Quick Breakfast Oats

Quick Breakfast Oats

 

You need:-

*Pre-boiled steel cut oats (Recipe mentioned below) - I used Quaker Oats in Steel cut

*Almond milk (or milk of your choice) - I used the Califa Almond milk because that's what I had at home. You can use whichever milk you want. Using almond milk just reduces the calorific value for the overall recipe so it's healthier.

*Some fruits - You can consider berries like strawberry, blueberries, rasberry, maybe 1/3rd sliced banana, even 1/2 of an apple will add great taste.

*Nuts (almond or cashew or pista) : Any of these or all of these taste great and add that extra crunch to your breakfast. They also help in keeping you full for longer. 

*Sugarfree chocolate chips : I used Lily's dark chocolate chips 

*Black Chia seeds : any other chia seeds will also work. So you can be easy on these. 

Pre Prepping your Oats:-

I keep busy through the week so I like pre-prepping some of my foods and one constant is my breakfast. I love starting my morning with a good and aesthtic breakfast but I don't get a lot of time for all that jazz, in the morning. So here's what I do.

Take 1-11/2 cups cups of steel cut oats and boil them in 2-21/2 cups of water for 3-4 mins. Boil them till them become slightly fluffy and that's when you know they are good to eat. One's all the water is evaporated, add a pinch of cinnamon. Mix well and allow the mix to cool down. Do not add sugar or maple syrup now since that'll make it difficult to work with the oats when we eat them. Once they cool down to room temperature, refridgerate them in an air-tight container. And your oats are ready for the next morning. 

Breakfast Oats Recipe:-

Our first aim is to eat in a way that suffices the hunger but we do not end up over-eating. I use a wide mouthed tea-cup. You can use a cup or a medium sized bowl for it. 

Start with adding 2-21/2 tbspn of your pre-prepped oats. Follow this by adding some almond/oats/dairy or plant based milk to cover the level of the oats or slightly more that that. Now start adding your fruits and berries. I like going with my chopped apples followed by two chopped strawberries, 5-6 blueberries, 3-4 raspberries and finally sliced banana. Top this with some roughly chooped nuts or your chocolate chips. I generally prefer either the nuts or the chocolate chips. You can choose one of them or both. Depends on your choice of taste. You can top the dish with some maple syrup or any sweetner of your choice. I personally take this without any sweetner. The fruits and the chocolate chips/nuts do the balance of taste for me.  Your quick and healthy morning meal is ready to eat. Here's how my morning mug looks. I have paired this with a cup of freshly brewed coffee with some Nutpods creamer. 

I have tried to make this a healthy and average calorie recipe. Since this is a breakfast mug, we try to keep sufficient calories and the healthiest options. Starting the day healthy is the best thing you can do for yourself so make sure you have a good, tasty and pretty breakfast to boost your day. These ingredients are rich in fiber, low in sugar and definitely keep you full for atleast two hours. The overall is sweet, sour and nutty. There is a variety of flavors and a bundle of health benefits to this. This is one of my most favorite and regular breakfast recipes and over time, I've learnt to fall in love with what is healthy and tasty rather than plain bland oil free and tasteless food. I keep bending my mind to trying new ideas and cooking some amazing multi cuisine palettes. So wake up and give this a try. Do let me know if this works for you. 

Links to the ingredients:-

Quaker, Steel Cut Quick 3-Minute Oats

Califa farms almond milk

Lily's Chocolate Salted Caramel Flavor Baking Chips, 7 oz

Chia seeds

Shopping Link: https://www.walmart.com/

Quick And Clever Pasta

Ingredients:-

5 colour pasta

5-6 finely chopped garlic

Half finely chopped onion

2 finely chopped green chilies

Frozen broccoli

Frozen carrot

Frozen peas

Frozen beans

Salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

Maggie magic masala or any instant noodle masala

Some shredded cheese

Take your pasta and boil for about 3mins on high flame and boil it on simmer till the pasta is cooked. Add a pinch of salt and 1tbsp of oil to the water while boiling the pasta ( this prevents the pasta from sticking while it's boiling). Now strain the water and rinse the boiled pasta with cold water and keep itaside. 

Heat a nonstick frying pan and add two tspn oil (refined or Olive oil, whatever you prefer). Add 2-3 chopped garlic cloves, some grated ginger. Add finely chopped onions and fry them till they'regolden brown. Now add some frozen peas, broccolli, carrots and whatver vegetables you prefer and have at home and stir fry for about 3-5 mins on medium flame. Add asplash of water if you feel that your pan is overheated or the veggies are burning.

Now add your pasta and mix it well with the vegetables. Add one teaspoon of butter and maggie magic masala at the end.

Your pasta is ready to eat.

