I am so excited that my elder daughter started school this year! Every thing is new and started to have a great experience and also discovered myself as a "teacher"! Well, I can proudly say that "teaching is in my blood", since my father and mother were teachers! But I never thought of taking up teaching, as my profession!!
It's so exciting to teach your kid and when they respond back by understanding it perfectly, then it's more exciting and rewarding! It's also fun to work with kids, and also you can understand them better, through teaching them.
So I was totally involved in teaching and got busy myself......! But felt life upside down, when I came to know that my mom was not well! As a mother I was enjoying kids progress but as a daughter this news was the biggest blow and shook my whole system!
My mom was some 8320 miles away, in Bangalore! The mom, who has done so much to me, who is and was everything to me, above all, what ever I am today, is because of her, was not well, that fact I could not get into my system. I have never seen her complaining of anything or never seen her sick and could not imagine sitting here, that she was not well!
So just thought of seeing her, went to Bangalore, alone! Today I am so glad that I went and saw her, though was with her for a short period, I spent quality time with her, which made her so happy and made my heart content that I went and saw her, at the time, when she might have needed my presence! Today she is feeling better and improving every day and hoping and praying that she will bounce back to her normal self soon!
So these were the reasons for not blogging all these months! Thought of sharing with my readers and well wishers, who has always supported and encouraged my writing. Thank you for being there when I need the most!
Brr! Yes, the gush of wind reminds you that, winter is coming soon! Now a days, started to feel like that, Fall season has started, most of the trees are already bare without any leaves and the one which has leaves are all turned either yellow, red or brown. All the jackets,scarf,sweaters........are all out of the boxes which were hiding all these months, because of summer!
So life looks like these seasonal changes, extremes! The spring and the summer are so beautiful, cheerful, colourful and the fall and winter looks dull,gloomy,miserable! But at least we know that after summer, it's going to be fall and then winter! But life, you never know, what is in store!
So for a windy, cold evenings I thought of making some "hot healthy snack"! I thought of making something new or something which I have not done in many years and started to browse through my recipe book collections.............and came across, "togarie nuchhina undae", umm, it's most delicious and health dish, which I had not made or eaten in many years now!
Well, I thought I should ask my mother in law about this recipe since she makes the tasty togarie nucchina undae! So I called her and asked the recipe and tried it day before yesterday! It came out well and my husband liked it very much, he was also missing eating them, since I had not done that at all!
I had the batter left over, and today I tried that on my kids, and they just loved it too! My elder daughter is all about knowing the names of the dishes I make and if it's a new one, if she likes the name, she shows lot of interest in eating, even though it may not be a great dish. But if the name is not sounding well to her, she refuses to try it! And if she hears something very familiar dish, then she either express as "oh I love that, it's my favourite" else she will make a face and be silent!!!!
So now that, I study my kids very carefully and knows what to tell and how to tell them, so today I was careful, when my daughter asked "Amma(Mommy), what have you made for snack"? I said "Oh, it's something special for you" and never said the name! Since I am sure she would not have liked the name!
I just gave her nucchina undae and was so eager and had my fingers crossed, to see her reaction. She asked me, can you switch on the light, well, it was 4 in the evening and now a days, it gets dark soon, so I immediately obey the orders and switch on the lights and stood in front of her to see if this was a hit or a miss!
She just bend down and looked in the plate and looked at my face and hesitantly took a very small piece in the spoon and put it in her mouth! Well, the journey between the plate and the mouth was quite long, she often stopped, before she put that in the mouth!
And after chewing, well, she was doing multi tasking, she was watching TV, as well, checking on this new dish, which she had not seen before and after chewing, she had a smile on her face and then looked at me and said "Amma(mommy), it's very nice and by the way, what do you call it"? And before I answered she asked "Is it some kind of Saagu and chutney?
Well, my heart was racing all these time and I did not want to say "nucchina undae"!!!!! So I just said "Oh, my God, you are so cool, you said it right, it''s a kind of saagu and chutney"!
She was so happy that she guessed it right and I was so glad that she liked the new snack, though I am one hundred percent sure that, she would not have touched it if I had said its "nucchina undae"! My younger one, who did not even bother about the conversation we were having, ate and said "Amma(mommy),I like it"!!!!!!
I don't do "power struggles" with the kids, when it comes to things getting done! I go their way, to get my things done! Well, if she wants to call it as some saagu and chutney, fine, after all I want her to eat, thats the bottom line!
Well, after all the journey from my daughter going to school and my mom not well, from changing of seasons.......here I am today sharing the most delicious healthy, rich in protein snack, with you! Hope you enjoy as much as my kids and my husband did! Here goes the recipe. It is called as Togarie nucchina undae, means, togarie is a kind of lentil,thoor dhal,and undae means small rolls!
Ingredients:-
1 Cup Thoor Dhal
5-6 Green Chillies(Or adjust according to taste)
1/4 Cup grated coconut
Pinch of Turmeric
Pinch of Asafotidea
Salt according to taste
1 Tsp of oil
1/4 Tsp of mustard seeds
Few curry leaves
Few coriander leaves
Method:
Soak thoor dhal for 3-4 hours in water and then drain the excess water and grind coarsely with green chillies,coconut,turmeric,asafotidea and salt. Add very less water while grinding and it should not become a fine paste.
Put the grounded batter in a bowl and in a small pan, heat the oil and add mustard seeds and curry leaves and when mustard seeds start to splutter add that to the batter and add the finely chopped coriander leaves and mix well.
Now make small oval shape balls, either you can put them on the idili plates or you can even use any container which fits into the cooker, and arrange all the oval shaped balls, made out of batter, and steam for 14-15 mins.
Allow for 4-5 mins and then open the cooker and enjoy the togarie nucchina undae with ghee on top!
Usually everybody eats this with ghee. But I felt, since it's first time kids are eating this, they might feel it as a dry snack, so I had made "hassi majjige" which went very well with the nucchina undaes!
So if you want to try it, here goes the recipe for hassi majjige.
Ingredients:
1/4 Tsp mustard seeds
2-3 green chillies
4-5 Tbsp grated coconut
Pinch of Turmeric
salt to taste
1/4 cup of yogurt
1/4 Tsp oil
1/4 Tsp mustard seeds
Few curry leaves
Method:
Grind mustard seeds,green chillies,coconut,turmeric,salt into a smooth paste. In a bowl whisk yogurt and add the grounded paste and mix well. Heat oil and add mustard seeds and when it splutter add curry leaves and add that to the hassi majjige and enjoy with nucchina undae!
Best I have had in many years - longing for more!!!
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