Saturday, November 7, 2015

Microwave Ricotta Cheese Burfi

Things have been pretty busy and I haven't gotten chance to post anything lately. So without any further delay, just in time for Diwali, a simple and quick recipe to make burfi or barfi using Microwave. In past I have made this burfi on stove-top but this time I just made this quick version in microwave.



Preparation Time: 5 minute
Cook Time: 12 minute

Ingredient:

1. 1 cup ricotta cheese ( Mawa )
2. 1/3cup + 1tbsp sugar
3. 2 tsp ghee ( butter )
4. 1-1/2 tsp un-sweetened cocoa powder
5. 2 pinch cardamom powder

Method Step By Step:

1.In a microwave safe bowl combine ricotta cheese ( mawa ), sugar and ghee ( butter ). Mix it well.
2. Cover it and put it in microwave for 5 minutes.
3. Give it good stir after 5 minutes.
4. Again put in microwave and keep steering about every 3 minutes.
5. After about 12 minutes you should see that mawa mixture is coming together and does not stick to the bowl. That is when burfi should be done. Mix it well and split in 2 equal parts.
6. Add cardamom powder in one part. Mix well and spread in a greased plate.
7. Add cocoa powder in second part, mix it well and spread it on top of white part.
8. Let it cool down for about 4 hour and then cut it in pieces.

Note:
Keep it refrigerated.

Similar Recipes:
1. Slow Cooker/Crockpot Sweet Pongal/Sakkarai Pongal
2. Slow Cooker Cracked Wheat Halwa (Fada Lapsi)
3. Slow Cooker Carrot Halwa or Gajar Halwa Recipe

Friday, July 17, 2015

Fun in Kitchen with Kids: 5 Fun Recipes for Kids

It is summer and kids are off from school. So my daughter has been doing some fun food projects in kitchen with both the kids. She hasn't gotten chance to upload the pictures yet that I can share , but I will share the ideas she has gathered and already tried some of them.

For most of these recipes, she tried to reduce sugar content as much as she could either by picking the sweetest/ripest fruit available and/or by using alternate sweeteners like honey.

Try out Healthy Kids Inc. Meal Planner For Free


Best part is that none of these recipes require any cooking, other than little bit of melting of chocolate or butter etc in microwave. These recipes indeed make for great project for summer or any rainy day also !

1. Two Ingredient Watermelon Popsicle: This was the first project my daughter did with the kids and they had so much fun. It is very forgiving recipe. You can test as you go and adjust the sweetener as needed.  All you do it chop the watermelon, add sweetener and make puree in blender.  Enlist kid's help to pour this puree in Popsicle mold and wait for it to freeze well.

2. Vegan Pineapple Whip or Slurpee or Popsicle: This is another very forgiving recipe. Just mix  frozen banana, frozen pineapple and coconut milk in blender and give it a good churn. Eat it right away, or freeze it little bit. Or you can also make Popsicle out of it. If pineapple is fresh or without sweet syrup, you may need to add little bit sweetener but depending on quantity of banana, you may not need much sweetener.  You can try this recipe from LunchBoxBunch.

Vegan Pineapple Whip


3. Homemade KitKat:  This was another project kids enjoyed a lot. All you need is chocolate bark or chocolate chips and wafer biscuits. Just melt the chocolate in microwave and let kids spread it on top of wafer biscuit with spoon. Got to be little careful to make sure they don't burn themselves with hot chocolate. There were hardly any homemade KitKat left for my daughter to take any pictures !!

