Hazelnuts are pretty expensive nuts, just like pecans and pine nuts. That’s why it is something I never buy. The only times I have bought some pecans were to bake these cookies and these ones too and I treated it like gold. I buy pine nuts only when I know I have to be using it for some recipe, and that too, I buy so little that I invite a stupid look from the fellow at the counter. 😀 It so happened that I was walking towards the vegetable aisle when a box of hazelnuts stared at me. I looked at it, wishing I could buy it and then looked at the price. I re-looked at it again. And again. And again. I couldn’t really believe my eyes. The next thing that happened was that the box landed up straight into the trolley. Once the box reached home, since…
Wheatgerm Cookies
If there is something that can be baked within 30 minutes, then there is no points for guessing – cookies! Even muffins can be done in that time, but totally dependent on the density of the batter. Cookies also have its condition – that the dough can be used to bake immediately, which is usually not the case for cookies like chocolate chip ones. While wondering what to come up as the third post for the “Meals under 30 minutes” theme for the Blogging Marathon #94, my eyes fell on these delicious cookies that I had baked recently. There was this box of wheatgerm that I had bought and was approaching its best before date. Bloggers and cooking fanatics would definitely appreciate how that feels! Even though I have truncated my purchases so much now unlike before, I still have such issues coming up once in a while….
Dates Bliss Balls
While I chose the theme “Sweets without Refined Ingredients” for the Blogging Marathon #94, I had no doubts in my mind regarding this particular one I am making today. Dates bliss balls have been doing rounds for all obvious and good reasons! All ingredients that go into making it are very healthy – whether it’s the dates, the nuts, coconut oil or cocoa powder. It is one of the safest bet to get your sugar fix when you really crave for it. All you need is one ball – take it in your hand, choose a comfortable corner, and slowly chew to enjoy it. It makes you feel really good after eating and your sugar cravings get fixed without a hint of sugar! How cool is that! 🙂 Dates is something I always have at home, but making these balls took too much time. I made…
Basboosa | Middle Eastern Semolina Cake
This month marks two years of the Muslim Food Blogger’s Challenge. It is an amazing feeling. I have been coordinating this event since the beginning and Alhamdulillah, am satisfied with the way the sisters have taken this challenge in their stride, trying to participate in every challenge possible. This year, we did only 9 challenges, taking a break during the summer months. As was done last year, this year also as part of the anniversary challenge, members are free to choose one of the themes of the previous months and repeat them. Below are the themes we had done over the past year and my posts for each: December 2017 – Arabic sweets January 2018 – Cooking with ingredient: Olives February 2018 – Cooking from cuisine: Bangladesh March 2018 – Breakfast April 2018 – Trying from a blog: This Muslim Girl Bakes May 2018 – Ramadan food from the…
Overnight Oats with Laban
For the Blogging Marathon #84 under the “New Year Challenge” theme, I had chosen to share three overnight breakfast ideas and after the Chocolate Chia pudding, here is the second one. I have a lot of overnight oats recipes on the blog already on the blog, so it feels like I am adding one more, but of late, this has been my favorite way of having overnight oats. I have no other than Fami to “blame” for bringing in me this love for laban. Laban is thick buttermilk that is available across the shelves here in the Gulf countries. It is used a lot in Arab cooking, and is awesome to have on its own. I won’t say I love laban but I have it on and off. With she sharing her smoothies made in laban on her IG handle, I decided to get a bottle to try…
Almond Apricot Cake
When I enrolled for the Bake-a-thon with Valli in October, I was in a lot of thought. How would the whole thing be? I have been a part of the Blogging Marathon for a few months now and it is a more themed activity, but this was thirteen days of baked goodies, with no specific theme as such. Since I had drafts available – referred to as “magic folder” by the BM team 😀 – and I thought I would be able to pull it out, I jumped into it and I am glad I took the plunge. Now looking back at all the posts I did for this marathon baking initiative, I am glad I participated in it. I sincerely hope I have done justice to it and selected the best of the baking recipes that I have tried, tested and succeeded in my kitchen. Do check out…
Mango Bread Pudding
Bread is something that is in my pantry at any given point of time, so the love for bread puddings comes naturally! Whenever I am lost as to what to make for dessert for the weekend, or have a pack of bread getting stale because I picked up an extra one without much thought, or I have a failed bread attempt, it immediately gets converted into bread pudding! 😀 How many like me, please raise your hands! A little search for “bread pudding” on the blog, will throw up a few options. Also this baked french toast was born in similar fashion. While placing the posts for the Bake-a-thon, my eyes chanced upon this amazing bread pudding I had made sometime ago and that left me wondering if I was posting this at a time when there are no mangoes, at least here. I was wrong in my…
Orange Almond Brownies
