Bon Vivant #4 - Fruit Recipes

I am excited about this month's theme, which is very simple, "Fruits Recipes". Create a dish with a fruit as one of the main ingredient. I am looking for recipes with fresh fruits or canned fruit or pulp or frozen fruit. Fruit can be raw or ripened. No dried fruits though. Did you know most of the dried fruit have high sugar in them compared to their non-dried version? Also, you tend to eat them more, since they are shrunk to tiny bit from their original sizes. But dry fruits can be an addition, but not as a main ingredient. It can be for any course of the meal. So get those creative juices flowing. 

Rules for the event :

~ Multiple entries are allowed. Usage of the logo is a must.
~ Linking back to this announcement page is mandatory to get the word out.
~ Vegetarian and non-vegetarian recipes are allowed. No pork or beef ingredients please.
~ Blog post should be in month of May.
~ Two old posts are allowed, if re-posted again in May.
~ Please link up your post using the linkz below. In case of any problem linking please send me an email with your name, recipe name, recipe click and url to sumeesculinary@gmail.com
~ Non-bloggers can email the recipe along with a picture of the dish to the above email address.

Crispy Onion Uttappa / Onion pancakes

This is one of DH's favorite breakfasts in the whole wide world I think. Even if I serve him for lunch, dinner he loves it. In fact there are days when I am in hurry to prepare dinner he suggests making these. My DS loves anything onion. So these crispy Uttappa's are his favorites too. Since my little one scoffs at anything inside her plain Dosa (pancakes), plain ones for her! Here is a rundown on this easy to make Onion Uttappa's.

Prep Time: 5 min | Cooking Time: 3 to 5 min for each| Makes about 6

Ingredients:

Dosa batter - 3 cups

Onion - 1-1/2 cup - Finely chopped

Green Chili - 1 - Finely chopped

Ginger - lime size - Finely Grated

Coriander/ Cilantro leaves - 2 or 3 springs - Finely chopped

Salt to taste

Method of Preparation:

~ Mix all the vegetables with salt. Add it to the dosa batter.

~ Heat and grease a thick pan. When it's hot enough, pour two ladle of batter.

~ Slowly in circular motion spread the batter to make a bigger circle.

~ Cover and cook for about 2 minutes.

~ Open, flip it over and gently press down throughout the Uttappa.

~ Wait for a minute or so, and remove from the pan.

~ Serve it hot topped with ghee, and a side of Sambhar or Chutney.

Linking this to my Bon Vivant #3 - Breakfast Ideas

Also linking this to Divya's Let's Party - Breakfast and Showcase - What's in your lunchbox? events
Chandrani's Spotlight - Healthy Breakfast

Brunswick Chicken Stew

A Chicken stew picture and name caught my attention while I was reading news. When I looked the method it seemed like a one pot meal. This stew is basically meat with lot of vegetables in it. You may say then it is soup, why call it stew. The difference is stew is much thicker than the soup. It's usually eaten with bread or with rice. It's famous in southern part of US. Original recipe called for squirrels or rabbits it seems! :o) From the original recipe I adapted to make it little more Indianized. It turned out great, it's going to be my one pot meal savior! Its power packed with proteins, vitamins and minerals.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cooking Time: 45 min| Serves: 4

Adapted from - My Recipes

Ingredients:

Bell pepper - 1 cup chopped

Onion - 1 cup chopped

Green Spring Onions - 4 springs - Chopped

Olive Oil - 1 tbsp.

All-Purpose Flour - 1 tbsp.

Chicken - 1 lb - cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Water - 2 cups (You can use veggie or chicken broth)

Canned Tomato - 8 oz.

Dried Thyme - 1 tsp.

Chili powder - 2 tsp.

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp.

Garam masala - 1/2 tsp. (substitute with pepper)

Corn - 1 cup (I used Frozen corn, thawed)

Baby Lima Beans - 1 cup (I used Frozen, thawed)

Garlic - 2 cloves (mined)

Lime juice - 1 tsp.

