.

7. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves and roasted peanuts.

8. Yummy Bread Upma ready:) Serve with combination of tomato ketchup and red chili sauce. Tastes yum...!!!

Notes,Tips & Add-on's 

1. You can add any vegetables of your choice like red bell pepper, grated carrot etc.
2. You can also add a tsp of tomato ketchup and red chili sauce before mixing the bread. This also tastes equally awesome.

Phulka

This is one of my most favorite Indian Breads.Very soft in texture and light in stomach.This is my everyday dinner.Yes,this is a great diet recipe as it does not consume any oil while cooking.Whenever I go to any restaurant, I order phulka with any rich side dish.Oh my god!! It tastes divine.This is definitely a guilt free dish that can be relished everyday.

Serves: 12 phulkas(as shown in pic)

Ingredients

1. Atta/Whole wheat flour-2 cups
2. Hot water-1 cup
3. Plain water-as needed
4. Oil as needed to knead the dough 
5. Salt to taste

Method

1. Mix the atta and salt together.

2. Add hot water to the flour and start kneading.

3. Use few drops of oil as needed to knead the dough well.

4. Knead well and beat hard so that it does not stick to the vessel and becomes soft like a clay.

5. Roll out these phulkas on a roller pin with mild dusting of flour.

6. Heat a non stick tawa on a high flame.

7. When the tawa is striking hot, reduce the flame to medium and place the rolled atta sheets on the tawa.

8. Keep flipping the phulka constantly for every 1/2 minute.

9. Brown spots start to appear. Once brown spots appear on both sides of phulka, remove it from the pan and place it directly on the flame. Keep the flame high.

10. The phulka puffs up. flip it to the other side and quickly remove it from flame and transfer to a hot pack. Apply some ghee over it and cover it.

11. Phulkas are now ready to be served with spicy accompaniments.

Notes,Tips & Add-On's

1. Hot water is used to make the dough soft so that the phulkas also come out very soft.
2. Kneading plays a very important role and hence ensure you knead the dough well enough.
3. Phulkas should be rolled out thin compared to normal rotis.
4. Don't dust the phulkas with flour too much while rolling as it can become flaky.
5. You can spread a tsp of ghee on the phulkas while serving.