4- ingredient Buckwheat Pancakes with vegan option; Meatless Monday.

Pancakes are fun for kids and adults alike. But there are many who follow a gluten free diet due their intolerance to gluten. Buckwheat flour is a great alternative to regular flour. It is of course darker in color and may not appeal to all but it is definitely healthier and has a different kind of nutty flavor. For all those who are vegetarian and don't eat eggs, you can totally skip the eggs and make the pancake. The use of buttermilk helps leaven the butter and make the pancakes fluffier.

Those who are vegan can use almond or soy milk and still make the pancakes. The only difference is that it won't be very fluffy.

I also make it healthier by using honey instead of sugar. You can use maple syrup too. Sugar alternatives like agave can also be used.

Servings: makes 5-6 medium sized pancakes.

Prep time: 10 minsCook time: 15 minsTotal time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Buckwheat flour: 1 cup
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Honey: 1 tbsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Buttermilk: 3/4 cup ( Vegans can use plant-based milk like almond milk/ soy milk)
Butter/ coconut oil : as needed to grease the pan. ( Vegans may use coconut oil)

Method:

Add buckwheat flour, baking powder and salt to a bowl. Mix well.

Add honey. Stir.

Now slowly add the buttermilk little by little, mixing the batter in between. Stir gently until all the batter is nicely mixed. The batter might be thicker than usual. It is ok.
Do not overmix!

Heat the griddle/pan.
Add 1/2 tsp of butter/oil to the pan.

Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan. Using a ladle, gently spread it in circular motions. Don't spread it thin.

Let it cook on low flame for 2 mins. You will see bubbling on top. Try to release the edges of the pancake from the pan. If it releases easily, flip the pancake.

Cook from the other side for 1 more minute.

Remove from the griddle and place it on a serving plate.

Top it with bananas,  berries, chocolate chip or nuts. Pour maple syrup/honey or regular syrup on top.

Enjoy!

I am bringing this to my dear friend Angie's Fiesta Friday#175. Her cohosts this week are Monika @ Everyday Healthy Recipes and Suzanne @ A Pug in the Kitchen. 

Cooking made easy:

While making pancakes, it is best to spread the batter thick. Also cook the pancakes keeping the gas flame low or else the bottom of the pancake will get burnt.

Tip for healthy living:

Buckwheat is a great alternative for people with gluten intolerance. It can be easily substituted for flour and it has a high nutritional value.

Food for thought:

Unless we remember, we cannot understand. E.M.Forster

Please do share your thoughts. Your opinion matters!

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Pancakes with varied toppings

Mother's Day is this weekend!!

You don't have to make anything complicated or expensive for your mom on Mother's Day! You could make her a simple but delicious breakfast! Something as simple as pancakes!

The good thing about pancakes is their versatility! You could make them with fruits like berries or bananas, nuts like walnuts or pecans, flavors like vanilla or cinnamon or chocolate chips! 

If you don't like any of that in your pancake, you can top the pancake with a variety of toppings: sliced bananas, strawberries, berries, chocolate chip,chocolate syrup, maple syrup, honey.. Pretty much anything one wants. I would however stick to the healthier options.

Here is a simple recipe that you can use to make the pancakes.

Servings: makes 8-10 medium sized pancakes

Prep time: 10 minsCook time: 15 minsTotal time: 25 mins

Ingredients:

Milk: 1/2 cup
Egg: 1
Melted Butter/ oil: 2 tbsp
Flour: 1 cup
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Sugar: 1 tbsp
Butter/oil: for greasing the griddle.

Method:

Whisk the egg and the milk.
Add the melted butter/ oil and mix well.
Now add the sugar, salt and stir.
Mix the baking powder with the flour.
Add this flour mix to the egg and milk mixture.
Stir the mixture so that there are no lumps. Do not over mix. If the batter is too thick, add a little more milk.
Keep it aside for 10-15 mins. The batter will thicken.

