Pavakkai Poricha Kootu/Bittergourd Poricha Kootu

Poricha Kootu, this fingerlicking dal and vegetable based gravy is one of my favourite. I love simply with rice and papads, recently while going through my cookbooks and my paper clips, i crossed this beautiful bittergourd poricha kootu. Immediately i want to give a try and this kootu turned out extremely delicious eventhough it was slightly bitter. Bittergourd is definitely better for health especially for diabetic peoples, i love anything with bittergourds eventhough i used to ran away if my mom cook bittergourd when i was young. Later i came to know the health value of this vegetable and tried slowly adding my diet. Now its one among my favourite vegetable.Sending to Pari's Only - Gluten Free Cooking.

Best Mango Vanilla Cupcakes

I have recently joined a baking group called Fondbites, Bake Along by Subhashini, every week on monday,a baking dish will be challenged to the members of this baking group and we need to post before the next sunday. seriously am enjoying the member's bakes virtually. Trust me we bake fantastic baked goodies every week and love learning more about baking. After cheese crackers, this week we are baking basic Vanilla Cupcakes aka the Best Vanilla cupcakes ever. Eventhough we need to bake vanilla cupcakes, Subhashini suggested some variations to add in this basic cupcakes depending upon our wish. Since i had some leftover mango puree, i tried adding them to this vanilla cupcakes, and named this cutie cuppies as Mango vanilla cupcakes.

Spring Onion Masala Paratha

We love to carry parathas whenever we plan to go for a trip or for a picnic, parathas can be eaten without any side dish if they are prepared as masala parathas. They can stay prefect for a day without any special care and you can enjoy them as wraps or rolls or simply along with your salads. Yes masala parathas are seriously very versatile. My today's recipe goes for spring onions masala paratha, chopped spring onions added to the masala paratha dough gives an excellent flavor and we loved having them simply with pickle.If you are carrying this sort of masala parathas, just spread the pickle paste over it and roll it as rolls and have it,trust me you will definitely enjoy this pickled masala paratha rolls for your picnic.

Onion & Sesame Savoury Biscuits

If someone asks me to plan for a picnic, i'll definitely bake some savory biscuits to pack with, even if i dont have time to bake i'll definitely get some storebought crackers, especially for the mayonnaise yogurt dip i usually make for our grilled meats. Actually i tasted this savoury biscuits and mayonnaise yogurt dip combination accidently when we forget to carry the salsa i prepared for having with this savoury biscuits once we went for a picnic. I completely fallen in love with this easy breezy dip which i usually serve with BBQ meats. If you feel like munching something savory with wonderful flavor and nuttiness either during your picnic or for your snacks, do prepare this very addictive onion and sesame savoury biscuits. These biscuits are dangerously addictive.

Potato and Pickle Sandwich

You dont have any stuffing for making sandwich, you dont know how to make sandwich with simple ingredients, then you should give a try to this simple sandwich. This simple and satisfying sandwich goes for boiled potatoes and leftover mango pickle paste. Just spread this spicy pickle paste over a bread slice and top it with boiled and sliced potatoes. Toast them in a tawa and enjoy it. How easy na, trust me we just had this simple,quick sandwich for our dinner. Since ever i tried this sandwich, we are having this super easy breezy sandwich atleast once a week. Obviously you can carry this spicy, filling and satisfying sandwich whenever you plan for picnic, they stays prefect and this sandwich suits prefectly if you have spicy and savory tooth.

Cheese Crackers

Baking, i cant keep me away from baking. Its was earlier one among the passion but now its a part of my life. Blogging world have loads of baking challenges and whenever i get the chance to bake with these baking groups,i'll join immediately. Am already a member of different,very challenging baking groups so that i can still learn different bakes. Baking is like ocean, there are so many different way of bakings especially for bread baking, however baking makes me happy and keeps me busy. I can bake for a whole day if i feel so down, yes its my stress burster.

