Roma's Space

Tricolor Sandwiches

These sandwiches are easy to make and yet unique in their appearance. Try it in the next birthday party you throw for your kid.

Ingredients :

• 1 loaf of freshly baked bread
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cucumber cut into thin slices
• 1 tablespoon Pudina chutney

Procedure :

1. Buy a freshly baked loaf of bread from the bakery and ask the baker to give it to you by making 2 horizontal cuts along the width.
2. Now you have 3 long, horizontal slices of bread.
3. Puree tomatoes and strain away the water.
4. Mix salt and butter with the strained tomato pulp. Apply this mixture on the first cut.
5. Apply pudina chutney on the second layer and arrange finely sliced cucumbers on it.
6. Place back the top slice of the bread and wrap this loaf of bread in a cling wrap.
7. After an hour remove the clingwrap and cut out thick slices of the bread (just as you usually have in breads, only thicker).

Variation

1. If possible, please try to use a loaf of brown bread to top up the nutrition value.
2. You can try using spring onion chutney instead of pudina chutney for a twist in taste

Chocolate Pudding

Involve your kids in making a dessert this weekend. They will feel doubly joyed to eat a pudding they made. You will have to help them blend and steam the pudding and they wont be able to wait for it to set.

Ingredients :

• 2 cups of milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 slice of bread
• 3 glucous biscuits
• 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup, your Choice of fruits

Procedure :

1. Heat sugar in a pudding bowl till it caramelizes.
2. Spread it to ensure the bottom surface is covered.
3. Blend milk, eggs, bread, biscuits, cocoa powder and sugar in a mixie jar.
4. Pour into the pudding bowl and steam for about 20 mins.
5. Chill in fridge and serve with your choice of fruits.

Please NOTE :

1. For steaming, use a cooker that best fits the size of the pudding bowl. If the cooker is too big then the pudding wont be steamed evenly.
2. To know if your pudding is done, stick a fork and check if it comes out clean.

Mixed Vegetable Gravy

This is the age when kids become very smart and start examining everything that they eat. A paste is made to cook vegetables so that kids cant fish out things like onions, tomatoes, dhania leaves and other things that they dont like.

Ingredients :

• 2 Tomatoes
• 1 Onion
• 1/2 teaspoon of Jeera seeds
• 1 teaspoon dhania powder
• 1/4 teaspoon haldi powder
• Few springs of mint leaves
• 1 cup of chopped vegetables (carrot, beans, peas, cabbage)
• Lime juice

Procedure :

1. Make a paste of tomatoes, onion and pudina leaves.
2. Heat oil. Add jeera and mixed vegetables. Saute well.
3. Add tomato, onion, pudina paste and fry well. Now add dhania powder, haldi powder, salt and cook till vegetables are done.
4. Add some lime juice and garnish with coriander leaves.

Baby Rasam

Rasam rice is something I have noticed babies of this age enjoy quite a bit. However, we can not use the same rasam powder that we make for ourselves as it is too spicy for them.

By making a rasam powder of our own and with a little variation like adding the juice of vegetables, it can become an excellent alternative to the usual dal.

Rasam powder (for Babies)

• 1 Cup Corriander seeds
• 1/2 Cup Cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1 tsp toor dal
• 1 tsp ghee
• Pinch of hing

Instructions:
1. Fry corriander seeds and cumin seeds separately till they release their aroma.
2. Heat 1 tsp ghee and fry fenugreek seeds, toor dal seperately and add hing.
3. Grind the mixture to fine powder.

For the Rasam

Ingredients:

• 1 tomato
• 1/2 carrot
• Small piece of cabbage
• 1/4 cup toor dal
• 1/4 teaspoon of rai
• 1 teaspoon of baby rasam powder
• Few teaspoons of tamarind juice
• Finely chopped Coriander leaves

Procedure :

1. When you make toor dal for yourself keep aside some dal water that stands on the dal once its cooked.
2. Extract juice from tomato, carrot and cabbage.
3. Heat oil. Add rai and baby rasam powder. Add the extracted vegetable juice, cooked dal water, tamarind juice and give it a boil.
4. Finally garnish with finely chopped dhania leaves.

Vegetable Dalia

Back in my dieting days I used to eat Vegetable Dalia everyday for dinner. Well, dalia or broken wheat is an extremely nutritious cereal. Its high is fiber and helps relieve you from constipation and other stomach disorders.

This can be given to the baby about once a week to ensure a happy stomach.  Adults can have this everyday for lunch/dinner in order to shed some excess weight. Read here for more details on that.

Ingredients :

• 1 tablespoon Oil
• 3 tablespoons dalia (broken wheat)
• 1/2 teaspoon jeera
• 1/2 onion
• 1 tomato
• Pinch of hing
• 1 cup of mixed vegetables: carrot, beans, peas

Procedure :

1. Heat oil. Add jeera, hing and fry onions for a few minutes.
2. Add chopped tomatoes, dalia and continue to fry.
3. Now add vegetables carrot, beans, peas and saute for a few more minutes.
4. Add salt, water and pressure cook in the same manner as rice.
5. Before serving you can add some lime juice and finely chopped coriander leaves.

Please NOTE :

Use sprouted broken wheat to make this dish even more nutritious.