Salt to taste

Method of Preparation:

~ Heat little oil in a wide pan and add bell pepper, stem portion of green onions and onion. Cook for 5 minutes.

~ Clean chicken. Combine flour and chicken in a bowl. Toss it to coat well.

~ Add the remaining oil and chicken to the pan. Roast chicken for 5 minutes until they are lightly browned.

~ Add water or broth and bring it to a boil. The gravy will start thickening. Takes about 15 to 20 minutes

~ Add tomato, thyme, chili powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. Mix them well for a minute.

~ Now add corn, lima beans and garlic. Add salt to taste. Cover and simmer for another 15 minutes.

~ Switch off the heat, add lime juice and top it with remaining green onion spring.

~ Serve it with garlic bread or on top of bed of rice.

Linking this to My Spicy Kitchen's "Chicken Feat" Event

Orange Marmalade

I had quite a few cutie oranges (small oranges) sitting on my counter top with no takers. They were little sour so instead of throwing them one by one, I prepared this orange marmalade. It's Alton Brown's recipe from food network. I modified to keep the sugar low.

Prep Time: 10 min| Cooking Time: About 1 and 1/2 hour | Makes: About 9 cups

Ingredients:

Oranges - About 10 to 12 Cutie oranges

Lime juice and it's Zest - 1 lime.

Sugar - 2 cups

Water

Salt - 1/4 tsp.

Method of Preparation:

~ Wash and clean oranges and lemon thoroughly. Chop the oranges in thin circles. In a big pot add orange slices, lime zest, lime juice, salt and water to cover them.

~ Bring them to boil on high. Reduce and keep it high enough for it to simmer. Simmer for about 45 minutes.

~ Now the quantity should be reduced to 2/3rd. Add sugar, mix it well and continue to cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.

~ Check if it's thick enough and remove from heat. Let it cool. I usually let it cool overnight.

~ Store it in clean glass jars with tight lid. Once opened store it in refrigerator.

~ These can be used to spruce up toast in the morning.

Sending this to my event Bon Vivant #3 - Breakfast Ideas. Enjoy the spread.

Also sending this to,
Kalyani's Pickles & Preserves Fest
Srivalli’s Kids Delight  - Fruits hosted at UK Rasoi

Wholegrain Oatmeal Almond Flaxseed Bars

I have been wanting to make my own breakfast bars for some time now. And kept putting it off for one or the other reason. These that I eventually did try are from Nayna’s Simply Sensational Food. She is my partner for the blog hop this month. I have previously blog hopped her and loved this Coconut Pistachio burfi. She has such a variation of recipe collection, that it was hard to decide on just one to try. But eventually I tried the oatmeal bars with variations. It turned out really nice. Kids loved the chocolate goodness on top. Done once and healthy breakfast is at my fingertips every morning.

These oatmeal bars are packed with nutrients. It’s made from whole grain flour, oatmeal, almonds and last not least flaxseed. Kept sugar to minimum by using brown sugar combined with molasses. Do try these and you will be licking your fingers at last crumble.

Prep Time: 5 mins. | Cooking Time: 5 mins. | Baking Time: 45 mins.

Original recipe here.

Ingredients:

Whole grain flour – 1 Cup

Oatmeal – 1 Cup

Almonds powder (any nuts) – ¾ Cup

Milled Flaxseed – ¼ Cup

Desiccated Coconut – ¼ Cup

Baking soda – ½ tsp.

Salt – ¼ tsp.

Unsalted Butter – ½ Cup / 1 butter stick melted

Molasses – ¼ Cup

Honey - 2 tbsp.

Brown sugar – ¾ Cup

Chocolate chips (optional) – ½ Cup

Method of Preparation:

~ Take a wide mixing bowl. Mix all the first 7 dry ingredients together. The flour, oats, almond powder, flaxseed, desiccated coconut, baking soda, and salt.