Carrot Milkshake

Everyone's favourite summer drink is definitely buttermilk or lassi, but milkshakes will definitely take the next place especially among the kids. As like Naans and Kulchas, milkshakes and smoothies are different eventhough they both ressembles almost alike. Smoothies is a blended sweetened beverage made with fresh fruits,in which sometimes chocolates, peanut butter or syrups are added, but milkshake is a beverage usually made with milk, icecream or iced milk with chocolate,fruits and vegetables.This is the difference between these both, frankly speaking milkshake and smoothie are both like sisters. This chilled drink is usually enjoyed by everyone when the climate is too hot. My today's post is carrot milkshake, this shake goes for raw grated carrots, vanilla icecream, milk and sugar which actually i picked it from Divya's space.

Neer Nellikkai/No Oil Amla Pickle/Oilfree Gooseberry Pickle

Pickling is definitely a summer affair, we make varieties of pickles with varieties of vegetables. Each South Indian famillies prepare their batch of pickles during summer to share among the family members and my grandma makes bags and bags of pickles, vadams every summer whenever we go for summer vacation. I seriously cherish those nostalgic moments which is quite rare now, my kids miss this much fun moments with grand parents. Personally after my generation, these summer rituals seems to be very much rare even in my grandma's village.Coming to today's post, this pickling method of making this oil free gooseberry pickle we usually follow when we get gooseberries abundantly during the peak season. This method of making this oil free pickle helps to preserve those gooseberries. Neer Nellikkai can be enjoyed just like that, or else these preserved gooseberries can be used in making chutneys, or can be prepared with as pickle with spices and oil.

Sweet Mango Chutney with Palm Jaggery

Sweet mango chutney with rotis, just imagine this combination. Dont you drool to this combination, but i do. Its been a while i prepared this chutney at home,usually my Grandma makes excellent chutney with jagggery and cubed mangoes. I just skipped both and went for grated mangoes along with palm jaggery. This makes an excellent chutney with less ingredients. You may wonder why am posting suddenly this mango chutney, i have a reason to post, actually i prepared this post long back and this chutney suits prefectly for this week's blogging marathon. Today am running my third week of blogging marathon and the theme of this week is Summer specials.

Strawberry Marmalade / Chunky Strawberry Jam

Marmalade or jam is just fruit cooked with sugar and citric acid which means lemon juice. Homemade jams are best and its hardly goes for less ingredients, no preservative no food colouring obviously i love to make my small batch of fresh fruit jams at home whenever its peak season for any fruits. Everytime i'll go to Farmer's market,i'll look in couple of stalls to get a good quality pulpy fruits to make jams at home. As i told earlier jams doesnt need anything particular, just fruit chunks, sugar and lemon juice is quite enough to make a bottle of preservative free jams.

This time i prepared this strawberry marmalade aka chunky strawberry jam with super juicy strawberries i have bought recently. Strawberry marmalade makes an excellent pair with crepes or as a delicious topping for desserts. I have prepared a bread rolls with this marmalade, will post it very soon. Usually for most us marmalade means orange marmalade but still you can make with strawberries.I picked this marmalade from Jams and Marmalades, a booklet i got while i went for a product launching here. This post goes  for the CC Challenge of the month.

4cups Strawberries (halved)
1/2cup Sugar
1no Vanilla gousse (slitted) or 1/2tsp Vanilla extract
2tbsp Lemon juice

In a bowl, take the strawberries, sugar and vanilla extract, keep aside for 15minutes to marinate.

After 15minutes, put them in a sauce pan over high heat and stir constantly for  few minutes until the berries gets mashed slightly.

Add the lemon juice, cook for few more minutes.

Put off the stove, and let the mixture thickens.

Chinna Kathirikkai Puli Kuzhambu/Tangy Small Brinjal Gravy

Every South Indian house especially Tamilians cooks often tangy gravy aka puli kuzhambu with couple of vegetables. I love my kuzhambu with loads of garlic,shallots and potatoes cubes. I can survive for many days with this tangy gravies. Personally this kind of tangy gravies tastes absolutely marvellous the next day when they served with rice topped with gingelly oil or ghee. Obviously i make varieties of this kind of gravy atleast once a week.Usually i make this kathirikkai kuzhambu aka brinjal gravy with eggplants whenever i feel like having, eventhough i love to get small brinjals from Indian stores specially for making this kuzhambu. You might have noticed in my posts recently that mom came from India with loads of fresh vegetables. When she called me from India i asked her to get those tiny small brinjals and green mangoes, she brought me both vegetables.

Bharwan Bhindi - No Onion No Garlic Stuffed Bhindis

Bharwan bhindi is an irresistible stuffed bhindi or okra dish, this dish is prepared in North India with a simple spice powder filling, slit opened bhindis stuffed with this spice powder filling which is cooked simply in simmer makes this delicious and healthy stuffed Bhindis. As the title says this dish is no garlic and no onion recipes, a best dish to make while fasting.A prefect side dish to enjoy with rotis or parathas of your choice.

Garlicky Baked Potato Wedges

Potato wedges, my lil one's favourite whenever we go to the famous fast food restaurant. Potato wedges are almost like French fries, its a finger food, and kid's favourite as much as like French fries. Usually potato wedges are prepared by slicing the potatoes as wedges without peeling the skin of the potatoes. They are often deep fried as well as baked. Many fast food restaurants sold them along with their sandwiches instead of French fries. Potato wedges are served along with cheese and mayonnaise here, but my kids love these potato wedges with barbecue sauce or else with sweet chilly sauce.

Corn Aloo Tikki

Tikkis or kebabs or cutlets, watever this pan fried round shaped patties are kid's favourite, serve it with ketchup or as sandwich between two bread slices, these tikkis or patties makes a filling snacks or as a meal in a kid's lunch box. However tikkis are excellent foods when prepared with varieties of vegetables. Mashed potatoes mixed with grated or cooked vegetables makes delicious tikkis. Since potatoes are everyone's favourite vegetable, this vegetable is an important and major ingredient for making this kind of easy breezy tikkis.

Corn Channadal Fingers

Usually deep fried fingers are made with chicken or fish, actually i want to replicate them in my own way but as a vegetarian version. Both fish fingers and chicken fingers are my kids favourite, they just love it, since i want to make those non vegetarian deep fried fingers as a vegan fingers i tried my hands in making this super crispy dal and corn fingers. Cooked channadal,mashed potatoes and grounded sweet corn kernels makes this wonderful looking deep fried fingers. Trust me, my kids just enjoyed having this crispy vegan fingers with their favourite ketchup.

Cheesy Corn & Spinach Sandwich

Sandwich, my kids are ardent fan of this stuffed bread slices, they can haveanything as sandwich. Just a spread and some fruit slices is enough for them to make their own sandwich even without my help. Since sandwich is a complete food, kids love them to have during anytime of the day. Sandwich can be prepared quickly with simple ingredients, obviously whenever i feel lazy or busy with other stuffs, i will definitely go for making sandwiches with something healthy as stuffing. Today's post is one among my favourite sandwich i have prepared recently for our lunch.

Vegan Popcorn Chicken/Vegan Soya Popcorn

I remember the first time when we had popcorn chicken in a fast food channel few years back, my kids were fighting to finish a large box of those crispy succulent popcorn chicken bites, they love popcorn chicken that much. As this month's theme for the event  Friendship 5 Series, an event by Geetha and Savitha went for Fast foods for kids, i thought that i should give a try to some vegan popcorn chicken instead of usual popcorn chicken. I googled for making this vegan version,each one is different and some of the recipe asked for garlic powder etc, but finally i ended up mine with my own ideas eventhough i got hooked to Ecurry's vegan popcorn chicken. They came out just awesome and we couldnt stop munching them. Deepfried snacks are always kid's favourite, they can have anything when its deepfried, even my kids are not exceptional, they can even have bittergourd if its deep fried.