It is the end of the month and it is time for the Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge of the month. With the summers looming in this part of the world and back home already under a heat spell, it wasn’t difficult finalizing the theme for the month. The theme for the month is “Summer Coolers” and my partner for this month is Shailaja, whom I am dealing for the first time and am glad to be partnered with. 🙂 She gave me mango and ice cream as my secret ingredients. Mango is coming into season and who doesn’t get excited about this delicious fruit! I am not very fond of ice creams in my smoothies or drinks, so decided to only utilize mango for this challenge. What I did was pair it up with another seasonal fruit that are available now in the market, which is strawberries. This…
Mango Coconut Milk Pudding
Many bloggers would be aware of this awesome group of bloggers, coordinated by Srivalli, that runs the Blogging Marathon month after month. I have always been wanting to join them, but was not sure how much I could keep up with them, since I cook more on my whims rather than by following a theme. Ever since the beginning of the year, I have been looking to get back my blogging mojo and nothing better than doing a trial to see how I fare in this lovely event! The Blogging Marathon is now in its edition #74 this month. That’s quite a long time, isn’t it? 🙂 From the themes for the month, I decided to choose “Are you Pudding me?” for these three days. Pudding – something that I love, isn’t it? 🙂 And I didn’t have much difficulty finalizing what I should be sharing over the…
Vegan Papaya Blueberry Smoothie
Even though I am very well away from my vegan diet, at times, I do go back to them when I feel really bloated. 😀 I am of the belief that our body needs a little of everything to survive and pull on, so you will never see advocating one type of eating habit. Yet, when we go a bit overboard with eating, a raw vegan diet for a few days does really calm your system down. It is only based on my experience and not necessarily it works for everybody. We have to see how each of our bodies react and eat accordingly. I may brag about it but always end up being the last person to do it, though off late I am trying to really watch out what I am eating. Sharing with you today, a delicious vegan smoothie, that is one of my favorites…
Kashata ~ Coconut Peanut Sugar Candy
Time for the MENA Cooking Challenge! This month, it was Djibouti, as unheard as the Comoros Islands, which was our October assignment. Djibouti is a tiny country located in the Horn of Africa, covering an area of a little over 23,200 cubic km, sharing its borders with Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia, with one side facing the Red Sea. The inhabitants are primarily Muslims and Arabic and French are the major languages spoken, apart from Afroasiatic languages. Due to its strategic location, it is a buzzing commercial hub and is site for various military bases. Djibouti cuisine is highly influenced by foods of Somalia, Yemen, Afar and French cuisine. Meat and fish are a staple part of the food. We were given three choices to make – Wat: a gravy made of meat and vegetables, Sabayaad: a layered flat bread which looks so close to our parathas and Kashata: a…
Urulakizhangu Ozhichu Koottaan ~ Potato Coconut Milk Curry
I guess I have already mentioned on the blog that umma used to never cook with potatoes. Not because she didn’t like them, but since they are starchy and not good for her diabetes, she would hardly make them. Once when I was watching “Love Bytes by Joey” on NDTV Good Times, she was cooking up a Kerala meal and demonstrated this particular curry. As soon as I watched it, I noted down the recipe and had to make it, since it reminded me of a curry that umma used to make long back. This is one of the easiest curries that I have made. It comes together in no time and is so delicious that even when you are done with your chapathis, you would want to lick the curry. No, I am not exaggerating… 😀 The coconut milk gives an amazing flavor and yes, do not miss the…
Nenthrapazham Pradhaman ~ Plaintain Jaggery Dessert
It is so rare that two festivals coincide together. Eid and Onam have come one after the other back home. While I was returning back from home, all outlets had boards on “Bakreedashamsakal, Onashamsagal” (Eid Wishes, Onam Wishes). For me, Onam is all about the sadya. I wait for a chance to eat the lavish meal on the leaf, where you get to eat so many varieties of food at the same time. Despite being fully vegetarian, it is a play on your taste buds and will leave you full to the brim and ready to doze off! 😀 Here is a very interesting link I found this time, makes a wonderful read and has some basic knowledge of how to lay the leaf, how to put which dish where, etc…. hopefully something that will help me later when I have the courage to make a whole sadya all…
Chia Oatmeal with Cinnamon Apples
Even though I am not a fan of oats as such, most of the time I resort to it as it is the easiest breakfast that you can make and ensure that you have some. With so many reports emphasizing on how important breakfast as a meal is for our overall health and weight maintenance matters, it becomes imperative to have a filling breakfast, how much every fast life may be. That reminds me how breakfast is a lavish affair back home, and how sometimes meals are divided into two – a glass of sulemani with ripe plantains, boiled eggs and biscuits to begin with and moving onto a spread which can be a full meal in itself. In a fast paced life like that of UAE, we are mostly dependent on quick fixes like cereals and oats. Sharing with you today, a vegan breakfast which is easy…
Tropical Sunrise Muffins ~ Vegan!
