Orange-cardamom madeleines

Yes, the most popular traditional french treat with a twist of orange flavor. And most importantly, my little toddler's favourite cookies 😍. We usually enjoyed store brought till now but not anymore 😉.

Super easy, yummy and quick recipe.

Ingredients :

All purpose flour -1  cup (i prefer self-raising flour for baking)

Sugar white - 3/4 th cup

Eggs - 3 large

Butter - 4 oz melted

Orange zest from 1 medium orange

1 tsp cardamom powder

Baking powder 1 tsp

Usually this recipe contains vanilla extract but i skipped it. For sweettoothers like me, u can even have them during tea time as well but they will be on sweeter side though!

1. Beat eggs and sugar with hand mixer until you see creamy texture. Well beaten is the key for soft madeleines.

2. Add melted butter.

3. Sift the flour and tuck in the flour little by little and mix well.

4. Add the orange zest, cardamom powder and baking powder; mix with a spatula.

5. Pour the mixture into the madeleines molds/pan.

6. Preheat the oven at 450 F and bake for 4 mins and then reduce the temp to 350 F and bake for 4 more minutes. This helps the batter raise at high temp and then slows down giving the nice bulgy shape to cookies. Temp varies from oven to oven - so please keep an eye to avoid burning.

Once the cookies are done, u can let them cool down before enjoying.

Oats-raisin cookie cakes

Happy Valentine's day!

Today i wanted to make someting special yet healthy treat for my little son and my husband ofcourse and here is the outcome 😊

I dont want them to be hard as cookies at the same not thick as cake! Hence the name 😉

And the ingredients are :

Oats  -  1.5 cup ( quick cook oats)

Raisins - 1/2 cup (i used golden raisins as i am lazy for impromptu shopping 😜)

Brown sugar - 1 cup

Whole wheat flour - 3/4 th cup

All purpose flour - 3/4 th cup (i used self raising flour but regular flour will do)

Eggs - 2

Butter - 2/3 rd cup

1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp baking powder

Boil the raisins (until they become fluffy) in a open pot with some water, strain and rinse with cold water to cool them down.

Rinse and strain the oats. ( optional step - i dont like to use them without washing.hence i do it)

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs, butter and sugar with hand mixer or a hand whisk will do.

Sift the flours and add it to above mixture.

Add the rinsed oats, boiled raisins and mix altogether.

Set the oven to 360 degrees F.

Grease a cookie tray with some melted butter and spread the mixture on the tray about 1/2 inch in thickness.

Bake for 12 mins or until done. A toothpick or fork test can be done by poking at the middle of the batter to check if its done. If the baking is done, no batter will stick to the fork.

Once it is done, take out the tray, cut the shapes u want with cookie cutters, let them cool down and enjoy 😀. 

My husband and my little naughty son both liked them a lot 😎 and i am happy as they are 😄.

Oats Chakra pongal

Happy Pongal/Sankranthi (as we call it). It is our harvest festival and since rice is the staple food, we make rice pudding on this festival. With a twist to the traditional dish, i made chakra pongal with oats instead and it came out delicious. Here is the simple yet healthy recipe :

All you need is :
Oats             -     1 cup
Moong dal   -     1/3 cup
Jaggery        -     3/4 cup (more or less to your taste)
Water           -     2 cups
Milk             -     1 cup
Cardamom powder -  1/2 tsp
Cashews, raisins, shredded coconut(optional) to garnish.

(1) a. Soak moong dal for atleast an hour. (helps to cook fast).
      b. Optional - clean/rinse your oats and strain.
(2) Boil water in a bowl/saucepan and add soaked moong dal to the boiled water.
(3) Once the dal is half cooked, add rinsed oats and let it cook with open lid. Remove any unwanted foam you get after adding oats. (this will take atleast 10 mins)
(4) Meanwhile boil milk and add boiled milk to step (3).
(5) Add jaggery and cardamom powder as well and let it cook for a few more minutes.
(6) Take a tbsp of ghee in a separate pan and saute cashews, raisins and coconut until golden brown and add it to pongal.
Once the pongal is completely cooked, turn off the flame and serve it warm to God/guests/kids :).

Tip : Adding boiled milk to pongal reduces the spill hassle.

