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.