My Breakfast…

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day yet, that is the most neglect meal in my house.  U skips his breakfast most of the time and I munch on whatever I find in the fridge or the pantry and eat an early lunch.  Whenever he eats breakfast at home, I make roties with chicken shorva or tomato shorva, upma or murmuras.  When he doesn’t, I eat whatever is around.  I eat anything that is easy to fix and does not require much time to prepare. My breakfast varies depending on my mood from junk food such as cookies and chips to pulihora from left over rice from last night dinner or to healthy food such as sprouts, nuts and oatmeal.

Divya asked us all to show her our breakfast and I am showing two varieties of breakfast which are very easy to fix.  One is may favorite and the other is not so appetizing but very easy to prepare.  Since I am very lazy person when it comes to fixing food for myself, I don’t even mind eating oatmeal, despite its tastelessness.

Breakfast #1: Sweet Corn Kernels

How I made it:

• In a microwave safe bowl, I took some frozen sweet corn and microwave it for 1½ minutes.
• To corn, I added pinch of pepper, pinch of chili powder, ½ – 1 tsp of garlic paste or crushed garlic, 2 tbsp of desi ghee (homemade clarified butter) and salt to taste.
• Stirred everything and microwave it for another ½ – 1 minute.
• Removed form the microwave, stirred it again.  It was ready to eat.

Note:

• I did not measure the ingredients and all the measures given are approximate.
• Normally I use pepper, salt and butter. When I made this a week ago, I was in mood to pamper myself and wanted a spicy and flavory breakfast. So I added some chili powder and garlic. Also, I have some homemade ghee I brought from India. Since I was using homemade ghee, I indulged myself with 2 tbsp of ghee. Normally I just use 1 – 2 tsp of butter.

Breakfast # 2: Instant Oatmeal

I use instant oatmeal packets and follow the instructions on it. These packets come in various flavors and I find them a little sweet, specially the fruit flavors. So, I prefer the regular or unflavored oatmeal. I follow the instructions on the package. It is a healthy, quick and fast breakfast to fix in jiffy.

How I made it:

• In a microwave safe I bowl took ½ – 2/3 cups of milk. I usually use milk but can use water also. Emptied  the contents of the oatmeal packet into the bowl and heated it in the microwave for 1½ – 2 minutes. Removed it from the microwave, added a pinch of salt and stirred well. Instant oatmeal was ready to eat.
• I added just a pinch of salt when I last had it for breakfast and sometimes, I also add little bit of lime pickle to make it more palatable.

Savory Corn Muffins

One day, as I was blog hopping, I stumbled on to Dorie’s Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins recipe. The recipe looked interesting and the muffins looked delicious. I bought all the ingredients to bake the muffins and then I saw Suganya’s Spicy Corn Muffins. Her recipe yields 6 muffins, which was perfect and also this recipe calls for only 2 tbsp of oil. So I went ahead baked Suganya’s Muffins yesterday, with a few adjustments. I liked the muffins and Mr.U, being a carnivore in the house, was reluctant to even taste them. So I eat two for brunch, as soon as I baked them. I eat a heavy lunch with left over Biryani and payasam from previous day. I was so stuffed and wanted to skip dinner. Then I again, I knew very well that if skip dinner, I will wake up in the middle of the night and munch on cookies or candy. So I eat two more muffins for dinner. I have the other 2 in the fridge, which I will munch on later in the day.

Here is the link to Suganya’s recipe for spicy corn muffins.  I made a few adjustments to the recipe and I will list Suganya’s  recipe and will strike out the ingredient that I changed the measures for and italicize the measures that I used.  I didn’t use the cheese.