Mac-n-cheese

The most popular and the most favourite kids meal 😀. I made it with a slight twist. Here it is :

1/2 cup raw maccoroni noodles (i used Annies's organic noodles..)

1/2 pack of cheddar cheese that comes with Annie noodles.

1/4 cup whole milk

1 tbsp butter

Salt and black pepper to taste.

1. Boil the noodles in pressure cooker - yes, you heard it right. Please check "Tip of the day" at the end of this post.

2. Once the pressure cooker is ready, take a pan with butter, and pour the boiled noodles in the pan, add cheddar cheese powder, milk, salt and black pepper and stir it until the milk absorbs.

Thats it, very easy, quick and eco friendly kids favourite macncheese ready... And my little darling Vihaan loves it 😍.

Tip of the day :
Pressure cook the pasta :
No need to boil pasta/maccoroni noodles in an open pot and strain it!
In a steel bowl, take ur noodles and pour water just to dip them. Pressure cook them little more than you make for dal (lentils). Eg: For my pressure cooker, it takes 12 whistles for pasta ( while it takes 8 whistles for dal). Easy way and saving water

Spicy fried idli

Yes, very quick, yummy and spicy snack! Today i felt like eating very spicy snack...hence the recipe 😊

4 idlis, 1 green chilli, salt, 1/4 tsp of peanut powder, 1/4 tsp of spicy idli powder (idli karam) cilantro and tempering.

Take oil in a pan for tempering. 

Add a few cumins, mustard seeds, chana dal, green chilli once the oil heats up.

Add chopped idli pieces as soon as the tempering is done and let it stir fry for 5 mins.

Sprinkle, salt to taste, idli karam, peanut powder, cilantro, let it cook for another 2 mins and - yummy and spicy fried idli ready!

A simple Apple-Cinnamon cake

Dear Family & Friends, extremely sorry for the delay in my posts. Have been little busy with my little one  😀. Will try to post more frequently 😊.

Coming to the recipe, here are the simple ingredients :

1 small apple ( i used fuji) chopped

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour ( i used self raising but simple all purpose will do)

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking powder AND 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

1/4 cup oil AND 1 cup water

1/2 cup brown sugar (i used jaggery powder instead)

2 tbsp white sugar (i always like the special taste enhanced by brown and white sugar combo)

Nuts optional

Preparation

                 Pre-heat oven to 360 degrees F. Meanwhile prepare your batter.

1. Whisk egg, sugar, oil. Add water.

2. Add sifted flours slowly and tuck in well with water.

3. Add baking powder/soda, cinnamon powder and nuts (optional) and then chopped apple and mix well.

4. Bake it for 25 mins or well done. Thats all...yummy,simple and soft apple cake ready 🍰 😊

Oats and Sweet potato muffins

Finally, got a chance to update my blog after a very long time. I was almost about to forget that i have a blog that i need to take care of along with my sweet little darling 😍. 

These are very easy to make/bake and my lil darling loved it 😊.

Here are the ingredients :

Rolled oats  1 cup

Grated sweet potato 1/2 cup

Eggs  2

Milk  3/4 th cup

Brown sugar  1/2 cup

White sugar 1/2 cup

Wheat flour  1 cup

Oil  1/4  cup (i used canola oil)

Baking powder 1/2 tbsp

Baking soda 1/4 tbsp

Optional :

Dried cranberries  1/4 cup

Dash of cinnammon powder and cardomm powder

Few chopped almonds and cashews for occasional crunchy bites

Let's start :

1. Whisk eggs, brown and white sugar.

2. Add milk, flour, oil, oats, shredded sweet potato and mix well altogether.

3. Now tuck-in nuts, cranberries, cinnammon and cardomm powder.

4. Finally add baking powder and baking soda and mix the batter. Do not overmix after adding baking powder and baking soda.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Add muffin liners (optional) to muffin pan, fill each liner upto 3/4 th (leaving some room for the muffin to rise).

Bake them for 30 mins. 

