Crispy spicy eggplant

Last week DH was not home so I was being lazy in cooking. I was cooking food for my infant DS and was eating the same stuff! One day I cooked daal-rice for both of us. I was frying some papad to eat with daal-rice and I realized that papad is to boring and I need something better to spice it up. I looked into my fridge and fresh small eggplants brought my Madhuri were lying there. Since my pan with oil was still hot so I quickly cut the eggplant in small rounds and fried it. And then made it spicy adding some masalas. If you are watching calories then this is not for you since it is fried eggplant. But I would say that its okay to forget calories once in a while, especially when the final result is so crispy, spicy and mouth watering! So here is the simple recipe:

Ingredients:
4-5 small eggplants (cut in rounds)
oil for frying
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
salt to taste
4-5 whole red chilies
1/2 inch tamarind soaked.

Fry eggplants in a pan with hot oil and keep them in a tissue paper so that the extra oil is absorbed.
In another pan, heat 1 tbsp oil. When oil is hot add whole red chilies and ginger garlic paste. Now add salt and fried eggplants. Saute them for few minutes and then add soaked tamarind and saute it for few more minutes. Serve hot with roti or rice.

Stuffed bhindi (okra) with besan

As I mentioned in my last post that my friend Madhuri got me lots of veggies from Indian store in Toronto. She got me very very fresh okra and I love okra in any form. This time I decided to make stuffed okra with a twist of besan (gram flour). And then I freeze it for a week as my DH was in Germany and I didn't want to relish it alone! When my DH came back, I served it with daal-rice. I simply re-heated it on my stove. Surprisingly it was very fresh even after it stayed in freezer for a week. So here is the recipe of this delicious dish. Finally decorate with some coriander leaves and serve hot (unless your hubby is out of town! In that case freezing it and reheating before serving is fine too :)).

Ingredients:
1/2 lb okra (slit and head removed)
3 tbsp oil
1 tsp crushed roasted cumin
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp fennel powder
2 tsp kasoori methi
1/2 tsp amchur powder
red chili powder to taste
salt to taste
2 tbsp besan (gram flour)
2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves

In a bowl, mix cumin, coriander powder, fennel powder, kasoori methi, amchur powder, red chili and salt in 1 tbsp oil. Now stuff okra with this mixture and leave it for 30 minutes. Now take a pan and heat
2 tbsp oil. Add the besan and fry for few seconds and add stuffed okra in it. Cook on sim for 10 minutes with lid covered. The mositure from okra will be trapped inside and make okra soft. Now remove the lid and cook for another 20 minutes or until the okra is crisp. Keep stirring occasionally.

Crunchy parwal dry

Well, you must be thinking why so many parwal recipes suddenly! Yes, you guessed it right. I had some good stock of parwal at home, thanks to my good friend Madhuri who shopped lots of Indian veggies for me from Toronto. So needless to say, next few recipes will be all various kinds of veggies. Anyway, this parwal recipe is very simple and yet very delicious and goes very well with parathas or with rice-daal. And here is the simple recipe:

Ingredents:
8 parwals cut in 4 pieces lengthwise (don't peel them)
1 onion chopped length wise
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp chana daal
a pinch asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
4 whole red chillies
salt to taste
1/2 tsp amchur powder

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and asafoetida. When mustard seeds cracle, add chana daal. After 1 minute, add whole red chillies. Now add onions and salt and fry well. Put parwal pieces and cover the lid and keep it on medium-low for 5-8 minutes. Remove the lid and let parwal cook slowly at sim. It takes long time (30-40 minutes) but makes parwal really crispy. Finally add the amchur powder and cook for another minute. Serve hot.

Parwal ki Mithai

Initially I wanted to name this post as "Dessert Disaster"! Thats because when I started making it, I had multiple failures. My knife was very wide so while I was suppose to make just a slit in parwal and remove the seeds, I ended up breaking every parwal in two!!! Then when I was preparing the filling, my khoya burned a bit- thanks to my DS. Still I decided to make this and take as best photo as  I could. When my DH came back from Germany, I happened to offer this sweet to him and to my surprise he liked it..and liked it so much that finished all in 24 hours!  I simply followed Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe for this. So if you want to make a better 'Parwal ka meetha' then please follow his recipe, which in short is as follows (my version of his recipe):

Ingredients:
6 Parwal
2 cup lime water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp clarified butter
1 tsp chopped almonds
1 tsp chopped pistachios
1 tsp chopped cashews
1/2 cup khoya