Total Time: 25-30 minutes
Preparation Time: 5-10 minutes
Baking Time: 20 minutes
Yields: 6

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup Cornmeal (I used Stone ground)
• 1/3 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• Pinch of Salt
• 1 Egg small
• 2 tbsp Vegetable or Canola oil
• 1/3 cup Yogurt
• 1 ½ tbsp Sugar
• ¼ cup frozen or fresh Corn 1/3 – ½ cup frozen Corn
• ¼ cup chopped Scallions or Cilantro 1/3 cup scallions and cilantro chopped (not each but combined 1/3 cup)
• 1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes, more if desired ¾ tsp Red Pepper Flakes (adjust to taste)
  
• 4 small Green Chilies chopped (adjust to taste)
  
• ¼ Marinated Feta or Goat Cheese crumbled (optional)

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 375F
• Line the muffin pan with paper cups.
• In a bowl mix together cornmeal, all purpose flour, salt and baking powder. These are the first four ingredients.
• In a large bowl mix egg, sugar, oil and yogurt with a whisk until all the ingredients are mixed well.
• Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and whisk gently until dry ingredients are well incorporated.
• Add corn, cilantro & scallions, green chilies and red pepper flakes to form a uniform mixture. Do not over mix.
• Pour the mixture in the muffin pan and bake for 18-20 minutes. Insert a tooth pick to check if the muffins are done. A tooth pick inserted should come out clean.
• Serve hot or at room temperature.

I am sending these muffins to Tried and Tasted event, hosted by Curry Leaf. Featured blog this month is Suganya of Tasty Palettes. Tried and Tasted is an event started by Zlamushka’s Spicy Kitchen.

I am also sending this to Ashwini’s Monthly Blog Patrol (MBP): Snacks and Savouries event. MBP is an event started by Coffee.

Mixed Variety Omelet

This recipe is my mamayya’s (my father-in-law’s brother) recipe. I usually call this mamayya’s omelet. Since I want to send it to Sangeeth’s 101 Omelet Recipes, I named it Mixed Variety Omelet on the fly.  Anyway, what is in name, as long as it tastes good, right? 

This recipe is very flexible and has no fixed set of ingredients.  One can add all the favorite vegetables and cold meats of his/her choice.  Here comes the recipe…….

Ingredients:

• 1 – 1 ½ tbsp Oil
• ½ small Onion sliced
• ¼ cup sliced & diced Green Bell Peppers
• 4 Green Chilies chopped (adjust to taste)
• ½ small Tomato sliced
• 1 Mushroom sliced & diced
• ¼ - ½ cup Spinach chopped
• 1 tsp Garlic crushed
• ½ tsp Coriander Powder
• ¾ tsp Chili Powder (adjust to taste, I found it bland)
• Salt to Taste
• Ham chopped (opt. I didn’t use it today, was out of ham)
• 2 Eggs 
• Cilantro
• Cheese (opt. I didn’t use it do, as I was serving it with rice)

Ready To Flip

Preparation:

• Cut the vegetables. In a bowl, in  1-2 tsp of milk or water, add cilantro, salt and chili powder, just sufficient for the eggs and mix well.  Break the eggs and whisk it until the seasoning is well blended into the beaten egg.
• Heat oil in a pan, sauté onion and green pepper until onion is translucent.
• Add green chilies, mushrooms and spinach and cook for few minutes until spinach wilts.
• Add tomatoes and garlic and cook for a minute until tomato is semi cooked.
• Add coriander powder, turmeric, chili powder and salt. Careful with salt & chili powder as the eggs are all ready seasoned. Add ham if using it.  Stir properly until all the spices are incorporated.
• Pour the beaten eggs over the vegetable mixture and cook for few minutes. Flip it and cook until done. If using cheese, sprinkle it over the omelet, and fold it to make a semi circle.
• Remove from the stove and serve hot with a slice of toast or bagel or serve it as it is.  Today, I had it for lunch with rice.

