Harry Potter and Yummy Rawa Idlis and Dhoklas

One weekend can be so different from another. Last weekend was simply horrible, we had a power failure for 20 hours , yes that's right 20 hours, my maid did not turn up for two consecutive days without any prior notice . Yes I have to admit , that in spite of having done all my washing up and laundry and vacuuming myself for last 6 years , I am now already used to the luxury of having a daily maid come in and do all that for me and although I don't have a major panic attack if she doesn't turn up I do get a bit irritated no doubt. And to top it all the hattrick was completed by no water supply. Aaghhhh !!! But I some how managed to keep my calm and keep things going.

But this weekend has been a delight so far. Saturday started late and that is very late. After a quick trip to my son's school to complete some scholarship formalities we had a leisurely brunch of idlis and dosas washed down with cups of hot filter coffee and aromatic ginger tea at a nearby restaurant. Afternoon was spent helping D with his homework and preparing a bit for his forthcoming unit test (surprisingly it went very well with D co-operating to the T). But the best bit came in the evening which we spent with Harry Potter. Reading this you might think that I am a big Harry Potter fan ,but believe me you couldn't be further from the truth. I am probably the biggest Harry Potter non-fan ever , so much so that I am always teasing hubby and son that I am going to start a Non Harry Potter fan club etc etc. So the funniest thing is I have not watched any of the Harry Potter movies nor have I read any of the books other than 1/2 of  the first one but today I watched the last one Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. That too in 3D in a cinema hall .Can you beat that?  And I quite enjoyed it. My friends laughed at me saying that I am probably the first person who has started enjoying Harry Potter in the reverse order. Come to think of it I am kind of toying with the idea of reading Harry Potter :)) Lets see how long my interest in HP lasts.

Anyway speaking of brunches and idlis reminds me that I too made some idlis last week. These were simple Rawa Idlis which I sometimes serve as Idlis and sometimes as Dhokla. They taste just as awesome either way.

When made as Idlis I just put a couple of vegetables like grated carrots and maybe peas in them and sometimes even cashews and as dhokla I just add loads of fresh coriander and green chillies. They are perfect to take on picnics or as a healthy afterschool snack. Here's how I make them:

Ingredients:

1 cup coarse Rawa (ordinary Semolina, not Idli rawa)

1 cup water

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup grated carrots

1/4 cup par boiled peas (or frozen ones which are already par boiled)

1/4 cup urid Dal  which have been soaked it water for 1/2 an hour (split black lentils)

handful of chopped cashews

2 green chillies very finely chopped

Some chopped coriander

1 tspn Eno Fruit Salt

1 tspn sugar

Salt to taste

Method:

Mix all the above ingredients keeping the soda-bi-carb for the last.

The mixture should have the same consistency as ordinary idli batter.

If you find it too thick just add some more water.

Give it a taste once you have mixed it and adjust the seasoning accordingly. 

It does not need any resting time.

Just leave it aside until you oil the Idli moulds and then you can immediately steam them.

Serve hot with coconut chutney or ketchup. 

On other occasions make the batter with finely chopped green chillies and plenty of fresh coriander and steam the batter as dhoklas like in the pic below

Serve the Dhoklas with the traditional tempering of hot oil , mustard, asafoetida and curry leaves. Put dollops of hot and sweet ketchup on top of each piece to make it pretty and also easy to eat.

Golden Honey-n-Oat Bars

Stepping out of the house and working definitely has it's benefits. I mean we all know the most obvious ones like earning your own money, being independent , developing yourself as an individual in the outside world etc etc. But the one thing I am most enjoying is getting to know my colleagues at work. I am learning so much everyday from each person that I work with, not only about work but so many other things as well. So I was thrilled to know that my colleague /friend A loves to bake. 'A' always gets the most delicious baked goodies for us to enjoy. Sometimes it's a freshly baked seeded bread , sometimes  a cheesecake or then the most delicious cherry cake I have ever had. Last week it was these Honey and Oat Bars that she made for us and to top it she even had copies of the recipe for us to take home and try out. So Sweet!!

Now you know me. Whenever I fancy a recipe I just have to make it at once even if that means tweaking the original recipe a bit because I do not have all the necessary ingredients at home. So I made these bars at home over the weekend. They turned out good, although the ones 'A' made were a lot better. The original recipe calls for soft brown sugar, I did not have any at hand so I used ordinary white sugar, instead of self-raising flour I used all purpose plain flour with a tspn of baking powder sifted along with it, and thirdly I did not have margarine, so I replaced that with butter. RESULT: Great tasting bars , just not as nicely chewy as her's. Mine turned out a bit biscuity. But nevertheless half of them have already been polished off. My son came home complaining as to why I had given him only one bar in his lunch box, and hubby had 3 of them for dessert after dinner. So it's safe to assume that the Honey-n-Oat Bars are a hit.

