Corn Flakes Rava Laddu

 For special occasions or Festivals this is a very easy recipe - kids and all will love these Corn Flakes Laddus!!!

 

LADDU

I made Corn Flake Rava Laddu on the first day of Durga Pooja - also called as Nav Ratri, the first day of Dasara /Dusserah is called as Mahalaya. On this day Hindus believe that divine mother Goddess Durga will descend earth.

INGREDIENTS

• Corn Flakes - 1/2 cup
• Fine Sooji (wheatlets) - 1.5 cup
• Water - 1 1/4  cup
• Milk /cream - 1 cup 
• Sugar - 1 cup ( you could use no calorie sugar sweetner if you do not want sugar)
• Ghee - 3 tablespoons
• 3/4 cup finely chopped dried fruits - cashews, almonds, pistachios, raisins
• 1 1/2 tsps cardamom powder (made from green cardamoms)

PREPARATION

Heat the ghee on a medium flame till hot, add dried fruits

Grind the Corn Flakes in food processor and make it medium to fine.

Roast the Sooji (stirring frequently) in 1 tablespoon of ghee, till it begins to turn a very light golden color

Add the sugar and mix well.

Add 1.5 cups of water in a deep pan and boil.

Now add Corn Flakes (grinded one), Sooji, you will get a thick batter, whisk to ensure all lumps are removed and the batter is very smooth.

Now gently add the milk, stirring all the while to prevent lumps from forming.

Add the dried fruits,nuts and raisins now and mix well.

Allow the mixture to cool down.

Now form the mixture, a little at a time, into small balls (Laddus). Press gently but firmly with lightly greased palms to ensure they have no cracks and are firm and smooth.

Allow the Corn Flake Laddus to cool to room temperature before serving

Corn Flake Laddus can be made ahead of time and stored in a cool, dry place in an airtight container for about a week.

 Enjoy home made yummy laddoos with friends and family for any special occasion !!!!

Veggie Salad with Avocado dressing

This salad is a kaleidoscope of color and taste!!!!

Veggie Salad with Avocado dressing

I like the Avocado dressing for my salads so much - again very easy recipe, colorful, tastes yummy and healthy - excellent source of veggies! Avocado is considered to be a super food ... its fantastic for babies(5 months you can start as avocado puree) et for all !!!! They are an excellent source of monounsaturated fats that lower “bad” cholesterol and are good for the heart. 

INGREDIENTS:

• Vegetables : Green, Red Pepper, String beans, Mushroom
• Beans: Chick peas, Black beans,  Red kidney beans and Yellow sweet corn
• Fruits: i have added strawberry and kiwi (you can just keep it veggie without the fruits) 
• For Avocado Dressing:
  1 ripe avocado (about 3/4 c.)
  1 table spoon fresh lemon juice
  1/4 table spoon salt
  1/8 table spoon black pepper

PREPARATION:

• AVOCADO Dressing:Cut ½ of the medium sized avocado from the skin, de-seed it, slice it into small cubes and put it in the food processor. You can add Salt and pepper to taste. This is ready to be served in seconds 
• Chop green and red pepper into nice big rounds
• Slice mushroom to thin slices
• Leave the string beans as is 
• Bake vegetables green, red, pepper, string beans
• In nice sized bowl, add chopped vegetables on top
• Mix the veggie salad with Avocado dressing (1 cup of avocado will have 322 calories)

Very healthy and Enjoy Veggie Salad with Avocado dressing for lunch or dinner!!!!



Chipotle style Rice Veggie Bowl

Pressed for time? These easy and tasty dishes are perfect for families ...

Rice Veggie Bowl

I like this chipotle styled Veggie bowl so much and learnt this from my mexican friend. Very easy recipe and yummy


INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup long grain white rice
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves 
• 1 lime 
• 1 -2 tablespoon olive oil 
• Vegetables : Green Pepper, Onion, lettuce, black beans,   
• Salt and pepper
• shredded cheese to taste
• Sour Cream / Yogurt 2 tablespoon to taste
• Tomato Salsa to taste

PREPARATION:

• Add rice to water and stir.
• When rice is cooking add lime juice and cilantro. 
• Mix well and keep it covered till ready to serve
• Chop lettuse, pepper, onion, tomato long (do not fine chop) 
• Heat Olive oil and add sliced peppers and onions.
• Heat olive oil on medium heat.
• Add Salt and pepper to taste
• Add vegetables and stir-fried till brown
• In nice sized bowl, add rice 1st, then hot vegetables on top, next add shredded cheese, sour cream and salsa.

