Peanut butter and sesame noodles:

Usually peanut butter contains lots of sodium and saturated fat, but I found a healthy peanut butter (trader Joes- Better n' peanut butter)which is low fat, low in sodium and pretty healthy. This recipe contains lots of veggies and is little spicy, slightly sweet.

Ingredients:

1 pack of whole wheat organic spaghetti

1 inch ginger chopped finely

I small onion sliced

1 carrot sliced in thin strips

1 bell pepper sliced in thin slices

1 bunch kale leaves roughly chopped

1 small bunch baby spinach leaves roughly chopped
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp  soy sauce (low sodium)

2 tbsp sesame seeds

4 tbsp peanut butter

½ tsp sriracha sauce (hot sauce)

1 tbsp organic honey

1 lime juice and zest

2 cloves garlic chopped finely

1 tsp oil

For the peanut dressing: Place the peanut butter in a large measuring cup and microwave to soften (15 seconds). Whisk in with the soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, honey, sriracha, and lime zest and juice in a small bowl. Keep it aside.

In a wok, heat oil and sauté the veggies and the garlic till cooked thoroughly. In a separate pot, cook the noodles as per the instructions on the packet. Drain all the water and add the cooked noodles to the cooked veggies. Serve with the peanut butter sauce and garnish with sesame seeds before serving. 

Fig, date and almond meal healthy cake

On our anniversary this year, I wanted to bake a cake, but I wanted it to be something special and healthy. I came upon several recipes without flour. I was interested in most paleo diet special cakes. I stumbled upon the following cake recipe and decided to make it.

Adapted from: greenkitchenstories (chocolate nut and date cake)

1/2 cup fresh soft medjool-like dates, pitted

½ cup dried figs (soaked in water)
1 cup raw almonds or almond meal
1 block 80% dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 organic egg
1 organic orange, juice and zest
2 tbsp unsweetened cacao powder
1 tsp extra virgin coconut oil, melted
1 handful fresh or thawed strawberries

Preheat the oven to 340F/175°C. Place raw almonds in a food processor and pulse until you have a fine textured flour. If you are using almond meal, then you can skip this step. Then add the dates and soaked figs and mix until well mashed. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir with a large spoon to combine. Pour the batter in a greased pan and bake for 40-50 minutes. Let the cake cool slightly before removing the pan. Serve with berries.

Healthy quinoa salad:

Ingredients:

½ cup red quinoa rinsed and drained

1 cup water

1 ripe avocado

1 small bunch organic baby spinach leaves

1 small chopped red onion

Lemon juice as per taste

Salt as per taste

1/3 cup feta cheese crumbled

1 small finely chopped tomato

1/3 cup sweet corn

Cook the quinoa as per the instructions on the packet and drain all the water. Keep it in a serving bowl until cold. Now add the chopped onion, tomatoes, corn and roughly chopped spinach leaves. Mix well.

Add salt, lemon juice as per taste. Now add the finely chopped avocado and crumble the feta cheese and serve. You can enjoy this as a pizza side or a pasta side dish.  

Super easy corn and kale rice:

Each time you plan a party, you keep thinking of different kinds of rice dishes. So, I got one super easy, tasty and with a lot of greens dish for you. I am very fond of kale since it is a super green. But, making your toddler eat greens is a big problem. Since kids love corn, this is one recipe where you can make your kids eat greens too J I have replaced kale with fenugreek too and that works great too.

Ingredients:

2 cups basmati rice washed

1 tsp oil

1 chopped red onion

2/3 cloves

3/4 peppercorns

1 cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

3/4 garlic cloves finely chopped

1 inch ginger chopped finely

2 cardamom pods

1 cup corn (you can add more)

1 big bunch cut and chopped organic kale

1 cup Water to cook rice
salt as per taste

In a large wok, heat the oil and add cloves, peppercorns, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cardamom and chopped red onion. Saute well and add chopped garlic and ginger. Once the onion and ginger-garlic is cooked well, you can add the washed rice (remove water). Saute it well and then add corn and chopped kale. Now add water as per the requirement of rice. I usually add 1 cup (i.e half the amount of rice). Add salt as per taste. Cover and cook for about 15 minutes or until rice is well done.

Enjoy with a bowl of soup J

Rajgira (Amaranth) flour ladoo:

Amaranth is a gluten-free food and a source of complete protein. High in fiber and a good source of magnesium and iron, Amaranth is a spectacular addition to your diet. This little powerhouse is perfect for gluten free and vegan diets. 

Usually, we eat rajgira or amaranth ladoos for fasts in India. They are usually made out of puffed grain, but since we get good organic flour in the U.S, I thought I should just make ladoos out of this wonderful flour.