I have for you here the absolute original recipe . I would urge you to stick to the brown sugar even though I did not. This recipe makes about 20 bars
So here goes:


Ingredients :
3 cups rolled oats
1.5 cups self-raising flour
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup soft brown sugar
2 tblspns honey
1 cup margarine


Method:
Mix all the dry ingredients well together
In a pan melt the butter and add the honey to it
Mix the margarine and honey mixture well with the dry ingredients
Press the mixture into a greased baking tray and bake at 170deg C / 325deg F for 25 mins or till golden brown
Cut into bars while still warm and leave to cool in tin.


These are great with a cup of tea, or with a glass of milk for kids after coming back from school. They are also an interesting  travel snack or a  a lunch box treat

Yummilicious Cinnamon Toast (An awesome treat for a lunch box)

Call it Cinnamon Toast, French Toast , Eggy Bread or anything else it is just as delicious and you cannot just stop at one. At least I can't. I have loved this bread snack since I was about 9 or 10 and now that my son loves it just as much I am glad to make it for the two of us (or sometimes even for hubby if we leave any for him) on a Sunday morning or sometimes as a lunch box treat.


It's the easiest thing to make, almost embarrassingly easy actually to blog about but I love it so much that it has to have a place on my blog. You can make it as simple or as rich as you like. And make it with plain bread or a speciality bread, the choice is yours.


This time I used Brioche instead of plain ordinary white bread. Brioche is a sweet buttery french bread that tastes awesome even when eaten all by itself with a strong cup of coffee or it is one of the  best bases for something like this Cinnamon toast or a rich Brioche Butter Pudding. It's available easily in the bakery section in the form of a loaf or there are packs of 6 small brioche loaves.


I used a combination of Cinnamon and Vanilla in my toast which went beautifully together, but to give it an Indian touch you could use Cardammom or Nutmeg  powder and a bit of Saffron essence. These spices taste great too. My mom used to make it with Cardammom.




What you need:
6 thick slices of Brioche
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup milk
4 to 5 tspns sugar
1/2 tspn cinnammon powder,
1 tblspn vanilla essence
Some sugar to sprinkle on top
Butter or oil for lightly frring the toast


Method:
Mix together the milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla  and pour this mixture out into a  shallow dish . This makes it easy to dip the bread slices into the batter and soak the mixture.
Heat a frying pan or a skillet or tawa and  coat it generously with butter or oil.
When the pan is hot, dip  a slice of bread on both sides into the egg milk mixture  and put it on the pan. The pan should be hot enough so that there is a sizzling sound . Lower the heat to medium after a minute so that the bread cooks to a beautiful golden colour without burning.
Turn the toast over to the other side and cook this side until golden and crisp as well.
Do all the slices in the same way.
While each toast is still hot sprinkle sugar on it.


That's it . Your Crispy Golden Cinnamon Toast is ready for you to enjoy.

Spicy Chicken Burgers (Simply delightful and very satisfying)

Hi everyone! I am so glad to be posting again. Last week was a good week food-wise . I tried out a few new recipes and they turned out pretty neat. One of them was this burger recipe that was a complete hit. Recently I have taken to watching re-runs of 30 Minute Meals by Rachel Ray and there is something about that show that really inspires me to just get up and spend time in the kitchen trying out recipes. It's probably Rachel enthusiasm on the show and the very homly no-fuss dinners that she makes that I find very appealing. So a few days back I saw her cook some burgers and cole slaw and I decided then that I wanted to cook burgers for dinner too. I already had chicken in the fridge. But I also wanted really spicy burgers.

So I surfed the net for some good burger recipes and was completely impressed by a recipe put up by Kevin on his blog Closet Cooking. Its a fab idea to use curry powder for burgers. My family just loved these burgers, so thanks Kevin for a great recipe.I tweaked it a bit here and there to suit my taste and it came out awesome.

