Pesto Twisted Bread

Today is the final day of a month of Bake-a-thon, this baking event happens every december of the year since few years.Eventhough i want to finish this event with a sweet note, somehow i couldnt stop myself posting this savoury pesto twisted bread. This bread is quite easy to make and simple to shape. A homemade or storebought pesto is quite enough to make this incredible twisted bread. A prefect bread to have with a bowl of soup or one can have simply for their snacks.

Oats Rolled Bread

Oats, this wholegrain is one among my most favourite, i have tried huge number of dishes out of this incredible grain. They are absolutely versatile and one can make varieties of foods and bakes with this grain. I have tried baking breads with Oats and today's bread is one among those trials. Actually this bread is a sweet bread, this bread is simply prepared with oats as main ingredient along with bread flour with wheat bran. The addition of wheat bran makes this bread more rich in dietary fiber.You can just have this bread for your breakfast without any fuss, since this bread is already sweetened you doesnt even need any spread to have with it.

Eggless Milk Buns

Milk buns are soft cute little buns, you can just have them for your breakfast or simply for your snacks with your favourite spread.Everyone at home just enjoyed this milk buns thoroughly. I tried making a simple sandwich with egg mayonnaise as they were some leftover buns. They came out simply milky with a beautiful smooth and pillow texture. Obviously you can enjoy this fantastic milk buns with any filling in it.An another milk buns exists with a butter-milk powder filling in it, which is quite famous in Malaysia and Brunei. However this one is a simple and dangerously addictive buns.

Cheesy Pizza Wreath

Some recipes doesnt need a specific name and you can just name it like that, but few recipes need a prefect name to tempt the readers, am i rite? its happened to me today, actually while preparing today's post, i dunno how to name this dish, but finally i decided to name it as pizza wreath.Initially i want to name this bread as flower bread and finally went for pizza wreath, i dunno whether this name suits prefectly but i loved the name of this bread.This cheesy pizza wreath makes an excellent finger food, one can have this bread as a side with a bowl of soup or simply for their dinner.

Brownie Tart

We are chocoholic and chocolates are my weakness especially the dark chocolates. If consumed with moderation, chocolates are good for health.Obviously i love to make bakes with chocolates quite often. My today's post was sitting in my draft since few months, i tried this brownie tart during summer and we had this fabulous alluring tart for our dessert after a barbecue. Coming to this ultimate brownie tart, they came out simply delicious,definitely an elegant and a very simple tart. Since i went for the storebought puff pastry sheet and one bowl brownie batter, this decadent tart takes hardly less time to get ready.

Cauliflower Cheese

Cauliflower cheese or Cauliflower and cheese is a traditional British dish, it can be eaten as main course for both lunch or dinner, or else as a side dish to serve along with roasted meats. This dish is simply prepared by cooking cauliflower in boiling water, covered and baked in oven with a milk and cheese based sauce or else a simply  with a white sauce flavoured with nutmeg or with English mustard, topped with grated cheese and bread crumbs.This post was sitting in my draft since a long as i prepared this dish for International blogging marathon i ran with other marathoners few months back for the alphabet U but finally i made a dish from Uganda,obviously i couldnt able to post this dish earlier.

Eggless Walnut Butter Cookies

Cookies are my lil one's favourite,obviously i never forget to bake cookies just to see the big smile on his face, he is my critic when its comes to cookies. Its festival season here and needless to day dry fruits and nuts started showing their heads in every super markets, i picked last week a packet of walnuts and bake home i tried making this gorgeous looking cookies with them. This buttery and super nutty cookies are quite easy to make, i skipped the egg here however making cookies with egg doesnt go for a dozen,just an egg is quite enough to make your cookies. I simply grounded walnuts and added them to the buttery dough, obviously walnuts plays an important role in these cookies.

Eggless Banana,Chocolate & Almond Muffins

I love bananas in bakes, especially in eggless ones as i replace the eggs with mashed bananas. Banana and chocolate works absolutely fabulous in bakes. Obviously i love this combination. Today's post is a simple,very moist, super flavourful and easy peasy muffins i simply baked few days back with banana, chocolate and with almond meal. Muffins came out extremely fabulous with a spongy texture eventhough its an eggless.This muffins suits prefectly for a quick breakfast, you can carry this muffins very well in your snackbox. Even a kid can make these cuties easily with an adult's help.

