Vegetable Cheese Roti roll | Quick meal | Vegetable cheese tortillas | Peanut butter rolls | Lunch box recipe

What do you do when you are crazy hungry but have almost no time to whip up something? What happens when you have to have your breakfast on the go? Add to this the fact that you want to eat healthy yet craving for something yummy! For those of you who have such questions (just like me), I have found an answer!!

The quickest, healthiest roll that can act as breakfast, lunch, snack or even light dinner!! Oh and not to mention tastiest!! You can pack it in the lunch box of your little one and rest assured that it will come back empty!!

These rolls are complete food with cereal, dairy protein and veggeis! Add to it goodness of peanut butter, freshness of herby green chutney or tanginess of tomato ketchup and you have got a winning combination on your hand. 

The great part about these rolls is that they are amazingly flexible. You can make them with rotis (Indian flatbread) or use ready made tortillas. You can make a vegan version of it by replacing cheese with tofu!! If you have nut allergy then use regular butter or other vegan butter!!

Check out the beauties.. 

Vegetable Cheese Rolls | Quick meal | Peanut butter rolls | Lunch box recipe

Vegetable Cheese Rolls | Quick meal | Peanut butter rolls | Lunch box recipe

Ingredients (for one roll):

1 roti /  1 tortilla ( If you want to make it gluten free, use glutenfree tortilla)
1/2 teaspoon peanut butter/ regular butter ( I use FebIndia's crunchy peanut butter without added sugar)
2 pinches of salt
2 pinches of black pepper
1 tablespoon green chutney or tomato ketchup
2 tablespoon grated cheese of your choice (Cheddar, cottage cheese/paneer, ricotta will go great) use tofu for a vegan version.
1/2 small finely cut onion
1/2 small finely cut tomato
1/8 cup finely cut or shredded vegetable of your choice (Cucumber, carrots, Zuchhini, bell peppers/Capsicum, Broccoli can be good choices)

Method:

1) On your work surface put your roti/ tortilla.

2) Spread peanut butter on that.

3) In a bowl mix all other ingredients.

4) Spread them on top of the roti.

5) Roll and cut if needed. If planning to carry as an on the go meal, pack it in a cling wrap or foil.

And you are good to go!!

Vegetable Cheese Rolls | Quick meal | Peanut butter rolls | Lunch box recipe

Vegetable Cheese Rolls | Quick meal | Peanut butter rolls | Lunch box recipe

+techie ZM 

Dal Tikki | How to make moong daal tikki | Leftover Green grams recipe | Indian pancakes

What happens when you have left over moong dal from the night and in no mood to make parathas for breakfast?! You google and zero in on a dal tikki recipe!! But what happens when you have a peanut sized memory?! You can't remember the recipe when you finally get making it (except for the fact that it had moong dal and may be besan in it) and then you come up with something that will be made in house forever as you and your family loved it!!

Yeah, this is what happened to me few months back, but as I was very busy, couldn't share the recipe.. Finally sharing it now!! It is so amazingly crispy and yummy, even the biggest moong dal haters (my hubby) love it!! It gives a protein packed start to your day and is so healthy!! These tikkis are naturally vegan, gluten free and low on oil (& calories too)!!

You can make this from any other leftover dal/sambhar too!! Check your fridge, do you have any leftover? then get making this!!
Oh and in case you don't have leftover and still want to make it then just pressure cook split green gram ( dhuli moong dal - mogar) with salt, turmeric and red chili powder and use it.

Before that have a look at how crispy and yummy and heavenly golden they look like!!

Ingredients:

1 cup leftover moong daal (cooked) - Any other dal will do too, adjust as per available leftover dal!!
2 Tablespoon of besan (Chick pea flour)
1 teaspoon green chili, ginger and garlic paste
2 tablespoon Idli rava (rice semolina) - if you don't have this then use regular semolina/ sooji/ rawa
Salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon chaat masala (Optional)
pinch of hing (Asafoetida - optional)
1 small onion finely cut
1 small tomato finely cut
Any other veggie that you want to sneak in (it should cook fast)
Oil for shallow frying

Method:

1) Mix everything in a mixing bowl.
2) Heat a non stick tawa/ skillet / griddle. Once it is hot enough grease it with oil.
3) Make small tikki (flat pancake) shapes in your palms and drop them on the tawa.
4) Let it cook thoroughly on one side, once it cooks flip it and cook thoroughly on other side too. You can make 2-3 tikkis (or as much as your tawa/ skillet can take) at a time.

Serve hot with green chutney or tomato ketchup!! This also makes for a great snack, starter or lunch box food!!

If you want to use even less oil then you can make these cuties in pancake popper (paniyaram pan / appa patra/ aebleskiver pan)!! I am happy to report that I've tried that and it too tastes great!!

Dal tikki | Indian pancakes

Dal tikki | Indian pancakes

+techie ZM 

Palak Paneer/ Aalu Palak

Paalak (Spinach) is not very popular otherwise, but transform it into this mouth water dish and suddenly the same old, boring paalak turns very attractive.... The best thing about this healthy curry is that it is a powerhouse of iron, vitamins and protein (if using paneer (cottage cheese) or tofu). And it is extremely flexible, lending itself to vegan version by accommodating tofu in place of paneer (cottage cheese) or paleo version by allowing use of potato in place of paneer.

This is my MIL's version of this curry with little time saving modifications from me. If you want to check out other authentic Indian & Punjabi recipes, check out the recipe Index. Enjoy....

Palak paneer / spinach curry with cottage cheese

Palak paneer / spinach curry with cottage cheese

Ingrediants:

Onions – 2 medium sized

Tomatoes – 2 big

Green chilly - 1

Ginger

Garlic

Palak (Spinach) – 250 gms

Paneer (Cottage Cheese)– 100 gms (For vegan version use tofu, for paleo version use boiled potatoes cut into pieces)

Red chilly powder

Salt

Garam masala/ curry powder

Method:

1) Blanch Palak by putting it in boiling water. Once cooled make paste of palak in mixer (i keep it coarse, you can make fine paste if you like). Don’t throw away the water, use it to make paste.

2) Make paste of Onions, tomatoes, green chilly, garlic and ginger in mixer. Add water if needed. I keep this paste also coarse, you can also make fine paste.

3) Heat oil in a pan, and sauté the onion, tomato, chilly, ginger, garlic paste in it, till the oil separates.

4) Once oil separates, add salt, a little red chilly powder and garam masala. (remember that we already have green chillies to make it spicy, if you don't want it too spicy then you can avoid red chilly completely)

5) add the palak paste to it, cook it for a minute.

6) Now add Paneer/Aalu

            you can either deep fry them

           Or you can shallow fry them on a greased tava.

           Or you can put them as it is by cutting into pieces (This is what i do, it's healthier & less time
           consuming :))

7) Mix well, add water if needed.

8) Cook for 10 mins, or till the extra water evaporates.

You can serve the curry with Fulkas, Tandoori Rotis, Parathas or Rice, use leftover curry to make Palak Paneer Puris :)

Palak paneer / spinach curry with cottage cheese

Palak Paneer[/caption]

+techie ZM