Healthy Ice Apple Dessert - Dieters Choice

Last Year I had Shared A Recipe Of Ice Apple With Milk, Which I Titled As FLOATING ICE APPLE IN MILKY PARADISE Check Out If You Haven't Seen Yet!!

This recipe is sister version of the above title mentioned, but a very healthy and low calorie treat.

Every Summer mom makes sure we get some ice apples and we consume it, as it is (whole fruit) skin peeled or making this yummy light dessert.

When mom brought this yesterday she asked me to make the dessert. Ice apples fused with milk gives real yumm taste, and really worth trying this way once.  I made very much as it is made always, But this healthier alternative strike my mind. I took out some the batch to try the innovation my way.

It was when I started adding sugar!! Sugar??? Ok I should admit im trying to omit sugar from my diet, unless and until im not giving a real treat to myself!! Or there is a shout from my family come-on have it!!

Time taken to prepare - 5 mins
Servings - 2

Ingredients :
Full Cream Milk/ skimmed milk - 1 cup (boiled and cooled)
Ice Apple - 6-8 (peeled & chopped)
Dates - 7-8 or more (chopped)
Basil seeds - 2 tsp
Almonds - 1tbsp (blanched) Sliced

Method:
- Add milk, ice apple and dates in a bowl and keep it inside fridge for 4-5hrs for flavors to infuse with each other
- Soak basil seeds in water for 15-20 mins and keep it in fridge for cooling separately
- Check for sweetness while serving. By this time dates would have soaked in milk nicely, mixing its sweetness to the dessert.
- Add in basil seeds (drain extra water) and almonds just before serving.
Serve it Chill.

Notes:
- If you want you can add sugar if you feel sweetness of dates is not enough.
- Basil seeds gives really soothing effect while eating
- Almonds give gud crunchiness.
- Shelf life of this is 6-8hrs, If milk and fruit is kept like that for longer time, it will produce a kind of stickiness which cannot be consumed.
- Its always better to add basil seeds while serving, I fear it may get sticky quick. 
- You can add more dates than mentioned above it will not effect the taste.

Personally I liked this combination alot!! It was just different and biggest thing was a big Healthy Tag It was Carrying :) It was a guilt free indulgence!!

Variation (For Guests)
- You can add condensed milk for richer taste.
- Use dates paste instead of pieces, this will give more dominance to taste of dates.
- Add in vanilla ice cream while serving.
- Can add in more dry fruits if desired.
- Add some amt of rose syrup from top while serving.

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CHICKPEA SALAD

Hey Guys Wats Up?? 
I've Been Away From Blogging For Sometime, Kept busy With my Family and Cousins and slowly im learning that though Im new To blogging and an enthu blogger as well but I also want to enjoy a quality time with my family :) Yes, Family Friends & Relatives always remind you of food, and trust me its food running in my mind all these days lolzz n also I dint forget to click for blogs :D

Though Im not the one who cooks a lot as complete meal for my Family these days. My cousins r staying at granny's place so my aunt is taking care of cooking & Alhamdulillah my mom's health is fine now so she is on her move to prepare most of the delicacy Im helper behind :D

There R many events going on which I check with updates when ever I have access to my pc, But for some reason like Family and own sake I've kept blogging at back seat for this month alone, yet dont know how the coming up months would move coz we start with Ramdhan Very next month and certainly Im preparing myself yet disturbed on how it might move (Various Reason). And so my stories will go on and on ..............

Lets Get back to the Recipe :)

Arent the pics tempting???? 
Seriously yes!!! This is a very Healthy Salad, Which can be used as a Diet Meal. Snacks and yes also does satisfy your food carvings :)

We R used to make Sundal As all of us know, there r different ways to make it. But I came up Inventing this Recipe For the Sake of High Protein Diet. So here it goes 

Ingredients

Boiled Chickpea - 1 cup
Cabbage Roughly Chopped 1 cup
Onion Chopped - 1 medium / large size as you preffer
Cucumber 1 large, De seeded and chopped
Capsicum - 1 Medium size
Lemon Juice According to taste
Pepper powder as needed
Salt as required
Oil 1 tsp / Butter if u like

What the hell oil doing in a healthy Salad?
Well Just that I cannot stand the Smell and Taste of Raw Onion and Capsicum :) a little alternative to cook them a little and make it edible for me :)

Method:

- Take oil in a pan and put in Onion and capsicum, Cook it for aprox 1 or 2 mins in medium flame till raw smell of onion and capsicum goes but yet the veggies r firm but not soft.
- Add in chickpea and rest of the veggies, Toss well.
- Remove From pan, Add salt, pepper and Lemon Juice According to your preferences :)
You can trust my taste buds for this and Enjoy a Healthy Dish!!!

