channa chaat(chickpea salad) with sweet date chutney

I am making sprouts these days for breakfast atleast 4 times a week. First I started out with simple mixing of sprouts, onion, tomatoes, chaat masala, salt and coriander leaves. Then the taste became a bit monotonous, so started looking for some variety. Came across this recipe for sweet chutney in Tarla Dalal's "fun food for kids" cookbook. Adding this chutney to the sprouts gave it a tangy and sweet taste which we just relished.
As we do not like to eat the sprouts uncooked, I generally pressure cook it without adding any water and switch off the stove immediately after one whistle. To make the sprouts, I soak the bean overnight. The next day, I tie them in a cloth for a day or 2. (depending upon the type of bean). Once I get the sprouts, I either use it right away or refrigerate for a later use.

Here are the recipes for channa chat and sweet chutney

Ingredients to make channa chat that servers 4 adults for breakfast 
Channa/chickpeas sprouts: 2 cups(Any other sprout can be used) 
Onion: 2 medium sized, chopped
Tomato: 3 medium size, chopped into small pieces Sweet chutney: 1/2 cup(recipe is below)
Chaat masala: 1 tsp(I did not have this, so I added black salt)
Salt to taste 
Coriander for garnishing

Procedure
1. Mix all the ingredients and serve. For this recipe, I did not add onions, even then it tasted too good. I am just loving this sweet chutney.

Ingredients to make 1/2 cup of sweet chutney
Dates: 1/2 cup(deseeded and chopped)
Tamarind: 1 tbsp
Cumin Powder: 1/2 tsp(Dry roast the cumin seeds and powder)
Chilli powder: 1/4 tsp
Water: 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup
Salt to taste

Procedure
1. Heat 1/4 cup water in a pan, add dates and tamarind and cook for 5 minutes.(If it becomes too thick more water can be added)
2. Allow to cool.
3. Blend in a blender and strain.
4. Add chilli powder, cumin seed powder and salt.
5. Mix well and use as required

This is my entry to Healthy Inpsirations Event-Salads event hosted by Usha.

Spinach(palak) and carrot rice

I have been thinking of making spinach and carrot rice eversince I saw the recipe in Tarla Dalal's mini series cookbook titled Fun food for children. The only reason I kept on postponing was, I was not sure if my 2 year old son would eat it or not. Finally I got to make it this weekend. Surprsingly, my son ate it and we all too liked it very much. According to Tarla Dalal, its a easy, healthy, colorful and tasty dish and I too second it.

I did not use onions and garlic(mentioned in the original recipe) as I was not sure if my son would like it(we have not introduced him to onions and garlic as yet), also I am not a big fan of onion.:-) Son had the rice as it is, we had with onion raita(onion pieces mixed with seaosoned yogurt)

Ingredients to serve four adults

Cooked rice: 4 cups or 670 gms(I used Basmati rice)
Palak/Spinach: 3 1/2 cups or 200gms(chopped into small pieces)
Carrot: 1 1/2 cups or 170 gms(grated)
Cumin seeds: 1 tbsp
Pepper powder: 1/2 tsp
Onion: 2 sliced(I did not use it)
Garlic: 2 large cloves(I did not use it)
Seasoning cube(vegetarian): 1(I did not use it)
Butter: 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Heat butter in a pan/kadai and add the cumin seeds.
2. Add the onions and garlic and saute for 2 minutes.
3. Add the carrots and spinach and saute for another 2 minutes.
4. Add the cooked rice, seasoning cube, pepper powder, salt and 1/4 cup and mix well.(I did not add water)
5. Cook on low flame for 5 to 7 minutes till the moisture evaporates.(as I did not add water, I removed from heat after mixing well)

Healthy spinach and carrot rice is ready.

Note: I did not add onions as I have not yet introduced onions to my son. I think for older kids, onions and garlic can be added and it would definitely improve the taste of the dish. It is also mentioned in the book that 1/2 cup of uncooked rice makes approximately 2 cups of cooked rice.

I am sending this to Cooking for kids-Leafy greens guest hosted by Pavani, event originally started by Sharmi and EFM Theme -Breakfast Series hosted by Srilekha of Srishkitchen.