Heat the griddle.
Add 1/2 tsp of butter/oil to the pan.
Pour 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan. Using a ladle, gently spread it in circular motions. Don't spread it too thin.
Let it cook on low flame for 2 mins. You will see bubbling on top. Try to release the edges of the pancake from the pan. If it releases easily, flip the pancake.
Cook from the other side for 1 more minute.

Remove from the griddle and place it on a serving plate.
Top it with bananas,  berries, chocolate chip or nuts. Pour maple syrup/honey or regular syrup on top.

Serve hot.

Enjoy! I am bringing this to Angie's Fiesta Friday#171.

Cooking made easy:

If you wish you can mix chopped nuts of your choice in the batter.
You can add banana slices on top of the pancake, once you have poured the batter on the pan and it starts bubbling!

Tip for healthy living:

It is much healthier to use butter as opposed to butter substitutes or hydrogenated oils.

Food for thought:

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen. Ernest Hemingway.

Please do share your thoughts. Your opinion matters!

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Lunch-Box Ideas: Colorful Dosas ( vegan pancakes & crepes); Blog Anniversary Special!

Today marks two years of blogging for me via Su's Healthy Living. I am not going to go on about how far I have come or how much I have learnt in the process. Yes, all that is true. The only thing I would like to do on this occasion is  acknowledge Team DFT, especially Sonal and Shailja for their support and constant encouragement, for being there for me day or night, just a "ping" away, for sharing my ups and downs both from the "real" and " virtual" worlds no matter what time of the day or night!!  I also want to acknowledge all my followers, here, on Facebook, on Twitter and  on Pinterest. Thank you for your support, guys! Without you, Su's Healthy Living wouldn't be what it is today. If I have touched one person's life, then the purpose of Su's Healthy Living has been served.

I am not bringing you any cakes or desserts to celebrate this occasion. Instead, I am bringing you " Lunchbox Ideas" so that you can feed your children ( and may be even yourselves) a little better! Several of my readers have requested for lunchbox ideas. So, this year onward, you shall see more of those! Stay tuned.

As mothers we always worry if our kids eat enough. We worry if they are eating the right food. We worry if we are feeding them the right food. We especially worry about what they do or do not eat for lunch while in school. It hurts when our kids don't eat what we pack in their lunch boxes , and bring it back home untouched! It  hurts when our kids don't eat the meals that we serve them and would rather eat cookies and chips. As mothers we strive to be creative and put together meals that are appealing to our kids while at the same time is healthy too.

India celebrated  it's Republic Day on January 26th, 2016. To celebrate this occasion, I decided to make Tricolor Dosas ( pancakes & crepes). Interestingly, my kids helped me make them and also relished them for breakfast and in their lunch-box for school. I was so thrilled that my picky daughter emptied her lunch box and that my son who hates spinach, asked for seconds of the spinach crepes and ate 4 of the them!!

A small clarification here: where I come from in India, all pancakes and crepes are known as "Dosas". The thin ones are like crepes and the thick ones are like pancakes. In India, these are automatically vegan, unless ghee ( clarified butter) has been used to grease the skillet or if the batter has yogurt in it ( in which case, it is specifically mentioned).

Coming back to the dosas, basically I took small amounts of the regular dosa batter ( for which you can find the recipe here), and mixed them with puréed carrots and puréed spinach to get the orange and green dosas, respectively. The batter and purée was used in the ratio of 2:1 but this could be altered as per individual preference. You can use any kind of coconut chutney or cilantro dip to go with it. I used peanut chutney, to increase the protein value of the meal. My kids ate it with honey. You could serve it with jaggery syrup or any pancake syrup too. I am bringing this to Throwback Thursday # 23, Fiesta Friday # 104 and Saucy Saturdays. Angie's co-hosts this week are Mila @ milkandbun and Hilda @ Along The Grapevine.

Servings : makes around 6 dosas.

For recipe for dosa batter click here and here.

