Weekly recap - 7 to 13 January

The last weekend ended with pav bhaji. That was also the starting point of this week.

Monday, 07/01
The daughter took pav-bhaji sandwiches for lunch while we had it for breakfast.

sheera, pav-bhaji sandwich, salad, and nuts for school

pav-bhaji sandwich

For lunch, I made masoor amti with rotis. I boil the whole masoor which was soaked overnight in a pressure cooker. I use a good amount of garlic in the tadka with other regular tadka ingredients like mustard seeds, jeera, hing, and turmeric. Add it to the cooked dal, along with kokam, tiny bit of jaggery, salt and goda masala. Finally, coriander and coconut to garnish.

Masoor amti with roti

Tuesday, 08/01
The daughter had a roti spread with the last of the homemade nutella for her breakfast box and cheese stuffed dosa with salad for lunch box. For us, it was red amaranth (laal bhaji) made with lots of garlic and onion, finished with fresh coconut.

roti roll with homemade nutella, cheese stuffed dosa, and nuts

idli-chutney and tea for breakfast

dal, rice, red amaranth bhaji, roti, and salad

Wednesday, 09/01
I had put aside some laal bhaji to mix into some atta and make a paratha dough for the daughter. She ate that at school but god forbid, I give her the bhaji as is. :)
For us, it was french beans bhaji. I make it in the pressure cooker. Heat oil in the pressure cooker, add mustard seeds and let them splutter, add hing and turmeric. Add the chopped beans and saute for 5 minutes. Add salt, tiny bit of jaggery and 1/4 tsp of goda masala. Add about a couple of tablespoons of water and pressure cook for 2 whistles on medium heat. Open the cooker when pressure subsides and add a tablespoon or two of roasted peanut powder. Quick and tasty is what I am going for.

plain appey, red amaranth paratha

roti, salad, green beans sabji, dal, rice

Thursday, 10/01
I didn't click any pictures on Thursday so I don't remember what I gave the daughter. But I do remember I had leftover french beans bhaji for lunch.

Friday, 11/01
This was one of the rare days where both the daughter's and husband's tiffin looks the same. I made kala chana and pumpkin sabji which the daughter grumbled about a bit but she eats kala chana so I gave her the chana part of the sabji. She ate a little bit of it.
I love this recipe. Heat mustard oil, add 1/2 tsp each of mustard seeds, jeera, methi seeds, fennel seeds, and hing. Also, some turmeric and red chillies if you want. Then a tablespoon each of chopped ginger and garlic. Saute about 300 gm of pumpkin for a couple of minutes before adding 1/2 cup kala chana which was soaked overnight and drained. About 1/4 cup water and pressure cook for 3 whistles on medium flame. Once cooled, add a teaspoon of amchur powder and some coriander powder.

pancakes, nuts, kala chana, roti and salad

kala chana and pumpkin sabzi, roti and salad

Saturday, 12/01
For lunch, we had the leftover pumpkin-chana sabji. I made some til-gul vadis (using recipe on my blog) in the afternoon for Sankranti next week. We were having some guests come over the next evening and I wanted to share some with them. So, I made them early.

til-gul vadis

I was going to make undhiyo for the guests the next day. So, I also did some preparations for that by making methi muthiya.
For dinner, I made hakka noodles by adding lots of veggies like the mandatory ginger and garlic, along with spring onions, cabbage, carrot, peas, green beans and some eggs. Some Soya sauce, vinegar and tomato ketchup for flavour.
For dessert, we had a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie with icecream and more chocolate chips and nuts.

vegetable and egg hakka noodles

chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice-cream

Sunday, 13/01
We had leftover noodles for lunch. I had family guests over in the evening. I made dal kebab for snack time (didn't click a picture). For dinner, I tried to create a gujarati thali, with undhiyu, kadhi, rice, roti, dhokla and jalebi. Dhokla and jalebi were store-bought.

Gujarati thali with undhiyu, kadhi, dhokla, rice, roti and jalebi

undhiyu

I also have a easy undhiyu recipe on my blog but I made undhiyu using this recipe with some changes.   I did not prepare the stuffing or stuff any vegetables. Stuffing vegetables is too fussy for me. Not enough return on my time investment :) I added lots of oil in the pressure cooker, made a tadka of mustard seeds, ajwain, hing, bay leaf, and turmeric powder. Added puree of 4-5 tomatoes and 10-15 cloves of green garlic. Saute till reduced to a paste. Add fresh tuver seeds, peas, fresh green chana, papdi and saute for 5 minutes. Add choppped potato, carrot, sweet potato and saute again for 5-10 minutes in oil. Add salt and some jaggery, 1/4 cup of water and pressure cook for 3 whistles on medium flame. Once cooled, add a 1.5 teaspoon of sabji masala and 1/4 tsp of garam masala. Lots of chopped coriander, green parts of the green garlic, methi muthiya, chopped eggplant(brinjal). Saute for a few minutes and add half a cup of water. Pressure cook again for 1 whistle. I also added about a half cup of peanut, sesame and coconut powder, all combined. Keep it aside for atleast half an hour to bring all the flavours together.