Easy ways to cure acidity

I came across this article at timesofindia website and it was quite intersting and useful one for me so I thought why not share this with you all as everyone at some point or other might have suffered from this problem and it might be useful to you all and if you havn't read it already here it is .... 

Acidity occurs when there is excess secretion of acids in the gastric glands of the stomach. When the secretion is more than usual, we feel, what is commonly known as heartburn, which is normally triggered off by consumption of spicy foods. Here are some home remedies to cure acidity...

- Skip the aerated drinks as well as the caffeine
- Have a glass of lukewarm water everyday.
- Include banana, watermelon and cucumber in your daily diet. Watermelon juice is    great for curing acidity.
- Tender Coconut water is known to soothe the system if you suffer from acidity.
- Drink a glass of milk - everyday.
- Have your last meal at least two to three hours before you hit the sack.
- Keeping long intervals between meals is another cause for acidity. Have small but regular meals.
- Try to avoid pickles, spicy chutneys, vinegar, etc.
- Boil some mint leaves in water and have a glass of this after meals.
- Sucking on a piece of clove is another effective remedy.
- Jaggery, lemon, banana, almonds and yogurt are all known to give you instant relief from acidity.
- Excessive smoking and drinking will increase acidity, so cut down.
- Try chewing gum. The saliva generated helps move food through the esophagus, easing symptoms of heartburn.
- Ginger aids in digestion. Either buy powdered ginger in capsule forms or add the herb to your recipes.
- A simple preparation of lemon water with sugar can be sipped on an hour before lunch to reduce uneasiness.
- Have vegetables like drumsticks, beans, pumpkin, cabbage, carrot and spring onions.

Sugar Cookie with icing

Of course, who would say “No” to cookies, such a delicious snack for any age and especially when they are baked at home. Baking the cookies at home is always fun and easy if you know the exact measurement and by using the proper tools and ingredients. While making this sugar cookie I little messed up the measurement and the dough which is suppose to be very smooth turned out very sticky and I had to add more flour to make it up and surprisingly the cookies came out really good. My boy had real fun in adding the sprinklers to the icing on the cookie and I suggest every one should try this recipe.

Ingredients
For Cookie
All Purpose Flour - 2 ½ Cups
Margarine – 1 Cup
Sugar – 1 Cup
Egg – 2
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Cream of tartar – 2 tsp
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp

For Icing
Butter – 4 tbsp
Confectionery Sugar – 1 Cup
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
Milk – 2 tsp
Sprinkler

Method
Oven temperature – 350*F, Baking Time – 8 to 10 mins
In a mixing bowl, beat egg and add sugar and margarine and mix well.
Add flour, baking powder, tartar, salt and vanilla extract and mix well to a soft dough.
Knead the dough on a clean flat surface and roll the dough with a rolling pin to a ¼ inch thick and keep dusting the rolling pin and work surface slightly with flour, if necessary, to prevent sticking and cut to your favorite shape of your choice using cookie cutter and transfer to the baking sheet and bake them in a pre-heated oven at 350* F for 8 to 10 mins in batches.

For Icing
The butter should be at the room temperature before mixing. Combine butter, sugar, milk and vanilla extract, this recipe is very flexible, if you feel its too watery add the flour and if you feel too thick add milk and bring to the consistency that would allow you to  spread  on the cookies and decorate the cookie and put the sprinkler on the top.
Enjoy the delicious cookies.

Chettinad Pepper Chicken

No introduction is needed for chettinad cuisine as it is a widely popular for its well-known spicy taste and you can get thousands of hits when you google for this dish and its always difficult to find the correct authentic way of preparing this chettinad dishes unless someone from that region tells us what the exact recipe is and this dish is one such recipe passed on to me by my friend and very special thanks to her.
Chettinad dishes are incomplete without garlic and pepper and in this dish pepper being the main ingredient, there is no need to mention the fiery taste is what that makes dish more special and simply very delicious. Always use the freshly grounded pepper for this dish to get the original wonderful flavor.

