Barley Roti - Simple, appetizing and nutritious Indian flatbread

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To know about the different varieties of Barley that are available and ways to cook them, please refer to my article at Daily Tiffin

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I feel that incorporating the goodness of whole grains is a must in every household, be it in Baking or in normal day to day food. Since roti is a staple in my home, having it for dinner almost every other day, I try to bring about variation. Roti's are one of the best ways of adding in different grains. I have already blogged about making roti with Oats. This time its going to be with Barley. Barley are another nutrition powerhouse. Indians especially must be aware thanks to Barley Water.



I try to drink Barley water at least once in 10 days or so. But there are times, thanks to hectic lifestyle, such things tend to slip my mind. One thing which is more dangerous than anything is blaming time for not eating properly. That being said, these Barley Roti's come to rescue. I use Barley flour, along with whole wheat flour, which are available in everywhere, even in Indian stores. Instead of using plain water to knead the dough I use barley water. You can use the cooked barley as an alternative to plain white rice - for the same meal or refrigerate it and use the next day for salad prep, patties etc.

Ingredients


• 1 cup Barley flour
  
  
• 1-1/2 cup whole wheat flour, plus extra for dusting,rolling etc
  
  
• Barley water to knead the dough
  
  
• salt to taste
  

Method

Prepare barley water as shown in this post (skip the lemon).



Add the flours and salt together and stir well.



Add enough barley water to knead the dough. It should be soft and pliable.



Divide into small balls and using a rolling pin, roll it out into a circle to approximately 1/8 inches



Cook it into a medium-hot pan. Add little oil to help it stay soft.



Turn once golden brown with little spots appear in the bottom.



Serve warm with any dal or greens of your choice.

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This is my entry to Roma's JFI event:Wheat

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Wholemeal Banana (Wal)Nut Muffins

I Love using Bananas for Baking as evident from my Low Sugar Banana Muffins and Banana Walnut Bread. I like ti even more with walnuts. For me nothing tastes better than a combination of Banana and Walnuts. That being said, I was amazed to see that I dint have Banana Walnut Muffin posted when I have been making one quite a lot. I find having such treats around help me to avoid reaching for junk foods at the danger time - you know, the time between lunch and dinner. I read somewhere that if this period is not handled right, then thats where one goes bersek with their dieting strategies!



Anyways I have made these Banana Muffins with wheat flour instead of all purpose flour and it has healthy ingredients for a guilt free gluttony :) It is immensely moist with a crunch of generous walnut pieces. I have used minimal fat.

Ingredients


• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  
  
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  
  
• 2 large bananas
  
  
• 1/8th cup of wheat germ
  
  
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
  
  
• 1 egg (you can skip this to make it eggless.)
  
  
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
  
  
• 1/4 tsp salt
  
  
• 1/4 cup milk
  
  
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  
  
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped
  
  
• 1-1/2 tbsp butter
  

Method

Add the flour,salt,baking powder, wheat germ together.



Add the wet ingredients together . Mash the bananas with a fork. I do this to get little chunks of banana in my muffin. If you dont prefer that, mash it in a food processor until smooth.



Mix both of them until well incorporated. Blend in some nuts.



Drop spoonfuls of the batter into lined muffin pans.



Top it off with some nuts and bake in a preheated oven 350F for approximately 30-40 min or until done.



Serve warm. Some tea with this muffin would make you feel all the more good about yourself :), the way it does to me.

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This is my entry to Roma's JFI event:Wheat

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Oats Roti - incorporating health with every single bite

When I wrote this article for Daily Tiffin elaborating the different Oats and their nutrition, a reader of mine sent me a mail, telling me how she indeed sees the benefits but unfortunately no one in her family has the habit of eating cereal for breakfast. Also since she is working, she does not find time to sit and bake a whole lot of breads/cookies using oats. She asked me if there was any other way to incorporate oats other than the usual cereal/baked methods. I said yes! and that there are many many methods to make use of these nutrition powerhouses. I am a working woman too and I don’t find time to spend that much time in cooking either.



I use whole grains in different ways and one way of using oats in my kitchen would be by making these rotis. They are simple, and they follow pretty much the same method of making our regular rotis. Making them this way, one would not find that much of a difference in the taste either – but you, responsible for the family’s nutrition can rest in peace knowing that every bit of that morsel is going to do good for the health.

Ingredient


• 1 cup whole wheat flour
  
  
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
  
  
• i/4 cup oat bran
  
  
• salt to taste
  

Method

To make the oat flour, grind the rolled oats well.



It takes roughly 1/4 cup of rolled oats to make about 1/2 cup oat flour



Add the flour along with the bran and whole wheat, stir in the salt.



Add enough water to make a soft and pliable dough.



