Pizza

When Trupti announced her Spring Fling event in February I had already made up my mind about what I was going to add to her wonderful event. Actually I found a recipe that week and the result was awesome:-) Even though there are lots of experienced & wonderful bloggers who are participating still I want to give my best shot to win the awesome package Trupti has put together;-) hey you never know;-P

Ok so I found this Pizza recipe on Coffee’s blog which was originally Anita’s recipe and coffee did a great job posting pictures for people like me who read the recipe, save it but one day just standing in the kitchen think of trying it;-) Can’t go to the computer for recipe because then kids will start running after and that could be the end of cooking session;-) Thanks coffee & Anita for this great recipe. We haven’t ordered Pizza since I tried your recipe:-)

I was thinking of posting it in feb but somehow couldn’t. Now since 2 weeks I am thinking that I will post it tomorrow but here I am posting it almost on the last day. But its good thing that I waited because Gudiya is on food strike since more than a week and yesterday she was watching tv while I was forcing her to eat. As soon as pizza ad came on she said “I mant (yes, mant) Pizza.. I mant pizza.” So I decided to make it today and I am glad I did because A & I had so much fun making it.. take a look at the pics & you will know what I am talking about;-)

Why heart shape pizza? cuz A was in love with heart shape things:-)

This is my contribution to Trupti's

Update: I add the pics with tomato & Olive pizza since the spring Fling is veg event:-) After looking at olive pizza pic I am thinking of making my next pizza a desert pizza with Jam & blueberries;-) What do you think? good idea?

Rava Idli

Yum Yum

With Kids craft on the side;-)

In the micrawave.. came out wonderful

Anytime I think of making something I want an instant dish. I go by kid’s mood. If they are on food strike, I try to give then 3-4 different things but if they still act stubborn I try to make something different and think of something that can be made quickly. Maggi, rice pulav, Oats, hot cereal, paratha, and can soups are a few in my instant food category.

I found this yummy recipe here. If I have roasted suji, I can make it in the microwave in just few seconds and even if not it can be roasted in hardly 5 minutes:-) I loved it, taste wise & preparation wise this recipe is just awesome.

I made this in February too but posting it now;-) As I was thinking of posting this I saw RCI event so this is my entry for that:-)

Looking at the pictures is making me so hungry.. Now I have to make them again tomorrow:-)

Lunch Plate

The other day I came across Meeta’s Show Me Your Lunch box event. It was the 20th, the last day to submit the recipe and I was about to make lunch so I clicked few lunch plate pics but didn’t get chance to post or submit. Even though its 3 days late I thought of posting it anyway:-)
Hubby works for home, well kind of.. I usually make lunch & call him and he comes from the backdoor to take the plate downstairs. He wants something that not messy, easy to eat & can be eaten with fork or spoon.. If food require hands he wants only sandwiches, pizza but no desi food unless they meet the above guideline (pulav or Kchidi only;-).. .

I had cooked Turkey Burger the evening before. So his lunch was one Turkey Burger with Provolone cheese, onion, lettuce, yellow & honey mustard and horseradish sauce, 1 Ham sandwich & Mixed Berry Yogurt.

I had Garlic Shrimp with readymade potato salad but I wanted to eat something desi & hot so I added few spoons of Kchidi in my plate:-)

Kids had mixed things from both plates.. A had shrimp which he tried last week & loved it. I had made shrimp before too but he refused to eat because of this.. He had some potato salad & few bites of ham sandwich.. Gudiya had only cheese & ham..

Turkey Sandwich

Ground Turkey or any ground meat
Bell pepper or any pepper (I used different colored peppers & few Indian small chillies)
Parsley
1T Yellow Mustard Sauce
1T Horseradish Sauce
2T Lemon Juice
Salt
Black Pepper
1T oil
Cheese (optional)

Mix everything. Make medium size balls, flatten it and cook in a pan with oil.

If you are using fresh cheese instead of dry, you can make 2 small meatballs & put the cheese in between & make a burger. Monterey Jack cheese goes great with this.

Garlic Shrimp
Shrimp
Lemon Juice (1-2T)
Garlic
Salt & Black Pepper
Fresh Parsley

I add spoonful garlic in oil with salt & black pepper. In 4-5 seconds add the shrimp & lemon juice. It hardly takes 2-3 minutes on each side to get pink. Add few chopped parsley leaves & enjoy.

