Tuesday, March 22, 2016

My Experiments in Kitchen


Last week when Angel was sick (again!) and her appetite had gone down and touched the bottom, I decided to make something appealing to eyes while not compromising the nutrients. I tried zucchini cupcakes and I am glad I did! They were so moist and yummy and didn't taste like zucchini, btw. My efforts paid off when Angel gobbled a few. J* liked them too.





Do try these, they are filled with the goodness of zucchini (of course), oats, honey, dates, whole wheat flour, nuts and olive oil. Flax seeds can be added too, I did not have them.

The same reason led me to experiment some more. I made multi-lentil dosas with no rice added. The beauty is that any lentils or daals can be added (make sure that urad daal constitutes 30% of the whole mixture) and it does not require fermentation for more than 30 minutes. I used urad daal, toor daal, masoor daal, yellow moong split daal and green moong split daal. I made idlis from the same batter too.
 
These were a good change from the usual lentil-rice ones.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

The 100 Books Pack 21/100

This time I have come up with the list of books that I have been reading to Angel these days. She likes to select her books herself. I select some books for her too which she doesn’t like and refuses to listen to those stories outright. But since I am her mother (in the lines of “main bhi uski maa hu” *superior look*), I persuade her to listen to it once, she obliges and sometimes likes those books requesting me to read to her again. So here is our latest list:
11/100 – Animal faces by Penelope Arlon
It lists various physical attributes of various animals, like enormous eyes, sharp ears, huge noses, colorful beaks and so on. It has some amazing photographs.
12/100 – Bears! by the editors of TIME for kids with Nicole Iorio
It’s a book about bears, the different kinds, their bodies, food, habitat and the like.
She picked these two books as the covers for both have panda bears which happens to be her favorite animal. This is the first time, we picked up “Science” or "Non-Fiction" books and not the usual story ones and she really enjoyed these books. Maybe, I can get more of such books.
13/100 – Harry, The Dirty Dog by Gene Zion and illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham is about the dog who hates baths. It was hard for Angel to gulp the fact that someone can hate baths too!
14/100 – Do You Want To Be My Friend by Eric Carle, simply because she loves Eric Carle books, even though she is a little grown up of this book, she loved it nevertheless.
15/100 and 16/100 – If You Give A Mouse A Cookie & If You Give A Dog A Donut, both by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond.
Both these books follow a similar pattern, for example, if you give a mouse a cookie then he is going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him milk, he will probably ask for a straw. When he is finished, he’ll ask for a napkin and after a series of demands later, it ends at the first point, that the refrigerator will remind him that he is thirsty and he’ll ask for a glass of milk. And chances are, if he asks for a glass of milk, he is going to want a cookie to go with it.
She finds these books hilarious!
17/100 and 18/100 – Franklin Plays Hockey & Franklin And The Wonder
This is another character which we discovered, Franklin, the turtle. These are nice stories to read out to children. The first book is about playing in the team and playing for fun while the second one is about wonders of nature and overcoming the fears. A quick search told me that it’s a TV series running into multiple seasons.
19/100 – A Pocket for Corduroy by Don Freeman
I was not aware of the bear named Corduroy but Angel knew him as her teacher had read a story about him to the class, so when she saw the book on the rack, she immediately wanted to have it. I have read it to her twice and she has not demanded to be read it again. I guess it doesn’t fascinate her, I like it though :P
20/100 and 21/100 – Her latest favorite character is a cute monster named Elmo. We got to know about it through “Elmo’s Alphabet Soup” and subsequently got another Elmo book named “Elmo Loves You”. These days, we are reading these two books every day, sometimes more than once. Elmo is again character in a children’s TV show, time to search the YouTube for Elmo and Franklin!
Oops, this list has eleven books, will publish the next list with 9!
 

Monday, March 14, 2016

Rawa Cake


 
I am from Gujarat and I simple love all the Gujarati snacks right from dhokla to thepla and fafda to khamani.
So when I came across this recipe, it immediately got me interested. I think it’s a cross between dhokla and handwa.  The best part is you can add veggies to your heart's content, making is very nutritious and yet keeping the taste intact. I have used onions, capsicum, carrots, corn, broccoli, peas and beans. Its loved by J* and Angel alike and thus this has found its place as a regular in my kitchen!

The recipe is adapted from here and modified according to taste.


 
Please try it and indulge your taste buds!