Precautions For Winters and Healthy Eating.

Winter is here and the nice weather also gets lot of things other than festivals with it. Our children are more likely to get cold, cough, flu, viral with the change in weather. We need to take special care of them as their immune system is not yet built totally. So I guess we need to take care of lot more things like clothes, food, ready medicines and home remedies.

Clothes:-

• Make them wear many layers of clothes. Multiple layers of thin clothes are much more effective then a single layer of thick clothes. Multiple layers help keep the body heat insulated, and protect them from outside cold.

• Make sure that you cover their three vital heat leaking parts of the body: the head, the hands and the feet. let them wear a warm woolen caps at all the times ( I know they are fussy about it but we have to make them wear) . socks, preferably woolen, and never expose the hands. If you are going out, make sure that they wear gloves, or at least keep your hands inside the jacket packets to help them keep warm

Medicines:-

Take a Doctor appointment for flu shots. Make sure you have the kids medical boxes full with the medicines they use as prescribed by the Pediatrician. I always prefer them in a box handy near the bed so that it is accessible any time you think you need it. NEVER USE ANY MEDICATION WITHOUT THE DOCTORS CONSENT.

Healthy laddu

Winter is here and this is a very good way to start for our kids to have a great immunity towards the cold and can be given any time. But this should be taken with a glass of milk. I used to eat this daily as a kid and loved it. This was kinda bribe for me to have the glass of milk as I used to hate drinking it. So for fussy moms this is my moms trick to give me milk. Another thing I remember eating as a kid is soaked almonds overnight and drinking the water first in the morning after you brush and eat the almonds they help in regulating the body temperature.

Healthy laddu ... healthy snack..
3 spoons of ragi flour
2 spoons of whole wheat flour
1 tps of olive oil ( good for health when eaten raw)
2 tps each of cashew nut powder, almond powder and
4 tbps groundnut powder
3tps of cornflakes and oats powder
3 tps spoons of roasted moong dal powder
2 tps of pure ghee

grated or crushed jaggery as per your sweet taste please try to put jaggery then sugar as jaggery is good for health.
you can also add some more things as you feel like raisins, small small pieces of dry dates, some more dry fruits powder. All this should be fine powder so as children should not find lumps while eating it. Mix it well and you can roll them into small laddoos and not big ones so that the children will hold them in their hands. if they are not consistent to be rolled in laddoos add more ghee and jaggery . they will form into laddoos. and give 1 in morning and 1 in evening for healthy n nutritious snacks.

Ragi Idly

You will need:-

Whole Ragi Grain- 1 cup
Idli rice (parboiled) – 1 cup
Whole skinned Urad dal – ¾ cup
Methi seeds -1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Oil- to grease idli moulds

washes soak the ragi for 3-4 hours (longer than you soak the rice) Soak the rice, urad dal and methi seeds in separately 4-6 hours or overnight.
In a mixie /blender, grind the urad dal till light and fluffy.
A test for fluffiness is to keep a bowl ofwater and drop a tiny pinch of batter. If it floats, it is light enough.
Then add and grind the Ragi grains and Methi and finally the rice.
The rice should not be ground too smooth. It should be of Rava consistency. Alternatively, you can use rice Rava instead.
Take the batter in a vessel, add in some salt to taste and leave it to ferment. Next morning, lightly stir the well-fermented batter.
Grease Idli moulds and steam in a pressure cooker for 12-15 minutes till done.

OATS... AND ITS GOODNESS...

Oats are a supergrain – they have all the goodness of other wholegrains plus extra benefits.
Oats are the only wholegrain recognised to actively lower cholesterol
Oats provide soluble fibre (called beta glucan) which acts like a sponge during digestion, soaking up and removing cholesterol from the body. This can help to lower the blood cholestrerol, so eating a diet containing oats, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and a healthy lifestyle, can help to maintain a healthy heart.
Oats are one of the most filling grains
The beneficial combination of soluble and insoluble fibre found in oats helps to fill you up and helps to keep you going.

source: http://www.quaker.co.uk/Benefits.aspx

To read more about oats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oat

With so many goodness of oats . It makes a very good first food for babies. Oats porridge is the best first food to start with for babies other than rice cereals. Here are some of the recipes of oats which will surely help you moms for some fussy kids for some healthy and tasty evening snacks or morning breakfasts. My kido and me both like these recipes especially the oats uthapam we love it at our place and all of us have it.

Oats Upama

Ingredients for Cooking
500 gm instant oats
3 cm piece ginger minced
3 tsp ghee curry leaves
2 tbsp sesame oil
41/2 cups water
1 tsp urad dall
13/4 tsp salt
2 tsp channa dall
a pinch of asafetida
1 tsp mustard seeds
3 green chillies sliced
2 dried chillies
1 onion sliced
Method:
1. Heat ghee in pan and dry roast oats till fragrant. Keep aside.
2. Heat oil. Add mustard seeds, urad dall,channa dall and dried chillies. 3. When dall has turned golden brown add sliced onions, ginger and curry leaves.
4. Saute onions till limp.Add water salt asafoetida and green chillies
5. When water is boiling add oats a little to prevent lumping. 6. Keep stirring uppuma till water is absorbed and the oats are thoroughly cooked.
7. Serve hot with coconut chutney.
in a kadai tamper some rai,urudh dhal and mix all the veggie and oats .. add little ghee and salt to taste..

Oats Soup

you need :
oil or butter 1 tsp
oats 1 cup
finely chopped onion 1/2 cup
green chillies slit 1 (or you can avoid if your kid does not have chilli)
cilantro leaves finelychopped 1/2 tsp
veggies as per choice grated 1cup
milk 1 cup
water 1 cup
salt to taste
pepper powder to taste
corn flour 1 spoon


Method:
In a pan add oil and fry the onions and green chilies then add in the veggies cook for a min.
Then add in the oats and fry for 1-2 mins and water and cook for 3 mins. Mix the corn flour with ½ a cup of milk and add to the pan and cook till it thickens and then add the remaining milk.
Garnish with coriander leaves and salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Oats Pancakes

Pancakes
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional as per the stir ins)
1-1/4 cups fat-free milk
1 egg, lightly beaten (optional)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Stir-ins (optional)
· 1 medium-size ripe banana, mashed, and pinch of ground nutmeg
· 1 cup of pureed strawberries
· 3/4 cup finely chopped apple, 1/4 cup chopped nuts and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
· 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
· Or to make it uthapam style you can also add finely chopped onions tomatoes and grated carrot
· Or make it your style uthapam

Method
In large bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder and salt; mix well. In medium bowl, combine milk, egg and oil; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. (Do not overmix) Add one of the stir-in options, if desired; mix gently.
Heat a tava over medium-high heat. Lightly grease the tava. For each pancake, pour 1/4 cup batter into hot tava. Turn when tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Turn only once.