Category: Any Time Foods

Egg and Cheese Chutney Sandwich 

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Some of the regular dishes at home never make it to the blog. It could be that I feel it’s too simple for a blog, but these recipes are gems as well. So here I am today with an oft repeated lunchbox or brunch recipe at my place. It’s not a recipe as such, to be honest, but it’s a tasty dish that’s quick to put together. 

My family loves egg and cheese croissants from Dunking donuts. But it was my friend Purnima who served it as a sandwich with an Indian touch to it. Bread toasted in a bit of butter with a chutney that packs flavor with my favorite egg and cheese combination….it’s delicious! 

The egg and cheese combination as a filling works out good for tortilla or roti as well. Covering the pan while cooking on a low heat helps the cheese melt better. 

Read on for the pictorial and recipe.  
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Serves 1

Recipe source: My friend Purnima 

Ingredients:

  • 2 slices of bread 
  • 1 teaspoon readymade green chutney/sandwich chutney 
  • One slice of cheese 
  • One large egg 
  • A little Butter for greasing the pan

Method:

Heat a little butter in a pan. Crack an egg, season with salt and pepper. let the bottom cook. Flip it over using a silicone spatula. Let the top cook too. 

Once you flip it over, add a slice of cheese on top. The heat will melt it slightly. 

Meanwhile Spread some green sandwich chutney onto the bread slices. Slowly remove the egg and cheese from the pan and carefully keep it on the bread. 

Spread some butter in the pan if you wish. Return the bread with the egg filling back to the pan. Cover and cook in medium to low flame for a few minutes until the bottom is golden brown. Flip over and cover and cook  until the top also turns golden. You can add sriracha or any other hot sauce also along with the green chutney on the sandwich. 

Pack for the lunchbox or serve with ketchup for a hearty brunch with a strong cup of coffee. 

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Chocolate peanut butter energy bites

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Oh please don’t be surprised! I did mention in yesterday’s post that I made the energy bites a couple of times. This was a variation of the recipe I tried. But don’t worry, this is the only variation for now. 

For this recipe, I kept the quantity of the base items – oats, peanut butter and honey -the same as yesterday. The rest is just whatever I had in my pantry that day!

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I had some dates that needed to be used up, so those were chopped and soaked in hot water for sometime. After draining and squeezing out the water, it came to about 1/4 cup. To avoid the water content, I would just chop them up or pulse them in a blender and add the next time. These didn’t last for a long time, so I needn’t have worried about the moisture from the dates. 

To make it a chocolate version, I added a little unsweetened cocoa to the mix. The raw taste of cocoa felt a little strange initially. I did get used to it, but maybe I will add Nutella or hot chocolate for the chocolate flavor the next time. 

Read on for the recipe. 
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Ingredients:

  • 1 cup oatmeal
  • 2/3 cup peanut butter*
  • 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 cup butterscotch chips
  • 1/3 cup raisins
  • 1/4 cup dates, soaked in hot water (about 8 dates)
  • 2 Tablespoons sunflower seeds
  • 2 Tablespoons honey
  • 2-3 tablespoons desiccated coconut, optional 

*You can start with 1/2 cup and then add a couple more tablespoons extra if needed.

Method:

  1. Add all the ingredients to a bowl. Mix with a silicon spatula until everything is combined well.
  2. Using your hands take a small portion of the mix and roll into a ball. If the dough is sticky, refrigerate for a few minutes. Once you are done with all the dough, roll them over a thin layer of desiccated coconut to coat it. Refrigerate the balls to set firm. 
  3. I got about 20 balls with this set of ingredients.

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Oats Peanut butter energy balls

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Recipes don’t have to be elaborate. They can be as simple as mixing ingredients in a bowl and shaping them. That’s what this recipe is about. And it gets better, not only is this a less than five minute recipe, you can adjust the ingredients based on what you have in your pantry. I have already made this couple of times and I am falling in love more with each time.

