Chocolate Strawberry Crumble Bar

CHOCOLATE, this is something I’m never bored of. I mean it! How can anyone be bored of chocolates? You can unfriend me if you dislike chocolates.

Good chocolates always have a place in my pantry. And good strawberries are seasonal. I’m wary of buying strawberries off the shelf. Rarely, I land up with sweet strawberries. Anyway I picked this pack of organic strawberries just to find out that it wasn’t sweet enough for snacking. I was not in a mood to bake anything. But, I had to use these berries before it started rotting in the refrigerator.

I didn’t have anything in mind. Since we were going to Gilroy for a day long shopping, I wanted to take something to snack on the way. The berries became bars!

Homemade cream cheese subsitute 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 it 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.

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

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.

Curried Quinao Pilaf

I love quinoa salad. Cold or warm, it tastes good either way. Quinoa (Keen-wa) is actually a seed but many consider as a whole grain. It is naturally gluten-free and consists of 9 essential amino acids. This pilaf makes an appetizing accompaniment or a wholesome meal on it’s own.

Zucchini Apricot Bread

Zucchini or courgette, the summer squash is heartier when cooked than eaten raw like it’s counterpart cucumber. It’s nutrient-dense and excellent source of vitamins and minerals. Despite saying all this, I couldn’t convince PR (the husband) to add ‘zucchini’ in our daily cooking. He thinks it’s a flavorless water loaded vegetable. So, I added this low-calorie squash to the bread. Yes! a squash in the bread. This being partly a whole grain bread absorbs the moisture of the zucchini. The apricots and  coconut palm sugar adds mild sweetness, orange zest and cardamom adds aromatic flavor and the dark rye and whole wheat adds nutritional goodness to this loaf.

Basic White Bread – Beginner’s Recipe

If you’re venturing into baking bread for the first time, I strongly suggest you bake this generic recipe (white sandwich bread) to get the hang of bread baking. You’ll see magic happen when you mix the flour with yeast, water and salt. Initially a shaggy mess will marry in harmony and transform into a beautiful puffy loaf. Baking this loaf as my first yeast bread taught me a great deal about flour, gluten, kneading, yeast, baking temperature and shaping.