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!!