Pita Pockets with Veggie patti filling

This is a very simple recipe, easy to make and fast to have, yet healthy too. All you need in you is some laziness and ingredients at home. we can have this as lunch/dinner/snack. My kids started loving this. Most of the people might know this already, but still wanted to share it.

Ingredients
Pita pockets
Hummus
Veggie patties

Method of preparation
Cut the pita bread in half, and open the pocket of it. Now apply hummus according to your taste to inside of the pita bread. Roast/heat the veggie patti until it is done. Now cut the veggie patti in half and insert it into the pita bread as shown in the photo. Your lunch/dinner/snack is ready. Enjoy !!!

Note: if you have patience and need more taste in it, add the chopped onions, cucumubers and stuff inside the pita bread. Tasty and healthy addition.

Noodles with peanut touch

 I loved the outside recipe from a store which I do not want to mention name. I got inspired from them, and started trying my own at home with linguine which I made it ready. So Linguine in peanut with little other ingredients I got the recipe and taste which I like. Adding a couple of veggies to make it healthy.

Ingredients
Onions - 1 chopped
Carrots - 2 grated
Brocolli florets - 1 cup
Peanuts - grinded (not total soft... but nutty flavor) - 1/4-1/2cup
Linguine - cooked as per instructions on box. (you can use other noodles also)
Oil - 2-3 tablespoons
Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Soy sauce - 1 spoon
hot and sweet sauce - 2- 3 spoons (can adjust according to your taste)

Method of preparation

The recipe is simple. Cook the linguini or noodles according to the package instructions. drain it and make them ready. Take a pan and add oil to it. once oil is heated add cumin and then rest of the veggies. once the veggies are slightly cooked, add the soy sauce and hot and sweet sauce to it along with the noodles (linguine in this case). Add the peanut powder at this point so that the noodles have it mixed in between. serve it hot once done.

Dondakaya Aloo Fry/Tindora Potato Fry curry

This was  a quick and fast curry made and kids will surely love it. I chopped the Tindora pieces very small  (vertical 4-6 slits and then 4-6 horizontal wise on them). I used teh bed bath and beyong chopper to cut both of them so that I can get same height of the pieces getting cooked and looks nice too.

Ingredients
Tindora - chopped very small (Cut vertically 4-6 slices and then chop into very small bits)
Potatos - try to chop them small too (may be a little bigger than tindora but not too big)
Cumin
Oil
Red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Mustard seeds (optional)

Method of preparation
Take a pan and add some oil to it. When oil is hot then add cumin seeds and add the tindora and potato's to it. This curry will not take much time to cook as the pieces are very small. So make sure you are near the stove or stir it in between. Add red chilli powder, salt and coriander powder (optional). your curry is ready to serve. Enjoy!!!

Strawberry Ice-cream (made at home)

This is first time when I used my icecream maker to do some ice-cream at home. It is little healthy as it contains all the strawberries puree (from fresh strawberries).

I used the following ice-cream maker. One thing I observed is I reduced the sugar quantity and it turned out to be a little sour. As my husband says "it is just like I am eating strawberry :0 ". Well I took it as a compliment. 

 Here is the way I served them the fresh ice-cream. Since the sugar quantity is low, I served then in a cone. The cone biscuit compensated the less sugar and it turned out to be really good while eating. I topped it with little tutti-fruity. so Enjoy the view and I will post the standard recipe I used soon. Till then... Happy Cooking.....

Healthy Cookies

This is a recipe from a friend of mine. Thank you Deepali for sharing the recipe. This is easy to make cookies and healthy too. So you try it and let me know how it is. :). Just make sure that the time you put the cookies in oven is not too much otherwise they turn out too crispy.

Ingredients

1 cup soft butter
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup powdered milk
1teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs ( you can use 1 cup buttermilk or egg replacer also, I used egg replacer )
1 1/3 cup rolled oats
2 1/3 cup wheat flour ( I use chappati flour)
1/2 cup chocolate chips / raisins


Method of preparation
Mix all the ingredients till vanilla extract. Mix them together till they blend in and then add the rest of the ingredients and mix to make the dough. Bake at 350 degree f until slightly brown. It often takes 10-15 mins but depends a lot on size of cookie. Turn them over after 10 mins and let them cook for another 5 mins.

Try it and enjoy the cookies !!!!

Tomato Thokku/Pachadi (long term)

To all my dear readers, this tomato thokku or pachadi can stay for long period like more than a one month or so. So we can make it once and keep enjoying it for close to one month or more. I learned this recipe from my mother in law when she was visiting us last month. try it and do leave your comments as usual :) Thank you all.

Ingredients
Tomato (Get good red ones) - 8
Red chilli powder - 1 cup (or 1 big sambar spoon ish)
Tamarind - little more than lemon size
Salt - 1 cup and little more
Mustard seeds powder - 1 table spoon
Methi powder - 1 and 1/2 table spoon
Oil - 8 table spoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 table spoon
Asafoetida (Hing) - 1/2 table spoon

Method of preparation
1) Take a kadai or pan (take wider one) and add couple of spoons of oil. Cut the tomato's into medium sized pieces. Once the oil is heated, add the tomato's to it.
2) Remove the seeds from the tamarind. Now spread the tamarind on the chopped tomatos. Add salt to it.
3) Do not mix it. Once the tomato's are cooked, turn off the heat. Now add the red chilli powder and other powders to it.Mix everything and leave it for couple of minutes.
4) Blend the above mixture. not too pasty but just for couple of seconds.
5) Do the tadka/popu/poNi by taking oil in a small pan, heat it and then add mustard seeds. Once mustard seeds starts spluttering, add the hing to it and turn off heat. Add the tadka and mix well. (Oil should be oozing out a little. )

Note: If you feel that oil is more, then do not worry. Oil, salt and red chilli will be more in the items which needs to last for long time.
This Thokku/pachadi is eaten with white rice or with any other thing.
It can be eaten the instant it is made too. So enjoy it the way you like it.

(Will post some pictures soon).

Cake pops (with maker)

Before the holidays I wanted to badly try this cake pops with the maker at home. So I finally managed to get one cake pop maker to home and try it out at a holiday party. First time of try, they tasted good and came out very nice, however I was very naive in doing the decorating part. After a little bit of experimenting and getting ideas from other places, we were able to successfully decorate the cake pops.  I used my eggless vanilla cake recipe from the following link to make the batter and used the same for making pops. Sharing some pics from the making. I am planning to make more for my kids birthday's, so more photos will be added later.

Pesaru pappu pachadi/Moong dal ki Chutney

This is one of the quick and easiest pachadi's to make. Probably more authentic one too. I learned this from my attagaru when they were visiting us last month. here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Moong dal - Soaked in water for atleast for two hours

Hing (Asafoetida)

Red chilli powder

Turmeric

Salt 

For tadka:

Oil

Mustard seeds

Jeera

Hing (Asafoetida)

Curry leaves (optional)

Method of preparation:

Add the salt, red chilli powder, turmeric to the soaked and drained moong dal. Grind it coarsely in a blender.  Do the tadka with heated oil in a small bowl. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add jeera, hing and curry leaves. Add tadka to the chutney. Your chutney is ready to serve. This is generally goes good with white rice and ghee (or oil).