Take 6 parwals. Peel them, slit them and remove seeds. And if you happen to break them into half, then thats fine too. Soak them in lime water for 4 hours. I used around 1/2 lemon in 2 cups of water. Drail parwal from lime water and boil them in plain water for 10 minutes. Drain the water from Parval. Now make 2 string sugar syrup using 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water. Boil parval in this syrup for 10 minutes and drain them. Put these parwal pieces in a nice looking plate. Now for stuffing, chop almonds, pistachios and cashews. In a pan, heat ghee and fry them. Now add 1/2 cup khoya and fry until pink. Add 1 tbsp sugar and cardamom powder. Put this stuffing carefully in parwal pieces and chill them in refrigerator.

And, here the the pretty pictures :)

Chili Paneer

Chilli-paneer is a mouth watering Indo-chinese dish. A fresh paneer cooked with Indian spices in Chinese style!!!! And compliment this spicy dish with cream of tomato soup and french baguette sprinkled with olive oil and shredded cheese.

Ingredients:
1 lb Paneer cut in 1 inch cubes
1 egg
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
a pinch salt
oil to fry

2 tbsp oil
1 cup various colors bell peppers cut in 1 inch pieces
1 onion cut in big pieces
3 green chillies chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp cumin seed
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp chilli sauce
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp chilli-tomato ketchup
1-2 tsp lemon juice (as per your taste)
salt to taste

Heat oil for frying in a pan. In a bown, mix egg, all purpose flour, ginger garlic paste and salt. Dip paneer pieces in this mixture and fry till golden. Now in a separate pan, heat 2 tbsp oil. Once oil is hot, put cumin seeds. Now add minced garlic. When it is golden add chopped chillies and onion.  Saute it for a minute and add bell peppers. Now add salt, chilli sauce, soya sauce, vinegar and ketchup. Stir occasionally. Now add the lemon juice. Finally add the fried paneer pieces and saute it for 2 minutes. Juicy chili paneer is ready. Serve this HOT dish hot!

Kadhi

There are mainly two types of kadhi in India- one gujarati and one north Indian. I personally like the north Indian kadhi and I blindly follow Manjula Aunti's recipe to make kadhi. Her kadhi is really the best! So basically I am reproducing here recipe here.

Ingredients:
For kadhi:
2/3 cup besan
1 cup plain yogurt
7 cup water
salt to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric paste
3 tbsp clarified butter
3 whole red chillies
2 bay leaves
1 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp deggi mirch powder
1/4 tsp  fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
A pinch asafoetida

For pakodas:
3/4 cup besan
1/2 cup water
salt to taste
1/4 tsp baking powder

Oil to fry

For kadhi, in a bowl mix besan, yogurt, turmeric powder and salt. Mix it well and then add 3 cups of water and mix again. Keep it aside.
In a pan, heat 2 tbsp clarified butter. When ghee is hot, add asafoetida, fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds. Now add whole red chilli and bay leaves. Now put the besan yogurt mixture in this. When first boil comes, put the gas on medium and add 4 more cups of water. Let it cook on low-medium heat for 45-50 minutes. Stir occasionally and in the meantime prepare the pakodas.
For pakodas, mix all above ingredients under pakodas. Adjust water to require desired consistency (that of a melted chocolate consistency!). In a pan add some oil and heat it. Make around 1 inch round pakodas by deep frying in hot oil. Put pakodas in water for 30 seconds and then press it softly and squeeze the water oil. After kadhi has been cooked for 45-50 minutes, add pakodas and cook for another 10 minutes. Now switch off the flame and take the kadhi out. Take another small pan and heat 1 tbsp ghee in it. Add red chili powder and deggi mirch and add 1-2 tbsp water. Tamper kadhi with this.  It is important to let kadhi cook for long time. This makes it order of magnitude more delicious. Serve it with rice.

Chhole Bhature

The signature dish of North India! The best tasting Chhole Bhatures are at railway stations, sold in leaf donas!!! They adds fun to the long boring train journeys. Whenever we used to travel as children, this was what we used to look forward to! Now I make at home, it tastes great but I still miss those days. Anyway, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

For Chhole:
1 can garbanzo beans
1 big onion chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
1/2 inch ginger chopped
3 green chillies chopped
1 tbsp MDH Chhole Masala
1 tsp coriander powder
salt to taste
red chili powder to taste
1 tsp kasoori methi

For Bhaturas:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp semolina
1 tbsp oil
3 tbsp plain yogurt
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp oil

Oil for frying Bhaturas
(Bhaturas dough needs to be kept for 5-6 hours, so start early!)

