Corn and Potato Stuffed sandwich

This corn and potato stuffing can be used as stuffing for literally any bread type. Or can be used just as a side dish. I made them into sandwiches yesterday. Between Saturday classes for my son, many times they come back late in the afternoon. I don't want them to skip their lunch, so I pack something to go. Sunny boy loves these sandwiches. I add almost any kind of side dishes in it and make it to go. This particular corn and potato mix goes so well for Quesadilla's too. And includes a surprise buttery taste! Thanks to Avocadoes in it. J

Ingredients:
Onion - 1 medium size - Chopped fine
Garlic - 3 pods - finely chopped
Potato - 2 medium - About a cup, when chopped fine
Tomato - 2 medium - Cubed
Corn - 1 1/2 cup
Avocado  (Optional) - 1 , De-seeded and mashed
Chili powder - 1/2 tsp.
Garam Masala - 1 tsp.
Oil - 1 tsp.
Salt to taste

For bread sandwich -
Whole wheat Bread slices – At least 2
Cheese singles - 1 for each set of sandwich

Method of Preparation:
~ Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onion. Fry till they turn translucent.
~ Add potatoes and garlic and roast them for some time.
~ Add tomatoes and about a tbsp. of water, cover and cook until potatoes are done.
~ Add chili powder and garam masala. Mix well.
~ Microwave the corn for 2 or 3 minutes and add it to other veggie mix.
~ Continue to cook for about 3 or 4 minutes.
~ Now add mashed avocado and salt to taste and mix them well.

~ To make sandwich, butter one side of the bread, place it on a pan or a sandwich maker.
~ Top it with cheese singles, and spoon in some corn and potato mix, cover with another slice of bread.

~ To make Quesadilla’s, place a tortilla on a hot pan, top it with corn & potato mix, top half of the side with some shredded cheese. Cover with another side. Cut in wedges and serve with some sour cream.

Linking this to my event Bon Vivant #2- Savory Moments

Resh's Comfort Food, 
let's cook speedy snacks,
lunch box ideas at chandrani's cuisine delights
tea time @ charu's
Evening Snacks @Sameena

Aloo methi ki sabzi / Potatoes with Fenugreek

This Aloo Methi recipe has been our family favorite since I saw this on my friend Thanu's blog. It's a MP style of preparation which I had never had before. With simple ingredients and healthy fenugreek leaves in them you cannot go wrong with the flvour. Please visit Thanu for her original recipe. Here is my tweaked version.

Prep Time: 20 min (Mostly picking and cleaning the fenugreek leaves) | Cooking Time: 20 min. | Serves: 4


Ingredients:

- Potatoes - 3 to 4.
- Fenugreek leaves (Methi) - One big bunch
- Garlic - 4 pods
- Red Chili powder - 1 tbsp.
- Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
- Oil - 1 tbsp.
- Salt to taste

Method of Preparation:

~ Pick fenugreek leaves, wash them under running water and keep it soaked in a big container full of water (so that any dirt will go down and the leaves will stay up.
~ Peel the potatoes, wash and cut them into small cubes. Soak it in water until ready to use.
~ Take the methi leaves out and chop them up coarsely.
~ Heat oil on low flame in a pan. Add chopped garlic and fry till aromatic.
~ Add chili and turmeric powder and fry for few seconds.
~ Add methi and potatoes. Mix the content really well.
~ Continue to stir fry on medium heat till the water is dried up. Do not cover the pan.
~ Add salt and cook until potatoes are done.

Sending this to my event Bon Vivant #2- Savory Moments

Also to Radhika's Let's Cook - Green, 
Anu's  SYF&HWS - Fenugreek hosted at Vardhini's
Denny's  Serve it - Stir-Fried hosted at Krithi's
Sravani's CC-Vegan Diet - ONly plant based
Rosh's Gimme Green
Sangeetha's Show Me your Hits - Fiber Rich
Resh's Comfort Food
Ayeesha's Healthy Morsels

Pizza Sauce

With my Pizza Muffin Bread I had written that I will post the Pizza Sauce recipe soon. So here it is. It's very simple and quick to make. Usually I put it on top of pizza base and add desired toppings on it. This time I used it as dipping sauce for delicious savory muffins.

Prep Time: 2 min| Cooking Time: 10 min| Makes: About 1 to 1½ cups

Ingredients:
Tomato Paste – 1 can (Or you can use ketchup)
Onion flakes - 1 tbsp.
Garlic - 4 pods minced
Italian seasoning - 1 tsp.
Chili powder - 1/4 tsp.
Olive oil - 1 tsp.
Water as required
Salt to taste

Method of Preparation:

~  In a small pan heat oil, roast garlic for a minute.
~ Add dried onion flakes, tomato paste and add water as required to make a thin paste.
~ Once it comes to a first boil, add Italian herbs, chili powder and salt.
~ Keep stirring until sauce thickens and desired consistency is achieved.
~ Serve it with pizza muffins, bread sticks, use it on pizza base or top it on spaghetti/ pasta.

Pizza Muffin Bread

Have you heard of pizza muffins. Pizza yes, muffins yes.. but them together? Interesting right? I might have seen something similar savory bread, but hadn't tasted it. So when I saw this on my blog hop partner Rajani's of My Kitchen Trials I wanted to try that. It looked really soft and spongy. Verdict! They came out really nice. House smelled like baking a pizza, it tasted like a pizza only it was shaped like a muffin. They were quite filling and satisfying.

I made quite a few changes, baked it eggless with more veggies and multigrain flour. It was denser than her version of recipe, which was expected coz of the multigrain flour. Also, these can be put in a bread pan and be made into bread loaf. I prepared my usual pizza sauce to go with these. And they matched perfectly!! Here is a rundown on the recipe.

Prep Time: 15 min| Cooking Time: 30 min| Makes: 12 Muffins

Ingredients:

Flour - 2 cups ( I used 1 - multigrain and 1 - AP flour)
Baking Powder - 2 tsp.
Baking Soda – ½  tsp.
Yogurt – ½ cup
Cheese - 1 cup (I used Mozzarella)
Italian seasoning - 1 tsp.
Olive Oil - 2 tbsp.
Onion - 1 medium - Finely chopped
Tomato - 2 small - cubed
Bell Pepper - 1/2 - Cubed
Spinach - 1 cup - Washed & chopped
Salt - 1 tsp.
Water - 1 cup



All veggies ready to be mixed

Pizza dough ready


Method of Preparation:

~ Preheat the oven to 400 deg. Fahrenheit.
~ Spray/ Grease 12 cup muffin tray. I used olive oil spray so that the taste is not altered.
~ Heat a pan and with little or no oil fry onion and capsicum.
~ When they are little soft, switch off the heat. Add spinach, tomatoes, salt and Italian herbs.
~ In a big bowl, sieve flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add cheese, yogurt, olive oil and the vegetable mix.
~ Add water and gently mix everything together.
~ Now using an ice-cream scooper or a big ladle, spoon into prepared muffin tin.
~ Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.
~ Serve these yummy savory muffins with pizza sauce or ketchup.

Check out my previous blog hop entries…

These are cooked up to go for Radhika of Tickling Palates blog hop event.

I am also delighted to share this to below events,

Bon Vivant #2 - Savory Items going on right now at my space

Radhika's two event's I love Baking and Let's Cook - Greens,

Vardhini's Bake Fest hosted at Sizzling Tastebuds,

Resh's Comfort Food

GirliChef's Bring Your Own Bread event

Chandrani's Lunchbox Ideas for original Spotlight event

tea time @ charu's

Colorful Cake Pops

My kiddos love cake pops. I thought of making them for my little ones birthday to surprise her. I didn’t know how much work they were. Angie Dudley of Bakerella was the first one to create these and now many bakeries offer them. There are numerous videos of her showing how to do simple cake pops. I thought it was pretty straight forward and got to work.

They turned out pretty good. My DS was the first one to get home and see them. He was very excited. After he had a bite he said, “Mamma, they are like the ones that we get at Starbucks” I asked him, “Which one do you like better?” **Trick question to any guy**. He slowly said, “I like these ones, coz they are homemade and tastes better”. **Ding ding ding. Correct answer!! I have a ladies man in the making **

As for the birthday girl, when I told her I made them to celebrate her birthday, she first made sure that she is also getting a cake for her party and then hugged me to say “thank you for the cake pops mommy. I love them”. Awww, they made my day!!!

Prep Time: 30 min. | Cooking Time: 45 min. | Resting time: About 2 hrs. | Yields: 50 cake pops.

