I get bored of bread very easily and often look for ways to spice it up and make it interesting. As a kid, my mom used to make this delicious form of bread upma which I used to pack and take to school. It is an easy breakfast item, or a quick snack for tea time. I made some this morning and it was so delish.

Ingredients Serves 2

Bread- 6 pieces, cubed Onion- 1 cup Tomato- 2 Chillies- 1 Turmeric powder- a pinch Oil- 2 tsp Salt- to taste

Method

1. Slice the bread and cut into cubes. I like the crusts but some people don't. If you like it, keep them, or else remove the crusts.

2. Cut the onion, tomato, and chilli.

3. Heat oil, add the onion and fry. Add the chillies and the tomatoes. Next, add the turmeric and fry for a minute. Now, add the bread. Coat the mixture on bread and serve hot with a cuppa tea or coffee.

Today for lunch, I had a bunch of leftover items from yesterday's lunch and dinner. None was sufficient enough by itself to satisfy my hungry belly, but voila! put together as a burrito, they were awesome! Here is what I was left with for today's lunch. 1. Vegetable pakodas

If you haven't yet walked down to your nearest Trader Joe's in Los Angeles to take a look at the Indian food that is available there, you are missing out on something! There is pakoda, aloo kati rolls, butter chicken, paneer butter masala, all available in the frozen section, and some of them are not bad. For example, the vegetable pakoda. Yesterday, after a long tiring day at work, I was walking back home after getting down from the bus and I decided to pick a packet of these pakodas from my neigborhood TJs. They are easy to make. Pre heat your oven to 400F, place the pakodas in a baking sheet. Put them into the oven for about 15 minutes. They even give you a tamarind chutney to go with it. So yummy!

2. Mint Pulao

Mint is heavenly! It is one of my favorite herbs. I had made a trip to the Indian store in Artesia a couple of weeks ago and picked up a bunch of mint leaves. There is only so much mint chutney you can make with it, and once I saw the leaves were beginning to die, I decided to make mint pulav with it. Now as you can see, there isn't enough to munch on for lunch. It definitely had to be complimented with something else.

3. Kerala parotta

I know a lot of you out there are huge on Indian breads. You have all eaten your naan, kulchas, rotis, phulkas. I agree they are good. But if you have the chance to pick up some Kerala parotta from the Indian store, you will fall in love instantly and forget all the other Indian breads you have ever had. It is so good, lipsmacking good.

This parotta (NOT paratha) is native to Kerala, my home state. It is made with wheat flour (maida) and egg, kneaded together with water and ghee. Instant love, right?

4. Mango thokku

I love any kind of "thokku". It is a kind of preserve that can be made with any kind of vegetable or fruit. My favorite is tomato thokku. easy to make, easy to eat with rice and yoghurt. This mango thokku was bought from the Indian store in Artesia, but you get it pretty much in any Indian store in LA. It is accompaniment to so many of the dishes I cook.

So now you have met the key players in my quick burrito for lunch idea. This is how I did it. I made the parotta by heating a flat skillet and tossing and turning the parotta till it became done. After this, I took a generous helping of the mango thokku and applied it on the parotta.