4. No Bake Cereal Bar:  This project is next on our list to try out. Again very simple project. All you do is mix oats, peanuts and Rice Krispies. Melt Peanut butter and sweeter in microwave and mix it bit oats/peanuts/cereal mix. Spread it well and let it freeze for 30 minutes before enjoying. We plan to try CincyShoppers recipe.
No Bake Cereal Bar

5.  Pina Colada Bars:  These are no-bake bars from recipecritic. All you do is enlist help of kids to crush vanilla wafers. Mix them with butter and press the mixture at the bottom of the tray. Mix rest of the ingredients and fold them in the base. Freeze the bars for couple of hours and they are ready to eat. They are such a treat especially during a hot day.

pinacoladafinal1
Pina Colada Bars

Hope you enjoy with no-cook food projects with kids. My daughter has this multi-cultural cookbook in her wish list. A great way to have fun with kids in kitchen while teaching them all the children/cultures around the world. See if you like it too.



Similar Fun Recipes for Kids:
1.  No-Cook Ice-Cream
2. No-Cook Pin-Wheel Cookies
3. Egg-less Apple Pie (Mini-Apple Pie)

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Friday, June 26, 2015

How to Make Blueberry Lemonade: Blueberry Lemonade Recipe

Finally now it does feel like summer in Texas. I have made this simple ice cream  (no ice-cream maker required) couple of times already. Other day I ended up buying 3 packs of blue berries as they were on sale ! So I ended up making Blueberry Lemonade to make sure they do not go bad. I had never tried it before but it turned out pretty well. Both my grand kids loved it so much that they did not want to share it with anyone. !

It is very simple to make and does not need many ingredients.

Preparation Time: 15 Minute
Serves: 5 people

Ingredients:

1. 1 Cup Blueberry
2. Juice of 2 lemons
3. 1 tbsp lime juice
4. 2-1/2 cup water
5. 1/4 cup sugar
6.  5 to 7 mint leaves
7.  1tsp cumin powder
8. 1/4 tsp black salt ( optional )
9. salt to taste
10. ice for serving

Method To Make Blueberry Lemonade:

1. Crush Blue berries and mint with 1 cup water blender and make really nice puree.
2. Filter this puree in a strainer.
3. Add 1-1/2 cup water, sugar, lemon juice, lime juice, salt, black salt and cumin powder.
4. Dissolve sugar well.
5. Now Blueberry lemonade is ready to serve.

Serve it chilled or with ice cubes.

Similar Summer Recipes:
1. Eggless Homemade Ice-Cream
2. Cold Pasta Salad
3. Slow Cooker Mango Jam Recipe


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Sending this entry to Kids' Delight Event @Tamalpaku and SpicingYourLife

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

How To Make Jam Using Slow Cooker

Few weeks back we went for strawberry picking with our grand-kids and ended-up picking lot more strawberries than we would consume. How can you blame two very excited 5 year olds !

Two of my Hetzler 3-in-1 Berry Boxes did really good job of keeping strawberries in good shape for more than 2 weeks. They are great value for money and great product to have to reduce the wastage of berries. So even though my Berry Boxes are great help, I needed to make some room in my freeze. So I ended up making some mix-fruit Jam with those freshly picked strawberries.

Just like my Mango Jam, I made this mix-fruit jam using slow cooker as well so no worries about stirring to make sure Jam is not sticking and not splatters of Jam all over the kitchen !

It was very simple to make Jam in crockpot. All I did was crushed the fruits and mixed them with sugar. Rest work was done by my slow-cooker !


Preparation Time 10 Minute
Cook Time 4 hours 20 Minute

Ingredients:
1. 2 cup shredded apple
2.1 cup pineapple puree
3. 1/2 cup strawberry puree
4. 1 cup pineapple  juice ( optional )
5. 2 1/4 cup sugar
6. 2 tbsp lemon ( lime ) juice

Method of making Jam in Crockpot:

1. Combine fruits and sugar in a slow cooker bowl and mix them well.

2. Set slow cooker on high. Make sure to not cover the slow cooker.
3. After about 4 hours mix the fruit puree well and churn it with hand-mixer.
4. Cook for another 20-30 minutes or so until desired consistency is reached.
5. Now transfer jam in a bowl and add lemon juice. Again mix it well.

