Gemüserösti

  This is a simple German dish ,it makes a great meal and is relatively easy to prepare.One of those dishes that I tried out just because I loved it's name :) You can actually call it a vegetable omelette. Many a times I end up trying out dishes because they have fancy names,some of them turn out well...let's not talk about the others:P.Found this recipe in a recipe book for kids.This does tempt a picky Kid to eat and it's pretty healthy too.It's usually served with fish and a mild dip...

   I'm not satisfied with the pic though,I still haven't figured out how to take great night shots,they always turn out a little less appealing than the day shots. We are slowly moving into winter and I wish I could crack the code to night shots before Mr.Sun stops visiting us.If you have any tips please do let me know :).So off to the dish.....

You'll Need:
Serves 2 - 3
Potatoes - 2 big
Carrot - 1 big
Zucchini -1/2 a big one
Eggs - 3
Thick Yogurt - 100 g
Curry Powder - 1/2 tsp(or as you wish)
Pepper & salt to taste
oil - 3 - 4 tsp
For the Dip:
Lemon juice - 3 tbsp
Yogurt - 50 g
Mint leaves - 1 -2 tsp(chopped)

Method:
-Clean the Potatoes and peel them,then grate them finely.
-Clean the zucchini and carrot and grate them finely.
-Beat the eggs slightly with a fork.Add the gated vegetables and salt and mix.
-Mix 3/4 th of the curd and mix well.Add the remaining little by little until you get a good consistency,similar to a pancake batter.Add more if needed.Add the curry powder and pepper and mix well.Check for salt.
-In a pan heat 1 tsp of oil and add 1/3 of the mixture and spread it just like how you make omelettes.Drizzle some oil on the sides and cook on both the sides .Repeat the same process for the rest of the batter.Done !
For the sauce:
-Beat the yogurt well with a fork.
-Mix the yogurt and the Lemon juice well.Add the mint leaves and mix well !

Thanks for stopping by ! Happy Cooking !

Healthy Cookie Balls - Fun Food

This is a wonderfully simple snack, what you can call fun food.If you want to keep a kid engaged on a rainy day this would be the perfect activity.Little girl and I were bored sitting indoors on a warm rainy day.We were skimming through YouTube when we saw this video for cookies from Tarla Dalal. It featured some little girls making cookies and my little one wanted to try it herself too.We tweaked it a little and it did keep us busy for an hour :) Then she asked me if her favorite 'Cooker' does something like this and she would like to watch that too.Now if you're wondering who this Cooker is ,it's none other than VahChef. She actually loves watching him cook and sometimes even him prefers him to her favorite cartoon characters.Coming to the cookies,you can relate them to AR Rahman's music :) The first time you try them you'll think 'nothing special' but you'll still reach for another one.And after two or three you'll soon finding yourself loving it :)It does have some healthy ingredients and you needn't feel guilty or worry about fat while munching a few :)

You'll Need:
Whole Grain Biscuits or Digestive Biscuits - 10 -12
Peanut Butter - 1/2 cup -125 g
Flax seed powder - 1 tbsp
Almond Powder (or any nut powder ) -  2 tbsp
Condensed milk - 3 - 4 tbsp

Quick cooking oats - 1/2 cup
Chocolate chips - 2 tbsp
Desiccated coconut for rolling the cookies

Method:
-Coarsely crush the biscuits with your hand or pulse in a blender.
-In a bowl mix the crushed biscuits,Peanut butter,Flax seed powder,almond powder,flax seed powder,oats and chocolate chips.
-Add the condensed milk and mix well.Knead with your hands to form a soft dough,adding some more condensed milk if needed.
-Pinch little balls from the dough and roll them in between your palms.
-Pulse the desiccated coconut in the blender once or twice.Roll each of the balls on the coconut powder.Done !

Thanks for stopping by ! Have fun !

Sending this to Gujaratizaika’s winner’s choice giveaway  ,100th Post GiveAway at Cutchi Kitchen

  

Galia Melon and Strawberry Smoothie & The ramblings of a Book lover !

