Spinach, Chickpeas Masala Rice

Masala rice is a kind of fried rice, prepared simply with rice and varieties of vegetables which is spiced just with variety of spice powders. Kids love rice dishes, especially for their lunch. Obviously we South Indians pack most of our kid's lunch box with rice dishes. Variety of rice dishes do exists and kids love to carry in their lunch box. Just add some vegetables, greens in a simple rice and make it more healthier. My today's recipe is one among those healthy version of rice dish i never fail to make at home whenever i feel lazy or bored to cook. Today's recipe is simply prepared with few chopped carrots, chopped spinach greens and cooked chickpeas. Adding chickpeas makes this rice more nutritious and gives a healthy twist as well. Pack this colourful rice simply with fried potatoes or boiled eggs,am sure you will definitely see the empty lunch box.

Butter Beans Tomato Biryani

Its always fun to pack lunch to kids, but unfortunately here in Paris, i never had a chance to pack foods to my kids. But i pack foods to my H who dont like to have his lunch in his office canteen. However packing foods to kids or husband is definitely challenging when they are pricky eaters. I love beans very much especially when its comes to one pot meal. My pantry will always have varieties of beans and my freezer will also have already soaked, ready to use frozen beans. Obviously if i feel like cooking with beans, i'll just open my freezer, get the packet of my choice of beans and cook with. I'll never forget to prepare presoaked and frozen beans, am doing this method of freezing beans more than three years and now its quite a routine at home.Do follow this method, trust me this method of freezing soaked beans will be very handy if you dont have time to soak beans.

Peanut & Chickpeas Rice

Feeding a kid with healthy stuffs in their diet is definitely a hard task for most of the moms.I have crossed those days with many difficulties, now my kids are grown up and obviously they dont take that much interest to know how their mom cooked their foods. Mostly i'll try to add healthy stuffs in their dishes easily by masking them with their favourite ingredients along with. If its comes to baked goodies, i'll always goes for chocolates if its comes to their lunch or dinner i'll try to mask the healthy stuffs with some meats or seafoods in their foods.So they wont notice and will finish their food without any hassle. Packing a lunch to kid is an another tough task which i never ever had a chance to live as my kids come home for their lunch. However cooking food to kids is definitely a challenging one.I'll try to add veggies and legumes aka pulses,beans often in my kids foods. Most of my one pot meals or simply masala rice will definitely have beans in them as beans are loaded with proteins.Its advised to take beans often in our diet as beans will digest easily and suits prefect for any ages.

Plums & Butterscotch Chips Muffins

Its been a while i want to bake something with fresh plums, this time when we went to our weekend farmers market, i grabbed a kg of pulpy plums from my usual fruit stall. Back home, we couldnt resist to those absolutely sweet and pulpy plums and had few just like that. Since i planned to make some muffins with plums, i kept few plums aside and prepared this beautiful looking plum muffins with butterscotch chips. Do you know i brought this butterscotch chips from India, they are dead cheap there and i got them along with few baking products which i carried all the way from India, i know am a crazy person when its comes to baking. However these chips stays simply prefect in fridge if they are conserved properly when stored in an air tightened bottle.Coming to this muffins, both plums and butter scotch chips works absolutely prefect in this cuties.

Eggless Apple chunks & Chocolate Chips Loaf Cake

After oranges and bananas, my fruit basket will always have apples. Since am allergic to apples, i cant have them like that, obviously i'll always have either cooked or baked apple chunks. Now you know why i'll always try to add apples often in my baking. Apples are my favourite fruits since ages, but dunno why suddenly few years back after having apples, i started having itchy eyes and swollen lips. When i consulted a Doctor, she advised me not to have apples raw but cooked or as baked. I miss my favourite fruit eventhough i never failed to add them in my bakes, soups or else i'll make apple sauce out of it. Now i dont have any alternative way to have apples apart from making dishes out of it. Coming to today's post, this cake is completely my kind of evening snacks. Loaded with apple chunks and chocolate chips, one can have definitely have more than a slice with a cup of tea or coffee during anytime of the day.

Eggless Dates & Chocolate Muffins

Dates, this dry fruits is loaded with many nutrients, vitamins and have many more health values, but this dry fruits is one among the most hated fruits by most of the kids.Even my kids are not big fan of dates, atleast they will eat them if i make bakes or shakes with this healthy fruits. Its been a while i baked muffins with dates, recently i got a huge box of dates from my Moroccon neighbour who didnt forget to brought me some dates after a trip to her country. After making some shakes, i couldnt resist myself to bake some muffins out of those super fresh dates. As usual, i masked the addition of dates with the humble chocolate, anything with chocolate is my kids favourite. If am trying to make anything new or want to feed them with healthy stuffs in their food, i'll go for chocolates especially in bakes, this trick works absolutely incredible everytime and hence this method became a ritual at home if i plan to feed my family with healthy ingredients.