~ In a pan add the butter, brown sugar, molasses and honey. Heat them till the sugar melts. It should take about 4 to 5 minutes.

~ Grease a 9X13 inch baking dish. Preheat the oven at 325 degree Fahrenheit/ 160 degree Celsius.

~ Pour this syrup into the dry ingredients slowly and mix with a spoon first since it will be hot. Once you are able to handle, mix it all together and pat it tightly into the greased baking tray.

~ Bake for about 40 ~ 45 minutes.

~ Add the chocolates on top. Cut them into bars. And put them back into the switched off oven for another 10 minutes. I only added them to half of the baked portion for kids.

Notes:

- I powdered almonds to hide them from my kids. You can use any size or bits of nuts as you desire.

- If you would like chocolate chips in all of it, just mix it in the dough before you pack it in.

Check out my previous blog hop entries…

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


Sending this to Bon Vivant - Breakfast Ideas happening at my place.

And also to,
~ Vardhini's event Bake Fest hosted by me.
~ Radhika's I love Baking event
~ Cusine Delight's Lunchbox Ideas started by Recipe Junction
~ Ayeesha's Healthy Morsels - Pregnancy
~ CWS-Oats event by Priya
~ My Culinary Creations Snacks Recipes
~ Only Snacks event by Pari

Vegetable Upma/ Uppittu

Waking to the smell of nice aroma of suji rava roasting and chai was always a delight! Loved to top it with fresh coconut and/ or thin sev. Now that's a past. Here I have to do everything, still I like the roasting of rava anytime. Somehow it's a very pleasant smell for a morning I think. :o).

Upma or Uppittu is one of classic Indian breakfast item. It's made in many different ways. Below is my version of it. Try it with some green coconut chutney too in case thin sev is not there. You will be off to a great start for the day.

Prep Time: 10 min.| Cooking Time: 20 min.| Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Suji Rava - 2 cups

Water - 4 cups

Oil - 1 tsp.

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp.

Chana Daal - 1 tsp.

Urad Daal - 1 tsp.

Green chilies - 3 or 4 - Slit lengthwise

Curry Leaves/ Kadipatta - 1 spring leaves.

Hing – ¼ tsp.

Onion - 1 small (Finely chopped)

Vegetable mix - 1 cup (Optional. can use any variety of vegetables. Like frozen peas, carrots, corn, beans etc.)

Ghee - 1 tbsp. (Optional - I usually put it on plate for kids)

Coconut - 2 tbsp.

Coriander leaves - 2 springs to garnish

Method of Preparation:

~ In a wide pan, roast rava until nice aroma fills the room. Take it out from heat and put it in a plate.

~ Keep water to boil in a separate container.

~ In the same wide pan, now add oil, when hot add, mustard seeds.

~ One it starts spluttering, add chana daal and urad daal. Fry for a minute to roast them nicely.

~ Now add green chilies, kadipatta and hing.

~ Add onion and fry till it is translucent.

~ If using, add all the vegetables. Cook them until they are about to be done.

~ Add boiling water, then rava, mix them thoroughly. Be careful during this process, since boiling water might scald when rava was added.

~ Add ghee, give it all a mix until water is almost dried up.

~ Reduce the heat to low, add coconut, cover and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes.

~ Remove from heat; serve it topped with coriander leaves or some hot spicy sev mix.

Sending this to Bon Vivant - Breakfast Ideas happening at my place.

 

Also sharing this at Srivalli's Kids Delight hosted by Rutuja

Roundup - Bon Vivant #2 Savory Items

Another successful roundup. All credits to my blogger friends who are making it happen. This month's theme I kept it open with Savory. When a definition is not given it is nice to see how each one defines a word in their own way. So when I said savory, I had few things in my mind about what my blogger friends would come up with.! But they went above and beyond my expectations and came up with some great Bon Vivant moments of their own!