Sometimes, I really wonder about my girls. They are growing up at a pace that I have no control over. My younger one will turn 7 this January and I am still yearning for her to go back into her diapers! Those who read my blog regularly or follow me on other social media, know that I am working, with an 8 to 5 work schedule. Many also know that I now go for regular workouts during my working days, taking a break from it on Thursdays and Fridays. This means that by the time I am home after all the traffic, it is past 8 pm and at the bottom of my energy level. All I would want is to eat something, feed the kids and then push them off to sleep. Sometimes, I forget that they are children and I be at my worst behavior, screaming when…
Instant Rasmalai
After the Instant Kulfi, here is the second post under the theme “Instant Indian Sweets” for the three back-to-back series. I warn you, this is a photo intensive post. The dish was so photogenic that I couldn’t stop clicking and more than that, I had difficulty in choosing the pictures that would appear in the post, so instead of raking my head too much, I just went ahead and included all that I could into the post! 😉 So it is Ras Malai today, but the cheat version… 🙂 The ras is partly made of milk and condensed milk, which is boiled for some time till it thickens slightly. Usually, the balls in the ras malai are made from paneer, kneaded, first cooked in sugar syrup and then dunk into the milk base. But who has time for all that? Here, the balls are made from…
Vegan Chocolate Banana Bread
Can you believe October is ending? Then we will have just have two months left to complete this year. Each year seems to be passing on faster than the previous. Actually, it feels scary too. That we are getting older by the minute, we are moving faster towards the ultimate end… Everyday when I lie down, I wonder what I have done that day to make it special. Maybe it was just a mad rush of traffic, work, gym and home… with not even little time to read the Quran, to listen to it, talk to my kids properly, call my parents, even chat openly with HD… “Man is created hasty…” (Surah Al-Anbiya: start of verse 37) How many times have we forgotten that there is much more than the life in this world? 🙁 I am guilty of the same, day in and day out. Trying to balance…
Fruit and Nuts Oat Cereal
Have you heard of “beautiful mistakes”? Well, the recipe I am sharing with you today is one! This recipe appeared in a magazine, so since it was really tempting, I stuck it on my fridge. One weekend, I got to trying it. It was supposed to be breakfast squares, however while mixing up the batter, I knew that something was wrong. But since I was already half way through it, I let the process happen and got to baking. Once done, the pan didn’t look promising. I let it to set and then flipped it on to the cooling rack only to see that the whole mixture fall crumbling off the pan. My heart sank along with it, to say the truth… I left the kitchen for sometime to tend to my sadness. After sometime, I saw Azza taking a bit of the mixture in a bowl and…
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…
Butterscotch Ice-Cream
We are approaching the end of Q3. Where is this year flying to? It just feels like it was January 1 yesterday and all of a sudden, the end of September is staring into our face. I am not a person who likes to look into a variance analysis of resolutions vs actuals, but this time I did look into it and it is not encouraging. There were a few things I really wanted to start off this year, but I haven’t and I have no excuse for the same, other than my lethargy or taking things for granted. 😕 I am at least thankful that I decided to put a check on my increasing weight and move myself a little more that I usually would. If the first quarter of the year showed an upward trend in my weight, the movement after that has been slowly yet steadily…
Gajrela ~ Pakistani Carrot Rice Pudding
I am trying to get back to regular blogging and I am feeling quite rusty. Having said that, when it is the tenth of the month, I have to make sure that I don’t miss out on a challenge that I nurture and manage – the Muslim Food Blogger Challenge! It has been an amazing journey so far and each challenge has been accepted by my fellow bloggers with a lot of enthusiasm. It is this support that makes me want to keep the challenge going on. I am pretty excited by the fact that the challenge is approaching one year in November. Definitely another pointer to keep continuing, InShaAllah… This month, we are exploring Pakistani cuisine. We had done Indonesian cuisine a few months ago, and as per statistics, Pakistan is the second largest Muslim country in the world. Pakistani food is very similar to the Muslim…
Semiya Payasam ~ Vermicelli Milk Dessert
Assalamu alalikum to all my readers in this beautiful month of September! Hope you all had a wonderful Eid-ul-Adha celebrations. If you would like to read more about this festival, then do check out this post! I already have a pressure cooker version of semiya payasam on the blog, but this one is old school – needs some time and patience, but the end result is sweet! 🙂 I am not sure if anybody hates semiya payasam. I have a couple of cousins who don’t like this payasam, and I find them to be really weird. When anybody says “payasam”, the first thing that will always come into mind is semiya payasam, as it is easy to make, with easily available ingredients and basically, no-mess. Just like how you need to be while making the sago payasam, you have to cook enough that the vermicelli looks transparent, the…