Eggless choclate truffles

Well this one really surprised me, not because its difficult to make truffles or anything but I started with making a basic eggless trutti fruti cake and ended up making these. I was too excited to check and try the cake and rushed up after removing it from oven. It was too soft too handle and needed some time to cool down before this act of mine turned it into crumble! well it tasted awesome and looks would not have mattered but it was a present to some one so I chose to work on it and with little effort made these choclate truffles. you dont have to bake a cake and crumble it to make these really but you have some leftover cake and find it to be too boring had as it is, this can come for rescue. So here we go.

ingredients:

for cake crumble:

1/2 cup condensed milk

1/2 cup date syrup

1 tablespoons baking powder 

1 cup white flour 

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 table spoon vanilla extract/essence 

for truffle:

100 grams milk choclate

sprinklers

Recipe:

preheat oven to 180C. Take condensed milk, date syrup and butter in a bowl and whisk together till it becomes creamy and light. Add vanilla extract. In a separate bowl sieve the baking powder and flour together. Add them to wet mixture. Add truitti fruity and mix everything together. pour in a greased pan and bake for 40 minutes.

once cake cools down crumble it and add melted chocolate. Shape them in small sized balls and roll over some sprinkles. let it set for sometime.

Beetroot brownies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup flour

1 egg

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup puréed beetroot

50 grams dark choclate(I used sweetened)

Vanilla extract

Recipe:

Beat egg,oil and sugar together. 

Add flour, cocoa powder and mix.

Now add remaining ingredients and blend well .

Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes.

I used the 2 medium size beet to make purée by cooking them for 10 minutes and grinding in a purée.

Braided spinach bread

So now when I have tried my hands on bread couple of times and started getting bored of baking same kind I did the spinach bread. Another reason was to use the spinach I had lying in my kitchen.

Since I have started baking my own bread I feel it takes less effort than going down to nearby bakery to buy one. Yes believe me once you start doing so you would realize so much easy it is and gives you control on whats goes in your bread. No colors and preservatives to startwith. Mostly when I don't want to spend time cooking breakfast in the morning I bake it on previous night ready to be eaten in breakfast next day. 

I braided it to give a different look . I did't have a big loaf pan so used a baking tray. Try using a loaf pan if you have one as it retains the shape and prevents flattening . That only changes the look , taste remains same so this is optional. Also though mostly I only use whole wheat flour but for this one I used some white flour too. If you want replace that with wholewheat flour go ahead. Using white flour makes it lighter while wholewheat one are little dense. I prefer wholewheat .So here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

1.5 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup white flour

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

3/4 cup water

1 cup finely chopped spinach

1 table spoon oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon salt

Recipe:

Warm water in a bowl. Add yeast and honey and keep aside for 5 minutes for yeast to proof. Take the flours in a bwl. Keep 1/2 cup aside for dusting. Add oil, salt, spinach and yeast. Mix it together with a wooden spatula. I have a hand blender with kneading hooks so used that but hands work fine as well. It will be sticky initially so don't worry start adding flour gradually kneading to bring it together. Sprinkle flour on clean surface and transfer the dough there. Continue kneading till it make a nice and smooth ball. Add more flour if you still find it sticky. Meanwhile preheat oven to 240C or wharever is the maximum range . Grease a bowl and put dough in it. Roll it over to ensure its covered in oil and doesnt dry out. Cover with thin kitchen cloth and let it rest inside oven for an hour. It will be doubled in size as below: 

Make sure oven is off. We arent ready to bake it yet! After it has doubled up, transfer again to work surface and knead for sometime to remove all excess air. This will take 4-5 minutes. Grease the pan with oil . Shape it as desired. I divided into two parts and braided them together. Now place on baking tray and once again leave it in preheated oven to rise. This would take around 30 minutes.

Finally preheat oven to 180c and bake for 30-40 minutes. It will sound hollow on knocking on top which is a sign of its being ready.

Enjoy warm with some butter or use in any other recipe calls for bread.

Avacado icecream

Well I was very doubtful of this recipe as I couldnt imagine avacado as one of main ingredients for an icecream in my wildest dreams! So I tried this one with my fingers crossed . But I must admit the humble super fruit amazed me again. Given the super creamy texture it has you wont miss the cream or milk and wont even need an ice cream maker . 