Ingredient
Chicken – 1 lb
Onion - 1 chopped finely
Tomato – 2 medium chopped
Curry Leaves – 10
Coriander Powder – 2 tsp
Chili Powder – 1 tsp
Pepper Powder – 3 tsp (freshly crushed)
Cumin Powder – 1tsp
Garlic – 3 cloves chopped
Ginger Garlic paste – 2 tsp
Whole garam masala – cloves – 3, cinnamon – 1”, cardamom – 2
Salt to taste
Oil – 4tsp

Method
Heat oil in a pan and add the whole garam masala and when you get the good fragrance from it add the garlic and onion and sauté for few mins and add the ginger garlic paste and mix well and add chopped tomato and fry till the oil separates from it and add the curry leaves and all the dry masalas and add the chicken and add some water and close and cook for 10 mins, stirring in between and if needed splash little water to avoid burning. When removing from stove, add a addition half tsp of pepper powder and mix and add the chopped cilantro. This dish goes very well with sambar rice, or plain curd rice and enjoy!!!

Chicken Sandwich - A Hubby Way

Though I have passion for cooking and I strongly believe that we can share the love of life through cooking as it feeds the soul, both who cooks and also who eats. But sometime I feel bored and frustrated of the same cooking which I love to do for all day and I want someone to cook for me and I eat. If I was in India I can go around to relatives house or just say at mothers house for 10 days and I get to sit and do only eating, I feel it would be a kind of refreshment but unfortunately or fortunately I am living here in US that makes me eligible to cook for all 365 days. Sometimes my hubby understands my feelings and he insists on cooking for me, though he doesn't know how to cook but his intension is what I appreciate and this chicken sandwich is one such dish he prepared for me and this was a excellent chicken sandwich I would have tasted. He got this recipe from some cook book and it was very tasty and I wish he cooks more often like this me...ha ha....I know next time he would purposely gonna spoil it....

Ingredinets
Boneless Chicken Breast halves - 2
All Purpose Flour - 3 tbsp
Salt and Pepper to taste
Mushroom Chopped - 1/2 Cup
French Onion Soup - 1 tin
Sandwich Bun - 2
Cheese Singles - 2
Garlic Chopped - 1tsp
Olive Oil - 3 tsp


Method
Mix salt and pepper to the flour and coat the chicken with the flour on both the side and fry in a pan with 2 tsp of oil until its cooked and nice brown on both sides and set aside.
In the same pan, add garlic and fry for few secs and add chopped mushroom and cook until its soft and add the french onion soup and allow to boil.
Now add the cooked chicken and make sure chicken is well coated with the soup.
Roast the bun in a skillet or in oven until its crisp.
Place the cheese slice on the bun and place the chicken on it and top it with mushroom and chose the bun and enjoy the wonderful sandwich.

Mooli / Radish paratha

Stuffed paratha always reminds me of Bangalore, there are plenty of small paratha stalls in Bangalore where they serve different varieties of  stuffed parathas. Me and my sister- n-law  make sure to go on all friday evenings to one such paratha stall and eat  all our favorite parathas, actually the paratha size is not too big and we can easily eat 3 to 4 parathas. Of all the stuffed paratha, mooli is my second favorite to aloo paratha. I get tempted when ever I the see the mooli paratha in a restaurant menu. Here in US I don't get to eat much of mooli paratha in the restaurant so I end up making this dish myself at home. Making perfect round paratha without the stuffing oozing out is an art. You can't make it perfect for the first time but after many practice you can master this art. I am still learning this art. Here is the recipe of this mooli paratha.

Ingredients

For Stuffing

Mooli/Radish - 1 big
Ginger garlic paste - 1tsp
Red Chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Cilantro - 2 tsp chopped
Salt to taste
For Dough
Wheat Flour - 2 cups
Salt to taste
Water - 1 cup
Oil for making the mooli paratha

Method
Sieve the wheat flour and salt. Add water and knead to soft dough. Cover and keep aside. Peel and grate the radish and squeeze out all the water.
Heat the pan and fry the radish for some time and add the ingredients and fry for sometime until the raw flavour is gone.
Take a lemon sized dough and roll to a small round say 4 inch in diameter and place 2 to 3 teaspoon of fillings in the center and cover and seal the ends and roll again gently to a thick round paratha.
In a hot griddle cook the paratha on both side until golden brown using little oil on both sides. Serve hot with tomato fry or just yogurt and pickle. Refer my earlier posting for tomato fry recipe.

