Spicy Flax Meal Podi and Spinach Rice.

Flax seeds was something new to me when I saw bloggers using them in their baking as a replacement for egg. I started trying this in my baking experiments and to my surprise the baked goodies turned out super soft and moist. I got over excited and got a big bag of Flax meal from whole foods couple of months back.Though Flax seeds is a good source of Omega 3 fatty acids, it has very poor shelf life. So I always keep it sealed in the refrigerator. In my quest to find different ways to use that bag of flax meal , I came across this recipe for FlaxMeal and Peanut Podi from Usha's VegInspirations. Needless to say about her blog, she has so many recipes anything healthy :)
We use this podi as multipurpose podi for rice, Idli, dosa etc.,


I did not use Jaggery as in her recipe,except that I followed the same::
Ingredients: 
1 cup raw unsalted peanuts.( I used the roasted , lightly salted ones)
1/2 cup sesame seeds (white)
1/2 cup Channa dhal
1/2 cup blach gram dhal with skin( I used whole urad dhal)
1/2 cup flax seed meal
8 red chillies ( I used very less compared to her recipe, add more if you like it really spicy)

How to make the powder:
Dry roast each of the ingredients one by one in a low flame.Switch off the stove and add the Flax meal in the pan and give it a toss. Cool all the ingredients and powder it your dry/spice grinder.Do not make it to smooth powder. Store it in an airtight container.

This Spinach rice is one of my recipe which I experimented with this podi...The peanuts in the podi and spinach compliments each other. Perfect lunch box dish.

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked rice
2 cups roughly chopped spinach
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 cloves of garlic finely minced
1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
curry leaves (optional)
turmeric optional (I did not use this)
2 tblsp of Flaxseed podi
1tsp lemon juice

Method:
In a wide pan add 2 tblsp of olive oil, 
To this add cumin seeds and wait till it splutters.
Now add the onions and chopped garlic  fry till slightly brown
To this add the chopped spinach and stir fry till wilts completly.
Add salt and turmeric, mix well.
Now add the cooked rice and mix well.
Switch off the stove, add the Flax seeds podi and mix well to combine.
Finally add the lemon juice and gently stir the rice.
Serve with Raita.
.

Spanakopita - A Greek Starter

Couple of months back after making an yummy Greek dessert - Baklava , I was wondering about how to use up the little of the remaining phyllo sheets. I thought of going again for the same Baklava - the rolled up version, then something stopped me warning me about the calories. So after browsing through the numerous bookmarked recipes on starters and appetizers, I settled on Spanakopita that aptly needed the exact amount of sheets that I had in hand.




I adapted the recipe from Here by omitting the egg and baking instead of frying.


Ingredients:
2 cups of frozen spinach
1 small onion minced
2 garlic cloves minced
1 tsp red chilli flakes.
2 tblsp of chopped parsley or cilantro
salt and pepper
Butter or olive oil for brussing the phyllo pastry

Method
Thaw and sqeeze all the water from the Spinach/
Take a tblsp of olive oil in a pan and saute onion and garlic.
Stir in the spinach, salt , pepper and redchili flakes. Saute for 2 mins.
Allow it to cool and mix in the Feta cheese.

Place 3 phyllo pastry sheets on a flat surface.
Brush them with melted butter or olive oil on one side.
Cut the Pastry sheets into thin long rectangular shapes.
Place a tblsp of the stuffing and fold it like a triangle.
Keep folding the triangle continuosly left and right till you reach the end of the strip.
It will resemble a samosa wrapped in layers of trace paper.
Seal the edges with melted butter.

Bake in the  180C preheated oven for 20 mins or the pastry is well browned.
You can also substitute the Feta cheese with Ricotta or crumbled Paneer.





Sending these to the AWED event started by DK held this month  at  TastyCurryLeaf and also to Divya's  Healing food Spinach event.

Sending this also to this week's Bake-off event over at Bangalore Baker

Kids Food : Spinach and Mushroom Quesadilla

As with every other PreSchooler My Kid just started hating rice. Till last month he was okay with whatever I gave him for lunch. But this month as soon as he turned 2 1/2 years,  his food priorities rapidly changed. The things which he used to love took a back seat and he has started becoming very picky. Fed up with my continuos effort to make him eat some form of rice  the past two days , I tried something different for lunch yesterday, with what was left in my refrigerator. The result was this yummy quesadilla, which he ate without any complaints ( Me too :)) , calling them 'Pizza'. Anything with cheese on it is Pizza for him...Yesterday's problem was solved..crossing my fingers for today ...

Coming to the recipe.

Sending these over to Divya at Dilse for Healing Food event where this months theme is Spinach. This event was originally started by Shri

Ingredients:
2 wheat tortillas
1 cup Spinach, washed and chopped
1 cup mushrooms chopped
1 garlic clove chopped
1/2 onion choped
salt and pepper taste.
Shredded cheese (any variety) as per need.

Method

For the filling:

To a tblsp of hot oil/butter  add chopped onion and garlic and saute till tranlucent
Add the spinach and mushrooms and saute till all the water from them evaporates.
Add salt and pepper , stir well and keep aside.

For Quesadillas:
Heat a griddle and warm the Tortilla.
Spread the filling in the center.Spread the chese on top of it.Fold the Tortilla to one side to make a semicircle(as we do for dosa.). Carefully turn them repeatedly, gently pressing with saptula, so that the cheese melts.
Remove when the cheese is completly melted.cut into wedges and serve with salsa or ketchup.