Banana Nut Muffins

Mmmmmuffins! Sometimes sweet, sometimes savory! Truly versatile. You can have sweet muffins with your breakfast, savory muffins as lunch or snack or an appetizer! I tweaked, I twisted and finally came up with a "healthy" version of a classic banana nut muffin recipe!

The other day, I had 3-4 overripe bananas, sitting in my fruit basket! I have enough of those bananas in my freezer for my smoothies. So I definitely didn't want to dump them in the freezer this time. I thought about making muffins for Sunday breakfast but originally they would have been blueberry muffins. And thanks to those mushy bananas and a jarful of walnuts, I thought of making banana nut muffins instead. And the complements were: Restaurant quality muffins! Hmmmm, now that is something to treasure for life especially when it comes from the picky eaters in my family!

So, here is the recipe. Give it a try!

Banana Nut Muffins(makes 6 large or 12 medium muffins)

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 large ripe bananas, mashed well (about 1-1/2 cups)
2 large eggs,lightly beaten
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup buttermilk (no buttermilk? add equal parts of plain yogurt and water)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

Garnish: (Optional)
1/2 cup quick cooking oats (I love the crunch!)

How to:
Preheat oven to 400° F. Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Spray the muffin pan. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly, including walnuts. In another bowl, mix wet ingredients. With a spatula, lightly fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Do not over mix. Mixture should be lumpy. Spoon the batter into prepared muffin cups, sprinkle quick cooking oats on top of each muffin, bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Place on a wire rack for 10 minutes to cool down. Slather with lots of healthy omega 3 margarine and enjoy!

These muffins keep for upto 4 days at room temperature, when sealed in air tight container.

Puffs (Keema Pie)

Normally I don't make hearty meals on Sunday nights. Sunday lunches are on heavier side and also, we have coffee and snacks at 4 o'clock so there is not a possibility of a good sit-down Sunday dinner. I prefer to make sandwiches and/or soups. Well, saving you from all the rant, I did make a full dinner on Palm Sunday as we only had a light lunch and from Monday, my fasting was to begin. And we also refrain from eating meat during the Holy week.

I bought the puff pastry a long time ago just to make these puffs. Finally was able to pull them out of the freezer and put them to use. Speaking about puff pastry, I was watching this show on TV and they showed how they make the puff pastry. It was horrible! A lb. of all purpose flour and a lb. of unsalted butter! That is all it takes to make that nice, flaky, puffy pastries! Maybe next time, I will try to replicate the recipe at home, using lesser fat.

One can replace the meat with potato and peas mixture but hey, don't we have samosas for that?! Why use high fat puff pastry for something as simple as potatoes and peas?!

Meat puffs(makes 8)
Ingredients

1 pack puff pastry, thawed as per package directions
1 lb. ground beef
1 large onion
Ground paste of ginger, garlic and green chilles, to taste
Salt, garam masala, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder to taste

How to:
Pre heat the oven to 425° F.

Cook ground beef and onion till beef is no longer pink.

Add all the spices and let it cook till the mixture is dry.
Roll out the puff pastry sheet on a floured board into 2 - 13X9 rectangles.

Make 4 equal pieces out of each rectangle.

Fill up the pieces and fold over.

Pinch the seams so that the filling doesn't come out.
Place the folded pieces on a cookie sheet, and bake till they are nice and golden.

Enjoy with as many sides of veggies as you like or as a snack. I paired it with steamed broccoli and cheesy potato skins.

Khandvi

One of the most savored Gujarati snack is khandvi. So easy to prepare(!), and so delicious to eat! I still remember khandvi from Daas Khaman House! I used to work at the High Court of Gujarat @ Ahmedabad and right across from street, there was a branch of Daas Khaman! Bunch of friends used to get the take out lunch from there! Dad used to bring rolls of Patra (rolls of Ado leaves, stuffed with chick pea batter and steamed! Yum!) and khandvi from them on his way back home from work.

In Canada, when I came 16 years ago, there wasn't that many Gujaratis or Gujarati restaurants. And hubby dear loves khandvi so I got the recipe from a friend of mine and to my utter disappointment, the first attempt failed! I cooked the mixture for a longer period of time so it went lumpy on me! Well, 2nd try and the same result. I didn't give up and made another batch and voila! That came out perfect. And this time, I tracked time and the texture of the mixture being cooked! I have been following the same since last 15 years and getting exactly the same results always!

