Weet-Bix quick fix

Eureka!! Don't you just love it when you whip up new recipes on your own? I'm beaming right now 'cos I figured out what to do with the big box of 'Weet Bix' (blocks of wheat flakes, eaten cereal style with milk) sitting morosely in a dark corner of my kitchen cupboard. The story so far: A couple of months ago, I was doing a course on English Teaching to Adults (CELTA) and as always, there was an excited pre-course shopping spree where I bought brand new pretty stationery, new shoes (well yea-huh!) etc, and the Weet Bix was part of it. 'I need something healthy and quick for breakfast every day' was my reasoning when M raised an eyebrow at the largest pack on the shelf that I had picked up. And, as always with me, that which began with a great flurry, faded away gradually. I might have had it for breakfast precisely two times! So, back to my eureka moment, the other day I wanted to make something light, healthy and quick for lunch and I opened my kitchen cupboard and stood staring at it as if something would talk to me :-) Then I saw the box and thought I'd experiment a little. And the result was quite good! So here's the recipe.

4 blocks of Weet Bix (well, they're nothing but wheat flakes shaped like biscuits. They may be called something else in your local store. See picture.)

1 onion, chopped

a handful of peanuts

1 tbspn desiccated coconut

1 small potato, boiled and lightly mashed

red chilli powder, cumin powder, salt and sugar to taste

1 tbspn oil

Crush the weet bix to get a bowl of flakes. Sprinkle (not pour) water until you slightly wet the flakes. Adding too much water will make it a porridge! You need to get the avalakki/poha/beaten rice effect.

Heat oil in a wok/pan and add chopped onion. Cook till soft.

Add peanuts and desiccated coconut and saute for a while.

Add mashed potato.

Add chilli powder, cumin powder, salt and sugar and mix well.

Tip in the damp wheat flakes and give it all a good mix.

Serve hot.

I noticed that the texture of this dish is very much like avalakki/poha, but it has an interesting touch of wheat. Light, healthy and quick. A huge plus for me is that I can now finish the rest. I'm actually planning to add some more veggies and flavours to it. Maybe I'll also try something sweet, mmmm...Well, one never knows when one will say 'Eureka!'