1 cup serving is 225 calories - very light and healthy. Total cook time is 30 minutes.

Enjoy "chipotle" styled Veggie Bowl !!!!!



Poori with Bean Curry, Cabbage pickle and Yogurt Chutney for Dinner

Pressed for time? These easy and tasty dishes are perfect for families ...

POORI with Beans Curry, Yogurt Chutney and Cabbage Pickle

Combination of poori with beans curry, yogurt chutney and cabbage pickle is very light for dinner and healthy for all .

There is something warm about the flaky, puffed up and crispy Poori that wants to make you crave for more - kids love poori any time. It took me half hour for poori but all the worth for the taste .... Total cooking time is 45 minutes.

Yogurt is great for the immune system and helps to fight harmful toxins in the body. Apart from that it contains calcium, protein, riboflavin and vitamin B 12 and is low in fat. So I try to include yogurt or curd in one form or the other in the daily diet of my family. One of the dishes I make using curd is the curd chutney also known as yogurt chatni or dahi chutney. This yummy recipe goes well with dosa, idli, roti, chapathi and poori.

1 cup of green baked beans you will get 380 calories and cabbage is the nutrition power house(rich in Vitamin C) 

 Ingredients :

• Poori - Wheat flour 2 cups. Myda flour 1 cup. Oil to fry. Salt to taste
• Vegetables:  Beans, Carrot, Onion, Cucumber and Cabbage
• Yogurt - 2 cups ( beaten well for chutney) 
• Salt and Lemon juice for taste
• Curry leaves and corriander leaves
• Seasoning stuff 
• 1 pinch black pepper
• 1 tsp Dry roasted and powdered cumin seeds ( for yogurt chuteny)

 Preparation :

Beans Curry:

Cut beans 2cm in length

Bake Beans instead of boiling  

Seasoning: 
Heat oil in a pan,  add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, ural dal and hing. 
Add onions and fry them

Add beans, curryleaves to onions and add a pinch of salt for taste.

 Yogurt Chutney :


Finely chop onions, carrot, cucumber and corriander leaves.
To the well beaten yogurt add the vegetables
Add 1 tsp of grounded black pepper 
Add pinch of Salt to taste. 



Seasoning: 
Heat oil in a pan,  add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and hing. 
Mix yogurt and all the seasoned ingredients in a bowl and mix well. 


Serve Yogurt Chutney chilled.




 Cabbage pickle :


Finely chop cabbage into small pieces 1 to 2cm in size.



Seasoning: 
Heat oil in a pan 
Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad, chana dal and hing to oil 
Add curry leaves
Add seasoning stuff to the cut cabbage pieces
Add Salt and Lemon juice for taste

Cabbage Pickle is very easy to make and tastes very good with poori / chapathi / roti. 


Leave your comments!

Poori

Pressed for time? These easy and tasty dishes are perfect for families ...

POORI with Cauliflower-Tomato Curry and Yogurt Chutney 

  

Combination of poori with tomato curry and yogurt chutney is very light and healthy for all .

There is something warm about the flaky, puffed up and crispy Poori that wants to make you crave for more - love poori any time. It took me half hour for poori but all the worth for the taste .... Total cooking time is 45 minutes.

Yogurt is great for the immune system and helps to fight harmful toxins in the body. Apart from that it contains calcium, protein, riboflavin and vitamin B 12 and is low in fat. So I try to include yogurt or curd in one form or the other in the daily diet of my family. One of the dishes I make using curd is the curd chutney also known as yogurt chatni or dahi chutney. This yummy recipe goes well with dosa, idli, roti, chapathi and poori.

 Ingredients :

• Poori - Wheat flour 2 cups. Myda flour 1 cup. Oil to fry. Salt to taste
• Vegetables:  Tomato, Cauliflower, Carrot, Onion, Cucumber and Cabbage
• Yogurt - 2 cups ( beaten well for chutney) 
• Salt and Lemon juice for taste
• Curry leaves and corriander leaves
• Seasoning stuff 
• 1 pinch black Pepper
• 1 tablespoon dry roasted and powdered cumin seeds ( for yogurt chutney)

 Preparation :

Check out Cauliflower-Tomato Curry and Yogurt Chutney

 

Leave your comments!!!

Tomato Milk Shake

Tomato Milk Shake

Health Benefits:   

 Tomato is very low in calories and fats; but rich source of dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins; recommended in cholesterol controlling and weight reduction programs.