Undhiyu

During my 2nd pregnancy I found a gujju place, which was newly opened and has really tasty dishes. I developed love for Undhiyu then and it was our regular dish for few weeks. When I saw Trupti’s recipe for Undhiyu I couldn’t wait to try. I got the readymade mix instead of fresh because I am the only one who eats Indian food and I didn’t want to bring 20 different things and throw them later. Beside that I wanted to go with authentic portion of each veg. Frozen pack worked good for me. I loved it the way it came out. I am experimenting more Gujju dishes and one day I will post a gujju thali here;-)

Thanks Trupti for sharing this authentic recipe:-)

Long Beans with Paneer & Aloo

This is another very yum recipe of Asha. The taste is just wonderful and so different from the usual taste. I add Paneer in it as A is crazy about it and even Gudiya kept asking for more:-)

Only problem I had was with Besan as it needed lots of oil to keep it from getting burnt. I used a little water every time it needed some moist. Next time I will dry roast the besan beforehand and this might help, as I don’t want to add too much oil.

OK, I am back

I was out because of this. And now I am back:-)

I have cooked quiet a few new things in feb but didn’t get chance to post it here. I will try to post as many as I can:-)

Butter Chicken

If you think about the most ingredients in Indian cooking, they are same in almost every dish. So the masala is same for every dish still some people make the subji ok but some make the same dishes very yummy:-) I made Butter chicken with Asha’s recipe and it came out very very good. I have tried it so many times before too but this was very tasty. Before I could taste the ingredients like onion & tomato but not this time:-) She is rigte when she said that she & Arvind tried so many different recipes for this but it was the best:-) I didn’t use any pepper at all & still didn’t feel the need, see it proves that it was great:-) Thanks Asha for sharing this yummy recipe and btw my next post is about another of ur recipe, can you guess which one;-).



My attempt to make tandoori roti with homemade pizza dough

Pinwheels

I did Udyapan on Monday after my 16 Monday fast. I usually keep these fast after 2-3 months break in between and even those months we eat vegetarian on Mondays. Its been really hard to find any veg dishes that kids & hubby like. Now I am always on look out for recipes to make my Mondays interesting with yummy veg food instead of making them force to eat.

About 2 weeks back I came across this. Made ketchup & green chutney sandwich for hubby and peanut butter & jelly sandwich for kids. Presentation does has a lot to do with wanting to eat more food:-) kids kept asking for more wheels;-) A had so much fun making it, so did I;-)


I made salad sandwich with tomato, cucumber, mayo, salt & black pepper for hubby. It is very refreshing sandwich, seriously, try it:-) and with spicy (my green chutney is killer) pinwheel rolls, fruit salad & some twisted snacks, it was yummy plate for him:-)



Kids plate with PBJ pinwheel rolls, twisted snack & whip cream with confetti on it (A thinks he is making ice cream;-) And anytime he makes something he try to finish it:-) So double fun for me; I get a helper and no nautanki while eating;-)

Another Cookie Day

Today was another cookie day cuz the heart cookie was gone in 2 days:-) This time I used a little milk instead of all Ghee(Next time putting extra ghee:-). Suppose to use ½ cup sugar but by mistake I put only half of that still it came out fine. I was thinking kids might not like it cuz of less sweet but A didn’t say anything and ate 2 cookies.. I like that much sugar too:-) Couldn't believe how much unnecessary sugar goes in the body. Still I had backup; frosting:-) I did put it just for decoration:-)

I was browsing and saw finger shape cookies. Needless to say it is more fun eating any shape cookie.. Even though they were creepy looking I like them. Didn't have patience to do all of them into finger shape so I cut rest of the dough into triangle, square, rectangle & circle:-)

Something Indian

(This is the same post from my other blog. I thought of posting it here again since it was food related & my entry for Coffee's MBP)

When I got pregnant with Gudiya things related to housework took a different turn. Hubby always prefer American stuff, no masalas or hot & spicy stuff, and it require very less work but during this pregnancy I didn’t feel like eating non-veg and I was too tired to cook 2 different meals cuz I used to feel nauseous all day long. The craving was just too much to ignore. Fortunately that time a guy opened a new shop in Jersey City. I went to that place couple of times & asked what other veg they cook & when. He said that he could cook whatever I like as long as I call him few hr. advance. That solved the purpose:-) We ordered from that guy for a long time even after Gudiya was born. It was worth it cuz if I think about going to Indian market, buy vegetable, cut it and make it with 2 crying kid, I loose interest even before eating That guy was Gujarati and I got to taste some good traditional dished too. And that time I mostly liked methi & saag dishes, which require lots of & rinsing so it seemed worth to order it:-)

Then that guy had to close his place but by that time I was ok with non-veg and we have a special place for non-veg food and we were fine. For a long time we ate outside food every meal of the day.. Actually I did. Kids were getting their stuff like chicken nuggets, mashed dal & kichdi (they didn’t prefer this though). Hubby was getting his sandwiches, egg salad and tuna salad, which requires very less time. I used to cook big pack of 2 kinds of different meats & make 2-3 side dishes on weekend, and hubby was all set for few days with additional chinese food & pizza take-outs:-). Kids are like hubby too. They prefer American food to Indian. They love all the sandwiches, egg salad & chicken. Every time I make paratha, any veg or dal, I end up eating that.