Red Velvet cupcakes

First of all, wishing you all very very happy and prosperous new year :)

Finally updating my blog after a super long time with my first success trial for red velvet cupcakes. Hope you all like it. Here are the yummy ingredients (am listing the ingredients in the order i prepared the cupcake batter)

Makes upto 30 cupcakes (based on the size of the cupcakes)

Prep time : 10 mins

Bake time : 20 - 25 mins

1 C  unsalted room temperature butter

3 C sugar

3 Eggs room temp

1.5 C buttermilk room temp

1 oz red color

3 C all purpose flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder (i used hersheys unsweetened cocoa powder)

1/3 C  oil (i used canola oil)

2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt to enhance the flavours (optional)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1. Beat butter and sugar until it becomes crumbly (i used hand mixer for the whole batter preparation)

2. Mix well the batter by adding each ingredient one by one.

Batter should look like this

3. Add the liners to cupcake pans and fill in the each liner with the above batter.

4. Bake them for 20 mins at 360 degrees F.

 5. Let them cool down and decorate with your favorite icing. Am just lazy and used store bought cream cheese frosting with colorful sprinkles to get kids attention ;)

Thats it, yummy yummy red velvet cupcakes ready :)

Apricot oats bar

I had been watching giada's shows and this caught my attention. Wanted to give it a try and it turned out delicious(with slight changes)! Thanks Giada :).

Recipe ingredients 

7 oz apricot jam and 6 oz mixed fruit jam(kissan)

8 dried apricots

1 3/4 th cup all purpose flour

1 cup golden brown sugar

1 TSP cinnamon powder

3/4th TSP baking soda

1 1/2 cups quick oats

1 cup (4 oz) chopped walnuts

12 TBSP unsalted melted butter

4 TBSP canola oil

1 large egg and 1 TSP vanilla extract

In a small bowl, mix the 2 jams and chopped apricots.

In a large bowl, whisk egg; add flour, sugar, cinnamon and baking soda.

Add butter, walnuts, oats, vanilla extract stir the whole dough until well mixed - this will be ur crust mixture.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (based on ur oven make).

Spread half of the crust mixture in a 11x9 in pan.

With a spatula, spread the jam on the crust leaving 1/2 inch border around the edge of the crust.

Cover the filling with the remaining crust mixture and spread evenly; slightly press to flatten.

Bake for 30 mins, until golden brown. Remove from oven and let it cool for atleast 45 mins (if you do not press the crust hard enough before baking, bars will become soft textured and might break down).

Store in air tight containers for 3 to 5 days.

15 mins Basil fried rice

Rice 2 cups

Fresh basil leaves 1 cup

Onions 1 big

Green chillies 6

Ginger garlic paste 1/2 tsp

Cardamom powder 1/4 tsp

Cashews

Cilantro

1. Cook rice.

2. Meanwhile chop onions, green chillies and basil and cilantro.

3. Saute all the ingredients with 5 tbsp of oil.

4. Add cooked rice and toss altogether.

Thats it, yummy and quick rice ready.

Chocolate dipped strawberries - Bananas

After a long time, i tried this party hit dessert :). Here i want to share the simple and damn easy process.

Fresh strawberries  - 12

Half ripen banana   -  1

Semi sweet chocolate chips - 1.5 cups (i used nestle chocolate chips)

Almonds  - 1/2 cup minced

1. Clean and dry strawberries. Preserve the crowns. Chop the banana into round slices.

2. Freeze banana slices in freezer for atleast an hour.

3. Add 1 tbsp of oil/butter to chocolate chips and microwave for 2 mins(little less or more based on power of ur microwave). 

4. Now, dip each of the strawberry in chocolate and then in nuts and let it set on a wide tray. Repeat the process for frozen banana slices as well.

5. Refrigerate all dipped strawberries and bananas for an hour or until chilled. 

Thats it, yummy choco dip strawberries and bananas are ready.

PS : if microwave is not available, you can use traditional method for melting chocolate. For this, take about a cup of water in a sauce pan. Place another vessel on top of it, make sure the top bowl does not touch water in the sauce pan. Pour chocolate chips in the top bowl, switch on the flame and keep stirring until the chips melts.

Almond - Wheat Cookies

Hi All, today i came up with zero-butter yet healthy/tasty recipe! Try it and enjoy the taste.