Orange (Carrot) dosa:

Ingredients:

Dosa batter: 2 cups
Carrots :2 medium: peeled and chopped.
Water: 1/4 cup
Salt: a pinch
Oil: for greasing the skillet.

Method:

Boil the chopped carrots  in 1/4 cup water until tender. Cool it completely. 

Purée it by using a hand blender or a regular blender.

Now mix it with 2 cups dosa batter.

Add salt if needed.

Heat the griddle/skillet on medium heat. 

Grease the skillet with 1/2 tsp oil. 

Add one ladleful of batter and add it to the skillet. Move the  batter in a clockwise motion to spread the batter. Do not make it thin. 

Cover and cook on low flame for 3-4 mins.

Serve hot with a chutney of your choice.

If packing for lunch, let it cool down completely and then pack .

Green ( spinach) dosa:

Ingredients:

Dosa batter: 2 cups
Chopped spinach: 1 cup ( I used frozen chopped spinach)
Water: 1/4 cup
Salt: a pinch
Oil: for greasing the skillet.

Method:

Boil the chopped spinach  in 1/4 cup water for 5-6 minutes. Cool it completely. 

Purée it by using a hand blender or a regular blender.

Now mix it with 2 cups dosa batter.

Add salt if needed.

Heat the griddle/skillet on medium heat. Grease the skillet with 1/2 tsp oil. 

Add one ladleful of batter and add it to the skillet. Move the  batter in a clockwise motion to spread the batter. Do not make it too thin. 

Cook on low flame for 3-4 mins. Flip and cook for a minute on the other side.

Serve hot with a chutney of your choice.

If packing for lunch, let it cool down completely and then pack .

I hope your children enjoy this recipe as much as mine did!!

For more lunchbox ideas, just type the keyword "lunch box ideas" in the search box of the site and they will all populate!

Cooking made easy:

You can get creative and use beetroot purée and make red dosas.
You can also make colorful idlis, colorful rice pulao using different colored vegetable purée.

Tip for healthy living:

Try to incorporate as many fruits and vegetables into your children's diet.Inculcate healthy habits .It is recommended to follow the 5210 rule Everyday:
5 or more fruits and vegetables
2 hours or less recreational screen time
1 hour or more of physical activity.
0 sugary drinks, more water and low fat milk.

It is also suggested to keep the television out of the bedroom and NO screen time to children under 2 years of age.
  
They may not like it now, but they will thank you later, just the way we did to our parents.

References: 

http://www.letsgo.org/
http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/dietaryguidelines/
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

Food for thoughts:

What we sow, we shall reap. Unknown

Please do share your thoughts. Your opinion matters!

Surnali ( Buttermilk pancakes; eggless)

It is interesting that quite a few of our memories are associated with food. When I think of my childhood, I think of my mother's cooking . One of the things that she used to make for breakfast was dosa( pancake and crepes).My mother makes a whole variety of dosas. Interestingly, I am very fond of dosas; all kinds! I could never tire of dosas!! I just love them!!!

One of the dosas my mother would make is Surnali. Surnali is a traditional konkani dosa( pancake), where in the batter is made by the addition of buttermilk and then fermented. The resulting dosa is soft and fluffy like cotton!! It is absolutely the melt-in-the-mouth kinds! Oh, did i forget to mention that it is also sweet. So you don't need to add any additional syrup/molasses or honey. By default Surnali is sweet, the batter is sweetened by the addition of jaggery;  but we do have a non-sweet version called "cheppi Surnali". For cheppi Surnali, you just have to forego the addition of jaggery while grinding the batter. This is very easy to make, but care has to be taken to ensure that the ground batter is thick. The addition of jaggery tends to make the batter a little runny, so this needs to be factored in. Also, the dosa/pancake has a tendency to get burnt easily , again due to the presence of jaggery in the batter. Therefore, more attention is needed while preparing the pancake on the griddle.Traditionally,surnali batter is made with the addition of freshly grated coconut. My mother does not do that. Instead she uses a little urad dal( split matpe bean), which also helps it to become soft and fluffy.

