Baked Bread Rolls - Healthy teatime snack | Healthy Diet Plan #4

Hope you are enjoying this series as much as I do, please be a part of the voting poll on the sidebar. Its a short break now...No no! I am not taking a break, only this series is taking a short break, will resume this series by next weekend with the remaining teatime drink and a dinner idea. It is sure better than the deep fry way so when I saw it in Tarladalal site I instantly want to try it and just luved it.

Baked Bread Rolls Recipe

Recipe Source : Tarladalal



Ingredients:

• Wheat Bread - 5 slices
• Ghee / Oil - 2 tsp

For the stuffing:

• Onion - 1 finely chopped
• Potato - 1 medium sized
• Carrot - 1
• Peas - a handful
• Turmeric powder - a pinch
• Fennel(Sombu) powder - a pinch (optional)
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1/4 tsp
• Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp chopped finely
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Salt - as required

Method :

For the stuffing :

1. Cube the veggies and pressure cook them with water and turmeric powder until soft. Keep aside. Mash the potatoes well and combine it with other veggies.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add sombu powder, ginger garlic paste, saute for 2mins. Then add chopped onions saute until slightly browned. Then add the veggies, chilli powder and garam masala powder, required salt and give a stir.Sprinkle little water just for the masalas to combine well with the veggies.
3. Cook covered for 5mins, giving it a stir inbetween.Switch off and garnish with coriander leaves.Now the stuffing is ready.

For the bread rolls:

First cut the sides of the bread for the 5 slices. Then roll slightly using a chapathi roller, cover it with a wet muslin cloth and keep aside for 5-10mins.Then add the stuffing inbetween, add water at the edges and seal it.

Seal it completely on all sides.As I used wheat bread it was a bit difficult to roll it as it was very small too. Try to use sandwich sized breads so that rolling is easier, mine was normal bread.





Apply ghee evenly on all sides. Meanwhile preheat oven at 200 deg C for 10mins and bake it at 200 deg C for 15-20mins or till the rolls turn golden brown. Check inbetween and turn over if required. Serve it with tomato ketchup the best combination.

My Notes:

• The timing differs from oven to oven so check exactly after 15mins then proceed with remaining 5mins.
• If you feel uneven cooking, you can turn over in between like what I did.
• If you want you can add more ghee or butter as per liking.
• The stuffing can be of your choice, you can use mushroom, paneer, corn etc

Homemade Museli / Granola - A Healthy Breakfast | Healthy Diet Plan #1

Though there are a mix and match of healthy recipes in this space I wanted to go for a week healthy...... So whats up for the coming days - For a week, I will be posting healthy diet recipes which will comprise of a breakfast, lunch, dessert, teatime drink, a snack and ending up with a dinner idea so its going to be 6 recipes for this series . How does that sound?!

So am starting off with my favourite breakfast - homemade museli / granola. You can check out my granola bars here.These days its become very common even in india in most of homes to start off the day with healthy cereals / museli and we are no exception to it.

Homemade Museli / Granola Recipe



Ingredients:

• Oats - 1 cup
• Corn flakes - 1/2 cup
• Badams - 3 tbsp (sliced thin)
• Walnuts chopped - 3 tbsp
• Dates - 3 tbsp (finely chopped)
• Other dryfruits - 2 tbsp
• Honey - 1/4 cup
• Butter - 1 tbsp (optional)
• Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Chop all the nuts and dry fruits roughy, keep aside.
2. In a sauce pan, dry roast oats, cornflakes, walnuts, almonds , dry fruits and nuts till golden brown or till a nice aroma comes. Keep aside.
3. Now in the same pan, add butter let it melt then add honey and salt. Allow it boil till bubbles are seen it may take 4-5mins. Now add the toasted oats, cornflakes nuts mixture. Mix well.
4. Allow the honey butter mixture to coat the toasted oats, cornflakes nuts mixture. It may take 2-3 mins. Switch off and allow it to cool for few mins.
5. Bake the mixture at 200 deg C for 5 mins to make it more crispy. Cool down and store it in an airtight container. Serve it with chilled milk.

