5 Quick and Healthy Tiffin Recipes

Every morning the only question that hovers in a mom’s mind is “Aaj tiffin me kya dein”?

We, moms always look out for such recipes that are easy to prepare and also have nutritional value. This year my munchkins started their school and giving them nutritious tiffin has become a daily affair for five consecutive days in a week. Coincidentally, the Indian Government has declared the month of September to be National Nutrition Month which also inspired me to write a post on Nutritional recipes for our Preschooler’s Tiffin.

So before we dig into the 5 Quick and Healthy recipes for Tiffin. It’s important to keep few things in mind before we prepare one for our toddlers.

Few things to keep in mind while preparing Tiffin.

• Colouful platter
• Interesting shapes (Use cookie cutters)
• Variety of food items ( min. 3 items)
• Non Messy food / Finger food

While preparing tiffin I usually keep the above pointers in mind. This helps me to prepare their tiffin in more approachable way. Recently, during my first PTM received a lovely surprise when there was a special mention in the grade card about the nutritious tiffin they bring. That little compliment made my day.

So, here we go !!

Five Quick and Healthy recipes for Kid’s Tiffin

1. Rawa or Suji Vada

No hassles of soaking lentils(Urad Dal) and rice for making this crispy vadas. Great to taste and good tummy filler recipe for your tiny tots.

Recipe : Prep Time – 15 – 20 mins

Ingredients

• 1 cup – suji / Rawa
• 1/2 cup – curd
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Chopped onion
• Chopped Capsicum (optional)

Method :

1. Take a bowl add Suji and curd to it . Mix it well add salt as per taste and keep it aside for 15 mins.
2. Then add chopped onions, chopped capsicum and black pepper . I avoid adding green chillies for obvious reasons and prefer black pepper.If you find the dough little thick you can add little water to it. Avoid making it too watery or else you would be forced to make pancakes instead of vadas.
3. You can also add a pinch of baking soda to make it fluffy and soft .
4. Heat the pan add oil to it and fry the suji balls .

Place a tissue paper on the plate and keep hot fried vadas on it. The excess oil is being absorbed and your crispy Vadas are ready to be munched.This recipe can also be served as evening snack.

2. Raw Banana Cutlet

Health benefits of raw banana are numerous and one cannot deny the fact. They are known for good heart health and brain function.

Recipe: Prep time : 15 -20 mins

Ingredients:

• Medium sized Boiled Raw Banana -1
• Medium sized Boiled Potato – 1
• Slice of Bread – 1
• Chopped Onion
• Medium sized Carrot grated
• Salt and Black pepper
• Half inch Ginger grated
• Chopped coriander leaves
• Rusk / Suji for coating

Method

1. It’s less time consuming if you have Pre- boiled Raw banana and potato ready. Prefer Boiling it the previous day and refrigerate it after cooling . Boil the vegetables in pressure cooker with skin and give single whistle only.
2. Take a bowl add peeled raw banana and potato in it. Mash the vegetables using hand or fork or masher, however it suits you. Add a slice of bread in small pieces so that it mixes well and not the entire bread in one go.
3. To the mix further add grated carrot, chopped onion, grated ginger , salt and black pepper as per taste. At the end add chopped corriander leaves.
4. Shape the mix as balls, or like tikkas or like cutlets as per your kids choice. Use cookie cutters to give interesting shapes like star, heart, flower etc. Dust the shapes in rusk and rawa mix to give a coating on your cutlets that makes them crispy from out and soft from inside.
5. Shallow or deep fry as per your preference. Keep the fried cutlets on tissue paper to absorb excess oil.

3. Bread Pizza

This is the most easy and hassle free recipe out of the lot.

Recipe : Prep Time 10 -12 mins

Ingredients

• Bread Slice
• Regular Tomato Ketchup ( sweet or kid’s choice)
• Parmesan Cheese ( Britannia Cheese block)
• Chopped Onion ( medium sized chunks)
• Chopped Capsicum or Bell pepper ( Yellow or red)
• Frozen Sweet corn

Method

1. Take a slice of bread, spread regular tomato ketchup by a spoon or knife over it. Decorate the slice and try making it as colourful as possible with Yellow and Red Bell Pepper , onion chunks, sweet corn etc.
2. Grate the cheese on the decorated slice of bread. Bake it for 10 mins in Pre-heat oven. You can use convection mode in the microwave to make it crispy.
3. Cut the piping hot pizza or your slice of bread in four quaters to make it size friendly for your kid. Small chunks are easy to pick and eat.

4.Mini Uttapam

This is one of the most healthy recipes. It is energy booster food as it has the goodness of lentils as well as cereals. All you have to do is to soak 1 cup Urad dal (lentil) and 1cup rice previous day for 8hrs and then grind it to make batter. Mix and wash well the soaked ingredients before grinding it. Keep the consistency of the batter medium not very thick.

Recipe : Prep Time – 15 -20 mins ( If batter is ready)

Ingredients

• Urad Dal (Lentil) – 1 cup
• Raw Rice – 1cup
• Chopped Onion
• Chopped Capsicum
• Grated Carrot
• Chopped Tomato
• Salt
• Chopped Coriander leaves

Method

1. This recipe is quick if the batter is ready . If you want to serve it as Tiffin for your kids then soak the ingredients for batter a day before and grind it after soaking for good 6-7hrs.
2. Take a bowl and add batter to it . Add little salt beforehand it helps in making your uttapams fluffy as salt helps in fermentation.
3. Heat a flat nonstick pan, brush little oil on it. Take a serving spoon to spread the batter over the pan don’t make abig one try making small uttapams .
4. When you start seeing the steam and pores appearing on your uttapams spread the chopped veggies on it. It imparts a very vibrant and colourful look to those mini, fluffy Uttapams . Flip it by a wooden spatula to other side.
5. If you think that uttapam size is little big for kids then cut them into halves or quarters as per your kid’s convenience.

5. Chick Peas Tikka

Chick Peas or Chhole are one of the high protein food and one need not rant about it’s health benefits for our growing toddlers. This is another quick recipe which tastes great,easy to prepare and healthy undoubtedly.

Recipe : Prep Time 15-20 mins

Ingredients:

• Boiled Chhole
• A slice of bread
• Chopped onion
• Grated carrot
• Grated ginger
• Salt
• Black Pepper

Method

1. Pre-boil chickpeas a day before and keep it handy for next day Tikka.
2. Take a mixing bowl, add boiled chickpeas or Chole, a slice of bread into small pieces so that it blends well with the chickpeas. Add chopped veggies, salt and Pepper as per taste or preference of your child. I usually avoid chillies but if your child can handle a bit of red chilly powder or green chillies then go ahead to give that extra zing to your Tikkas.
3. Make small balls and give a pat in the centre of balls to make them flat, typical tikka shape. Actually this shape is given so that they can be cooked properly in shallow frying.
4. Heat a frying pan brush little oil to it and fry the tikkas till both sides have golden brown crispy layers.
5. You can serve hot with chutney or ketchup as snacks in the evening also.

Voila ! you are done with an easy and colourful tiffin for your kid which they would finish for sure.Stay tuned for more posts on parenting and kid’s recipe.

You can also read other Kid’s related article which I have recently published on my blog Warning signs of Language delay, Fun exercises for speech clarity in kids regarding developmental issues of kid.

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