I used condensed milk as sweetener but next time round would try using honey. 

Ingredients:

2 ripe avacado - flesh around 200 grams

100 ml condensed milk-adjust as per sweetness desired

Oreo biscuit - 4

Vanilla extract - 5 ml

Choclate chips - whit and dark - 2 tablespoon

Cocoa powdet (unsweetened) 2 tablespoon

Recipe:

Remve the pulp from avacados using a spoon in a bowl and blend using electric whisker. Once creamy add condensed milk and vanilla extract and whisk again to combine everything well and remove any lumps. I used natural vanilla extract but you can use vanilla essence. 

Divide the mixture in two parts.

To one add cocoa powder and choclate chips and mix. Add more condensed milk if you want to.

To the other part add crushed oreo biscuits. And blend again.

Freeze them for 6 hours. You can top them with choclate sauce or enjoy as is!

Date filled oats peanut butter bites

I love apple pear crumble and they taste divine when had freshly baked. I haven't shared that recipe yet but this time round I made this date filled bites. I got dates in my kitchen and no one at home wanted to touch them. So I tried using them for all the sweetness in the recipe . This recipe can be tried with many variations but for now I kept in simple using handful of ingredients.

They are your on the go energy bars minus the empty calories and sugar. Also doubles up as a dessert! 

Ingredients:

2 cup rolled oats 

1 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons peanut butter

1 tablespoons cinnamon powder

1/2 tablespoons baking powder

1 cup dates (de seeded)

1/3 cup water

1 tablespoons brown sugar

Recipe:

We will prepare date filling first as that needs to be cooled down to use. Chop the dates finely. Hear water in a pan and add dates. Cook for about 5 minutes as they turn soft. Keep mashing with spoon while they ate hot so we wonr need to grind them. It will become like a paste but not very thin.

Let it cool , meanwhile cut butter into small pieces and add flour, oats, cinnamon powder, baking powder to it. Using hands crumble it together to mix everything together. It should be like crumble mixture now , so will add peanut butter. It will help to bind oats together and it will not fall apart after baking. Preheat oven to 180C . Brush oil on a square baking pan. Size of the pan should be as big as you can use to cover its bottom with 2 layers of oat mixture . 

I used 8x9 inches glass one and it was perfect for the above quantities. Divide the crumble mix into 2 parts. Spread first half onto pan and press using gamds or back of a spoon. Now spread the date filling evenly on top. Again top with another layer of oats mixture. Press lightly. This is important as otherwise we wont be able cut them later if its too loose. Bake for 25-30 minutes as top crust turns golden.

Let it cool for 10 minutes before cutting into squares. Leave to cool for some more time before taking out pieces.

Serve warm !

Beetroot chocolate cake with avacado frosting

Yes you heard me right. So whenever I think about a cake what comes in my mind is white flour, butter, egg and cream. This definitely puts me off from indulging into an otherwise delectable piece of this awesome dessert. This time round I got rid of most of these ingredients and tried to substitute them without compromising with the richness and flavor of a conventional chocolate cake.

I had a ripe avocado on my kitchen counter and  for a change I didn't want to make guacamole . I had tried avocado cookies earlier once so had my hopes pinned on using this avocado for making some dessert , that's how I ended up baking this beetroot oat cake to use the chocolate avocado as frosting. Avocado, also known as butter fruit provides the perfect frosting when combined with some sugar and dark chocolate. As for the cake I used my all time favorite canola oil with oats and beet. Since I started using canola oil for baking I have bid good bye to the butter and never feel any difference in taste and texture of the baked product.

So this recipe essentially has only two baddies - chocolate (of only you consider it bad, I don't if its dark) and condensed milk.  But this is by far the most amazing guilt free recipe. You can grab a bite and let yourself indulge in the rich chocolate taste  without worrying too much! I avoid using any artificial colors and flavors so didn't add any but you can add vanilla extract to enhance the frosting.
I only had essence and not natural extract so skipped it completely.

