Waiting for a break is something that we all do. We just look forward to it, don’t we? Last year, we had decided to take a year off going home this year, since it involves too much of pressure financially. After all, four people travelling up and down to Kerala during the peak season is no joke. If you combine all the money spent on tickets, wardrobe updates, gifts and chocolates, etc, you can go on two international trips to decent countries. I am not joking about it. For an average middle class family, the daylight robbery that every airline does during the school closing time does put a lot of pressure on their budgets. Somehow, despite so much hue and cry, this practice repeats year after year. Since the number of people travelling home at that time doesn’t seem to diminish, I guess the authorities see no…
Cuca De Banana | Brazilian Banana Coffee Crumb Cake
This month, starting from today, you will see a lot of challenge related posts. I really wanted to give a push to the blog, so sometimes I just need to go overboard with my sign-ups. 🙂 I am a part of the Recipe Swap group, which is managed by Mir and guess what? For this month, I got assigned her blog! Now Mir’s blog, “The Schizo Chef“, is like an ocean. She is a truly cooking affectionado, who doesn’t shy away from trying any cuisine, even if it means out of her comfort zone. From her native Caribbean cuisine, to South American, to African, European and Asian, she is covering almost the whole world in her blog, one step at a time. If you really love international cuisine, then do hop in to her blog and be surprised! 🙂 I had a little tough time trying to figure…
Masala Oats | Easy Savory Oats
As I sit to type this post, I realize we are almost half way through Ramadan. This month has been very stressful on all accounts, but trying to take into account that life is always meant for surprises and we need to take it into our stride. With my mood not very conducive for long posts, I think I will just stop over here… When time is of essence, then quick meals are the call of the day. This masala oats is something I can eat anytime of the day. Just like this paneer capsicum rice, this meal appears very frequently, usually for breakfast. It is so quick to make and so delicious, that you would want to eat it every other day. I have always had oats in sweet form, but this recipe has changed my mindset for good. The whole cooking takes hardly 15 minutes, and…
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,…
Oats Mushroom Soup
When I come back from vacation, I tend to feel emotionally low, at least for a few weeks, till life settles and runs into routine. I guess it’s the same with many of us. This time, due to the floods that some part of Kerala went through, I had a problem with my return. For us, the closest airport is Calicut and I always take my tickets for travel there, but this time, my wish to see Kochi airport overrode and I decided to travel there. For us, Kochi is almost three hours drive during off-peak and I better not hint on how long it can take during peak! But I must tell you, it is such a beautiful airport! I mean, I haven’t seen so much cleanliness back home anywhere, so it did give me a pleasant surprise to see how clean it is. Coming back to the…
Sticky Date Flapjacks
The dates for the MFB challenge seems to be coming one after the other at the blink of an eye! Before I even realize, I am mostly skittling through to cook and finish the post for the challenge. You can see the previous challenge posts here. This month, our challenge was to cook from a food blog run by a Muslimah and this month, we chose “This Muslim Girl Bakes“. This is one of my favorite blogs to gawk at. She has a very impressive Instagram presence as well. Apart from Pakistani delicacies, she posts a lot of lovely bakes that you can resist. Most of her posts are accompanied by step by step pictures, followed by a lot of pictures of the final product itself. I had a hard time trying to select one recipe from her blog. I have already tried her Pakistani Chicken Pulao and…
Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Oat Cookies
Remember I had mentioned in this post how I used to land up with recipes while riding the metro? This cookie I am going to share with you is one of them. Thankfully, the article in the paper mentioned from which site it was and I hunted down the link for it too… This cookies is a mixture of sorts – all the ingredients used would anyway be there in the pantry, and is apt for finishing off anything remaining! Like a over-ripe banana nobody wants to eat and isn’t enough to bake a whole cake… or a peanut butter jar that is right there touching the bottom… These peanut butter oats cookies are full of goodness – sweetened with honey and the banana, flavored with peanut butter, having bites of rolled oats and then generous amount of chocolate chips! I have used half of chocolate peanut butter…
