Saturday, June 12, 2010

Whole wheat and Almonds payasam



Given a chance, I have every excuse to stay out of diet plans. This was the case until recently.
I pride myself of not falling sick and enjoy street foods to delicacies provided they are vegetarian.
Then the recent set back was an eye-opener. I had to listen to my body and not abuse it. I decided that I will plan and stick to healthy, yet 'no compromise on taste' food pattern.
Result: I cut down my tea intake, switched to green tea, kanjis/porridges, 'low on oil and spices' dishes.
And I am loving it! Feels good to hear people tell you that you look better :) Combined with a mandatory 40 minute @ 6 km/hr walk on the treadmill is keeping me fit. I have no inclination for the afternoon nap, sleep soundly at night and so on.
I made this kanji powder combining whole wheat, almonds and roasted gram. To add flavour, I ground some cardamom and saffron along with. I have this free of sugar every morning.
Today, I had to make payasam for neivedhyam and quickly fixed this with the ready made powder and full cream milk and of course sugar.
As for the kanji, it takes few minutes to be ready with this powder, dissolved in water to cook and one boil with the milk. However, for the payasam, I let it simmer for a while to bring out the creamy texture and the sugar to blend well.


Ingredients for the powder:
1/2 cup whole wheat
1/4 cup roasted gram
10 numbers almonds
3-4 pieces cardamom whole
Few strands of saffron

Dry roast each separately on a heavy bottomed pan on low to medium heat until well roasted but not very brown or charred.
The saffron should take less than a minute if it is done last and the pan is already very hot.
Combine the roasted ingredients. Allow to cool.
Powder coarsely to fine in a mixie. This filled about 3/4ths of a 450 grams Ovaltine bottle.
The powder stores well at room temperature for about a month.

Add 200ml of water to 2 teaspoons of the powder, bring to a boil, add milk as required. Remove from heat when mixed and Kanji is ready.
Add extra powder and extra milk and sugar as desired for the payasam texture.


19 comments:

  1. Nice recipe. thank GOD you are marching towards normal health.Still the same case with me, not able to eat outside and so on.

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  2. Thanks for sharing this healthy powder, payasam looks super delicious and thick..Quite a filling dish..

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  3. lovely tempting and healthy payasam.

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  4. hi lata thanks for dropping by and giving me a chance to explore your delicious blog :) love this porridge mix recipe. i think i will make this and keep will be great for my daughter as well! wholewheat = i hope you mean atta?!?

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  5. Thank you everyone:)
    @ KQ Indu, You are off for a while?
    @ Rajani, Thank You Rajani...I used whole wheat grains that I had purchased for halwa. They powder easily once roasted. But I was once told by an elderly neighbour that roasting atta works as well. I might do that if I ran out of wheat kernals.

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  6. Akka, super idea to use the kanji powder to make payasam... Looks very creamy. Great to hear you feel good.

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  7. You have made a very healthy resolution.I am not able to stick to it as I am on vacation and I am going crazy the way people feed me here just becoz I don't get the yummy stuffs back home.I know they do it with love but poor me is getting fatter ;)Anyways,ur payasam looks fabulous and a unique idea too!!!!

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  8. Good for you for trying to lose wt Lata. Even I was overwt 1 1/2 yrs ago, mainlyt cooking for very blog event and eating them for 2-3 days! :D
    Then after lot of stress last year. I lost wt anmd then I stopped cooking for blog events too, only link it if I already have dishes which I cooked for family to post and I started eating half the amount of food I normally ate, worked for me. Now I have lost 2 dress sizes, feels so good!:)

    Good luck to you, Payasa looks yum, Almonds are good for you.

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  9. Payasam looks very delicious and festive :)
    Its good that you try to keep yourself fit, walking is the best excercise :)

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  10. Wow very delicious payasam! first time here very nice recipes.
    do visit my blog if time permits.
    http://premascooking.blogspot.com

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  11. I like your kanji-mix recipe. Am glad you are feeling better.

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  12. OMG...cant believe kheer with wheat. A healthy dessert...looks very yummy.

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  13. Good to know you are feeling better ! The wheat payasam sounds awesome, and I love the idea of kanji too, will definitely go buy whole wheat on my next trip to the grocery to try this kanji...

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  14. That's a really interesting recipe, Lata! Hope you feel better soon.

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  15. This is new for me..n looks delicious..

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  16. really interesting recipe..the powder thats so delicious and healrthy one..the payasam looks so yumm

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  17. Superb idea payasam looks so yummmmmmm.......

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  18. Sounds very interesting. Healthy and tasty, its not easy to come up with that sort of a combo.
    Sounds a lot like parippu knaji but we add jaggery nad coconut milk with lentils.

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Hello,
Welcome and thank you for taking time to drop by.
I appreciate your valuable comments and tips.
I sincerely hope to improve with them.
Hope we shall interact often.
Thanks once again,
Lata Raja.