Cucumber Salad

This particular salad is very quick and easy side dish for any kind of rice dishes or for burger patties. In matter of minutes you have a crunchy side dish. 

Prep Time : 5 min | Cooking Time : None | Serves : 4

Ingredients:

Cucumber - Small pickle variety - 3
Red Onion - 1 small
Orange juice - 1 tbsp. (or Lemon Juice)
Chili/ Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp.
Olive Oil - 1/2 tsp.
Salt - 1/4 tsp.

Method of Preparation:

~ Clean and peel the cucumbers. Cut them in long sticks.
~ Slice the onion lengthwise.
~ In a small bowl, combine chili powder, salt, orange juice and olive oil.
~ Pour them over the veggies, give them a toss and serve. 


Serving this @ Bon Vivant #12 - Quixotic Fixes - Check out this month's detail and giveaway.

Cheesy Sweet Corn & Peppers Breakfast Casserole - Favorite Bon Vivant of Dec/ Jan month

As in my numerous posts I say breakfast is an important meal of the day in my family. Everyone has to have it, no skipping. I have made casserole before for breakfast. It's very filling and leaves you satisfied. For Dec and Jan month Bon Vivant, when I saw this recipe of Broccoli Pepper and Cheese Breakfast Casserole, I instantly drawn to it because of the pictures. I decided to try it. I have already prepared it few times with few variations. Once I did this for lunch and let the kids mix everything. They were so happy that they wanted to eat bigger shares. :o)

This month I have been slacking writing on the blog, so the delay in posting this month Favorite Bon Vivant for the month. Denny of "Oh Taste n See" needs no introduction. She is a very versatile blogger and has such amazing variety of food spread over her blog. If you are looking for healthy and tasty diet food, hop over and check out her SBD section. You can keep scrolling on her Recipe Index and it won't end. 

Coming to today's recipe, I have used different vegetable combinations in it. Sweet corn and bell peppers was our favorite. I sneaked in greens every time. :o) Since I had lot of variation to original recipe I am listing my ingredients below. Check out her recipe. 

Prep Time : 15 min | Baking Time : 25 to 30 Mins | Serves : 6

Recipe Source : Denny's Oh Taste n See

Ingredients:

Eggs - 5
Milk - 3/4 Cup
Chickpea Flour/ Besan - 2 tbsp.
Parmesan Cheese - 1/2 Cup + 2 tbsp
Mozzarella Chesse - 1 cup
Bell Pepper - 1 - Chopped
Frozen Corn - 1 Cup (Thaw in microwave for 3 to 4 minutes)
Kale / Spinach leaves - 1 Cup (packed) - Finely Chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method of Preparation:

~ Preheat the oven to 375 deg F.
~ Combine all the ingredients, sprinkle 2 tbsp of Parmesan Cheese on top.
~ Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.
~ Enjoy this yummy, cheesy goodness when warm.

Thanks Denny for sharing this recipe on Healthy Appetite. Find the roundup of Bon Vivant #11 - Healthy Appetite here..


Serving this @ Bon Vivant #12 - Quixotic Fixes - Check out this month's detail and giveaway.

And

Simply Tadka's Foodabulous Fest
Vardhini's Bake Fest - @Surabhi's
Food Corner's Cook Like Celebrity Chef
Hema's Cooking with Love - Spouse
Simply Sensation's Let's Bake for valentine
Breakfast Club @Farmersgirl Kitchen

Chocolate Balls

Last week was such a fun ride! Hubby surprised me by announcing that he would like me to accompany him to Florida... We decided to keep that as a secret with kids and whisked them away from their schools. On our way we told them that we were going to Disney! Two days at Disney theme parks have left a dent in my knees. 

For the first time we stayed at the resort itself. Animal Kingdom Lodge was our kids dream come true. It was totally kids friendly. We could see Zebra's, Crane's, Giraffe's roaming around from our balcony. And my my, the food everywhere was so delicious! Each one of the restaurants we tried was too good. I didn't take any pictures of food to come to think of it! Was too busy gorging. LOL. "Boma" and "Sanaa" at the lodge were the ones that stood out! Both were African-Indian themed restaurants. The atmosphere, hostesses and servers, everyone takes care of you as though you are the only guest over there. Isn't that amazing? 

