I am usually very prompt with my challenge posts. If something is declared, I like to finish off and be ready at the earliest, so that I don’t feel stressed. Keeping things last minute gets me in a panic attack, and I personally do not enjoy that feeling. Sometimes, I really admire bloggers who are able to do things at the last minute – cooking, clicking and blogging! I simply can’t do it! I like to be more organized so that I have peace of mind. But that wasn’t the case with the post for today. This month, I decided to participate in the Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge and the state from where we are cooking is Maharashtra. Even though I am not very sure of the cuisine, I volunteered in. Only while searching I realized that Amras puri, Shrikand and Piyush were all Maharasthrian specials – so…
Paneer Dahi Bhalla
OK, so when you are on a quantified diet and you need to eat as per what is in your list, what do you do to cravings? Twist and tweak them as per your diet! 😀 So today, under my theme “Meals under 30 minutes” for the Blogging Marathon #94, I have to share something that I ate “God knows how many times” of late! The first time I had Dahi Bhallas (or vadas) was at Humi’s place, when I went to meet her the very first time – that was around four years ago. I was never a chaat fan – the first time I had chaat at the insistence of my colleague P, I almost puked out at the combination of sweet and sour – please do not beat me! Gradually, it caught up on my taste buds and now I love it! But still not…
Idiyappam | String Hoppers
When Valli’s mail came for the themes for this month’s Blogging Marathon #94 and my eyes fell on “Meals within 30 minutes”, I really wanted to do it. I am currently building up my “Under 30 Minutes” recipes on the blog and the theme was perfect for adding three more. I have chosen three recipes that fits into different courses, so that it doesn’t feel like you get only drinks within that time. 😀 The first one are Idiyappams or Nool Puttu, as we call it. “Nool” is thread, and definitely these are thread-like rice dumplings, steamed and served. I never realized how much my girls loved this till they literally ate my head asking to make it. I thought it was a really complicated process and would just ignore it. It was one Instagram story of Fami which prompted me to try these. I pulled up my…
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins | Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free
After the Honey Yogurt Cheesecake and the Dates Bliss Balls, here comes my third recipe for the theme “Sweets without Refined Ingredients” for the Blogging Marathon #94. Keto and Low Carb are big words these days. Every second person seems to be going on Keto. Hehe… I somehow have a mental block towards that diet, but then it is one of the diets that is causing a lot of people to lose weight really quick. I firmly believe that any diet followed in moderation will do good, but totally giving up on one part of the food chain is not sustainable in the long run. Anyway, to each, their opinion… 🙂 I have some coconut flour in my pantry that I bought out of enthusiasm, only to discover that I wasn’t liking it much! I tried making pancakes with them and they became a dud. I was somehow…
Low Carb Cauliflower Pizza
This weekend, we had a freak accident. What was supposed to be a relaxed day went a bit berserk. In a very action filled evening, HD’s right eye got hit by the edge of the fly stick and he was immediately writhing in pain. We immediately rushed out but since it was a Friday, most of the clinics didn’t have their ophthalmologists on duty. We did a run to the hospital, and then in one hour, was relieved to know that there was nothing much except a couple of scratches, which will heal slowly. Considering the fact that the hit was quite hard, the diagnosis was very relieving. The comical situation was that since the hit happened from my side, HD commented to the nurse that I had tried to attack him and he is going to take an insurance against me. 😕 Sometimes I wonder why are husbands…
Omelette Paneer Roll
Do you see some connection here? While doing the posts for the Blogging Marathon #90 for the theme “Wrap and Rolls”, I unconsciously went with all egg recipes! Whether the Kolkata Egg Rolls or the Egg Toasties and now this one, all are with eggs! 😀 So it feels like I did a theme within the theme! Hehe… I had mentioned earlier that at the moment, I am on a quantified diet, ie. I get to eat limited stuff within my macros. Alhamdulillah, I have been able to steadily lose weight and am very happy with my progress. I now have the last block of weight to lose and I am pretty much sure that my body would not want to let it go. 😉 I am targeting this year end to get to my goal, InShaAllah. Definitely it will need a close watch on my diet plus…
Orange Yogurt Popsicles
With the season now changing, the girls always want something cold. I always have a tussle with them to avoid anything cold since Rasha always ends up with throat infection, due to her sinus issue. But then kids being kids, really aren’t bothered of how much they will suffer in case they take something cold, right? It’s the same in my home too! Most of the time, it’s easier to make simple popsicles at home. Most of the time, they just need Tang popsicles and that’s so easy to make, isn’t it? Hehe… Once while flipping through a magazine, I saw this really simple recipe. It reminded me of the vanilla pods Priya had bought for us, that I am using like gold. I decided to use them up in these really simple popsicles that has just three ingredients and no added sugar, apart from just some honey!…
Daqoos ~ Garlic Tomato Sauce
