Asian Green Beans Salad

I was bored of having the same cold salad everyday so tried this different warm green beans salad and surprisingly it was tasty. Adding the ginger and garlic gave more flavour and finally adding the soy sauce gave the asian touch and tasted to the best. It is a must try salad.

Ingredients

Green Beans - 1/2 lb trimmed
Garlic - 4 cloves minced
Ginger mined - 1 tsp
Chili Garlic sauce - 1/2 tsp (can substitute with chili flakes)
Soy Sauce - 1 tsp (I used low sodium)
Oil - 1tsp

Method

Microwave the beans in high temperature for 3 to 4 mins.Heat oil in a non-stick skillet and add the garlic, ginger and saute for few mins and add the chili garlic sauce and add the cooked beans and mix. Now add the soy sauce and toss until the soy sauce is well coated and serve warm.

Palak Paneer

Another popular dish in India which is tasted and tried almost by every Indians so there nothing new I can say about this dish. I am a big fan of panner so any dish with paneer is my favorite and this dish is truly delicious. My 2% milk past the "sell by" date so I decide to make the paneer out of it. Till I made paneer I had no idea of making this dish but the moment I saw the beautiful paneer cubes, just a thought of this palak paneer made me drooling and as a result we ended up eating a rich dinner. This dish was even more tastier with the home made paneer. 

Ingredients
Paneer cubes - 1 cup
Palak/Spinach - 3 cups 
Garlic - 3 cloves chopped
Onion - 1 chopped finely

Tomato - 2 chopped

Green Chilies - 3 

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 2 tsp

Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp

Cumin/jeera powder - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Cumin seed - 1 tsp

Heavy whipped Cream - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Oil - 3 tsp

Method 
Boil water in a pan and add spinach and boil for 4 mins uncovered. When it cools down grind to a smooth paste along with green chilies. Heat oil in a  skillet and add cumin seeds and when it crackle add the garlic and onion and saute till onion is soft. Add ginger garlic paste and tomato and cook for few mins and add the masala powders and cook and if needed sprinkle water to avoid burning  the masalas. Add the grinded palak and cook in simmer for 10 mins. Last add the paneer and cream and give a quick mix. Palak paneer is ready. I served with chapati and asparagus salad which I'll be posting soon. Enjoy!!  

Tomato Gravy for Idli or Dosa

This is a satisfying dish pairs very good with idli or dosa. This is a recipe of our family may be most of the families in tamil nadu. As far as I remember this is the best combination for idli other than sambar in our house right from my childhood. My mom used to prepare a big bowl full of this curry for idli and we end up eating 2 more idlies just b'coz of this tomato curry and in no time the bowl would be empty. I used to mix idli with that tomato curry and make a big mess in my hand and eat it ..eww.. that way it was even more tastier only in my child hood times not now ;-). Here is the recipe..

Ingredients

Tomato - 3 to 4 chopped

Garlic - 5 cloves chopped

Onion - 1 medium chopped

Green Chili - 3 slit

Cloves - 3

Cinnamon stick - 1/2"

Coriander Powder - 2 tsp

Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 2tsp

To Grind

Coconut - 1/2 cup Grated

Ginger - 1" piece

Seasoning

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urad Dal - 1tsp

Asafetida - little

Method

Heat oil in a pan , add the cloves and cinnamon and add mustard, urad dal and asafetida. When the mustard crackle add onion , garlic and green chilies and saute till the onion turns soft. Now add the tomato and saute till the oil oozes out. Add the dry powder and mix , if needed sprinkle little water and take care not to burn the dry masala powders. Add the grinded coconut and cover and cook for 10 mins. Garnish with cilantro and serve with idli or dosa. Enjoy!!!

Chocolate Milk Tasty Toast

Wheat bread is better and healthier than the white bread as it has more fiber and vitamins and its more nutritious for kids. I made this tasty toast using chocolate milk instead of regular milk to cover up the wheat bread and made little more flavouring by using little vanilla essence as most kids don't like the taste of wheat bread. The best thing about using the chocolate milk is the kids wont know that they are eating the wheat bread. This toast keeps the kids tummy filled till their lunch time. Try this recipe.





Ingedients
Whole wheat bread - 3 slices
Egg - 1
Chocolate milk - 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsp


Method
Whisk all the ingredients except the bread in a bowl . Dip the bread in the mixture and allow the bread to soak some liquid well and toast in a hot griddle with little butter on both side until brown. Serve hot.