What you need:

500 gms chicken mince (you could buy chicken breast and mince it in your processor)

4 spring onions finely chopped,

1 cup finely chopped coriander

1 tblspn minced ginger

1 tblspn minced garlic

1 cup bread crumbs

2 tspns lemon zest,

4 tspns hot curry powder,

2 tspns chilly powder,

2 to 3 tblspns tomato ketchup

salt to taste

To assemble the burger you need:

Burger Buns,

Mayonnaise,

Lettuce

Tomato slices

Cheese slices

Ketchup or Hot Jalapeno Relish

Method:

Mix all the above ingredients well , but do not overmix. Use a gentle hand. This prevents the chicken patties from drying out.

Shape them into equal sized patties shallow fry for 10 to 12 mins turning them once over half-way through.

Assemble the burgers as you like and enjoy with some oven chips and a glass of icy coke.

ENJOY!!!! I know we did

Very wholesome Chapati and Egg Rolls

Come summer and my mind goes into the "Quick Recipes Mode" or the QRM as I like to call it. I mean it's simpy impossible to toil over the hob for hours at a stretch to cook elaborate meals . And the weather in UK being so kind for once , you just have to make the most of it and spend time outdoors as much as possible rather than in the kitchen.

So currently I am constantly on the look out for recipes requiring minimum time but with no compromise on taste and full flavour. As you must have derived by now from my previous posts I fancy all kings of wraps. I just love making wraps. They are quick and easy to make , delicious and a single wrap can hold the nutrition of an entire balanced meal. And most important of all is that in my family all three of us like them just as much. So everybody is happy.

Yesterday I made these chapati and egg wraps for my lunch and they tasted so good I just have to share them with all of you.

What you need is:

• 2 chapatis (homemade or readymade store bought)
• 2 eggs
• 1 spring onion finely chopped,
• 1/2 cup fresh sweet corn kernels,
• 2 mushrooms finely chopped (I used chestnut mushrooms),
• 1 tblspn grated cheese,
• salt and pepper to season (you can replace pepper with chilly powder too),
• Oil to cook
  
  Method:
  In a pan heat the oil and gently saute the spring onions , mushrooms and corn for a few minutes.


• Crack the 2 eggs in a large bowl and beat lightly.


• To the eggs add the sauteed spring onions ,mushrooms and corn.


• Add the grated cheese and season with salt and pepper.


• Beat the mixture gently together and make 2 omelettes .


• After the omelettes have cooled a bit lay out one omelette on each chapati , dot it with your favourite sauce, and roll up tightly.


• Cut each roll diagonally into two pieces .
  
  Your lunch is ready. These are awesome also in a lunch box or to carry on a picnic. Enjoy with a salad accompaniment or a glass of juice.

Yummilicious Paratha Frankies

Hi everybody! I am back after my long break again. These long breaks are becoming an annoying habit you might say , but it is one that I definitely intend to break very soon. Anyway, how have you guys been? I have missed you all too. What I have for you today is something I thought of today morning at 5.00 o'clock when I was disturbed out of my sleep and just could not go back to sleep again. And our mind you know has this annoying habit of immediately kicking into action with all kinds of thoughts rushing in which makes it even more difficult to sleep.

So my mind turned to the most nagging of thoughts and that was what to pack in the lunch boxes. Fortunately there was paratha dough already ready in the fridge, but as that was what we had had for dinner there was no way I could repeat the same in the lunch boxes . Well not as an ordinary paratha anyway. But then I remembered the block of paneer in the fridge and the mixed frozen veggies in the freezer and I had my lunch boxes all planned in minutes.

So I made paratha frankies . They are tasty, wholesome ,convenient to carry and a great change from regular chapatis and vegetables or sandwiches. So much so that my husband called up from office to say that he had enjoyed his lunch. Great!!!

So to make the parathas you need:

2 cups wheat flour, 3 cups of finely chopped spinach, 1 cup finely chopped carrots, 2 tspn ginger garlic paste, 2tspn chilly powder, 1 tspn turmeric powder, 1tspn each of cumin and coriander powder, 1 tspn of ground saunf, 1.5 tspn sugar, salt to taste, 2 tblspns oil .

Knead all the above into a medium soft dough and and cook the parathas a little thinner and larger than a roti.

For the filling you will need:

1 onion, 1 and a half tomato, 1 tspn ginger garlic paste, 2 cups mixed vegetables chopped finely (I had the frozen mix which contains peas ,corn,beans and carrots), 200 gms paneer, 2 tblspns tomato ketchup, 2 tspn pav bhaji masala, 2 tspn cumin seeds, 2 tspn chilly powder, 1/2 tspn turmeric powder, salt to taste, and oil for cooking.

