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| Cucumber Lemonade - A perfect thirst quencher |
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| A guilt-free and yummy snack |
Are you looking for ways to sneak in healthy vegetables in your kid’s food? Me too! These days, it’s getting so difficult to make the kids eat healthy stuff. Same with my kids too! So I always sharp my brain to find ways to sneak in healthy vegetables into their food. This curry is one among those sneak ins. My kids like potato curry so much, so thought of making it healthier by adding some celery to it, but not visibly. Celery is an excellent source of Vitamin C, which helps build a healthy immune system.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Grind together celery + green chilies + cilantro into a fine paste. Add little water if needed. Keep aside.
In a pressure pan, heat oil and add cumin seeds. Then add chopped onion + tomatoes + ginger paste + garlic paste and stir well.
Later add curry leaves and rasam powder along with turmeric and mix well. Now add the chopped potatoes and the celery paste and mix well. Add a glass of water and salt. Cover and wait for 3 whistles.
When all the pressure is gone, check if the curry is thick and good. If it turned out so watery, mash some of the cooked potatoes with the back of a spatula. It helps to make the curry thick like gravy without ruining the taste. Adjust salt.
Enjoy hot with rotis/chapathis. This curry tasted so great with the subtle taste of celery. But I must tell you celery didn’t dominate the original taste of potato curry. You can’t even see the green color of celery in the curry! Nobody guessed I added celery paste in that!
Note: This curry can also be made in a regular pan in the same manner.
This is my contribution to “Cooking for Kids Event- Potato”, hosted by Deepa Hari. ‘Cooking for kids’ event is originally started by Sharmi of Neivedyam.
This is a simple coconut laddu, dressed in pretty pink. It’s like a snowy angel wearing a pink mask! Taste and beauty remained the same, just the apparel changed. I think it looked so cute in pink. Everyone at our home liked the color and the taste of these laddus. Here is an example: “At first my hubby clicked some pictures as soon as I made these. The pictures looked ok to me, but when I looked at them on the computer screen, they looked little dark. So I wanted to retake the pictures with some light and went for the laddus. I was amazed to find only 3 laddus were left (check the last picture)!! I was happy that everyone liked them, but sad that I couldn’t take some more pictures.”
Ingredients: (Makes 10 medium Laddus)
Method:
Heat ghee in a non-stick pan and add almonds along with cardamom and fry till almonds turn golden brown in color.
Add coconut + sugar + raisins and mix well. Keep stirring till coconut turns golden brown in color. Don’t let it burn too much. Keep the flame on med-low.
Add food color (if using) at this point and mix well so that coconut mixture is coated well.
Finally add milk and keep stirring until the mixture thickens and leaves the sides of the pan. Switch off the flame and let the coconut mixture cool down for a while just until it is easy to touch.
Note: Don’t let the coconut mixture cool completely as it hardens quickly and it will be difficult to roll into balls.
When it is just cool to touch take small portions and roll into a ball with hands. Place on a plate to dry.
Enjoy these delicious and pretty coconut laddus any time of the day! They make a perfect dessert.
This is my contribution to the following events:
On a different note, a big thanks to Lakshmi and Anisheetu for the shower of awards. So sweet of you to think about me!
If you’re a sour lover, you would love this gravy. This is very aromatic and tasty with a tinge of sourness. This is the easiest gravy to make and enjoy! I usually add milk at the end, but this time I wanted to see how it would taste if I add yogurt and it turned out so yummy.
I know, the pictures didn’t come out that good as it was so cloudy that day when I took the pictures.
Ingredients:
Method:
Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds along with all the chopped veggies and sauté for some time until the onions and tomatoes become soft and cooked. Add turmeric, curry leaves and cilantro to the above mixture and stir well.
Keep the flame on low setting. When all the water from the tomatoes is gone and the mixture becomes thick, add salt and stir in yogurt. Mix the contents well and switch off the flame.
This tomato gravy goes very well with rotis and also rice.
This is my contribution to “Fall in Love – Tomato”, hosted by Sanghi.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
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This is a classic Mexican dish I found in my recipe collection. I thought it would be perfect for Vaishali’s “It’s A Vegan World: Mexican” event. Original recipe said, “For extra good flavor, use small cubes of smoked cheese, and serve with rice”. But I omitted it as cheese isn’t considered as a vegan food! Original recipe also said that this delicious dish is well known as a “bowl of red”.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Heat oil in a large saucepan and gently fry the onion, bell pepper, garlic and red chili for about 5 minutes until onions become soft and cooked.
Stir in the chili powder + cumin and cook for another minute. Then add the beans + water + black pepper. Don’t add salt at this stage.
Boil for 10 minutes, cover and keep the flame on medium setting. Cook until all the water is absorbed.
Note: If using fresh kidney beans, soak for some time before cooking. Also add more (up to 4 cups) water so that the beans are cooked well.
When the beans are tender, add salt and mix well. Remove about a quarter of the mixture and mash to a pulp or pass through a food processor.
Add this puree to the rest of the beans in the pan and stir well. Add sugar and serve hot. If desired, eat with the cheese sprinkled on top.
This tastes great with plain cooked rice. But, I should warn you; this dish is so spicy with all the chili powder and black pepper. So add them as per your taste.
This is my contribution to the following events:
On a different note, I would like to thank AnuSriram for passing me the “The Adorable Blog”, “Amazing Blog”, “Triple Award” and “One Lovely Blog” awards. So nice of you Anu!
Yes, I need an umbrella, because I am soaking wet with shower of Awards! Thank you friends for passing these lovely awards! Dear Rosie, Sanghi, Shama, Pooja passed these pretty awards to me. Aren’t they cute?
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Nominate as many blogs which show adorability, cuteness and charm. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.
Shama also tagged me for a meme of 25 facts about me. Thanks for the tag, but I have done a similar tag before Shama! Check it here: http://teluguruchi.blogspot.com/2008/02/ive-been-tagged-again.html and here: http://teluguruchi.blogspot.com/2008/09/long-queue-but-finally.html
Pooja, Pavithra and Gita also passed another pretty award.
The award states that-These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.
I wanted to pass these to all the wonderful bloggers, but for now I am passing these to:
| Cham | Meera | Rekha | Suma Rajesh | Madhavi | JZ |
| Trupti | Jayasree | Sowmya | Harini | Mahimaa | Lakshmi |
Here is one more thing I want to share with you, that added more happiness to the downpour of awards!
My Christmas Cookies and Christmas Cupcakes have won a second prize in the Santa’s Holiday Challenge which was hosted by JZ @ Tasty Treats. And JZ has mailed me this pretty gift card. The card was so cute and kept it as a keepsake. I wanted to buy something related to cooking with that card and went out to shop for some cooking books. But I couldn’t find one that I like, so thought of buying something useful for baking as these days I am getting more interest in baking. So here they are: A cookie sheet and a loaf pan. Thanks for the wonderful gift card JZ. I am glad I could participate in it!
Are you ready to join me in the trip to the Caribbean Islands? Then come on, let’s go and join the fun by cooking some vibrant, scintillating Caribbean food for “Monthly Mingle: Caribbean Cooking”, hosted by Meeta of What’s For Lunch Honey! OK, OK! You can pack your swim suits and beach slippers too! :)
Before we head to the kitchen to cook something, let’s make ourselves little bit educated about Caribbean islands and its cuisine. Shall we?
The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (most of which enclose the sea), and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America.(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean) |
Caribbean cuisine is a fusion of African, Amerindian, British, Spanish, French, Dutch, Indian. These traditions were brought from the many homelands of this region's population. In addition, the population has created (from this vast wealth of tradition) many styles that are unique to the region. Another Caribbean mainstay is rice, but you'll find the rice on each island may be a little different. Some season their rice, or add peas and other touches - like coconut. Sometimes the rice is yellow, other times it may be more brown but overall it tends to just act as part of a dish. Though it comes in many forms, it is a common side dish throughout the region.(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_cuisine) |
I have gathered so many delicious Caribbean dishes that gave me a hard time to decide which one to cook. All the recipes sounded delicious. You won’t believe if I say that I have spent two whole days in deciding what to cook for the event. Anyway, I finally settled for Caribbean Rice recipe as it sounded different and yummier. And I am glad I picked it, because we liked it so much. It’s a perfect blend of spices and health.
You can read the original recipe from here.
Ingredients: (Serves 3 persons)
Preparation:
Heat oil in a pan and add onion along with garlic. Sauté for some time until onion becomes translucent. Let it cool for some time.
Add onion mixture to a blender along with green chilies and salt and grind into a smooth paste.
Add this puree to the hot rice along with kidney beans + pineapple + almonds and mix well. Adjust salt.
Enjoy delicious Caribbean rice! It’s a perfect blend of sweet and spicy ingredients.
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| Eggless Apple Raisin Muffins |
These days I haven’t been contributing much to the events in the blogosphere, as I couldn’t prepare something specifically for these events due to the moving and stuff. Now I am settled and relaxed. So I would do more cooking for the events in the coming days (hopefully)!
I made this recipe yesterday for Dhivya’s “A.W.E.D-French” event. I searched a lot for some French dessert recipes and finally landed on this simple but yummy dessert recipe. These tasted so delicious and I can definitely say that these would be a hit among kids as well as grown-ups.
Here goes the recipe:
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Peel, core and slice apples into thin crescents. Keep aside.
Take milk and flour in different bowls.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a deep-bottomed pan. When the oil is hot, dip each apple slice in milk, roll in the flour and drop carefully in the hot oil. Repeat the same process with all the apple slices.
Deep-fry the dipped and rolled apple slices until they turn golden brown in color. Then take them out from the oil and place on a paper towel to absorb excess oil.
After all the apple slices are deep-fried, transfer them to a mixing bowl, pour the sugar on top and shake the bowl so that all the slices are coated well with the sugar.
Note: You may reduce the sugar to a small amount if you don’t like too sweetness.
Enjoy these yummy fried apples any time of the day. I think this will be a healthy snack for kids as it is made of a fruit.
As I already told before, this is my contribution for Dhivya’s “A.W.E.D-French” event.
I think this will make a nice entry for Trupti’s “Recipes for the rest of us - Picnic Eats” event too as it involves very less work.
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| A simple way to enjoy Vanilla Cookies |
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