Prep Time : 8 mins
Bake Time : 25 mins (or until done)
Count :  22 cookies (based on the size of patty you make)

Here are the ingredients :

Wheat flour   -  1 1/2 cups
Almonds       -  1/2 cup
Sugar           -  3/4  cup  (i used confectioner's sugar)
Cardomom powder -  1/2 tbsp
Oil               -  3/4 cup
You can add dash of baking powder if you want but not necessary.

And here are the quick steps for prep and bake :

--> Blend almonds into coarse powder.
--> Take wheat flour, coarse almond powder, sugar, cardomom powder and toss the entire mixture by adding oil slowly and make it as a dough (dough should have the consistency as we make dough for rotis).
--> Now make into small pattis (and stick in sliced almonds into each patty - optional).

--> Set the oven temperature to 360 degrees F.

--> Meanwhile, place each patty on a wide pan leaving about thumb size gap among cookies.
Tip of the day -  Place Parchment paper OR use re-usable baking sheet inside the pan instead of applying butter/spraying oil (i use re-usable baking sheet).
--> Bake cookies upto 25 mins (less/more according to your oven).
--> Once they are done, take out the tray, let them cool down for few mins.

--> Thats it, yummy/healthy guilt free cookies ready to enjoy.

Tofu - Mutter

Ingredients
Tofu  -   1 no. (i used extra firm tofu)
Frozen Peas -  1/2  cup
Onion  - 2 medium
Tomato - 2
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
Red Chilli powder  1 1/2  tsp
Rosemary  -  1/4 tsp
Kasoori Methi (Dry fenugreek leaves) - 1 tsp
Cardamom powder  -  1/4 tsp
Oil to saute
Salt to taste
Cilantro (optional)

Preparation
--> Prepare tofu by draining away excess water from tofu.  (Please refer to #7).
Meanwhile :
--> 1) wash frozen peas and set them aside.
--> Chop onions, tomatoes.
--> Now your tofu should be ready without excess water.
--> Chop tofu into cubes and saute them first with oil enough for saute. Set sauteed tofu aside.

Sauteed Tofu

--> In the same pan, saute chopped onions until slightly tender - add ginger-garlic paste, add salt.
--> Add kasoori methi, rosemary, cardamom powder.
--> Let the mixture cool down and blend it to coarse gravy.
--> Pour the gravy in pan, add peas from step (1), add red chilli powder, add sauteed tofu; Stir altogether and cook for few minutes on slow flame.
--> Finally garnish with cilantro and serve it hot (don't forget to switch off the flame ;) ).
This curry blends well with rotis, but as am lazy, i just serve with white rice!

Aloo Methi curry (Potato - Fenugreek leaves)

This is the quickest version that i make.
Ingredients
Potatoes  -  4 no.
Fenugreek leaves (Methi) - 1 big bunch
Onions  -  2
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Tomatoes - 3 medium
Green chillies - 2 thai
Red Chilli powder -  1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil to saute
Amchur powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2  tsp (more/less to ur taste. i use little amt just for the flavour)
Mint  -  few leaves
Cilantro (optional)

Preparation
--> Boil potatoes, let them cool down; peel and chop each potato to 4-6 pieces;  set them aside.
--> Take oil to saute; Add chopped onions - until they turn slightly tender, add salt, add ginger-garlic paste, add green chillies.
--> Add chopped fenugreek bunch; saute until crisp (Some like to use only leaves, but i chop along the stem. since i will saute it until crisp, we don't feel the bitterness)
--> Add chopped tomato and cook until well done. Let the whole curry cool down.
--> Blend the curry.
Tip :  For thick texture, you can add couple of boiled potato pieces while blending.
--> Take the gravy out of blender to pan. Let it cook on slim flame. Now its time to add powdered masalas.
--> Add boiled and chopped potatoes; amchur powder, garam masala, red chilli powder, mint and cilantro.
--> Let the entire gravy cook for 5 minutes on dim flame. Switch off the flame and serve it hot with rotis/rice.

