Stuffed Portobellini Salad

Those who know me well know how much I am in love with Portobello mushrooms! I just love this fungi! It is so meaty and filling and versatile and forgiving, one can never go wrong working with it. These days I have realized that these mushrooms can be served as a base instead of pizza and tortillas or pretty much anything that needs breads, aka carbs! So this is the best way to eat good and healthy if you are eating gluten free or low carb foods. Stuffing and topping of these mushrooms just drives me crazy because the possibilities are endless. My brain overflows with ideas once I start thinking about stuffing these babies. I’ve got a few other recipes in mind as I am writing this so stay tuned!

Goat Cheese Stuffed Portbellini Mushrooms with Spring Greens

Ingredients

6 Portobellini(baby Portobello) mushrooms

1 cup goat cheese

Salt and pepper

¼ cup EVOO

6 cups loosley packed greens of your choice

Dressing of your choice

How to:

Easy. Pre heat the oven to 400° F.

Oil the mushrooms and place them on a baking sheet.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until tender.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper once you pull them out of the oven.

Top with goat cheese, stick them back in the oven until the cheese is nice and melty, for about another 5 minutes.

Serve with your choice of greens, dressing and bread sticks.

Enjoy!

Chicken Parmigiana Meatloaf

I must say when I first saw this recipe in some random magazine at the doctor’s office, I was confused and intrigued by the name. I thought wow, it would be a real deal if our favourite chicken parmigiana can be turned into a meatloaf! Meatloaf is such a great comfort food. What’s not to like in it? It’s moist, juicy and loaded with flavour. So I decided to give that recipe a try(of course after sneaking in my own twists!) and served it with balsamic glazed tossed vegetables and roasted potato wedges. That was one heck of a tasty meal!  This meatloaf is a bit different that the regular meatloaf as there is a good healthy dose of marinara sauce mixed into the meat, then spread on the top with ooey gooey mozzarella cheese! It’s a good thing. Another good thing is that you can turn the leftover meatloaf into equally delish sandwiches the next day, or the day after or…oh you get it!

Chicken Parmigiana Meatloaf

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground chicken

2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 eggs

1 cup panko bread crumbs

1 cup marinara sauce

½ cup each grated Parmesan and Asiago cheeses

1 cup shredded mozzarella

Fresh parsley, a handful, chopped for garnish

Salt and pepper

How to:

Mix everything together with ½ cup sauce and ¼ cup Parmesan and Asiago cheeses and ½ cup mozzarella cheese.

The rest of the sauce and cheeses will be required to top the meatloaf of with.

Bake at 375°F hot oven for about 40 minutes.

Pull ot the loaf, spread with the leftover sauce and cheeses and bake for 20 minutes more.

Garnish with fresh parsley.

Enjoy!

Nutella Filled Ebelskiver

Ebelskiver is a Danish pancake(North American pancake mixed with pop over). It literally means apple slices. It is pancake ball stuffed with apples. I kind of am over for now with apples and cinnamon! Serious but true.  I brought this appam pan from India and was dying to use it. My sister is using it like crazy and my mom had made kandawada(onion fritters) in the pan. I took a different route and made Ebelskiver. They turned out just great. The tiny babies were cooking so quickly even on the medium low heat, it was surprising how fast I was done and just from 1 cup, I got 33 of these cuties! My pan has a bit smaller indentations and only 2 tbsps of batter was required to fill up each cup. And boy, I rushed to fill them up with Nutella as they were just ready to be flipped even before I would finish filling up the 6^th cup!

Here how I made them.

Nutella Filled Ebelskiver

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 egg

¾ cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp baking powder

2 tbsp melted butter + 1 tbsp melted butter to brush the indents

2-4 tbsp Nutella or as much as you would like

 

How to:

Heat the pan on medium low heat.

When the water droplets dance in the pan, your pan is ready to cook the ebelskivers!

In the meantime, mix everything but Nutella in a bowl.

Brush the indentations of the pan with melted butter.

Pour 1 tbsp batter into each indentation.

Quickly add about a tsp of Nutella in each cup.

Cover it with some more batter.

It is ready to flip when you see bubbles form on the top, just like regular pancake.