Lemon Soufflé

Soufflé is a light and fluffy French cake made basically with combining egg yolk and beaten egg whites with other ingredients.
I can't believe I making a dish from a food network channel, usually I think they make only fancy foods, which is very far from my reach, but this one I felt very interesting and quite easy for a amateur baker like me and not to my surprise this dish also came out really good. I used lemon juice and lemon zest (grated lemon skin) hoping it would give a nice fresh taste and it did actually but only disappointment is that my boy didn’t like the lemon flavor and said its very lemony, promised him will do chocolate version next time.

Ingredients
Freshly squeezed Lemon juice – ¼ Cup
Lemon Zest – 1 tsp (Grated outer lemon skin)
Eggs – 2 (Separated)
Milk – 2/3 Cup
Flour – ¼ Cup
Sugar – 2/3 Cup
Salt – ¼ tsp
For Baking You’ll Need
Ramekin or Soufflé bowl or I used small cake pan - 3 or 4
Big rectangular Cake pan just in a size to fit the small cake pans

Method

•  Pre-heat oven to 350*F. Boil 3 Cups of water.
•  Separate egg yolk from egg white and make sure not even a single drop of yolk falls in the white, if  so  repeat the process again.
•  Combine egg yolk, milk, juice, zest, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add the flour and mix well.
•  In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until you get a stiff peak, better to use a power mixer.
•  Add the egg white to the yolk mixer and fold slowly, don’t mix it as it would loose all the aeration in the white.
•  Butter the soufflé bowl and add the sugar and coat evenly by rotating the bowl slowly and repeat this for all the bowls.
•  Pour the mixture evenly on all the bowls and this is not gonna raise.
•  Fill half way of the big cake pan with hot water and place the soufflé bowl in the water.
•  Bake for 30 mins or until the top turns light golden brown.
•  When done, allow to cool down and gently invert into a plate and enjoy..

 

Mint Flavored Delicious Fish Fry

Fish fry is a very popular dish all over India, especially in Kerala, a beautiful state famous for its backwater and lots of coconut trees and not to forget Kerala is one of the a great place for honeymoon.
I still remember a trip to a dam(forgot the name) from my school in Tamilnadu where you get to see people fry and sell the freshly caught fish everywhere neat the dam and you get nice fish fry smell(feel sorry for who hates fish), the one which you can’t avoid but I didn’t get a chance to eat one that time, later when we went to Okanakal dam with my family, I got a chance to eat it and it tasted good.
This fish fry is different to the usual one, I used mint and cilantro and it added more fragrance to the fish and it tastes really good. Looking at the picture don’t conclude I burned my fish, its just the bright green color looks like burned, sorry about that.

Ingredients
Tilapia Fish Fillets – 4
Ginger – ½ “
Garlic – 3
Mint and Cilantro – 1Cup
Curry Leaves - 4
Coconut – 1 tsp
Green Chilies – 3
Lemon Juice – 2 tsp
Coriander Powder – 1tsp
Garam Masala – ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Oil to fry (I used Coconut oil)

Method
Grind all the masalas and marinate the fish in that and set aside for minimum 2 hrs. Shallow fry the fish I until its roasted on both the sides. Enjoy!!

Tomato Dhal

This is very very simple and yet very satisfying dish. Tastes heavenly when eaten with rice and a papad but I always prefer eating with a spicy fish fry ..hmmm ..yummy.This is my girl's favorite food, she likes it with lots of ghee in it and it always happens that she won’t eat the entire plate of hers and I don’t like wasting this yummy dish.. so I end up eating the remaining food …that’s how I put on weight….can't help. Okay lets get to this simple recipe of tomato dhal.

