MOrning Glory Muffins - A healthy breakfast!

Another one from my all time favorite Allrecipes.com

When i made this for the first time i followed the recipe exactly. When i made it again i made the healthier version as some of the reviewers suggested : I used whole wheat flour, apple sauce, splenda, and cut down all the coconut. It came out really good. This s very much filling in the mornings if u take 2 and a good snack in the evening!

check out the recipe here Easy Morning GLory Muffins

Oatmeal - Healthy breakfast!

Oatmeal is one of the staple in my home!! My kids love it and i add a lot od flavours to it! After cooking it sometimes i add raisins, or a grinded apple or pear or chopped banana, chopped nuts - walnuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds (they really love the crunciness) or what ever they insist!

All u need is a 1 cup milk and 1.5 tbsp og quick cook oats and heat both a pan till the milk boils. You can also add salt and/or sugar to this. But my kids dont like to add both. They straight away like to add the topings to it!

Papdi Chaat

Chaat chaat chaat... yummy yumm... my home town is not famous or we dont have any chaat items at all. I tried chaats for the first time when i came to Singapore. It is one of the yummiest snacks i have ever tasted.. be it papdi chaat or dahi bhale or gol gapa i love all the chaats!

Here is one of the chaat i recently made. Its very easy to make and really filing!

1 pkt papdi

1 onion finely sliced1 medium sized tomato

1 medium potato boiled and sliced

Red chilli sauce

Tamarind chutney (i used maggi tamarin)

Ginger powder

Chaat masala powders

Black pepper pwdr

Sev

a bunch of corriander leaves finely chopped

• Line up the papdi in a plate.
• Top it with onions. tomatoes and potatoes.
• Add the chilli sauce and tamarind chutney to it.
• then add the powders to it according to ur taste. i added around a pinch in each papdi.
• At last top up with sev and coriander leaves generously.

Enjoy each and every Papdi!!!

This entry will be visiting All Things Yummy for the Chaat Event

Malabar Chicken Curry

This recipe is from the best cook in this whole world!!! not me my Mom!!! I make a lot of variation in her recipes but this time i thought I'll try the authentic one!

Though her recipes are very spicy i reduce all spices to a medium range so that my lil ones also can enjoy! When i was a kid i used to eat a lot of spices and really really a lot of chillies but after getting preggo with my first ones all the gastric things and heart burn showed up and i am now forced to give up spicy things.. But sometimes i do eat spicy food at my own risk! LOL! Also my #2 is hates anything spicy.. except for chicken and fish and eggs!

here goes the recipe but with reduces spice!

Half of a chicken around 1/2 kg

whole spices - cardamon,cloves 3 each

a small piece of cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp pepper

onions - 2 large

ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

potatoes - 1 large

tomatoes - 2 medium

turmeric pwrd - 1/4 - 1/2 tsp

red chili pwdr - 1/2 tsp increase as per your taste

coriander pwdr - 1/2 tsp

coriander,curry and mint leaves - for garnish

oil for frying.

salt to taste.

In a large pan or cooker heat the oil and add the whole spices. When the aroma comes add the onions and saute till brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and saute again. Add the powdered spices and saute for another 2-3 mts. Add tomatoes, chicken and salt to it and cook till the chicken is done. Do not add water. Keep on stirring the chicken if its getting burned. When the chicken is cooked add some water if u want some gravy otherwise mix well and garnish with the green leaves. Serve with rice, roti, prata, bread or what ever!!! :)

Apple Crumb Cake

I found this wonderful website The Purple Foodie few days back and when i revisited it today i came across this yummilicious recipe of Apple Crumb Cake. And i wanted to make it right away. I had all the ingredients at home except for baking powder. So i waited till evening to go out with my kids to our near by NTUC Fairprice to buy it.

We had a nice walk and i explained to my kiddos about the cake on the way! My daughter was all excited about it especially when i explained about the topping!!! She had seen only the frosting as a topping on the cake but not something like this which has to be baked with the cake! My son on the other hand was not at all interested about it!! LOL!! i guess its hard to impress a almost 3 yr old without a chocolate ingredient! :D

This cake is for my dear daughter and my DH who loves anything with apples and cinnamon. And DS... chocolate chip cookies are coming ur way soon honey! :)

here goes the original recipe..

Crumb topping:

5 tbsp butter, cold

¼ cup sugar

1/3 cup light brown sugar

½ cup flour

¼ tsp salt

½ cup walnut, chopped

For the cake:

1 large apple, peeled, cored and diced

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp cinnamon, ground

2/3 cup sugar

8 tbsp butter (100g)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup yogurt

Making the crumb topping:

Mix together all the ingredients except the walnuts. You could do this either manually (using a fork or a pastry blender) or pulse it in a food processor. Next, stir in the nuts. Refrigerate until needed.