Servings: 4 ( 10-12 pancakes).

Ingredients:

White Rice: 1 1/2 cup
Urad dal (split Matpe bean):1 tbsp ( Can use 1/4 cup freshly grated coconut instead of urad dal).
Buttermilk/ yogurt: 1 cup( for grinding the batter, may need less)
Methi seeds: 1 tsp
Poha( beaten rice): 3/4 cup
Water: 1 cup, to soak the poha
Jaggery: 1 cup(skip if making cheppi Surnali)
Turmeric powder: a pinch.
Salt: as per taste.

Method:

Soak white rice, urad dal and methi seeds for at least 2-3 hours.
Soak the poha( beaten rice) in  one cup water for 10 mins, then squeeze, remove and keep aside.
Grind it  using the yogurt/buttermilk to a fine batter. Add the soaked poha , jaggery and grind again. Now add the turmeric powder and blend well. Make sure that the batter is on the thicker side and not runny.

Let it ferment for at least 5-6 hours if the weather is warm; may take 8 hours in cold weather.

Just before making the pancakes, add  salt as needed and mix well.

Heat the griddle/ skillet, grease it using oil/ghee/butter. Add a ladleful of batter. Do not spread the batter too much.

Reduce the flame to low, cover and cook until you hear a faint hissing sound. If there are no wet spots on the dosa, it is done. Remove from the griddle. This dosa IS NOT TO BE FLIPPED. It is cooked only on one side.

Serve hot with a dollop of butter. You do not need to add any additional syrup or honey.

If it is cheppi surnali (the non-sweet version), serve it with some chutney!

Yummy! I am salivating as I am writing this! I am bringing this to Fiesta Friday! Margy & Juju are the co-hosts this week!

Enjoy!

Cooking made easy:

The key to making a nice soft and fluffy Surnali is the consistency of the batter and the amount of fermentation. The batter has to be on the thicker side and has to be well fermented. Well fermented means that it has to rise a little but not turn sour.

Also, this dosa has a tendency to caramalise and burn easily on the bottom while the dosa is still uncooked. Hence it is essential to lower the flame as soon as the batter is put on the griddle and cook it on low flame until the dosa is cooked.

Tip for healthy living:

Probiotics are essential for the healthy functioning of the gut. Yogurt and other fermented foods are rich in probiotics and therefore beneficial to the gut. Try to include at least one serving of probiotic rich food in your everyday diet.

Food for thought:

Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship. Omar N. Bradley

Meatless Monday Ootthappam/ Utthappa( Rice-lentil pancake topped with veggies)

Oothappam or Utthappa is a favorite amongst my family members. I like it too as it is a great way to use leftover dosa/ idli batter or batter that had turned a little sour. I also like it because it makes for a balanced, filling meal and is a fool-proof way of sneaking some veggies into my children's meal. It is also quick and easy to make if you are using leftover batter.

Servings: 4( around 8 dosas/pancakes)

Ingredients:

Leftover dosa batter/ idli batter: 4 cups
Carrots: 2, grated
Onion: 1 medium, finely chopped
Cilantro: finely chopped, 1 tbsp
Green chillies: 1-2, finely chopped ( based on your spice level)( optional)
Salt: pinch
Ghee( clarified butter): for making the dosa

Method:

For dosa batter: I have used leftover Mushti-polo batter.

In a bowl, mix together chopped onions, green chilli, cilantro, grated carrots and salt. Mix well. This is the topping.

Heat the tawa/ griddle until hot. Smear ghee/ butter. Pour one ladleful of batter. Make sure that you spread it thickly. 

Sprinkle 1 tbsp of the topping on top. 

When the dosa seems cooked, spread 1/4-1/2 tsp of ghee on top.

 Flip the dosa and let it cook until slightly golden brown.

Serve hot with chutney/ sambar or both!

Enjoy!

Cooking made easy:

While making dosas, the consistency of the batter plays a very important role. If you want to make thick dosas( like pancake thickness) then the batter has to be thick. 