Ingredients
Toor dhal – ½ cup
Tomato – 3 medium chopped
Garlic – 3 chopped
Turmeric – ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Seasoning
Mustard – ½ tsp
Cumin / Jeera – ½ tsp
Garlic – 2 chopped
Curry leaves – 6
Whole red chili – 3
Ghee – 2 tsp

Method
Pressure cook dhal with tomato, garlic, turmeric and salt and mash them well.
Season it with mustard, jeera, garlic, red chili and curry leaves in ghee. Serve hot with rice..

Shrimp/Prawn Gravy

When I want to cook only for me and it should be simple and tasty I always prefer cooking shrimp, shrimp is always a magical dish, which cooks fast. This dish takes no more than 30 mins and I have made this dish numerous times. Shrimp is one dish which tastes always great however cooked provided if you like shrimp. This dish is cooked in a wonderful onion and tomato sauce with all the spices. This is a great combination for rice.

Ingredients

Shrimp - 2 cups

Tomato - 2 chopped
Onion - 1 chopped
Ginger - 1/2"

Garlic - 4 cloves

Green Chilies - 3

Coriander Powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala - 2tsp
Oil - 3 tsp

Red food color - Optional 

Salt to taste

Method

Fry onion , tomato, ginger, garlic and green chiles in 1 tsp of oil in a pan for 5 mins and grind to a fine paste. In a pan heat 2 tsp of oil and fry the grounded paste for few mins and add all the dry masala powders and add the shrimp and cook till the gravy thicken to your desired consistency. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy with rice.

Potato N Mushroom Curry

When you are in need of a easy and tasty recipes for a side dish to please your family member, this is it Potato N mushroom curry. Vegetable dishes are a nutritious way to our family feast. A combination of heart mushroom, everyone favorite potato and some green peas made this dish look and taste is so luscious. Nothing satisfies like mushroom and potato and this great dish with all the spices raises to a new height of taste.

Ingredients
Potato – 1 big cubed to small bite size pieces
Mushroom Chopped – 2 cups
Peas – 1 Cup
Onion – 1 chopped
Ginger Garlic Paste – 2tsp
Tomato Puree – ½ cup or use 2 tomato
Coriander Powder – 2 tsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Garam Masala – 1 tsp
Chili Powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp
Dry Mint leaves – 2 tsp
Cream – 2 tsp (Optional)
Oil – 2tsp
Salt to taste

Method
Heat oil in a non – stick pan and add the onion and sauté for few mins.
Add the potato and mix well and add ginger garlic paste and mix well, add some water and cook for 10 mins.
Now add all the dry ingredients except the mint leaves and give a nice mix.
Add the chopped mushroom and peas and the tomato puree and cook in a low flame, add water if needed.
Add the mint leaves and cook until all the veggies are cooked. Add cream and remove and garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with chapati.

Warm Up With Hot N Sweet Vegtable Soup

It was very lazy day yesterday as it was raining all day and nothing can comfort than a nice hot soup on rainy day and even more better when u have cold. Yesterday dinner was totally chinese, vegetable noodles and this hot and sweet soup. I'm fairly certain that everyone enjoyed their dinner including my little girl. Its been a while since I made this soup and when I made yesterday it tasted heavenly.
My girl refused to have the food I made for her and she wanted only the spicy noodles and she didn't have much of this soup as it was too spicy for her.

Ingredients
Vegetable Broth - 1 tin (chicken broth can also be used)
Cream style corn - 1 tin
Mixed vegetable - 1 cup very finley chopped ( I used carrot, beans, cabbage)
Soy Sauce - 1 tsp
Chili Garlic Sauce - 1 tsp
Ginger chopped - 1tsp
Garlic chopped - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 2 tsp
Oil - 1tsp
Corn Flour - 1 tsp
Salt and Pepper to taste
Spring Onion to Garnish

Method
Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and add the chopped garlic and ginger and saute for few mins.
Add the vegetables and fry in a medium flame and add the chili garlic sauce and splash little water to it to avoid burning and cook till the veggies are half cooked.
Now add the vegetable broth and vinegar and cook in a low flame for 10 mins.
Now add the corn and cook again for 10 more mins and add soy sauce and  salt and pepper to your taste.
Finish it with by adding the corn powder mixed in little water, this helps to thicken the soup. Garnish with spring onion.

