Strawberry Banana Summer blast

Strawberry shake is a perfect drink for this hot summer and the combination with banana boosts our energy levels up and keep us more active. Its an easy to prepare drink which can be made on the go for your rocking summer days.



Nutrients
Strawberries are the most powerful antioxidants. It may help you fight cancer, heart and brain diseases. Rice source of Vitamin C and dietary fiber. Whereas banana in other hand is the best source of Potassium, maintains blood pressure and reduce ulcer.

Ingredients

1. Strawberry - 1 cup
2. Banana - 1
3. Low fat/fat free milk - 2 cups
4. Sugar - 1/2 cup(follow your sweet craving)
5. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp(optional)

Method

1. Cut strawberrys and bananans.
2. Mix strawberry, banana, sugar, vanilla essence along with milk in a blender.
3. Add crushed ice if you wish.

Drink up and bring back your energy levels up this morning...

Vegetable Kuruma

One of the South Indian favorite dish is Parota and Kuruma..Parota and Kuruma is the deadly combination which can never be beaten by any other means. In Chennai restaurants(from Saravana Bhavan to road side hotels), this will be the most demanding and consuming dish for dinner. Coconut milk mixed with oil and spices gives this great flavor and aroma...We have this as a 'must' order whenever we go out during weekends in Chennai...As I keep writing, it reminds me the fresh and everlasting memories of our weekend fun in Chennai...What else can be best other than spending the evening time in beach by watching the sun set in the sea which is mind relaxing and ending the weekend memory with our favorite dish, of course parota with kurma in a beach side restaurant.

Nutrients


Ingredients

1. Onion - 1
2. Tomato - 1
3. Vegetables
1. Beans - 1/4 cup
2. carrot - 1/2
3. cauliflower - 1/4 cup
4. peas - 1/4 cup
4. green chillies - 3-4
5. Red bell pepper - 1/4
6. red chilli powder- 1/2 tbsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tbsp
8. Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
9. Garam masala powder - 1/2 tbsp
10. Coconut milk - 1/4 cup
11. Poppy seeds - 1 tbsp
12. Fennel seeds - 1 tbsp
13. Ginger - 1/2 ""
14. Garlic - 3-4 pods
15. Coconut - 2 tbsp(grated)
16. Oil - 4 tbsp
17. Seasoning items
1. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
2. Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
18. Coriander leaves - to garnish

Method

1. Grind poppy seeds, Fennel seeds, Coconut, Green chillies, Ginger and garlic in a mixer
2. Microwave the vegetables for 3 mts with water sprinkled on top for faster cooking
3. Heat oil in a pan and add seasoning items
4. Add green chillies and bell peppers and fry till the raw color changes
5. Add onions and salt to help onions for producing the glaze finish.
6. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala powder and coriander powder to the boiling mixture and mix it well
7. Soon after, add the microwaved vegetables, coconut milk and water
8. Add the grinded mixture and boil 5-10 mts for the mixture to blend
9. Garnish with coriander leaves

Relax your hectic weekday with this tasty dinner recipe

Vegetable pakoda

Its Friday and summer has arrived in East coast(atlast) and sun is showering his grace finally ...Fridays are always celebration time as the weekend starts(though it requires a lot of planning and prepation of next week) and mind refreshing. Enjoy the mind blowing freshness with yummy and spicy vegetable pakoda

Ingredients
No of persons - 3

1. Beans - 1/4 cup
2. Carrot - 1/2
3. Red pepper - 1/4
4. Egg plant - 1
5. Onion - 1/2
6. Lettuce - 1/2 cup
7. Gram flour - 1 cup
8. Rice flour - 1/2 cup
9. Pepper - 1 tbsp
10. Salt - as needed

Method

1. Fry all vegetables with oil in medium flame till it is cooked fully
2. Mix gram flour, rice flour, salt and pepper
3. Stir the cooked vegetables into the flour mix and sprinkle water for the mixture to hold
4. Make small balls of the vegetable mixture with hand
5. Fry oil in a pan and fry the veggie balls in a very medium flame for the inner ball mixture to get fried thorougly

Tip:
Frying in medium flame is very important for frying the dal mixture

Banana Almond Raisin Bread

Banana is the most widely consumed fruit in the world and its grown in 107 countries. It can also be called as festive and divine fruit in India as it can be seen in all Indian festivals and gatherings. It is the most common fruit in all Indian poojas and served as 'prashadam'(gods offering). Its an Indian tradition that bananas will be offered to guests because of its divine nature). Its the last day of memorial day long weekend and its time to wave bye-bye to our friends and relatives. As an Indian tradition, we want to sweeten the day with banana taste. It came out very well and the long weekend ended up with good memories.

Ingredients

1. Self raising flour - 1 1/2 cup
2. Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
3. Almond - 4 tbsp
4. Raisin - 4 tbsp
5. Banana - 2(large)
6. Egg - 1(whole)
7. Brown sugar - 1 cup
8. Butter (unsalted) - 4 tbsp
9. Milk - 2 tbsp
10. Poppy seeds - 1 tbsp(optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Mix self raising flour, baking soda, almond and raisins in a bowl
3. Mash banana and liquefy with milk
4. Beat eggs with sugar thoroughly for 2-3 mts till the mixture becomes plump and blend it with butter
5. Pour the wet ingredients and banana to the flour mixture and blend till it mixes well
6. Gently sift the poppy seeds
7. Coat liberally the 9x9 inch cake pan with baking spray
8. Pour the mixture on the cake pan and bake first for 40 mts
9. Once it is over, again bake for 10-12 mts to get firm and crispy texture.

