Bread Upma - Instant Breakfast Series - Step by step

    Under the "Instant Breakfast series", I chose today "Bread Upma". Its one of the easiest upma, I ever made. When we were studying, my sister used to make this upma as an instant tiffin. In this recipe, I have added tomatoes and lemon juice. But if  you don't like too much tangyness to the upma, you can skip the lemon juice. Whenever I have leftover bread slices, I will prepare this upma. I prepared this dish ,last year. When I was browsing through my drafts, this recipe caught my attention. Hence the post today.Enjoy the recipes under "Instant Breakfast Series".

Preparation time : 10 mins
Cooking time :10 mins
Serves : 2


Ingredients:
1.Bread Slices - 4
2.Onion - 1/2
3.Tomato - 1
4.Green Chillies - 2
5.Chilli powder - 1 tsp
6.Ghee - a tbsp
7.Lemon juice - 1 tsp
8.Salt - to taste
9.Oil - 2 tbsp
10.Curry leaves - few
11.Cilantro - for garnish
12.Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
13.Water - as needed
14.Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method:

* For a good bread upma, toast the bread slices in ghee. We can also prepare bread upma with plain bread. But toasted bread tastes good. Take a pan, add oil and temper withfennel seeds ,curry leaves, chopped onion and green chillies . Let the onion get roasted well . Now add ginger garlic paste and saute. Add little ginger garlic paste, if not it will dominate the upma. * Now add chopped tomatoes and sprinkle salt to the pan.Let the tomatoes get mashed well with  the onion. Now add chilli powder and saute.Let the raw smell of the chilli powder goes away.Sprinkle little water for the gravy to come together. * Once the masala is ready, add shredded bread slices to the pan. Toss it well . Let the masala get coated well with the bread slices.Adjust salt to taste. Turn the stove off. t last sprinkle lemon juice for a sour taste . At last garnish the upma with chopped cilantro .Serve it hot. We can also serve the upma with raita.

Notes:
* We can add any kind of masala like garam masala, biriyani masala to the upma.
* If you don't like sourness, don't add lemon juice.
* Toasting the bread slices,will give  very good taste to the upma.
* If you want dry upma, just skip the addition of tomato.
* We can also add some cooked vegetables to the upma.
* For a healthier option, use wheat bread.

Mawa Gulab Jamun - Gulab Jamun using Khoya - My 500 th post - Step by step

     Today I am reaching 2 mile stones. One is , this is my "500" th post and the other is ,my blog has crossed 2 million views. This would not have happened ,without you all . Thanking all my friends, readers, for constantly supporting me with your comments and likes. Today ,I look back and revive my journey in the blogging world. It has so many struggles ,which I had ,in bringing the dishes. Both in cooking and clicking ,I have improved a lot.Constant blogging ,kept me occupied and has given me peace of mind.When I don't blog ,something,keeps stress me out. Now blogging became my part of life.Thank you once again, for keeping me as ME.

      Coming to the recipe, one of my friend asked this recipe, so I prepared it. The jamuns were very soft and melt in mouth. We can either prepare the khoya at home or can use store bought. Both works fine. I have given all the solutions for a perfect jamun. If you have questions, just shoot me to savitha.ganesan@gmail.com .

Check my other gulab jamun recipes

* Ricotta Cheese Gulab Jamun

* Gulab Jamun using milk powder

* Gulab jamun using ready made mix.

Preparation Time : 15 mins
Cooking time : 15 mins
Yield : 35 small jamuns
Recipe Source : Rak's Kitchen

Ingredients:
1.Khoya - 1 cup
2.Maida - 3 tbsp
3.Baking soda - 1/8 tsp
4.Cardamom powder - a pinch
5.Sugar - 1 1/2 cups
6.Water  - 1 1/2 cups
7.Oil - for frying
8.Milk - as needed

Method:

* I made Khoya at home, instantly. You can check the recipe here. You can also use store bought khoya for your jamuns.Grate the khoya finely.The khoya has to be at room temperature.  * Take a mixing bowl, add the grated khoya,maida and baking soda . Mix them well. Add little milk to the mixing bowl. Form a smooth and pilable dough.  * Let the dough rest for atleast 5 mins. Meanwhile lets prepare the syrup for the gulab jamuns. Take sugar and water in a bowl. Heat it , till it reaches boiling point. The syrup should be sticky .Now turn off the flame and add cardamom powder . While dropping the jamuns ,the syrup should be warm. If it truns cold, just heat the syrup, so that its suitable for the jamuns. Always use ,a wide pan to prepare the syrup, as it will help the jamuns to absorb syrup properly. * Divide the dough into small equal parts . The balls has to be smooth, without any cracks. If not, it may break ,while frying. * Here is the prepared dough balls. These should be equal sized . Cover the balls for 2 mins,using a muslin cloth. * Heat a pan of oil . The oil should not be too hot. If not the jamuns will cook in the outer side and will be raw inside.If the oil is cold,then the jamuns will break while frying. Drop the balls into the oil, While they are cooking, use a spoon and mix the oil, so they rotate while frying. This will make the jamuns to have golden colour throughout.  * Remove the jamuns from oil. The jamuns ahould be uniformly coloured like that of the picture. Strain the oil completely ,by keeping it on the laddle for atleast 1 minute. Immediately, drop the jamuns into the syrup. The syrup should be warm, while dropping the jamuns. * Similarly fry all the jamuns and drop them into the warm syrup. Let the jamuns get syrup completely for atleast 30 mins. Serve the jamuns warm or cold. We can refrigerate the jamuns for later use. Since ,we have used khoya, the jamuns were melt in the mouth.                                                   Serve jamuns with ice cream and enjoy !!!

Notes:

* Jamuns has to be rolled smoothly, without any crack.

* The syrup has to be warm, while dropping the jamuns.

* The oil has to be medium hot, for frying the jamuns.

* We can also add saffron or rose essence to the syrup.

* We can also garnish the jamuns with crushed nuts.

* Since, we have used khoya in the jamuns, it has to be consumed immediately, within 2 days.Always refrigerate the jamuns.

* Adding khoya makes the jamuns soft.

Instant Oats Idli - Instant Breakfast Series - Step by step

       Its been more than 10 days, aince I posted something. Have been busy with long weekend. Also ,my parents are going to visit us , next week. So got myself  busy with the preparations. For this month's "Instant breakfast " series, I thought  of oats idli ,as it is easy to prepare in no time. I have made a tempering and added to the batter. But you can just cook the idlies ,without any tempering. For these kind of idlies, spicy chutneys will go very well.

Check my other varieties of idlies,

 * Rava Idli

* Soft idlies

Preparation Time - 10 mins
Cooking time : 10 mins
Yield - 12 idlies

Ingredients :
1.Insant Oats - 1 cup
2.Rava - 1/2 cup
3.Yogurt - 1 or 3/4 cup
4.Carrot - 1/2 cup (shredded)
5.Salt - to taste
6.Water - as needed
7.Baking soda - a fat pinch

To temper :
1.Onion - 1/4 (chopped)
2.Green chillies - 3 (chopped)
3.Chana dal - 1/2 tsp
4.Mustard seeds - 1/2 sp
5.Urad dal - 1/4 tsp
6.Beans - 1/4 cup (finely chopped)
7.Oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

* Take the oats in a blender. We can either ground the oats as such or roast it and grind it. Pulse the oats to a fine powder. * Take rava and mix with oats.Add salt to the bowl. *Take a pan and heat it . Add oil and splutter with mustard seeds,urad dal and chana dal. I didn't have curry leaves, so skipped it. You can use it , if you have. * Now add chopped onion, green chillies and saute. Sprinkle little salt to the pan. * Now add chopped green beans and saute. The beans will take time to cook, so chop it finely. Let the mixture cool for some time. * Once the mixture is cooled, add it to the mixing bowl. Now add shredded carrots . Mix them well. * Now dump the beaten yogurt to the mixture and beat. The consistancy should be of idli batter. If you fine the batter is too thick, then we can add some water to thin it. Yogurt gives the required  sourness to the idli.  *This is the right consistancy. Now add baking soda. and mix . The bking soda will make the idli fluffy.  * Grease the idli plates with oil. Pour a laddle full of batter to the plates .Steam the oats idli for 5 to 7 mins or untill toothpick comes out clean. Let the idlies ool for some time in the plates. Once cooled, take them out using a spoon and store in a hot pack. Serve these idlies with garlic chutney or onion chutney.

Notes:

* We can any kind of vegetables to the idli.

* Instead of sauting, we can just dump the vegetables to the batter and cook.

* Instead of baking soda, we can lso use fruit salt.

* Don't skip the addition of yogurt. It acts as a fermenting agent for the idlies.

* We can also roast the oats and powder it ,for a good aroma.

