Weekly recap - the first week of the year

The week started on 31st December. The husband was on leave that day and did a very important job of moving our potted plants from their original pots into these tray like pots. We wanted to free up the floor space in our tiny balcony and make it look tidier. So we got these metal shelves made and installed on the wall the previous week. We also ordered these rectangular pots that would fit inside those shelves from Amazon. The balcony looks much tidier and there is space for more plants now. There is one more empty shelf on top of this.

New plant arrangement

Monday, 31st December
I made tomato chilla (tomato omelet as it is known in Mumbai) for breakfast. I grind an onion, a couple of tomatoes, 2-3 cloves of garlic, a small piece of ginger into a paste, which I use to make a batter. I use a mix of besan and my homemade mix atta (consisting of jowar, ragi, rajgira, flax flours) for the batter. I add ajwain and chopped coriander leaves to the batter. We ate it with kasundi (Bengali mustard) and lemon pickle while the daughter enjoyed it with ketchup.

tomato omelet (tomato chilla)

For lunch, I made dahi sev and green tomato bhaji with bajra roti. It was rather a mix of bajra and wheat flours in almost equal portions because I didn't have enough bajra flour. It also makes it much easier to roll out. I made this type of Sev bhaji for the first time. It had chopped onions, garlic, tomato and, milk for gravy, in which ratlami sev was boiled for a few minutes and finished with some dahi. The green tomato bhaji had lots of onions, some garlic, chopped green tomatoes and flavored with jaggery, goda masala, fresh coconut and peanut powder. Both of the sabjis turned out quite nice. The plate also contains dal khichadi which I spiced up with a tadka of onions, garlic, khichadi masala and fresh tuvar beans. We also had jaggery and ghee which is not in the picture.

bajra roti, green tomato sabji, dahi sev and tuver khichadi

In the evening, I made gajar ka halwa using a couple of new tricks I saw on Youtube videos. I will share my method once I try it a couple more times. The daughter wanted to do something special for New Year's Eve so we ordered some icecream from Icecream Works. Stawberry chocolate chunk for the win! Loved it.

Tuesday, 1st January
The first day of the New year was back to office routine for the husband. I wanted to give him matar parathas for his lunch box but he insisted on eating it for breakfast and wanted to have lunch in the office. So I obliged. I made these matar parathas for the first time. Usually, the mil makes them and we just eat it but this time I used her recipe to make them. The stuffing has crushed peas flavored with sauf, hing, garam masala and a spoonful of besan.

matar parathas

I made sadha varan, bhaat for the daughter's lunch while I had it along with leftover green tomato sabji and rotis. I also brought out the gajar ka halwa for dessert. It lasted almost the whole week as our dessert.

roti, green tomato sabji, varan bhaat, cucumbers and fresh haldi with gajar ka halwa

Wednesday, 2nd January
On 2nd January, the daughter's school reopened after Christmas vacation. So it was back to routine for me too.
Daughter's tiffin boxes for the day had bread with fried egg for breakfast, rotis, aloo ki sabji and salad for lunch.

fried egg with bread for breakfast, nuts, roti, potato sabji and salad for lunch

The husband didn't carry lunch that day so I cleaned out the fridge for lunch.

matar parathas, salad, curd, varan bhaat with potato bhaji

Thursday, 3rd January
The daughter's tiffin

bread with egg for breakfast, nuts, peas pulao, bhakri and salad for lunch

The husband's tiffin

bhindi-aloo, roti, salad, dal and rice

The bhindi trick that I learnt from my mil: Wash the bhindi the previous night. No need to dry it with a cloth. Just chop it and spread out on a dish lined with a kitchen towel. It will be dry and slime free by morning.
I cooked it with onion, ginger, and garlic. Then I added cubed potatoes and cooked till they are done. After that, I added the bhindi and cooked for 20 minutes without a lid. Once the bhindi is cooked, add tomatoes and cook for 10 more minutes. It was flavored with sabji masala, salt and a pinch of sugar along with the usual spices turmeric, hing, coriander powder, and jeera and mustard seeds.

Friday, 4th January
The daughter's tiffin

bread with homemade nutella for breakfast, nuts, pasta with salad for lunch

I was out of my regular homemade pasta sauce. So I used my homemade pizza sauce with some milk and cheese added to it. It was pasta in pink sauce.
The husband's tiffin

rotis, salad, cabbage and peas sabji, dal and rice

Saturday, 5th January
My in-laws had come over for lunch. We had pav bhaji for lunch and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

pav bhaji

freshly baked chocolate chip cookies

I used my pav bhaji recipe from 4 years ago. It still works perfectly :) The measurements are according to US vegetables in that recipe. The Indian equivalent is:
1 large cauliflower, 3 potatoes, 1 red carrot, 1 small beetroot, 50 gms french beans, 1/2 cup chopped pumpkin cooked in the pressure cooker with soaked chana dal.
Saute one onion, a tablespoon each of minced ginger and garlic. Add puree of 5 tomatoes and cook till reduced to a paste. Add one chopped capsicum, boiled and pureed vegetables, cooked green peas. Add 6 tsp of Everest pav bhaji masala, 1 tsp of garam masala, and 4 tsp of salt. Makes enough for 8-10 people.
For dinner, we ate a roti with leftover cabbage sabji and some curd rice leftover from lunch.

Sunday, 6th January
Pav bhaji for lunch again and popcorn for dinner.

popcorn, jeera soda and maaza

The daughter mixed all her clay slimes to make a beautiful slime ball.

slime ball