You can also see my other healthy breakfast ideas :

• Instant Oats Dosa
• Oats Idli
• Oats Appam
• Pesarattu Dosa
• Wheat Dosai
• Eggless French Toast (Sweet & Savoury)

My Notes :

• The baking at the last step is purely optional but I do this for extra crispness and this will also make the museli stay crisp for longer - Tip from Prathiba
• Store it in an airtight container for the crispness to stay longer.
• Museli is totally flexible, you can just have the cup measurement in mind and add in any nuts and dry fruits of your choice.
• Add milk preferably cold but if you like it hot, then go ahead.

Cake Lollipops / Cake Pops (My Way) - Happy Friendship Day!!

Cake pops are balls made out of crumbled cakes , coated with candy melts / chocolate on the outside pricked in a lollipop stick. Ever since I saw the site bakerella......making cakepops were a dream to me. Last week the bug bit me hard that I wanted to try it right away....I know we dont get candy melts here, I didnt even have the lollipop sticks or the cooking chocolate. So let me admit, this is a fool proof method for making cake pops but sure a delicious lollipop :) Now before my cake pops story let me wish all my readers and friends a very happy friendship day!!

Friendship day was at its best during college days.....No enough space in the wrist for even bangles.....so much of friendship bands, wishes,cards, gifts and what not?! After I entered into the corporate world, friendship day was just another day except for the wishes through phone calls.....to close friends.

Its been years I've flipped through the greeting cards that I had received. I felt nostalgic while dusting down the bags for taking the cards and bands for this post. It just took me a while to those days.....a short rewind I would say! Will that not be nice if we have a rewind button in life?! :)

Now coming back to cake pops : I discussed the idea of making it with my friend who owns a sweet cum bakery shop.....he gave me few tips and suggested to use cooking chocolate...I tried in Nilgiris(the only store I get all my baking items in CBE) but no luck :( But the cashewnut me ;) went ahead with milky bar even after his warning. I made the cake balls as per the instructions, melted the chocolate and dipped the cake balls...then came the disaster the cake balls stuck to it and started crumbling :( Hearing me a bit upset, my friend even said he will courier the cooking chocolate...But being a working mother getting only weekends for the luxury of clicking and making ready for special posts like this......I coudnt accept his offer. Special thanks to him for encouraging me to try again even after this flop. I will surely try the cakepops, the orginal way and post it here :)

Then came the idea of making the cake pops my way!! And all smiles there I went and made the cake pops with the remaining cake balls and clicked it too :) I made a simple frosting and drizzled few edible color beads on the already made cake balls. I used the toothpicks to make it like a lollipop and here is the cakepops in my very own way!! This is the first time I am trying to frost using a nozzle....and was pretty excited to do it.

As a food blogger I always have had the thought of using mittu for my pics but as a mother its a big NO :) But this time I took few pics with her and I should say she cooperated so well as she was keen on admiring the cake pops and I utilised it completely :)

Cake Lollipops / Cake Pops Recipe:

This makes 4 cake pops

Ingredients :

For the cake balls :

• Chocolate cake - 1 piece
• Butter - 2 tbsp
• Icing Sugar - 3 tsp

For the frosting:

• Butter - 2 tbsp
• Icing Sugar - 3 tsp
• Food color - a drop (I used pink)
• Edible Color beads - 1 tsp

Method:

1. First crumble the cake, keep aside. Mix butter and icing sugar and beat well until fluffy. Add the butter sugar mixture to the crumbled cake and mix well. Gather to form small balls. Refrigerate atleast for 2 hours.
2. Then for the frosting mix butter, sugar and food color. Beat well, fill them in piping cones with a star nozzle and pipe it on the refrigerated cake balls. Just drizzle colored beads. Your cake pops are ready!!

The actual method:

After the cake balls are ready refrigerated, melt the chocolate and dip one end of the stick into the melted chocolate, tap off the excess and insert into the rolled cake balls pricking a little less than half way. Again refrigerate it for 30mins to make it set. You cake pops are ready to be enjoyed!! :)

My Notes:

• The cake balls should be as firm as possible says bakerella so refrigerating atleast for an hour is surely recommended.
• Use cooking chocolate or candy melts for the outer layer.

