Breakfast Challenge Week 5: Bread Butter Jam (A Cool Tip)

Hahaha! Yes, that was my breakfast today. Today, was one of those lazy mornings that I was not up to letting my alarm wake me up. So I used whatever 5 minutes I had left over from my 15 minutes to quickly toast two pieces of bread, slather them with butter and mango jam and eat it with great relish.

A cool tip I have learnt and can share is when applying butter, make sure you apply it on the hot toast. Nothing absorbs butter like hot toast... the effect is simply awesome!

Breakfast Challenge Week 4: Chocolate Banana Oats Smoothie

I have heard a lot about breakfast smoothies and seen a lot of recipes. But I have never tried them really.

Smoothies are fruits and flavours, and sometimes oats, blended in milk to make a thick shake. There are many variants of smoothies too. There can be made with fruits and yoghurt blended together with honey for a low calorie version of the smoothie. They are quick and easy to make, nutritious with milk, fruits and oats, delicious and very filling. Today, I tried making a smoothie for the first time with milk, bananas, chocolate and oats. One glass of it in the morning at around 8 a.m. had me going till 12 noon.  

Chocolate Banana Oats Smoothie

Preparation Time: 7 minutes

Ingredients

2 tbsps oats

1 large banana/ 2 small bananas

150 ml milk

1 tbsp drinking chocolate

1 tsp sugar or 2 tsps honey (optional for sweetness)

3 cubes ice (optional)

Method

Soak the oats for about 5 minutes. Chop the banana. In a blender, blend together all the smoothie ingredients. Add ice if you wish; the milk I had was using was cold, so I did not need it.

Pour this rich thick shake into a tall glass or a go-cup and enjoy! 

Chocolate Banana Oats Smoothie enjoyed in the balcony!

Breakfast Challenge Week 3: Anna's Tomato Cheese Sandwiches

I have been getting pretty nostalgic about Xavier's days for the last couple of days. Today morning when it was raining, I was reminded of (again) of rains in the first quad, where the water would flow from the terrace via the gargoyle's mouths to the ground and make a very interesting sound on the stone basketball court of the first quad. Sigh. Xavier's.

And that brought me to memories of breakfasts at Xavier's! Especially those at Anna's mess! One of my regular favourites were his tomato-cheese sandwiches. So on that nostalgic note, today's breakfast was anna's simple and filling tomato-cheese sandwich. I can say great things about how the sandwich tastes, like how the acidity of the tomatoes, balances the saltiness and richness of the cheese and the sprinkle of pepper and salt just add an edge of spice to it. But no, to me the taste is as simple as those times were: it's the taste of mornings of Xavier's!

Anna's Tomato Cheese Sandwich

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Ingredients

2 slices of bread
1 cheese slice/ 1/2 cheese cube/ 1 tsp cheese spread
1 tomato sliced into 4 round slices
Sprinkle of black pepper powder
Salt to taste

Method

Toast the bread if you wish. It will add about 3-4 minutes to the preparation time. Spread the cheese spread over one slice or put the cheese cube slices/ cheese slice on it. Add the tomato slices. Sprinkle the salt and pepper on these slices. Close the sandwich with the other bread slice and enjoy the sandwich!

The taste of Xavier's mornings!

Breakfast Challenge Week 2: Masala Upma

Today is one of those rare mid-week 'holidays' for me. The only advantage of this 'holiday' is that I do not have to travel and so I had some more time to prepare a breakfast and savour it. I have still put in an eight hour work day for projects and assignments.

 My breakfast menu for today was a twist on the upma I make almost frequently - masala upma. I have had this recipe in my head for some time and I tried it out today. It has had great results and so I am sharing it with you.

Masala Upma

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 tbsps oil

2 tsps mustard seeds

1 tsp asafoetida powder

10-15 curry leaves

2 tbsps white udad dal

1 medium onion finely chopped

2-2 tsps rasam powder

1 cup rawa

3 cups water

3-4 tbsps lemon juice

Salt to taste

Method

Put the 3 cups of water to boil.

In another pan, heat the oil and temper with mustard seeds. Add  in the asafoetida powder and the curry leaves. When the curry leaves crackle add the udad dal and fry till it turns reddish. 

To this add in the onions and saute them for 1-2 minutes till they start to release the oil. Add in the rasam powder and cook it in the mixture till it's aroma releases a couple of minutes later. Add in the rawa and roast it well.  

Add the boiled water and salt and let the rawa mixture cook in it for 5-7 minutes till the rawa cooks through and the mixture has the consistency of thick porridge. 

Serve hot with lemon juice. This goes very well with filter coffee!

Masala upma in all its glory!

My leisurely breakfast today morning: masala upma and filter coffee. 

For the days when I have a time crunch, I can prepare the dry upma mixture one evening before and store it in the refrigerator after it cools down to room temperature.  The next morning I would simply have to boil water (3-4 minutes) and cook the upma in it (about 7 minutes) and I will have hot upma ready in about 10 minutes!  

Breakfast Challenge Week 1: Masala Oats

I have started skipping breakfasts again. My schedule has started getting extremely jam-packed again and I stay up late at nights to complete my work. So I end up choosing the extra half an hour of sleep in the mornings over making and eating breakfast. Hence, I have made a deal with myself. I am going to divide up the half hour into 15 minutes of additional sleep time and 15 minutes of breakfast time. I will make dishes for breakfast that are healthy, filling and take only 7-8 minutes to prepare, so I can eat them at a decent pace too. And if they take more than 10 minutes to prepare, then I should have enough time to pack them up in a tiffin and eat them on my hour long commute (thank you Mumbai city for that!) Needless to add that since I am giving up 15 minutes of precious sleep for cooking them, these recipes better be delicious! This of course has the added advantage of giving me more blog posts to write!

In the Breakfast Challenge Week, the first recipe is Masala Oats. As we all have often heard, oats have a lot of health benefits and make for a hearty and healthy breakfast. Yes, there are a variety of flavoured (sweet and savoury) oats available now in the market. I have tried and liked some of them but I do not want to eat them much over the long run as they do have preservatives. For me, they are okay once in a while when you are in a real crunch, but not an option I would go for everyday.

Masala Oats

Preparation Time: 6 minutes

Ingredients

2 tsps oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3 tbsps oats
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chilly powder
1 1/2 tsps Kitchen King masala or garam masala
1 1/2 cups water
Salt to taste
1-2 tsps tomato ketchup (optional)

Method

In a pan heat the oil and add the cumin seeds.

When they start to turn red, add in the oats, and the turmeric powder, chilly powder and Kitchen King/ garam masala. Dry roast them for about 30-40 seconds till the masalas release their aromas.

Add in the water and salt. Bring to one boil. Then lower the flame and simmer for about 3-3 1/2 minutes till the oats are cooked and it has a porridge-like thick soupy consistency.

Serve in a bowl. Add in the ketchup if you wish to have a tangy flavour (this kind of reminds me of eating Maggi noodles with ketchup, especially when it is made with the Kitchen King masala)

Enjoy your quickly prepared breakfast!

Healthy, hearty and quick: just how I like my breakfasts!