First Instant Pot Run!

I bought an Instant Pot for Mother's Day as a gift to myself but before I could open it, we sold our house and had to move. After many months, I finally opened my Instant Pot 3 days ago. After doing the initial test run, I decided to make sona masuri rice in it.

Since it was my first time making this rice in the instant pot, I used 1:3.5 ratio for water for the rice and decided to use 10 minutes of high manual pressure with 20 minutes of natural pressure release and let the steam vent after that. 

As you can see, the rice came out well cooked - if a little over cooked. Next time, I will use less water and release the steam after 10 minutes of natural pressure release and see if that helps. I will update the post then. 

Saving money on groceries

Recently, we had some family visiting for a few months and as a result, our grocery bills shot through the roof. It's back to being just us again and I'm trying to reduce our grocery expenses.

One of the reasons our grocery bill gets so high is we buy a lot of groceries at the local indian grocery store and it tends to be the biggest part of our grocery budget.

1. Use a discount grocer or warehouse club - options for me are Trader Joe's, Market Basket, Costco, ALDI's and Sam's Club
2. Choose your primary store and learn its layout
3. Watch the store flyer each week
4. Make a meal plan and grocery list
5. Stock up big on sale-priced non perishables
6. Listen to uptempo music while you shop
7. Figure out the price per unit when buying a specific non perishable item
8. Shop your pantry - meal plan around the items in stock in your pantry

So I'm going to start meal planning soon and use the rest of these tips to reduce our grocery costs every month. I will keep updating on how that's going.

Eight Discount Grocery Strategies

Corn and Capsicum Tikki

I made this Corn and Capsicum Tikki yesterday and it was really yummy. I forgot to take pictures but it was fairly simple to make and pretty fast. It is pretty healthy and a good evening snack.

Corn and Capsicum Tikki recipe

Tomato Cucumber Feta Salad

One of my favorite salads (of which there are few) is the Greek Salad at Panera Bread. I want to start eating more salads to lose some weight and eat more healthy and one of the salads I came across was a Tomato Cucumber Salad. I made some modifications to it based on what's at home and made a Tomato Cucumber Feta salad with a vinaigrette dressing. It was awesome and I just loved it.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 Tomatoes, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt
Pepper
3 oz Feta Cheese, crumbled
a few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Directions:

1. Peel and take out the seeds from the cucumbers. Then chop them up into small chunks.
2. Cut the tomatoes and remove the seeds. Then chop them up into small chunks. 
3. Finely chop and add the flat-leaf parsley.
4. Make the dressing by adding olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt & pepper and mixing it up. Add this to the cucumbers and tomatoes and toss to coat.  
5. Crumble the cheese on top. You can mix it up to coat the cheese or leave it on top.  

Recipe: Potato Fry

Fried Potatoes are one of my favorite dishes - especially served with curd rice. Yum! And the best thing about this recipe is that it is very simple to make!

Recipe: Potato Fry

Ingredients: 

Small Round Potatoes
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of Red Chilly Powder
Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Pressure cook the potatoes just till they are cooked but still firm. In my pressure cooker, that's upto one whistle.
2. Once it's cooled down, peel off the skin of the potatoes. They should slide off fairly easily. 
3. Take a non-stick skillet or pan and heat the oil on medium-heat. 
4. Once oil is hot, add the mustard seeds. 
5. Once the mustard seeds start to splatter, add the chilly powder. The chilly powder will turn brown
6. Keep the heat on medium-high and add the potatoes and keep stirring them. Keep moving them around every 2 mins so they don't burn in one spot. 
7. Add salt
8. Continue till you see more brown spots and all the potatoes look well-fried. 

Fry "Applam" in the microwave

I was watching the TV show "The Kitchen" the other day on Food Network. They had a part of the show where some of the hosts talk about microwave uses.

One of the tips mentioned was how to make potato chips in the microwave and to make sure they are crunchy. I thought why not try the same thing with appalam. I thought this would be great since I did not have to use up a lot of oil to enjoy my favorite appalam.

So, the tips says to start with a microwave safe plate and take a piece of parchment paper and spread some oil on it - enough to cover the area. I just poured a little bit of oil on it and spread it with my fingers around the parchment paper.

I first tried with pepper appalam chips which I had bought in India. I put a few side-by-side and put in microwave for 2 minutes. This came out very well - crunchy and not oily.

Next, I wanted to try a whole appalam. I put the appalam on it and kept it in the microwave for 2-3 mins, depending on your microwave. This came out decent but not perfect - some of the edges I felt were not fully cooked. So on my next try, I tried to spray the side facing up with oil (using Pam cooking spray). Then I put in microwave for 2-3 minutes.