Healthy Fruit Milkshake and Lassi

Every 4-5 months, we go through a eat healthy diet phase, where we try to eat only healthy food and avoid all the oily curries, biryani and deep fried food, poori being an exception. Usually this phase lasts for 4-6 weeks, until it is interrupted by arrival of our guests and visitors. We currently are in that phase, eating grilled meats, consuming small amounts of carbohydrates, eating the healthiest and most nutritional fruits, and avoiding sugars and desserts. I haven’t cut back on desserts yet . We start of the day with a glass of warm lemon water with honey, which is said to cleanse the body and the digestive track, and end our day with a healthy fruit milkshake for him and a fruit lassi for me. I don’t know how long this phase will last and this time around, we don’t have any visitors to blame it on, since we are not excepting any guests until our next trip to India. I hope it lasts till the end of the year, until we make our next trip to India.

Today I used blackberries and strawberries to make the milk shake and the lassi. Last night it was blueberries turn. I also make this with only strawberries and all these three flavors, blueberries, strawberries, and a combination of strawberries blackberries, are delicious. I cannot comment on the milkskahe because I have not tasted it, but according to him, it tastes fine. I am not a big fruits and yogurt person, but I certainly am enjoying my various fruit flavored lassis.

Milkshake

Ingredients:

• 4 Strawberries chopped
• 4 Blackberries
• ¾ Banana
• ½ tsp Cinnamon
• 1 cup Fat Free Milk

Preparation:

• Grind or puree fruits to fine paste.
• Add rest of the ingredients and pulse it for a few seconds.
• Serve it immediately.

Fruit Lassi

Lassi is a traditional North Indian drink, prepared with yogurt. It can also be described as a flavored buttermilk.  

Ingredients:

• ½ cup chopped Strawberries or 4-5 Strawberries chopped
• 5 Blackberries
• ½ cup Yogurt (I use homemade yogurt)
• ½ cup Water

Preparation:

• Grind or puree fruits to fine paste.
• Add rest of the ingredients and pulse it for a few seconds.
• Serve it immediately.

Healthy fruit milkshake and lassi are going to Srilekha’s Ice-Creams and Milkshakes event.

Milk and yogurt are rich in calcium and these beverages are also headed to Sangeeth’s Eat Healthy: Calcium Rich Contest.  Cinnamon is also rich calcium.  

Poori, Pitla and Tomato Shorva

Every Saturday morning, it is always, Pooris for Breakfast, Honey? To go with the pooris, it is either tomato shorva or chicken shorva. A few weeks ago, I was on phone with my sister-in-law, we talked about my blog and then she asked what we had for lunch. When I told her what we had for brunch, she was curious if i would put that in my blog.  I said, I might and then she suggested pooris & pitla.  She suggested doing a combination like poori and pitla.  The only problem was, I never made pitla before, although I had an idea how it is prepared.   When growing up it was always potato and poori or shorva and puri combination and now it is always shorva and poori.  I searched for pitla recipes online, but did not find what I was looking for.  So, I called up one of our aunt’s cook in India and got the recipe from him.  I made it for brunch this past Saturday.

Poori, Pitla and Tomato Shorva

Poori

Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Yields: 15

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Wheat flour or Atta Flour
• Pinch of Salt
• Oil for deep frying

Puffed poori

Method:

• Mix salt and flour and make a dough using some water. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes before rolling out the pooris. Meantime, we can prepare the curry for the pooris.
• Make small balls from the dough and using some flour or oil, roll the small dough balls into a circle. During my last visit to India, my mom had a new method to make pooris. She rolled the dough into a big circle like a roti and cut it into 4 quarters. She says this method is faster.  
• Deep fry the poories in hot oil. Make sure oil is very hot to avoid oily pooris. Remove from oil and drain the pooris on a paper towel.
• Serve hot with pitla, tomato shorva or chicken shorva.

Not puffy any more...

Pitla
Pitla is a potato and onion curry made with a gram flour or besan base.  