Flip it and cook the other side until it is nice and brown for about 90 seconds.

Serve warm with the dusting of icing sugar.

Enjoy!

Let The Summer Grilling Begins!

Veggies are ready to take the heat!



On the grill





Looks like Summer has arrived a bit too early! We were in Spring weather, wearing light jackets and boom, we are into shorts and sleeveless clothing! Especially last 2 weekends were a huge surprise. And to take full advantage of the warm weather, almost all in the neighbourhood has lit up their BBQs! Once again, that smoky aroma has filled the air, reminding us to not take this season for granted and to make the most of it.

Me as well, as a big fan of bbqing, didn’t stay back. Cleaned up my BBQ once again and fired it up to grill all the Spring veggies I can lay my hands on. I love the taste of smoke on my veggies. Simply, I love the barbecued food. So this time around, my first 2013 barbecue was no different than other years. Lots of veggies, chicken and lamb. Yes, those who know me well can tell that I have barbecued enough for the entire week’s worth of lunch! Now that’s the way to enjoy warm weather and stay cool inside of the house and of course, enjoy the good time with family.

I grilled vegetables with just enough oil, salt and pepper. Then grilled the flat breads with those veggies on top and lots of goat cheese. We had it cut up like pizza for dinner but for the lunch, I had them all rolled up as a wrap. Then I simply marinated chicken breasts and lamb in bbq sauce and grilled them. Potatoes were same, microwaved until tender and then tossed into oil, salt and pepper and Italian seasoning blends and grilled. Dip was a plain mix of sour cream, mayonnaise, salt and Cayenne pepper. And in a jiffy, we had a fabulous, low fat dinner plus the lunch. I am definitely looking forward to grilling more in this summer. Hope you all have a fantastic and safe summer. I will see you all when I see you!

Enjoy!

Bite-size Apple Pie & Pops

Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom, sister and all my friends who are mothers and aunts out there! Found a great prayer for all the mothers that I would like to share:

A blessing and prayer tribute to all mothers

Blessed be all mothers
Who have come into our lives
Whose kindness, care and loving
Remain with us to guide.

Your inspiration in us
Made us strive in every way
Especially to remember
Helping others makes our day.

Mom, this little tribute
Flows directly from my heart
You are so loved and cherished
Invaluable, one and all, you are.

I actually made these over last Christmas. Was going through my pictures and found these two pictures. Thought well, let’s post it! So here it is.

This was one of the easiest desserts I’ve ever made. To make my life convenient, I used store-bought pastry sheets. You can by all means make your own and use it! I seriously have no time or intention to do so. I can use the premade sheets but when it comes to make one on my own, it scares me to death, the use of loads of butter! Pre made sheets, you don’t see it, you don’t think about it!

So back to my Apple Pie which were perfectly bite sized for the 3 of us,and then I just inserted the lolly pop sticks just for the fun. It was more fun to eat on the stick than to eat them with the fork for sure. And we didn’t even care about Apple Pie à la Mode, that is with Vanilla ice cream.

Here is how I did it.

Bite Sized Apple Pie & Pops

Ingredients

1 pastry sheet, thawed

2-3 medium apples, cored, cubed

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup regular sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp nutmeg powder

¼ cup butter, room temperature

¼ cup milk

How to:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Melt butter on medium heat in a skillet.

Add all the ingredients except milk, and cook till apple cubes are softened.

Roll the pie sheet on a parchment paper to about 13x9 inch wide rectangle.

Cut with cookie cutters or any shape you desire into 24 pieces.

Fill 12 pieces with about 1 tbsp each of the apple filling.

Brush the edges of all 24 pieces with milk.

Cover the filled pieces with remaining 12 pieces.

Arrange them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Brush the tops with milk again.

Bake in the hot oven till the tops are nice golden brown.

Serve warm Pie bites or insert the lolly sticks and present to your loved ones.