Coming to today's recipe these Choco balls came out of me heating up the chocolate block directly in microwave coz I was on time crunch. For chocolate ganache I was heating up some chocolate blocks and completely forgot to do it in steps. It turned little harder than what I wanted, so I ended up adding stuff to it. They were such a hit that I started making these chocolate balls for my kids since then. 

Prep Time: 2 min | Cooking time: 2 min | Makes : Depends upon the size of the chocolate

Ingredients:

Chocolate block/ Chocolate Morsels - 1 Cup
Heavy Cream/ Juice/ Rum - Any cold liquid - 2 tbsp.
Graham Cracker Crumbs - 1 Cup
Dry fruits powder (Any kind of nuts would do) - 2 tbsp.
Dry fruits crumbs/ powdered sugar to roll the choco balls

Method of Preparation:

~ Heat chocolate in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute and then for 30 seconds.
~ Take it out and mix thoroughly, add cold heavy cream and crumbs. Roll it into required shapes.
~ Decorate them as needed.


Serving this @ Bon Vivant #12 - Quixotic Fixes - Check out this month's detail and giveaway.

And
Simply Tadka's Foodabulous Fest
Vardhini's Sweet Luv

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Hearts

My kids love marshmallows. Who doesn't right? They are loaded with sugar. I use the small round ones for Watergate Salad. But I usually buy the big chunky ones for my little one. The other day I found these fun heart shaped ones, but round the year you can find cylindrical or square ones.

I have covered the marshmallow bits in chocolate before, but the heart shaped ones seems fun to make for Valentine's. Isn't it cool? I hadn't taken picture and my kiddos jumped at it. I made another batch yesterday and it was the same case, but luckily I could take some pictures for you guys. This is super quick to make, makes a nice treat to pack for kids for Valentine day party

Ingredients:

Big Marshmallows - About 2 dozen
Semi-sweet Chocolate Morsels - 1/2 Cup
Heavy Cream - 1/2 Cup
Butter - 1 tbsp.
Cherries to top

Method of Preparation:

~ In a pan add heavy cream and butter and heat over medium. Keep whisking them. 
~ Once it's heated through, add the morsels and switch off the heat. 
~ After few seconds, whisk the melting morsels thoroughly so everything is smooth.
~ Keep a plate ready with parchment paper lining. 
~ Dip the marshmallow completely and using spoon coat them thoroughly. Take it out on plate.
~ Pat dry cherry and dip it in chocolate and top it on the marshmallow by slightly pushing it in.
~ For half covered chocolate I dipped them half way and took it out. Possibilities are endless.

Serving this @ Bon Vivant #12 - Quixotic Fixes - Check out this month's detail and giveaway.

And
Cusine Delight's Spotlight - Valentine treat
Simply Tadka's Foodabulous Fest
Vardhini's Sweet Luv
Food Corner's Cook Like Celebrity Chef
Hema's Cooking with Love - Spouse

Orange Banana Bread

This is another breakfast bread. Whenever I make Banana Walnut bread, I have to bake their separate without nuts or grind nuts in. I saw this Orange Banana Bread recipe on Paula Dean show and tried it. It turned out really well. It was very moist and not too sweet. It was recommended for using it as breakfast bread. And I think it suited that way really well. 

My kiddos are sucker for Orange flavor. Especially my older one. Last week I had bananas sitting on my counter top. So made these again. As soon as the kiddos walked through front door, they said "Hmmmm.. that smells sooooo good". Sunny boy immediately added "Is that orange cake or something?". LOL, yeah, your home smells divine when you bake this cake. 

Try this low fat variation of the bread. You can replace the eggs by Flax-seed flour (2 tbsp. soaked in 2 tbsp. of water.) 