Pitla - Flour based onion potato curry

Total Time:20 Minutes
Serves: 4-5

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp Oil
• 1 tsp Urad Dal
• ½ tsp Mustard Seeds
• ½ Jeera
• 5 Green Chilies chopped
• 1 Big Onion sliced and diced or 2 cups of cut Onions
• 1 Potato cut in to small pieces or 1 cup cut Potato pieces
• ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
• 2 tbsp Gram Flour or Besan
• ¼ cup Milk (opt)
• Salt to Taste
• Cilantro for garnish

Pitla

Method:

• In a pan heat oil. Add mustard, urad dal and jeera. When mustard starts to pop and splutter, add onion and fry until translucent. Add potatoes and turmeric powder and cook until potatoes are ¾th cooked. Add a little water if the curry is burning.
• Mix besan with some water or milk. Add this mixture to the potaoes and stir well. Add 2 cups of water, cover the pan and cook until potatoes completely cooked and very soft and mushy.
• Continue to cook the pitla until the liquid or the sauce thickly coats the spoon.
• Garnish with Cilantro.

Tomato Shorva

Tomato Shorva with Lima Beans and Boiled Eggs

Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 3-4 

Ingredients:

• 2-3 tbsp Oil
• ¼ tsp Fenugreek or Methi Powder (opt)
• 2 Cardamoms (opt)
• 1 Clove (opt)
• ½ tsp Saha Jeera (opt)
• ¼ “ Cinnamon Stick (opt)
• ½ Small Onion chopped
• 1 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
• 4 Green Chilies split into 2 (adjust to taste)
• 1 tsp Coriander Powder
• 1 tsp Chili Powder
• ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
• 3 Boiled Eggs (opt)
• ¼ cup Frozen Lima Beans (opt)
• 3 Medium Tomatoes Sliced (I use Vine tomatoes)
• 1 tbsp Milk or Yogurt
• Cilantro for Garnish

Method:

• Boil the eggs, peal and make small cuts on the eggs ot pierce them with a fork.
• In a pan heat oil, add methi powder and whole garam masala (cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, saha jeera) if using.
• Add oinions and cook until they are translucent.
• Add ginger garlic paste and green chilies and cook for a minute, until chilies change color and ginger garlic paste is roasted.
• Add coriander powder, chili powder, turmeric and salt. Stir well.
• Add boiled eggs and lima beans and continue to cook for a minute, until the spices coat the egg.
• Add tomatoes, stir it and cook covered until tomatoes are tender and soft. If using yogurt, mix it with tomatoes before cooking the tomatoes.
• Add 1 – 1 ½ cups of water and mix well. If using milk, add it at this point. Mix well and bring it to a boil.
• Simmer for 5-10 minutes and garnish with cilantro.
• Serve with hot pooris or rice.

Note:

• I use vine tomatoes. These tomatoes are sour, so I normally use milk. For those of you who like sour shorva, use yogurt. And also if using roma tomatoes or any other variety of tomatoes that are not sour in taste, use yogurt.
• If shorva is very liquidy, add some coriander powder or dry coconut powder 5 minutes before removing it from the heat or flame.
• Lima beans can be substituted with green peas. Other vegetables that can be added to the shorva are potatoes, bottle gourd or lauki.

I am sending this to Latha of Masala Magic, who is hosting this month’s WBB:Combi Breakfasts, started by Nandita of Saffron Trail.

This also goes to Curry Mela hosted by Srivalli.

Makha Butta with Ellipaya Miram

Makha butta or corn on the cob is one of my favorite food, prepared in any form. Whenever I see fresh corn in the stores, it reminds me of street side vendors back home. During the corn season, these vendors are every where selling fresh corn or roasted corn. They roast the cobs on coal in front of you and rub it with some salt and lime juice. It is simply delicious. It is even better when eaten with ellipaya miram or garlic chili powder in butter. Yesterday I picked put some fresh corn on the cob and this morning, corn was my breakfast. I wanted to grill it on the stove but in the last minute, I got lazy and boiled it instead. The combination of ellipaya miram with corn on the cob is heavenly. This goes to Sia of Monsoon Spice for her WBB – Summer Feast event.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• Corn on the Cob
• Garlic Butter Sauce
  • 3 tbsp Butter unsalted
  • 1 ½ tsp Crushed Garlic
  • 1 tsp Chili Powder (adjust to your taste)
  • Salt to taste

Preparation:

• Boil corn in a large pot with some salt. After the water boils, it takes about another 10 minutes for the corn to cook.
• In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter for 10 seconds. Add rest of the ingredients and mix them. Microwave for another 20 seconds and mix well. Thats it. Ellipaya miram is ready.
• Once the corn is cooked, drain the water and serve it with ellipaya miram.