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…
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…
White House Honey Oat Muffins
While I was on vacation, I had taken a vow not to cook any new dishes unless and until really necessary. I have so much of drafts to cover and somehow I want to finish them off by this year end, however looking at the way things are, I don’t think I will meet the deadline. At the moment, I am going back to my old posts and seeing which needs updates, but I am taking it slow so that I don’t over do myself. 😀 But I had to adjust the vow a bit when I saw the mail for this month’s Fantastical Food Fighting challenge! Sarah mentions that since September is the “National Honey Month” in the USA, the theme would be – no prizes for guessing – honey! We had done a honey post for MFBC a few months ago. I love honey as an…
Chocolate Honey Granola
The tenth of the month, it is, and time for the Muslim Food Blogger Challenge! This month, the theme chosen was “Cooking with Honey”. We all know what honey is and how, just like coconut oil, it has gone from being super-food to notorious food back to “good food”. Did you know there is a chapter in the Quran called as “An-Nahl” (Chapter 16)? Your Lord revealed to the bees: “Build dwellings in the mountains and the trees, and also in the structures which men erect. Then eat from every kind of fruit and travel the paths of your Lord, which have been made easy for you to follow.” From inside them comes a drink of varying colours, containing healing for mankind. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who reflect. (Surah An-Nahl:69) While reading through, I found some very interesting articles about the mention…
Chocolate Oatmeal
During fasting, we are always on a lookout for a simple yet filling meal. I have always felt that oats is an amazing staple to have in your kitchen during this time. First of all, it cooks amazingly first and tastes good if made in your own twists too. You can keep your porridge simple and go for topping of your choice in the forms of fruits and/or nuts. I have already mentioned in my suhoor post about many oats options already on the blog. It got me thinking, why haven’t I included any of the oats with chocolate, especially when it is one of my favorite ingredients? Hmm… Finally here is the cooked version of chocolate oats. Just like any cooked oats, it comes through together in minutes and gets over soon too. I have made it with cocoa powder, which can be replaced with some chocolate,…
Vegan Mixed Berry Overnight Smoothie
You will still keep saying a lot of vegan stuff on this blog. Even though I am off from the diet, I still go for it when I don’t want to feel bloated or just want to go light. Very recently, a colleague of mine started Ayurveda for his skin treatment and now whatever I bring for them to eat, I have to make it vegan. 😀 So I still continue to explore it as much as I can. In fact, the thought that you can make desserts and dishes without eggs, milk and butter is definitely an encouragement. There was a time when baking without eggs and butter would have been considered “sacrilege” but not any more! 😀 But we ain’t baking anything today, but sharing with you an “overnight smoothie”. You must have read of overnight oats, but smoothie? Yes, the only difference is that instead…
Blueberry Chia Overnight Oats
The days are literally dark now. The morning prayers – Fajr – is almost around 5:30. While it is time to send Rasha off to school, it is just like evening, the sun is not to be seen and the light is all faded away. It is getting cozier so waking up in the morning is getting tough and since the sun sets too fast, all I want to do is to go off to sleep once I land home, without even eating anything. But then you can’t do that when you have family to feed, right? 🙂 I totally love this season irrespective of the flu bouts going on. I love the cozy feel of this climate. Can’t wait for it to roll on completely… Till then, sharing a super easy breakfast for you. Overnight oats is usually my go-to breakfast at least once a week, since…
Grilled Pineapple Pecan Overnight Oats
Time to write about the weather! Come October and my favorite part of the year starts. This month and the next are the best for all sorts of outdoor activities – barbeque, beach, road trips, just about anything. You can shun the malls and be out more. The sun doesn’t hit you hard even in the afternoons, which is such a joy and relief, Alhamdulillah. Even though we haven’t moving out much recently thanks to HD’s packed schedules, I am already looking at options to go on for the coming months – some long drives and trips that will keep the kids engaged and will free up our minds too. InShaAllah, let’s see how it goes… 🙂 Meanwhile, coming back to one of my favorite lazy breakfast – the overnight oats. I have already shared a few on the blog previously and today what I have is just…