 

Pumpkin Muffins and My First Award

After visiting the pumpkin patch last week, we came home with three big pumpkins, a pumpkin for a ticket, thank God no ticket for my girl. Pumpkin is not much liked dish at home so kept without using it for a week, not even jack-o-lantern this time as we went after the halloween no one was interested in it, but this week end my boy suggested to do pumpkin muffins and he was soooo excited to help me out. It took lot of time to prepare the puree first, better way is to use the store bought one if you don't have the pumpkin. I didn't have any pumpkin muffin recipe handy so I had to google and it gave lots of recipes as usual and I had difficulty in choosing one and at last I adapted to the recipe from  thepioneerwoman.com site. My pumpkin puree which I made at home was not too thick so my muffins didn't puffed up as it is should be, never mind the taste was excellent, thanks to the pioneerwoman. 

  

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour - 1 Cup

Sugar - 1/2 Cup

Baking Powder - 2 tsp

Cinnamon Powder - 1 tsp

Ginger Powder - 1/4 tsp

Nutmeg Powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Butter - 4 tbsp

Pumpkin Puree - 1 Cup

Egg - 1

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Milk - 1/2 Cup

Method
Combine all the dry ingredients flour, Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, sugar and salt together along with melted butter in a mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl mix together pumpkin puree, egg, vanilla essence and milk.
Pour the pumkin mixture into the flour mixture and combine both well.
Pre-heat oven to 400*F and grease the muffin pan.
Fill the muffin pan to 1/2 to 3/4 with the batter. 
Sprinkle  sugar or cinnamon or mix sugar and cinnamon on each muffin.

Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 mins.

Serve with some whip cream or just plain taste very good.

Babli from http://khanamasala.blogspot.com/ has hourned me by passing on my these awards , thanks Babli for that.

Kale in Lentils

 Normally greens are not in the top favorite list among kids and my boy is no different in that. Almost every Saturdays I make sure to prepare some dish using greens for lunch and I'll feed my boy without his knowledge, this way I am satisfied that he eats something healthy. I love greens and I would eat anything made with it.
This tasty recipe features a mixture of good kale green with a wonderful dhal. Kale is a leafy green vegetable and rich in vitamin C and A and is incredibly healthy food. This dish is amazingly easy to prepare and delicious to eat with rice.

Ingredients
Kale Greens Chopped - 2 cups
Toor dhal - 1/4 cup
Small onion - 3 chopped
Tomato - 1 chopped
Green Chilies - 3 chopped
Garlic - 2 cloves chopped
Salt to taste
For Tempering
Mustard - 1 tsp
Cumin Seed - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves - 3
Garlic - 1 clove minced
Whole Red Chili - 2
Ghee - 1tsp

Method
Pressure cook toor dhal with little turmeric powder and set aside.
In a separate pan cook kale with onion, green chilies, tomato and garlic with little water and salt until its done.
Mash the kale mixture and mix with cooked dhal. Season it with mustard, cumin seed, curry leaves, red chili and garlic. Serve hot with rice and papad..hmm yummy..Enjoy!!  

Spicy Chicken Roll

This is a wonderful chicken snack very ideal during traveling as it is easy to eat without any mess. This dish is very famous in Bangalore and they use to make it with kebabs and that tastes really excellent and I am a great fan of this chicken roll and this is a short cut way to prepare it quickly without making the kebabs and the taste is also similar except for the smokey flavour. This one is made with chicken and this can also be done the same way with potato but the taste is excellent only with chicken and a must try dish.