For garnishing:
1 medium sized onion cut in small pieces
1 lemon cut in 4 pieces

To makes Chhole, in a pan heat oil. When oil is hot, put cumin seeds. When seeds crackle, add onions, ginger and green chillies. When onion are golden brown, add coriander powder and red chili powder. Add tomatoes. One tomatoes are cooked, put salt and Chhole masala. Finally add garbanzo beans/chhole and put desired water (1 cup is enough). Cook for 15-20 minutes at medium low heat and towards the end, put some kasoori methi.

For bhaturas, mix all the ingredients and mix dough of medium consistency. If you require, add some water to reach desired consistency. Leave this dough for 5-6 hours covered with a damp cloth.
When you have to make bhturas, heat 1 cup oil in a deep pan at medium flame. Make table-tennis sized balls of dough and roll it with a rolling pin. Deep fry it. The soft crispy bhaturas are ready.
Serve Chhole and bhaturas with onion and lemon.

Vada Sambhar with coconut Chutney

Believe me there are thousands of ways of making Sambhar! And all are delicious. My Sambhar recipe is a quick sambhar recipe and probably not the most authentic one. For more traditional and authentic sambhar, I will rely on my good south Indian friends like Ravali and Jayasri. But this sambhar is quick and goes well with Vada. So here is the recipe for all three:

Vada:
1 cut urad wash
A pinch salt
A pinch black pepper
1 tbsp coconut pieces chopped in small sizes
1/2 onion chopped finely
1 green chilli chopped
Water at room temperature
Oil to fry

Soak urad wash in lots of water overnight. In the morning, grind it with minimum amount of water (I put little more water so my vadas are not in great shape, as you will see image below). Once grinded all the urad daal, you need to do this most important step (which will make vadas light and very crispy). Take little water in a bowl. Put just a drop of grinded urad daal, it will sink in water. Now take the grinded mixture and mix it with hands vigorously to make it very fluffy and aerated. Now if you put a drop of this in water, it will float! Now add all other ingredients (except oil and water). Heat oil for frying in a pan. Wet your hands with water. Take a table spoon of this mixture, flatten it a bit and make a hole in the center and carefully put it in the pan. Similarly fry all the vadas.

Sambhar:
2 tbsp oil
1 drum stick cut in 2 inches pieces
10-12 shallots ( mini onion )
1 onion chopped
2 green chillies chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp MDH sambhar masala
1.5 inch tamarind soaked in water (or 2 tbsp tamarind paste)
few curry leaves
1/2 cup toor daal
salt to taste
A pinch asafoetida
2-3 whole red chillies (dry)

In a pressure cooker cook toor daal with turmeric powder and salt. In a deep pan, heat 2 tbsp oil. When hot, add mustard seeds and asafoetida. Add curry leaves and red chillies. Now add chopped onion and green chillies. When onion becomes transparent, add shallots, drum sticks, tomatoes. Add 2 cups of water and salt and cook for 10 minutes. Once cooked, add tamarind paste. Add sambhar masala and let it cook for 5 more minutes. Now add the cooked toor daal and add more water to require desired consistency and cook for 10 more minutes. Serve sambhar hot with vadas. You can add as many veggies as you want in it!

Coconut chutney:
1 fresh coconut peeled and grated
1-2 green chillies
2 tbsp roasted chana daal
1/2 inch ginger
a pinch salt
1 tsp tamarind paste

For tampering
1 tsp clarified butter
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp urad wash
5-6 curry leaves
2-3 red chillies whole

Grind all the ingredients listed above except for the ones listed under tampering. Now transfer it in a bowl. Heat oil in a shallow pan. Add all the ingredients listed under tampering. Fry for 1-2 minutes and put it in the same bowl where chutney is. Mix it with a spoon. Serve Vadas with sambhar and chutney.

Here I really apologize to my south Indian friends who can make this much better and more authentic and your inputs are always welcomed.