Notes:

- Do not over cook onion and capsicum if it turns soft you cannot enjoy this dish as a salad
- If you are tolerant to raw onion and capsicum then skip step 1 and proceed
- I removed the seeds from cucumber as I wanted only the crunch part in my salad.
- You can add in more veggies if you like, I used just basic veggies which was available at home.
- I also added more of lemon juice to it, which complimented well along with the entire thing
- I had used left over chickpea

Serves - 2 People as half meal/ 4-6 people as snacks / 1 person Like me can eat the whole plate of it :D

Impression:

The Whole thing is packed with crunchiness Soft Boiled chickpea Goes Well along with this Veggie Platter. Best Enjoyed When ur not in hurry to eat. The more slowly u eat the more you enjoy :). If ur getting late and in hurry to finish it quick then stop it there. Since its too much crunchy to eat you might really not like to eat 

Check out a lovely give away event at Sara's Kitchen Do participate its very simple :)

Linking to  What with my cuppa - 2, Monsoon Temptations, My bowl of snack, Mission explore foods : Lentils

 

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Finger millet Pan Cakes

Generally known as Ragi!! We call it Mandua, Ragulu in Telegu and Khizvaragu in Tamil. In English its also known as Red Millet. Done With names!!! Through out my childhood ive heard about this Ragi!! have seen it too, but mom never made an attempt to make anything out of it at home she was simple not interested!!! Like wise many things went unnoticed at my home just because mom dint like to use I come to know via net and share with her mostly, and there she is telling history of those things dated back from Orrisa lolzz!! When I asked why she never used that thing? she would say I dont like!!!

True!!! Mum's Always decide our menu. But I Guess Im going to be a different mum :P  In Shaa Allahu in future Im going to make my kids taste everything possible Halal for us :P 

Now it happened that since mom and dad R diabetic and keep putting my tantrums with my own menu which is difficult for mom to accept that easily she decided lets have a hand on Ragi. She bought those millet and 1st washed it Drain the water and Sun Dried it for a day!! Then gave it to mill for grinding. We got freshly ground Ragi flour!!!

Getting back to the Recipe
Mom asked me to make pan cakes. I asked If she had prepared earlier? she said no, I tot ok lets try, So as usual I mix wheat flour for wheat dosa, I plainly too 4 tablespoon of flour and started my work, I was skeptical but we had an idea If this dont turn out gud?? we shall mix wheat flour to adjust the consistency.

So get set Go!! Aara on Work Lazy me I dont really work that hard :P

Ingredients:

4 Table Spoon of Finger millet/ Ragi Flour
Salt 1/4th tsp or more if you like
Water Depending upon consistency 
Baking soda / Cooking Soda 1/4th tsp

Method:

Take a Large Mixing Bowl Add Ragi Flour salt and cooking soda.
Slowly mix water to a pouring consistency batter as for pancakes. 
At the begining your might feel its watery, Dont bother Ignore This Status!!!!

Keep it to rest for minimum 15-30 mins and you will find the batter has thickened up to a pretty thick flowing batter :) So here we understand that flour thickens by absorbing moisture from water added.

As It was our 1st attempt, I asked mom If she wanted to make? She asked me to go ahead. 

So I was ready with my almost kinda non stick pan/ tawa.

I 1st rubbed a onion piece onto heating tava so that the base dont stick while cooking. It wasnt needed but dint wanted to risk though!!

When the pan was enough heated. I poured One Laddle Full batter into the Tava and made gentle round by spreading the batter slowly. I also drizzled some oil I allowed one side to cook well. I saw it had bubbles and slowly it showed signs of getting cooked at 1 side.

Then slowly using a spatula removed its sides sticking to pan and flipped it. Allowed it to cook the other side too. 

Here in the pic you can see These pancakes when well roasted are Appearing Golden in color. Some golden spots on other sides too :) Got perfectly cooked Ragi Dosa/ Finger millet pan cakes :)

It can be served Hot Or Even Cold ( room temp). Depends on how you like.
Since the flavor is bland match it up with some spicy dips / Chutney's 

A Very Healthy Breakfast For All. Also can be given to kids in their lunch box,  There are various ways to consume this healthy millet. Hopefully it would be my 1st hand experience making it but I would surely share it here :)

Notes:
- Make sure pan is not much hot, while pouring the batter and spreading it, It might catch up and become lumpy or leave gaps in between. Wipe it with cloth each time, and make sure that the pan is in dropping temp 1st. high the flame once finished rounding up.
- you can also mix wheat flour if you like. 
- You may avoid Soda / baking powder  but you may not get bubbles like this as shown in pic
- You can also re heat it on hot tava again

Here you see crusty edges perfectly cooked!!! Golden roasted From back side. and bubbles spotting caused by cooking soda. 