I am sending this recipe for

Simple Vegatable Pasta

Not able to decide "whats for dinner" and also not in a mood to prepare a elaborated cooking? Here is something simple and awesome dish you can make it really fast. If you have the pre-cut vegetable handy then its done in no time. This is the recipe of what I made that suits my family tastes, you can explore with any seasoning and vegetables you wish, there is no hard rules for this.




Ingredients
Pasta - 2 cups (Any shape I used Farfalle)
Onion Sliced - 1 medium
Garlic minced - 3 cloves
Bell Pepper chopped - 1
Carrot chopped - 1/2 cup
Italian Pasta sauce - 1 cup
Dried parsley, oregano - a dash
Parmesan cheese as required
Olive Oil - 3 tsp
Salt to taste


Method:
Cook pasta according to the package instruction and drain the excess water. Heat oil in a skillet and saute garlic and onion for few mins. Add the vegetables and season it with the parsley and oregano. Add the pasta sauce and water if needed and bring to boil. Add the pasta when the sauce is heated and combine well. Add the parmesan cheese and mix. Serve hot.

Garden Vegetable Noodles

Deciding on what to cook for dinner is one big nightmare for me as my sunny boy doesn't agree with any menus I come up with. He always says he wants something nice, spicy and tasty. I wish I could find what that nice, spicy and tasty food would look like.This vegetable noodles is one darling dish for me as everyone in my family even my sunny will agree with. This dish is not too spicy just b'coz he does not like spicy and also I fear that if I do so I have to move this darling dish to enemy list so I prepare it according to his taste. But I and my hubby likes only spicy foods,that time "sriracha hot chili sauce" helps us for all our spicy needs :-)






Ingredients
Egg Noodles
Vegetables of your choice I used
Carrot, beans, broccoli, cabbage, bell pepper - 3 cups
Eggs - 2
Soy Sauce - 4 tsp
Chili Garlic Sauce - 1tsp (increase to ur taste)
Ginger Chopped - 2tsp
Garlic Chopped - 4 tsp
Oil - 2tsp
Salt to taste


Method
Boil the noodles according to the package instruction and drain the excess water. Heat oil in a non- stick skillet. Add ginger and garlic and saute till a nice fragrance comes out, make sure you don't burn the garlic. Add the vegetables one by one and close cook until they are 1/2 done. Move the vegetable to the side of the skillet and break the eggs in the skillet and stir the eggs until its done. Now mix all the vegetables and eggs together. You can also do scramble eggs separately and mix with the vegetables. Add the salt and chili garlic sauce and mix. Add the noodles and now add the soy sauce and stir continuously until all soy sauce is well coated with the noodles.Garnish with spring onions. Serve hot with ketchup.Enjoy!!

Good Morning with Banana Wheat Pancakes

Like my boy most kids love to eat pancakes for breakfast. This is the healthiest pancake recipe that kids and even adults would love to eat.. Making pancake from scratch is not too complicated, for me from the scratch to the plate it just took 10 to 15 mins. Cleaning up the mess after took more time...today I used banana to mix with the batter and I am gonna try with other different fruits too. The pancakes didn't come out perfect round and even more looked like small paratha to me(b'coz I added wheat). Apart from the appearance the pancake was delicious and it was soft and fluffy. Though my sunny loved it he didn't have much time to eat more..late for school. I got to make this on holidays for him. Even though I add sugar my boy liked with the maple syrup.

Ingredients

Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Ripe banana - 1
Egg - 1
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 2tsp
Salt to taste


Method

In a large bowl combine the flours, sugar, salt, baking powder and egg. In a separate bowl mash the banana. Mix the banana with the flour and add some water and make it to nice thick consistency. Heat a lightly oiled griddle and pour a scoop of batter onto the griddle and spread little to make a small round shape. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides, serve hot with syrub and fruits.

Cherry Tomato and Corn Salad

After having trouble in sticking on to my weight loss diet, I choose salad way to a good health, this is more easier than other. Here is an another simple salad recipe with tomato and corn. It is a impressive salad(just b'coz I made) with great colors and it looks absolutely fantastic. Trust me this is really good, we ate the entire bowl in one sitting. One good thing about salad is you can add anything you wish and make it accordingly to your taste. Here is the recipe of what I made...