Ingredients:

2 ½ katoris amaranth flour

½ katori almond powder

7/8 seedless dates

¼ katori jaggery powder

¼ katori clarified butter (ghee)

1 pinch of cardamom powder

Dry roast the amaranth flour in a pan till it slightly changes color. Wait till it slightly cools down.

Add the almond powder, jaggery powder and cardamom powder to the flour. Chop the dates and put them in a blender to mash it. Add it to the flour mixture. Now add clarified butter and mix well with your hands. Check and try forming small balls with your hands. If the mixture is still not binding well, you might need to add little more ghee. Bind the ladoos well. This recipe will make about 14 ladoos.

Healthy black bean truffle:

If you crave for something sweet after meals, then you got to try this one. This is an easy dessert snack which can be made in a jiffy and can be stored easily too.

Ingredients:

§                  2/3 cup cooked or canned black beans

§                  2 1/2 tsp low fat and low sodium peanut butter

§                  2 tbsp cocoa powder

§                  1/2 tbsp raw honey

§                  1/16 tsp salt

§                  1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

§                  Melted Dark chocolate for coating

Adapted from: chocolate covered Katie (black bean chocolate fudge balls)

I used whole black beans (not the canned ones) for this recipe. Cook the beans till they are soft and drain and rinse them well. Then combine all ingredients in a blender (I used magic bullet) and blend until smooth. Refrigerate so that the mix hardens and the mixture is firm enough to roll into balls with your hands. Once rolled, return to the fridge.

For the Chocolate Coating: Melt dark chocolate chips/bar in a double boiler or melt in the microwave. Line a plate with parchment, dip chilled balls into the chocolate, then place on the parchment and immediately return to the refrigerator to allow the coating to set. Store in the refrigerator and serve chilled. Use chopped almonds to decorate.

Healthy coconut Cocoa fudge

If you want something sweet to eat and yet want to avoid loading yourself with processed sugar and unwanted calories, then this is one recipe you can try. Fudge of this kind is usually made with coconut butter, but I like the crunch of coconut in the fudge, so I did not blend it a lot in the food processor, but you can always do that.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup organic honey
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup pureed raspberry or raspberry preserve (without sugar)

Method:

Place the coconut into a food processor and blend on high till it becomes soft. You can continue blending for about 15-20 minutes if you want to make coconut butter. (I did not blend it for so long)

Remove coconut from food processor and place it into a medium bowl. Add all the remaining other ingredients and mix well. Heat a pan and pour the mix and cook for about 5 minutes till the mix is hot and starts binding together. You can avoid the heating part if you are using coconut butter. Since I did not wait till the coconut turned into coconut butter, I had to warm the mixture.

Press fudge into a small dish lined with parchment paper. Place in freezer for 10 minutes remove and cut into 15 small pieces.

Sweet potato and quinoa patty:

One more healthier patty to my list of veg patties J. I loved the orange color of the sweet potato with red quinoa with a blend of white oat flour- I have used everything organic here

½ onion

2 sweet potatoes

1      garlic cloves

¼ cup organic quinoa red

¼ cup oat flour

Cilantro

Salt

Chili powder according to taste

½ tsp Coriander cumin powder

Canola oil spray

Cook the red quinoa in 1 cup boiling water for about 15/20 minutes. Drain the water and keep it aside to cool. Chop the white onion finely and add some chopped garlic cloves to the onion and cook all this on medium heat in a pan with 1 tsp of oil.

You can either bake the sweet potato in the oven or microwave, later peel them and mash them with a fork and keep aside.

Add the oat flour with finely chopped chili, cilantro, coriander cumin powder and salt to the mashed sweet potato mix. Now add the cooked onion and garlic mix to the mashed sweet potato mix.

Form the patty using hands. Take a frying pan and use the cooking spray and put the patty on the hot pan. Cook it till you see the brown color on the patty. Please note that you have already cooked all the ingredients and so you won’t need to cook these for a long time. You can also bake these patties if you wish in an oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes. Enjoy on a multigrain bun with greeens and avocado slices. I also used a pepper based spread with my sandwich. 

Tom Yum Thai soup (Vegetarian)

If you have a cold or a sore throat, this soup will help your throat. Tom yum is a soothing soup with lemongrass, ginger and veggies.

Ingredients:

Low sodium vegetable stock

1 whole carrot chopped (rounds)

½ cup chopped button mushroom

¼ cup chopped onion lengthwise

2 twigs of fresh lemongrass cut into 1 ½ inch pieces

4/5 large ginger pieces cut

½ tomato chopped lengthwise

Spring (green)onions chopped to garnish

Cilantro chopped to garnish

Salt to taste

½ tsp soy sauce (low sodium)

½ tsp rice vinegar

Juice of 1 whole lemon

2/3 lemon leaves

Boil the vegetable stock and add the chopped onion, carrots, mushroom, lemongrass and lemon leaves with ginger and continue boiling. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar and salt as per taste. Add lemon juice little at a time and taste before adding everything.