Broccoli - Bell pepper stir fry

Tried this interesting combination and turned out good!
Ingredients 
Broccoli  -  2 florets
Red Bell pepper - 2
Onion - 1 medium
Oil to saute
Salt to taste
Red Chilli powder to spice
Corriander powder (optional) - 1 tsp
Cilantro for garnish

Preparation
--> Take oil to saute; put tempering.
--> Add chopped bell pepper, cook until slightly tender.
--> Add chopped broccoli, stir together, cook until almost done.
--> Now, add thinly chopped onions and cook until well done (If we add onions at beginning, they will burnt by the time we are done cook bell pepper and broccoli - so we are adding onions as last step).
--> Finally add red chilli powder, corriander powder and cilantro to garnish.

Cabbage Stir-fry

Ingredients 
Cabbage -  1 no.
Green chillis - 4 thai
Moong dal (yellow color) - 2 tbsp
Oil  to saute
Salt to taste
Cilantro to garnish (optional)

Preparation :
3 simple steps for this regular cabbage stir-fry!
--> Soak moong dal for 30 mins.
--> Put tempering, add chopped chillies, add cabbage.
--> Add soaked moong dal, add salt,  stir together, cook until well done. Garnish with cilantro.

Tindora Stir-fry

Tindora also known as Ivy gourd, is rich in beta-carotene.
Am bringing the shower of day-to-day recipes.. here is one


Ingredients :
Tindora -  0.5 lbs (1/4 kg)
Chana dal (split chick peas) - 1 tbsp
Green Chillies - 4 Thai  (or less as you need)
Coconut (shredded) - 2 tbsp
Salt  to taste
Cilantro to garnish
Oil to saute

Preparation :
1) Soak chana dal for 20 mins - meanwhile chop tindora vertically as shown in the image.
2) Prepare chilli paste with chillies,coconut, salt and cilantro.
3) Put tempering, add soaked chana dal, stir altogether, cook for 5 mins.
4) Now, add chilli paste that you prepared in step 2.
5) Cook until well done; garnish with cilantro and stir-fry tindora is ready to serve with roti/rice.

Kobbari Pulusu (Coconut soup)

One of my favourite recipe that my sweet grandmother use to make in our childhood. Tried the same recipe and it came out yummy -  heartful thanks to my grandmom (thank you ammamma :) ). Here, want to share the recipe :

Ingredients :
Shredded Coconut -  1 cup
Chana dal (Split chickpeas)  -  2 tbsp
Tamarind - lemon size
Green Chillies   -   2 Thai
Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Sambar powder (optional - i used the one that i made)  - 1/4 tsp
Oil  for tempering
Salt   to taste

Tempering Ingredients :
Urad dal, Cumins, Mustard  -  all about 1 tsp
Curry leaves, Asafoetida (hing), Turmeric   - to taste

Preparation:
--> Soak chana dal for atleast 20 mins.
--> Squeeze tamarind in small amount of water to make tamarind juice and keep it aside.
--> Put tadka (add all tempering ingredients), green chillies with about 2 tbsp of oil.
--> Add tamarind juice and let it cook for 2 mins.
--> Add soaked chana dal and cook for another 2 mins on medium flame.
--> Add shredded coconut (i used regular frozen coconut), mix altogether cook for couple of mins.
--> Pour water (i used 3 cups of water - u can add to the consistency you like). Add salt, sambar powder.
--> Bring it to boil, garnish with cilantro, serve it hot.
That's it. Simple yet yummy kobbari pulusu ready :)

Pasta Carrot kheer

Sounds interesting? Tastes interesting as well. Wanted to try something new with pasta, hence this yummy dessert. Here are the ingredients :
Pasta                 -  1 cup  [i used elbow pasta]
Carrot               -  1 and half cup  [grated]
Condensed milk -  1 can  [14 oz]
Milk                   -  1 and half cup  [i used  2%  milk]
Cashews & Raisins 
Butter to roast cashews and raisins.

Pasta Carrot Kheer

Recipe Source :  Rasoi blog
I have made some changes to the main recipe. 
Procedure :
--> Cook pasta according to instructions on the pack, strain away water and let cold water run through cooked pasta for couple of minutes and set it aside.
--> In a deep bowl, on a medium flame, add some butter and roast grated carrot until it makes crisp sound while stirring.
--> Add milk and bring it to boil; Add cooked pasta; Add condensed milk, keep stirring and let the kheer cook for couple of more minutes. 
--> Meanwhile, in a separate pan, roast cashews/raisins in 2 tbsp of butter.
--> Add these roasted cashews/raisins to kheer and switch off the flame.