Here  goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup oats flour (grind rolled oats)
3/4 cup condensed milk
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup pureed beetroot(boiled and pureed with little water)
 1/2 tablespoon baking powder

For frosting:
50 grams dark choclate
1 small avacado
2 table spoon icing sugar

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 180 C, blend the oil, condensed milk, beet puree together in a bowl.
Add the dry ingredients a separate bowl - oat flour, cocoa powder and baking powder.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet mix . Using a wooden spatula mix everything together.
Pour in greased cake pan dusted with flour. Bake for 40 minutes . Check using a tootpick when its done, it should come out clean .

Let it cool, once cooled down cut horizontally in middle. Cool it completely before applying icing.
To make the frosting, blend the avocado, melted chocolate and sugar together till it gets a nice smooth consistency without any lumps.

Spread the icing on first layer and place the top layer on it. Cover with icing and enjoy!

Ragi date syrup tutti fruity cake

I had posted a ragi choclate cake earlier and was really surprised with how well the ragi and chocolate came together in taste and complimented each other.

This time round I was looking for making a quick tutti fruity cake like the one we get from Britainnia which is equally loved by kids and adults. But i ended up adding up ragi to the cake so much so that it became one of the main ingredients. It only improved the texture and color adding up with its rustic taste. So here I am sharing the recipe .

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white flour 

1 cup ragi flour 

1/2 cup canola oil

3/4 cup date syrup 

2 tablespoon tutti fruity 

1/2 tablespoon vanilla essence 

1 egg

1 tablespoon baking powder 

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 180 C. Whisk the egg and oil together in bowl using a blender. Add date syrup and vanilla essence to this and blend again.

Sieve the flours and baking powder in a dry bowl. Add this gradually to wet mixture blending continuously. Finally add the tutti fruity. Grease the loaf pan with oil and dust with flour. Pour in the mix and bake for around 40 minutes.

Let it stand for 5 minutes before removing and cutting into slices. Enjoy warm!

Chilly garlic veggy rice noodles

 

I am a big noodles fan and love having it all the time be it pad thai, schzewan, hakka or any kind. But given all that hoopla around the scary ingredients used in chinese food outside I am a little skeptical of trying it out at at any place other than well known joints. But in any case this is something I crave for most of the times and just can't get enough of them.

I have used a lot of veggies in this recipe and used rice noodles instead of whit flour one as I think they are healthier. You may add or remove any veggy you do not have handy but as I was just done with my grocery shopping for the week I had quite a few choices. 

Ingredients:

200 grams rice noodles

Sauce:

4 tablespoon vinegar 

4 tablespoon soy sauce 

1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds

6-7 cloves of garlic 

Thinly sliced ginger- about 1 tablespoon 

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

5 dried red chillies 

1 tablespoon red chilli flakes 

1 carrot cut into julienne strips 

1 small red, yellow pepper cut into julienne 

1/2 cup yellow zucchini cut into julienne 

100 grams button mushrooms thinly sliced

1/2 cup broccli florets

1 cup cabbage shredded 

1 cup sprouted moong-optional 

4 cloves garlic thinly sliced 

1 inch ginger thinly sliced 

1 tablespoon canola oil 

Salt

1 small onion thinly sliced 

Recipe:

Heat 1 tablespoon canola and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a wok.

Add thinly sliced ginger, garlic ,chillies. Let garlic turn a little pink. Add all remaining ingredients and stri it together. Switch off the gas.

Heat water in a big vessel and soak noodles or prepare as per instructions.

Drain and keep it aside.

Heat oil in a big wok and add onions. Fry for some time and then add ginger , garlic.

Make sure its on high flame. We dont want veggies to be cooked and become soft but have to keep the crunch so flame should be high and keep an eye by stirring constantly. Add all vegies and let them cook for just 2 minutes. Add noodles and mix everything together. Add sprouts and the sauce with salt as per taste. Cook on high flame for 2 minutes and serve hot.

Roasted tomato garlic macroni

I am a great fan of pastas be it white or red sauce. But when I have less time to wait and craving for pasta kicks in I give way to humble macroni, which cooks quickly and absorbs all flavours really well. And there are times when you are even more lazier but do not want to compromise with taste. At such instance this recipe fits the bill!