I don’t make resolutions but this year I though I have to try something otherwise my kids will never develop a taste for Indian food (Keshi are you reading this? Forcing the first generation;-). In our house we cook Indian food only on Mondays cuz that day I keep fast but even then my hubby & kids don’t eat Indian food. I usually order pizza or make khichdi (they like it) for them. But now I have to force my kids:-) So I decided to make 1 new dish every week and if it’s a hit I will write it down for Gudiya:-)

Last night hubby & I had talk about this

“Because of you we don’t cook Indian food. Before I used to think that I don’t want to cook all that just for me but now kids are becoming like you too so I have to do something. I don’t care if you want to or not; you HAVE to eat new dishes. I will pick the ones that you guys like & make a collection of atleast 365 dishes and I will leave those recipes for Gudiya:-)”

“Ok but will SHE use it or A:-)”

“I don’t care. Both will get a copy and if she doesn’t want to cook she can tell her hubby that I want that dish on page# 24 and he will cook for her;-)”

“OK, as long as you make Italian or Mexican food, I will eat ”

I didn’t get chance to make any new dish for weeks but since last week Im on roll:-) First I tried Coffee’s dhokla



Then Asha’s falafel



Yesterday we had Trupti’s ragda patties



And today I made idli & kind of dosa from the leftover dhokla batter with some more urad dal in it and we had Asha’s chana dal chutney.



And tonight I made Asha's peanut chicken



This I have to cut in pieces instaed of on skewers cuz then I don't have to worry about them poking each other:-) Gudiya was asking for corn which I wanted to put it in the chicken but forgot so I just put it on top of the chicken.. She took few bites of this chicken mixed with rice. great recipe even though I didn't marinate it still It was great:-)

Even though I made last 2 dishes today, consider this made yesterday (in January;-) I am planning on posting this kind of post in the first week of every month. And until I get at least 365 dishes for my kids booklet there will be a post every month;-) They have to have something Indian in their life, right? or something to remember me by and all the food bloggers whose recipes they will be using (I hope:-) ;-)

P.S By chance I tried all starters, which is the theme of Coffee’s MBP:-) So this is my contribution to the event :-)

Whole Wheat Cookie

My contribution to Trupti’s Little Chefs in the Kitchen Event

1 cup whole wheat flour (Atta)(you can use maida cuz you will get hard cookies with atta)
½ cup powdered sugar
½ cup hot melted butter
½ ts cardamom (I didn’t put cuz of kids)

Mix all the ingredients and make dough. Cover it and put it in fridge for 20 minutes. Knead the dough for another 2-3 minutes. Roll it very very thin and let your kids cut it in different shape or make 1 big cookie & let them decorate it for special occasions like I did;-) Bake it till its golden brown (20-25 minutes).

Next time Im mixing some shredded coconut & nuts in the dough:-)

My First Food Post :-)

Garlic chicken for my 2 little valentines

Mommy's tip:
I usually cook chicken with a little salt and put it in freezer and when I need to make something I just put it in microwave & its ready for me. Saves lots of cutting & cooking time.

½ ts oil
1 cup chicken
1 ts Mayo
1 ts garlic power
salt & black pepper
(pinch of thyme, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes,mint-OPTIONAL)

Put oil, 1 serving spoon water & chicken in a pan. Keep tossing the chicken until it changes color. Let it cook for 5-6 minutes in the steam over high flame & another 5-6 minutes with lid open until the water is almost gone. Mix the rest of ingredients in a bowl & put chicken in it. Use more garlic power if you want. Mayo should be enough since there is already some water in the chicken and roast it in the oven until golden brown:-)

This recipe is kid friendly & since its very moist, you can serve with rice too. I usually mix it with some rice & use some thin mayo as a sauce. They love it:-) It could be great party appetizer.


Thai green curry with chicken,eggs & tons of veggies

1 cup cooked chicken
1 cup each cut spinach, baby corn, water chestnut, bamboo shootsand mushrooms
1/2 cup onion, 2-3 boiled eggs (optional)
1 can coconut milk
Green or any thai curry paste

1. In a pan mix 1 cup cooked chicken and vegetables

2. In a bowl mix 3-4 ts green Thai curry with a little warm water and put a can of coconut milk in it.

3. Put this mix in pan with chicken & vegetables along with half cup of water.

4. Let it cook for 15 minutes on high flame.

5. Put boiled eggs after you turn the heat off.

Serve with rice or noodles.

No oil, salt or any masala needed. Its already in the Thai paste. You can put any vegetable you like and the control the quantity too.


Curry & Rice

These recipes are my contribution to Pooja's event. I cooked these cuz they are easy & this masala dish is the one that hubby eats without any fuss;-) He doesn't care for surprises but I cooked it as lunch to surprise him anyway:-)

And my 2 little valentines love chicken so it was for them:-)