Time for this month’s Secret Recipe Club post! To review all my previous posts and read about them, you can check out here. I have enjoyed each and every post that I have been working on and this one was no different. Since I am moving for my vacation back home next month, I wanted to make sure that I participate in this month’s challenge. If you would love to join the challenge – which I would highly recommend! – then do hop on to their page and submit your blog. I am sure that you will enjoy the ride once you hop in… 🙂 This month I was assigned the blog, Cook with Sara. She is a Midwestern American blogger, who has been blogging for the past eight years, so you can imagine how much of a treasure trove her recipe index is! The very first…
Mango Coconut Milk Pistachio Ice-Cream
It is time for this month’s Shhh Cooking Challenge. After taking over the reins from Priyaakka, Mayuriji has been doing a fantastic job at ensuring that the challenge moves forward. This month, the theme was “Mangoes”, as it is the fruit of the season and our partner was supposed to give us two more ingredients to go with the theme. I am paired with Anu this month, and after a brief discussion, she asked me to make something with condensed milk and nuts of my choice. Since I am on a vegan diet and wanted to make something that I could eat too, I requested her if she could change the condensed milk to coconut milk, and I got an instant nod. Wasn’t I a happy soul? 🙂 I was eyeing this ice-cream that Rekha had posted on her blog recently, and what a good time to whip…
Pola | Maida Ottada | Mutta Pathiri ~ Malabar Style Pancake
Today, after the Wholewheat Oats Pancakes and Orange Scotch Pancakes, which are normal pancakes with a little difference in their making, here is the original Malabar style pancake! There are so many names to it, but we call it pola and some parts of North Kerala call it as Mutta Appam or Mutta Pathiri, which just means egg pancakes. 🙂 How strange does it feel when something that you really don’t like is a kid’s favorite? 🙂 My kids love it to the core. In fact when my parents were here, umma would very religiously make this for breakfast every Thursday and Saturday. Rasha would have a couple for her evening snack on Thursday and she would eagerly wait for Saturday morning to have it again. Once they returned back to home to settle, I literally stopped making it even though I had the special chatti that is…
Mango Pineapple Colada
I was wondering why I haven’t posted anything about the weather as such. Hmm… We have had very dicey weather over the past two weeks. We had a day with heavy rains during the evening, and that too on a morning which showed no signs of it! Following the rain, the temperatures went up from below 20s to above it and afternoons have started clocking close to 30 degrees. Even though it is a very pleasant climate with breeze, the temperatures are showing towards summer slowly approaching. Normally, March sees an upsurge in barbeque gatherings and beach outings, which I am sure will be the same this year too, before April gets a bit too much to handle in the outdoors. When Muslimah Bloggers mentioned that the prompt for this month is “colors“, I thought, why not share some of the splashing colors that the sky has been exhibiting…
Daal (Lentil) Coconut Milk Curry
A little reminder for the day… Nothing needs to accompany this already heavy wordings, I think so… 🙂 I have learned it the hard way and Alhamdulillah, I don’t compel myself now to understand why certain things happen, because Allah has no need to explain to us what is happening in our life at the moment. He loves us more when we wait patiently for things to unfold by itself and come up with an answer, InShaAllah… 🙂 Daal or lentils would have featured every other day in my house if the folks were fond of it. 🙁 I love lentils, whole or split, in any form – curries, soups or salads! They are filling and can be tricky to make them appetizing but somehow I am finding ways to make it appetising. Love daals? Then check out this link for various options! This is one variation of daal…