Hope you all had a great sunday and a friendship day! See you soon with the next post, till then have a great week ahead!

Eggless Banana Muffins (Eggless Banana Nut Muffins)

I know many of you might get surprised when I say I dont like bananas in their true form. The only disguise of banana I can have is in the form of milkshakes but after trying these banana muffins I changed my mind :) I found the url while googling for banana muffins and I instantly tried it by halfing the measurements and it came out soo good.

Eggless Banana Muffins Recipe

Recipe Reference : Paajaka

Ingredients:

• Flour - 3/4 cup minus 1 tbsp (125 gms)
• Banana - 2 big sized (I used moris yellow variety like the ones in the pics)
• Oil - 1/4 cup (60 ml) - You can replace with butter too
• Granulated Sugar - 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp (65 gms)
• Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp (optional)
• Walnut finely chopped - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Sieve maida, baking soda and baking powder atleast twice, keep aside.
2. Peel the skin of the banana and mash them well (I grinded it to a smooth paste). Add oil, milk, vanilla essence and mix well. Fold in sugar and mix well until sugar completely dissolves.
3. Add sieved maida , baking powder and baking soda mixture and mix well until a creamy mixture is formed. Add the chopped walnuts, reserve little for topping.
4. Preaheat oven to 190 deg C. Meanwhile spoon the mixture in the muffin tray till 3/4th, , add in the remaining walnuts and bake it for 20-27mins. Check in after 25mins and bake accordingly.

My Notes:

• I have tried with the same measurement with 1/8 cup of oil and 1/8 cup of milk instead of full 1/4 cup oil and the muffins texture and tastewise there was no much of difference.
• You can use any type of banana, I used Moris yellow variety. Adjust sugar according to the banana variety you choose.
• The muffins raise up well in the first 15mins of baking itself. For the above mentioned measurement I got 5 medium sized muffins.
• It is very soft and fluffy and keeps well for 2 days.
• Dont skip adding nuts the crunchiness is too good with the banana flavour.

When I tried it for the first time the top was cracked, though I took these set of pics, I thought I have gone wrong somewhere so didnt mean to post it. Once when I saw banana muffins in a famous english bakery here the top was fully cracked, also after discussing with friends I made up mind that I had not gone wrong anywhere. And now me and hubby who are so aversed to banana enjoy these muffins to the core.

My hubby tasted these muffins and just loved it that he wanted another batch the next day itself :) Its kind of addictive the vanilla essence with the banana flavour tastes out of the world. Though vanilla essence is not given in the orginal recipe we liked the blend of flavours so I recommend adding it.

As usual my texture showing technique ;)

My only plight while baking muffins is the muffin liners as the ones I had were too small for the muffin tray I own so this time I didnt use liners at all. Now finally I've found one that fits my tray though not so colorful and fancy. Wait for my other muffin posts to see them in action :)

Veg Seekh Kebabs / Moong Dhal Kababs in Oven - Step by Step Recipe | Kebab Starters

I havent tasted veg kebabs in restaurants so when I saw this Moong dhal kebab recipe in Tarladalal website I wanted to give a instant try. We all loved the outcome of the tasty homemade kebabs. I was not satisified with the kebabs pics but had to go with these as I have no time in hand to make it and click again.I was so tired taking the stepwise pics with no leftout energy to click the main pics - Now that justifies the not so good pics he he :)

Veg Seekh Kebabs Recipe:

Recipe Source : Tarladalal

Makes around 10-12 kebabs

Ingredients:

• Moong dal - 1 cup
• Boiled Potato - 1
• carrot - 1 grated
• Onion - 1 chopped finely
• Capsicum - 1 chopped finely
• Chilli powder - 2 tsp
• Garam masala - 1/4 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Chaat masala - 1/2 tsp
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Oil - for brushing

I also referred to Raks Kitchen for these kebabs. Check out here too for the detailed explanation with stepwise

Method:

Pressure cook moong dhal until mushy for about 3-4 whistles. Smash it well and add potatoes, ginger garlic paste, chat masala, garam masala , chilli and turmeric powder and mix well.