After boiling, turn off heat and sere hot. Before serving, garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro.

Yummy Lemon cookies (whole wheat)

I love citrus flavors in my cakes and cookies. I had tried lemon cookies a couple of times, but today after 3 tries, I have made this successful batch of lemon cookies. They are light and very yummy J

These are so easy to make that my 3 year old helped me bake these ones from scratch. By the way, these are eggless cookies made with homemade ghee and whole wheat flour. After reading all this, I am sure you want to try these ones immediately.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 lemon (2 tablespoons of lemon juice)

½ tsp lemon zest

¼ cup cooked oat

¼ cup homemade organic pear sauce (no sugar)

½ cup organic honey

¼ tsp cardamom powder

1 pinch salt

2 tablespoons clarified butter

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

½ cup organic low fat (2%) milk

Take all the dry ingredients in a bowl and keep aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the clarified butter or ghee and honey together. As it turns light add the pear sauce, cooked oat , lemon juice, zest and milk. Whisk everything together and then add the dry ingredients. Mix well in to a soft dough. If batter is runny, you might want to fridge for about 15 minutes. In the meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 F .

Now, place the cookies with a spoon on greased cookie sheets and bake them for 15 minutes. 

Low fat, sugar free, Buckwheat and oat cookies:

Buckwheat is a whole grain and has been linked to a lowered risk of developing high cholesterol and high blood pressure. I have used it with wheat flour and oat flour while making these delicious cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ cup buckwheat flour

¼ cup oat flour

½ cup organic honey

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 pinch salt

2 tablespoons clarified butter

½ tsp baking soda

½ cup organic low fat (2%) milk

In a bowl whisk clarified butter and honey together. Add in the flours (buckwheat, wheat, and oat flour) and then add cinnamon powder, baking soda, salt, and milk and whisk together.

In a pre-heated oven (350 F) place the cookies with a spoon on greased cookie sheets and bake the cookies for 15 minutes.  

Healthy Dabheli on homemade wheat pav

I know I am talking about fast food/street food and yet I am trying to call it healthy. I can say that because I have made it with homemade wheat pav and used just 1 tsp of oil and NO butter nor any fried sev .

You can check out my wheat pav recipe and make them before you start with dabheli. Dabheli is pretty famous in Maharashtra and is sold on food stalls almost everywhere.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat home made pav

2 boiled potatoes

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 large tomato finely chopped

1 tsp oil

Salt to taste

Juice of half lemon

½ tsp sugar

2 tsp dabheli masala (I used Laxmi brand)

To garnish

Finely chopped cilantro

½ cup of pomegranate seeds

6 finely chopped black grapes

Finely chopped onions

¼ cup Grated/dessicated fresh coconut

½ cup Roasted peanuts

Red chili and garlic chutney

Tamarind and date chutney

Start with a teaspoon of oil in a pot and put the chopped onions and then add tomatoes once the onions are cooked. Add the dabheli masala, sugar, salt and lemon juice and let everything cook till onions nad tomatoes are soft. Now, peel and mash the potatoes and add in the cooked onion tomato mixture and turn off the heat. Mix everything together. Pour this in a serving bowl.

Now, the first layer is the tomato, onion and potato mixture. Start layering the serving bowl with the second layer of grated coconut. Then, the third one will be the chopped cilantro and then, pomegranate and grapes. Lastly, add the peanuts just before serving.

Now heat the pav and apply the chutneys on both sides. Add the layered filling taking it carefully making sure you get all layers in the spoon  and garnish with chopped onions. Serve hot.

Baked Kachoris

As a child, I remember eating kachoris filled with chopped onions and tamarind and mint chutney and sev as a tea time snack on weekends. I have tried the baked version of the usually fried version today. They were equally yummy and healthy too. Made with whole wheat flour, and yellow moong dal, my weekend snack can be savoured without guilt.

Ingredients:

For the outer cover:

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tablespoon Ajwain seeds

Salt to taste

For the filling:

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp jeera(cumin) seeds

½ cup yellow moong dal ground coarsely

½ tsp garam masala

Salt as per taste

¼ tsp red chili powder

For the outer cover, you will mix all he ingredients together and make a stiff dough using water as needed. Keep the dough covered.

For the filling, start by grinding the moong dal in a chopper and then take a small pan and in 1 tsp oil, add the cumin seeds and wait till they splutter. Then, add the coarsely ground moong dal, fennel seeds, garam masala, salt, and red chili powder and roast it properly. Keep it aside to cool.