Pizza Swirl Rolls

Pizza, the word itself makes my kids super happy, whenever they hear the word 'Pizza' they will get hungry immediatey.Obviously i wont forget to make pizza quite often at home and after so many versions, my today's post is going to be Pizza swirl rolls.Pizza swirl rolls, can be prepared quickly if you have store bought pizza dough, pasta sauce and grated cheese at home but however you can still make the pizza dough at home if you dont want to get rite from the stores. To prepare pizza dough at home, its really very simple to make with easy ingredients.With flour,yeast,salt,sugar and olive oil, you can just prepare your pizza dough at home.Earlier, i always get my pizza dough or frozen pizza base from stores, but blogging pulled me to make pizza dough myself at home.

Cheese and Bellpeppers Focaccia

After pizzas, my kids just love focaccia. This Italian bread is prepared with yeasted dough and can be topped as much as like pizzas. I love to add more veggies as toppings when its comes to focaccia, however sometimes i wont hesitate a second to sprinkle some grated cheese over it. This time when i prepared the dough for the focaccia, i know i will go for both red and green bellpeppers as the topping with mozzarella cheese. Instead of sauting the bellpeppers, i just chopped them as tiny bites,trust me they gets well cooked while baking. Focaccia topped with bellpeppers came out extremely well with wonderful flavors. When served with a bowl of soup,this bread makes a filling dinner.One can have this focaccia simply with the soup or else with a cream cheese spread. However we had this focaccia without any spread for our dinner few days back.

Eggless Cashew Crescent Cookies

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend, mine was good and am very happy to start this week's Bake-a-thon with an another dangerously addictive, very nutty and delicious cookies. Cashew cookies resembles as much as like India's famous Good Day biscuits, but this homemade cashew cookies are simply fantabulous. As i told earlier, these cookies are seriously very dangerous, if you start having them you cant just stop with one. With simple ingredients, you can make this cookies at home with less efforts. These cookies makes an excellent evening snacks or else a prefect snacks for your kid's snack box.If conserved properly in an air tightened box, these cookies stays prefect for a week but am sure that they wont stay so long.You cant stop yourself munching them.

Garlic Knots

Cant believe,we finished already a week of Bake-a-thon, days are running very quickly for me. And the weather makes us so lazy,actually we are all waiting for the festival holidays obviously am motivating myself to be bit active until the holidays comes. Its too hard coz the weather is too cold and its very sad to see the daylight gets reduced as the winter is approaching very fast. To keep myself active during this nasty weather, i'll keep on baking especially during weekends as my weekdays are very busy. Today's post goes for a flavourful baking, yes garlic knots. These garlic flavoured bread makes an excellent evening snacks to have with a cup of tea or coffee or else simply you can enjoy them with a bowl of warm soup for your dinner. Trust me, these knots are very hard to resist and they gets vanished very much quickly than you can imagine.

Onion & Bellpepper Cheese Flatbread

We love cheese, my fridge will always have a box of cheese, obviously i'll try to cook atleast twice a week with cheese. However cheese are good for health if consumed with moderation. Coming to today's recipe, this flat bread goes for yeast which is stuffed later with tomatoes, cheese and topped with sliced onions and bellpeppers with some dried thyme leaves.This flatbread makes an excellent bread to enjoy throughly with a bowl of warm soup. Definitely a bowl of soup and a slice of this cheesy flat bread makes a super filling and satisfying meal. This flatbread is very easy to make, apart from the yeasted dough and few chopped vegetable and cheese, you doesnt need anything specific to make this excellent cheesy bread.Olive oil plays an important role in this flatbread, if you olive oil you will definitely love this flat bread.

Eggless Dark Chocolate Cookies

Last year because of my India trip i missed participating Bake-a-thon, a baking event happens every month of december with enthusiastic bakers. I seriously missed this event last year but am happy that today am posting my first post for this event after a year. Since i want to start this bake-a-thon event with a sweet note, i want to post this absolutely chocolatey and very attractive dark chocolate cookies. I baked this cookies long back for a baking event but unfortunately i couldnt able to post this fantabulous cookies earlier, hence am posting this cookies today, better late than never na. These cookies goes for both dark chocolate bar and chocolate chips. Obviously this chocolate loaded cookies will definitely satisfy your tastebuds if you love chocolates. A fabulous treat for a chocoholic person like me.

Chinese Style Fusion Spaghetti

I love chinese cuisine,since am living in Chinatown chinese products are easily available for me hence i cook often foods with chinese ingredients. Few days back, my kids asked me to make some noodles for their lunch since ran out of noodles i simply replaced the noodles with spaghetti and made this fusion spaghetti dish. Served with a Hoisin sauce and sriracha chilly sauce based sauce, this chinese style fusion spaghetti tastes absolutely fabulous. Spaghetti or noodles however my kids went crazy when they saw this fusion spaghetti. I prepared the sauce with loads of vegetables and chicken breast, if you are a vegetarian just skip the chicken and go for soyachunks or simply tofu for making this same dish.