Heat a tsp of oil in a nonstick pan and add the mixture, keep stirring until the dhal starts turning to golden brown in color.



Add all the veggies : carrot , onion and capsicum, required salt and mix well. Preheat the oven to 220 deg C for 10mins. Meanwhile take a skewer and a lemon sized ball from the dough. Stick along the skewer vertically as shown in the pic.



Seal it well so that it doesnt open. Dont make the kebabs thick make a thin layer along the skewers for it cook well inside. Brush oil generously on the kebabs and bake them for 20 to 25mins or until the kebabs turn browned. Turn in between after 15mins to the other side.

Serve hot with green chutney or tomato sauce accompanied with sliced raw onions, tomato and lemon.

My Notes:

• Make sure to make only a thin layer along the skewers else the inside will not get cooked. I made this mistake for the first test batch of 2 kebabs and made it thin in all other kebabs.
• The kebabs are crispy on the outside and soft inside.
• The above mentioned quantity makes around 10-12 kebabs.
• The mode should be in bake, dont change it to grill as the outcome will be different.
• You can also add bread while adding potatoes.

The kebabs can be deep fried also for those of you who dont own a oven. Make the kebabs as per the same method as above and deep fry them until golden brown.

This is sure a healthy and tasty veg starter that can be easily prepared at home.

Bread Cup Pizza and Bread Channa Cups | Bread Cups

I have seen and tasted cup pizza at Nilgiris and I badly wanted to try it with the normal pizza dough recipe. Fortunately when I saw the bread cup channa chat recipe at Nithis space, I took the idea of bread cups from there and took the short route of making the bread cup pizza :) I also tried the channa in bread cups as in the orginal recipe and I luved both of them. As the cup pizza ingredients are instant and readily available in most of our kitchens, I almost make these cup pizzas everytime I buy bread.

As I have mentioned in this space so many times, I luv bread in any form so this adds another feather to the cap :)

Bread Cup Pizza Ingredients:

• Bread(white or wheat) - 3 slices
• Butter - 1 tsp
• Capsicum - a handful finely chopped
• Onion - a handful finely chopped
• Pizza sauce - 2 tbsp
• Tomato Ketchup - 1 tbsp
• Cheese - 2 tbsp ( as required to cover the topping)

Method:

1. First cut the edges of the bread. Now cut circles using a round cookie cutter or a container lid. Flatten the bread circles using a chappathi roller. Dont try to stretch too much, just flatten a bit.
2. Apply butter slightly on both sides of the circles. Now spread the pizza sauce in the 3 slices and then gently fit in the muffin pan. I didnt grease the muffin pan.
3. As shown in the below pic I left three bread cups empty to bake and then after baking filled it up with channa masala.
4. For the remaining 3 breadcups for making bread cup pizza, add capsicum, onion on top of the pizza sauce. Grate the cheese over it then finally add tomato sauce in each of the cups.
5. Preheat the oven to 190 deg C and bake it for 10-12mins until the bread turns slightly golden brown at the corners.My bread cups were done exactly in 12mins. They were firm and cripsy to hold the filling.

Bread Channa Cups Ingredients:

• Bread(milk or wheat) - 3 slices
• Butter - 1 tsp
• Onion - 1/2 finely chopped
• Chat Chutneys - 1 tbsp in each (optional) - I had no stock so didnt add :)
• Channa Masala - 3 tbsp
• Coriander leaves - 3 tsp

For assembling the Channa Cups:

1. Once the bread cups are done, add channa masala with less gravy as it will make the bread cups soggy.
2. Then add the onions, drizzle the dates and green chutney if you are adding and garnish with coriander leaves.
3. Your bread channa cup chat is ready :)

My Notes:

• The filling is endless you can even add paneer, babycorn , tomato etc as we do for normal pizzas
• If you are using wheat bread, check carefully after 10mins as the browning doesnt show up clearly as in white bread
• If you use milk bread variety then flattening it will crumble the bread so flatten it slightly or even fit it in the muffin pan without flattening it
• It is easy to hold and eat and truely fancy to attract the kids
• You can also use the bread as such with the edges, no need to trim it. It tastes good even with the bread edges, I have tried that way too.

Eggless Mango Cake / Mango Loaf Bread

I wanted to utilise the mango season completely and no mango recipe collection is complete with a mango cake...Agree?! I have seen mango cakes, muffins and bread in so many blogs and when I wanted to try I went ahead searching for them. The one that suited my constraints(Yes I wanted a low fat version) was the mango banana bread from litebite. I am always amazed by her low fat baking goodies that I went ahead to try this with few modifications to suit my taste and it turned out super good.

Eggless Mango Cake (Mango Loaf Bread)

Recipe Source : Litebite.in



Ingredients:

• Maida - 1 cup (150 gms)
• White Rava(fine variety) - 1/2 cup (100 gms)
• Mango - 1 big sized
• Walnuts chopped - 2 tbsp
• Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cup (200 gms)
• Curd - 1/4 cup (60 ml)
• Olive oil - 2 tbsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Salt - a pinch
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Chop the mangoes and puree it without water to get a thick pulp. Keep aside.
2. Sift maida, baking soda, baking powder and salt atleast twice for even spread of baking powder and soda.Now add rava to the maida mixture, keep aside.
3. In a seperate bowl, add oil,yogurt, mango pulp, cardamom powder,sugar and mix well till sugar is completely dissolved.
4. Now add the curd mango mixture to rava maida mixture slowly and mix until a thick batter is formed. Add chopped walnuts and mix once. Reserve 1 tbsp of walnuts for topping.
5. Preheat the oven at 190 deg C for 10mins. Meanwhile grease the pan with little oil and sprinkle maida. Arrange butter paper if you use it(I use for most of the cake for easy unmoulding).
6. Transfer the batter to the cake pan. Top the cake batter with remaining chopped walnuts and bake it for 35-40mins at 190 degree C.In my OTG it took exactly 40mins for the mango bread to get baked.
7. The top would have turned to a golden brown color by this time. Check with a toothpick in the center of the cake and if it comes out clean then ur cake is done.Cool it for atleast 15mins before you unmould and slice them

I dont miss to use a butter paper these days as its mess free to unmould and cleaning the pan is also easy. For the tart mould I didnt even grease but still unmoulding was super easy.



My Notes:

• I used a bread loaf pan and 3 small tart moulds.You can use a normal cake pan but see to it that the pan is as big as to hold the batter only to 1/2 or slightly more than the pan .
• The baking time totally depends on the cake mould and the oven, usually my bread loaf pan takes a little longer so it took me 40mins. So keep an eye after 30mins and then extend baking time accordingly.
• The cake in the tart moulds were done in 20mins. Only the bread loaf pan took 40mins to complete.So if you are planning for muffins it will take just 20-30mins.
• Adding sooji gives a wonderful texture to the cake. Mango and cardamom combination is heavenly so dont skip it.
• The orginal recipe calls for only 1/2 cup sugar but I felt my mangoes were not that sweet so I used 3/4 cup and it was perfect.
• As the cake uses mango pulp, it keep well only for 2 days. Dont refrigerate the cake, as it would become hard.

Mango, curd and rava gives a wonderful texture to the cake/bread that the cake came out beyond my expectation that everyone loved it at home. The nutty crunch in every bite tasted out of the world...yummmy.

The mango bread looked so lovely that my camera didnt stop clicking at all :) The smell of the mango cake while it was baking was too gud that I cudnt move out of the kitchen. Usually I like cutting cakes into pieces and when it comes to slicing breads I just luv them and this cakes texture was just perfect to make slices. Trust me and go ahead to try this cake.

Making a blog post has become like one of my daily chores these days and I feel so much contented after making each new post and each comment I moderate justifies the hard work I put in for that post. Thank you readers :)