Method:

• Heat the oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds.
• After a few seconds add the chopped onion and ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute
• Next add the chopped tomato and let this cook for at least 2 to 3 mins
• Now come the chilly powder, turmeric , and pav bhaji masala along with the vegetables. Let the vegetables cook on a low flame. When they are cooked add the salt and ketchup.
• At the last stage add the paneer which does not need any cooking . Mix it all gently together until the paneer is coated with the spices.
• Give it a taste and adjust seasoning accordingly .

To serve take a paratha and spoon about 2 tblspns of filling on it and roll tightly. To put in a lunch box wrap the roll in foil so that the filling does not fall out while eating.

Enjoy!!!

Delicious Chicken Wraps (Like they say"No one can eat just one")

I am a cook of varying moods. I guess we all are to some extent. What I cook each day is to some extent ruled by my mood on that particular day. Many people get the impression that because I run a food blog I am completely besotted by cooking and the kitchen. But that's not always true.
I have also read and heard people say that cooking is relaxing. Not for me. It can be very exhausting at times .I feel cooking can be relaxing only if you do it once in a while. It also depends on where you are when you are cooking. For eg: cooking in the UK where the weather is mostly cool is OK. It does not make you all hot and flushed. But I have also cooked in Pune and Mumbai where the temperatures are soaring quite often and cooking is the last thing you want to do in such weather . And that too Indian cooking which has you standing at the hob for at least an hour doing all the stirring and frying and rolling out piles and piles of chapatis. Not a thing I relish always.

So when I have one "I don't want to cooking moods" what do I do? Well , the answer to that is not always easy. Sometimes I have to go through the entire rigmarole because that's the healthiest option for everyone in the family. But not to worry , there are other healthy options as well . And this dish today always comes up trumps with my family. There is minimum fuss with maximum taste and you don't even have to switch on the gas if you have shop bought cooked chicken.

What you need is:
For 4 people:
8 tortilla wraps (I buy "wheat and white")
approx 3 cups cooked chicken (shredded)
hummous
mayonnaise
3 grated carrots
lots of fresh crisp lettuce
hot peri peri sauce (or any other hot sauce)
grated cheddar cheese

Method:
First spread generous amounts of hummous on a wrap
Next spread the shredded chicken,
Top this with grated carrot and crispy lettuce
Dot it with hot peri peri sauce and sprinkle the grated cheddar last
Roll up the tortilla tightly and cut into 3 or 4 pieces to make it easier to eat.

There you have a healthy and hearty meal ready without having to toil over the cooker hob for hours. If you wish have your favourite soup along with it (that too a canned one ) to make the meal even more filling. You can replace the chicken with canned tuna or mackerel and vegetarians can replace the chicken with paneer.

Enjoy

Simply Delicous Eggless Semolina Cake

I have for a long time now been on the lookout for a good recipe for eggless cake and there are a quite a few on the net. Some advise the use of extra baking soda and some instruct you to use sparkling soda water. I even went looking for those egg replacement substitutes in my food store but could not get my hands on any. So I tried my hand at one recipe which had a substantial amount of soda-bi-carb in it. What happened was initially the cake rose beautifully but a few minutes after I had removed iy from the oven it fell flat. So flat that it got a stodgy texture and was simply impossible to eat. Even my 6 year old son who normally eats anything sweet quite happily refused to accept this one. So I gave up on it for some time.

Some days back though when I was planning the menu for a tea time get together for my friends I recollected this awesome eggless semolina cake that my aaji (granny) used to make in a non-stick pan when I was a child. At that time the concept that my aaji could make any kind of cake was itself very amusing to me . I mean I come from a middle class marathi family where cake baking was done only by a few moms in those days so something like that done being done by a grand mom was simply unheard of.

Now to come back to the cake , I remember I loved it and always ended up eating quite a lot of it. So I called my mom in Pune and asked her about it. She said that the recipe was in some old marathi cookbook and she would look it up for me. And so she did .

It's my habit now to try out a certain dish in a small quantity first before cooking it in a larger quantity for entertaining. That's what I did with this one as well and the end result was so good that this recipe has gone into my lists of personal favourites forever. Thanks to you Aaji!!
The only hitch here is that the cake is made with semolina and not flour so it has a grainier texture than an ordinary cake. But believe me it tastes awesome. So do try it out.