Spicy Egg Mushroom Rolls

Few weeks ago, when I was browsing the through the blogs, I came across Meeta’s blog What’s for Lunch, Honey?  She has a yummy blog and her spicy egg mushroom rolls caught my eyes. It is a quick and easy recipe and requires no before hand preparation. I made it couple of times and thought it would be a perfect entry for this month’s Monthly Blog Patrol and Nupur of One hot Stove is hosting it this month. The theme for the month of July is Less is More!  

Eggs + Mushrooms + Cumin Seeds + Chili Powder = Spicy Egg Mushroom Rolls

I followed Meeta’s recipe with couple of minor changes. She recommended 6 eggs and I used only 3 eggs. She seasoned her eggs with pepper and I used chili powder instead. The recipe for spicy egg and mushroom rolls is here.

This also goes to Tried and Tasted event hosted by Zlamushka.   

Fried or Sauted Sweet Corn Kernels

Total Time: 15 minutes
Preparation Time: 2 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 1-2

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp Oil
• 3 Curry Leaves (opt)
• 1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1/2 small size Onion chopped
• 3 Green Chillies chopped (adjust to your taste)
• 1 tsp Garlic Paste/Crushed
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
• Salt to Taste
• 10 oz frozen Sweet Corn Kernels
• 2 tbsp Milk
• Cilantro for garnish

Method:

•  Heat oil in a pan, add curry leave, mustard seeds and cumin.  When the seeds splutter, add onion and green chillies and saute until onions translucent.
• Add garlic and mix well.  Add turmeric, salt and mix well.  Add corn kernels and milk.  Mix well, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes.  
• Remove the cover and cook until all the liquid evaporates.
• Garnish with cilantro and serve immediately.  

Fried Sweet Corn

Roasted Corn Kernels with Garlic Butter

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Serves: 1-2

Ingredients:

• 3 cups Fresh Corn Kernels
• 1 tbsp Butter
• 1 tsp Garlic crushed/paste
• 1 tsp Chili Powder
• Salt to Taste

Method:

• Heat the pan, add corn kernels, cover and cook on medium heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• When the corn is golden brown, remove the cover, increase the heat and roast for few more minutes.
• Add butter, garlic, chili powder and salt. Mix well, cook for a minute.
• Serve immediately.

Murmura Upma

Total Time: 15 minutes
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 3

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp Oil
• 4-6 Curry Leaves
• ½ tsp Jeera
• ½ tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1 small Onion chopped
• 10-12 Green Chillies chopped
• 2 tsp Garlic Paste
• ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
• Salt to taste
• 15 cups Murmuras or Puffed Rice
  
• Cilantro chopped for garnish

Method:

• Cut the vegetables.
• Wash the murmuras and squeeze all the water from it and keep aside.
• In a pan heat oil, add curry leaves, jeera and mustard.
• When the mustard seeds start spluttering, add onions and green chillies and saute until onions are translucent.
• Add garlic paste and saute for fews seconds and add turmeric and salt. Stir well.
• Add the washed murmuras and mix well.
• Cook for few minutes, about 5 minutes on medium heat.
• Add cilantro and serve immediately.

Note:

• If you like peanuts, you could add some peanuts to upma.  Add peanuts along with the mustard and jeera, and roast for 1-2 minutes until peanuts are roasted. Then add onions and rest of the ingredients as mentioned in the method.

This is a very quick breakfast recipe and goes to  WBB#23 hosted by The Singing Chef.