Whole wheat pizza

Whole wheat pizza

Ingredients for base:
Whole wheat pizza (1 cup)
1 tsp active yeast powder
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Water (enough to prepare dough)

Warm the water and add active yeast. Let it stand for 5 mins and then add all the rest of the ingredients. Mix them well and knead them into a soft dough. Let it stay for a while - 30 mins or so. The dough will raise in the mean time.

Ingredients for toppings:
1. Tomato sauce
2. Sliced tomatoes
3. Sliced onions
4. Mozzarella cheese
5. Sliced green chilli pepper, soaked in some salt

Grease the pizza oven plate with oil. After the dough raised, spread the dough evenly with hands in the pizza oven plate. Sprinkle the vegetables evenly on the spread dough. Sprinkle cheese over the vegetables.

Preheat the oven to 220 degree Celsius. Pop in the filled up pizza oven plate. In 15-20 mins, the pizza will be ready. Please check if the pizza looks done before removing it out.

Kattu pongali

Kattu pongali (mashed mung beans + parboiled rice)

Ingredients
1/2 cup parboiled rice
1/2 cup mung beans (with or without peel)
1 cup of Sliced mixed vegetables (Carrots, peas, corn)
A handful of cashews
1 tbsp of oil for frying
Spice: Black pepper (whole), cumin seeds and salt

Preparation:
1. Heat oil in a pan and add black pepper, cumin seeds and cashews.
2. When they are lightly fried, add the vegetables and washed mung beans and parboiled rice.
3. Pour 3 cups of water and salt as desired.
4. Let it boil on medium flame till it turns out finely boiled and soft (porridge Like consistency)
5. Serve hot with some sauce and fruit pieces/juice for breakfast.

Lemon marmalade

Lazy weekend afternoon; wanted to try something new. Just recently successfully finish organic lemon pickle (andhra style). Recipe of that some other time. I had some more lemons left and wanted to try something sweet.

So, took four lemons, washed. The end of the lemons cut and placed in a pan with 600 ml of water. After 1.5 hours of boiling, set it aside to cool it down. After cooling down, cut the soft lemon into small pieces, removing the seeds. Put these pieces back into the boiled liquid remaining, add 400 gm of brown sugar. Add grated ginger to the boiling mixture. Boil it till the syrup is thick and required consistency is acquired. Consistency is tested by letting a drop of the syrup to cool down. The drop should be thick like jam.

Marmalade experiment: success.

Vegetable Idli

Vegetable Idli

Vegetable Idli served with Peanut chutney, tomato chutney and sliced mango pieces.

Ingredients:

1. Batter made from fermented black lentils and whole grain rice.

2. Thinly sliced string beans, carrots and sweet corn.

3. Pinch of salt.

Idli is a traditional south Indian breakfast item. It is usually made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils (de-husked) and rice. The lentils and rice are soaked for four hours or more. After soaking, they are grinded in a blender till the desired texture is obtained.

This traditional recipe is modified with adding 3 different colorful vegetables (carrots, string beans and sweet corn).

1. Take thinly sliced vegetables (carrots, string beans, sweet corn) and steam them briefly for 5 mins.

2. After steaming, add a pinch of salt and mix with the Idli batter.

3. Steam the vegetable idli for 10 mins before serving.

4. Serve it hot with a dash of peanut sauce or tomato sauce. A cup of freshly sliced fruit (in the picture uploaded, it is Mango) will go great with this item. 

Story of Sabeena

A story told on the fly to a girl who needed a lesson on being neat and tidy.



There was once a girl named Sabeena. Sabeena is six years old.

She loved to play with her friends. Playing is her favorite activity in her whole world.

She never wanted to miss even few minutes of her playing time. So she always ran out to play before her mother could finish doing her hair everyday. Her hair would be messy always. Her room would be untidy always.

One day, a camera man of a shampoo company 'clean clean' came to Sabeena's house. He said he wanted to meet Ms. Sabeena. Sabeena's mother told him she is out playing.

The camera man went to the play area to find Sabeena happily playing with her hair all messy. He told that he wanted to take a picture of her. Sabeena let him take her picture.

Next day, there was Sabeena's picture in the news paper as an advertisement for 'clean' shampoo. Sabeena's friends made fun of her and laughed at her. They all started telling her to use to 'clean' shampoo.

Sabeena was very unhappy. Sabeena's mother told her the importance of being neat and tidy. Sabeena promised her mother that she will keep herself neat and her room tidy from now on.

Since when Sabeena changed herself, her friends stopped making fun of her. After few months, the camera man of 'clean' shampoo company came to their house again. He requested Sabeena and her mother to let him take a picture and this time it is definitely different. Sabeena and her mother agreed reluctantly.

Next day, there is an advertisement of 'clean' shampoo with Sabeena's picture. The advertisement is asking all girls to be as neat as Sabeena and to keep their rooms as tidy as Sabeena's. Sabeena was very happy indeed.

I believe -- kids know how much to eat

Yes, I strongly believe it. If we ensure the right food items available, they eat just as much they want.

I see many mothers feeding aggressively to kids to the point that they throw up everything fed. I feel bad thinking from the kids' perspective. I know how the body feels throwing up after a full forced meal (thanks to morning sickness). Worst of it, the puke stench lasting for the whole day somewhere. So the kids might be going through the same.

If the kid has particularly less appetite, providing rich foods is an option. Packing required nutrition in less amounts. If the kid eats alright, then regular items should be good enough. Providing and most importantly exposing right foods is the best thing we as mothers should be doing.

Challenge is in identifying what kind of an eater is the kid, and then chalking up list of good healthy foods to be provided. This done, I think we need not bother about running behind them for food.

Before going any further, let me affirm that I am not able to follow what I said earlier keenly. It is a tough task, but at the same time I cannot run behind the kid forcing to eat; especially when the kid clearly indicates i-am-not-hungry-anymore.

Hunger is a basic instinct. Babies cry when hungry. Kids also express hunger - probably in different ways. Kids getting unreasonably cranky could actually be a strong indication of wanting some calories. We should respect their hunger and come to believe that they really know how much to eat. 

Plus, all this is not my wisdom. There's a famous saying in Andhra, kids even if they selectively pick up seven grains of rice and eat it themselves, it is equivalent to seven elephants strength. I sign off with this old wisdom.

Paper house - craft at home