Recipe:
1.5 cups semolina,
1 cup milk,
1 cup plain natural yogurt,
1/2 cup butter,
1.5 cups sugar,
1 tspn baking soda,
1 tspn vanilla essence or almond essence (almond essence is lovely),
3 to 4 tblspns of sliced almonds for sprinkling on top (optional),
a pinch of salt

Method:
1. Mix the sugar and yogurt thoroughly so that the sugar completely dissolves,
2. Then add all the other ingredients to the yogurt. Now let this batter stand for an hour. Keep it covered . This enables the semolina to soften completely before baking.
3. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 200deg C and grease and line a baking tray with baking paper.
4. After one hour pour the batter into the prepared tray and sprinkle the sliced almonds all over the top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until it is golden in colour and a cocktail stick inserted comes out clean . Wait for it to cool before slicing it. If it does not easily come off the tray do not force it out but slice it in the tray itself and remove the slices carefully with a broad knife or a fish slice.

It's a great after school snack or even a lunch box treat for kids. Store it in the fridge after a day and warm it in the microwave for a few seconds every time you serve it. Tastes even better after a day or two.

By the way I did not make this for my last tea party as I was not feeling too well ,but it's a must make next time I have my friends over.

Mini Egg Rolls (Perfect for the school lunch box)

It's been quite a few months since I shared any lunch box ideas so when I made these mini egg rolls for my son I knew they would make an appearance on my blog. But what put me into action sooner was my 6 year old . He had the egg rolls at school and liked them so much that when I asked him if he had enjoyed his lunch ,he said" Aai they were so good , you must put them on your blog".

So here they are. Basically a sandwich but put together in a more interesting way. I occasionally buy these cute little wholewheat rolls in a pack of 6 from M&S. They are healthy no doubt as they are not only wholewheat but also seeded and secondly just the correct size for little hands to hold. Plus they appeal tremendously to children as avery welcome change from the normal sandwich.



Though my son is very comfortable with most foods it is my constant endevour to get more and more veggies into him. So to make the rolls healthier I had a handful of chopped frozen veggies to the egg mixture. I also made mini omelets the same size as the rolls so they sanwiched perfectly in between .One large egg makes 3 mini omelets.
Let me tell you these rolls went down a treat.

Here's in short what I did:
For the omelets:
1 large egg,
a handful of chopped mixed veggies (carrots, sweetcorn, peas and beans)
1 tblspn grated cheese
salt to taste,
and I used a pinch of chilly powder rather than pepper because I feel that makes an omelet tastier.

Method:
Beat all the ingredients together and cook small omelets rather than one large one.
Butter the rolls and warm them a little
Sandwich one omelet in each roll, top with a dollop of ketchup and they are ready to be packed. Pack each individual roll in grease proof paper so they don't come apart.

Try it out and tell me if your child liked the idea.

Lunch box Idea no 5

Ok guys here's the fifth idea. This box looks a bit empty compared to the previous ones but believe me the bread rolls here are so filling that you don't really need too many other accompaniments with them.

So this one contains :

Bread Rolls with mix veg and paneer stuffing,

Pitted Dates and

Water

The recipe for the Bread rolls is here

As a variation for the stuffing you can make it with

Boiled and crumbled hard boiled eggs and and grated cheese.

Ladies this is the last lunch box in this series. Do not worry I'll keep posting new ideas quite frequently.

Lunch Box Idea No 4

Hallo everyone,

I have taken quite a big break between Idea No 3 and Idea No 4 . But here it is for you.

This box contains :
Carrot ,spring onion and coriander parathas,
Homemade Apple Muffin,
Apple Juice and of course Water.

Sorry I took so long to post the recipes . Yesterday was a busy day with unexpected guests coming over in the evening and you know what. After the guests left I did remember about the unposted recipes but was too tired to type. But today morning while eating the same parathas that were leftover I knew I had to complete my post as soon as possible. So here they are.

The parathas are the simplest ones ever.

You need :

1.5 C Whole wheat flour, 2 green onions finely chopped, 1 carrot grated, a handful of fresh coriander finely chopped, 1 heaped tspn coriander powder, 1 heaped tspn cumin powder, 1 heaped tspn saunf powder, 1.5 tspn chilli powder, 1 tspn sugar, 1 tblspn oil, salt to taste

Method: Mix all the ingredients, and knead into a dough not too soft not too firm. At the last stage oil your palm and knead the dough until nice and smooth .

Roll out thick parathas and roast on both sides. A few minutes before you want to pack these spray a tiny amount of oil on to the skillet and warm the parathas on both sides spraying oil on the other side of the paratha too.

I spread some hummus on one paratha, ketchup on the second one and sprinkled dry chutney on the third one before rolling them up.

Now for the apple muffins. I tried these for the first time but they turned out well.