Linking this to "Friendship 5 Series ", started by "Savitha Ramesh" and "Geetha Achal"

Charlotte Fair 2015 - A fun filled Saturday Afternoon

 Charlotte Fair: 

        We recently went for "Charlotte Fair". It was a fun filled day for kids and adults. There were so many rides for kids and for us. There were few shows like circus,pirate shows and magic shows.I just captured those moments for my readers and wanted to write an article .It is also as a future reference for me. Intially, we were hesitant in buying a fun pass to take unlimited rides. But after entering the carnival, we felt very bad. Because ,there were many rides ,which we couldn't resist to ride. So we kept this in mind and planned to buy  fun pass next year. This was a 10 day fair. We went on the second day. The below picture shows the entrance to the fair.You can see the holiday spirit. While I was writing this post, the days, where I went to Fair in "Chennai " , came flashing in my mind. My dad used to take us to these exhibitions . Those were fun days.

Check my other articles about trips .

 * Chinese Lantern Festival

 * Trip to Canyon Lake

 * Golu at my friend's house.

Entry:

This is the ticket counter. All our kids are waiting eagerly to enter the fair. These tickets are for the rides. 

Shops:

This was next to the Statfarm booth. This shop is just a kids stop, which offers variety of balloons and toys. Statefarm booth gave all registered members, a lunch box,glasses and bags.There were snack shops, Souvenir shops,

Rides:

There were rides like these small elephants, monkeys, roller coaster ,scary monster rides,cute bug rides,mini train rides. There were also mega monster trucks, which you can rent and drive . Kids would love theserides. Initially Rohith was hesitant, but after some time, he started to explore the ries with Ashwath.Each ride had ticket system, where you have to give tickets not money. The tickets has to be bought at the entrance.

This was the mini train ride,I was talking about.The whole carriage was occupied by our friends. Rohith got a seat at the front.

This is a cute little caterpillar ride, where Rohith and Ashwath took a ride. Cute looking ride though :)

Here comes the monkey ride. Where the riders are seated inside the monkey and it rotates through a cycle and also rotates itself. There is a steering wheel, which the kids has to rotate to turn fast.

Here comes the most exciting water boat ride for kids. The water was not so deep. Kids should turn the wheel to steer the boat. There were help in every corner for the safety of the kids.Look ,who is driving through the water ? 

Helicopter ride :

             This was my unforgettable - first - helicopter ride in my life time.The helicopter was carrying me and Rohith to the sky. The take off was very smooth. Intereting thing bout this helicopter is ,they don't have doors.I asked the Cashier, she told me that "Its time consuming, for us to open and close the doors. So we took the doors off" . The view was spectcular. Charlotte was fully green ,from the aerial view.

Activities:

 There were so many activites, like water shooting. We need to aim to the centre of the board and spray water. Which will int turn, raise the lever to touch the monkey. This is actully a competition. The winner will get a stuffed animal. We didn't get any prize though :(

* This is balloon bursting game.,where we have to target a balloon. With three 3 arrows, if we burst all the 3 balloons, then "Ta - Da. we are gifted with these small gifts.

This is another intersting ride. We were given a basket full of balls. We need to throw the balls right into the cups, which are revolving.Its tricky to target the bowls ,as they were revolving.

Shows:

 Circus:

There were three shows, which we watched. The first one was the "Circus ". The mexican girls were flying in the sky .performing gymnastics.

*Next was this little girl, who performed hoola loops .She was able to rotate her body and balanced around 8 loops. That was spectacular. So talented too.

The third even was this girl, performing aome gymnastics. Watching this ,will bring you goose bumps. It was that incredible. You can see the posture of the girl.

In this picture, she is just balancing her head on a flower stand. This action is so dangerous also, challenging too. She ,surely need an standing ovation. So talented.

* At last, there were 4 bikers,who were just riding inside this ,without crashing each other. Such a daring act .

Pirates show:

 This enacted the story of pirates , in a comical way. These pirates performed some classy shoots too.

Mini Petting Zoo:

This is the petting zoo ,which had sheeps,goats,cows .There were food,which we can buy and feed those hungry animals.   There were sanitizers,everywhere,so we can clean our hands,after touching the animals.We decided to pet the animals,after finishing all the rides.

They were really fun to pet. There was a Texas ox, which was giant and scary.

Most important part, we witnessed the milking of the cow. Where we can use our hands and milk the cow. Both Rohith and Ashwath happy to milk the cows.This is normal in India, but here it was very new to the kids. The lady was very kind .

Here we all - to the end of the "Charlotte Fair ". Thank you all, who travelled with me, throught the fair. Hope you enjoyed viewing and reading. This rticle was pending for a week now. Since , I was down with fever and cold, couldn't write it. Now I am back with an interesting article. Share it with your friends and let them know what is there in "Charlotte Fair ".