Ragi/nachini Nul puttu/noodles.

 The nul puttu is one of my personal favorites for breakfast, served with steaming kadala curry or masala curry.  One would have it with steamed kerala bananas as well.

 In the quest to add more grains to the diet, wanted to do something with nachini or ragi/the finger millet.
 Tried this recipe out and came out quite fine.

Red rice Idli

The Idli is a well-known breakfast preparation, healthy and fat free.
Can it be made more healthy?
Yes!
White rice used in the popular idli or dosa batter is equivalent to maida or white flour.
Now you know why we can and need to make this staple breakfast item even more healthier.
And it infact makes it even more tastier!

Ingredients:
1 cup whole udad/black gram
3 cups red rice.
Salt to taste.

Soak separately for around 5 hours.

Grind the udad first.

Then in the same jar, grind the rice.

Mix the rice batter into the udad batter.

Close lightly and let it stay overnight.
It would have risen a bit.
Stir it once again, adding salt in.

Prepare the idli moulds by sprinkling a little cold water.

Meanwhile, keep the bottom vessel with water on the stove.

Pour spoonfuls of batter into each idli mould with just enough space for it to rice.

Place into the steamer.
Let steam for about 10 to 15 min.
Check in between to see if it ready. Can use a spoon to prick through to see if it comes out clean.

The idlis are ready, they would have risen a bit and the spoon would be coming out clean.

Use the blunt end of the spoon to scoop the idlis out.

Serve with Sambhar and chutney.

You may dunk them in the sambhar as well!!  If dunking, make sure the sambhar has more water added while boiling.

Dill, mint, curry leaves green smoothie

 Another in the series of wholesome goodness for the morning.
A green smoothie with Dill leaves.
Normally I dont like dill leaves in cooked form, but wanted to try in  raw form.

Ingredients:
handful of dill leaves, fresh and green.
three twigs of curry leaves.
half a handful of mint leaves.
three bananas.

Blend together, adding one ingredient at a time.
Makes two glassfuls.

The healthy Nutella

Who does not love nutella!
But did you know that the brand nutella is filled with preservatives and milk and pus cells!
Yuk!

Worry not, we have a healthy version just for your children and for the child within you!

 Ingredients:

2 cups of cashewnuts
1/2 cup to 1 cup deseeded dates depending on how sweet you want it to be.
2 tsp of cocoa powder. (I had cadbury's cocoa powder with me, so used that one.  The richer the cocoa powder, the better the nutella.)
a pinch of salt if desired.
About 1/2 a cup of water or less for grinding.

 Process:

Roast the cashewnuts in a thickbottom pan till they turn slightly  golden.
Mash up the dates with hand to make it smooth and doughy.

Blend all the ingredients in a  blender.
The more powerful the blender the smoother the nutella!
Mine came out a bit lumpy.

If the blender is smooth you might not need any water at all!
If not then add water as required, checking for consistency.

Enjoy!