The recipe is a pretty basic one with oats and peanut butter. Everything else is an addition. The original recipe mentioned about 1 cup oats and 2/3 cup peanut butter along with 1/2 cup flax seed powder. I didn’t have flax seeds, so I replaced that with 1/4 cup each of wheat bran and chia seeds. Desiccated coconut, wheat germ, nuts, chopped dates, protein powder would all be good substitutes here. Or you can just have peanut butter and oats with maybe some raisins. You have to cut down the peanut butter a little or add a little more oats to stop the dough being sticky or too dry. I don’t remember the original source from where I tried this recipe,  but this one from allrecipes is very close.

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Once you add everything to the bowl, its a good idea to mix with a spoon or a silicon spatula. Because of the peanut butter, the mixture might be somewhat sticky. If you are not able to roll into balls, refrigerate it for a few minutes for the mix to rest. That should help with rolling. I didn’t have to do that, though. Else add a little more oatmeal or wheat bran to even out the stickiness from peanut butter. Or you can start with 1/2 cup peanut butter and then add a couple more tablespoons if needed.

I left the energy bites in the fridge itself to set. But most of it got devoured before it made it to the safety corner in the refrigerator.

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Ingredients:

  • 1 cup oatmeal
  • 2/3 cup peanut butter*
  • 1/4 cup wheat bran
  • 1/4 cup chia seeds
  • 1/3 cup chocolate chips
  • 2 Tablespoons honey

*You can start with 1/2 cup and then add a couple more tablespoons extra if needed.

Method:

  1. Add all the ingredients to a bowl. Mix with a silicon spatula until everything is combined well.
  2. Using your hands take a small portion of the mix and roll into a ball. If the dough is sticky, refrigerate for a few minutes. Once you are done with all the dough, refrigerate for the balls to set firm. Eat as you wish!
  3. This recipe made about 20 one inch energy balls for me. That number would depend on the size of the bites.

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Mayo lemon sauce 

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Some recipes are elaborate, but some are as simple as mixing everything together. This recipe here is of the latter kind. 

A simple and delicious sauce made with a few ingredients, it was a perfect addition to the burrito bowl I served sometime back. This recipe is from the book Travel, Surf, Cook by Salt and Silver, which was also the source for last week’s Cafe De olla recipe. 

This recipe goes to this week’s Cooking from cookbook event by Valli. Read on for the recipe. 


Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise 
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon yellow mustard 
  • 1 teaspoon vinegar 
  • 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce 
  • Black pepper per taste
  • Juice of one lemon

Method: 

  1. Mix everything well in a bowl. Adjust the ingredients according to your taste. Serve with chips. I served this as part of a burrito bowl with black beans. 

Cocoa Cranberry Pancakes

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Pancakes are excellent treats in the mornings. These are great for lunchbox as well. The flavor can be adjusted to your liking. The book in which I found the recipe gave me many to choose from and my son asked me to make cocoa & cranberry  pancakes from the lot. 

So the recipe below is the base recipe. You can play around and add your own flavors. Thanks to the Cooking from Cookbook event, I am referring a lot more to my cookbooks than the internet. 

Read below for the recipe!
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Recipe source: The Perfect Egg Book

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 cup buttermilk 
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter or oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
  • Melted butter for the pan

For cocoa cranberry pancakes, add 1/3 cup cocoa powder to the dry ingredients. Gently stir in 1 cup dried cranberries into the batter before preparing the pancakes. 

Method:

  1. Whisk the dry ingredients together. 
  2. Stir in the eggs, melted butter, buttermilk, vanilla extract. Mix gently until you don’t see any more dry lumps. Add the cranberries and fold it in. 
  3. Heat melted butter in a skillet and add 1/4 cup of batter to it. Cook the pancakes and flip it over to cook the top side too. Finish off the rest of the batter, adding butter to the pan as needed. Recipe serves two. 