Pizza Bread Cups

Pizzas, every kid's favourite, make it with anything am sure kids will go crazy. One can make pizza just with bread slices, even pizzas can be done with Indian breads like chappathis, Naans or with Dosa.Even pizzas can be prepared easily and quickly with vegetables, will post soon a vegetable pizza i tried with zucchini and eggplant. Coming to today's post, this pizza bread cups are very easy to make. With some bread slices, pizza sauce, few veggies and cheese, you can easily make this pizza bread cups. These bread cups makes a fantabulous lunch box or snack box depending upon your kid. However my kids loved these pizza bread cups for their evening snacks. You can go for any vegetable or cheese depending upon your wish. Just some chopped onions also makes an excellent filling in this pizza cups.

Pasta in Vegetable & Tomato Sauce

Pasta, this word itself makes my kids happy, they love it to core and they can survive for many days with just pasta spiced with pepper powder and butter.Obviously after rice, pastas have their important place in our weekly menu. I'll try to make pasta atleast twice or thrice a week, as they are very easy to cook and you can make varieties of dishes out of them. We never get bored of eating pastas,eventhough in earlier days i wasnt a big fan of pastas. But now because of busy schedule, my cooking goes for easy peasy dishes and hence pastas have became an obligation for me to carry in my lunch box. Now i can live just with pastas for many days. Today's recipe is one of the quickest and easiest pasta dish to dish out with simple ingredients. Just some chopped vegetables and tomato puree makes this fantastic dish.

Eggless Custard Muffins with Speculoos

Muffins, these baked goodies makes a prefect car snacks, if kids are hungry or craving for something sweet, muffins can helps a lot to fill their tummy. Obviously if we plan of a long drive or a trip, i'll bake couple of muffins just to carry with us and keep them just next to me in case if we feel like having something while driving. Muffins are seriously a prefect finger food,you can have without any fuss. After roasted lotus seeds and salt biscuits my today's post goes to this week's blogging marathon as i picked Car snacks as theme. Today's recipe is eggless muffins with custard powder and crushed speculoos biscuits. These biscuits are easily available here. The spices used in Speculoos biscuits makes the difference from other biscuits. If you dont feel like adding spices in your bakes, just add some speculoos and see the difference. I used some crushed biscuits as topping to my muffins, the crispiness of this baked biscuits brings a different texture to this custard muffins.

Salt Biscuits

Salt biscuits, these biscuits are seriously very addictive and can be carried anywhere to munch them without any guilt, obviously am posting this biscuits today as am running my third week of blogging marathon with an interesting theme  called 'Car Snacks', after posting a quick and healthy roasted lotus seeds yesterday, today am posting this salt biscuits. This biscuits are my kids favourite and i'll never forget to pack them if we are planning a trip or a long drive. Since this biscuits are mildly sweet and salty at the same time, you doesnt need anything to serve along with. These biscuits can suits prefectly to munch during anytime of the day. You can make this salt biscuits in large quantity and they stay simply prefect for many days if they are conserved properly. But trust me, they wont stay for a long and gets vanished very much quickly than you can imagine.

Roasted Makhana/Roasted Lotus seeds

Going for a long drive need more organisation than a small outing, whenever we plan a long drive with kids, my mind will definitely look for some hassle-free snacks. A long drive do need some special attention when you plan with kids. I usually avoid oily foods for car snacks,so i always plan to make some baked goodies or oil less snacks which goes mostly for easy preparation. Am running my third week of blogging marathon with a fantastic theme, yes my theme for this week is Car Snacks and i simply loved this theme. Seriously Srivalli rock with her themes and dunno how she gets all these themes,am amazed to see the varieties of themes she suggest us every month.Coming to today's post, this roasted makhana aka puffed lotus seeds makes an excellent car snacks.

Red Chori Curry/Cowpeas Curry - No Onion, No Garlic

Whenever i make rotis at home for dinner, everyone at home would love to have  with different side dishes than the leftover gravy from Lunch.Obviously i have to make different gravies or curries to have with rotis. This time when i picked No onion No garlic recipes as theme for this week's blogging marathon, i want to give a try to some nutritious protein packed curries. Since i had red chori aka cowpeas, i immediately tried with them. This curry is very simple to make and seriously very delicious to enjoy thoroughly with naans, parottas or else with rotis. Actually this dish makes a prefect side dish even with simple pulao, obviously you have so many choices to enjoy this protein packed curry.Personally i liked this curry with rice and papads but not to forget that this dish makes a delicious side dish.

Beetroot and Peanut Stirfry-No Onion No Garlic

Have you ever cooked beetroot with peanuts, if not you should definitely give a try to this combination.The sweetness of the beets mingle very much with the crunchiness and the nuttiness of crushed peanuts. Seriously until am trying this combination, i never knew that both beetroot and peanuts works simply prefect together in a dish. This dish is completely onion free and garlic free, if you are a follower of my space, you might have noticed that am running my second week of blogging marathon with No Onion No Garlic theme. After a fingerlicking Konkani curry,today am sharing this easy peasy side dish for both rice and rotis.

Konkani Ashgourd Curry/Kunvale Sasam - No Onion No Garlic

Am a person who love to cook with loads of onions and garlic, i'll always make sure to keep atleast a kg of onions and garlic in my vegetable basket coz i cant survive without them. But when i picked No onion No garlic theme for this week's blogging marathon, i want experiment myself to dish out dishes without my favourite onion and garlic. Trust me, this theme simply pulled me to change my opinion about no onion no garlic recipes, they tastes very much delicious eventhough cooked without the onion and garlic. For my today's post, am taking you all to the famous Konkani cuisine. While bloghopping, i got hooked to this Konkani Ashgourd curry at Aparna's space. Since this recipe went for no onion no garlic, immediately i tried my hands in making this fingerlicking curry.

Eggless Lemon Curd Bars

Am running my first week of blogging marathon with an interesting theme, yes this week's theme is Lemon recipes, obviously this week's posts are prepared with lemon. After an Eggless Lemon Curd and some lemon and poppyseeds biscotti, am sharing this absolutely delicious Eggless lemon curd bars. Actually this bars goes for Lemon curd and with a simple butter,sugar and flour mixture for the crust. This bars are one among the easiest bars i have tried till now. If you have your lemon curd at home, you can make this bars in a jiffy. Trust me if you love citrus flavoured bakes then this bars are for you.Serve chilled,dusted with confectioner's sugar, anyone can have this bars happily after a heavy meal.

Lemon Poppyseeds Biscotti

I have been looking for a chance to bake some lemon biscottis and finally i got a chance to make some as am running this week's Blogging marathon with Lemon recipes as theme for this week. We love double baked biscuits which is well known as biscottis from Italian cuisine. Actually biscottis makes an excellent evening snacks to enjoy thoroughly with a cup of tea or coffee. My lil one love simply any variety of biscottis as he like biscottis to the core. Obviously i dont need any excuses to bake biscottis whenever i feel like baking some, but somehow lemon biscottis was sitting in my to do list since a long. Finally i prepared them for this week's theme. Trust me, we couldnt stop munching these beauties with our favourite drink.

Eggless Lemon Curd

Fruit curds are dessert spread usually prepared with citrus fruits like lemon,lime,orange or else with berries like strawberry,raspberry. The basic ingredients for making fruit curd are egg yolks, fruit juice, and the fruit zest which is cooked together until the mixture turns thick. Once cooled, the soft, smooth and fabulous flavoured spread can be used in small pastries, tarts, fruit bars or simply as filling in cakes.Home made fruit curds goes for no preservatives hence its better to make this fruit curds in small quantity. Coming to today's fruit curd, i prepared mine as eggless lemon curd. Yes you read it rite, my lemon curd is simply prepared without eggs. My lemon curd goes for corn starch, butter, lemon juice,sugar and zest. The addition of butter gives a beatiful smoother and creamier texture.

Spinach, Chickpeas Masala Rice

Masala rice is a kind of fried rice, prepared simply with rice and varieties of vegetables which is spiced just with variety of spice powders. Kids love rice dishes, especially for their lunch. Obviously we South Indians pack most of our kid's lunch box with rice dishes. Variety of rice dishes do exists and kids love to carry in their lunch box. Just add some vegetables, greens in a simple rice and make it more healthier. My today's recipe is one among those healthy version of rice dish i never fail to make at home whenever i feel lazy or bored to cook. Today's recipe is simply prepared with few chopped carrots, chopped spinach greens and cooked chickpeas. Adding chickpeas makes this rice more nutritious and gives a healthy twist as well. Pack this colourful rice simply with fried potatoes or boiled eggs,am sure you will definitely see the empty lunch box.

Butter Beans Tomato Biryani

Its always fun to pack lunch to kids, but unfortunately here in Paris, i never had a chance to pack foods to my kids. But i pack foods to my H who dont like to have his lunch in his office canteen. However packing foods to kids or husband is definitely challenging when they are pricky eaters. I love beans very much especially when its comes to one pot meal. My pantry will always have varieties of beans and my freezer will also have already soaked, ready to use frozen beans. Obviously if i feel like cooking with beans, i'll just open my freezer, get the packet of my choice of beans and cook with. I'll never forget to prepare presoaked and frozen beans, am doing this method of freezing beans more than three years and now its quite a routine at home.Do follow this method, trust me this method of freezing soaked beans will be very handy if you dont have time to soak beans.

Peanut & Chickpeas Rice

Feeding a kid with healthy stuffs in their diet is definitely a hard task for most of the moms.I have crossed those days with many difficulties, now my kids are grown up and obviously they dont take that much interest to know how their mom cooked their foods. Mostly i'll try to add healthy stuffs in their dishes easily by masking them with their favourite ingredients along with. If its comes to baked goodies, i'll always goes for chocolates if its comes to their lunch or dinner i'll try to mask the healthy stuffs with some meats or seafoods in their foods.So they wont notice and will finish their food without any hassle. Packing a lunch to kid is an another tough task which i never ever had a chance to live as my kids come home for their lunch. However cooking food to kids is definitely a challenging one.I'll try to add veggies and legumes aka pulses,beans often in my kids foods. Most of my one pot meals or simply masala rice will definitely have beans in them as beans are loaded with proteins.Its advised to take beans often in our diet as beans will digest easily and suits prefect for any ages.

Plums & Butterscotch Chips Muffins

Its been a while i want to bake something with fresh plums, this time when we went to our weekend farmers market, i grabbed a kg of pulpy plums from my usual fruit stall. Back home, we couldnt resist to those absolutely sweet and pulpy plums and had few just like that. Since i planned to make some muffins with plums, i kept few plums aside and prepared this beautiful looking plum muffins with butterscotch chips. Do you know i brought this butterscotch chips from India, they are dead cheap there and i got them along with few baking products which i carried all the way from India, i know am a crazy person when its comes to baking. However these chips stays simply prefect in fridge if they are conserved properly when stored in an air tightened bottle.Coming to this muffins, both plums and butter scotch chips works absolutely prefect in this cuties.

Eggless Apple chunks & Chocolate Chips Loaf Cake

After oranges and bananas, my fruit basket will always have apples. Since am allergic to apples, i cant have them like that, obviously i'll always have either cooked or baked apple chunks. Now you know why i'll always try to add apples often in my baking. Apples are my favourite fruits since ages, but dunno why suddenly few years back after having apples, i started having itchy eyes and swollen lips. When i consulted a Doctor, she advised me not to have apples raw but cooked or as baked. I miss my favourite fruit eventhough i never failed to add them in my bakes, soups or else i'll make apple sauce out of it. Now i dont have any alternative way to have apples apart from making dishes out of it. Coming to today's post, this cake is completely my kind of evening snacks. Loaded with apple chunks and chocolate chips, one can have definitely have more than a slice with a cup of tea or coffee during anytime of the day.

Eggless Dates & Chocolate Muffins

Dates, this dry fruits is loaded with many nutrients, vitamins and have many more health values, but this dry fruits is one among the most hated fruits by most of the kids.Even my kids are not big fan of dates, atleast they will eat them if i make bakes or shakes with this healthy fruits. Its been a while i baked muffins with dates, recently i got a huge box of dates from my Moroccon neighbour who didnt forget to brought me some dates after a trip to her country. After making some shakes, i couldnt resist myself to bake some muffins out of those super fresh dates. As usual, i masked the addition of dates with the humble chocolate, anything with chocolate is my kids favourite. If am trying to make anything new or want to feed them with healthy stuffs in their food, i'll go for chocolates especially in bakes, this trick works absolutely incredible everytime and hence this method became a ritual at home if i plan to feed my family with healthy ingredients.

Sweet Horsegram Vermicelli/Inippu Kollu Sevai

Evening snacks are the one among the most important food before having the dinner. Actually Kids need to have their snacks healthy as well as filling after a long day at school. I'll try to add healthy stuffs often in my kids evening snacks, mostly I'll stick with the home made evening snacks however sometimes I'll let my kids to have their favourite junk foods for their snacks. Its quite hard to feed kids with healthy stuffs in their snacks,quite dilemma which happens also with the adults as well. My better half is not a health nut like me, he love to indulge junk foods as much as like my kids. Seriously its quite a hard task for me to feed my family members with healthy stuffs, hence i find a better way to feed them. Just mask the healthy ingredients with your usual evening snacks to feed everyone at home without their knowledge and this method works absolutely awesome. Everyone at home love vermicelli, and my H love vermicelli in anything. Obviously i opted for an healthy horse gram vermicelli for making our favourite sweet vermicelli few days back for our evening snacks.

Vegetable Egg Bhurji Sandwich/Vegetable and Scrambled Egg Sandwich

Sandwich, this is a complete food when two bread slices are stuffed with a healthy filling.Sandwich can be enjoyed very much for the evening snacks as much as for a lunch. Obviously Sandwiches can be taken to work,school or for picnics, this popular finger foods are definitely filling and suits absolutely prefect for the evening snacks.We are bread lovers and most of our dinner goes for bread with salads or soups. Obviously my kids wont hesitate a second to have bread even for their evening snacks.If i serve them a filling,healthy sandwich for their snacks, they wont ever say no definitely.Whenever i dont have time to make evening snacks, i'll go surely for a simple bun butter jam.

Mixed Vegetables Channa Sundal

Evening snacks is the best part of the day, after an hectic day everyone at home love to have something filling for their snacks. With loads of proteins, sundal makes a healthy and definitely a filling evening snacks.Today's post goes for a catchy vegetable rich sundal, actually adding vegetables to usual sundal makes this already protein packed sundal more interesting and definitely super healthy.Sundal can be prepared with any beans or legumes but however most of us makes sundal with chickpeas aka channa. Chickpeas, this nutritious legumes are my favourite, tempered or not i can have a bowl of chickpeas sundal anytime. However everyone at home love this chickpeas sundal when tempered with spices and grated coconut.

Gajar Ka Halwa/Carrot Halwa with Khoya

One of the easiest and the delicious halwa is always this carrot halwa. Carrot halwa makes me nostalgic and this  is the first sweet dish i have dished out when i started cooking. Whenever mom goes to grandma's native, i wont forget to make this halwa to serve my father who fond always for my carrot halwa. Its been a while i prepared carrot halwa at home, more than a year may be. Dunno why i didnt prepared them at home eventhough my fridge will always have carrots.This time i prepared my favourite carrot halwa with sugarless khoya to give a fabulous taste. I had some leftover khoya which was sitting in my fridge, i finished them by adding in this halwa. We simply loved this halwa and couldnt stop having them.

Jeera Tea/Cumin Tea/Jeeraga Kashayam

 Cumin seeds not only add taste to food but also are very beneficial for body. Also known as jeera, these cumin seeds have been extensively used in culinary preparations in the Indian subcontinent since ages. It is a rich source of iron and hence very beneficial for anaemics as well as lactating mothers and pregnant women, who tend to need iron more than others. Its a great aid in digestion and prevents indigestion, flatulence, diarrhoea, nausea and morning sickness.  For immediate relief from acidity, chew a pinch-full of raw cumin seeds. Cumin seeds have antiseptic properties and aid in curing common colds. It doesn't let cough to form and collect in the respiratory system. Since it is supposed to be hot, it dries up all the mucous.Cumin seeds help in stimulating the secretion of enzymes in the pancreas which in turn help in the absorption of nutrients also boost the power of the liver to flush out toxins from the body.

Arisithippili Rasam/Long Pepper Rasam/Thippili Sathumudu

During my last Indian trip, i picked some medicinal value rich spices from herbal medicine shops. One among those herbal spices i treasure carefully is this Arisithippili aka long pepper, this pepper is a relative of black pepper. Kandathippili is the bark of Piper lon gum/long pepper and the dried fruit is called Arisi thippili. Thippili rasam is a very interesting home remedy for common cold, cough and body aches. The spiciness of this pepper will tickle the tastebuds when you are suffering with cold. The roots, leaves and dry fruits are used very much in many more home remedies. This rasam was one of my favourite and i do often at home when the weather is very much dull. This comforting food can be enjoyed thoroughly even if you are not sick. But however having this rasam while you have cough or cold helps a lot to feel much better.

Turmeric Milk/Spicy Turmeric Milk

Indian spices have sufficient medicinal values and there are so many home remedies exists in our cooking. Many home remedies are passed traditionally by the elder peoples and most of the Indian families have their own home remedies for common ailments.There are so many easy remedies for cough,cold which can be prepared at home in a jiffy. One among those home remedies tried and adviced at our home since ages is this Turmeric milk. This turmeric milk is simply prepared with palm sugar, the humble 'Turmeric powder' obviously, cinnamon stick, peppercorns and ginger. Both milk and turmeric are anti-oxidants. Taking turmeric milk daily can help in blood purification and liver detox.