 

Aloo Gobi(Cauliflower Potato Masala)

This is not your everyday Aloo-gobi! Why, you would ask. My answer is: it’s my mom’s recipe when she makes vegetable biryani. So obviously it takes more efforts, more spices, and yes more oil to make this dish than our regular, every day aloo gobi dish.  It is complex yet simple stir fry of potatoes, cauliflower and all the add-ins with aromatic spices that we normally don’t use in our daily cooking. It is complex because the flavour combination is complex. I know every Indian household has its own Aloo gobi recipe that uses anywhere from 2-3 spice mix to 8-10 spice mix! I always encourage my co-workers who by large love Indian food to go to the Indian grocery stores and pick up a pack of garam masala powder, a pack of kasoori methi and a pack of amchur powder. Again Why? Because I believe they add the much needed ‘oomph’ to any Indian dish they are added to.

Now that Spring is already here, the food on our table has changed as well.  There is still some nip in the air here and there but mainly it is nice and sunny. No more dark, gloomy, cloudy days. On one such cold day this past week, when the air was so chilly, I made this dish. The aroma of whole spices roasting in oil and ghee filled the air in my kitchen. The warmth of those spices warmed up our souls! While the pot of these veggies was simmering on the stove, you only need to wait until it is done and you can put it on your roti, roll it up and gobble it up. This is kind of foods from our roots that we’ve gotta have it if we have gone for Italian, Mexican or any other cuisine!

Cauliflower Potato Masala

Ingredients

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 large onions, sliced

1-2 whole cinnamon sticks

3-4 cloves

1 tbsp whole black peppers

2 bay leaves

1-2 black, large cardamom

3-4 green cardamom

2-3 whole red chilies

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

2 large tomatoes, cubed

¼ cup ginger-garlic paste

2-3 green chillies, chopped

Red chili powder, turmeric powder as per taste

Salt per taste

¼ cup oil

1 cup cauliflower, separated into florets

½ cup potatoes, cubed

¼ cup peas(I used frozen)

½ cup eggplants, cubed

How to:

Heat oil in a large pot.

Add cumin seeds, whole spices and onions.

Cook till onion is golden brown.

Now add tomatoes, ginger garlic paste, green chilies, powdered spices and saute till oil floats on the top.

Now add all the vegetables and salt.

At this point, add little bit of water if the spices are sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Lower the heat, cover the pot and simmer till veggies are cooked and the spices have coated the veggies.

Enjoy with hot naan or rotis.

Cranberry Orange Apricot Muffins

I still can’t believe I have been to India! Time just flew by there. I had so much fun I can’t believe it’s just over! All good things have to end and so did my trip. All I have now is fond memories of all the people I met, the places I visited, the food I had. And I guess it is good enough to keep me going for another 16 years! I am kidding. I believe I might visit India earlier than that and yes, God willing, that time it will be all 3 of us, visiting places all over the country.

So glad to be back to the routine as well. Get up early in the morning, get ready to come to work, go home after a long, tiring day and prepare dinner, clean up and get ready for next day! Love it! I kinda missed that in India. I was on vacation so obviously I had no routine. This is why I am really happy that I am back so that I can cook in my kitchen because back home, mom didn’t let me lift a finger! Everything was ready for me. It was a bit hard to fall back into routine and do things on my own as my parents really spoiled me over there. But then again, it is good to have been back to cooking and baking. And this is exactly what I did this past Sunday. I baked these delish muffins. It had always been on back of my mind to bake muffins with cranberries. Never got materialized until now. They came out so good, they were so healthy, looks like it has become a new family favourite. Try it sometimes. I bet you won’t be disappointed. on the contrary, your family would love to waking up to the aroma of these mouth watering muffins!

I call them my Morning Glory Muffins!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups 100% bran cereal

1 1/4 cups low fat plain yogurt
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp orange rind, grated
1/2 cup orange juice
1/3 cup liquid honey
1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped

½ cup dried cranberries, chopped
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 salt

How to:

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Grease or line 12-cup muffin tin with paper lines or oil spray.

Combine cereal and yogurt; let stand 5 minutes

Stir in eggs, orange rind, orange juice, honey, oil and dried fruits and combined.

Mix remaining ingredients in a separate bowl.

Spoon the mixture into prepared muffin cups, filling each to the top.

Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes or the tops are golden brown.

Cool on wire rack.

You can freeze these muffins if desired.

Enjoy with a steaming cup of your favorite latte!