Healthy Halloween Snacks

Halloween is long gone, I did not get to post these snacks I had made that day...but better late than never. Saw these on the internet, they were so cute and easy. I simply had to make them, though I knew the kids (including my daughter) would go for the candies rather than these "healthy" snacks. But it gave me some satisfaction that they had some healthy stuff inside them before going treat-or-treating and stuffing themselves with the candies.

Carrot Witch Fingers with Sliced Almond Nails stuck on with a dab of cream cheese

Banana and drizzled white chocolate ghosts with raisins for eyes and mouth

Cheese stick Witch fingers with green bell pepper nails

Dahi Bhaath

This is my take on a much-loved recipe. Made this yesterday to have before N's Bharatnatyam performance. She was super excited and I was super nervous as it was my first time with all the traditional hair styling, make-up, jewelry and costume. This is a calming, soothing recipe. Before I get on to that, however, here is a picture of N with her teacher (and her teacher's daughter).

Here's how I made the Dahi Bhaath:

1 cup cooked rice
1 cup yogurt
Tempering - 2 tsp ghee, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1/4 tsp cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp udad dal, 1 green chilli - chopped, 1 dry red chilli - broken, 1/2 tsp grated ginger, few curry leaves
Salt & Sugar to taste
handful of grated carrots, finely chopped cucumber, chopped cilantro

Make the tempering and add to rice. Mix in the yogurt, salt, sugar, grated carrots, cucumbers and cilantro.

Serve with potato chips or papad, pickles etc.

Alu - Methi Subji

This recipe is courtesy of my good friend Sowmya, an excellent home cook and an extremely hospitable person. It can be made with just kasuri methi or fresh methi, I had a bunch of fresh methi on hand, so I used that. Here's how I made it:

1 bag of baby potatoes (contains abt. 20 - 25)

1 bunch fresh methi - only leaves to be used

3 tsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 tsp turmeric pwd

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

2 tsp coriander pwd

2 tsp cumin pwd

1 to 2 tsp red chilli pwd

1 tbsp kasoori methi - crushed (increase if not using fresh methi leaves)

Salt and sugar to taste

Boil the potatoes in pressure cooker for 1 or 2 whistles, they should be cooked but remain firm. When cool, peel and keep aside. If potatoes are not baby-sized, you can chop them too.

Heat the oil in a large wok, add the mustard and cumin seeds. When they stop spluttering add the chopped onions and fry till softened. Add the ginger and garlic pastes and fry another few mins. Then add the methi leaves, cover and cook on medium low heat for 10 mins. You can use a few tbsp water to avoid burning. Then add the kasoori methi, turmeric ,coriander pwd, cumin pwd and red chilli powder. After 5 mins add the boiled and peeled baby potatoes and salt and sugar to taste. Cover and cook on medium heat for 10 mins, stirring in between to make sure all potatoes are well coated with the methi-onion-spice mix. Add few drops of oil as they are cooking and let some of the potatoes get slightly golden-brown to give a nice crunch.

Serve warm with rotis or rice.

Tortilla Lasagna

This is a kind of fusion recipe that I've adapted from one I came across on Youtube. Makes for an easy and filling meal.

Here's how I made this Tortilla Lasagna:

First for the sauce - Fry 1/2 cup chopped onions in 2 tsp oil till they soften. Add 1 cup of chopped mushrooms and fry on medium high heat till they brown. Add 1 clove of chopped garlic and fry for a min. Add 1 cup frozen or fresh chopped spinach, I've used frozen in the above picture. Fry for 5 mins. Add upto 2 cups of salsa or diced tomatoes or a combination thereof. I've used 1 cup salsa and 1 cup canned diced tomatoes. Add also 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed well. Simmer this sauce for 5 mins. Add additional spices if desired - I like to add a little of onion pwd, garlic pwd and a good amt of cumin pwd and paprika.