Divide the dough into small balls.



Using a rolling pin, roll it into a flatbread. Not too thick nor too thin into a circle.



Place it in a non-stick/iron skillet, use little oil.



Cook until brown on one side. Turn and repeat.



Serve it warm with any dal, side dishes of your choosing. They taste well with pickle too.

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This is my entry to Roma's JFI event:Wheat

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Apple Bran Muffins - Nutrition powerhouse made eggless

You have had a healthy and simple lunch, you are happy that you ate sensibly, you put a nice blue tick near that particular meal in your "Eat Sensibly Resolution Chart" and feeling mighty pleased about it. Tick, Tock, Tick...the clock ticks away slowly the hand creeping towards 4:00 PM and something else creeps in your belly! Hey is a wild cat nearby? Is someone watching your favourite Animal Planet channel? No..No wait a minute? Is that growl coming from your stomach..yeah it is! Hunger pangs and the tongue starts playing dirty tricks - making you imagine - that Jalapeno chips wonderfully crunch, in your mouth; how about that 'tadak' sound when you bite that nutty chocolate bar, mm...and and how about that delicious looking bagel with a nice filling of cream cheese making eyes with you..........aaaaaaaah!!!!

No, No, you say, looking at your chart!. Then you think of diverting by checking your mails and you get entries for events you are hosting where your fellow foodies are Flaunting .Their . Wares . You start feeling like a dog! No not in a derogatory way..but you so resemble one, salivating this way! You are like OK, THAT's IT and try to grab that Cream cheese bagel - and that's when I say STOP! Here is another yummy alternative which wont make you feel that you are on a diet or something.



Apple Bran muffins is the way to go - They have that Jalepeno chip like crunch as soon as you bite into it and 2 seconds later, you get a nice chewy texture like that bagel and in the end you feel like you have bitten away the nutty chocolate bar to glory - except that you havent. What you did was eat into a nutrition powerhouse that is so ridiculously low in calories in return of immense benefits that its not even funny! It has a fruit, goodness of wheat and wheat bran, nuts and spices which make blend it all together. Don't go by the appearance - This is one Abraham Lincoln model - The packaging isnt pretty - but whats inside is worth all the time, effort and money :)

Ingredients


• 1 apple, grated ( pls dont peel the skin! There are nutrients in there)
  
  
• 1 cup wheat bran
  
  
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  
  
• 1/4 cup All purpose flour
  
  
• 1 cup milk
  
  
• 1/4 cup pecans ( or walnuts)
  
  
• 2 tbsp brown sugar ( this muffin is v mildly sweet, the way I like it. You can add more if you desire..)
  
  
• 1 tbsp butter
  
  
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  
  
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  
  
• 1/4 cup applesauce
  
  
• 1/4 cup oil
  
  
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  
  
• 1 tbsp baking powder
  
  

Method

1.Preheat Oven to 375F. Mix all the wet ingredients together along with the spices.



2.In a seperate bowl, add all the dry ingredients together.



3.Now mix both of them together.



4.Drop spoonfuls of the dough into a lined muffin pan.



5.Bake them for 20-30 min until golden brown.



Cool them in a counter and enjoy!

Thalipeeth - A quick healthy and filling fix for the fast and the furious!

You have had a long day, mentally exhausted and physically tired! Its 7:00 pm and you realize with a bang that you are the one to do the cooking for dinner, when all you wanted to do was settle down in that lush sofa and curl up to sleep! The 'other half' is obviously oblivious to all this and you know that the only solution 'kindly offered' by him would be to 'eat outside' since 'making food' and him dont go well together! Eating outside sounds so convenient but hold on! You had to go and take an oath of not eating outside since you wanted to be suddenly sensible about your eating! Seriously! Women should not be allowed to think so much! Dang! Women like me should not be allowed to check other's blog too - if not, you would not have noticed Sig looking remarkable thanks to her SBD and Meeta feeling way lot better thanks to hers and decided its high time,yours truly did something too!



With Asha cheekily seeing through my 'healthy' needs, I am totally left in a fix! Remembering how Kate Winslet looked at the Academy - I decided to draw inspiration and thought over healthy recipes - Thalipeeth! ta da! Yes, thats it. But the minute I entered the kitchen, exhaustion gnawed and I totally was not in for making dough, rolling, sticking and the other blah's. So what did I do? I made it into a batter and made a whole grain Adai :) Thalipeeth are savoury pancake like Maharashtrian dish enjoyed for breakfast. It does not need an elaborate side dish - some pickle and butter goes a long way! It is made with multi grains incorporating the raw nutrition straight on to your body. Usually the dough is made with what is called Bhajani which is readily made mix of different flours. One can replicate the same at home and the best part of this recipe is that one doesnt have to stick to the exact measurements for the flour. Add in as many, in whatever proportion you like and are comfortable with. This is my version. I am not sure, but I think I have seen few people making a batter version (like here) too.

Ingredients


• 1/2 cup Bengal gram flour (besan)
  
  
• 1/2 cup Sorghum flour (Jowar)
  
  
• 1/2 cup Millet (Bajra)
  
  
• 1/2 cup wheat flour
  
  
• 1/4 cup Finger millet (Ragi)
  
  
• pinch of turmeric
  
  
• ` red onion, chopped finely
  
  
• 1-2 green chillies, sliced thinly
  
  
• salt to taste and few sprigs of cilantro
  
  
• About 1-2 cups of water to make it into a thick batter
  

Method

1.Mix the flour, salt, turmeric together.



2.Add enough water to make it into a thick pourable batter.



3.Stir in the onions, cilantro and the chillies.



4.In a lightly greased pan, pour the batter to make into a rough circle. It need not be perfect. Rustic is good sometimes you know :)



5.Turn it after 1-2 minutes and cook likewise.



6.A little slab of butter along with pickle/curd is more than enough! Simple, easy and healthy living.

Ask the better half to at least take the final photo - and not think twice about posting it because it was something 'you-dint-do-yourself' and also ask Asha not to smirk at the butter - BUTTER LOOKS BIGGER IN THE PICTURES! IT WAS SMALL YOU KNOW! ;-)

Whole Grain Pancakes with Pecan Nuts and Grilled Bananas

The Food Pyramid esp for Vegetarians is little complicated. The need to maintain the essential balance is so crucial - instances like did you take the required amount of Dietery Fibre? what about whole grains? Did your meal the whole day today include sufficient servings of vegetables and fruits? and Oh yes! Proteins? Yes the Pyramid and its classification look simple enough - but in day to day hectic lifestyle, we tend to forget taking each and every thing into consideration and in long run we realise that we have missed out on lots of nutrition and adequate amount of balance much needed esp for Vegetarians.



So, in order to make sure of that aspect, I try to plan ahead all the meals during the week - right from breakfast, lunch, tea time to dinner; making sure to see that I have incorporated all the essential groups in the pyramid. Unless spaced out - its almost impossible to gobble down all the servings in one go - hence the process has to start right from breakfast. Hence this is one of those recipes I came up with - to start off our day on the right note.

Image taken from here

I bought a 10grain Bread Mix a while back. It has all the essential whole grains like wheat,rolled oats,Rye,Corn,triticale,millet etc).I also had Teff flour at hand and pancakes are so common in so many households - so made Pancakes out of them.I also wanted to add one fruit and some nuts- so grilled and toasted them resp for the topping. It was light, fluffy, hearty and filled with all the nature's best ingredients.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup 10 grain bread mix
  
• 1/4 cup Teff flour
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
  
• 1 egg
  
• pinch of salt
  
• 2 tbsp demerera sugar/ brown sugar
  
• 1 cup low fat milk
  
• 1-2 bananas, sliced vertically
  
• 2-3 tbsp maple syrup
  
• 1/4 cup lightly toasted pecans
  

Method

1.Mix the flours along with baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well and then add the eggs and milk and make a thick batter



Mix well and refriegrate for 10 min while you grill the fruit



2.Take the sliced bananas and with a brush lightly apply the maple syrup to the bananas. grill them for a min and set them aside.



3.Take the batter and drop a spoonful on a pan. cook for 2-3 min and turn.



4.Usually it gets done v fast - so make sure not to keep it for very long on the pan.



5.Serve it in a plate hot with a topping of bananas and some nuts - mm may be honey if needed.



Summary of health benefits

1) Whole grains benefits
2) Protein in eggs and milk
3) Fruit - banana brimming with potassium
4) Pecan Nuts - little goes a loong way.
5) Maple Syrup benefits

Can you think of more? I mean thats a good way to encompass lots of nutrition- dont you think :) This is my entry to Susan's Pancake Parade Event

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I have a penchant for..mm..lemme think...EVERYTHING! I am simply tooo *greedy* a person to leave out anything that one can possibly do. That being said - my journey in blog-o-sphere started for learning more about food - culture - ways of cooking ; to get inspired by all you talented ones and try to push my boundaries farther than the norm. That being such - when I am bestowed with awards , it makes me feel happy and appreciated.



Siri and LG have bestowed me with Blogging With a Purpose Award and Lg Esp has some v generous things to say about me. I am honoured Lg and thanks for thinking of me. I dont have to say anything about Siri - no not cos I have nothing to say - but cos if i start I wont stop. :) All the best dear for you-know-what dear.