Serve it with tea and get a good applause for introducing a yummy banana recipe

Choclate Muffin

Almost all kids are fond of choclates and choclate flavor and also adults. Since this weekend is the memorial day weekend and we have choclate loving guests, we have to try out this choclate recipe leaving behind low calories and fat for a while. This yummy recipe would be all time favorite for the people who enjoy the divine flavor of choclate with cocoa and sweetness together. Once in while you can treat yourself with these recipes. Here you gooooooooooooo

Ingredients
No of muffins : 5

1. Self raising flour - 1 1/2 cup
2. Choclate syrup - 3 tbsp
3. baking soda - 1/2 tsp
4. Sugar - 1/2 cup
5. Whole Egg - 1
6. Oil - 2 tbsp
7. Milk(low fat) - 4 tbsp

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Mix all dry ingredients(flour, baking soda, sugar) in a bowl
3. Whisk the egg with sugar and milk for 2 mts with no lumps.. Blend till the mixture becomes fluffy and it raises 2-3 times of quantity.
4. Blend the mixture to the dry flour ingredient
5. Grease muffin pans with baking spray and fill 3/4 of the cup leaving space for the muffin to raise
6. Bake for 18-20 mts and cool in the rack for 15 mts

Enjoy the real yummy taste of choclate in muffin

Oat Blueberry Muffins

Maintaining health is very essential to live a longer life and amount of calories intake form the base for the balanced life. Wherever you search, may be internet or physician advice, the one and only mantra to lose weight is the amount of calories consumed daily should be less than the calories burnt. Modern world has introduced laziness and made our life easy. With new inventions, daily activities are substantially reduced which gives us an option to work on low fat calorie food. But that doesnt mean we have to trade our taste to health. Heres a low fat calorie food with no egg yolks or butter..and with a main cholesterol reducing ingredient, Oats...This eggless version still tastes great and enjoy this delicious reccipe with no guilt

Ingredients No of Muffins - 5

1. Self raising flour - 3/4 cup
2. Oats - 1 1/4 cup
3. baking soda - 1/2 tsp
4. Eggs - 2 (white)
5. Oil - 4 tbsp(1/3 cup)
6. Milk(Low fat ) - 1/2 cup
7. Sugar - 1/2 cup
8. Blueberries - 1/2 cup

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Mix all dry ingredients(flour, oats, baking soda) and sugar in a bowl
3. Whisk the egg whites with oil and milk for 2 mts. You can also use the egg whites which is available in all retail stores like Walmart, Jewel if you dont want to waste the whole egg yolk
4. Blend the wet ingredients to the dry flour mixture and make it a batter. Do NOT over mix the batter which would make the muffins/cake dry
5. Gently sift the blueberries into the mixture
6. Grease muffin pan and fill 3/4 cup(make space for muffins to become fluffy
7. Bake for 18-20 mts

Start your weekend with these lowfat blueberry muffins and enjoy the weekend.

Tips
1. Grease the mufin pan liberally with baking spray.
2. Baking soda is the main ingredient for fluffiness
3. Over mixing batter will lead to dryness.

Pears Cranberry Cake

This is the first and foremost baking recipe which has got a applause and we really loved its taste. Though we have been trying different types of baking recipes, nothing came out so good (huh, now you know the reason why there are no new much updates here) . the main reason is because we are not buttery/cheesy people who can even starve instead of having the raw cheese. Most of the baking recipes have butter as ingredient and it calls for 1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter...and our hands never pull more than a spoon of butter which results in negative experience...But we love to have cakes and cookies without thinking about cups of butter and sugar ingredients...:))))..But this is exceptional as it doesnt contain any butter and of course low fat and healthy.

But we will keep trying baking recipes and try to get the best out of it..We have tried almost 10-15 baking recipes and this is the best among them and it tasted very good and healthy too...so posting this recipe to spread the goodness and healthiness

Ingredients

1. Pears - 1 (cut into small chunks)
2. Self raising flour - 3/4 cup
3. Wheat flour - 1/4 cup
4. Brown sugar - 1/2 cup
5. Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
6. Egg - 1(whites or whole depending on your preference)
7. Vanilla essence -1 tbsp
8. Olive oil - 1 1/2 tbsp
9. Cranberry - 1/4 cup(to sprinkle)
10. Yogurt - 1/2 cup

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F and coat the cake pan with butter spray
2. Mix self raising flour and wheat flour in a bowl
3. Whisk brown sugar, olive oil, egg whites and baking soda...
4. Add yogurt and vanilla essence and stir well.
5. Stir the pears to the sugary mixture
6. Pour it to the flour mixture and beat till it blends well (blend till it gets desired consistency).
7. Spread the mixture in cake pan and sprinkle with cranberries(almonds, pista can be added as a subsititute).
8. Bake for 30 mts and cool in the oven rack for 10-15 mts
9. Enjoy the peary taste in cake...