A Healthy child makes a happy home

Now that I am a mother of 6 month old, I realise how important the health is not only of your elderly family members but also the children. Children being most prone to infections, while going to school, playing in the garden and also surrounded by many other children require special care.
We surely do not want to take risk with our kids health, while they are growing physically and their minds are being developed to face the challenges of the world. As parents we make it a point to give the best care, best food and the best of everything to our children, so why not take some precautionary measure to prevent the sickness and preserve great health. Example, if a spoonful of Dabur Chyawanprash  can protect the children from illness, it is our responsibility as parents to inculcate the habit and feed them with it everyday.
Along with healthy eating habits it is also important to give them a sense of freedom and try making them as much independent as possible. A few practices, I follow with my child are listed below-
1. She loves to swim and I have been taking her for a swim since the age of 5 months
2. She loves to play with our cute little dog, neither I nor my husband stops her from playing with her little friend
3. She loves to taste, what we eat. Being complete foodies we make her taste each and everything that we eat, be it spicy or sweet
4. Going through the teething stage, she loves to put everything she gets hold off, in her mouth

I understand how difficult it is to say 'No' to children and how more difficult it gets as the children grow up. We need to also discipline our children and are required to tell them what is right and what is wrong. At the same time also giving them an opportunity to explore. With Dabur Chawanprash we can at least be assured of the kids well being and giving them the freedom of let them eat and play the way they like. Hence, reducing the number of 'No's' to be told to them.

Here is a recipe for all the mothers for their lovely kids-

Honey Rice Crispies

Ingredients-
3/4 cup puffed rice
1 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar, 1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter, 2 tbsp raisins (kishmish)
1 packet of gems

Method
1. Grease a plate with oil or put butter paper
2. Combine sugar, honey and peanut butter. Mix well
3. Add puffed rice and raisins
4. Using your hands, shape mixture into 1" flat balls
5. Place a gem on top and refrigerate for 1 hour or till it becomes firm
6. Serve immediately or place in a tightly covered container

#FoodPairing for #PhilipsPerfectBrew

The Food pairing session for #Philips started with sourcing material for the chocolates to be given to bloggers as a return gift. I conducted this session along with a well know blogger Kalyan. The objective of this bloggers meet was to introduce the new coffee machines launched by Philips.

The preparations started a week before, when I took help of some of my colleagues to make more than 600 chocolates in Raisin and Hazelnut flavor. I said more than 600 because plenty were consumed in my office before I could actually put them in a beautiful butterfly box.

A day before, I baked 5 items for 30 people, which was quite a lot to be baked at home. However, I enjoyed every bit of it. I started with making choco sesame cookies followed by Danish Apple Cake, Banana Walnut Loaf, Orange Muffins and pizza crackers with cheesy dip and red capsicum dip. Pairing was done as follows-

 Romantic type is: 100% “washed” Arabica, from Central America with Banana Walnut cake

 The Reasonable / Sober type is obtained by mixing 80% “washed” Robusta from India, 10% “washed” Arabica from Central America, 10% “semi-washed” Arabica from Brazil with Danish Apple Cake

 The Sensory type is made by 20% “washed” Robusta from India, 50% “washed” Arabica from Central American, 30% “semi washed” Arabica from Brazil with Pizza Crackers

  

Espresso with Orange Cup Cake

                

                              Mocha with Cookies 

The session started with a briefing on coffee types and an interactive session on what coffee personality each one was. This was followed by the #FoodPairing session and then the coffee art by an expert. 

After the session everybody enjoyed a continental lunch and binged again into the cakes I baked. All the bloggers left with the goodie bag which contained aromatic coffee beans and the chocolate box. All in all it was a great experience and I look forward to share more of such experiences with you :)

Microwave Idli by Tarla Dalal

This is one of my favorite diet recipe by Tarla Dalal. Easy to make in the morning and can be served with any chutney of your choice.

I also add fresh vegetables with the batter to make it more healthy. You can add vegetables like carrot, cabbage, cauliflower and capsicum

Ingredients

For The Batter

1 cup semolina (rava)
1/4 cup curds (dahi)
1 cup water
1 tbsp chopped coriander (dhania)
salt to taste
For The Tempering1/2 tsp mustard seeds ( rai / sarson)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
1 tsp urad dal (split black lentils)
1 tbsp broken cashewnuts (kaju)
4 to 6 curry leaves (kadi patta)
2 green chillies , chopped
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp ghee

Other Ingredients3/4 tsp unflavoured fruit salt
oil for greasing

Method 
For the batter

1. Combine all ingredients together, other than the fruit salt and leave aside for 10 minutes.

For the tempering

1. Combine the oil, ghee, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal and asafoetida in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for 2 minutes.
2. Add the cashewnuts, curry leaves, green chillies and microwave for 1 more minute.

