Saturday lunch.
Daughter #1 requested Mor kuzhambu (vegetables in yoghurt gravy) and Mor rasam (yoghurt soup) and Thayir Satham. (Yoghurt rice).
In exchange for vaccuming.
Yes, the girl is fixated with anything yoghurt.
However many times I make mor kuzhambu, I always refer to my green clear folder in which I have recipes from my uni days in Melbourne. This recipe was handwritten by Vijayalakshmi Viji akka, along with so many more, and just by looking at the script, turmeric, chilli stains on parts of it, the memories they conjure up..early days of marriage, bloopers of adding too much coconut or green chillies, not grinding the mixture well enough, boiling the gravy after adding the yoghurt mix, and the successes, mum, husband singing my praises, especially when the dish had mango or white pumpkin.
Used okra as I had neither mango nor pumpkin.
Made spicy tangy mor rasam. And forgot to click it.
Beans, carrot thoren. Food speak members would have wept if they’d seen one more beans thoren post, so I hastily added carrots for colour and to save their sanity.
Paneer chilli dish.
Daughter #2 sent me a tik tok on paneer tacos. Said I’d make it in exchange for wiping and dusting.
Set about prepping the paneer filling, using half of it for lunch, balance and potato curry for dinner. And that’s another post.
Red rice for me, white for the rest.
Sago and rice vadams or fryums or crisps.

#lockdownsimplemeal #minimalisticmeals #recyclefood #leftovers #NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag? #servelovegive #cookwithlove #cooknoairs #vegetarian #vegan #eggless #mykitchen #simplefood #kitchendiaries #comfortfood #bitesbybavani #bluffsbybavani #inmykitchen #kitchendiaries

@ Dannemora, New Zealand

Good morning,

Hope you are all well.

Some random lockdown thoughts, yes lockdown creates writers, poets, IT specialists, artists! Especially after reading my office’s daily email greetings with flowers and memes.

I sit here from my dining table desk, OCD me does not like the clutter. At the far end on the left are 3 piles of music books, on the right are a daughter’s old Mac book, in front of me, on my right is a large file with stuff that should have been done in a previous reincarnation but has been put aside due to procrastination; on my left is my Spirax A5 notebook with scribbles on clients, I cannot decipher, and my diary, which says “Follow Your Dreams, They know the way”. Oh and in front of that is a pile on which sits my iPad, a Vegetarian cookbook bought in the first year of marriage and Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic”.

Having said all this, when I look away from the clutter, what I see is my hall huge huge windows, it’s a half circle atop a rectangle. I have googled the shape but Uncle Google has not been helpful today. And when I look past that window, or rather tell myself to forget the glass but to look beyond, I see the giant palms right outside, which were a few feet tall when we moved in years ago, and then, looking even beyond, losing my myopia and relying on my far sightedness, I see the beautiful reserve just opposite my home.

Why I write this, I have no idea.

It has been therapeutic for me to write this. Personally, this lockdown has been difficult for me and my family with a few challenges thrown at us. However it is a lesson for me to realise that there is hope of better things to come, if I stop being myopic, if I can look beyond the clutter of my dining table, the rain drops on my window, and look at what’s outside that hall window.

Most importantly, if I can realise that that clear glass is a barrier that I should choose to ignore, and in good times am not even aware of, if I can know that if I can look at the bigger picture, Life is Good.

Photo shows my hall with furniture removed, on a Sunday morning a week ago, when we had a Facebook live concert with US/Canadian based artistes. The sunkissed palms and reserve can be seen so clearly when the rest of the house is ignored/blacked out.

Let’s all remember to look beyond, at the Big Picture..

Stay blessed, all.

D for Delicious.
D for Dessert.
D for Daughters.
D for Discerning.
Apple Crumble with 2 red apples,  1 green apple, raw sugar, wholemeal flour, oats, cinnamon, honey, butter, lemon juice.
Delectable Dessert for
Daughters with Discerning taste buds.
Daughter #2 scoops the crumble,
Daughter #1 has the apples..

#onepotmeal #lockdownsimplemeal #minimalisticmeals #recyclefood #leftovers #NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag? #servelovegive #cookwithlove #cooknoairs #vegetarian #vegan #eggless #mykitchen #simplefood #kitchendiaries #comfortfood #bitesbybavani #bluffsbybavani #inmykitchen #kitchendiaries

S for Simple Soup.
Planned to use only C vegetables at first.
Cauliflower, corn, capsicum, chillies, coriander leaves.
Went a little berserk.
Used chopped onions, ginger, garlic, leek, potatoes, whole pepper corns, fried in butter and gingerly oil, then the C vegetables.
Boiled, Blended.
Served hot with  parmesan and chilli flakes sprinkles, with buttered toasted buns.

And made a dessert well suited to daughters’ eating habits. Next post..

#onepotmeal #lockdownsimplemeal #minimalisticmeals #recyclefood #leftovers #NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag? #servelovegive #cookwithlove #cooknoairs #vegetarian #vegan #eggless #mykitchen #simplefood #kitchendiaries #comfortfood #bitesbybavani #bluffsbybavani #inmykitchen #kitchendiaries

Pizzas.
Home made.
For Daughters #1 #2.
A thin base with tomato basil parmesan sauce, with a generous sprinkling of chopped white button mushrooms, red capsicum, green chillies, onions, spinach leaves,
Topped with mozzarella cheese.
Husband and I settled for the light simple semolina Uppuma. (Earlier post).