Now, once the filling is cool, make small balls from the dough. You should be able to make at least 12 out of the given dough. Press each dough ball with your palm and flatten it. Now fill in the moong dal filling ( about ½ spoon) in each flattened disc and roll it up again. Seal all the sides properly. After filling the mixture in all the balls, put them on a baking sheet and bake them for 10/12 minutes in a pre-heated oven (350 F).

Store them in a tight jar and later in the refrigerator to last long. While serving, add chopped onion, mint and tamarind chutney and serve.

Beet and black bean patty sandwich

Making healthy sandwiches was a challenge for me. Trying to avoid store bought patty and burger was not an option. So, what kind of patty could I make was the question? Since I had lots of fresh farmer’s market bought organic beet lying in my fridge, I decided to make some beet patty. Beets are included in my weekly vegetable list as they are high in immune-boosting vitamin C, fiber, and essential minerals like potassium.

The ingredients for this patty are very few. You will need :

1 large beet

 ½ cup of oat flour (I made mine by grinding steel cut organic oats into flour)

1 cup boiled black beans (I tend to avoid canned ones since they have a lot of preservative and sodium in it)

1 or 2 green chilis

 ½ tsp of cumin coriander powder

Salt to taste

All you do is grate the beet and boil the black beans and mash them with your hand of coarsely grind them in a chopper/blender. Add the oat flour with finely chopped chili, coriander cumin powder and salt to taste. Bind the patty well with your hand and bake them in the pre-heated oven at 400 F for about 7-8 minutes and flip them as they change color. You don't want to keep them in the oven for too long as they will be dry from inside. 

Use them in a multigrain bread sandwich with artichoke spread and veggies of your choice. 

Veggie bean soup

The main struggle for most Moms is to feed the right kind of food to their kids. If you tell them they have a soup with lots of veggies and lentils, I am pretty sure most of them would refuse to touch it. This is a yummy recipe of black beans, pinto beans or garbanzo beans whichever you prefer or all three combined with juicy veggies.

To start off, heat some olive oil in a soup pot or crock pot and add a bay leaf or two with a long cinnamon stick with lots of chopped garlic to it. As it gives out the aroma, add some finely chopped white/yellow onion to it. Make cubes of raw potato and add them to the onion and garlic combo.

As you sauté these, you want to start adding cubes of carrot, celery ,mushrooms to it. Add some yellow roasted corn to it too. As everything in here is raw, you will want to cook everything for a long time. For this reason, a crock pot is a better option. Add a whole can of low sodium chicken/vegetable broth to the mixture and let it simmer.

Go ahead and add the cans of beans as per your taste. I loved black beans with garbanzo combination. To create that rich creamy taste and flavor, try to use home-cooked dried beans as they are less metallic tasting and mushy than canned beans. It is a little effort, but worth the taste.

Lastly, add some pepper and salt according to your taste and let it simmer. Serve it hot with strands of cilantro as garnish.  

Laadi Pav: (honeycomb bread)

Laadi pav is so often eaten on the streets of India with Pav bhaji, wadaa pav or missal pav. But, since I came to the US, I couldn’t find good and non sweet pav anywhere. All the pav/bread was either sweet or very fatty with maida in it.

So, I decided to try out a laadi pav recipe using wheat/spelt flour. The original recipe uses all purpose flour (maida). At least now I know what ingredients go in this recipe and I am happy eating this pav instead of loading myself with butter, maida and sugar.

I have tried this recipe twice- once using spelt flour and second time using durum wheat flour. Both the results were awesome and the pav turned out soft and fluffy.

spelt/wheat flour

spelt/wheat flour

Adapted from Shital's Kitchen
http://shitals-kitchen.blogspot.com/2014/03/pav-bread.html

Ingredients:

3 cups spelt flour or durum wheat flour

1 dry yeast packet

Salt as per taste

2 tablespoons of clarified butter or you can use oil

1 tablespoon sugar

Oil spray to grease pans

The method for both the flours is exactly the same.

Step 1: Mix one packet of dry yeast with 1 ¼ cup of warm water and 1 tablespoon sugar in a bowl and let it rest for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, add a pinch of salt and 3 cups of flour and 2 tablespoons of ghee (clarified butter) in the bowl and mix to form a soft dough. Keep kneading the dough for at least 10 minutes.

Step 2: Now keep the dough aside in a greased bowl and let it rest for 1 1/2 hours. You will notice that the dough has doubled in size. Now start kneading it again and knead well for 10 more minutes.

Step 3: Now, grease the pans in which you will put the pav to bake. After kneading the dough, make about 15-18 small balls out of the dough and lay them in the greased pan about 1 inch apart from each other. Let the balls rest in the pan for about 1 more hour.

Step 4: You will notice that the balls have risen again and doubled in size. Now bake them for 10 minutes till they change color on 400 F.

Eat with Potato wadaa, missal, or pav bhaji.