Eggless Orange, Chocolate Chips Cinnamon Rolls

Have you ever tried orange cinnamon rolls, if not then this cinnamon rolls will definitely tempt you to bake some. Also needless to say that this cinnamon rolls are highly flavourful,dangerously addictive and eggless. Obviously if you are an ardent fan of cinnamon rolls, am sure you wont keep urself away from these absolutely spongy and delicious cinnamon rolls. Actually i baked these cuties for this month's  Shhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge started by me few months back.Since i messed up with the members, i decided myself to go with two of the members, i have already posted this Lassi with the secret ingredients given by Sanoli of Sanoli's Kitchen. While today's post was with the secret ingredients given by Anu Kollon of Ente Thattukada. Anu gave me orange and cinnamon as my secret ingredients. Initially i want to make some dessert with this two ingredients, however cinnamon pulled me to make some cinnamon rolls.

Elephant Yam Tikkis/Vegan Mutton Patties/ Karunai Kizhangu Cutlet

Elephant yam, is one among the favourite tuber we love at home after the famous potato and sweet potato, obviously whenever we go to Indian store, i'll never forget to grab this yam. Thank god we get super fresh elephant yam nowadays and not  the frozen one. Obviously we have various choice to make delicious dishes out of this tuber. I'll always make chips,mashed spiced yam, else pan fried yam roast, but this time for a change i tried making tikkis with elephant yam which i crossed in a one of my tamil magazine supplement few days back. This tikkis are very easy to make, you doesnt need bread crumbs. A simple spiced and mashed mixture of elephant yam with fried gram powder makes this excellent vegan friendly tikkis.

Barnyard Millet & Sprouted Greengram Pongal/Kuthiraivaali Ven Pongal

Cooking with millets became one of my favourite culinary experiments which i never ever want to give up for any sake.Actually am trying to add various millets which i carried all the way from India whenever i feel like feeding millets instead of rice to everyone at home. I have  tried various dishes with different millets and my small family started loving these healthy dishes. One of my recent trial with Barnyard millet aka Kuthiraivaali or Kuthiravalli is this super healthy,protein packed pongal. Pongal is a south Indian breakfast dish which is prepared simply by cooking both rice and yellow moongdal together, this dish sounds almost like North Indian kichadi eventhough the tempering part of this South Indian pongal goes for nuts and different spices than the usual tempering spices. Usually Pongal can be eaten for breakfast or for dinner, however i'll like to pack them even for lunch whenever i feel lazy to cook.

Purple Cabbage Kootu

Kootu, this vegetable and dal baed gravy makes an excellent side dish if they are  served along with rice. Whenever i cross a new version of kootu, i wont hesitate a second to give a try. During my India trip, i couldnt resist to collect few supplements we get with some weekly tamil magazines. While going through those supplements, i crossed the 30 varieties of kootu, immediately went through the book and got hooked to this purple cabbage kootu, this dish is quite easy to make. A spice mixture is prepared simply to flavor this kootu and this spice powder makes the difference from other kootus we make usually with the famous coconut,cumin and green chillies combination.An excellent dish to enjoy thoroughly with hot piping rice and pan roasted potatoes.

Apple, Chocolate and Lemon Lassi

Lassi,this popular Indian drink is simply prepared with curd, milk with sugar or salt depending upon one's tastebuds. However you can find lassi now with many flavors and the most favourite lassi for most of the Indians is the mango flavored lassi. Yea even i can drink a gallon of mango lassi and i'll never fail to make them whenever mangoes shows their heads in our Indian groceries here.Lassi,this refreshing thirsty quencher can be prepared in a jiffy. I make varieties of lassi, shakes or smoothies whenever the sun god shows his head here, actually having lassi, shakes or smoothies became a part of our daily routine if its too hot here. Its better to stick with healthy drinks than the sugar loaded store bought juices. Not to forget that lassi can be prepared easily at home with simple ingredients, obviously you can even prepare sugarless lassi just with agave syrup,maple syrup or simply with honey.