This came out well. My husband grabbed it from my hand before I could even taste it. :)

Try this recipe out and let me know how you like it!

Fry "Appalam" in the Microwave:

1. Take microwave safe plate and put a piece of parchment paper on it
2. Pour a little oil on it and spread it around the parchment paper with a spoon
3. Place the appalam or appalam chips on it
4. Put in micro

Recipe Tryout: Skillet Potatoes

I've been meaning to try out some recipes which I've come across online or on Food Network TV shows. So here's my first try.

I saw the Food Network TV Show "Daphne Dishes" on TV the other day and saw her make Skillet Potatoes. It looked tasty and I love potatoes and seemed simple enough - so thought I'd try it. I followed her receipe for the most part with some substitutions - I substituted Gold potatoes instead of russet potatoes and used 1/2 a stick of butter instead of a whole stick. Also, I used a 8-inch cast iron skillet instead of 10-inch.

And here's the result! I made it 2 times and both times it got a little burnt instead of even heating - not sure if it was the skillet or the heat was not correct.

My husband's verdict was that it tasted good except for the burnt parts. I might try this receipe again some time but use a different skillet and see how it comes.

What I've Been Reading Lately

15 Secrets To Saving Money on Amazon :- I shop at Amazon a lot and am an Amazon Prime member. I was familiar with a lot of these secrets but there were a few I hadn't heard of - Amazon Warehouse and Amazon Outlet.

An Easy Lowtech way to limit screentime :- This is a cool idea - only charge your device once every 2-3 days; this means the kids have to budget their screen time or they are not going to get till you recharge next. This is also a great way of teaching them to budget time like money.

Kitchen Tool School: Everything About The Cast Iron Skillet :-  I bought a cast iron skillet recently and just seasoned it following the directions here. This should be useful as I start using this skillet.

Naan Pizza

My husband got some naan bread from Costco the other day and he ate it with some curry. He wasn't too impressed. I remembered that my sister had mentioned she makes pizza with it sometimes. So I thought why not try the same.

I google'd for some recipes and finally a found one I thought I could use with what I already had at home.

Here's the recipe I used from another blogger - I made some minor modifications.

Update: Use fresh shredded mozzarella cheese. I had bought finely shredded mozzarella cheese from the store a couple of weeks ago and tried this recipe again and the cheese didn't melt at all.

Naan Pizza with Peppers & Onions:

Ingredients (for 2 pizzas):

1 Small Green & 1 Small Red Pepper, chopped up
1 Onion, chopped up
2 Naans
Marinara Sauce (store-bought)
Italian seasoning - to taste
Crushed Red Pepper (if you like it more spicy)
Mozzarella Cheese (finely shredded)
Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Chop up the peppers and onions. 
2. Take the Naan and put it on a baking sheet (I used aluminium foil on a baking tray)
3. Apply marinara sauce generously and spread it around the pizza
4. Add the veggies and spread it
5. Sprinkle the seasoning & crushed red pepper on top
6. Take a pinch of salt and spread it as well 
7. Add plenty of cheese and spread it around.
8. Place in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. 
9. Result = yummy naan pizza!

Sundal

Recently, I made Sundal after a long time. It's a south indian snack made of garbanzo beans or chick peas.

Here's the recipe I used:

Sundal

Ingredients:

2 cans of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
Curry leaves
3-4 red chilis, broken up in half
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon fresh/frozen grated cocunut              

Directions: 

1. Drain and rinse the garbanzo beans. Drain again. 
2. In a deep frying pan on medium heat, add the olive oil and let it get hot
3. Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and wait for it to sizzle
4. Add the chilis and curry leaves and let it fry in the oil for a few seconds. 
5. Add the cocunut and let it fry for a few seconds
6. Add the beans and mix it well. Add salt to taste and mix well. 
7. Let it cook for a few minutes and turn the heat off. 

Zucchini chips

We harvested some zucchini from my garden a few days ago and I was planning to make zucchini muffins with it - however, I ended up making banana bread instead. So I ended up making some zucchini chips instead.

I followed the recipe here However, I made 2 big mistakes and that kind of ruined the whole thing. The recipe said to use parchment paper or silicone baking mat and also to take the chips out when they start to brown. I didn't do both.  I waited for another 15 mins and didn't use parchment paper.

The result was my chips browned all over and they stuck to the baking sheet and wouldn't come out. Next time, I think I will follow these instructions and make slightly thicker slices too - I made there 1/8" thick but perhaps I should try the next thickness.

I will post the results with photos on my next round.