Sweet Horsegram Vermicelli/Inippu Kollu Sevai

Evening snacks are the one among the most important food before having the dinner. Actually Kids need to have their snacks healthy as well as filling after a long day at school. I'll try to add healthy stuffs often in my kids evening snacks, mostly I'll stick with the home made evening snacks however sometimes I'll let my kids to have their favourite junk foods for their snacks. Its quite hard to feed kids with healthy stuffs in their snacks,quite dilemma which happens also with the adults as well. My better half is not a health nut like me, he love to indulge junk foods as much as like my kids. Seriously its quite a hard task for me to feed my family members with healthy stuffs, hence i find a better way to feed them. Just mask the healthy ingredients with your usual evening snacks to feed everyone at home without their knowledge and this method works absolutely awesome. Everyone at home love vermicelli, and my H love vermicelli in anything. Obviously i opted for an healthy horse gram vermicelli for making our favourite sweet vermicelli few days back for our evening snacks.

Vegetable Egg Bhurji Sandwich/Vegetable and Scrambled Egg Sandwich

Sandwich, this is a complete food when two bread slices are stuffed with a healthy filling.Sandwich can be enjoyed very much for the evening snacks as much as for a lunch. Obviously Sandwiches can be taken to work,school or for picnics, this popular finger foods are definitely filling and suits absolutely prefect for the evening snacks.We are bread lovers and most of our dinner goes for bread with salads or soups. Obviously my kids wont hesitate a second to have bread even for their evening snacks.If i serve them a filling,healthy sandwich for their snacks, they wont ever say no definitely.Whenever i dont have time to make evening snacks, i'll go surely for a simple bun butter jam.

Mixed Vegetables Channa Sundal

Evening snacks is the best part of the day, after an hectic day everyone at home love to have something filling for their snacks. With loads of proteins, sundal makes a healthy and definitely a filling evening snacks.Today's post goes for a catchy vegetable rich sundal, actually adding vegetables to usual sundal makes this already protein packed sundal more interesting and definitely super healthy.Sundal can be prepared with any beans or legumes but however most of us makes sundal with chickpeas aka channa. Chickpeas, this nutritious legumes are my favourite, tempered or not i can have a bowl of chickpeas sundal anytime. However everyone at home love this chickpeas sundal when tempered with spices and grated coconut.

Gajar Ka Halwa/Carrot Halwa with Khoya

One of the easiest and the delicious halwa is always this carrot halwa. Carrot halwa makes me nostalgic and this  is the first sweet dish i have dished out when i started cooking. Whenever mom goes to grandma's native, i wont forget to make this halwa to serve my father who fond always for my carrot halwa. Its been a while i prepared carrot halwa at home, more than a year may be. Dunno why i didnt prepared them at home eventhough my fridge will always have carrots.This time i prepared my favourite carrot halwa with sugarless khoya to give a fabulous taste. I had some leftover khoya which was sitting in my fridge, i finished them by adding in this halwa. We simply loved this halwa and couldnt stop having them.

Jeera Tea/Cumin Tea/Jeeraga Kashayam

 Cumin seeds not only add taste to food but also are very beneficial for body. Also known as jeera, these cumin seeds have been extensively used in culinary preparations in the Indian subcontinent since ages. It is a rich source of iron and hence very beneficial for anaemics as well as lactating mothers and pregnant women, who tend to need iron more than others. Its a great aid in digestion and prevents indigestion, flatulence, diarrhoea, nausea and morning sickness.  For immediate relief from acidity, chew a pinch-full of raw cumin seeds. Cumin seeds have antiseptic properties and aid in curing common colds. It doesn't let cough to form and collect in the respiratory system. Since it is supposed to be hot, it dries up all the mucous.Cumin seeds help in stimulating the secretion of enzymes in the pancreas which in turn help in the absorption of nutrients also boost the power of the liver to flush out toxins from the body.

Arisithippili Rasam/Long Pepper Rasam/Thippili Sathumudu

During my last Indian trip, i picked some medicinal value rich spices from herbal medicine shops. One among those herbal spices i treasure carefully is this Arisithippili aka long pepper, this pepper is a relative of black pepper. Kandathippili is the bark of Piper lon gum/long pepper and the dried fruit is called Arisi thippili. Thippili rasam is a very interesting home remedy for common cold, cough and body aches. The spiciness of this pepper will tickle the tastebuds when you are suffering with cold. The roots, leaves and dry fruits are used very much in many more home remedies. This rasam was one of my favourite and i do often at home when the weather is very much dull. This comforting food can be enjoyed thoroughly even if you are not sick. But however having this rasam while you have cough or cold helps a lot to feel much better.

Turmeric Milk/Spicy Turmeric Milk

Indian spices have sufficient medicinal values and there are so many home remedies exists in our cooking. Many home remedies are passed traditionally by the elder peoples and most of the Indian families have their own home remedies for common ailments.There are so many easy remedies for cough,cold which can be prepared at home in a jiffy. One among those home remedies tried and adviced at our home since ages is this Turmeric milk. This turmeric milk is simply prepared with palm sugar, the humble 'Turmeric powder' obviously, cinnamon stick, peppercorns and ginger. Both milk and turmeric are anti-oxidants. Taking turmeric milk daily can help in blood purification and liver detox.