Ingredients:

Sponge Cake Mix (9X12 pan) – I used strawberry cake mix

Frosting – 8 oz – Used store bought        

Chocolate Bars/ Almond Bars

Paper Treat Sticks

Sprinkles

Foam blocks wrapped in plastic wraps (so you don’t get them onto your cake pops)



Check out the strawberry cake inside!


Method of Preparation:

~ Prepare a simple sponge cake. If using a cake mix, prepare according to directions on the box.

~ Let it completely cool before you move on to next step.

~ Crumble cake in a large bowl. Add frosting and mix them well to form dough. Do not knead; just mixing them together is good enough.

~ Cover the mix and put it in the refrigerator to chill for about an hour.

~ Take the dough out, make small balls out of it and put them on a wax paper.

Strawberry Sponge Cake

Cake crumbled up

   

Mixed up with Frosting



Cake balls rolled up

  

~ Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in microwave.

~ Dip the stick edge into chocolate and then poke them into the cake ball. Do not push in all the way.

~ Do this to all the cake balls.

~ Now start dunking them all the way into the melted chocolate. Coat it completely and take it out. Tap gently to remove excess.

~ Top it with sprinkles or any kind of decoration you want.

~ Poke it on top of foam and let it dry. Repeat this for all cake balls.

~ It usually will dry in about an hour.

~ Wrap them individually if needed

Sending these lovely treats to Vardhini's Bake Fest hosted at Sizzling Tastebuds,

Anusha's Summer Spirits, Rasi's I'm The Star, Preeti's Color N Sweet, Surabhi's Holi Hai, Anjali's Cakes, Cookies & Desserts, Indrani's Colorful Holi hosted at Chandrani's, Amy's Decorating Challenge and Radhika's I love Baking event.

Roasted Baby Potatoes

I recently caught a glimpse of baby red potatoes getting roasted beautifully in a pan on Giada's show on food network. Potatoes are my favorite and that glimpse of it was enough for me to try my own version. I eyed tiny yellow baby potatoes at Trader Joe's and I jumped for them. Below is the recipe that I treated to myself I think. Though my kids and DH loved it, I kept nibbling on it throughout the process and half of it was gone by the time it made it to the dining table. :o). Try these and believe me, you won't regret it.

Prep Time: 1 min | Cooking Time: 15 min. | Serves: (Depends) - 2 to 4 :o)

Ingredients:

Baby Potatoes - 1 lb/ 400gm

Garlic - 3 or 4 cloves, crushed

Rosemary - Fresh or Dried - 1 tsp.

Chili Powder/ Pepper - 1/2 tsp.

Olive Oil - 1 tsp.

Salt to taste

Method of Preparation:

~ Bring a pot of water to boil. Add salt and washed baby potatoes.

~ Cook on high for about 7 to 10 minutes until potatoes get JUST tender. You can make out the potatoes almost cooked when there is froth begins to appear. Switch off and close with a lid.
~ Meanwhile, in a wide roasting pan, heat olive oil.
~ Add crushed garlic, rosemary and chili powder. Roast for few seconds until the raw smell of garlic and chili powder is gone.
~ Drain the water from potatoes, gently press each potato with a spoon to slightly crush it and add it to the roasting pan.
~ Coat all the potatoes gently and continue to roast while tossing them for about 5 minutes.
~ Serve them hot as a savory snack or side for baked fish or grilled chicken.

Notes:
~ You can bake these instead of boiling. Just combine all the ingredients with potatoes, pierce with fork and put it in the oven for 30 to 40 mins at 350 deg F.
Linking these up for my event "Bon Vivant #2 - Savory Items"

And also to Resh's Comfort Food, Nayna's Let's Cook Speedy Snacks, Rasi's I am the Star events

Roundup - Bon Vivant #1 Sweet Moments

First of all a big thank you to all who participated in my event and to all those who constantly kept encouraging me. There were one hundred and three entries! It's just amazing how much energy we all put into to making each moment sweeter for the ones whom we love. There were cakes, pastries, breads, muffins, authentic Indian desserts; you name it and it's there in the roundup.

If you want are wondering how to get hold of all these recipes, you are one click away to download all the links from here -> Bon Vivant #1 - Sweets Roundup.

Thank you all once again and without any further delay I present you this culinary sweet spread on Linkz!