A Homemade cup of "Ginger Chai"

Adrak Wali Chai

Here's a cup of spicy yet fresh adrak wali chai (Ginger Tea) to start your day. I would not promise that this cup of tea is healthy and calorie free but it definitely has its dos and don'ts.  

Lets start with the procedure:-

Ingredients needed:-

• half cup water
• half cup milk
• half a ginger (washed properly and grated or finely chopped)
• tea leaves (preffered: Red Label Natural Care Tea or any herbal tea that can be used for black tea or with milk, for added benefit)
• half spoon sugar (prefer the chai without sugar for better results)

Procedure :-

Add water to a sauce pan and place it on high flame. As the water boils, add you grated ginger and 1 and a half teaspoon of your desired Tea leaves or powder to it and bring the mixture to boil. Once the water starts boiling, add half a cup of milk to it (and 1 teaspoon of sugar, if you need) and let the mixture boil on slow heat. Give the tea some time to absorb the flavors and boil it for at least 2-3 minutes till the colour changes to a desired brown. Serve the tea with some crackers to go with it.  

Benefits:-

This tea is a great drink during the winters. It's hot as well as fulfilling to you hunger. 

The ginger serves as a great medicine for cough and cold. So iif you are suffering from a cold, then grab yourself a cup of this drink. It is also great for the throat problems and the milk also helps kill abnormal hunger pangs at times. 

Because this tea has quite some caffeine in it, it serves great to kill your sleep on early morning schedules or before your daily workout. I personally love a cup of ginger tea every morning, before my breakfast. 

Cons:-

The tea does not help in any kind of weight loss process and is not advisable for people suffering from health issues such as stomach ulcer, typhoid, jaundice etc

Also, do not use the remnants or residue a second time, as the mixture tends to release few toxins if boiled repeatedly. Always use a fresh batch of ingredients every tie you make this potion. 

If you have a habit of drinking tea at regular intervals, then do not add too much ginger, as this would not only spoil your tea, but also have harmful effects on your digestive tract. 

Sugar free halwa

Things needed
1)4-5 grated carrots
2)4tbsp ghee
3)1cup rava
4) half cup oats
5) 4tbsp sugar free natura
6) 2 cups milk
7) Dry fruits for extra taste and garnish

We start by roasting the dry fruits in half teaspoon ghee. Roast till the dry fruits are golden brown. Take out the dry fruits in a plate and keep them separately.

Next, add your grated carrots to the same pan and roast till the carrots start draining water and cook till they turn mildly red. Now add 3tbsp of sugar free natura and mix till everything blends well.
Now, keep the half cooked carrots in a plate and 3and half spoons of ghee to the pan and wait till it heats up. Now add the carrots back and fry them till they reduce to half and get completely dry and cooked. Now fry the rava and oats in the same pan and add the carrots back along with the rava and oats and mix well.
Once all the ingredients are mixed well and the rava and oats are light brown, add 1 cup of milk and stir till its all absorbed and cook well. Now reduce the flame and add the second cup of milk and cook till the mixture comes to boil and eventually comes to a semi dry state. Now add your roasted dry fruits and mix well. Keep some dry fruits for garnishing.

Serve the halwa in a plate and garnish with fresh carrots and dry fruits.
Your halwa is ready to be eat.

Silver Streak- Bhubaneswar

APPETIZERS:-

1)Crispy Chilli Corn :-

These are crispy corns, soft yet crunchy, served with finely chopped onions,garlic and green onions deep fried to a semi crispy texture along with the corns. The corns have a mild spiciness but as the name goes, they do not have chilli in them. Instead the dish is sauted with pepper and ginger garlic powder and corriander sprinkled on it as a garnish. The plate can serve two to three people and serves as an amazing veg starter. This is one of my regular orders, every time I visit this place and an all time favorite. 

2. Pan Fried Chicken Momos

Soft, juicy. saucy and spicy, these pan fried chicken momos are sure to win your heart. These are served 6 pieces per plate and have a simple stuffing of boiled chicken and onion mixed with pepper and garlic and stuffed well in a soft wrap of wheat dough. A perfect yummmm for your taste buds and just the starter needed to increase your appetite for the main meal. The only negative side to this momo is that, I find it , slightly less cooked and over spicy and sweet for the name. It's a semi gravy dish with a sweet, tangy, spicy and richly flavored gravy. 

Moving on to the main course, we ordered two dishes for this- Chicken drumsticks and Eefu Noodles along with fresh lime soda. 

Main Course:-

1)Chicken Drumsticks:-
These were crispy, spicy and true to their name. These are served 6 pieces in a plate and are served hot and spicy. they have a saucy gravy and are served alonged with some sauted capsicum and onions. One of my favorites. A definite must-try. These can be found in the appetizer section but can be eaten along with the main coarse. 