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This goes to Cooking from Cookbook Challenge Group.
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Mango Popsicle

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BM # 77: Week 1, Day 1
Theme : Vegan Sweets
Recipe:  Mango popsicle

My well filled draft folder contains a tons of bakes, but unfortunately not even a single vegan bake that I could use for this week’s Blogging Marathon theme. So, just like last month, I had to do some last minute cooking.

The recipe here actually has no cooking involved, but its an extremely delicious one and satisfies your sweet buds. Mangoes and summer has a beautiful relation, one that my family really enjoys. Unfortunately, except for a few days here and there, the weather here is still on the chilly side. But with the knowledge that good weather is just around the corner definitely makes everything  better.

Along with the mangoes, I used homemade strawberry jam for the popsicle. I do’t know whether that was a good move. The strawberry jam consists only the fruit and sugar, so that’s vegan too. But the jam took a lot more time to freeze than the mangoes and started melting a lot before too. We were able to enjoy the popsicle without a melt down, but the next time I am using jam, I would blend it along with the fruit than use it as a stand alone layer.

So enjoy this wonderful vegan summer treat. Check out the simple, but delicious recipe below.

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Ingredients:

  • 1 big mango
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • strawberry jam, optional
  • water

Method:

  1. Blend mango with sugar to get a smooth puree. Add water if needed to get a smooth consistency.
  2. Fill a use and throw plastic/paper cup or a popsicle mold with the puree, adding strawberry jam in between to provide an additional flavor and color.
  3. Freeze overnight. Done!

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Ragi puffs chivda

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BM # 73: Week 4, Day 1
Theme : Ingredient swap
Recipe: Ragi puffs chivda

When I met Pavani,Usha and Mireille last month, we exchanged the ingredients for this week’s theme. I picked three ingredients but the funny fact was that I couldn’t guess any of it. Things looked familiar, but spotting them right away would have been impossible for me. If not for Mireille and Usha, I would have spent a lot of time sniffing and tasting and googling about those. :D. Anyway, thanks to my smarter friends, I was able to find out what was in each bag. 

Last and final ingredient for the theme is Ragi puffs. If I am guessing right, these are meant to be eaten as such for a crunchy snack, the concept is same as rice puffs or pori/murmura. I used them in a chivda mix along with oats, rice flakes and cereal. The usual elements of chivda like peanuts and roasted gram are there to add to the crunchy taste. 

Read on for the recipe. 

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This post goes to Blogging Marathon#73. Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this month. 

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Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup oats
  • 1/3 cup rice flakes/poha
  • 3 tablespoons oil, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • a good pinch of asafoetida/hing
  • 1/4 cup peanuts/ broken cashews
  • 2 tablespoon pottu kadalai/roasted chana dal
  • 1 green and red chilli each
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
  • salt as needed
  • 1/2 cup ragi puffs
  • 1/3 cup corn flakes or cereal of your choice – Special K, vanilla almond here

Method:

  1. In a heated pan, dry roast the oats first. Once its toasted, transfer it to a medium to big bowl. We will use the bowl for mixing everything together.
  2. Now, toast the rice puffs or rice flakes in the same pan. Once toasted, add it to the oats mix. Once the rice flakes are done, toast the ragi puffs next and add it to the bowl. Do not toast the cereal. It should be added directly to the chivda.
  3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Tip in the green and red chillies and hing. Follow it up with peanuts and roasted chana. Keep an eye on the nuts and saute with a spoon to prevent it from burning. Add the turmeric powder and chilli powder along with salt as needed.
  4. Now add this mix to the big bowl with oats and poha and ragi puffs. Add the Special K cereal as well. Add two more tablespoons of oil to prevent it from drying out. Mix everything well carefully. Transfer to an airtight container.

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Guacamole

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BM # 72; Week 1, Day 2
Theme : Dips, spreads and chutneys
Recipe : Guacamole

Given the fact that I had waited until the last minute for this week’s blogging and also that the theme was an easy one, I decided to prepare all the three recipes on the same day so that I can get the photo shoot done in a single session. That way I didn’t have to brave the cold outside three times.