Egg-Mushroom Curry

Whenever I make egg-curry, I miss my old friend Neeraj from NCRA days. Once Neeraj was visiting me in Charlottesville and I made egg curry. He liked it and ate it on two consecutive days and eventually had stomach upset :) Well, he probably ate too many eggs :) Well, here is the recipe:

Ingrdients:
4 eggs
2 medium potatoes
1/2 cup mushrooms chopped
1 medium onion
4-5 garlic cloves
2-3 green chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 tbsp oil
salt to taste
red chili powder to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala (optional)
1/2 cup coriamder leaves chopped (optional)

In a grinder, grind onion, garlic and green chillies and keep the paste aside. Boil eggs. Boil potatoes. Keep 1/2 boiled potato aside and cut 1 inches cubes from remaining potatoes. Heat oil in a pan. When oil is hot, shallow fry eggs and potatoes. This is important because this gives that crispy delicious outer layer of egg and potato which tastes wonderful in the curry.  This is how your shallow fried eggs and potatoes will look like this:

Now poke these eggs and potatoes with a fork (so that curry goes inside when we put it in gravy).
In the remaining oil, put cumin seeds. When they crackle, put the grind paste of onion, garlic and green chili. Let it fry for few minutes. Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chili and salt. Now mash that 1/2 potato which you kept aside and mix it well in the pan with the other masala. This mashed potato thickens the curry and gives a very good texture. Put mushrooms and 1 cup water and let it cook for 3-4 minutes. Now add the fried eggs and potatoes. Cook it for another 7-8 minutes on medium-low heat. Add garam masala and garnish it with coriander leaves. I did not have coriander leaves so I could not garnish my curry :) It tastes great with plain rice or naan.

Quick and Healthy dessert

If it is one of those days when you either have to write proposal or work on writing a paper, you just don't feel like cooking. This recipe is for one of those days - my accidental discovery yesterday! Turned out to be quite decent. And again, you can modify it according to your taste very easily!!! The good thing is that this dessert is healthy and has items from 3 food groups : dairy, fruits and carbs. This is how I made it.

Ingredients:
A nice looking glass (important!)
3-4 tbsp flavored yogurt (I used vanilla)
2-3 tbsp frozen fruits (I used berries and melons)
1-2 tbsp granola/cereal/wheat crisps
1 tbsp whipped cream (optional)

Take a beautiful transparent glass. Put 1 tbsp yogurt. Add a layer of fruits. Add another layer of yogurt. Now add few more fruits, some cereals (I used wheat crisps as I did not have any other cereal). And for the kick top it up with some whipped cream. Just keep it for 5 minutes and have it with spoon and enjoy the delicious taste of all the wonderful ingredients :)

Janmashtami Sweets

Last week was Janmashtami - celebration of birth of Lord Krishna. I wanted to celebrate it but did not have enough time to do elaborate cooking. I needed to make 5 sweets. Finally I made these 5 sweets which were very easy to cook and tasted great. I made Nariyal Katli, Potato halwa, Suji kheer, Panjeeri and Charnamrat. Here is my quick recipe of each of these (I am sure you can make much elaborated version of each of these, but with small baby at home this is so great!):

Charnamrat:  In a glass put 2-3 tbsps plain yogurt and fill the glass upto 3/4th level with milk. Add 1-2 spoons of gangajal, a drop of rose water and few pistachios cut in pieces. Add 2-3 leaves of basil.

Aloo Halwa: Boil 2-3 potatoes and mash them well. In a pan take 2 tbsp clarified butter and heat it. Fry the mashed potatoes well. When they are golden red, add few cut cashews and sugar to desired taste.

Panjeeri: In a pan on medium flame, heat 2-3 tbsps clarified butter (be generous in using clarified butter). Take 1/2 cup wheat flour and roast them well in that ghee. When golden brown take away from pan. In a separate pan roast some chopped coconuts and raisins. Finally mix these dry fruits and desired sugar in the roasted wheat flour and panjeeri is ready.

Suji Kheer: Take a tbsp clarified ghee. Add 3-4 tbsp suji (semolina). Roast it well and then add 3 cups of Milk and let it boil on sim for 20-30 minutes. When desired consistency is reached add 3-4 tbsp sugar and dry fruits of your choice. Roast the dry fruits before adding in the kheer. It gives great flavour.

Nariyal katli: In a pan take 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water. Keep stirring it at medium-high flame. Take a bowl filled with room temperature water with you. Every few minutes drop little sugar syrup in this water. If it spreads in the water, the syrup is too thin. After a while the syrup drop will maintain its shape and thats when your syrup is ready. Immediately put chopped coconuts in this and stir vigorously. Set it on a plate and let it cool. You can put any dry fruit available to you. The best one along with coconut are makhanas (lotus seeds) and kharbooja seeds.

