Chocolate Zucchini/Courgette Bread – Whole wheat, Egg free and Dairy free!

I had a long day. Cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. Phew! I was tired by the time I cooked dinner. But I had all the energy to bake something. I had no agenda. I put together something with the ingredients I had in hand. Well, I had two zucchinis sitting in the refrigerator. I try to incorporate this vegetable in my cooking now and then. Even in the bakes.

The husband dislikes zucchini. He thinks it’s flavorless. So,I think of all possible ways to make it flavorful. Chocolate was the way to go. I’d to disguise this veggie in a loaf of quick bread. I was in a ‘healthy’ baking mode. I used whole wheat, no dairy and no eggs. Good one. Ain’t it?

Homemade Cream Cheese without starter culture

I am often asked to share the recipe for ‘HOME MADE CREAM CHEESE’. Cream cheese is readily available for me. But the same can be pricey and inaccessible for some folks. It’s mostly readers from India who find it hard to lay their hands on cream cheese. So here’s the recipe I experimented just for the heck of it. This one has a slight tang with a creamy texture.

I’ve come across many online recipes that use just whole milk  to make cream cheese. I would rightly call is ricotta cheese which has a grainy texture. CREAM CHEESE needs cream and culture and/or rennet. This recipe requires no starter cultures or unpronounceable ingredients. It takes about 5 days! But you can check the consistency mid way and stop the process even on the 3 rd day.

Dal Palak

This preparation is made in my household every week. Almost every Indian household has a version of Dal Palak. Usually, the north Indian version has different seasoning and south Indians add sambar powder for that unique flavor. You can use spices that suits your palate. I use a set of spices that works for us. Know what, PR is put off when he takes a bite of a whole spice in the curries. It’s not nice to chomp on a big cardamom or blades of mace. I use Garam Masala or smaller spices that just disappear into the dish. Cumin, fennel, carom et al are spices that give texture and flavor to most curries.

Caramel (Honey) Dipped Apples

This is a long pending post. It took forever to complete this one. Date – Sometime during fall, 2012. But completed April, 2013. Don’t ask me why? I was wasting time on useless stuff. Finally, I sat down to complete what I started months back. This is a simple recipe that I did because I found some lush apples in a farm. Oh yeah! Fresh produce from the tree. Organic too.

Cinnamon Maple Butter

Eat your colors – Breakfast Smoothies

This is a series of smoothies I whip up almost every morning for our breakfast. It happens to be vegan. I don’t prefer adding yogurt or dairy milk to my smoothies as it tends to mask the flavors. As well, I don’t like too many ingredients with clashing flavors. Less is more! I keep it simple by using vegetables or fruits of same color tone. I will update this series as I gather more smoothie recipes. The pics are shot on my mobile just before I consume. Practically it’s not possible to set up a shoot when you’re ready for breakfast. Kindly excuse the quality of the pictures

PINK SMOOTHIE

Avocado Buckwheat Pancake

Avocados are nutrient rich fruits. When I was doing my grad studies in Manipal, I tasted Avocados for the first time in life. Those days I’d never seen one in India. My friend flew these fruits from Sri Lanka and kindly offered me to taste. She peeled and mashed the pulp, added some lime juice and few teaspoonful sugar. Served in small cups, it was a dessert that I enjoyed better than an ice cream. I was totally smitten by it’s buttery texture of this wonder fruit. After I move to Singapore, I found this fruit in abundance. I would buy loads and threw a few slices in the salad, blitz the pulp to make smoothie, make a spread for toast, vegan chocolate mousse and many more.

Banana Bran Muffin

Wholesome breakfast muffins made with ingredients right from your pantry. Ripe bananas lend sweetness, plain yogurt lends moisture and wheat bran lends texture to these fiber rich nutritious muffins.

Orange Bath Salt

Woah! January just jumped away. Still I haven’t posted any recipe for the blog. The one I wish to post is not about food. Though I have so many recipes pending, I feel like sharing this non-food recipe. Well, I know this is a food blog but this recipe uses raw materials that we usually bin or just ignore after it serves the purpose.  This recipe is for a BATH SALT. Yes! you heard me right. If  food feeds the stomach, a good bath scrub/salt feeds your skin. Not totally, partially it does! I make my own bath salts/scrubs with what’s available in the pantry. I made a big batch and gifted it to my blogger friends when we met over dinner. I love ORANGES as it’s refreshing tangy fragrance perks me up.

2012 so far…hope 2013 gets better

The WordPress.com stats helpers prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 41,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 9 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.