You can put together the meal with very less time in kitchen by making oven roasted sauce which requires minimal effort and assures maximum flavor.

Like the traditional pasta/macroni recipes this one isn't loaded and only uses cheese to enhance flavor and look. But add more if you want to suit your pallet. But believe me you won't need any as the smoky flavor of oven roasted garlic and tomato does wonders to the recipe.

So do try.

Ingredients:

2 cups macroni-I used elbow

4 big tomatoes 

10 gloves garlic

Handful of fresh herbs- rosemary and basil - can use dried one too

2 tablespoon olive oil

Finely chopped vegetables- capsicum, carrot and beans - 1cup

2 tablespoon black olives-sliced

Cheese to grate on top

Salt

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 200C . Place tomatoes, herbs, garlic cloves in a baking tray/bowl.

Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil and salt over it. Bake for an hour.

Boil the macroni as per instructions.

After straining macroni run over with cold water and add some oil to avoid them to stick when they turn cold.

After tomato is done in oven, blend into thick consistency. Heat oil in a pan, add chopped veggies and fry but don't cook till they become soft. Keep them crunchy. Add sliced olives, macroni and blended sauce.

Serve hot after grating cheese on top.

I only used fresh herbs from my garden but you may add more as per your taste.

Avacado chocolate flour less cookie

I know you might not believe it at first and might even think if its a mistake - avacado cookies? But I too had same feeling until I tried this recipe and was totally awestruck by how avacado can double up at fat and flour both in a cookie recipe. I have always tried guacamole recipe whenever I get avacadoes but this time I was too bored of having the same old dip and was browsing for if there can be some dessert that can be whipped off using ripe avocado. This recipe makes cookies with gooey texture and not crunchy as their is no flour. But I bet you can not make out avacado as even one of the ingredients forget about it being the main one. 

I am soon going to try other avacado recipes but for now you can try this one.

And ofcourse you must know that avacado os a super food and tops the list of healthy foods. So enjoy guilt free!

Ingredients:

1 ripe avacado(200 gms flesh)

1/2 tablespoon baking powder 

1 egg

2 tablespoon peanut butter 

100 gms sugar

Choclate chips

2 tablespoon cocoa powder 

Recipe:

Whip/blend avacado flesh , egg and add remaining ingredients except cocoa powder.

Add chocolate chips to batter. Batter woul be with consistency of more like cake than cookie as we aren't using any flour. Preheat oven to 180C and pour batter on greased tray . Keep at least 2 inches apart as cookies will expand. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Wholewheat focaccia bread

I always thought making your bread would be very cumbersome and given the fact that we can buy them so easily from any store and at a very less price no body gives it a though that we can actually try baking one at home.

I admit it took a couple of tries to get desired texture and softness but it only gets better with every try and then you can plan it out in a way where you really won't have to put a lot of effort and time in baking one. I am still playing around with ingredients and am amused with end results of each effort!

Believe me it might be a little too overwhelming to start with but once you start baking your own bread you can try a lot of varieties  and will now exactly what is going in your bread.

I do not add any preservatives in bread so it is good for use upto 2 days(if only it lasts that long).
I have shared other bread loaf recipes earlier, but this time I tried focaccia bread as I got hold of some sun dried tomatoes from market and was desperate to try somethings using those!

It came out really good in taste and texture and although I used only whole wheat flour did'nt miss the white flour at all! Being new to using sun dried tomatoes, I ended up burning them a bit but well it tasted awesome anyways.

