Tamalapaku

We had to go to a friend's house for dinner on a friday evening. Usually we don't go to friends' houses empty handed. Its a tradition we follow to carry either fruits or flowers or sweets specially if there are kids, pregnant women or elders there. We were visiting them for the first time and so it was all the more important to be carrying some goodies. We didn't have time to get some store-bought sweets instead I decided to bake something. As I was looking through my pantry I noticed that I didn't have too many fruits except a few bananas. So decided to bake these banana-nut muffins.


I thought I would have to convince my kids and S not to finish them off as these were meant for the friends. I was pleasantly surprised at their very 'considerate' behavior. We finally managed to pack some for the friends. Our friends were very happy and surprised that the muffins were home-made. Needless to say yours truly had no words to say other than to blush!! :)

Roti upma happened in my kitchen because of a failed experiment! Can anyone believe that my trial by adding ajwain (Vamu) to roti dough was a big mistake? No.. had that mistake not happened, then this post wouldn't have happened either! So I had these not so soft rotis leftover from the previous night which would have gone into the trash (that usually doesn't happen - always gets transformed into something else!!) if I hadn't been told about this roti upma. This recipe is courtesy my Bhabhi, Lakshmi. I understand this is very similar to something called Chilli Paratha (Which I tasted at a potluck party last week). This is so simple that no one can go wrong with this. I had to prepare this twice in 1 hour as S asked for 2 more servings and also for dinner! So used up all the leftover rotis and done with dinner too!!

Last week a potluck party was planned and we decided that all the dishes had to be low fat. I had to make a dessert and that too low fat! Now having a low fat dessert is usually not palatable. Isn't it? Thats what most of my friends would think.  None of my friends who tasted would this Carrot-Beetroot-Apple halwa would believe that this was low-fat. And none of them could guess the ingredients either! But the halwa tray was polished at the end of the party..what else can I say except telling you guys there to try it the low-fat way and indulge!


Feel free to make it with just carrot or just beetroot or add bananas to the mix or whatever combination suits you best. I am sure it would be just as great!

After a busy day running errands, when I got down to make dinner, I was rudely shocked to realise that I hadn't done any vegetable shopping yet for the week! To test my luck, I nervously looked into the refrigerator to see if I could find any veggies out there. To my disappointment, the refrigerator blankly stared at me. Looking into the freezer, I found the same old mixed vegetables, beans etc..and hidden somewhere deep inside was a package of Valor Lilva (I had a few onions and tomatoes). Frankly speaking, I think I mistook it  (when buying at the store) for Surti papdi lilva which I use quite often. Only after I opened the package did I realise that they were a different kind of beans. Anyway I thought I could change the ingredients a little and make kurma out of those beans! I had noted down a few masala variations for different kurmas long time back after browsing few websites and also from friends. I interchangeably use these masala variations for various types of kurmas I prepare. One such is here and we enjoyed it immensely.

We are slowly getting used to eating flax seed in our diet. Needless to say, I am sneaking in as much flax seed as possible through my baking experiments! This Apple Bread, however popular it might be is new to our family. And the first time I made it, we were floored! I have never tried baking apples and so this was a pleasant surprise for me when it turned out so good. As soon as S walked in from work, he smelt the aroma and raised a brow when I told him that it was Apple Bread. He wouldn't even wait for the bread to cool down - he went ahead and tried slicing it. Thats when it crumbled a little bit but we didn't mind as we finished it in a single sitting (No guilt - there was very little fat in there and we skipped dinner of course!!!) . My little one loved it very much too! Coming to the recipe part of it, I was inspired by a recipe here . I made a few small changes and most importantly I made it vegan. 

Deep fried snacks are always welcome at home. So on a weekend cloudy evening, I wanted some snack for the kids. Then I remembered that I had bookmarked this recipe by Vasavi Suresh. The original recipe called for bread crumbs instead of the besan batter. In fact I gave it a try. But after the first batch was done, I felt it was absorbing too much of oil. I also tried making some in the paniyaram/ponganala penam. But it didn't feel/taste the same like a comfort food should! But I am sure they would have worked like koftas in a gravy. (Never mind, we gobbled them too!!) So I quickly changed gears and converted them into bondas. Also I don't add green chillies when I know for sure I would be offering this to the kids. So feel free to alter the seasonings/spices as per taste. Finally I was happy with the bondas and all of us enjoyed a filling snack.