All these dishes can be modified to your own taste. And if you have time you can make these in a more elaborated way. I had just one hour to make all so I did this quick job. And you have to go generous in using clarified butter. But thats okay once in a while. It boosts your metabolism to have high fat foods once in a while. Really.

Maggi Bhel

The credit goes to my two good friends Shubhli and Surabhi for introducing me to this yummy evening snack. This is so easy to make and yet so delicious. Thanks Surabhi and Shubhli. So here it goes:

Ingredients:
1 packet Maggi Masala
1 boiled potato cut in small pieces
1 tomato chopped finely
1 small onion chopped finely
1 green chiili chopped finely
1 tsp chunky chat masala
1/2 tsp lemon juice (or as per your taste)
1 tsp oil

First take the Maggi packet and beat the hell out of it (literally!). This is important to make the noodles very small! Take a shallow pan and out 1 tsp oil in it. Open the Maggi packet and put the noodles on the pan and roast it until they are golden brown. Let it cool. In a big bowl, mix potato, chilli, onion and tomato. Add roasted Maggi noodles. Now take the masala pouch from the Maggi packet and mix it well. Add all other ingredients i.e. Chunky chat masala and lemon juice and mix well. Eat this delicious bhel.

Falooda Shake

This requires lot of preparation in advance. But for the final taste, I bet its worth it! No time wasting, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 tbsp tukmaria seeds (you can get it in any Indian grocery store)
A handful of falooda sev (basically corn starch noodles)
Rooh Afza
1 lt homogenized milk
Falooda Kulfi
2 tbsp sugar
1 lt water to boil the falooda sev

Soak Tukmaria seeds in water for 3-4 hours. Refrigerate it. Boil falooda sev with water  until they are soft. Drain remaining water.  Put the sev in Ice-water in refrigerator for few hours.
Mix sugar in milk and boil milk. Let it remain on medium heat until it becomes half of its original quantity. Keep stirring occasionally. It will take about an hour. Refrigerate this milk for few hours.
Make kulfi as per my falooda kulfi instructions. When you have to prepare shake, do the following:
Take a fancy glass. Put 1 tbsp Rooh-afza. Add 1/3rd of milk. Add some falooda sev and some soaked tukmaria seeds.  Now add 2 tbsp kulfi. Serve chilled.

Tandoori Paneer Pizza

Tandoori paneer pizza is Indianized pizza. Its pizza with spices and is very famous in India. This time I tried Tandoori paneer pizza. You need to make pizza as per my Pizza recipe . Just substitute the toppings with the following:

1/2 lb paneer cut in cubes
2 tbsp plain yogurt
1 tbsp tandoori masala
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste

Marinate paneer cubes in the mixture of yogurt, tandoori masala, garam masala and salt for 5-6 hours and use this as pizza topping. You can also add onion or bell peppers if you like.

BTW, this pizza is little undone. Nitin took it out of oven little early and took photo. I put it in oven for 5 more minutes and it was over before I could click one more pic!

Oreo Milk Shake

This is the favorite shake of my brother-in-law. When he came to visit us in Kingston, I made it for him every day. This year he was health conscious so I made only occasionally! This delicious treat is full of fat calories but heavenly yummy!

Ingredients:
1/3 cup milk
2 scoops vanilla Ice-cream
1 tsp vanilla syrup
1/2 tsp coffee powder (Nescafe)
4 Oreo cookies
Whipped cream

In a grinder, grind everything except whipped cream and then top it up with whipped cream. Simple!

Thai red curry

I tried thai red curry the other day. I would have wished to make the red curry paste from the scratch but it requires so many ingredients which I have not even heard of. So I had to use the readymade red curry paste. However, the final result was delicious and we had it with Thai Jasmine rice.
 This is what you need to make red curry paste.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb medium hard tofu
1/2 cup roughly chopped onion and bell pepper  and mushrooms
1 cup coconut milk
1 tsp minced garlic
2 green chilli chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp red curry paste
1 tbsp crushed red pepper
salt to taste
1/3 cup roasted crushed peanuts

Cut tofu in pieces and shallow fry it. In the remaining oil fry garlic and add chilli. Add bell pepper and onion. After few minutes add coconut milk, fish sauce and salt. Put red curry paste and add tofu. Cook for 10 minutes on medium flame. Once cooked add roasted peanuts. This is optional but gives good texture. Serve it hot.