Balushahi / North Indian Doughnuts/Tikari

Balushahi ressembles as much as like our South Indian popular Badushah aka sugar glazed maida flour doughnuts. Actually Balushahi is a traditional dessert/sweet in North Indian cuisine, Pakistani cuisine, Nepali and Bangladeshi cuisine. Balushahis are simply prepared with maida, clarified butter aka ghee with baking powder, baking soda. When deep fried and dipped in sugar syrup, these balushahis makes an excellent dessert or sweet to share or eaten with other savories or sweets.However i found that there were some differences between the Badushah and this balushahi, yes the dough for Balushahi goes for curd, baking soda,baking powder and ghee with maida while badushah is prepared mostly with dalda or ghee,maida with baking soda. However the shape and method is quite similar apart from the kneading part. Badushah goes for a smooth kneaded dough while balushahi's dough doesnt go for kneading. Baking powder and baking soda helps a lot to give a flaky texture to this Balushahis.

This Balushahis goes for  this month's Indian Cooking Challenge,a monthly event where we cook dishes from various regions of India.For this month's challenge, Srivalli suggested us this popular dangerously addictive Balushahis.I followed Manjula's recipe and prepared these gorgeous Indian doughnuts and enjoyed thoroughly,none cant just stop with one inspite of maida,ghee and sugar.

1cup All purpose flour/Maida
1/4tsp Baking powder
1/8tsp Baking soda
1/4cup Cold calrified ghee/Butter
1/4cup Yogurt (cold)
1cup Sugar
1/3cup Water
1/2tsp Cardamom powder
1tbsp Chopped pistachios
Oil for deepfrying

In a bowl, take the flour,baking soda,baking powder together, add the cold clarified ghee and mix until the mixture turns crumbly.

Slowly add the cold yogurt and mix everything to form a dough, dont knead the dough.

Cover the bowl and keep aside for half an hour.

Meanwhile take the sugar, water in a pan and heat in medium flame, bring it to boil.

Add in the cardamom powder, let it simmer until the syrup turns one thread constitency.

Take the dough knead for few minutes, and divide the dough into 10 equal balls.

Roll the balls and make a deep dent in the center of the balls.

Heat oil for deep frying in medium heat, once the oil is hot enough, drop balushahis one by one, dont overcrowd.

Cook on both sides until they turns golden brown (dont turn the balushahis more than three times).

Remove the fried balushahis and drain the oil with a paper towel.

Now drop the balushahi into the already sugar syrup, let them sit for few seconds, remove them and let it cool completely.

Garnish the balushahis with the pistachios.

Serve.

Eggless Speculoos Ice Cream/No Churn Eggless Speculoos Icecream

During our recent  monthly shopping, i couldnt resist myself to grab a bottle of speculoos spread, these spread makes an excellent breakfast when served along with brioche bread slices. Actually Speculoos is a spiced shortcrust biscuits traditionally baked in Netherlands , Belgium and in Germany during Christmas festival. Speculoos is prepared with handful of spices like cinnamon,nutmeg, cloves, cardamom and white pepper. This spiced speculoos biscuits makes an excellent pair when served with coffee for evening snacks. We love speculoos very much and needless to say this speculoos spread is very much liked as much as like Nutella spread at home. Obviously whenever i see this spread i dont forget to grab it.Speculoos is also known as Biscoff spread.

Potato Roast (No Onion No Garlic)

Potatoes,this incredible vegetables are everyone's favourite at home. Potatoes are versatile and they can be cooked in many different ways, however my kids are ardent fan of this vegetable and they love to have the famous potatoes even everyday. Sometimes if i feel bored or dont have mood to cook the usual onion and garlic loaded potato roast i'll go for a simple,quick and definitely a delicious potato roast just with simple ingredients. Today's potato roast is completely onion and garlic free, yes you can make delicious potato roast without both onions and garlic. This potato roast tastes excellent as side dish especially with rasam and rice. However we love this no onion,no garlic potato roast with rotis too.

Mixed Vegetables Egg Bhurji/Kaaikari Muttai Masala Poriyal

Egg bhurji, everyone's favourite at home, obviously whenever i feel bored of making side dishes, i'll go immediately for egg bhurjis. These Indianized scrambled eggs are really handy and tasty at the same time to serve with anything. My kids love to have egg bhurjis even daily however i'll try to make atleast once a week just with egg whites. But this time to make the usual egg bhruji more interesting, i tried adding couple of vegetables to make them more colourful,healthy and attractive.Yes this technic works awesome and none will say no to this vegetable loaded egg bhurji. A best way to sneak veggies definitely. I went for finely chopped vegetables but if you want to feed your kids with their daily of dose of vegetables without their knowledge just stick with grated vegetables. This way they dont remove or throw the vegetables added in this dish.