  

Ingredients

For Marinade

Boneless Chicken pieces - 1/2 lb cut to small bite size pieces

Chicken 65 masala powder - 3 tsp

Ginger garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Yogurt - 3 tsp

Other Ingredient
Chapati - 5
Bell pepper / Capsicum - 1 medium( long slices)
Cabbage Chopped - 1 cup 
Onion - 1 medium sliced lengthwise
Salt and pepper to taste
oil - 3 tsp
Ketchup or ranch

Method
Marinate the chicken with the ingredients under mariande and keep refrigrated for 2 hrs.
In a non-stick pan, heat oil and shallow fry the chicken until cooked and roasted and keep aside. In the same pan fry peppers and capsicum with salt and pepper until half cooked, this gives a nice crunchiness to the roll.
Heat chapati before stuffing and put the chicken pieces in the center and top it with capsicum and cabbage with some raw onion and put some ketchup or ranch or mayonnaise of your choice o top and roll it up and eat it. Great snack.

Ada Pradhaman

This is my hubby's favorite and this is one of the few dishes he asked me to prepare and unfortunately I couldn't make it immediately when he asked, actually I planned to prepare this on the special occasion "diwali" but some how got delayed and I made him at last yesterday. We usually prepare this dish with sugar but my friend who is a keralite suggested  me to do with jaggery and as this is a typical kerala dish I took her advice and prepared with jaggery, the it tasted excellent with jaggery, my hubby loved it. I don't prepare this dish often and even on special occasions I have being avoiding this dish just because this dish takes lot of coconut milk but can't avoid when hubby dear ask for it. 

Ingredients
Rice Ada - 1cup
Jaggery - 2 cups
Coconut - 1 and 1/2 cup shredded  
Extract the milk from coconut
First extract /thick milk - 2 cups
Second extract/thin milk - 3 cups
Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp
Raisins - 1 tsp
Cashew - 1 tsp
Coconut pieces - 1 tsp
Ghee - 2 tsp

Method
Boil 2 cups of water and add the ada pieces and cook until soft and drain and keep aside.
Boil 1/2 cup of water in a separate bowl and add the jaggery and stir well until its melt.
Add the cooked ada pieces to the jaggery and mix well and then add the second extract milk and cook in low flame until it becomes thick. 
Now add the first extract milk and mix well, don't boil it just heat it and add cardamom powder and remove from the stove. 
Fry cashew, raisins and coconut pieces in ghee and add to it. 
Enjoy this delicious ada pradhaman!!!

Mixed Peas Curry

I made this dish accidentally, actually I wanted to make channa masala but I didn’t have sufficient chick peas for that so I had to make up with what I had, sweet peas and I ended up preparing something and at last the result was excellent, that’s what matters and named it as mixed peas curry. I made it tangier by adding the tomato juice, which was lying in my refrigerator for quite some time and made it little sweet by adding jaggery for the kids. My boy loved it and said its “scrumptious”, new word he learnt from school and I dunno whether he really meant it. Kids learn so many new words and they try to use it at the appropriate place and this helps them to remember those words and they use it again and again. Well, back to the recipe, this is a quite easy and fast to cook and more over very tasty side dish for chapati. I heartily recommend every one to try this recipe.

Ingredients
Chickpeas – 1 tin
Sweet peas – 1 tin or use frozen
Onion – 1 chopped
Tomato – 2 chopped
Ginger garlic Paste – 1 tsp
Tomato Juice or puree – 1cup
Cumin Seeds –1tsp
Coriander Powder – 2 tsp
Cumin Powder – 1 tsp
Chili Powder – 1tsp
Garam masala – 1/2tsp
Turmeric Powder – 1tsp
Jaggery – 1 tsp (optional)
Kasoori methi – 1tsp
Oil – 3tsp
Cilantro for garnish
Salt to taste

Method
Heat oil in a non stick skillet and add cumin seeds and when splutter add onion and fry for few mins and add ginger garlic paste and fry well.
Add tomato and give a good mix and all the dry powders one after another and add the tomato juice or puree and cook till the tomato is well cooked and mushy, if required add water.
Add the chick peas and cook for few mins and finally add the peas and cook covered for 5 more mins and garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with Chapati or roti.

