February 16, 2010

Paruppu Kanji ~ Shivarathri Special and Diet Chart Week#1, Day~1

Paruppu kanji is synonymous with Sivarathri. I remember its made only on the Sivarathri day at home and I too continue that tradition, inpsite of it being a simple, no fuss recipe. I guess, this simple, lighter version of payasam/kheer is more special since its made only once in a year. That special appearance in the menu helps to retain the charm. The paruppu referred in the name is moong dal and kanji means porridge. Paruppu kanji is usually prepared in the evening of Sivarathri day. Usually, for Sivarathri, a dawn to dusk fast is observed. May be to break the fast, this kanji is made.

Its not a complicated recipe. Jaggery is added to cooked moong dal and cooked again to blend and finally boiled milk is added to dal-jaggery mix.  If you have cooked dal ready, then it is very simple to put together.  Its a healthy drink to keep yourself warm during winter.





You need


Lightly roasted moong dal - 1/2 cup

Jaggery -1/2 cup.

Boiled Milk - 1 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn


Method

I usually roast moong dal before storing. Lightly roast the dal till you can smell the aroma. Wash and pressure cook in two cups of water. Lightly mash the cooked dal for a creamier consistency of the kanji. Add jaggery to the cooked dal along with the water its cooked with. Give a stir once in a while. The jaggery will melt and blend with the dal. Finally add a cup of milk and bring to a boil. Don't boil too much after adding the milk. Add cardamom powder and serve hot. You can bite into bits of the dal, though its almost liquid in consistency. Amount of jaggery and milk can vary according to your  preference.






Diet Chart Week #1 Day~1



For a long time, I wanted to go on an healthy diet atleast for few days in a month. But I was undecided as to
where to start with. Also could not come up with a healthy menu to follow. Then I decided to go off on sweet/deep fried on 2 days in a week. My husband was also ready to join in. We did that successfully for 3 months. Then the month of December saw many relatives visiting and various festivals. We fell back to our
old days. I was thinking of restarting that again and I saw Srivalli's diet program. Srivalli had charted the menu with help of her doctor father. And that was the kind of pointer I was looking for. It was easier to follow hers, since she too is a South Indian vegetarian. For the time being, I have planned to follow alternative weeks for a month and then later for two consecutive weeks. As for the first day, it went fine with out much trouble.  Though I did feel slight discomfort in the form of headache. But it was manageable. Thanks Srivalli for the inspire. Here is my chart for Day1.  My day starts at 5:15 a.m


6:00 a.m - 1 tspn ajwain/omam + 1 glass warm water

7:00 a.m - 3/4 cup coffee + 1/2 tspn sugar

9:15 a.m - 2 slices of wheat bread, toasted + 1 cup of moong sprouts+ cabbage salad

(MW sprouts and shredded cabbage for 4 minutes and added a dash of lime and pinch of salt)

11:15 a.m - half cucumber

1:00 p.m - 2 phulkas, Yard long beans/payar thoran/stir fry,radish sambhar and a glass of buttermilk

3:45 p.m - half cucumber and a glass of buttermilk

4:15 p.m - 3 slices of pineapple

5:45 p.m - 1 cup of tea with half tspn of sugar

7:15 p.m - cauliflower +ashgourd soup

8:30 p.m - 2 phulkas +snake gourd stir fry , tomato+onion salad, buttermilk

9:45 p.m - watermelon

Through the day, I have had 9 glasses of water (update - 2 glasses of lemon juice with honey) and 3 glasses of buttermilk.


I decided to blog the diet plan for future reference and also if it might be a motiviation for any of my readers to begin with. And since I have announced it here, that will be another reason for me to stick with the plan.




14 comments:

  1. Good luck for your dieting first of all! Nice recipe of kanji,sound good!

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  2. I made it too for ShivaRatri, we call it Payasa, coming up tomorrow! :)

    Glad you started the diet too. Looks like most of us, including me, needs some wt dropped off! :)

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  3. The diet plan sounds easy to follow.Im bookmarking this.Thanks for sharing

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  4. Good luck with the diet and the drink in the abaove post sounds lovely and healthy for the winter.

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  5. Jayasree, I am impressed with your schedule, great job. Trying drinking lemon juice, it should help. And since this being the first day, maybe you can avoid pineapple for few days. But I strongly recommend the lemon juice, rest looks great!..Yea now you got to follow for the schedule you have, else I will pester you..:)

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  6. Thank you so much for sharing your diet plan. I think its awesome, hats off to you.

    I too am following a diet plan but the difficulty is that I feel hunger pangs in the night.

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  7. Wow congrats for ur diet and its really healthy..paruppu kanji looks like payasam and tempting..

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  8. Good luck with the diet plan. Kanji looks filling and healthy. More like the paruppu payasam looks ;)

    www.ruchikacooks.com

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  9. Thanks Raks, Shama.

    Ashakka, this kanji version is less sweeter than payasam. Will wait for ur wednesday post.

    Shahana, do join in.

    thanks s.f

    Valli, I did have lemom juice with honey. Missed adding in the post. Okay,I will stay away from pineapple. Thanks again for the diet plan to begin with.

    Swapna, thanks dear. Are you writing about ur diet plans anywhere. I would like to have a look. Luckily hunger pangs doesn't strike in the night for me. Good luck to you too.

    Thanks Priyanka, Priya, Jagruti and Ruchika.

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  10. yummy payasam..i had fruits for shivrathri..
    nice diet plan...i am also following the diet plan..hoping to lose some weight..but too lazy to work out nowadays..

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  11. Good luck with your diet plan. I always admire anyone who sticks with it. :)

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