Finger Millet is Rich Source Of 
High in Energy Level
Protein
Calcium
Phosphorous 

Im sure Many Indians are already Taking this into use. But Thru my post Im also trying to educate Non- Indians And Show Everyone Healthy Way Of Eating :)

What else is needed For a Healthy Treat? to Fulfill the nutritional needs of Elder - Kids in a Family? 

Sending my Entry to Mission Food Whole Grains , Pallavi & Sheelu

Breakfast Recipes

Healthy Diet - Diabetic Friendly Recipes

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Healthy Cabbage Salad

Salad is mixture of cooked/uncooked mixed veggies, fruits & Dressing. Im new to this salad world!! Though we consume raita Quiet often and Call it as Indian Salad But lets take a look from Google Maharaj what salad originally means and how many of us know this????

Definition:  A dish of raw leafy green vegetables, often tossed with pieces of other raw or cooked vegetables, fruit, cheese, or other ingredients and served with a dressing.

Word History: Salt was and is such an important ingredient in salad dressings that the very word salad is based on the Latin word for "salt."


What I can define Salad as??? A mixture of varieties Which is nutritious!! Filling!! and yess not to forget should also be lipsmacking!!

Alrite I go With my statement and I have not added any cheese or mayonnaise  for the salad dressing. As I said im new to this salad world my previous post on salad was also based on cabbage but it was tempered  so I was rather confused to name it a salad or not!!

Coming back to This Recipe I Kept thinking alot!! I had cabbage as my base and what else to be added hmmmmmm after lots of thinking finally got an outline to what I wanted to make

Here It goes!!!

Cabbage Roughly chopped - 1/2 of large cabbage ( put in boiling water and let it rest there for 1 or 2 mins you feel it getting tender, strain the water)
Apple- 1/2 to 1 chopped roughly
Sweet corn 1/4th cup (boiled)
Cucumber 1 large de seeded and chopped roughly
Salt - According to taste
Sugar - 1/4th tsp aprox
Pepper Powder - As per desired
Fresh Thick Curd - 1/4th cup

Take a large Mixing Bowl. Add in all ingredients and give a gud mix, Check For Taste
You should know your taste much better :) Isnt it??? Adjust Salt, Sugar, pepper accordingly. If anywhere you feel you should add more curd go ahead. But make sure Dont make It like a Raita :P We just need a good coating around the veggies and fruit to give it extra taste from dressing, Which can evenly distribute The Seasonings!!!


Here My Colorful Salad Plate Is Ready!!!  What about yours????

Impression:
Crunchy, Munchy, Fruity, Sweet Salty Peppery. All ingredients accommodated well with each other.

Felt Satisfied :D It was liked by all

Feel Free To Give Me Suggestions In Comment Box :) Would love to try more!!!

Sending my entry to My Bowl Of salad

Made With Love Mondays

Heart And Soul Blog Hop

 Healthy Salads Event Hosted by Priya

Healthy Diet - Diabetic Friendly Recipes

Corn Mania - A food Event

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Tadka Daal

Daal Or Simple Lentils Soup For Breads/Plain Rice With Tempering Can Rock Your Household Just for one reason that it can be so simple to cook and yumm to taste :) When ever I feel like making a Rocking Flavorful Daal I go with this recipe

I dont really measure the lentils I use but got into practice of casually adding it and it never went wrong :P instinct sometimes dont let you fail :D


Im Just feeling too tired with all busy schedule going around me It might b humidity killing me or simply that I need some rest for 2-3 days to get charged up lolzz. Tot of putting up blog aside for a while but dint really wanted to neglect it too. So picked up a simple recipe to talk about  and here it goes....................


You can certainly use any kind of daals/ lentils
I used combination of channa daal , yellow daal and toor daal 1/2 cups each
1 Tomato large riped
Green Chillies 2
Salt

Soak all the daals together in water for 2-3 hrs minimum to 6 hrs maximum.
Reason?? : It Helps To Release Pectin. Dried daals/lentils should be soaked overnight before cooking to reduce a type of indigestible complex sugar that causes gas. Make sure to discard the soaking liquid and cook it in fresh water. 

Many people just know soaking is required because its difficult to cook as it is but the scientific reason behind this is known to less!!
Beans like rajma/dried peas/kabuli channa etc can be soaked over night to release complete pectin and get its original size. These legumes will get doubled in size and take  better form for cooking.