South Indian Snack Platter

After a nice warm Saturday, Sunday was and cold and raining the whole day which made us stay indoor the whole day doing nothing but a good nap, it was almost night time and we all were sitting quite on couch as there was nothing interesting to watch in TV and I suddenly  felt like having some nice hot bajji, so when I said that to everyone, without any hesitation or any second thought every one agreed and it looked like all were waiting for it and I made aloo bonda for me and my hubby and for kids I made plain aloo bajji and still there was more bajji batter remaining and I quickly made bread pakoda by adding spinach and cumin seeds to it. There is nothing like eating bajji's and bonda's with a hot cup of tea or coffee on a cold, lazy and more to it on rainy sunday's. This is one kind of a snack you can't resist just eating only one so our snack time got extended and ended as dinner.  Here is the snack platter I am sharing with you all.   

Ingredients
For Batter
Besan or gram flour - 1 cups
Rice Flour - 1/2 cup 
Chili Powder - 1 tsp
Salt and asafetida as required 
  
For Aloo Bonda
Potato - 1 large
Onion - 1/2 chopped
Green Chiles - 2 chopped
Ginger - 1/2" minced
CIlantro
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
chana dhal - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt as required

Other Ingredients
Potato - 1 small peeled and sliced
Bread - 3, each cut to 4 pices
Cumin - 1/2 tsp
Spinach Chopped - 3 tsp
Oil to deep fry

Method
Mix all the ingredients for the batter with water and make nice thick paste neither not too watery nor too thick.
For aloo bonda, peel the potato and microwave them for 5 mins and mash good. In a non stick pan ,heat 1 tsp of oil and season with mustard and chana dhal and turmeric powder and then add onion and green chilies and saute for few mins, add cilantro and add mashed potato and mix well and turn off the flame and when cools down make into small balls and keep aside. 
Heat oil to fry in a separate pan and dip the aloo balls in the batter and fry in the oil in a batch of 4 to 5 and when done transfer to a kitchen paper to drain the excess oil. 
Follow the Same procedure with the sliced potato or any vegetables of your choice.
For the bread pakoda, to the remaining batter add cumin seed and chopped spinach and dip the bread in the batter to coat well with the spinach and fry in oil. Serve with cilantro chutney. Enjoy!!

Chicken N Spinach Stuffed Jumbo Shell Pasta

When I saw the jumbo shell in the grocery store, this recipe just popped instantly in my mind at that moment and here is this dish. Pasta is my family favorite and there is no problem for everyone in just falling in love with yet another pasta dish and this recipe is a success. This is such a stomach-filling dish, you will feel already full with just eating only five shells. This is such an awesome and tasty dish where kids would never say no to this kind of cheesy dish. Just try this recipe and you would know for yourself.

Ingredients
Jumbo Shell Pasta - 15
Boneless Chicken Breast - 2 halves
Mushroom Chopped - 1cup
Spinach - 1 cup Chopped
Garlic - 4 Cloves minced
Parmesan Cheese - 1/2 cup
Mozzarella Cheese - 1 cup
Cream of Mushroom Soup - 1 can
Heavy Whip Cream - 1/2 cup
Oil - 3 tsp
Butter - 2tsp
Breadcrumps - 1/2 cup
Pepper and Salt as required

Method
Boil the pasta shell according to the instruction in the box and drain the water and place individually in a plate to avoid sticking to each other.
Coat the chicken piece with the breadcrumbs and fry in the oil in a non-stick skillet with little salt and pepper on both sides until it turns brown color. Remove and cut the chicken to small cubes.
In the same skillet, add 1 tsp of minced garlic and saute it and add mushroom with salt and pepper and add the spinach and cook until it's done. Add half the can of mushroom soup with a splash of water. Add the chicken pieces and mix well.
Now we have to make a sauce in a separate pan by heating the butter and adding garlic and saute them, add the remaining soup with little water, add salt and pepper. Last add the cream and parmesan cheese, if needed add dried parsley and basil and now sauce is ready.
Pre-heat oven to 375* F
Stuff the chicken and spinach in the shell and place in the oven safe bowl and pour the sauce on top of the shell and cover it with the mozzarella cheese and bake for 20 mins.
Serve hot!! Enjoy!!