LOADED - EGGLESS BLUEBURRY BANANA MUFFINS

Flour - 1 cup
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
B. powder - 1 tsp
B.Soda - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1/3 cup - Powdered

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Bananas - 4 mashed

Blueberrys- 1-1 1/2 cup

Butter - 1/3 cup melted

Nutmeg a small piece - ground with sugar

Cinnamon - 1 - 2 sticks - ground with sugar

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Orange juice - 1/3 cup

Curd - 2 tbs

Method:

Mix all ingredients until just combined and divide into muffin moulds. Makes around 15 muffins. Orange juice and curd are optional if the mixture is too dry, it may be substituted with milk and an extra banana. Bake in a pre heated oven at 350 degrees for 15 - 18 mts or till a toothpick inserted in the muffin comes out clean.

Decrease the amount of blueberrys if you don't want it loaded !!!

Spicy Doughnuts !!! Easy bonda/vada

Ingredients:
Maida/ Cake flour - 1 cup

Rice flour -  1/4 cup

Curd - 3 tbs
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Ginger - 1 tsp finely chopped

Onion - 1/2 cup finely chopped

Curry leaves - 1 Tbs shredded

Peppercorns - 1 tsp

Asafoetida - 1/8 tsp

Coconut - 1/4 cup finely chopped (optional)

Green chillies - 1 Tbs finely chopped (optional)

baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Water as needed

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Mix all the powders, spices, and dry ingredients. Add sufficient qty of water to get a thick batter of dropping consistency. Rest the batter for 30 mts and deep fry by dropping spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil. The batter may also be shaped like a doughnut, on a sheet of aluminium foil, after dabbing a little water on the foil.

Deep fry the donuts/bondas till golden and serve with hot tea on a rainy afternoon.

Quickest Oothappam Ever or Savoury Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients
3 cups of buttermilk pancake batter prepared from pancake mix
2 cups of finely chopped mixed vegetables- onions, carrots, bell peppers, tomatos, mushrooms
butter/margarine

Method:

I was running out of ideas to make quick, vegetarian breakfast/snacks and just tried this out and my food critic loves it - no you guessed wrong, not my kids- my hubby is the hard to please critic!!!

Heat a non stick tawa/ frypan, pour 1-2 ladleful of batter for a thick pancake, sprinkle the vegetables on top and let it cook with a lid till the edges of the pancake start to set/dry.
Apply some butter or margarine on top of the vegetables and season with salt and pepper if desired and flip the pancake.
Cook on medium heat till done and serve with ketchup or sweet and hot chillie sauce.

Quickest Eggless Banana Muffins

Ingredients
2 cups self rising flour
3/4 cup sugar e spices
1 tsp coffee pwder
2 tbs butter
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2-3 mashed bananas
1 tsp vanilla ext

Method:

Sieve the the dry ingredents - flour, sugar powdered with 1 stick of cinnamon, 3 cardamoms, 3 cloves and a small piece of nutmeg and coffee powder into the wet ingredents- melted butter, oil, buttermilk , vanilla and banana mixture. Mix lightly 10- 12 times, do not beat the batter, just moisten the dry ingridents, the batter will be lumpy. Sccop into paper lined muffin tins till its 2/3 rds full. Pop it into the middle rack of a pre heated oven. Bake in a moderately hot oven at 375 degrees F or 190 degrees C, for 15 to 20 mts or till a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Banana and Nut bread

Hi,

It's Nov and we already had our first snow. Soon it'll be X'mas and time for baking .. wonderful fruit cakes. But I don't have the time or the patience to do it mummy's way but I do miss her cakes.

Yesterday I baked a quick bread. It's a v easy, no mess, kid friendly recepie. Here is how I do it....

1 egg beaten
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp of vanilla essence
2 tbs honey
2 tbs yogurt/ any flavoured yogurt will work too
4 ripe bananas mashed
5 tbs melted butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 1/2 cups of flour sifted
4 cloves,
4 cardamom,
1/2 inch cinnamon stick,
 a small piece of nutmeg
- ground together in a spice mill
a handful of almonds- roughly chopped or flakes

Method:

Beat an egg, add in the rest of the liquid ingredients. Mash the bananas and add the flour,sugar, ground spice, almonds, soda and the liquid ingredients and mix well using a wodden spoon. pour into a loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 60 mins.

Hummus without tahini

Here a quick hummus ...........

2 cups of cooked chickpeas
1 tsp cumin
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 tbs of lemon juice
pepper and salt to taste
1/2-1/3 cup of water

Grind all to a paste adding 4-5 tbs olive oil. Before serving add more olive oil and olives. This is a nutritious dip for veggies. My kids love it with baby carrots and pita or tortillas or crackers or as a sandwich spread.

If I were a butterfly,I'd thank you God for giving me wings.... is a song we learned in sunday school. Sunday school was wonderful with great songs and dedicated teachers who gladly taught us on Fridays (weekends were Friday and Saturday in U.A.E).

Today I'd like to thank Jojo uncle for all those wonderful songs that he taught, that I cherish from my childhood. Jojo uncle made it special by teaching action songs, making us stand and clap our hands and dance and really get involved. I can close my eyes and still hear the energetic songs of the Abu-Dhabi Sunday School children -" I'm so happy, so very happy I've got the love of Jesus in my heart..........."

Wish I could be a child again and sing along...........

The perfect UPUMAVU-" salt mango tree"

Hi,

I'm disappointed that no one has left any comments on my blog.Wonder if any body even read it. But I guess now that I've started blogging I'll continue doing so.

I wanted to use my space to thank people who have touched my life and helped me to grow in my life.
When I thought about it, the first name that came to my mind was my teacher- Mrs.  J Sheshan. I just remember how interesting and exciting her classes were. She made the English period come alive with wonderful stories from her childhood. she took extra effort to coach us at home for our public exam and would offer us omlettes and say that cooking was not her forte. she would alway say to 'keep it simple'.

If you ever read this blog Jyothi M'am- Just wanted to tell you a big thank you for making lessons fun and lively.I treasured the corrections and the notes you wrote in my notebook and kept it for my sisters to study, I even showed off my answer sheets that you had marked to my husband!! Thank you dear teacher.

I'll also share my upma recepie here-  v simple, also called UPUMAVU, literally translated as salt mango tree by Mohanlal in one of his best movies.

I call it my perfect Upma because I follwed my husband's method and it came out well and I was able to recreate it again.

Rava/Semolina - 1 cup dry roasted
water - 1.5 cup approx.
green chillies-3 nos. slit lengthwise
ginger - 1/2 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
coconut grated-2 tbs
curry leaf - few leaves
butter/ghee- 1/2 tbs
oil- 1 tbs
chopped medium sized onion - 1 no.
salt to taste

Method

Heat oil and butter in a non stick wok, splutter mustard, add curry leaves and ginger, add chopped onion and coconut and saute till the onion is translucent and starting to brown. Add a fistful of cashewnuts if you like and add the water and let it boil with salt, add rava and mix in well. Lower the heat and let it cook for a min with a lid. Serve after breaking the lumps. The rava should be roasted and the water should be boiling for that perfect upma thats soft and tasty.

Try out this easy and quick recepie and send in your comments............