Homemade healthy apricot and almond bars

These are easy to make energy bars and the fun part is that you can make these with a variety of ingredients of your choice.

Today I made these with dried apricots, almonds, dates and walnuts. All you need is a food processor and a baking dish lined with wax paper. The best part is that you don’t have to bake these and cooking time is 10 minutes only. Don’t you want to try these?

Ingredients:

1 cup nuts (I added almonds and walnuts)

1 cup dried fruit (I added apricots)

1 cup medjool dates pitted

You can roast the nuts or use them raw. I used the nuts raw and pulse them in a food processor. Separately pulse the pitted dates and apricots into crumb sized pieces.

Combine them and pulse them together till it all comes together in a ball.

Now, lay a wax paper in a baking dish and spread the dough in it. Now keep this in the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Take the baking dish out of the freezer and cut the bars in the desired shape and size. Store these bars in the fridge and consume within 15 days.

You can eat these at room temperature.

Healthy zucchini date chocolate chip muffins

Ingredients:

1 tbsp clarified butter (ghee)

1 large brown organic egg

8 to 10 dates (paste) pitted

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

1 ½ cup tightly packed shredded zucchini

½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 1.4 cups organic 2% milk

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan with oil spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the clarified butter, egg, milk, and dates until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa, whole wheat flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Now, fold the flour mixture in the bowl with the butter and egg mixture. Lastly add the chocolate chips.

Pour the batter in the greased muffin pan and bake for about 15 minutes at 375 F.

Cool the muffins on a wire rack.

 Avocado Spinach mango salad

Since mangoes are very much the talk of the town, here is one wonderful and fresh spinach mango salad.

Ingredients:

1 bunch fresh baby spinach organic roughly chopped

½ red onion chopped in thin slices

1 ripe avocado chopped in cubes

½ lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 mangoes chopped in cubes (peeled and seeded)

2 tbsp orange juice

In a serving bowl, mix all the ingredients and serve. You can add any toasted nuts or sunflower seeds for the crunch.

Sugar free Sweet potato, date and chocolate chip muffins

I love sweet potatoes yet had never thought I would be baking muffins out of sweet potatoes. These are whole wheat muffins with absolutely no sugar.

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour

4 small organic sweet potatoes boiled and mashed

10/11 medjool dates (paste)

½ cup fresh orange juice

¼ cup milk

½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips

2 tsps cocoa powder (sugar free)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

2 tsp cinnamon powder

1 organic brown egg

2 tsp clarified butter

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 400 F.

In a bowl, take the whole wheat flour and add salt, cinnamon powder, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder and keep aside.

In a different mixing bowl, put the melted clarified butter or ghee and start beating it with a hand mixer. Add the egg and continue beating. Now add the mashed sweet potato in the bowl and beat while adding the date paste. Once this is mixed well, add the orange juice and continue beating. Slowly, add the dry ingredients little by little and continue beating. The batter should be thin and if it is not, add the milk to the batter. Lastly, add the chocolate chips and give it a final whisk.

Pour the batter in a well-greased muffin tray or cake pan. Place it in the pre-heated oven and bake till about 20 minutes. Insert a toothpick to check with the cake is done well. Let it cool on a wire rack.

Chicken curry

 Oil free Chicken curry with homemade masala

Oil free chicken curry is my husband's favorite dish and I enjoy making it for him. It is made with fresh ground spices and made without any tomato or oil. It is aromatic because of the fresh spices and curry leaves.

Ingredients

 15/20 fresh curry leaves
5 peppercorns
3 cloves
1 dry red chili
1 large cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
3 cardamom pods
2 tsp sesame seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp poppy seeds
1/2 large red onion
4 cloves garlic
1/2 inch piece fresh ginger
2 pounds chicken drumsticks organic skinless
Salt to taste

For the marinade

1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp cardamom powder
3 tbsp plain nonfat yogurt
Salt
Turmeric powder
Coriander cumin powder 1 tsp
Half of the curry leaves
Ginger garlic paste fresh



Method

Start marinating the chicken and keep it aside for about 4 hours. 

After the chicken is marinated for about 4 hours, cook the chicken in a pressure cooker ( I waited for about 4 whistles). Now for the masala, take a pan and dry roast the pepper, sesame seeds, cloves, coriander seeds, poppy, cumin, chili, chopped onion, ginger and garlic with curry leaves. After it is dry roasted for about 6/7 minutes on a medium flame, turn of the heat and wait for it to cool down. Now, blend the masala with a little water and make a fine smooth paste.

After the chicken is cooked in the pressure cooker, mix the masala paste and boil it for about 15/20 minutes and garnish with chopped cilantro. Enjoy with your choice of white or brown rice and/or roti.

Whole wheat strawberry banana and apricot muffins

I have mostly been using honey as a sweetener in my baking. But today I wanted to try something sweet without honey or sugar. So, I have tried these healthy sugar free muffins successfully. I have used whole wheat and flax seeds with some fresh and some dry fruits for the sweetness in these muffins.


Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tbsp organic flax seeds
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup organic 2% milk
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup fresh cut strawberries about 6/7
1/2 cup chopped dried organic apricots
1 very ripe banana
1 tbsp clarified butter
1 organic brown egg
1/2 cup low fat yogurt plain
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 F and lightly spray non stick oil spray in the muffin pans. This recipe makes about 15 muffins.

Start with the dry ingredients in a bowl. Take the whole wheat flour in a bowl and add the flax seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt and keep aside.


In a separate bowl whisk the clarified butter and egg together. Start adding the thoroughly mashed banana and whisk well. Now add the yogurt and mix well. Add the dry ingredients slowly to the wet mixture and beat well. Pour in the milk looking at the consistency of the batter. It should be wet and you should be able to pour it easily in the muffin pan.

Add the chopped fruits at the very end with the chocolate chips and whisk lightly. 
Pour the batter in the greased muffin pans and bake at 350F for about 25 mins.  Insert a toothpick to check if muffins are done. Let them be in the muffin pan for 5/10 mins and then cool them on a wire rack.

Puran Poli

Puran poli is a maharshtrian delicacy made on the festival of holi. It is a roti with stuffing of chana dal and jaggery.

You will need 2 cups of chana dal and 2 cups of jaggery for this recipe. You need to pressure cook the dal till it is soft and mushy. Remove all the water from the pot and use only the dal.

Now, take a different pot and add the measured jaggery with the dal residue/paste and set it on medium flame. As the jaggery starts melting, you will notice that the mixture starts to become moist. Continue stirring it until you notice that the mixture starts binding together. If you put the spatula in the mixture and it stands upright without falling down, then you know for sure that the mix is ready (a trick told to me by my mom).Turn of the flame and add some cardammon powder or nutmeg powder once it is slightly cool.

Make sure you strain the chana dal mixture through a strainer (puran Yantra) in order to avoid any lumps. This will make the rotis soft and easy to roll.

Now make very soft dough with wheat flour as you would for making rotis. It should be really soft. Now, take a small ping pong sized ball of dough and start making a small roti out of it using a rolling pin. Fill in a spoonful of the dal and jaggery mixture in it and fold it in a ball and roll out a flat think roti. Roast it on a hot pan from both sides till it is roasted properly or till you see brown spots. Serve with clarified butter or ghee.