I don’t know what to name the struggle I am going through. The first few posts of the month came through rather easily but at the moment I am fighting a demon inside me that is growing very rapidly despite my fight. At times, I really feel I am ready to give up on the blog but then I think to myself that it was my solace during my tough times, how could I give it up when I don’t feel like it. A complicated question to the confused soul… hehe… I guess I will keep it at that for now… I had promised to post this recipe for Daqoos when I posted it along side Fami’s Bedouin Rice. I guess it’s time has just come now, hehe… Daqoos is basically a cooked and garlic flavored tomato sauce, which is served along side meat and rice in almost…
Chocolate Avocado Mousse
I sometimes wonder what makes good food bloggers stop blogging. There are many that I follow that have successful blogs and have been consistently blogging for many years, but there are some who have left it midway due to so many reasons. Sometimes I wish to ask and know why, but everybody has their personal reasons to keep aside their hobbies. I feel that for many, food blogging starts like a click. It just happens, just like it happened with me too. As you go ahead with blogging, you start realizing that getting people to read your blog and continuously keep coming to it is not easy. In fact, it is a lot of hard work plus a few flashes of good luck! I still haven’t got it, since I am not able to give time to promote my blog as much as I find time to do my…
Quinoa Breakfast Porridge
Remember my quinoa salad post? I had mentioned in that post that my first experience with quinoa was not really encouraging. It was this quinoa porridge that I had tried first, and I hated it to the core. But I still ate it since I knew nobody would touch it and I don’t like food going into the bin. While eating it, I sat searching on Google as to where did I go wrong, and it was one basic error – not washing the quinoa properly! Most of the grains doesn’t have any change in taste when washed. It just ensures that the dirt is gone. However, for quinoa you have to wash it as much as you can to remove the bitterness off it. Once you feel that it is good to go, go ahead with cooking it and it becomes a pretty looking pearl texture, ready…
Thai Mango Pudding
After sitting out of the Blogging Marathon last month, here I am participating in two weeks this month. Since I will be travelling back home next month, I thought of not missing it this month. The first theme I have chosen for the Blogging Marathon #78 was “Oceanic Cuisine”. Oceanic countries are basically countries which are surrounded by two or more oceans. I did skim through the list several times to decide on which country to cook from. Although my head had millions of ideas, I settled down for the easiest options that I could search for. 😉 Here goes the first one… The first country I chose to cook from is Thailand and since mangoes are still available, I decided to make this delicious mango pudding with a coconut milk base. Searching on Google gave me several options of puddings set with agar agar/ China…
Thakkali Thokku ~ Spicy Tomato Relish
If you had seen something red peaking out in my Ari Dosa post, then it was this delicious “Thakkali Thokku”. Thakkali Thokku is basically a tomato chutney prepared in parts of South India – not Kerala though 🙂 – and goes amazingly well with anything – chapathis, as side for rice, with dosas and idlis. You name it, it goes really well with it. I am not a tomato fanatic but somehow blogging tempts you into staring at certain recipes and it keeps replaying in your head till you make it. That’s how the Thakkali Thokku happened and now keeps happening when tomatoes are available at a good price. I don’t need to tell you how expensive these red roundels have become off late! The best part about this recipe is its adaptability. I have kept it as mildly spicy as possible for my whole family to…
Thari Unda ~ Malabar Semolina Laddoos
Malabar has so much variety of food that sometimes it is so difficult to bring all in one fold. Despite blogging for four years, my aim at collecting as much as Malabar recipes at one place seems to be moving at a snail pace, mainly because there is too much to explore! It seems to be a never-ending pit, however since I have taken the dive, let me go deep into it. 😉 Thari Unda is nothing but Malabar style semolina laddoos. While the North Indian version is loaded with ghee, this version is without even a drop of it! These undas are made by mixing roasted semolina into sugar syrup and rolling them into balls before the mixture hardens. The process is a pain. The heat of the mixture can cause burned hands, so it is something that is not very frequently made at home. I…
Vegan Biscoff Cheesecake
After the Gulab Jamun cheesecake shots, here comes the second cheesecake in the Blogging Marathon #76 under the theme, “I love, you love Cheesecakes!”. And it has to be vegan! 😉 I have been wanting to try a vegan cheesecake since very long but somehow I never liked the idea. Maybe it is just the mental thought. I have been seeing this recipe and the amount of cashews that go into them, somehow doesn’t appeal to me. However, while this theme was declared, I had already decided I would try to make one, to know the feel and texture of it. The recipe is very easy to make. The crust of the cheesecake is dates and walnuts, while the “cheesecake” portion is blend cashew cream, made up of soaked cashew nuts, coconut milk, some coconut oil and your choice of flavoring. I chose to make this with…
Simple Quinoa Salad
It is the month end and time for the Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge! This challenge was initiated by Priyaakka and then moved on to be managed by Mayuriji. I must say that she is doing a good job keeping everyone motivated to participate in the challenges, even though the group is small. This month, the theme is “cool salads” since it is summer in almost everywhere in the world. I am teamed with Priya Satheesh (there are too many Priyas in the bloggy world! 😀 ). I admire her for all the innovative combinations that she comes up with, for almost all her recipes. This is the second time I am teamed with her, the last time being when I made the potato frittata. The two ingredients she gave me was avocado and tomato. I was fine with the tomato but avocado always gives me nervous…