Thai time : Basil Tofu

I miss Thai99 in Charlottesville. My favorite recipe there was Pad Krapao with Tofu Thai hot. I loved the aroma of Basil. I could never get that taste here in Kingston. But this recipe is pretty close and more important, yummy!!!!

Ingrdients:
1/2 pound medium hard Tofu
1 cup chopped bell pepper and onion
1 small bunch of basil leaves
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced green chilli
salt to taste
1/4 tbsp crushed red chilli pepper
1/2 tsp sugar

Cut tofu in pieces and shallow fry it. In the remaining oil, fry onion and green chilli. When garlic turns golden brown, add onion and bell peppers. Put fish sauce,
sugar and salt. Add Tofu and let it cook for few more minutes.

I made thai jasmine rice along with this and it tasted great.

Samosa Chat

I still remember those TIFR days when we used to go to Navy Nagar sweet shop and order Samosa chat. That chat plate for Rs. 10 used to be the most delicious thing. It was the awesome combination of great friends and this great chat which makes me so nostalgic. In Canada we cannot simply go to a halwai and have samosa chat so I decided to give it a try. I must say it turned out to be great.
This is what you need for this awesome dish (I am giving recipe for one person). Most of the recipes for ingredients are already in my blog and I am giving the link here:
Ingredients:
Two Samosas
2 tbsp plain yogurt
4 tbsp canned Garbanzo beans (if you wish you can heat it and add a pinch of salt)
2 tbsp tamarind chutney
1 tsp Dhaniya chutney
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of red pepper powder
1/2 tsp chat masala
A pinch of cumin seeds roasted and crushed
4-5 Garvi Gujarat 3-in-1 puris

In a plate take two samosas and press gently to break it. Put garbanzo beans and yogurt. Put tamarind chutney and dhaniya chutney on top of it. Spread pinch of salt, red pepper and roasted and crushed cumin seeds. Spread chat masala. Take 4-5 Garvi gujarat puris and crush it and put on top. The delicious chat is ready.

Yogurt Pie

This is one of the very very easy dessert and you can actually do different experiments by using different flavors of yogurt and  various flavors of Jello. I used strawberry flavor for both.
All you need is:
Readymade Graham cracker pie crust
1/2 L cool whip
300 g yogurt Strawberry flavor (any flavor)
Jello small strawberry flavor (the one which makes 4 servings)
1 cup water

Boil 1cup water and add Jello powder. Stir until Jello is properly mixed. Take a big bowl. Add cool whip, Jello and yogurt and mix them well. Pour the mixture on Graham cracker ready pie crust and put it in a refrigerator to set. Serve chilled. It will be ready to serve in 2 hours.

Quick Quesadilla

 Another idea for quick lunch: Quesadilla.

All you need is:
Tortilla
Some veggies chopped (such as tomato, onion, bell pepper, mushroom etc.)
Shredded cheese
Pinch of salt (optional)
Pinch of red chilli powder (optional)
Pinch of taco seasoning  (optional)
1 tbsp oil

Saute veggies in 1 tbsp oil. If you want more flavour and spices, add salt, chilli pepper, and taco seasoning. Take a tortilla. Spread a thin layer of cheese. Add some veggies and spread another layer of cheese. Fold the tortilla in half. Shallow fry it on a tava while pressing with a spatula.
Serve hot.

Bread Pizza

Bread Pizza is becoming very popular in India these days. Today I tried it and it was awesome. More  important is that it was so quick to make that it can serve for a great lunch any day. And needless to say, Nitin loved it.

Here is a recipe for it:

Ingredients:
4-5 bread slices
2 tbsp pizza sauce
one chopped onion
1/2 chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup mushroom chopped
1 tomato chopped
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
1 tbsp oil
4 tbsp tex mex shredded cheese (or any shredded cheese)

Set oven at 425 degrees temperature.
Heat oil in a pan. Fry onion, bell pepper, mushroom and tomato. Add salt and sugar. Fry till all the water is evaporated. Take a slice of bread. Spread 1/2 tbsp pizza sauce. Add 1.5-2 tbsp veggies. Top it up with 1 tbsp cheese. Bake it in the oven for 5 minutes or on tava. The bread pizza is ready.