Yummy yummy pasta carrot kheer is ready to serve.

Gobi Manchurian

An Indo-Chinese dish that suits Indian taste. Process involves 2 parts : including part 1 as deep frying cauliflower florets dipped in flour batter while the second part is preparing gravy.  Manchuria can be prepared either as dry or with gravy.

I have prepared it as semi gravy manchurian so that it can be served either as starter or with rotis.

These are the ingredients i used :

1  big cauliflower (Gobi)

¼  cup rice flour
¼  cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp corn startch1  tsp of red chilli powder
2  tsp corriander powder

1 big onion
2 bell peppers
4 green chillies
1/2  tsp of ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp of  hot & sweet sauce
1 tbsp of tomato chilli sauce
Salt to taste
Oil to deep fry

Gobi Manchurian

Part 1 :

Wash and separate all the cauliflower florets.
Now, preparing batter for cauliflower coating :
1. Mix  rice flour, all-purpose flour, corn startch, salt to taste, red chilli powder, ginger garlic paste, 1 tsp corriander powder with water and make it as medium-to-thin paste.
2. Take oil to deep fry in a pan, dip each cauliflower floret into batter and place each dipped floret into oil. let it fry until golden brown and keep them aside.
3. Repeat the process, until all the florets are deep fried and keep them aside.

Part 2:
4. Chop onion, ¼  tsp of ginger garlic paste, green chillies, bell peppers and saute them.
5. Add 1 tsp corriander powder, salt to taste, cilantro to above mixture and switch off the flame.
6. Now, add hot & sweet sauce and tomato chilli sauce, mix all the manchurian together.
7. Now, slowly add all the deep fried cauliflower florets to the bell pepper gravy and stir altogether until well mixed.

Thats it, yummy yummy gobi manchurian ready to eat. This can be served either as snack/appetizer  or  can be served with rotis.

Shahi Paneer

Paneer (Indian cheese) is high in protein and the most lovable dish for kids especially.
I made this dish as part of a potluck party. My mother-in-law helped me in garnishing and decoration, and my co-sister helped me in preparation.

Ingredients :
8 oz (1 cup) paneer
2 big onions
4 big tomatoes
2 oz (about 1/4 cup)  cashews
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
Oil to saute
Salt to taste
1 and half tsp of red chilli powder/pepprica powder
few strands of Cilantro



Shahi Paneer

 --> Soak cashews and sesame seeds for atleast 30 mins.
--> Cut paneer into small cubes and shallow fry in 2 tbsp of oil until they turn golden brown.  Set paneer aside in a bowl.
--> Add some more oil to saute in the same pan.
--> Add chopped onions, tomatoes and saute. Let it cool down.
--> Now blend onion/tomato mixture and soaked cashews/sesame seeds - blend altogether into coarse paste.
--> Take the blended paste into the pan, add salt, red chilli powder, sauteed paneer, stir together, and let it cook for 5 mins with low-medium flame.
--> Garnish with chopped cilantro.
Yummy shahi paneer ready to serve with rotis or rice.

Strawberry Lime Slush


Slush perfect for everyone in coming summer.

Ingredients required are :
2 Cups frozen strawberries
1 and half lime (squeezed lime juice)
3 Tbsp agave nectar (or 6-8 dates - purely my preference)
1 Cup water (or 1 cup ice cubes for thick texture)



Strawberry Lime Slush


Add all the ingredients to blender, blend it until smooth juice.



Source : Blendtec recipes. (I have made small changes to the original recipe as said in the ingredients).

Spinach dal (pappu)

I am back with regular curries. For making spinach dal, these are the required ingredients :

1 bag of spinach; 1 and half cup dal; 1 big onion; 3 medium tomatoes; 3 thai chillies;

Spinach dal

Cooking in open pot :
--> Cook dal in open pot until half done.
--> Add spinach, cook for 5 mins, add onions, tomatoes and green chillies. cook until done.
--> once the dal is almost done, add salt to taste, 1 tsp (or less) red chilli powder and halft tspn of sambar powder to taste.
--> Finally, garnish some cilantro.