Ingredients

Cherry Tomato - 1 cup

Corn - 11 oz can

Celery - 2 ribs chopped

Red Onion - 1/2 cup chopped

Dressing

Lime juice - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Salt and pepper as per taste

Cilantro Chopped - 2 tsp

Method

In a large bowl, combine the corn, tomatoes, onion and bell peppers. In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar, salt, pepper and cilantro. Pour this on corn mixture and toss to coat. Serve chilled.

Green Peas Pulao

I always love to have this "peas pulao"- a simple mild spicey meal to enjoy.Looks fantastic and tastes delicious. This dish reminds me of my college life.This is the only dish I know to prepare during my college days and my friends used to love it. They always insists on preparing this dish whenever we have a get together in my house. Those days are golden. Now whenever I prepare this dish I miss my friends :-(




Ingredients:
Basmathi rice - 1 cup
Frozen or canned Peas - 1 cup
chopped onion - 1 cup
Green Chilies - 3 slit
Cloves - 4
Cardamom - 2
Cinnamon - 1" stick
Oil - 3 tsp
Ghee - 2 tsp
Salt to taste

To Grind
Ginger - 2 small slices
Garlic - 5 cloves
Cilantro - 1/2 cup
Mint - 1/4 cup


Method:

Pour oil in the cooker. When it heats up add clove,cinnamon and cardamom. When you get a nice fragrance from that add onion and green chilies and saute till the onion is cooked. Add the grinded paste and cook for few mins. Add the peas and mix well . Add the water , for 1 cup rice add 1 and 1/2 cup and bring to boil and add salt. Now add the rice and close and cook. Add ghee when its done. Serve hot with onion raita.

Bean and Veggie Salad

Today, there are plenty of weight-loss strategies in market and they guarantee a quick weight loss. I too got carried away in one such weight loss diet and started to follow. After one day it became nearly impossible for me to stay on the diet and I gave up. The problem is they are too specific to what to eat and how much to eat and don't take into account of individual preferences and lifestyles and our likes and dislikes. More restriction on food made me craving for it. You won't believe only one day I tried the same night I got dreams only on food. Changing the eating habits overnight did not work for me so I gave up the next day, but now I planned to make small changes by taking lots of vegetables and fruits instead of one full meal and I am taking time to give up my bad food habits :-) hope I'll stick to this. Today's recipe is "Bean and Veggie Salad" with lots of vegetables and bean.

Ingredients:

Red Kidney Bean - 1/2 cup soaked for 6 hrs and boiled or use canned.

Roma Tomato - 1 chopped

Celery ribs - 2 sliced

Zucchini - 1 cup sliced

Green Onion - 1/2 cup sliced

Bell Pepper - 1/2 cup Chopped

Dressing:

Olive Oil - 2 tsp

Lime Juice - 1tsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Feta Cheese - 1 tsp

Method:

In a bowl combine all the ingredients. In a separate small bowl combine olive oil, lime juice, sugar and salt and mix until the sugar is dissolved. Pour over bean mixture and gently stir to coat. Add the feta cheese and toss and serve chilled.

Back After a Long Break with a recipe - "Chicken Bharta"

At last I am back on my blog after a long break:-). I had to spend time with my son during his summer vacation and now he is back to school but.. still my one year old daughter takes all my time:-(. I blame myself for not managing the time. So I'll try to update my blog whenever I find time.

My recipe today is "chicken Bharta" , this is the new recipe I actually tried this for the first time and no doubt it came out really good. Surprisingly this dish is quite easy to prepare. This is a recipe where finely chopped chicken is cooked with onion , tomato and other spices and here is the recipe of chicken Bharta.

Ingredients:

Boneless Chicken thigh - 1lb ( finely chopped)

Finely Chopped Onion - 1

Finely Chopped tomato - 3 medium

Green Chilies - 2 slit

Ginger Garlic paste - 2tsp

Cloves - 3

Cardamom - 2

Cinnamon - 1"

Coriander Powder - 2tsp

Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp

Tandoori masala - 2 tsp (optional)

Cilantro chopped for garnishing

Oil - 4 tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a non- stick pan and add clove, Cinnamon and cardamom then add chopped onion and saute for few mins and add the ginger garlic paste and mix . Now add chopped tomato and all the dry masala powders and give a good mix and close and cook for 5 mins. Now add the chicken and little water and close and cook for 10 to 15 mins or until chicken is well cooked and don't forget to stir in between. Garnish with cilantro. Server with chapati or even plain rice.