6. After jam is completely cool, transfer it in a mason Jar.

Jam will be good in freeze at least 1 month in freezer for 6 months. Enjoy with these healthy eggless dinner rolls or with this eggless cinnamon raisin bread.

Similar Slow Cooker Recipes:
Homemade Slow Cooker Gift Recipes
Indian Mix-Vegetable Curry using Slow-Cooker
Slow Cooker Aloo-Gobi (Potato Cauliflower Curry)
Slow Cooker Dal Fry Recipe

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Sending to Healthy Summer Recipe Event and Breakfast Dishes Event.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Slow Cooker Chocolate Cashew Cluster and Mother's Day Gift Idea

Some time back I had talked about homemade mother's day gift  ideas using slow cooker. Today I am posting one of the similar homemade mother's day gift - Chocolate Cashew Clusters. It is such a simple recipe. Takes only three ingredients. There is really no prep time - other than may be gathering these ingredients.

Cashew Clusters came out really good. I made some extra to share with neighbors and they loved it too.



Talking about mother's day, do check out this Mother's Day Gift Box full of amazing vegan beauty product. I also like this sophisticated collection of Chocolate Truffles.

Back to recipe for Chocolate Cashew Clusters:

Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time: 1.5 Hours on High Setting

Ingredients:

1. 6 Oz. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2. 1 Cup Broken Cashew Nuts
3. 1/2 Can Condense Milk

Method:

1. Layer cashew at the bottom of slow cooker.
2. Top it with Condense milk and then Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chip.
3. Cover slow cooker with a paper towel and then cover the lead. (Paper towel is used to make sure water does not drip in the cashew cluster)
4. Check every 30 minutes to make sure chocolates are melting fine.
5. After about hour and 30 minutes, chocolates should be well melted.
6. Now scoop one table spoon mixture at a time and place it on wax paper.

7. Let it dry overnight and Cashew Clusters should be ready to eat.
8. They will store well in refrigerator for 2-3 weeks.


Similar Recipes:
1. Slow Cooker/Crockpot Sweet Pongal/Sakkarai Pongal
2. Slow Cooker Cracked Wheat Halwa (Fada Lapsi)
3. Slow Cooker Mango Jam Recipe

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Submitting this entry to mother's Day event and Anniversary Mela.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Potato, Peas, Tomato Curry In Slow Cooker

Last week  I posted about how to make khichdi or khichadi in slow cooker. Today I am posting this simple curry that goes very well with khichadi. In our gujarati household it is called tameta, bataka, vatana nu shak (tomato, potato and peas curry).

All you need is some chopped potatoes, tomatoes and peas. All these are usually found in our refrigerator. Just need little bit of tempering and put it in slow cooker.  This curry or shaak goes well with roti  or paratha as well.

List of spices mentioned below seems little elaborate but they are all easily available in any Indian Grocery store. You can also purchase this Indian Spices Starter Kit which includes all the below listed spices and many more without worrying about significant investment.



Preparation Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 2 hour
Serves: 5 To 6 people

Ingredients for tameta, bataka, vatana nu shaak:

1. 3 cup cube cut potato ( I use Vidalia Chop Wizard  to make cutting/chopping easy.)
2. 1 cup cube cut tomato
3. 3/4 cup frozen green peas
4. 1/2tsp red chili powder
5. 1/4tsp turmeric powder
6. 1/2tsp coriander powder
7. 2/1/2tsp brown sugar ( jeggari )
8. salt to taste
9. 2tbsp nicely chopped coriander leaves
10. 1-1/2 cup hot water

Tempering:
1. 2tbsp oil
2. 1/2tsp mustard seeds
3. 1/2tsp cumin seeds
4. pinch of asafetida

Method To Make Tameta, Bataka, Vatana Nu Shaak: 

1. Combine potato, spices and water in a slow cooker.
2. In a small sauce pan combine oil,  mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
3. Put it on medium heat on stove top.
4. When seeds pop, add asafetida. Turn off stove and combine tempering in a slow cooker.
5. Cover slow cooker and cook for about 2 hours.
6. Once potatos seem cooked, add green peas and tomato and mix it well.
7. Take out about 2tbsp of potato mixture out of slow cooker and mesh very well. Mix this back to the curry in slow cooker. This will help thicken the gravy.
8.  Transfer curry in a serving bowl and sprinkle with coriander leaves.