How to proceed

1. Pour 1 cup of water in the base of a microwave safe idli steamer and microwave on high for 1 minute. Grease the idli moulds using little oil.
2. Add the tempering and the fruit salt to the batter and mix well.
3. Pour 2 tablespoons of batter into each greased cavity of the idli moulds and microwave, covered, on high for 2 minutes.
4. Repeat with the remaining batter to make 8 more idlis.
5. Serve hot with coconut chutney and sambhar.

Tips

1. Handy tips :
2. Fruit salt contains sodium so the salt has to added accordingly.
3. After adding fruit salt you have to make the idlis immediately as the fruit salt will loose its effect very soon.
4. 

Khatti Arvi- Grandmother's delicious recipe

Grandmother cooked it in 5 minutes this morning. I was making my oats for breakfast and she made this sabzi for lunch while standing next to me and both of us finished with making our respective dishes at the same time.
I tasted it for the first time today and it tasted blissful. Easy, quick, tasty, tangy, these are my adjectives to describe it-
All you need is-

7-8 pieces boiled Arvi
1 capsicum- chopped into small pieces
1 tsp Ajwain
1 tsp jeera powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1" piece ginger- chopped
2 green chillies- chopped
Little bit of red chilly- optional
Juice of 2 lemons

Method-
You just need to mix it together and enjoy for lunch, dinner or in between meals :)

Do try this and give me your feedback

Mango Lassi

Punjabi Mango Lassi

Here is a simple recipe to break the monotony of Mango shake during summers :)

To make 2 glasses, all you need is-

1 Ripe Mango
3 tbsps sugar
1 cup Curd
 3/4 cup Milk
Crushed Ice

No points for guessing the method.
You just need to blend all ingredients together except for Crushed Ice.
Fill 1/4th of the glass with crushed ice and pour Lassi over it

Do try and share your feedback :)

Dinner Party straight from Kitchens of India

My kitchen being one of the Kitchen's of India, would love to host a party with the Indian menu. The best part about Kitchens of India products is that I can concentrate more on ambience and entertaining my guests than cooking food all day long in the hot kitchen.

I would love to host a party in my own house, being an Indian home :) For the ambience I would like to have a low seating arrangement, where guests can sit down and relax, they would be then served with Raw Paneer and Vegetable placed in a toothpick and served with Shredded Mango Chutney. This snack will be accompanied by Fresh Nimbu Pani. Post the snacks we will have the game of Tambola to have some fun. The prizes for Tambola will be Kitchens of India Gift packs.

After this fun filled game and all prizes distributed the dinner will be laid which will include my favorite Dal Bukhara, Mughlai Paneer and Mirch Ka Salan. The accompaniments will include Vegetable Biryani, Onion salad, Pudina Raita and Tomato Chilli Chutney.
In the background I will have soft Hindi Old Songs playing for guests to enjoy the food even more.

I shall then end the dinner with Moong Dal Halwa, which was my grandmother's and my all time favorite dessert.
I am sure the guests would go back happy and the sweet taste of Moong Dal Halwa would keep lingering on :) 

My first cooking video

Hope you all like this recipe. Please view the video and give your comments.

Here is the recipe for the Garlic Bread and I am sure, you will find it easy and extremely delicious :)

Quick Garlic Bread

Prepare a good amount of garlic-butter spread and refrigerate. Use instantly for a quick snack.

Serves

100 gm mozzarella cheese - grated

50 gm butter - softened, 1 tsp oregano

1 tsp red chilli flakes, 1 tbsp crushed garlic

1 french loaf - cut into slices

1. Place cheese in a big bowl. Add the butter and blend with an electric hand mixer till smooth.

Add oregano, chilli flakes and garlic. Store this garlic butter-cheese spread in a container in

the fridge.

2. At the time of serving, cut the french loaf diagonally into ½î thick pieces. Apply cheesy-butter

on one side. Grill for 5-6 minutes with butter-cheese side up, till crisp