The good part about the winter here is that its sunny even when its cold. In UK, the sun is overcast most of the time because of the frequent rains. The winter starts getting really gray and gloomy after sometime. But here its sunny, so its hard to be depressed even if its cold. Some silver lining, right?

Coming to the recipe here, its Guacamole. I love avocado and this is one fine way to enjoy it. The recipe is very simple with a few ingredients. Mash avocados, add a few things and tada…dish (dip) ready! We had it as a part of burrito bowl yesterday.

Read on for the recipe.
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Recipe source: All recipes

Ingredients:

  • 2 avocados
  • juice from 1/2 lemon
  • salt
  • pinch cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 red onion, chopped finely
  • 1 tomato, chopped very finely

Method:

  1. Mash the flesh of the avocados with salt and lemon juice using a fork. Add the cayenne pepper, finely chopped onion and tomatoes. Mix with a spoon. Serve immediately or refrigerate until the time of serving.

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Sriracha fry sauce

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BM # 72
Week 1, Day 1
Theme : Dips, spreads and chutneys

If passion can make people conquer mountains and swim through oceans, I should at least be able to brave the cold weather outside to get some good pictures for this week’s blogging, rt? So that’s what happened today.

To begin with, my house doesn’t receive a good amount of sunlight. And on top of that, I can’t seem to manipulate the little light that I get. With the winter season, clicking pictures is becoming more and more of a difficult task.

So today, I did what I have been doing all this while before winter disrupted it. I stepped into the balcony, set everything up for the photo shoot, clicked pictures and then came back inside. It doesn’t seem like much, but imagine doing that when its -14 Celsius outside. Yes, there is a minus there. My hands and legs were numb within the couple of minutes I was out there.

It snowed two days back, so it was a lot brighter. Snow reflects light and everything is a lot brighter. The pictures would have been a lot better in more capable hands, but right now, I will take what I got. So adventure of the day : 3 posts done, braved the weather to click pictures, edited and finally, posting on time…..Can someone give a medal, please :D?

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Recipe source: Life, a little brighter 

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 3 tablespoon ketchup
  • 1 teaspoon sriracha
  • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
  • a pinch of paprika
  • salt, pepper, per taste

Method:

  1. Mix everything together in a bowl using a whisk until everything is well combined. Taste test, adjust seasonings if you need to. Serve with chips or fries.

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Fry sauce is a very simple dip, made with mayonnaise and ketchup. Some people add salt, pepper and vinegar to it. And this version has sriracha as well.It pairs well with French fries, chips and has a tangy, sweet and spicy twist to it.

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Chocolate Strawberry Chia Pudding

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BM # 70

Week 2, Day 3

Theme :Fruit based Recipes 

One look at Sapana’s chia pudding recipe yesterday and I knew what I had to make for Day 3. My son is not a fan of chia seeds when added to milkshakes, but I thought its time to assess his reaction to puddings. The kid really enjoyed and finished off two (mini) servings happily. It did help that the flavor was chocolate with a lavish layer of strawberry preserve in between.

Me and my camera are still in the readjusting phase, so hopefully the pictures will start getting better in a few weeks. Until then, this is how its going to be..It could be worse, so I am ok with these for now. Read on for the recipe and my determination to finish off my Costco hot chocolate packets.

This post goes to Blogging Marathon# 70. Check out this page to see posts from other participating bloggers.

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Recipe Inspiration : Sapana’s blog

Makes 4 mini servings

Ingredients:

For chocolate layer 

  • 2 tablespoon chia seeds
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 packet hot chocolate

For strawberry layer

  • 2 tablespoon chia seeds
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 small cup of strawberry yogurt

To assemble

  • chocolate chia pudding
  • 4 teaspoons strawberry preserve
  • strawberry chia pudding
  • a few slices of banana for topping

Method:

  1. Mix everything for the chocolate layer in a bowl with room to expand.
  2. Mix the strawberry layer in a separate pan. Refrigerate both overnight.
  3. The next morning, layer four small glasses with a layer of strawberry preserve in between and serve.

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