It is one of the wonderful vegetable, has drawn the attention of millions of vegetable lovers worldwide for its incredible health promoting properties. Interestingly, it has much more health benefiting qualities than an apple! 

Ingredients:   
2 big tomato (serves 2)
1 cup  fat-free milk
1 cups fat-free no-sugar-added vanilla ice cream(fat free)

Preparation:   

1. WASH the tomatoes in warm water. 
2. PLACE tomatoes in blender container. Add milk and ice cream; cover.
3. BLEND on high speed until smooth.
4 SERVE chilled.

Nutrition value:  
There are 154 calories in 1 cup of Tomato Milk Shake - this can be taken along with breakfast - very healthy way to start your day - Try it!!!






Leave your comments!!!! 

Spicy Potato Fingers

Spicy Potato Fingers

Ingredients :

Corn Flakes, Plain - 1 Cup
Red Chilli powder - 1 Tea Spoons
Salt - 1 Tea Spoon
Cumin Powder - 1/2 Tea Spoon
Coriander Powder - 1/2 Tea Spoon
Oil - For Frying

Preparation :

• Heat oil on medium flame for 5 mins
• In a plate, crush to coarse powder, Corn Flakes and 1/2 tea spoon Red Chilli powder
• Peel off Potato and cut them into long wedges, to the size of our small finger
• In a bowl, mix salt, cumin powder, coriander powder, 1/2 tea spoon oil and add potatoes into the bowl
• Mix well and allow to marinate for 20 mins
• Once marinated, take each piece of potato and cover it up in the corn flakes powder completely. If powder does not stick completely, take some powder on palm and potato over the powder and press firmly
• Drop the pieces of potato into oil, slowly and allow to fry on medium heat. Do not overcrowd potatoes in pan
• Once the potato is crisp, turn upside down
• When potatoes turn golden brown remove them on to a plate and drain off oil from fried potatoes onto a paper

Serving :

• In a bowl, take tomato sauce (any commercial sauce available), add mint sauce or paste, 1/2 tea spoon
• Add 1/2 tea spoon lime juice into this paste and mix well
• Serve as taster to the Spicy Potato Fingers

Grape Milk Shake

Grape Milk Shake

Ingredients:    

Grapes - pick Red nonseeded grapes. Red and purple grapes are chock full of healthy antioxidants.
1 cup  fat-free milk
2 cups fat-free no-sugar-added vanilla ice cream

Preparation:   

1. WASH the grapes in warm water. 
2. PLACE grapes  in blender container. Add milk and ice cream; cover.
3. BLEND on high speed until smooth.
4 SERVE chilled.

Nutrition value:  
There are 154 calories in 1 cup of Grape


Try Grape Milk Shake today  and let me know how its tastes - hope you will like this recipe - Leave your comments!

Basic sponge cake

This is a very simple sponge cake that you can try at home in a microwave.

Ingredients

Refined Flour (Maida) - 1 tablespoon

Castor Sugar - 1 cup

Cornflour - 2/3 cup

Eggs - 3

Cocoa Powder - 1.5 tablespoon

Vanilla Essence - 1 teaspoon

Baking powder - 1 teaspoon

Salt - To taste

How to do it all:

1. Sort Egg Whites and beat it up nice and fluffy. Then slowly add Castor sugar to this slowly and let it mix well. If you dont have a beater, a juicer/mixer would do great too!

2. Beat the egg yolk as well and mix it in the (1st) mixture. Mix in Vanilla essence.

3. Meanwhile sieve together the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, salt.

4. Now in a wide vessel, put the flour mixture and to this slowly add the egg mixture. You dont have to beat this mix again. Just an easy hand is enough. Make sure no lumps are formed. If you have beaten the eggs well, you wont have trouble with lumps at all.

5. Place this cake mix in a greased vessel (Microwave safe one ofcourse)

6. Place it in Microwave mode HIGH (800) for 2 mins. Then check if it is done. Else place it on HIGH again for 30 seconds. Else the cake is ready to serve.

Tips: If you want a Coffee flavored cake, you can pour in Instant coffee over the cake while it is still hot, or any flavored jam dissolved in water to give you that flavor.

If you are a Diabetic, you could go in for just 1/2 cup of Castor Sugar instead of 1 cup.

Garnishing suggestions: People who have an easy hand at icing, can go in for a beautiful icing on this cake followed by colourful fruits or simply cherries!