Power packed baked cereal

I bought a mini series book on "fun food for kids" by Tarla Dalal some time back. This is the first ever cook book that I have bought. I misplaced the book somewhere within a week of buying it. Last weekend I found the book and was reading through the recipes. With Madhuram's low fat(Eggless) baking event round the corner, I thought of making the power packed cereal, provided in the book. Also I had all the ingredients available.

Overall the cereal tasted good. Its mentioned in the book that this cereal makes a high carbohydrate breakfast for kids.But I might not have the cereal as a breakfast, but would prefer eating as a snack. The cereal is quite healthy too as it uses very less oil and the cereals and nuts are baked in an oven to get a crispy texture.

Here is the recipe..

Ingredients

Rolled Oats: 150 gms(I had Quaker brand Oats and I think it was not rolled oats)
Corn flakes: 25 gms(I used Kellogs brand, the original flavour)
Brown Sugar/Demerra sugar: 70 gms
Nuts: 50 gms(a mixture of chopped walnut, cashew and almond)
Sesame seeds: 1 tbsp(I used white ones)
Salt: 1/4th tsp
Water: 50 ml
Vegetable Oil: 3 tbsp(I used 2 tbsp refined oil)
Vanilla Essence: 1/2 tsp
Raisins: 2 tbsp

Procedure

1. Mix oats, corn flake, sesame seeds, corn flakes, brown sugar and nuts in a bowl.
2. Mix oil, water, vanilla essence and salt in a separate bowl and whick together.(I did it with a spoon)
3. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Spread the mixture in a baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 160 degree C for 20 to 30 minutes or until it turns crisp and golden brown.(Stir occasionally when the mixture is in the oven, otherwise it might get burnt.)
5. Add raisins and store in an air-tight container.

It can be served with milk and fruits.

Note: I added some milk and sugar to the baked cereal and had. It tasted yummy.

This is my entry to Madhuram's Low fat(Eggless) baking event.

Granola Bars

I bought this wonderful mini series book "Fun food for children" by Tarla Dalal. I wanted to try something from the book today that is simple to make and for which I have the ingredients at hand. I decided on granola bars as I had some corn flakes lying for more than 6 months, I guess. The granola bars came out very well. Because of some mistakes that I did, there were some small hiccups with the taste. But for those mistakes, it would have been a perfect munchy snack.

Here is the recipe for the granola bars

The book has given the measurements in cup, but since I prefer to measure in gms with my kitchen scale, I first took the ingredietns in a cup(I am yet to check if the cup I have is a standard one) that I have and weighed them in my kitchen scale.

Ingredients to make around 15 pieces

Crushed Cornflakes: 50 gms(I used Kellogs brand and I crushed the corn flakes with fingers)
Quick Rolled Oats: 70 gms(I used Quakers brand Oats)
Dry fruits: around 15 pieces of cashew, 10 pieces of walnuts(can use almonds and pistachios too)
Dried grapes: 1 tbsp
Sugar: 300 gms
Melon seeds: 2 tbsp(I did not use this as I did not have)
Refined oil to grease

Procedure
1. Lightly roast oats, nuts and melon seeds and keep aside to cool.(I roasted all of them together as I mixed them, by mistake, before roasting. Next time I wil roast individually)
2. When cooled, mix together the corn flakes, taosted oats, melon seeds, nuts and dried grapes.
3. In a heavy bottomed pan, add sugar and melt it over gentle heat, stirring continuously till the sugar is light brown in color. This is called caramelization. 
4. Remove from heat, add rest of the ingredients and mix well.
5. Pour this mixture onto a greased marble or stone surface.
6. Using a greased rolling pin, roll out the mixture to form a square.( Even if you are not able to make a square, its OK. The mixture has to be rolled to get the desired thickness for the bars when cut)
7. While it is warm, cut out rectangle bars.

Munchy granola bar is ready.

Note

1. I used the refined oil that was already used for frying papad. Hence the granola bars had a very strong smell of the reused oil. This is a nice lesson learnt for me. I will never reuse the already used oil for greasing. My mother's suggestion is to use ghee instead of oil for greasing which I will follow the next time.
2. I think I heated the sugar a bit more because of which the bars where a bit hard to bite. Correct consitency of the sugar syrup is very important, I guess.

The original recipe was just perfect. If I had not done these two mistakes, the granola bars would have come out really good. I will definitely make these bars again.