Curry or Shaak is ready to serve. Enjoy with roti, paratha, rice or khichdi


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Similar Recipes:
1.  Slow-Cooker Vegetable Pulav Recipe
2. Slow-Cooker or Crockpot Sprout Pulav Recipe
3. Mix-Vegetable Curry using Slow Cooker

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Slow Cooker Whole Wheat Pizza

My daughter has been making whole wheat pizza for some time now in oven. However few weeks back when I blogged about making pizza in slow cooker in my round up about slow cooker vegetarian game day recipes, she at once tried whole wheat pizza in slow cooker.




She used her usual whole wheat pizza dough recipe but this time in slow cooker. Results were amazing. In-fact she liked the slow cooker version better as it was little moist and soft compare to oven counter part. Slow Cooker method is so easy now she makes pizza for kids school lunch too !

My daughter had picked up this whole wheat dough recipe from Cookie and Kate with some adjustments. I am posting it here with her adjustments.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients to make whole wheat pizza dough:


1.    1 cup water (warm) - need little over 1 cup water but can be adjusted as needed
1.    1 tablespoon sugar
1.    1 tablespoon olive oil
1.    1 envelope (2¼ teaspoons) instant yeast
1.    2¾ cups whole wheat flour (or regular wheat flour) + 1 spoon rice flour (optional - it helps digestion)
1.    ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese (or any other grated cheese)
1.    1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Method to make Pizza Dough:


1.    Whisk warm water, sugar, oil and yeast in bowl really well then and let it sit for 5 minutes. It should puff up some by then.
2.    Mix flour, cheese and salt well. Add water/oil/yeast/sugar mixture to make soft dough. Knead it well on a floured work surface. Dump the dough onto a floured work surface and quickly knead dough a few times until it comes together. Halve the dough.
3.    Pizza dough is now ready to be used either in oven or in slow cooker. Below is the slow cooker method.

Method to make Pizza in Slow Cooker:


1. Apply oil liberally in slow cooker bottom.
2. Take half the dough or as per your choice of thickness and size of the slow cooker and press it evenly in the slow cooker bottom.
3. Apply pizza sauce. Top with choice of vegetables and shredded cheese.
4. Cover slow cooker with a paper towel and then close the lead. This will make sure mist does not drop on the pizza and but it will give really nice softness to pizza.
5. Turn on slow cooker on high and let it cook for about 45 minutes.
6. Check if pizza is done by inserting toothpick. If toothpick comes out clean then pizza is done.
7. Turn off the heat. Take out the slow cooker bowl and put it on side to cool down.
8. Let the pizza cool down for 15-20 minutes before taking it out and serving.

Similar Slow Cooker Recipes:
Homemade Slow Cooker Gift Recipes
Indian Mix-Vegetable Curry using Slow-Cooker
Slow Cooker Aloo-Gobi (Potato Cauliflower Curry)
Slow Cooker Dal Fry Recipe

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Sending this entry to Kid's Delight Event @ Kids Delight

Monday, February 2, 2015

Eggless Slow Cooker Desserts for Valentine's Day

Have you ever felt that going to restaurant on Valentines day is waste of time and money? Most restaurants are over crowded and food is prepared in rush. Well if you feel same way then here is wonderful collection of eggless desserts made in slow cooker. Most of these recipes require none or very minimal preparation. You can put all the ingredients in crockpot, sit back and relax.

1. Pina Colada Lava Cake:  Requires some minor preparation outside of slow cooker but it is worth the trouble.

CrockPot Pina Colada Lava Cake #dessert #crockpot #slowcooker
Source:365DaysofCrockpot
2. White Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake: Very simple dump cake (dump all ingredients in slow cooker in layers) with only 5 ingredients and takes less than 5 minutes to prepare.

White Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake
Source:TheMagicalSlowCooker

3. Peach Cobbler : Another simple recipe which required only very few ingredients and less than 5 minutes of prep time.

Crock Pot Peach Cobbler Recipe
Source:JustaPinch


4. Cherry Nut Cobbler: Warm and comforting dessert with Pecans. This recipe is made so easy with ready-made muffin mix and canned cherry pie filling.

Cherry-Nut Cobbler
Source:MidWestLiving


5.  Triple chocolate Peanut Butter Pudding Cake: Ingredient list seems little long for this pudding cake and process little bit involved, but it creates really rich cake. Worth the try.

Triple Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pudding Cake
Source:MidWestliving



6. Cherry Cola Chocolate Cake: This Cherry cake looks so yummy with nice burgundy color and cherry sauce topped on the cake.

Crocked Cherry Cola Chocolate Cake/ Kelli’s Retro Kitchen Arts
Source: KellisKitchen
                                           

7. Caramel Poach Pear with Ice-Cream: Very simple recipe drizzled with brown sugar sauce and served with ice-cream.

8. Blueberry Lemon cake: This is a very flexible and simple recipe. You can replace blueberry with strawberries to give it beautiful pink color.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Super Bowl Recipes

Super Bowl is almost here and I have some wonderful vegetarian and eggless slow cooker/crockpot Appetizer, Main Dish and Dessert recipes to share with you, that you can easily make for Super Bowl Party or Pot Luck.

Appetizers:

1. Spinach Artichoke Dip is perfect appetizer for cold weather. Making it in slow cooker is as simple as dumping all ingredients in slow cooker ! Here is a recipe that requires very minimal and easily available ingredients. This is one more similar simple recipe of slow Spinach Artichoke Dip but with southwest touch.
Slow-Cooker Southwest Artichoke and Spinach Dip
Image Source: Southwest Spinach Artichoke Dip

2. Chilli Con Queso: Another dip recipe great for cold weather is Chilli Con Queso served with warm corn tortilla chips. This recipe is very straight forward and uses easy to find pantry ingredients.

3. Spicy/Sweet Roasted  Nuts: Not so much of appetizer but great for munching here are some great recipes for curry roasted nuts or cinnamon roasted sweet almonds made in crockpot !

4. Vegetarian Tortilla soup: Vegetarian version of classic Tortilla soup slow cooked in Crockpot will be great addition for a cold game night gathering.

Main Dish:

5. Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chilli: Black Beans and Mushroom slow cooked entire day with spices will make great supper at the end of the day on the game night. Ingredient list for this recipe seems little long but they are all easy to find pantry ingredients. Or you can try this Sweet Potato Chilli which adds a healthy twist with addition of Quinoa.

6. Slow Cooker Pizza: No Super Bowl Party will be complete without Pizza. Here is a simple fix it and forget it Vegetarian Pizza recipe using slow cooker.

Vegetable Crock Pot Pizza
Image Source: Simple Nourished Living
7. Vegetarian Sloppy Joe: This is a vegetarian Sloppy Joe recipe made using Pinto beans and some vegetables in slow cooker. Little bit of prep work is done outside of slow cooker but yet, most of the work is done in slowcooker.

Desserts:

8. Molten Lava Cake: Try out this yummy eggless Molten Lava Cake in Crockpot. Cake is made from scratch without using cake mix and yet it is so simple to make.

9. Chocolate Fondu: You do not need fondu pot for this simple slow cooker Chocolate Fondu recipe. Serve it with fresh fruits, cake or brownie.
Perfect for Valentines or date night. This Crock Pot Chocolate Fondue is easy and decadent!
Image Source: Mom's with Crockpot

10. Apple Crisp: Slow cooked warm Apple Crisp served with ice cream will be perfect ending for a wonderful game day.

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