So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups whole wheat flour 

1 tablespoon active dry yeast 

1 cup warm water

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

4 tablespoon olive oil

Handful sun dried tomato 

Black olives 

Fresh basil leaves-5 to 6

Recipe:
Heat the water to lukewarm - around 30-40  C. It should not be too hot or it will kill the yeast.
Add sugar and yeast and keep it at a warm place for 5-10 minutes till it become frothy at top.
Meanwhile take the flour, salt and add 1 table spoon of olive oil to it . Mix the yeast mixture gradually using a fork, bringing everything together in a dough. Using hands make the dough, not be too harsh while making the dough and knead it into a smooth texture for around 5 minutes. Grease a bowl with oil and put the dough in it, cover it with oil so that it does get dried up. Cover with a cloth and keep it to rest for an hour at a warm place or until it rises to double the volume .
In the meantime, warm the 2 table spoon olive oil and add the chopped basil ,olives and sun dried tomatoes in it. Let it soak for around 30 minutes or until we prepare for rest of the recipe .
Once dough has risen, punch it back and knead for 5 minutes. Grease a baking tray and roll the dough with 1/2 inch thickness. Spread the tomato-olive-basil on top of it and brush with the remaining oil.
Let it rise for another 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180C and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Enjoy warm as it is or with any dips.

You can either bake for 20 minutes if you do not want the tomato to brown a lot or add them halfway through baking.
 I had mine with hummus!

Oats coconut cookies eggless

I love coconut so much that when I ordered an entire kg of dessicated coconut I immediately started looking for various recipes with which I could make use of it . These one are extremely simple and very quick to bake. Adding oats and wholewheat flour make them even more appeasing !    

So this one is a must try if you get your hands on dessicated coconut in your kitchen and want to try something without much of an effort.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oats

1 tablespoon all purpose flour 

4 tablespoons dessicated coconut 

2 tablespoon whole wheat flour

1/3 cup condensed milk

1/3 cup date syrup 

2 tablespoon butter(at room temperature)

1 tablespoon cinnamon powder 

Chocolate chip to garnish

1/2 tablespoon baking powder 

Recipe:

Mix together all wet ingredients- date syrup, condensed milk, butter.

In another bowl mix all dry ingredients except chocolate chips.

Add together both dry and wet ingredients and mix well. Preheat oven to 180 c. Scoop out the cookies on greased baking tray and decorate with chocolate chips on top. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Ragi wholwheat bread

So this Sunday I tried my hands on ragi cake for a potluck with friends with my fingers crossed and it came  out very good . Everyone liked it and didn't believe it was made from ragi! Which was a big achievement considering cakes are thought to be very unhealthy and ragi not so delicious. So this encouraged me to try other conventional recipes replacing the white flour with ragi, in moderation to start with. I bought sprouted ragi flour long back and used it to make cookies . Rest of it was lying in my kitchen cabinet waiting for its turn to be transformed into something appeasing to my pallet! Well I ended up using all of it with this second recipe and look forward to get more to experiment.

But be aware this bread is not very light like the one using wheat flour but it tastes good and can be used simply by toasting and putting some olive oil or butter. Its full of nutrients from ragi and wholewheat and you won't have to think twice before eating. What more one wants! So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon active dry yeast 

1 cup ragi flour 

3/4 cup wholwheat flour 

4 tablespoon white flour 

2 tablespoon oil

1 tablespoon jaggery

1 tablespoon salt

1 cup water 

1 tablespoon oats , flaxseed, melon and sunflower seeds to coat

Recipe:

The very first step in any recipe calling for dry yeast is to proof it. This is done to make sure that yeast will work in the recipe. To proof the yeast add it to warm water with jaggery and keep aside at a warm place for 5-10 minutes. Water needs to be lukewarm and not too hot to kill yeast action. Once it is bubbled up it is ready to be added to the recipe.

Mix together all flours and salt in a bowl . Add oil and yeast mixture. Put it together using a fork adding yeast mixture in smash amounts.

Now using hands knead the dough . Dont be too harsh on dough and do this with medium pressure until it comes together as a smooth texture.Brush a bowl with oil and place dough in it. Rolling it over to its covered woth oil all over and doesn't dry up.

Now this has to be kept at a warm place for an hour or until it doubles up. I always preheat the oven to 250c and keep it there. After 30-45 minutes it would rise up. Take it on dusted work surface and knead again removing the air and rise. Shape into a loaf and roll on the oats and seeds. Brush the loaf pan with oil and keep the dough in it. Let it sit in warm place again for 30-45 minutes so that it rises again as in picture below. Once done,  bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about an hour.