If you want to make thin dosas then the batter has to be relatively thin but not runny. Hence, uthappams can be made only with thick batters like that of idli or dosa.

Some amount of ghee/ oil has to be spread on top of the filling as otherwise when you flip the dosa over the filling will stick to the pan/ tawa.

Tip for healthy living:

For people having extremely dry skin, applying olive oil at night 30 minutes before going to bed , on a regular basis will help relieve the dryness and improve the quality of the skin. Olive oil is natural, light and therefore trumps any man-made chemical laden moisturizer. It also is relatively inexpensive and without side-effects!

Food for thought:

Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you! Dr. Seuss

Mushti Polo/Dosa ( Gluten-free vegan Indian pancakes)

This post was originally not intended for Fiesta Friday but after reading this week's co-host Sylvia @ Superfoodista.com, I am going to take this dosa/pancake to Fiesta Friday!.This will spread the message of gluten-free eating options that has been always available..

Mushti polo literally translates into "fist dosa" in English. "Mushti" means fist and "polo" means dosa. Why? I don't know? May be because they used their fists for measuring? According to my mother, they put the batter in the center of the griddle/skillet like a fist and let it spread. I, of course, spread it a little as I don't want it too thick!

Anyways, Mushti polo is a common dosa/ pancake made in Gowda Saraswat Brahmin households of South Canara region of India. It is a soft, fluffy and light dosa that melts in your mouth. There are a few variations in the batter with some using grated coconut in it and most using cooking soda ( soda bicarbonate) for fermentation. My mother never used soda bicarbonate in any of her cooking as she always believed that the use of it would cause bloating. I have learnt from her and I too avoid soda bicarbonate in my cooking ( except for cakes and breads). So here is my recipe for "Mushti polo":

Servings: 6-8

Ingredients:

Raw rice: 3 cups
Urad dal: 1 fistful
Methi seeds( fenugreek seeds): 1 tbsp
Poha( beaten rice): 1 fistful
Salt: 2 tsp
Water: for soaking and grinding

Method:

Soak 4-5 hours or overnight ,3 cups rice with 1 fistful of urad dal, 1tbsp methi seeds.

Next morning grind the above mixture with just enough water to make a batter with fine texture.

Soak 1 fistful of poha/beaten rice in water for 10-15 mins. Add it to the above ground mixture and pulse once or twice.The batter should be thick.

Pour everything in a bowl. Let it ferment for 6-8 hours or overnight.

Heat a tawa/ griddle, smear oil, spread out a ladleful of batter thickly. Cover and cook on very low flame until done.Do not flip the dosa. This dosa needs to be cooked only from one side.

Serve hot with chutney of your choice.In the picture below I have served the dosa with wet ridge-gourd peel chutney ( ghosale sheere chutney) and dry garlic chutney powder ( lasun/loshne chutney)

My kids love it with butter and a dash of honey!

Enjoy!

Cooking made easy:

If using non-stick sauté pans, skillet and griddle for cooking, use only wooden spoons/ spatulas on it. Using metal spoon/ spatula can scrape of the non-stick coating of the pan.

Use lukewarm water to wash non-stick cookware.While washing non-stick pans, use soft, non-abrasive sponge. Coarse fibers/ scrub can again damage and scrape off the non-stick coating.

Tip for healthy living:

Try and avoid the use of non-stick cookware in your kitchen.The non-stick cookware is coated with Teflon. The chemical name for Teflon is Polytetrafluorethylene(PTFE).The possible problems that arise are mainly from another chemical used in making Teflon,Perflurooctanoic acid ( PFOA) that has been linked with possibly causing cancer, hypothyroidism and reduced fertility. Do not heat empty cookware and never at very high-temperatures.The Teflon when heated to high temperature can release toxic fumes that are harmful to the body and can cause flu-like symptoms.

Discard any non-stick cookware that has it's coating scraped off or worn off.

Food for thought: 

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute. Josh Billings