The goodness of wheat

I always like to give a variety of cereals to my daughter. Usually, it is oatmeal with a fruit or dry fruits (see my second post) in the morning, rice and dal (with vegetables) in the afternoon and wheat in the evenings. Unfortunately, my daughter is not interested in chapathis at all. I keep hoping she begin to like it some day but so far, my plan has always derailed. Whenever I offer her a piece of chapathi, she opens her mouth, tastes it religiously spits out every morsel, making me all nervous about what else I should give her for dinner.
Finally, I decided to give broken wheat (also known as dalia or semba) a try and thankfully, she loved it. Broken wheat has a wholesome taste and really goes well with all kinds of vegetables. My little one hates ghee but doesn't notice it when included in the semba pongal.

Broken Wheat Pongal

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of broken wheat (dalia or semba)
1 teaspoon moong dal
A small piece of finely diced ginger
A few curry leaves
Salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ghee
Any vegetables your child likes or you want to include (best in grated form).

Method:
Dry roast the broken wheat and moong dal. Then in a small vessel add the dry-roasted mixture, the cumin seeds, salt, ghee, curry leaves and ginger (and the vegetables). Pour adequate water to cook and place in pressure cooker. I usually let it cook for at least 4 whistles.
Tada, the pongal is ready. Now, my daughter always likes to add a twist to ruin my plans. I usually start with the plain pongal and if she gets a little fussy during the meal, I add some rasam to the pongal and she usually cooperates for a couple of more spoons. When she gets tired of this mix too, I throw in my truimph card -- yoghurt -- she loves yoghurt and usually gulps down a couple of more spoons before she figures out my gameplan :). Viel Glueck!