To assemble the tortilla lasagna - Lightly grease a round cake pan. Arrange 2 tortillas in the bottom. Spread 1/3 of the sauce, top with some shredded Mexican cheese blend, one tortilla, 1/3 sauce, cheese, another tortilla, remaining sauce, more cheese. Lastly top with 2 more tortillas and some cheese. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 30 mins until top in slightly browned.

Let cool for 5 mins. Top with finely chopped cilantro and/or green onions, cut into wedges and serve.

This tastes good the next day for lunch box also.

Strawberry Sheera and Blueberry Sheera

Happy Dassra everyone. I made these today to celebrate the festival. This is the first time I tried both. A friend had recently mentioned having eaten strawberry sheera. So as I was racking my brains deciding what sweet to make for today, this suddenly came back. After doing some research online, I decided to try both kinds since I had a box of both berries.

Here's how I made the Strawberry Sheera:

3/4 cup medium rava/semolina/sooji
1/2 cup ghee/clarified butter
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup strawberry puree
2 tsp sweetened condensed milk
1/4 tsp cardamon pwd
Few strawberries and nuts to garnish

First, melt the ghee in a large wok. Add the rava and fry on medium low heat for abt 15 mins till fragrant.

In the meanwhile warm the milk up in the microwave. Add to the roasted rava. Puree about 12 medium sized strawberries. If you wish you can strain the puree, but I did not do this and the end product was still smooth, with excellent flavor of the strawberry puree.

Add the strawberry puree when the milk has been absorbed in the rava.

Add the sugar, mix well. My strawberries were not very sweet, hence I added sugar equal to quantity of rava. Rava will loosen at this point. Keeping cooking on medium low heat, it will thicken up again. Add the condensed milk and cardamon pwd. Mix again. Cook, stirring occasionally till the ghee starts leaving the sides of the pan. I wanted to make this sheera into wadis or barfi like pieces, so I cooked additional 10 mins.

Then spread the mix onto a greased thali.

Mark the desired shapes on the spread sheera...

....and garnish with fresh strawberries. Let cool completely, keep in the fridge if weather is warm. When cool/chilled, cut completely and remove each individual piece.

I followed the same procedure for the blueberry sheera, but I did strain the blueberry puree. Also, I did not shape these into wadis/burfis.

Here, my strawberry and blueberry sheera is ready to be distributed to friends.

Brown rice, quinoa, moong pulav

I made this pulav for a potluck at my yoga teacher's place. It was well appreciated, hence thought of posting.

I cooked the brown rice and quinoa together in the pressure cooker for 2 whistles. I sprouted the moong beans for abt 2 days. To make the pulav, I heated little olive oil in a wok, added cumin seeds and fried them for a minute. Then added some chopped onions and fried them for 5 mins. Next went in some chopped tomatoes which I cooked down a bit for abt 5 mins. I added frozen mix vegetables and again cooked it all for 5 mins. Then I added the sprouted moong, grated ginger, garlic paste, cumin pwd, coriander pwd, pav bhaji masala, little garam masala pwd and kitchen king masala pwd. Gave it all a good stir and cooked it covered till the veggies were cooked. Then mixed in the cooked and cooled brown rice and quinoa, salt and sugar. Gently folded it in with the veggies and steamed for a few mins on low heat. That's it. Garnished with some chopped cilantro.

The moong beans give it a good little crunch, in addition to being super healthy.

Dates and Almond Kheer

Made this for Shri Krishna Janmashthami last week. This is a very simple and tasty dessert. The sweetness of the dates makes it unnecessary to add sugar, making it a good alternative for those watching their sugar intake. As I was making it as a "prasad", I did add a little bit of sugar, but it tastes great without any at all too.

Here's how I make it:

12 pitted dates - chop by hand or in a food processor
12 almonds
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp crushed cardamon pwd
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)

Soak the chopped dates and almonds in 1/2 cup milk for 2 -3 hours. Then grind together in a mixer to a smooth consistency. Add the remaining milk and gently heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Take off heat and add the cardamon pwd.

Serve hot by itself or with poories.

 I like to have this kheer (pudding) fairly hot, but if you choose you can make it in the consistency of a milk shake and drink it cold too.