Healthy Kid-friendly Meals: Moong Paniyaram

One of my favourite south Indian breakfast is this paniyaram. Unlike most homes where it is made of rice flour or a dosa batter, I make mine with sprouted moong (green gram) with no rice at all. That does make it a longer process, almost 5 days, but if your home is like my home, which always has sprouts it’s easy-peasy.

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Kid-Friendly Healthy Meals: Baked Sugar-free Healthy Donuts

Baked, sugar-free and almost gluten-free, these delicious baked donuts!
Baked, sugar-free and almost gluten-free, these delicious baked donuts!

“Baked donuts!” Exclaimed my husband! Yes, why not..If everything can be made diet friendly why not donuts! Everyone’s making them these days and I’m going to try make them not just sugar-free but also with barley and oats flour!

And so the date was set, I had often made donuts the traditional way, but anything fried had been banned since my husband had decided to put his health before everything else…It did test my cooking knowledge, but it’s been a fun, learning process!
Most of the flours in the house have been replaced, Stevia, palm sugar and date syrup take up more space than any other sweeter, the deep-frying pan hasn’t seen the light of day for close to two years now! And most weekdays are all about grilled meats and veggies! And of course an array of fresh vegetables and fruit juices.

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Kid-friendly Healthy Meals: Chocolate Sandesh

Smooth, silky and full of protein
Smooth, silky and full of protein

If weather reports are to be believed the next three days are going to hotter than ever before.You’re not going to want to step out of the house, eat anything that’s full of spice and temper’s are going to be flying high. Need a quick cool down recipe…here’s one.

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Healthy Smoothies & Juices: Turmeric Elixir Shot

What’s with the weather? One day, you’re cold and happy snuggled within a comforter and on the other, the sun is out beating the sweat out of you. It’s no strange coincidence that so many people are unwell! This year, flu, cough and cold have bitten more people than ever. I mean just in my office, at one point more than half the girls, we are a girl’s only office :),  were on sick leave! With examinations around the corner, it’s also time to get the kids immunity up and running at full steam.

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Healthy Smoothies and Juices: Sattu Power

Mumbai, are you ready to run the Marathon? And, what are you powering up with after your run? For those of you who aren’t going the whey way, I suggest sattu. It is packed with iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium and fibre, and hydrates the skin from within! For those of you who aren’t aware of its goodness, 100gms of sattu contains 21grams of proteins and 44 grams of carbohydrates. It’s the perfect after-marathon drink as the carbs put back all the energy you’ve lost and the proteins repair damaged muscles. Combined with lime juice, mango and salt, it’s the perfect electrolyte balancing energy drink.

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Kid-friendly Healthy Meals: Banana, Peanut Butter and Oats Brookies

Which kid doesn’t like a cookie? As a kid, the only reason I would reach for that glass of milk was for that delicious cookie that came with it! However, things are different today, people have become a lot more aware of what they are eating by adopting healthy living, but are kids missing out on the goodies. Here’s a brookie, a combination of a cookie and brownie, that’s amazingly delicious, healthy and easy to make.

From prep to baking time, it takes all of 30 minutes. And it’s made with absolutely no added sugars and is gluten- and lactose-free.

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Healthy Smoothies & Juices: Happy Stomach

Most people are always on a diet! And sadly, ‘diet food’ means picking up prepackaged foods with a ‘diet label’ on it! Eating right, really need not be so tough. In an attempt to simplify eat, I’ve started to post recipes of foods that are simple to make, nutritious and fun! This breakfast juice, for example, will keep you full till lunchtime! Try it.

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Kid-friendly Healthy Meals: Stained Glass Barley Wrap

As a kid, I would wrinkle my nose at anything that seemed ‘healthy’. Good nutritious food had to be slipped into my diet without me noticing it, which was kind of tough, cause the kitchen was my playground. I remember mom having to hide the kokum bottles, as they would be wiped out in one afternoon! I just loved that sweet, sour, salty flavour. That’s all I would want to eat, anything without it didn’t qualify as food!

Cooking for kids can be tough. And so when I was asked to design a menu for kids, I decided to post some too. The catch, when cooking for kids is to give food interesting names. 🙂

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Healthy Smoothies and Juices: The Antioxidant Punch

It’s been a long hiatus. Blame the 365 salads I was working on, that I hope, make it to a book. Last year, I set myself a GOAL or resolution, as I would like to call it,  of making 365 NEW SALADS in the year, a new salad every day, and sure enough, I managed. Was it tough? Yes, of course, it was. But sheer determination and resolve saw me reach Day 365 with a celebration of life!

This year, I hope to post 2 things a week, yup 52 only of each!

A healthy juice or smoothie and a child-friendly healthy meal.

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Double Chocolate Cookies with Atlantic Sea Salt and Malabar Pepper

Double chocolate chip cookies!
Double chocolate chip cookies!

There’s always something exotic or should I say romantic about chocolate cookies. They bring with them smiles and happiness no matter how small they are. The first bite is bliss, the second, heaven and by the third, you’re dancing with angels.

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