I can’t believe I am stuck for words when I am completing 7 years of blogging. 7 years! Wow! I think I should give myself a pat on my back. When life has been in general difficult yet worth fighting for, I have still kept my wits to continue cooking, clicking and blogging. I guess that just shows how much I love this little baby of mine, despite sometimes feeling that it hasn’t been fair to me. But having said that, I always believe in whatever is meant for us will come our way, come what may, so I guess I am happy with the little that is coming my way. 🙂 The last two years has marked a known push from my side to reduce my blogging in every way. I have gone from posting almost every day to posting twice or thrice a week. I feel…
Wholewheat Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies
As much as my girls and I love homemade cookies, I have an aversion towards baking them. Somehow I find it easier to bake cakes, not even muffins. Imagine the height of my laziness! For a cake, usually you just need to make the batter, pour into one pan and forget about it in the oven till the timer buzzes. For a muffin, an extra work of lining the pan needs to be done, even though it takes lesser time to get baked. For cookies, more than the dough part, the shaping part is what irritates me. I start off with shaping them well and then it just gets bad. The last cookies are always the worse looking. Does that happen to you? My girls always say that my cookies are the best. In fact, it finishes faster than my cakes. Yet, I don’t make them as frequently…
Chocolate Creme Caramel
One thing I love about participating in challenges is that it does help you tick your to-do list earlier than later. Ever since I mastered the Creme Caramel, I have been wanting to make the chocolate version of it. I am a chocoholic and so is my elder one. When I had made the creme caramel, Rasha had told me, “Ummi, please try a chocolate version for this!” It’s been a long time since she said that, but when I was planning the Bake-a-thon posts, this request was right up there. I feel that my Creme Caramel is a slightly complicated recipe, so I wanted to make the chocolate version with just pantry essentials – milk, eggs, sugar and cocoa powder. But I was really nervous while making it, since my earlier simple versions have always flopped. I have already noted down that I need to make the…
Chocolate Coconut Cake
I have been on a dry spree as far as my thoughts are concerned. Somehow my head is quite empty. It is not that there is nothing much to share, but it is more of my head being empty most of the time. There are few tension filled moments happening, but then I guess the best way to live through life and not stress yourself is by looking at what you already have – four walls that protect you, food to eat, a nice bed to sleep, your family, your parents to talk to, your good friends to fall on to, etc. After all, didn’t Allah tells us that we are created of haste… Of late, the stress has getting on to me a bit too much. I have been mentioning that I am trying to hold on to my lost weight, but as soon as I came…
Classic Marble Cake
Getting back to blogging seems to have been far more easier than getting back on track. Even though I have been home for the past few days, the mojo for cooking has been totally missing. We have been just eating this and that and pushing through days. Of course, HD looked a bit irritated though he didn’t show his feeling profusely. So whatever he showed, I chose to ignore. 😉 When you come back from vacation, everything seems different. The eye cooling greens and the cozy breeze has given way to the browns and heat. Naturally, that sags your mood. For me, UAE is always like home since I have spend my whole life over here. Still, the feeling after vacation is always different. I always dread going back home and settling down, since every single thing will be a learning curve for me. Life here makes you…
White Chocolate Goji Berry Blondies
At times, ideas play constantly in your head for a long period of time, but it doesn’t necessarily get materialized immediately. It always happens to me. Before I used to put into immediate action any craving or any idea I would have. But now, due to time constraints and other priorities, I often put my ideas onto the back seat. Sometimes I note it down, sometimes I simply forget. This white chocolate blondies were one that have been playing in my head since very long. I had picked up a couple of packs of cooking white chocolate that was up for a good deal. I had this pack of goji berries that Zerin had given me some time. The girls wouldn’t eat it since it had a sour after taste. I would nibble on them when I would remember that it was sitting in the fridge. When the…
Eggless Nutella Brownie Shortbread Bars
I actually had other plans for the second post for the theme, “Bring Some Brownies” for this week of Blogging Marathon #102. I was in fact planning to make some gluten free brownies with rice flour, since I have been intrigued by it for quite some time. But then the plan was not supposed to pan out as such, I suppose…. Ever since I had baked the Brookies, I wanted to try an eggless version. I mean it always helps to have options all the time, right? 🙂 During the similar time, my head was telling me to bake some Nutella brownies for the girls. Somehow, what happened is that both my thoughts amalgamated into one bake, and that is what I am going to post today. 🙂 Last Saturday, we had a lovely time at Fajee’s house. It had been long since we had all met…
Peanut Butter Brownies
This Sunday night, my girls went home. I was under so much stress over this past week due to this. I had few sleepless nights and thanks to that, I landed up with a massive headache. I must blame myself for not doing complete research before I took the tickets. My elder one is 12 and is automatically now an adult as per ticketing terms. Based on this, I booked both of them together, only to realize that for the eight year old to travel, she needs to be accompanied by an adult who is 16 years and above. I did try through all my channels to see if there were any family travelling on the same flight, but I received no good news. Once we went inside the airport, we realized that everyone was scattered and that made it even more challenging. HD was trying to keep…