Prep Time : 15 min | Baking Time : 45 to 55 minutes | Makes : One pan loaf

Recipe - Adapted from Paula Dean
Ingredients:

Flour [Multi-grain + AP flour] - 2 cup
Cinnamon - 1/2 tsp.
Baking soda - 3/4 tsp.
Salt - 1/2 tsp.
Sugar - 1 cup
Yogurt - 1/3 of cup
Eggs - 2 (Flax-seed flour - 2 tbsp. soaked in 2 tbsp. of water.) 
Orange Zest - 1 tsp.
Orange juice - 1/3 cup

Olive Oil - 1/4 Cup

Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp.
Banana - 3

Method of Preparation:

~ Preheat the oven to 350 deg. 
~ In a small bowl mix flour, Cinnamon, Baking soda, Salt and Sugar.
~ Mash bananas and keep it aside.
~ Take yogurt in a bigger bowl, whisk swiftly. Add eggs and continue to whisk.
~ Add orange zest, oil, vanilla essence and then banana. 
~ Slowly add dry ingredients in batches, adding orange juice in between.
~ Mix it all well and put it in the sprayed loaf container.
~ Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

Ideas to serve:

- You can serve it while topping with fresh banana and honey. Or any kind of jam you have. 
- Toast it a little bit and you can top it with cream cheese or peanut butter. Cream cheese topping has been my favorite so far.
- To serve as dessert, you can toast the bread lightly and serve with vanilla ice-cream.


Serving this @ Bon Vivant #12 - Quixotic Fixes - Check out this month's detail and giveaway.

And
Cusine Delight's Spotlight - Valentine treat
Simply Tadka's Foodabulous Fest
Vardhini's Bake Fest - @Surabhi's
Vardhini's Sweet Luv
Food Corner's Cook Like Celebrity Chef
Hema's Cooking with Love - Spouse
Simply Sensation's Let's Bake for valentine
Recipe's with Fruits @Zesty South Indian
Breakfast Club @Farmersgirl Kitchen

Bon Vivant Roundup #11 - Healthy Appetite

New year brought new resolutions. Resolutions made to break, so they say. But not in the blogging world. Everyone tried to keep up with their resolution and worked towards their goal of creating healthy appetite for their family. Below is the proof of how healthy can be beautiful and delicious. There were so many wonderful ideas and recipes. Again choosing favorite Bon Vivant of the month wasn't a easy task. But I went with the one that I absolutely had to try when I looked at it. Will get to that soon....

But for now, enjoy the healthy appetite feast.

Vaali Sungat Randhayi/ Basale leaves with Shrimp Curry

Vaali leaves are one of our favorite type of vegetable. It is commonly used in Konkani household. When we were younger, it was hard to find these in Bangalore. Whenever we were in native place, coastal Karnataka, they were in abundance. Most of my relatives had these vines growing in their backyard. The curry made out of these turns out so good, that you can combine it with any other vegetable or seafood. Shrimp or Prawn are most commonly used combination. 

In US I had not realized for a while that we get this in Chinese stores. When one of my Konkani friend pointed out that they are called Saan Choy. Since then there is no turning back. My mom gave me this recipe. I have added a little twist to it to by frying the shrimp first, giving it a nice crunch. It's our family favorite. My little one who usually runs away from any green leafy things actually loves this and always asks for seconds. :) The pictures are from when I prepared this for my DH's birthday on his special request.

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

Photo Credit - Wiki 

Ingredients:

Shrimp/ Prawn/ Sungat - 30 count
Vaali/ Basale/ Malabar Spinach/ Saan Choy - 1 lb or 1/2 Kg.
Shredded coconut - 1 cup
Red Chilies - 5
Red Chili powder - 1/2 tsp.
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp.

Coriander powder - 2 tsp.
Mustard Seeds - 2 tsp.
Garlic - 3 or 4 pods
Water - 1 cup
Oil - 1 tbsp.
Salt to taste

Method of Preparation:

~  Remove shell, de-vein and clean the shrimp. Put some salt, turmeric powder and chili powder and set it aside.
~ Clean the Vaali leaves and stems thoroughly to remove any dirt. Note that these leave ooze out some stickiness if handled roughly, so clean them very gently, by soaking them in big tub of water and draining.
~ If you have too much thick stems, it's better to pressure cook, otherwise, roughly chop them. Chop the leaves and set it aside.
~ Dry fry mustard seeds, red chilies and garlic. Take them out and grind them with coconut and coriander powder. 
~ Add oil in a thick bottomed vessel. Fry the marinated shrimp for few minutes, until they start to turn pink. Take them out in a bowl and set aside. 
~ Add water to the same vessel and bring it to boil. Add the stem part first and then the leaves of Vaali. Cover and cook them for at-least 5 to 7 minutes. The sliminess of the leaves should be gone. 
~ Now add the coconut masala that was prepared before and bring everything to boil. Takes another 5 to 7 minutes.
~ Lastly add the fried shrimps, salt to taste and continue to cook for few more minutes.
~ Serve hot with plain rice. 

Serving this family favorite at Bon Vivant #12 - Quixotic Fixes - Check out this month's detail and giveaway.

And
Cusine Delight's Spotlight - Valentine treat
Sara's Tasty Buds - Traditional & Native Recipes event

Bon Vivant #12 - Quixotic Fixes & Announcement

Bon Vivant turns ONE! Yeah, you friends have helped me run this event so successfully by sharing all your wonderful recipes at my space. So big THANK YOU to all. I never celebrated my blog-anniversary last July because I was busy with... well what can I say life! There was so much going on at that time, celebrating my little creation was way out of question. 

Then there was another milestone when I posted my 100th recipe to the blog. Though I quietly rejoiced with my family, I didn't make any hullabaloo about it either. When I think back to the time I started my blog, I didn't think I would come such a long way. 

So in this month of February, my birthday month, month where everyone seems to be in Love, month when Bon Vivant event is embarking on another journey, I decided to celebrate!

Coming for this month's Quixotic Fixes, let me start by explaining the word itself. Quixotic means the most Idealistic, Romantic. The word sounded so exotic that I wanted to use it. So for this month of February when you are cooking it up high notch for your loved ones, I welcome you to join me at Bon Vivant for the celebration. Link up your Valentine's favorite's using the linky below.

Wait a minute, didn't we talk about celebration! So what's the celebration without any gifts right? No, I am not asking you for one, I am planning to send you one. It will be one of my favorite Chef's "Mithai" book. Yes, it's none other than Master Chef Sanjeev's Kapoor's book. This is not sponsored by anyone but me. It will be from my collection.

It contains extensive list of some of authentic Indian sweet recipes. From Mathura ka Peda, Jalebi to burfi's. So what are the rules you ask? Well, it's everything that was in previous Bon Vivant's plus some more. Read on and happy cooking.


To be eligible for giveaway:

~ Leave me a comment about which dish from Sumee's Culinary have you tried or intend to try.
~ Like my Facebook page, join through GFC and/or follow me on Pinterest. Leave me a comment about the same.
~ Non-bloggers too can participate. You can email me all the details of recipe or post it on my Facebook page. 
~ Winner will be chosen randomly from the inlinkz list below. I will choose one in first week of March. 
~ If you are unable to respond to me with mailing address, I will choose another winner. I need to get reply within 48 hours.

Rules for the Bon Vivant 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. I have noticed some of them are not back linked. I will have to promptly remove them if not linked back after one notice.
~ Vegetarian and non-vegetarian recipes are allowed. No pork or beef ingredients please.
~ Blog post should be in month of February. Note the change that it has to be a new post
~ 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 image and url to sumeesculinary@gmail.com
~ Non-bloggers can email the recipe along with a picture of the dish to the above email address. I will link them up.
~ Favorite Bon Vivant of the Month" will be chosen from a recipe linked to Bon Vivant in this month.

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Bake Fest #15 - Roundup

Another awesome roundup of this awesome series. It was a pleasure hosting Bake Fest @Sumee's Culinary. I thoroughly enjoyed all that was brought to the platter. I hope you guys will hop each other's space and find inspiration to create and bake some. I have! I love baking (I think I have told that plenty of times on my blog and elsewhere too. :o)) So here's to all those bakers! Now off to the roundup. Enjoy the visual treat. Find future bake fests schedule at Cooks Joy.