Makes 4 cups
       I'm not sure if a smoothie actually qualifies for a recipe :) It's a perfect post for a lazy person like me,clean the fruits ,chop it,add to the blender and 'Blend it like 'whoever u want''.Blending actually reminds me of a Will Smith movie where he searches for his Blender the whole time :) I was happy to see many of you guys commenting about how much you love reading .So just thought that I should mention about the book that I was reading,now u give me a chance to ramble,I'll grab it :) I was reading a book called 'Gravity' by 'Tess Garristen' .A very interesting novel, a medical thriller actually where a scientific experiment goes haywire in a space station. I really loved it as it gives a very beautiful picture about space,space stations and astronauts. Though towards the end it was like watching the movie

Aliens and got me spooked:)
        I love books and I keep stocking them up. I generally love reading thrillers,historical novels, fiction and philosophical novels. I love books from Ken Follet,Lee Child and Paulo Coelho,to name a few. Another author who I've recently started enjoying is Mary Higgins Clark,as a kid I loved Nancy Drew and Clark's books are like Nancy Drew for grown ups. As a kid I used to love classics too,but these days I've lost interest in them.I actually thought that you love classics as you grow older & mature,but looks like it's the other way with me. I've been blessed with a beautiful library near my house.It's the state library,stocked with German books but they do have a  very good foreign language section.We find amazing books in English,French and Turkish. I simply love the library and the smell of old books :) If given a choice I would always buy a second hand book rather than a new book : )        
        I've generally noticed that people think that women read only romance or drama.I know this nice library in commercial street in Bangalore.The first day I visited them, the librarian got me registered and took me to a section full of drama & romance and asked me to help myself. I do read drama occasionally and I don't have anything against those novels,but I seriously don't understand this prejudice :) So just wondering, what genre of books do you enjoy reading and who are your favorite authors ,I'll be really glad to know.So off to the smoothie. A very healthy and delightful combo.....

You'll Need:
Galia Melon - 1
Straw berries - 12 - 15
Sugar or honey - 2 tbsp

Method:
-Cut the Galia Melon,remove the seeds and scoop out the flesh.
-Clean the strawberries and remove the stem.Chop them.
-Add the flesh of galia melon,strawberries and sugar to a blender and blend until done.

Thanks for stopping by ! Happy Blending !

Sending this to Foodabulous fest organized by Simply Tadka and hosted by Sajna Bishar of Saju's Tastes and Fast ! Fresh ! Simple! happening at Cooking with Sapna

Chocolate cupcake

Makes 10
This cupcake would be the chocolate lover`s favorite.I simply love chocolates in every form ,be it cakes or ice creams .I'm the  kind of person who can spoon up half a bottle of nutella in no time:)I love baking ,both the process and the output. But the amount of sugar and butter and the calories involved keeps me from baking more often.How I wish this thing called calories just din't exist :-)  This cupcake recipe calls for little sugar and no butter.It's still very soft and moist and extremely chocolaty!

Ingredients:

Baking Chocolate - 170 g
Double Cream - 120 ml
Fine Sugar - 50 g - 1/4 cup
All purpose Flour - 50 g -1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Eggs - 3 medium
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
Chocolate Chips - 225 g

Method:
-For melting the cream and chocolate in a double-boiler: Fill  quarter of a vessel with water.Place another smaller vessel in it such that it`s bottom doesn't touch the water.Place the broken pieces of chocolate and the cream in the smaller vessel.Let the water heat up on medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until the chocolate is fully melted.Remove from the stove and stir well until the chocolate and cream are well combined.
-Sift together the baking powder and the flour.
-Beat the sugar,eggs and vanilla essence for 5 minutes on medium until it turns a little thick and lemon yellow in color.
-Add the melted chocolate cream mixture and beat for 20 seconds on medium.
-Add the flour,baking soda and chocolate chips beat on low for 10 seconds then on medium for another 10 seconds.
-Preheat the oven to 175°C.
-Fill 10 muffin cups with the batter until they are a little more than 3/4th full and bake at 175°C for 30 minutes.

Note:
-The chocolate chips can be replaced with grated chocolate.
-These cupcakes taste even greater the next day  and hold good for more than 3 days.









Sending this to MJDelights

Broccoli tikki.

Makes 8.
 Tikkis, they taste great and make great snacks and side dishes.They are healthy and the shallow frying makes them definitely better than deeply fried snacks like vadas .I somehow feel that making a tikki is more like playing with 'play dough'.I simply enjoy the process of making them,the mixing ,shaping and all that ,hubby sometimes tells me that I look like a child playing in a sand pit. These tikkis are a beautiful combination of broccoli,paneer and potatoes and taste yum !