Chocolate Tea
Today is Ramadan 17 – the day when the Battle of Badr happened. This war had a lot of significance as being the first major battle with the Quraysh and despite being a small group, they emerged victorious. “Remember when you [O Muhammad, peace be upon him] were saying to the Believers, ‘Is it not enough for you that your Lord will reinforce you with 3000 angels sent down?’ Of course [it is enough for you]! [In fact,] if you all are steadfast and God-fearing, and they rush in attack towards you, then your Lord will reinforce you with 5000 angels bearing distinguished markings.” [Surah Aal Imraan:124-125] The main stress is on being “steadfast” and “God fearing”. The victory was a testimonial that if you have both the characteristics, the help of Allah will surely come in some way of the other. I don’t think I need to dwell…
Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream
While I made the Mango Kulfi and the Jack-fruit Ice Cream to fulfill my “blogger mind desires”, this ice cream was fair and square made for the girls. Whenever we go to Baskin Robbins, I always end up taking Jamoca Almond Fudge. I just don’t look anywhere else. It is my standard choice. Now my girls have started following suite. The elder one moved her favorite flavor from Praline and Cream and the younger one has graduated from the bizarre colored ones like Bubble Gum (yikes!). They have been telling me since ages to try this flavor at home. I knew it wouldn’t be hard to replicate, but then it is more work that other ice creams. I have to roast and chop the almonds. I have to make the fudge sauce. I have to do a little bit of work in between to get it done. Oh…
Cookie Butter/ Biscoff Chocolate Chunk Cookies
I haven’t been sharing much on the blog because it’s been the usual hussle-bussle. I won’t say nothing is happening in life… There is a lot happening but somehow I don’t want to sink myself into it. It is always better to try and stay afloat, rather than push yourself down and feel awful about it. From the start of the year, things haven’t been really positive, and that has stalled even my weight loss. I am not able to put in as much discipline into my eating as I had done last year, and this is frustrating me to the core. But I am trying to stay focused on myself and keeping myself on line, making sure that I don’t lose all the hard work that I have done last year. Maintenance is as important and sustainable at the stage I am in, I guess… 🙂 Talking…
Chocolate Hazelnut Spread | Easy Homemade “Nutella”
I had mentioned regarding my tryst with my one and only pack of hazelnuts in this biscotti post. I also did mention that I used up the rest of the hazelnuts in trying to make one of the most loved spreads in the world. Of course there is no point for guessing, it has to be Nutella, right? 🙂 I must confess I am no Nutella fan. I belong to the category who can’t stand eating Nutella, condensed milk or Biscoff from the spoon. I may eat Horlicks or Boost but not these. I really have no reason why. Sometimes, our aversion has no explanation, isn’t it? But I love using them to cook or bake. Here are a few Nutella recipes on the blog, among which my personal favorite are these super easy puffs with banana – so delicious that you must try them for your children….
Brownie Cookie Bars | Brookies
Some recipes are meant to jump forward and make others wait. This is one. I will start this post with a story. 🙂 On February 14, the girls had their school class party. I can’t believe that this academic year is already ending for them. I have seen both of them go from “at least a little serious” to “not at all serious” phase. I don’t know if it is a thing of worry. Rasha has always been super cool about her studies, nothing bogs her down, not even low marks. But Azza was always concerned about her marks and her impression in front of the her teachers. But now she is losing it as well, and it is worrying me. She still gets upset at low marks but it doesn’t bother her as much as it used to. And they are moving into higher grades… 😕 OK,…
Chocolate Persimmon Overnight Oats
I haven’t done overnight oats in a long time. So when I saw Sarah’s information email saying that this month, the theme for the Fantastical Food Fight would be “Overnight Oats”, I just wanted to participate. I love overnight oats and since I have been on a quantified eating of late, swapping my rice with oats was usually not a preferred option, so oats had to take a limited offering at times. I don’t know how better I can explain this. 😀 Anyway, there were this persimmons that I had reserved to try this muffin recipe for the Bakeathon that concluded last month. However it didn’t happen, since I had no mood to bake them whatsoever. Happens, right? I just wanted to eat them rather than cook with them. Hehe… Then I thought, why not I use them in overnight oats? I decided to make a chocolate version,…
Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
The last post of the year, and it just happens to be the last post of this year’s Bake-a-thon too! Every last post is meant to be a look back into the year. I really don’t know if I liked 2018. Even though the year started pretty decently, past midway, it came with a lot of stress related to how things are moving. I better not dwell around it – these are things that will happen. We find ways to deal with them and move on. The highlights of this year was surely my weight loss and then B’s wedding. We had a very good time and met up a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a long time, Alhamdulillah. It was a day that went really well and we went off to sleep with such a settled mind… 🙂 And of course the weight loss… I…