Vanilla Grape Cake

Vanilla cake

Vanilla Grape Cake

Ingredients :

Ready made cake mix (1 box)
Eggs - 3 Nos
Oil - 1/3 Cup

Optional :

Coffee Powder - 1/2 Tea Spoon
Vanilla Essence - 1/2 Tea Spoon
Nuts - Chopped - 1/4 Cup
Raisins - 1/2 Cup
Dried Cherries - 1/4 Cup

Preparation :

• Mix Cake mix, Egg content and oil
• Ensure no lumps are formed and there are no air bubbles
• Using a beater, either manual or electric, beat the mixture for either 2 mins of 50 hand beats. If no beater is available, you can run the mixture through a mixie for 2 mins
  
• Once the mixture is fluffy and soft, mix all the optional ingredients and keep mixing for another 30 seconds. Do not use any beater
• In a cake pan, put a little butter and apply it all over
• Put some all purpose floor (maida) and dust the entire pan so that the cake does not stick to the pan after baking
• Pre-heat the conventional oven to 350 C
• Now, place the pan into the oven and bake

Baking Time :

• Simple thumb rule is, wait for a minimum of 35 mins and then poke a small stick or fork into the cake, deep into the cake and remove it
• Check if there is any liquid left over in the bottom of the pan. If yes, then allow to bake for another 5-10 mins as required.
• Repeat above operation until cake is completely baked. Do not worry about crust sides and top of cake
• Once the cake is baked, remove the pan from the oven and allow to cook for 30 mins
• Once cake is cooled, remove cake from Pan and transfer onto a flat plate or tray
  

Decoration :

• If the sides of cake is crusty, use a long knife and gently trim off the crust
• Cake, after bake, would have a bulged top and hence gently trim off the top to make a flat surface
  
• Now turn the cake upside down. Since the down part is flat, we will it for decoration. The intent of flattening the cake in the above step was to have a flat bottom.
• Use cream frost available in market and the frost once is at room temperature, apply all over the cake and the sides. Do not perform this operation in a warm place as the frost might meltdown
• Once the cake is covered with the frost, put it into the freezer for 5 mins to ensure the frost is not melting
• Cut your favorite fruits and freeze them to keep them fresh. Ensure as many colors fruits as possible
• Remove cake from freezer and start decorating the fruits on the cake
• Freeze once again until fruits stick completely to the cake
• After 10 mins of freezing, remove cake from freezer and store it in normal refrigeration compartment
  

Serve Chilled

Appadam

Home made APPADAM

One of my favorite snacks is "Appadam",  otherwise called as papad in few areas. I have so many fond memories of making these along with my mom, sister and sometimes even  family, neigbours together we use to plan, make so many varieties of Appadam(papad) and Vadiyalu (Rice Fritters). I used to run go upstairs ( daba) to look if they were yet ready or not ....

Of all of the Appadam i love Sagoo Appadam the best, it tastes so yummy. After we moved to Canada, i used to miss the andhra style sagoo "appadam" so much, ofcourse there were different types of papads like urid dal( black gram), rice, potato, lentil, chickpea versions of appadams.

Some of my friends did not believe when i said i am going to make home made appadam ...As in winter time in canada you could have sun heat for few hours it was not enough for drying the appadams ..... i made the traditional recipe by adopting the microwave magic for drying .... Again after looking at my first attempt making these at home all by myself was very rewarding. Drying of appadams became so easy after we moved to Sunny California - every summer i do it for the whole year  ... before going to work i serve the appadams in keep them in sunny spot and they dry by evening.

I have also tried adding edible food colors to Appadams, they look so colorful.

Serve South Indian Thali with home made appadams!!!!

Guthi Vankaya (Stuffed Brinjal)

Guthi Vankaya Kura 

 Guthi Vankaya is one of Andhra traditional dishes, very tasty and easy to make. This tastes good with hot Rice dishes, Biryani.

Ingredients 

• Veggies: Tender Brinjals (Indian) , Onions, Ginger
• Peanuts
• Seasoning
• Salt, Tamarind and Red chillis for taste

Grind the peanuts in a food processor

Wash the brinjals in warm water

Slice them in the middle , do not cut the pod

Stuff the brinjals with the peanut powder and be generous

•  Add 3 tablespoons of Oil in big pan, season and add the brinjals slowly

•  Grind ginger paste and add that to the brinjals, cover with a lid and leave it for 10 minutes on medium heat - occasionally stir them

Guttivankaya kura goes very well with Biryani, Pulav or White Rice!!!!

Try this recipe and let us know what you think! Leave your comments!