Making the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C. Butter an 8 inch square or circular pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and the butter with a hand mixer until light and airy, about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition.

Reduce the speed now and add the flour in 3 parts and yogurt in 2 parts alternately; starting and ending with flour.

You will have a very thick batter. Stir in the chopped apples.

Transfer the batter in the buttered pan and even out the top with a spatula.

Get the crumb topping out of the fridge and break it apart using a fork. Then sprinkle it over the batter.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the crumbs are golden and a skewer comes out clean.

I made some changes in the original recipe

For the crumb toping i reduced the white sugar to 2 tbsp. And for the cake i added 1/3 brown sugar and 1/3 white sugar.

Caramel Pudding

This is something my mom always used to make when we make biriyani at home. I dont make this often now a days but i got nostalgic when i made biriyani last week. I thought i'll give a try in my electric oven (my friend Safia gave me this idea). But hers burned a lot on the top.. I think my oven is much more bigger than hers so may be thats the reason mine didnt get burned that much.

My mom used to make it in cooker with out the whistle on and cook it for a long time. But i think the Electric oven is much more easier that the cooker!

Its very easy to make and and you will have all the ingredients

4 eggs

3 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla essence

sugar 3/4 cup (u can increase as per ur taste)

2-3 spoons of sugar to caramelise (separate)

Preheat oven at 180 C

Beat the eggs lightly and add all other ingredients to it except the sugar.

Sprinkle the sugar set aside for caramelising on a oven proof dish.

Keep it on a top rack of the oven till its brown

Slowly add the milk and egg mixture to it.

Put it back into the oven and let it bake for 30-40mts

Turn upside down after cooling.

Please note that the top layer will burn a little bit. You can take off the layer after it cools off. Also after 30 mts insert a tooth pick to check whether its done. Its will be a little bit of watery on the top so dont get a wrong impression that its not baked.

• This is how it will look once its out of the oven.
• After the top layer is peeled off it will look like this.

Zebra cake

When i saw this cake for the first time in Farida's blog i already fell in love with it!! :) it was something so different and unique!!! If i saw this in a bakery or somewhr else i wouldnt even imagine that i can also bake something like this!

Luckily i had all the ingredients at home and everything came out wonderful.. I followed the recipe exactly with no changes. Its really a big cake. I made this in Silicon round cakepan that i just brought. im slowly trying to replace all my baking pans to Silicon.

I took this to a kitty party and evertbody raved about it.

Please note that.. i made this in an electric oven.. one of my friend made the same thing in a microwave/convection oven and it didnt come out as the same pattern, it turned out to be a Marble cake!

Oatmeal Muffins

Yesterday night i had a lot of reasons to bake muffins! I had brought this silicon muffin cups and wanted to try on it so badly! And my Dh was coming home late from work and the kids were in bed by 9 pm and i had pretty much nothing to do. Then searching for lots of recipes especially the ones with oats i came across this recipe. It was a good base but i added a lot of things to it.

The recipe was is very easy to make. I started of by ( pm and the first batch was already in the Oven by 9:25pm!

The changes i made in the recipe are

• added 1/4 cup of applesauce
• added 1 large chopped pear
• added a medium sized mashed banana.
• in some of the muffins i added half a tsp of Nutella
• in some i added chopped dates and walnuts
• in some i added a tsp of strawberry jam in the middle

Altogether they were delicious. And i love love love the silicon muffin cups. Just turn them upside down the muffins are out and you dont even have to wait for it to cool.

Chocolate chip cookies!!

After i made the yummy muffins today my daughter said SHE wants to make chocolate chip cookies!!! i said why not? any ways with all the rain the kids was very bored and they had nothing much to do a home. I tried this recipe before but that time i didn't have any cocoa powder. This time i had it so i followed the exact recipe and it was sooooo chocolaaateeee and wonderful... 

ohh forgot... i really did make some changes!!! I reduced the sugar to 1 cup and i added only about half cup of chocolate chips. Also i freezed the dough for 20 mts.

Also my kids wanted to decorate it with some Reese Peanut butter cups and i think the cookies turned out really cute :) not in a perfect shape but they really have a kiddy touch :)

Healthy Apple Cinnamon Muffins

My hubby is a big fan of cinnamon. So i keep on searching for baking recipes with loads and loads of cinnamon flavour. This recipe one came out perfect! 

Its sure a healthier version of the muffins with no oil and sugar. I made some changes in the original recipe after reading the reviews --- increased the cinnamon by 1 tsp, milk by 1/4 cup, added 1 more egg,  and reduced the apple to 1.

Also i added about 4 tbsp of raisins and walnuts as my kids suggested!! It turned out really yummy!!! i still can smell the cinnamon all over my kitchen!