I used:

1 heaped tblspn butter, 1/2 C sugar (use brown sugar preferably, it's delicious), 1.5 C plain flour, 1.5 tspn baking powder, 1/2 tspn salt, 1 egg, 1/2 tspn vanilla essence, 2/3 C milk, 1 cup pureed raw apple, 1/2 tspn cinnamon, 1/2 tspn nutmeg

Mix all the wet ingredients in one bowl along with the sugar (the butter , egg, milk and apple puree) . In another bowl sift together the flour , baking powder, and the spices . Next add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and fold gradually. Don't over mix or the muffins will turn out dry. It's OK if you have a lumpy batter.

Spray oil on a muffin tray and spoon the batter into it. Bake at 230 deg C for 12 mins

Try these out!!

Just Baked

Lunch Box Idea No 3

Ok people here is my third lunch box. The accompaniments are much the same as the previous one with the exception of the cubed pineapple instead of the mango.

This time around I made sandwiches in which I first put a thick layer of peanut butter on one of the slices, topped it with not very thin slices of cucumber, then sprinkled some grated cheese on top and dotted it with tomato ketchup. I used Dutch Edam cheese which is lower in fat than the normal cheddar but use any which easily available to you. For additional filling use crispy leaves of lettuce.

Believe me the crispy fresh cucumber, the cheese and the crunchy peanut butter altogether make one yummy sandwich

Go on give it a try!

Lunch Box Idea No 2

Here's my second lunch box idea. This one contains chapati and omelette rolls . I frequently add finely chopped spinach and finely grated carrots to the omelette mixture along with some cheese,and ofcourse salt and pepper. This fortifies the omelette even more and makes it yummy too. Wrapping it partially in foil makes it easy to handle for little hands.

This time around the accompaniments are diced mango, the usual raisin box and a strawberry yogurt squeezy, which is the star attraction for my son. But it's healthy so I don't worry.

The school encourages the children to eat a lot of fruit, so the fruit variety in the lunch box is important. Fruit which go particularly well in the lunch box are peaches, grapes, pomogranate, pineapples, small oranges, small fun-size bananas , apples(but these I wash in salted water so they don't discolour) and ofcourse mangoes

I normally avoid cherries ,plums and lychees as they are very juicy and tend to drip and stain the uniform T-shirt.

A Packed Lunch for a Food Loving Kid Part 1

Packing a balanced meal in a lunch box requires a bit of imagination and a bit of planning. I remember when I was in school my mother packed 2 dabbas (boxes) for me. One contained some dry snacks which I gobbled in the short break at 10.30 and the other was a more elaborate affair with chapatis and vegetables, sometimes even curd rice with some mango pickle which was the lunch eaten at 12.30 . My mother being the kind of person she is always managed to make the lunch box interesting so much so that I was always a bit reluctant to share my lunch with any of my friends and neither was I ever interested in what they had brought.

I did my schooling in the 80s and there were no pre-packed attractive yogurt pots, or cheese strings or cute mini boxes of raisins that could easily be packed as an accompaniment to the main meal . Yet my lunch box with its simple but imaginatively packed food was something that always caught my friend's attention.

Now that I am a mother and have to pack a lunch for my 5 year old I try to come up with different ideas that will appeal to him. I have an additional aspect to consider (that did not exist when I was a school kid in India) and that is that my little boy is an Indian attending a British school where he eats his lunch with English children. Although at home he eats up all the traditional Marathi lunches and dinners that make in school he prefers to have something like everybody else. For a 5 year old I think it is very important not to be the odd one out. So the lunch box has to be such that it does not require him to eat chapati and vegetables with his hands (like we do at home) but at the same time provide him with all the essential nutrition.

So we both have compromised and decided that out of the 5 days in a week he can have different kinds of sandwiches on 3 days and some kind of parathas or stuffed chapati rolls on the remaining two. And we both are happy.

In the pic above I have photographed his lunch box. It contains egg and cheese sandwiches with a tiny amount of tomato ketchup , a mini box of raisins and a cubed peach. This is accompanied by a bottle of water . The egg I have fried lightly but kept the centres semi soft, so it does not taste very dry when he eats it. The bread is Best of Both which means it is white bread with wheatgerm in it. The healthiest option is complete wholewheat bread but it's important to give them some variety.

This is a filling and balanced meal with the fruit lending a nice freshness to it. Believe me ,the lunch box always comes back completely empty.

In the next few days I will share with you my other ideas for a lunch box which I pack for my little guy but can be carried even by an adult to work .