Khandvi(Chick Pea flour rolls, steamed)
Makes about a lb.

Ingredients
1 cup besan(chick pea flour)
1.5 cups buttermilk
1.5 cups water
a pinch asafoetida

Salt to taste
Pinch of turmerric powder

for tempering: oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves, green chiles

for garnishing: cilantro

How to:

Grease back of the baking pans, you need almost 4 of them. Set them aside.
Mix the ingredients to a smooth paste. Cook on medium low heat for almost 20 minutes till the mixure becomes thick and the ribbons start to fall down from the spoon! The mixture will bubble less at the last stage of cooking. Check by spreading with a spatula on a back of a small plate. If it spreads smoothly, you are done. If not, cook for a couple more minutes. Now you need to work real fast! Equally divide the cooked mixture on cookie sheets and start spreading in thin layers. By the time you are done with the last cookie sheet, the batter will be cooled down. So now, start cutting strips and rolling them to make khandvis! Prepare the tempering and pour it over the rolls. Garnish with cilantro.

See, didn't I say it is "easy"?!

Light weight salad

By God's grace, I don't have any weight issues! Maybe 5 or so lbs to lose or should I say, get 5 lbs of muscle and lose the fat! At the same time I receive complements, I get the questions on how I stay slim! Well, first of all, thanks to my dad! Yes, it is in my genes. Secondly, I do watch what I put in my mouth! Yes girls, you need to do it. It is very important to really check what is on your plate. This doesn't mean you need to deprive yourself of the foods you love. But again, there is a certain constraint called "Portion Control"! I don't binge normally but I do crave certain foods that are definitely a no, no if you are watching your waistline. And it is true that a few seconds of joy on the lips, a permanent bulge on the hips! So I limit the quantity if I eat fried or fatty food and I replace my next meal with healthy salads.

So for my friends, I decided to share a few recipes that is satisfying and filling and you can see how fast the weight come off!

Here is a salad that is one of my favorites. And you will see that salads shouldn't be boring or green!

Tomato and Avocado salad

Ingredients:

about 4 medium beets, scrubbed and tops removed
4 medium tomatoes, different colours or heirloom if possible, cut into 1/4-inch wedges
1 medium Haas avocado, ripe,cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 small red onion, cut in half and sliced into thin half moons
4 tsp olive oil, extra-virgin
4 tsp red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1 Tbsp basil, fresh, chopped
1 Tbsp chives, fresh, chopped

How to:

Pre heat oven at 400° F. Place beets in aluminum foil, cover loosely. Bake until beets pierce easily with the point of a sharp knife, about 25 minutes.

Remove beets from oven and let them cool down. Peel beets with a vegetable peeler and cut into 1/2-inch wedges; place beets in a large bowl.

Add tomato, avocado, onion, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to bowl; toss to combine. Top mixture with basil and chives and serve.

Yields about 1 1/4 cups per serving.

Happy Easter! He is risen!

To all my family and friends, A very happy and Blessed Easter.

http://www.billygraham.org/News_Article.asp?ArticleID=514

Quick N Satisfying!

Good Friday was such a hectic day. In between morning and evening church services, I had planned to tackle a few chores around the house. Not to mention, to make a good, quick and filling supper as all three of us were fasting. And I know that Mark needs something more than regular Gujarati food for supper! So to please him, I decided to make puris. Hubby wanted to have khandvi for so long, I wanted to please him too! So here is the food, don't you think I killed 2 birds with one stone?! We had delicious supper which was equally healthy(minus the puris!). I made puris, khandvi, paneer bhurjee and gobi masala.

Paneer bhurjee is one of the easiest and quickest dish to make. Make paneer first, of course! Brown some onions, green chilis, garlic and ginger paste. Add mashed paneer and peas, with the usual spices like garam masala, turmeric and cumin powders and yes, salt and pepper, and you are done. I don't like to use red chili powder in this dish.

Gobi masala, another quick dish. I used the fried onion(store bought). Heat up the oil, add fried onions, cumin seeds, tomatoes. turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chili powder, paprika and cook for 3 minutes until nicely mixed. Add chopped cauliflower, potatoes and peas and cook till potatoes are done.

This is the beauty of day-to-day Indian cooking! No recipes, only method. You can adjust everything to your taste and you can have good results every single time.

Khandvi recipe will be in another post as this is Saturday morning and I need to run some more errands! Ciao!

Blessed Good Friday to all!