2)Veg Eefu Noodles:-

The fanciest part about these noodles is the semi crispy semi soft fusion of the noodles. These noodles are regular hakka noodles pan fried with capsicum, carrots, onions and cabbage. These also have an amazing crispy noodle fusion to them which make these noodle a definite orderv and a definite dish on table in Silver Streaks. 

3)Fresh Lime Soda:-

This was the regular salty and tangy fresh lime soda served cold. This wasn't outwardly extravagent, but had a good balance of the tangy and salty taste to it. Not very impressed with this beverage but helps quite a lot after the heavy coarse of meal you order for yourself. 

Chai Break

                                    CHAI BREAK. 

Hey Guys.... I was really busy for the past few days and did not get time to visit any new place recently. As I was busy with my schedule, this new place "Chai Break" caught my attention. Instagram and facebook posts along with the very attractive pictures to pair with it, this new place was the definite next visit for me and, So did I.

INTERIORS:-

Starting with the interiors...

The place had beautiful and lavish interiors. It had few divans with long horizontal cushions on one side of the hall and the other side had tables and chairs and few sofas and tables for group hangouts. The lighting was a little dim with small soft yellow bulb lights all over the roof and wooden interiors and walls with a semi matte yet polished finish to them and LED TVs with English songs playing to the tune. The place also had a mild fruity and cinnamon scent in the entry clearly indicating that the service provides everything starting from tea to hookah in the restaurant.

Another very eco-friendly and innovative thought was to present the menu printed on papers. The papers resembled newspapers with a light brown shade and had small quotes and writings in every section. Few of which are pictured below. You can also find the items in the menu, provided in the below pictures.
The menu was very well classified and very well themed. The only thing that I did not like here was that, if the place is named "Chai Break", then any normal person would expect to get a wide range of tea here. Whether it be red,green,black,brown or yellow, just a wide range of tea. But that's what is the disappointment here. Having kept the name "Chai Break", the place keeps the tea menu on the last page which won't even catch a person's attention if he wasn't a tea geek. And the same went for coffee as well. But that's understood, since the tea section is so highly neglected, how can we expect something better for coffee!!

FOOD AND BEVERAGES:-

There were 5 of us and each one of us ordered something different. Our order was as follows:-

1)Royal tea (1)

2)Kesar(saffron) Tea (1)

3)Virgin Mojito (1)

4)Kitkat shake (2)

Royal Tea:-

The tea was indeed a royal delight to my taste buds. The tea was a well blended and brewed mix of Darjeeling tea blended with Cardamom,Saffron,ginger and milk. All of  which are the keys to a very good tea. The tea is boiled for a good 10-15 minutes on a slow flame to give it that perfect aroma,taste and color and was garnished with few saffron petals on top. The flavors were strong yet delicately blended. Definitely my favorite tea and the perfect refreshment during winters. 

Cost per glass: Rs 50

Kesar(saffron) Tea:-

The tea was similar to the royal tea except for being sweeter and with a prominent saffron flavor. This was also a very well blended brew of saffron, fine quality Darjeeling tea and milk. The tea was served steaming hot with a garnish of saffron on top . You can also ask for an additional serving of sugar and flavor if you desire a stronger flavor

Cost per glass: Rs 50

3)Virgin Mojito:-

Not very impressed with this glass of cold beverage. The drink was not extraordinary but had the homemade feel of lemon mint sweet and salty soda. The  drink was served in a big glass with lemon,mint and ice packed up to half of the level and the remaining half covered with the drink. A very refreshing drink but definitely not worth the cost. Brilliant looks and garnishing.

Cost per glass: Rs 110

Virgin Mojito

4)Kitkat shake:-

And here we come with the day's show stopper. 

The kitkat shake was truely the best of all the beverages. This was a rich chocolate and caramel milk shake. The milkshake was served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the top with whipped cream and crushed chocolaty kitkat wafers. A definite proscription for diabetics and health conscious folks but a superb treat for your sweet tooth. A very creamy, rich, chocolaty and crunchy smoothie. A must try. A definite value for money. 

Cost per glass: 150

Overall Ratings:-

Taste-4

Service-4

Quantity-3

interior-4.5

Quality-4

value for money-3.5

The Chocolate House, Bhubaneswar

The Chocolate House, Bhubaneswar:-

The chocolate house is a recently opened cafe cum choco parlor for all dessert lovers and coffee geeks. One cool place to hangout ,with wonderful interiors and authentic coffee, and cold and hot beverages like hot mocha, hot cappuccinos, snacks, sandwiches, pizzas and so on. 

