Hunger Action Week 2010 : Day 3 with an Indian Vegetarian Dinner at $9.78

We are now on the Day 4 of the Hunger Action Week, just one more day to go and I am really looking forward to it. This time it has been tougher than what it was last year. For one, my snacking has increased a lot over the last one year and I have conditioned my body to get something to eat every couple of hours. Also since Im prone to acidity if I don't eat per my habit, it is kind of tough on me right now to just eat three meals and one snack a day. Looking at how much we spent on day 3, i easily could have had a couple of snacks in between, but I wasn't sure how much we ended up spending that day and didn't want to go overboard. The second thing is that, this year the challenge is at a certain point in my life where I am busy with something and need to focus on that. Whereas last year, I was just out of my recent job and had all the time in the world to cook all three meals a day. In spite of all this, we are still surviving and doing great in terms of keeping within the budget. Our day 3 looked like this :

Breakfast

Coffee	$0.18
Cereal and milk	$0.25
Scrambled Eggs	$0.38
Blueberry Banana Smoothie	$1.25

Lunch : leftovers from the day before, which is already accounted for.

Dinner

Vegetable Pulao ~ Basmati Rice with Carrots and Beans and spices	$3.88
Tadka Dal ~ Yellow Split Lentils tempered with spices	$0.96
Aloo Gobhi ~ Potato and Cauliflower dry curry	$0.75
Raita ~ Yogurt with grated carrot and cucumber	$1.95

Evening Coffee : $ 0.18

Here is what we had for dinner, with the recipes.

Vegetable Pulao

2 cups Basmati Rice 4 cups water 1 tsp oil 2 bay leaves 1” piece cinnamon 3 cloves 3 cardamom pods 1/2 red onion, chopped 1 carrot, cut in half lengthwise and chopped 1 cup chopped green beans Salt to taste

Wash the rice and keep aside. Heat the oil and add the spices to it. When the cloves begin to splutter, add the onions to it. Add the carrots and green beans too. Sauté for a couple of mins and add the rice to it. Add 4 cups of water, salt and bring to a boil. Lower heat and let it cook, undisturbed, till small holes form on the surface and steam starts to escape from it. Switch off the heat and let it sit on stove, covered.

Tadka Dal

1/2 cup yellow split lentils 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp oil 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 dried red chili 1/4 red onion, chopped 1 tomato, chopped 2 Thai green chillies, minced salt, to taste

Cook the dal / lentils well with the turmeric powder, until mushy. Mash and keep aside. Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds. Let it splutter, add red chillies and the onions and green chillies too. Saute for a few mins, Add the tomato and after a few more mins, add this to the lentil mix with some salt. Turn on the stove to medium heat and let it just about come to a boil. Switch off and serve hot with pulao.

Aloo Gobhi

2 potatoes, cut into big cubes florets from 1/2 a cauliflower 1/4 red onion, chopped 1 tsp oil 1 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 2 tsp red chili powder 1 tsp cumin powder 1/2 tsp coriander powder 3 tsp chopped cilantro salt

Heat the oil in a wok. Add the cumin seeds, let it splutter, add the onions to it. Let them brown. Add the potatoes, turmeric, red chilli, cumin and coriander powder. Mix well. Saute for a while and add some water to cook the potatoes. Once potatoes are just about cooked, add the cauliflower too. Add salt and let the cauliflower become soft. Garnish with cilantro.

Raita – For the raita, grate a peeled cucumber and half a carrot. Beat the yogurt with some water. Add the cucumber and carrot to it. Add some chopped green chillies and cilantro too. Add salt as well. Garnish with a pinch of toasted cumin powder.

Again, here is where you can find all of my last year’s Hunger Challenge Posts and a list of the blogs participating in this year’s Hunger Challenge can be found here. Don't forget to Donate to “Yes We Can!” Project to raise money for Hunger Action Week!