Rainbow Jello Oranges

This colorful munching dessert(lets say ;) ), attracts everyone and mostly kids just love it ;)  Very easy to prepare. Summarizing briefly, the procedure i followed :

--> Prepare jello as per the packet instructions and let it be in a bowl.
--> Cut each orange into 2 halves.
--> Scrape out inside part of oranges. (you can make juice from insiders). Now you get the Orange shells.
--> Arrange these empty shells in a tray that can sit in your refrigerator.
--> Now pour jello liquid (prepared in first step) into each of the cut halves.
 --> Refrigerate jello oranges atleast for 5 hours.
--> Take out jello oranges and cut into desirable size.

Rainbow Jello Oranges

Instead of single color, i used different colors (which means different flavours) :
Color                        Jello Flavour
Blue                          Berry Blue
Green                        Lime
Red                           Strawberry
Yellow                      Peach

Tip : Ice-cream scoop can be used to scrape out the insides of oranges.
You can use as many colors as you want.

Vegetable Frittata

Made this as breakfast. It includes lot many healthy options. Easy to prepare, healthy to eat. I won second prize for this recipe as part of Savory Baking Competition held by an online group. I named so since i have used wide range of vegetables along with egg. If you don't like egg, you can use egg replacements (haven't tried it though with egg replacement :) ).
Ingredients :

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 small cucumbet [i used persian cucumber; zuccini can also be used]

2 green chillies finely chopped

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms [fresh or dried]

few beans, finely chopped

1/2 carrot thinly sliced

6 bok choy florets  nicely chopped

1 tablespoon butter

8 eggs (i used 6 egg whites and just 2 full eggs)

1/2 cup milk

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

small amount of Maggi Hot and Sweet sauce

Vegetable Frittata

Preparation

Pre-heat oven for 400 degrees F.

Spread butter inside [all around] 8 inch pan.

Place onion, green chillies,cucumber, mushrooms, beans, carrots, bok choy in 8 inch pan. [Arrange one by one as shown in the pics]

Cook the vegetables in oven for 3-5 mins or until they become half crunchy, half baked.

Step-by-step process of vegetable frittata

Now, in a bowl, beat eggs, pour milk, add salt, pepper, hot & sweet sauce, whist altogether until the mixture is little bit fluffy with bubbles.

Pour the mixture on to the vegetables evenly.

Let it cook for 25 to 35 minutes.

For checking, poke with a fork in the middle and see if the fork come out clearly without food sticking to it. That is the right consistency of baking.

Once it is well cooked, take out of oven and let it cool down for couple of minutes, slice it into pieces, and serve it hot with oranges on the side :)   [don't forget to switch off the oven ;) ]

Mango Cheese Cake

I have tried Mango cheese cake. Didn't do good part in garnishing - but the cake came out so delicious. Try it and enjoy.

Ingredients:

Crust

• 16 graham cracker squares, crushed (approx. 1 cup of crumbs)
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1/3 cup melted unsalted butter

Filling

• 12 oz cream cheese at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large ripe mango

For Garnish (optional)

• 8 thin mango slices
• 2 strawberries cut into 4 pieces each
• Few mint leaves

Mango Cheese cake. Well, needs colorful garnishing ;) 

Crust Preparation

1. 1. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

1. 1. 2. Add graham crackers, sugar and butter to a food processor. Mix well until the mixture looks crumbled; takes approx. 30 seconds.

1. 1. 3. Place graham cracker mix into a 9” pie plate, spread evenly and press down firmly with a spatula.

1. 1. 4.

1. 1. Bake at 350 degrees for 6 minutes, on the medium rack.

Crust prepared from graham cracker

Filling

1. Prepare mango by peeling and chopping into chunks.
2. Add cut mango pieces, cream cheese, sugar, and cornstarch to the food processor. Mix for 20 seconds, until it is smooth in texture. Do not over mix for too long.
3. Pour the mixture over the pie crust and bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees F. The surface should look dry and cooked.
4. Let the cheesecake cool down and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

mango pieces, cream cheese, sugar, corn starch - all ready to blend

yet need to be done. can't wait to taste ;)