Starting with the interiors,

mini wooden house

I went to the outlet in Saheed Nagar, opposite BMC Mall. The place is a small,cozy, wooden furnished and wood themed place. A very soft and comfortable place for people to relax and make themselves comfortable when they want a doze of relaxation from their daily chores and moreover from their everyday schedule. The Chocolate house has wood covered walls with shelves carved along one side of the house. The shelves have cubicle divisions in them with small wooden toy houses, boats and other miniature toys, kept to grab your attention. A very well themed plan for a chocolate house. 

wooden shelves with mini wooden toys

Since I was in the place during the valentine's week, I found the house decorated with red heart shaped balloons and red and white spirals and ribbons all around. This gave a lovely look to the place and enhanced the beauty of the chocolate house.

The tables were wooden tables with a circular glass top and with a unique pebble and shiny black sand layer in between. The tables also had some comics and the regular salt and pepper tubs for the snacks.

Coming with the food :-

We ordered the following :-

1-Irish cappuccino

2-hazelnut Mocha

3-caramel cold coffee

4-white sauce pasta

5-hot dark choco brownie

1-Irish cappuccino:-

This was a treat. Since I am a coffee lover, I really appreciate good, well blended and well brewed coffee. And nothing else other than the aroma is enough to judge this. The Irish cappuccino was served in a frappe glass, hot, thick and foamy. It had a rich blend of cream,milk and freshly crushed coffee. No fancy recipe to this beverage though, the coffee was served with a topping of chocolate sauce and separate bowl of sugar, since I ordered my cup without sugar. My friend had her cup with sugar mixed in it before serving, and trust me it tasted nothing but sweet. No coffee, no aroma, no choco sauce,no hazelnut,.... just sheer sweetness. So I would suggest, you order your cup of coffee without sugar added to it. And add the amount you desire later , after it is served.  

Irish cappuccino and hazelnet cappucinno

2-Hazelnut Mocha:-

Coming to the Hazelnut mocha, this tasted similar to the Irish cappuccino, and did not have any essence of hazelnut nor the taste of mocha. The coffee was mild yet had the same creamy and foamy texture. This already had sugar added to it, so I could not get the blend of the flavors very well even after tasting it twice from my friend. My friend enjoyed her drink and was quite satisfied with it. So this beverage would be a good select for coffee beginners or those who like mild and milky cups of coffee

3-White Sauce Pasta

white sauce pasta

The cafe gives two options for pasta sauce- red sauce and white sauce.

The red sauce is a mix of chillies, tomatoes and other spicy flavors. It is the sweet and spicy mix version. So I didn't prefer ordering the red version. 

We went for the white sauce. The pasta was served in a medium sized wooden bowl with a garnishing of some bell peppers in it. It was not spicy but was sprinkled with black peppers and chilly flakes. It was white, creamy and saucy. It had ample amount of mayo, fresh cheddar cheese and fresh milk cream in the white sauce. The veggies(broccoli,yellow bell peppers, red bell peppers, green bell peppers, peas, sweet corn and finely chopped ginger) were boiled and then partially pan fried. So they were slightly chewy but not as much as to hamper your taste and love for them. The pasta will be liked by people who are not very keen about spices or chillies yet like a hint of spiciness in their food sometimes.

4-Caramel Cold Coffee

As the name suggests, this dish was again a blast of sweetness. The drink was a rich blend of fine coffee,chocolate, salted brown caramel, milk, cream and crushed ice. It was a thick milk shake with a lot of cream and caramel enhancing its taste and beauty. So if you are a cold, milk, dessert lover, you can go for this any time and in any mood. The drink will instantly refresh your taste senses with its salty and sweet caramel, chocolate and coffee fusion and will uplift your mood in seconds. A must try for dessert lovers. One glass of this, and you are done with the sweet sin,  for the day. 

5-Hot Dark Choco Brownie:-
This was the core of our evening snack and a definite show stopper. The dark choco brownie was pure dark chocolate cake, served hot with a rich choco sauce heavily swirled over it. The brownie is a must try in the choco house. The brownie was soft at the center and slightly hard and crispy on the margin. It was a chocolate cake with choco fudge in each layer and choco chips on the top of the garnish. The topping also had some white chocolate cream on it but the rich dark chocolate and steaming chocolate syrup dominated it all. A complete delight for any chocolate lover. 

I also got a mini choco box from the chocolate house costing Rs 150 for 8 pieces of mini chocolates. That's a bit expensive though , but a chocolate lover wouldn't mind giving it a try. It has a collection of milk chocolates, dark chocolates and other flavors as well, packed in a cute silver sandstone glitter box. 

These were all the dishes that I tried. I am planning on focusing on the cold beverage collection the next time I visit the place, since they have a wider variety of cold frappes and shakes rather than the hot ones. The pizzas and sandwiches are also yet to be tried, so if any body has tried them, they can give me a review on it in the comments. It's good to see that Bhubaneswar is coming up with such innovative and teen based places. This shows that the city is indeed modernizing and upholding the smart city concepts seriously and so are we.