Here I present you the culinary spread. A hundred to be precise. Enjoy. And again thanks to all those who participated.

Banana Avocado Breakfast Smoothie

DH and I love Guacamole, so I keep buying Avocado in bulk. Once I came across this recipe on webmd, I wasn't sure how it would turn up. But I thought if I don't like it, am just gonna discard and not try again right? So one morning I tried this smoothie. And when I say I fell in love with it, I am not exaggerating! It was so smooth and creamy, full of flavor.

It's loaded with Potassium, Dietary Fiber, Vitamins C, B6, E, Manganese, Magnesium, folic acid, and last but not least high in Omega-3 Fatty Acids. So what not to love about this! It's so filling that I don't get hungry for next 3 -4 hours. Kids loved the creamy flavor too. So now it’s a regular in my house.

Prep Time: 5 min. | Serves: 1

Ingredients:

Banana - 1 large

Avocado - 1

Cold Skimmed Milk - 1 cup

Milled Flaxseed - 1 tbsp. (optional)

Honey - 1 tbsp. (Or Sugar)

Method of Preparation:

~ Cut Avocado in half, discard the seed, scoop out the flesh into blender.

~ Add all other ingredients and blend until all combined.

~ Serve this cool smoothie immediately in tall glasses.

Sending this to Bon Vivant - Breakfast Ideas happening at my place.

And also linking it up to, Radhika's Serve it - Chilled Delights event.

Bon Vivant Moments #3 - Breakfast Ideas

Welcome to another edition of Bon Vivant Series. With spring forward time change, we had to drag ourselves out of bed an hour earlier. If you are a sleep lover like me, you would know exactly what I am talking about.

So I have been thinking of breakfast ideas to energize the day and get going. Thought it would be nice to get all my fellow bloggers help for the same. So here it is. Breakfast ideas happening all this month long. Breakfast item can be from any continent or something that you whipped up. You know the drill, so follow the rules below and start linking them up. Linkz will be open from April 1st to April 30th.

Rules for the event remain same.

~ Multiple entries are allowed. Usage of the logo is a must.
~ Linking back to this announcement page is mandatory to get the word out.
~ Vegetarian and non-vegetarian recipes are allowed. No pork or beef ingredients please.
~ Blog post should be in month of April. 
~ Two old posts are allowed, if re-posted again in April.
~ Please link up your post using the linkz below. In case of any problem linking please send me an email with your name, recipe name, recipe click and url to sumeesculinary@gmail.com
~ Non-bloggers can email the recipe along with a picture of the dish to the above email address.

Bake Fest #6 - Guest hosting

I used to think baking is such an art. You have to be really skillful to do that. But once I moved to US and had oven staring at me day in and day out, I thought I will give it a try. I started with baking veggies and desserts. Once I got comfortable, I started finding ways to use it more. Now I love baking, especially for the fact that put your preparation in the oven, set the timer and forget about it. No long standing in front of the gas. So I see more and more people incorporating baking in their day to day recipes.

This fest of baking is what we will be talking about all this month through this event . I am guest hosting Vardhini's Bake Fest event on my space. I have been her blog follower since I started blogging. I love her creativity in converting many dishes to make it healthier. And how can I forget her step by step clicks. They make it so easier to remember the recipes. So when I saw her announcement for guest hosting, I jumped at the oppurtunity. I am glad she lend me an ear, errr... an event. So here are the rules

~ Send in any recipe which has been baked / broiled.
~ Only vegetarian or vegan recipes please. Eggs are allowed in baking.
~ Usage of logo is appreciated as it helps spread the word.
~ Linking back to this announcement and to Vardhini's Bake Fest announcement is mandatory. If sending an old entry, it needs to be re-published with both links.
~ You can send in any number of new entries and a maximum of 2 old entries.
~ If you have any problem linking please send me an email @ sumeesculinary@gmail.com

So what are you waiting for, start linking up using the linkz below. Event is running here all April long. Happy Baking!