Aval Upma | Poha Upma | Flattened Rice Upma with Vegetables

Whenever I run out of time for making breakfast or even for dinner, the first thing comes to my mind is aval upma. Instead going for Maggie, we make this for dinner some times. Since it is rice flakes it gives u tummy full feeling when had a little and they are rich in nutrition. Adding roasted peanuts gives a crunchy effect to the soft poha. You can even try adding roasted cashews.

Aval will swell after adding any type of liquids, either water or milk. But too much of soaking in water may give a soggy texture. So just give a quick soaking time in water before starting up with the recipe. Check outanother recipe for aval here. 

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10-15 minutes

Mochakottai Sundal | Valor Beans Sundal Recipe

The simplest snacks which can be done in just five mins are sundal. This could be the healthiest snack which u can even serve ur children. TH likes this version of sundal with the masala powders. I prefer to have it with the grated coconut alone and tempered on top. You can try this either way and I bet both are equally good. I used amchur powder to give a little sourness to the dish. And adding this is an optional. You can even try adding chaat masala.

Check out my other version of sundal with moong dal.

Preparation time: 6 hours (soaking time)

Cooking time: 5 mins

How to make PavBhaji Masala | PavBhaji Masala Recipe

Back, after a long vacation… It was our anniversary and we celebrated it in LasVegas. Wow!!! Watta place to hang out for a vacation. It was all fun there and no mood to return back home… wen ever to get come here, neva miss the Caesar Palace Buffet. It was all time awesome and worth the money. It took us nearly 2 hours to finish off the entire buffet. OMG!!!

Now back to my kitchen, trying new recipes and posting it… I decided to try some north Indian foods for our dinner one day. I thought of making pav bhaji at home and got an idea of using hamburger buns instead of pan. It was the exact replica of the pavbhaji we get to have in the streets of Mumbai. I referred to Vahchef to get this recipe for bhaji and added veggies of my choice. 

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Walnut Brownie Recipe

This post was sleeping in my list for more than a month and here the time comes to share this beautiful recipe. This is the first time am trying a brownie at home. We usually buy a box of brownie from Costco and it comes for the entire month for snacking. 

Suddenly I gave thought of trying a brownie at home and this was super delicious. Since am new to baking I just adapted the basic brownie recipe and added walnut to it. Check out more about Chocolate muffins and Eggless Vanilla Cake.

Green Gram Sundal | Green Moong Dal Sundal | Pasi Payaru Sundal |Sundal Recipes for Navarathri

Navarathri is around the corner and it’s high time to make different varieties of sundal every day to serve ur guest. Sundal is actually a healthy dish that you can serve as an evening snack. Sundal will hot tea are the best snack ever. All the chennaities will know flavor of this hot sundal we get in Marina Beach and their Molaga Bajji will never compensate with others. Ahh!!!  Missing those badly… neva mind!!!  Coming to the recipe, Sundals are easy to make and healthy to have. You just have to spend 5 mins for making this awesome sundal.

I tried Sundal with green gram (since I had lots at home) and temper it with the usual items and mixed with a flavorful masala. It tasted delicious and fulfilled our evening… The same recipe can also be followed for other lentils too... Let’s move on to the recipe quickly…

Preparation time: 4-5 hours (soaking time)

Cooking time: less than 5 mins

Cheesy Garlic Bread Recipe - Quick & Simple Garlic Bread Recipe

Garlic bread is something which am greatly impressed with. We used to buy the Instant garlic bread from Walmart for our snacking things. On a good day I came to know abt the recipe for this delicious bread and from then on the first snack which comes to my mind is Garlic Bread. I sometimes make this for the breakfast too.

If u have left out bread at home and ur not in a mood to make sandwiches or toast, try this out and am sure you will love it. It can also be served as an appetizer for the parties at home and it is really easy to prepare.

Check out the recipe for chilli cheese toast

Preparation time: 5-6 mins

Cooking time: 3-4 mins

Chocolate Muffins Recipe | 100th Blog Post

I wanted to share something new which I haven’t tried it before. You must be asking me, why, wats spl??? Yes!!! This post is something special to me. This is my 100^th post and am so excited!!! I must thank all the readers and friends for the constant encouragement. Your feedback means a lot to me. Keep posting it...