Now coming back to the recipe. In a pressure cooker take soaked daals, add considerable amount of water and add in tomatoes, green chillies and salt, Pressure cook for 4-5 whistle depending upon ur cooker and cook until the daals are mashed up and soft, If still you dont get mashed up daals feel free to use daal masher or pressure cook again. Your Daal is Ready!!!!  Let the Daal Rest For a while, You might see it getting thicker. Base on this you can decide the thickness of daal you desire. Either thick ones suitable for roti/ parathas or middle ones best for rice

Now The Most Important Part Tempering/ Tadka!!

Usually I do tadka for the daal soup wholesome as much as it is cooked but this time since only my dad was suppose to eat I took 1 bowl daal and make tempering based on quantity taken.  If your doing tempering for larger quantity which was pressure cooked then adjust the tempering measurements accordingly.

Mustard - 1/4th tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/4th tsp
Red chilli -1
Garlic - 2 small pods or 1 large pod crushed or chopped
Onion small size - 1  chopped
Curry Leaves - Few
Turmeric -  a pinch or more to give nice yellow color to daal (optional) but gives good outlooks
Oil - 1tsp was enough for me

Take oil in a pan you want to make ur tadka in, let it heat, Do not over heat though!!
Add in mustard and allow it to splutter nicely once this is done
Add cumin seeds and red chilli. Dont let cumin seeds burn just a lil brown
Next Add Garlic give a mix and within 5 sec add onion. (to avoid garlic from getting burnt)
Let garlic and onion and garlic brown together add in curry leaves and put in your daal in this pan
Tttttttttuuuuuusshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh comes the sound :) I love this part ;)
Add turmeric (optional) I have added though!!
Now adjust the salt if desired add in chopped coriander leaves bring to boiling point and ur done
Your Delicious Flavorful Daal is Ready!!!!

Notes:
- Cooked Daals tend to get thicker as it cools, So thats the point when you can decide how much thickness you desire, and add in water or just use as it is depending upon your consistency choice.
- I havent used any powdered spices here. And still Daal was Simply Superb!!! Went well along with phulkas
- Since Ive added green chillies while pressure cooking daal at times that much spiciness is enough, In case you want it more spicy, you can add chopped green chillies while adding garlic and onion in tempering process
- Again ive added salt while pressure cooking!! So check for salt and adjust accordingly during tempering
- Sometimes I also add a pinch or 2 of sugar and 1/4th tsp of dry mango powder, It depends on nature of main dish with which your going to combine your daals with


We make lots of different kind of daal based gravies and temperings!!! Hopefully will add them all soon


Sending my entry to  Hosting MLLA # 59, Lisa & Susan

Mission Explore Food: Lentils, Cookcookandcook, Thoushaltcook

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Vermicelli With Chickpea

Ingredients
1 cup vermicelli (I used MTR Vermicelli which i found is far better than other brands)
Boiled Chickpea 1/2 cup
1/2 tsp mustard
2-3 curry leaves 
1 green chillie minced
1/2 tsp urad dal (black gram)
1 small onion sliced
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (optional - only for the colour)
1-2 tso oil 

Cooking Level : Simple

Method:

- Boil 3 cups of water and cook vermicelli for about 1 min. Leave it slightly undone (90% cooked). Drain well and wash it with cold water. Drain and put little oil mix well keep aside (use very little oil here, so that vermicelli dont stick together and form as lumps.

- In a pan heat some oil, add mustard and when they splutter add the curry leaves, stir for 2-3 seconds

- Toss in the urad dal and stir till they become pale brown & immediately add the onions and stir well

- When the onions begin to brown a little add the green chilies and fry.

- Add turmeric powder and put in boiled chickpea fry for a further 2-3 minutes

- Add the vermicelli and stir gently till everything is mixed well.

- Serve hot with raita or any chutney. 

Notes : 

• Make sure chickpeas are boiled along with salt, Best To use left over chickpea than to struggle for this individual recipe.
• For extra flavoring ginger can b added while tempering. and lemon juice 1/2 - 1 tsp for tangy flavor while mixing the end product.
• I made this experiment with channa because i felt i wanted some fiber with carbohydrates and yet be simple. Feel free to add in your own veggies and guddies into this dish and yet it will taste awesome 
• After following 1st step still if u find your vermicelli lumpy and sticking use your hands or fork to fluff it, the strands wont break. To my opinion cook vermicelli just before starting tempering process, this way we can avoid lumps formation of cooled vermicelli 

Sending This Entry To HITS–Diabetic Friendly

And Also To Event - HFHK - Italian Dishes

Breakfast Recipes

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