Ragi cake with dark choclate glaze icing

I have baked many cakes earlier but never realised that I can try one using ragi flour as well until I came across with one of the posts on Facebook from some member of a foodies club. I had tried the ragi cookies earlier and they were good and being a health food freak I am and gave this recipe a try but with my own touch using some substitues in the original recipe . I baked it with my fingers crossed and was a little skeptical but it came out so good that I am sure I am going to make this again very soon and very often!

I am not a good food photographer and a little lazy in clicking pictures for step by step recipe . But this time around I did cick a few. Hope it helps. This is my first attempt at ragi cake and I will be trying more kinds with ragi as main ingredients. 

For now here goes the recipe.

Ingredients :

1 cup ragi flour 

1/2 cup whole wheat flour 

1/2 cup white flour(can replace with wholewheat flour)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup date syrup 

1/2 cup canola oil

1 egg

1 tablespoon baking powder

For chocolate glaze:

50 grams dark chocolate bar

1 tablespoon oil

1/2 tablespoon sugar

Cherries to garnish 

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Sift together the flours and baking powder in a bowl. Beat the oil and sugar with an electric blender and add egg to it. Add vanilla essence and date syrtand beat again for 2 minutes. Fild in the dry ingredients and mix gently.

Brush the cake mould with oil amd dust with flour. Pour thr batter amd bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

To prepare the glaze, melt the chocolate in oil in microwave for 2 minutes. Add icing sugar. Wait for cake to come to room temperature. Apply icing with a spoon and garnish with cherries on top.

Emjoy guilt free!

Sabudana and raw banana cutlets

My MIL introduced me to appe and I hadn't have them any time earlier. But once I got my own appe cast pan and started making them I don't even remember how many variations I have tried in snacks and breakfast. The authentic one are made with dosa batter . But I tried palak pakora, saboodana cutlet, rava veg, oats to name a few. I even made some with left over pad thai noodles and believe me it turned out really crispy and yummy!

The one I am talking about here is made using raw banana and saboodana as main ingredients but you may add potato or a little bread as well . It's a life saver when it comes to put together something for snacks or breakfast which is easy to make and tastes good.

I didn't add any green chillies as I had them with coriander mint chilly cutney but you may add as per your taste. It's also a healthy recipe considering we are using very little oil and no potatoes. 

Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup saboodana/sago soaked for 8 hours (I soak overnight to make it in morning)

2 boiled and peeled raw banana 

Salt as per your taste

Finely chop coriander and mint leaves (handful)

1 tablespoon Jeera powder

1 tablespoon coriander powder

Oil to brush on appe pan.

Recipe:

Grate/mash boiled banana and mix saboodana. Add all other ingredients. Shape in round cutlets as per size of your appe pan. 

Heat appe pan and brush with oil.

Once its hot put the cutlets on moulds and cover with a lid. Turn flame on medium and keep an eye by turning them to get brown on both sides. This takes around 10-15 minutes.

Serve hot with green chutney.

You can add paneer, peas , boiled potatoes to make variations. 

Add up spices as per your taste.

Cookies, cookies and cookies!

Something special about cookies is that they are enjoyed across all age groups.

Whenever I bake them I make variations with same dough by playing around with some of the ingredients and getting variety of flavours with same effort 😄.  You can enjoy them as it is or just crush them into ice cream or pour some hot chocolate sauce over them. They taste delicious whichever way you eat them.

Though a big health freak I am , I was a little lenient while making these and didn't mind using some while flour and sugar which I otherwise try to avoid by using healthier substitutes. But you can adapt this by changing oats-white flour or sugar-date syrup ratios.

Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup white flour 

1 cup oats

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup date syrup 

2 tablespoons white chocolate chips

2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips

2 tablespoons dessicated coconut 

2 tablespoons cinnamon powder (or vanilla extract )

3/4 cup butter(at room temperature)

2 eggs

2 tablespoons baking powder 

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius.

Whisk together eggs with butter with a blender. Add sugar , date syrup and cinnamon powder and whisk again till everything mixes together well and appears light.

In another bowl mix the dry ingredients- oats , flour and baking powder. Mix dry ingredients to wet . Divide this mixture into 3 portions and add white, dark choclate chip and cocunut to each portion. You can also try using cashew and raisins. Pour the batter using spoon over greased baking tray. For hassle free cleaning afterwards you can also use a baking tray covered with greased aluminium foil which makes removing cookies easy. Drop in spoonfuls keeping a distance of 1 inche between one another as they will expand. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Let them sit for 10 minutes after removing from oven.

Enjoy warm.

Zuccini bread recipe

I have baked banana and carrot breads lots of times but recently came across this Zuccini bread recipe so gave it a try and it didn't disappoint me. I did make changes to original recipe replacing butter and sugar with canola oil and date syrup. Started substituting half of quantity in first attempt and then completely. It didn't cause any major change in texture and taste but made it alot more healthy. So will go with same in future!

Here goes the recipe 

Ingredients:

1/3 cup white flour

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup wholwheat flour

1 cup dates syrup 

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tablespoons baking powder

1 egg

1 cup grated Zuccini 

1 tablespoons cinnamon powder

Flaxseed, melon seeds to decorate (optional)

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 180c . Whisk egg and oil in a bowl. Add date syrup . 

In another bowl mix together all flours , baking powder, cinnamon powder.

Add the dry mixture to the wet one . Add 

Zuccini to this mixture.

Brush the loaf pan with oil and pour the mixture. Sprinkle the seeds on top.  Bake in oven for an hour . Check with a toothpick to make sure its cooked completely. Let it rest for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Enjoy guilt free!

Multigrain oats banana bread

.

This is something that comes to my mind whenever I see ripening bananas over my kitchen counter. I have made this bread in so many variants that I don't even remember the count! I put this together with whatever ingredients are available in my kitchen and it turns out yum. 

So this is one of the recipes I recently used to bake the bread. I forgot to add oil(yes I did) and realized while putting in for baking so was afraid that it might turn out good. Buy it didn't make any difference so i am skipping oil in the recipe here.

Ingredients:

1 cup oats

1 cup multigrain flour

1 big ripe banana 

2 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoon milk

1 tablespoon cinnamon powder 

50 grams choclate chips(optional)

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1 cup dates syrup

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Line a baking pan with aluminium foil and brush with oil.

Mix the flour, oats, cinnamon and baking powder together in a bowl.

Mash bananas using a fork.

In a separate bowl mix add all the wet ingredients. Mix them well.

Now add dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Fold together and pour into the pan. Bake for about an hour. Check if done by inserting a toothpick. If it comes out clean bread is done else bake for a little more time 

Multigrain lavash- salted crackers recipe

First time I saw these crackers at a gourmet food store which sold it at very high price (these days healthy is proportional to price it seems) . I bought them and found good to go with any dips or just have with tea. I tried the recipe and it came out nice. Now I make them and prepare some dips like hummus, salsa or herbed yoghurt.

Its quite simple to make with no fancy ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 cup multigrain or wholewheat flour 

1 cup oats

1 table spoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon sesame seeds 

1 tablespoon dried mixed herbs (oregano,basil,thyme,rosemary)

Salt to taste

Recipe:

Grind the oats. Mix oats , flour, salt, sesame seeds, herbs, oil together with hands and make a tight dough using cold water.

Cover and keep in fridge for 10 

minutes . Preheat oven on 180 C. Take the dough and roll like chapati. Keep it thin to make crispy crackers. Cut using knife in triangles. Bake for 10-12 minutes .

Serve with hearty dip.

Schezwan sauce recipe

I love chinese food and who does not 😊 . But the ready to eat sauces we get from market are loaded with way too much sodium and preservatives. I am a little(or say more) skeptical about using these readymade sauces so i give them a miss and always try to make them at home.

I had this craving for schewan noodles for a long time now and finally made this sauce . I made a little extra to keep in refrigerator and use for trying some other recipe s . It came out well and here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Garlic cloves - a lot around 30 or so

Ginger about 50 grams

Sesame oil

Any other oil- I used rice bran

Salt

Dried Red chillies - around 20

Soya sauce

Vinegar

Recipe:

First deseed the chillies and soak them in hot water for around 2 hours. Sauce will be too spicy if do not remove the seeds. 

Now finely chop the garlic cloves and ginger.

Remove chillies from water and grind into thick paste . Be careful as the fume while grinding is very sharp and might burn your eyes. Heat 5 table spoon of rice bran and 2 table spoon of sesame oil in a pan. You can also use only the normal or sesame oil but I mixed them. And yes we need a lot of oil here so that it act as preservative and it has longer shelf life. Don't worry too much about oil as you wont be able to eat sauce in large quantities as it will be very hot and adding a little will be enough.

Let the ginger garlic be fried fir 4-5 minutes and then add chilly paste. Cook till oil separates. Add salt to taste, 2 table spoon soya sauce and vinegar. 

Let it cook for 5 minutes. Cool it down and keep in glass jar . You can keep it in fridge and use within a month. It migjt stay longer but I prefer to not use more than a month.

It can served as sides with momos, chops. Use in making fried rice, noodles.

I use it in many other ways and make quich chutneys by just throwing in some tomatoes and spoonful of sauce on grinder.

Do try this and let me know how it turned out. Would love hear you comments and feedback!

Coconut macroons

Some days when you want to eat something warm and sweet without spending much time in kitchen or using a lot of ingredients this recipe comes to rescue!

Can't believe its so simple and yet so tasty. So go ahead and try this for friends or family and enjoy them when they pop fresh from oven. Tastes and smell awesome.

Ingredients:

1 cup dessicated coconut

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 table spoon white flour

(Yes thats it I havn't forgotten anything!)

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 180 C. Line a baking tray with aluminium foil and brush it lighlty with oil. This makes it easier to remove macrons .Mix everything together and drop with spoon on baking tray covered with foil.

Bake for 10 minutes or until they turn littly golden on top.

Serve them warm.

Ragi oats laddo recipe

I know that ragi is good for health and is a rich source of calcium and iron, but somehow I can't make much use of it and whenever I buy it, it ends up lying in my kitchen waiting for its turn. But I found this great recipe using ragi and oats and making some changes to it I made these laddos. I tried best to keep it healthy so skipped the sugar and used dates instead. They turned out well and not to mention the goodness of dates,oats and ragi.

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup ragi flour
1 cup oats
50 grams almonds
1 cup dates(seedless)
dessicated coconut - 50 grams
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tablespoon
Ghee - 2 tablespoon
Milk to grind the dates - about 1/4 cup

Recipe:
Soak half of dates in milk for around 30 minutes. Dry roast the oats on a pan for 10 minutes.
Let them cool and then grind in mixer. Heat 1 tablespoon ghee in a pan and roast the ragi flour. Now here you need to be a little patient as this is takes most of the time :). This will take around 15 minutes . Remove the roasted ragi from pan, add 1 table spoon ghee and roast the ground oats for 10 minutes. Crush the almonds and add to oats to roast them.

Grind the soaked dates into a paste. Roughly chop the remaining dates.
Heat the pan again and add the roasted ragi flour, oats, almonds, date paste, cardamom powder, coconut together to mix well. Switch off the gas and let it cool a bit so that you can bind the laddos while its still warm.

Enjoy them guilt free anytime!

Wholewheat oats biscuits recipe

This is a wholegrain recipe and I really love its taste. Definitely better than those cookies sold off market shelves with hazy ingredients and claim to be healthy. The trick is they highlight the healthy ingredients so loudly that we miss the fact it only contributes to a small percentage of overall ingredients. So go ahead and give these a try, they smell heavenly when freshly bakes !

Ingredients :

Wholwheat flour (atta) - 1 cup
Oats - 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 pinch
Sugar - 1 cup
Almonds - 1/2 cup
Butter - 50 grams
Milk - to prepare the dough

 Method:

Grind the oats, sugar and almonds in grinder together in mixer.
Mix it with wholewheat flour. Add butter and cardamom powder . Rub with fingers to make it resemble like bread crumbs. Once all the mixture has desired texture, add milk to prepare dough. It should be hard and not soft. Cover it and put in refrigerator for 10 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180 C. Take out the dough and roll over like we do for making chapati (a little thicker). Use some cookie cutter or just of lid of a jar to cut in desired shapes. Bake for 12-15 minutes in preheated oven. Cool and keep in air tight container. Enjoy them while still warm from oven !