On this happy occasion I thought of sharing a sweet recipe with you all.  But something insisted me to post a recipe which I haven’t tried before. Yeah, its muffin… this is my first muffin recipe, which is a basic one. As a chocolate lover, I tried a simple and easy chocolate muffin. You can innovate it by ur choice of adding more and more ingredients. 

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20-30 minutes

Reshmi Kabab Recipe

I and TH always have a love towards tandoor, tikka and kababs. It has less oil and we love the way it’s been grilled. I make different tikkas at home since it is easy to do. You just need to marinate the chicken with the paste and the grill will take care the rest of the cooking . You don’t have to bug spending time inside the kitchen near the hot oil burning with heat and all that. And more importantly it doesn’t need much oil as I previously mentioned.

TH always helps me in doing a tikka… actually he loves to do make tikka on his own. I have already posted few recipes on chicken hariyali tikka and also chickentikka. These can be served as a starter when u has party at home. Make sure u serve the tikkas to be really hot, else it will turn rubbery. So start doing after ur guest's arrival.

This time we tried making reshmi kabab. When I heard the name of it, I was wondering why the name came. It is made with almonds and onions paste. I love the taste of this raw paste itself. Since TH was rounding around to taste this kabab, I took the pics very fast. So I don’t find time to decorate it.  Serve this kabab with sliced onions. 

Khaman Dhokla | Dhokla Recipe

Chicken Tikka

Chicken Tikka is one which I wanted to make for years and now the time arrived. I always use to mention TH as a chicken addict.  He is the one who helped me to do this tikka out so perfectly… oops!!! Sorry, I should say in the other way. I was the one who helped him a little in doing this!!! Yes this recipe is completely from his side.

 The one, who never ever used to come inside the kitchen, took this as a new venture in cleaning, marinating and broiling the chicken. And, I silently watched what he does and kept clicking the photos for uploading. Hmmm!!!  How nice is it, if somebody cooks and u needs to just click the pics alone... ahmm 

Tikkas are generally made in tandoor. But here we used the grill oven that we use for baking. We used the skewers to cook the chicken. This method doesn’t need much oil as we use for the normal chicken fries.

Preparation time: 2 hours

Cooking time: 20-30 mins

Chilli Cheese Toast | Easy Breakfast Recipe

Preparation time: 2-3 minutes

Cooking time: 6-7 minutes

Serves: 1-2

Inspried from: Sanjeevkapoor khazana

Bread-Veggie Cutlet | Instant Tea-time Snack

If u has a pack of bread in hand and you are bored on the same sandwiches and upma, here comes the savior. You can turn ur bread into a yum-sum tea time snack. You should not worry about the extra pounds ur gaining cos of this.

I had few slices of bread which is expiring the next day.  I don’t want to throw it away simply, so I used it in the usual cutlet as a binding agent instead of besan. These cutlets are really very soft. If u desires a crisper version, add 1tsp of rice flour. To make it much interesting u can put the patties in between the normal buns and make a veggie burger. 

Cauliflower Pakoda | Cauliflower Pakora Recipe

I generally don’t prefer to spend time on doing snacks. I prefer to avoid recipes which are deep fried for health concerns. Just to avoid making all this bajjis and bondas, I don’t even have a rack for besan in my kitchen. But now am pushed to get a packet of besan to make use of the frozen cauliflower-broccoli packet which is sleeping in my refrigerator for a long period. TH doesn’t like cauliflowers and broccoli even if it is cooked to perfection. I wanted to make him eat those and the climate which is raining here for almost a week insisted me to cook a pakoda/pakora (which ever u call)…

Who will not like to have a delicious, hot and spicy cauliflower pakoda with a cup of cardamom tea in this chill and rainy climate? Try this out and let me know the comments … 

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10-15 minutes

Serves: 4-5

Rice Pakodas - Rice Pakoras - Recipe with the left over rice

This happens to most of us… yeah..!! For me a big head ache is “LEFT OVER” Food items… I don’t like to preserve food in refrigerator. Even if I refrigerate I ll not store more than a day.  I feel it is not good for the health.  I made Egg fried rice yesterday and I cooked rice in excess and I don’t have any other option rather dumping in fridge. But suddenly I got an idea of making it as pakodas as like we get in the streets of South-India. They use besan with lots of onions in it. Here I used the cooked rice as my base with onions in it. I was really very happy for not wasting my food and I turned it into a delicious tea-time snack. This post will definitely help u I believe… 

Preparation time: 3-4 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes