Kids food - Sweet Potato Muffins

Most of us do not use sweet potato as much as we use potatoes. This wonderful root is a rich source of several vitamins, antioxidants as well as fibre. In one of the recent articles that I read , was quite surprised to see that this humble vegetable being one of the seven food that kids should have on a regular basis, among the other foods like yogurt, salmon(or any other food rich in omega 3 fatty acid) , spinach, walnuts and almonds, berries and avacado.

While making oven roasted fries is an option, baking muffins with them is another easiest way to include this vegetable in the kids diet.

Here is a simple and easy recipe to impress the kids with sweet potato.


Ingredients:
1 cup Whole wheat flour
1 cup All purpose flour/Maida
11/2 tsp baking powder
11/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup brown sugar or regular granulated sugar
3/4 cup sweet potato , cooked and mashed
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 egg


Method:
Preheat oven to 350F / 180 C
Cook the sweet potatoes till soft , peel and mash them
Beat the egg seperatly in a small bowl
Combine all the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sugar in a large bowl .Mix well using a whisk
Add the milk, oil and egg to the dry ingredients and mix gently.
Stir in the sweet potatoes, combine until smooth


Fill in the muffin cups  and bake for 18 - 20 mins

Sending these healthy muffins to the "Show me your muffins " event by Divya at Dil-se

Vellai Paniyaram and Cabbage paratha - Some left over delicacies

Left Over Delicacy 1 -  Velai/white Paniyaram
I had some left over batter from the Vellai Appam that I made last week.  The next day I made some paniyarams out of it.It turned out very delicious, and my little one liked them more than the Appams. Next time I will make the batter specially to make these Paniyarams.

Ingredients:

Left over Appam Batter
Some chopped onions.
Mustard , urad dhal, channa dhal , curry leaves for seasoning

Method:
Take a  tblsp of oil in a pan.Add all the seasoning ingredients.Wait till the mustard splutturs and the dhal turns golden brown, add the chopped onions and fry till translucent.
Mix this with the batter and mix well.

Heat a Paniyaram kadai to a medium heat. Drop 1/2 tsp of oil in each mould and add a tblsp of batter in each of them.Close it with a lid and cook for few  minutes.

turn them over and cook for another couple of minutes.

These can be relished as it is or with any spicy chutney.

Cabbage Paratha:
Left over delicacy - 2

I have already mentioned the size of the cabbage that we get here. Its too much I say. Whenever I buy one , I try to use them up in various ways. On one such occasions I made a big batch of cabbage poriyal. I didnt realise the quantity until I shredded and  I didnt feel like placing them again in the refrigerator. So decided to go ahead and make porial of it.  Initial plan was to use the left over porial to make Oothapams for dinner. But at the last minute changed my plan and decided to add them to the chapati dough and try some cabbage paratha's.  These last minute plans always works well for me. It turned out really good. Hence I got another filling recipe and also found a great way to use up the really big cabbage.

Here is the recipe for Cabbage poriyal.

Method:
Add the left over poriayal and required salt (very little) to the wheat flour and mix well with your fingers to form crumb like texture.Then add water little by little to form a stiff dough.Roll out into discs and cook on a hot tawa with some oil. Flip the sides and cook till brown spots appear on both the sides

Sending these to the 'COL -Left Over Delicacies' event  at 'Spicy Lounge'

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.