Ingredients :
Broccoli - 10 -15 florets(chopped very finely)
Paneer - 3 tbsp (grated)
Potatoes - 2 - 3 medium ( boiled & grated)
Corn flour - 2 tbsp
Onion - 1 medium (chopped)
Green chilli - 2 (chopped finely)
Garlic - 4 - 5 pods(minced)
olive oil - 1 tbsp & for shallow frying
Garam masala powder - 1/4 tsp
salt - as needed

Method :

- To a pan add the 1 tbsp of oil and when it heats up add the garlic and  green chillies and saute for a minute or two.Then add the onion and little salt and saute until the onion turns translucent.
-Add the broccoli ,sprinkle some salt and garam masala powder. Saute on medium flame for 5- 8 minutes until they are cooked.


-
Remove from the stove.
-Add the boiled & grated potatoes,the corn flour and the paneer/cottage cheese. Mix everything well adding salt as needed.Shape them into medium sized tikkis/dumplings.
-Heat some more oil in a pan for shallow frying .Cook the tikkis on each side for 8- 10 minutes on a low or medium flame .

Sending this to What's with my Cuppa and Nupur's page,Foodabulous Food hosted by Pramitha's Space

Broken Wheat Porridge - Bulgur Porridge - Kids recipe

Serves 1 toddler
This is an extremely healthy recipe for Kids.Can be fed to babies right from when they are 6 months old and for toddlers.My little girl was one of those kids who wouldn't eat Cerelac or any kind of standard porridge .After trying every other 'Grießbrei' (something similar to cerelac that we find in Germany) I had to resort to making my own.This was one thing that worked,for at least 3 days in a week :) and it's very easy to prepare.

Ingredients:
Bulgur - 2 tbsp
Dates(seedless) - 2
Raisins - 8 -10
Nuts powder - 1 tsp(I use Almond powder)
Milk - 150 ml - 1 cup
Water - 30 ml

Method:
-To a pressure cooker add all the ingredients and pressure cook for one whistle on high and simmer for 5 minutes.
-Grind to a fine paste with a stab mixer.Add milk if u want to dilute it.

Whole grain apple muffins

These muffins are very healthy .I make them mainly for breakfast for my toddler.They are very quick & easy to make and can be real filling.

 Ingredients :

Makes 4

Whole wheat flour - 75 g

Oats - 75 g

Egg - 1

Brown Sugar - 75 g

Olive oil - 1 tbsp

Whole Milk - 3 - 4  tbsp

Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp

Apple - 1/2 a medium one

Method :
-In a bowl add the sugar,flour,oats and cinnamon powder and mix well with a spoon.
-Break the egg into the bowl and mix well.The batter will be very thick.
-To this add the olive oil and milk and mix well.
-Peel,core and grate the apple.Add the grated apples to the batter and mix well.
-Preheat the oven to 175° C.Fill 4 muffin cups fully with the batter and bake for 20 mins.

This post goes to the Farmersgirl Kitchen and to the Breakfast Club page at Fuss Free Flavours

Whole wheat Pasta and Cheese !

Pasta,Vegetables and cheese.

Serves one

Being a mother of a picky eater has its upside too :) My daughter has always been a very choosy eater and concocting recipes for her has been a challenge.It's difficult to find recipes which are healthy and still satisfy the taste buds of a little one.This is a very filling and healthy recipe which kids and grown ups would love .And it can be whipped up very quickly !

Ingredients :

Whole wheat pasta - around 15 -20

Vegetables:

   Broccoli - 3- 4 florets

   Peas - a handful

   Carrot - one ( peeled and chopped)

   Potato - a tiny one ( peeled and chopped)

Garlic - a tiny piece

Capsicum - 5-6 small pieces

All purpose flour - 1/2 tsp

Milk - 1/4 cup or lesser

Cheese (grated) - 2-3 tbsp

Butter or olive oil - 1 tsp

olive oil - 1/2  tsp
salt as needed

Method :

-Boil sufficient water and add salt and a tsp of olive oil.Add the pasta and let it boil until its well cooked.I usually cook it real soft when preparing for my daughter.

-Steam or boil the carrot,peas and potato.If boiling them save the water(vegetable stock) in which it boils.

-Add the butter to a pan, add the garlic and stir for a minute.Next add the broccoli and capsicum with a little salt .Sauté for a few minutes until they are cooked. Add the cooked vegetables and sprinkle the flour and sauté for a few mins.

-Add the drained pasta and mix well.Add the milk and the vegetable stock ,add salt as required. Let it cook on medium heat for a few mins.When the mixture is a little dry ,sprinkle the cheese and remove from the stove.

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