#onepotmeal #lockdownsimplemeal #minimalisticmeals #recyclefood #leftovers #NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag? #servelovegive #cookwithlove #cooknoairs #vegetarian #vegan #eggless #mykitchen #simplefood #kitchendiaries #comfortfood #bitesbybavani #bluffsbybavani #inmykitchen #kitchendiaries

Another lunch.
Brussel sprouts thoren. The grated coconut helps with the slight bitter after taste. Onion garlic free.
Masoor dhall tempered lightly, and with a lavish tablespoon of coconut cream, sprinkling of crushed black pepper and cummin powder.
White button mushrooms and potato hot curry.
Reheated husband’s cassava curry, beautifully flavoured and with the lingering sweet aroma of daun pandan/rampa/screwpine leaves.
With red rice for me, basmati for the family.
And sago crisps.
Curries with chappatis for dinner.
#onepotmeal #lockdownsimplemeal #minimalisticmeals #recyclefood #leftovers #NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag? #servelovegive #cookwithlove #cooknoairs #vegetarian #vegan #eggless #mykitchen #simplefood #kitchendiaries #comfortfood #bitesbybavani #bluffsbybavani #inmykitchen #kitchendiaries

Dinner.
Appam.
Hoppers.
Pancakes.
Disclaimer. Photos have one appam each, as they were polished off fresh off the stove.
Soft, spongy centres, Crisp melt in the mouth, crumble through the fingers circumference.
Had to back out of a Zoom meeting last night (sorry Anju Yogakumar, Vaishali Bhat Sumbly) as these must be served steaming hot, straight out of the tiny appam pan I own.
Daughters #1 #2 and husband were on various Zoom lectures, study groups, meetings.
And so I
Poured a ladle of the batter into the pan,
held both handles of pan and watched batter swirl around,
Thin sides, porous, spongy centre.
Kept churning these out to be eaten with onion chilli sambal, lunumiris. A hot, lemony, delicious side.

Made a few sweet appams too. Added thick coconut milk and jaggery to the centre.

And then reclined on sofa to watch Reynold Poernomo, Brendan Pang and Callum’s Kitchen battle it out with citrus fruits on Masterchef 2020 back to win on TVNZ on demand.

#onepotmeal #lockdownsimplemeal #minimalisticmeals #recyclefood #leftovers #NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag? #servelovegive #cookwithlove #cooknoairs #vegetarian #vegan #eggless #mykitchen #simplefood #kitchendiaries #comfortfood #bitesbybavani #bluffsbybavani #inmykitchen #kitchendiaries @ Auckland, New Zealand

A Divine Combo of
Creamy Lentils
And
MIL’s Spicy Vegetable Pickle, Sri Lankan Achcharu.
Achcharu carefully brought by husband from trips to Sri Lanka. MIL (and now SIL) would have it ready for him to take home, Vaccum sealed to ensure longevity and freshness. A Zing on the palate.
Carrots, malu miris (huge green chillies, known as banana chillies), shallots, green beans, carrots, green chillies. Other optional veges were added, I suspect, am not sure if polos/tender Jackfruit was used?
#onepotmeal #lockdownsimplemeal #minimalisticmeals #recyclefood #leftovers #NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag? #servelovegive #cookwithlove #cooknoairs #vegetarian #vegan #eggless #mykitchen #simplefood #kitchendiaries #comfortfood #bitesbybavani #bluffsbybavani #inmykitchen #kitchendiaries

A Lunch in the Past Week.
A quick heat, reheat, chop, stir fry.
Fresh fresh, green, green, not a typo, must iterate, beautiful broccoli.
Standard steam, sautee with garlic, chilli flakes in gingerly oil.
Mixed and reheated Jackfruit, moringa kuzhambu/gravies, removed the goraka/Garcinia Cambodia as the flavour was getting a tad sour.
A quick mung bean lentil boiled, tempered with light spices in ghee, with a dollop of coconut cream.
Used lentil water to make a delicious peppery gingery lemony rasam.
Chopped up a green apple, previously shoved into fridge and ignored, made a pickle.
And a mango, one of a couple, the first polished off by a daughter, the second, not so fresh, cut up and turned into a mango chilli dish.
Had lentils with MIL’s spicy vege pickle, Sri Lankan Achcharu, but that’s another post.
There were 2 more reheated dishes but I  shall say no more.
Except to solemnly promise that reheated dishes have seen their end of days..

#onepotmeal #lockdownsimplemeal #minimalisticmeals #recyclefood #leftovers #NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag? #servelovegive #cookwithlove #cooknoairs #vegetarian #vegan #eggless #mykitchen #simplefood #kitchendiaries #comfortfood #bitesbybavani #bluffsbybavani #inmykitchen #kitchendiaries

Fresh green beans have moved its way to the top of the fridge vege drawer.
Chopped them up as fine as I could, steamed them to maintain that crisp fresh bite, then did my usual light tempering with mustard seeds, white and broken chick pea lentils, curry leaves, cummin seeds, dried chillies, hing/asaefotida, turmeric powder and the icing on the cake,
Fresh grated coconut.
Once again, eat with hot rice. More beans, less rice.

#onepotmeal #lockdownsimplemeal #minimalisticmeals #recyclefood #leftovers #NoJudgementPlease is this even a hashtag? #servelovegive #cookwithlove #cooknoairs #vegetarian #vegan #eggless #mykitchen #simplefood #kitchendiaries #comfortfood #bitesbybavani #bluffsbybavani #inmykitchen #kitchendiaries