Cooking&more

As a mom, I'm always on the lookout for healthy recipes that will pack nutrition into my fussy preschooler. so when I saw this recipe for a healthy fruits and oats muesli I just knew I had to try it. I adopted the recipe to suit my preschoolers taste and the ingredients I had on hand. The original recipe is from epicurious. Original recipe Ingredients 1 1/4 cups quick-cooking oats 2/3 cup reduced-fat (2%) milk 2/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2/3 cup fresh orange juice 1/4 cup honey 1 1/2 cups grated peeled red-skinned apples (about 2 medium) 1 cup chopped raw almonds 3 cups chopped fresh fruit (such as apples, pears, and peeled oranges) Preparation Mix first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Let stand 5 minutes to soften oats. Whisk orange juice and honey in medium bowl. Stir in grated apples and almonds, then 3 cups chopped fruit. Stir fruit mixture into oat mixture. DO AHEAD: Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover; chill. Spoon into bowls. MY recipe 1/4 cup quick coo

My son turned  two this Saturday, and we celebrated his birthday along with his best friend’s, who turned two too (yeah too many ‘too’ sounds in one sentence, but I can’t help that!!!) a week before.  After me and my best friend P, who also happens to be the mom of the other kid, decided to celebrate both their birthdays together, there followed weeks of planning. To our respective husband’s amusement and exasperation we would spend hours at each other’s place discussing in detail about each and every aspect of the party. How many people would we invite? Should we hold the party at home or in a hall? What should be on the menu? Should it be just pizza and coke or a full fledged dinner? Should we cook it ourselves or give it out to catering? Should we go all out in decorating the halls, or would a few simple balloons do? What should the return gifts be for the kids? what color/type of tableware would we use? should it be themed? plain white? colored....well after endless planning and mi

DH is an absolute health food freak. He is far more happier if I give him a bowl of sprouted mung beans with a little lemon juice drizzled on top, than with all the exotic creations I slave for hours over. Whereas I am a junk food junkie, In my husbands own words, "I can literally live on pizza and potato chips." Many a time it's a clash between health and taste for me. And, though it makes things much easier for me generally to cook healthy, I really miss the crunch and taste of snacks like, say bhel? So here I came up with a healthy recipe for bhel/marmara/puffed rice mix. The original version is made with, tomatoes, onions and cilantro. I skipped the tomatoes, added oranges, apples, carrots and sprouted mung beans to the mix, making it much more healthier. This recipe is going to Divya's Dil se's 'show me your salad event'. http://divya-dilse.blogspot.com/2010/01/show-me-your-salad.html My very first entry to a food blogging event Healthy bhel/puffed r

It's 9:40 pm, kiddos asleep, dinners over, dishes are washed and stacked away. Kitchen counter is spotless and I'm free free free :-). This time is what I like to call my "me time"- time to relax, unwind and enjoy one of my favorite "me time" activities.  One day it could be pouring over recipes from different blogs and dreaming about making them some day. Many a recipe I have tried out has it's source in this pastime of mine. Another quirk of mine is I never look at a recipe and say. "okay, I'm going to buy all the stuff I need and make this recipe tommorow." I prefer to wait patiently for our weekend shopping trip and buy the ingredients. Sometimes if the recipe calls for exotic stuff that I normally wouldn't use, then I would sit on it for months. Day dreaming about it, planning the recipe out to the last detail, but I would still hesitate to buy the ingredients. Then finally one day I would summon up enough courage to buy the ingred

Made Bhareli Mirchi last week. Seeing the recipe for Bhareli Mirchi on one hot stove, brought back memories of my college days, where we would share our lunch boxes. A Maharashtrian girl in our group would bring this dish sometimes and we would eagerly look forward to it. So seeing the recipe made me want to try it out myself. Went to the grocery store and bought jalapeno peppers and made them the very next day. One small change I made to the original recipe is, I added about 1/2 tsp sesame seeds and 1/4 tsp saunf to the tempering Bhareli Mirchi 6-8 Jalapeno peppers 1 cup chopped cilantro 1 cup besan Salt to taste Red Chilli powder to taste Dhaniya jeera powder a pinch Oil for stuffing 2 tbsp oil for sauteeing wash and slit peppers leaving ends intact. Deseed and keep aside. In a bowl combine cilantro, besan, salt, red chilli powder and dhaniya jeers powder with enough oil to form fists. Stuff this mixture in the peppers.Finally in a pan heat 1 tbsp oil. Add

DS hid my peeler, and to share a guilty secret, I absolutely don't know how to peel with a knife. In the weekend DH bailed me out. Later I borrowed a peeler from the neighbour. But midweek I realized I had to make something that wouldn't need a peeler. Opening the refrigarator I saw a tomato and a big block of paneer, I knew I had onions and, that there was a bag of peas sitting in the freezer. Now, I know (humble, lowly, novice cook as I am) that tomatoes, onions, peas and paneer make a great combination. So I decided to make, what else, Paneer with creamed peas. Psst!! Another secret, there is no absolutely no cream in this recipe. Paneer with creamed peas 1/2 tsp Jeera/cumin seeds 1 cardomom 2 pepper corns 1 Block of paneer (12 oz appx) 2 tomatoes 2 medium sized onions 1/2" piece Ginger grated 3-4 garlic flakes/1-2 garlic cloves minced 2 tbsp cashew almond mix ( recipe below) 2-3 pieces of pineapple diced (optional) 1/2 cup green peas 2 tsp salt or to taste 1/4 tsp chil

Coconut chutney is the usual accompanient with idlis. But, at my in-laws place i learnt this unique and tasty recipe for a chutney with roasted peanuts and pudina. It goes very well with idlis, upma or any kind of dosas. Roasted peanuts and pudina chutney 1 cup peanuts 1 bunch pudina leaves (seperated from stem) 4-5 green chillies (slit vertically in half) 1 tsp salt or to taste 1/8 tsp tamarind paste For tempering 1/4 tsp mustard seeds/rai 1/4 tsp cumin seeds/jeera 2 red chillies asefotedia Dry roast the peanuts in a kadhai. keep them aside in a plate to cool. In the meanwhile, heat about 1/2 tbsp oil in the same kadhai and saute the pudina leaves and green chillies until the leaves darken a bit. Take care that the leaves don't become too dark. They should still retain their original green color. Grind the roasted peanuts, pudina and chillies along with salt and a little tamarind paste dissolved in water. The chutney should be the consistency of a thick porridge. Finally for the t