Parfaits in Strawberry Season

A splash of deep red, amidst a white background, dotted with earthy browns. I am a dessert, who am I? Why, a parfait of course. I am delicious, healthy and loaded with nutrients.

Parfaits have to be my favorite breakfast on hot summer days. All you need is homemade yogurt, homemade granola, and loads of fresh summer berries. To assemble a parfait is easy. A bit of planning and it can be your go to breakfast on any day really. I make my weekly batch of yogurt on a Sunday typically. Many people ask me where I get my starter culture from. I normally rely on store bought yogurt that contains only cultured milk. Mind you, not buttermilk, but store bought yogurt whose only ingredient is pasteurized milk that is cultured. Typically, for two cups of milk that has been brought to a gentle boil and cooled, I used about 4 tablespoons of yogurt. Remember to remove any cream that you see on top of the milk that has been boiled and cooled. This thin layer should be removed before adding the yogurt to the milk. I tend to place the milk that has the yogurt mixed in it, in the oven, with the light on for about 6 to 8 hours. There should be no lumps of the yogurt in the milk. The heat from the oven light is enough to help the bacteria in the yogurt to ferment the milk. The yogurt sets really well. That's it! Once you get your first batch of home made yogurt, your culture remains if you make yogurt regularly. It is that simple.

Homemade granola is equally easy. I use about 1.5 cups of rolled oats with 1/8 cup of honey, 1/8 cup of sunflower oil and about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. I mix these ingredients with my hand in a glass baking dish, and toast the oats at about 350 F until they are lightly browned. I tend to mix the oats around several times. I also often add various nuts like almonds and walnuts to the oats as they roast in the oven. Once the oats are done, just remove the baking dish from the oven and add a 1/4 cup of raisins and a 1/4 cup of chopped dried figs to this oat and nut ensemble. Voila! Your home made granola is ready. Cool this granola to room temperature and store in an airtight box. It should last a week or so. This volume will make about six single serving parfaits each with a 1/4 cup of granola or so.

To assemble to parfait, I use dessert cups and layer the granola with yogurt, add chopped strawberries and then drizzle some honey on top.

Enjoy!!

Hello Breakfast!

Time flies, or may be runs, perhaps does this really dramatic sprint...and boom! A year has gone by. I have been busy, but who isn't right? It has been a wonderfully productive year though. New recipes, new ideas and loads of new posts coming along I promise!

I really have been meaning to do a series of posts on oatmeal, rolled oats, oat bran, you name it. Breakfast specific mind you. I kind of started that trend with the oats dosa recipe, but this post is all about a breakfast full of warm oatmeal loaded with dried fruits, nuts and fresh fruit like green apples. Oh, and loads of cinnamon. This breakfast option is a big hit with my little one, and it gives us a lot of energy for busy mornings on weekends. Delicious to the core, here are my go to staples for a warm breakfast dish.

To prepare oat meal just follow the directions on the package. I stick to Bob's Red Mill rolled oats (organic), or their oat bran (organic). Loaded with fiber, protein and iron, the porridge can be made with water. I add the cinnamon powder when the oats are cooking in the water. I add milk only before serving. Chopped dried dates and figs, slivered almonds and chopped walnuts, and diced fresh apples, complete the meal for me. No added sugar mind you, but honey drizzled on the fruit make for a mouth watering meal. You can't go wrong.

Enjoy!

High Protein "No Added Sugar" Ladoos

I have been meaning to post, really, but have been busy with a zillion other things. We all are, I know. So today, after a nudge from my good friend, I am back with some more healthy recipes. I made these ladoos using almond meal, so that one can get all the natural goodness of almonds. I used soaked dates and figs to sweeten the ladoos and the end result was a ladoo that was an instant hit. For those of you who do not know what a ladoo is, let me explain. It is a rolled up, ball shaped snack that can be nutritious and filling when one gets those in-between-meals hunger pangs. Try this recipe and let me know how if you like it! By the way, you can make it gluten free if you like by substituting the semolina with millet (Ragi) flour. I have tried it and it turns out just as great.

Ingredients

1/2 cup each of Ragi/Amaranth flour, Almond meal, and Semolina (Rawa)
10 dates and 4 figs soaked in half a cup of warm water for about 1 hour
1 tsp cardamom
2-4 Tbsp of ghee

Method

Dry roast all the three flours together in a skillet with the ghee until light golden brown on medium to low heat. Add the cardamom to the roasted flour and mix well. Puree the soaked dates and figs in a food processor. Pour this puree onto the roasted flour in the skillet and turn on the heat on low. Mix thoroughly and add about a half a cup of water to bring the flour together. Continue heating until the mixture is just cooked (about a minute). Turn of the heat. Once cooled, roll into small balls. Store at room temperature. Should be consumed in five days or so.

Enjoy!

Amaranth and Date Pancakes

Pancakes and fall weather seem to go hand in hand. Out here in the SF Bay Area, fall has arrived with cooler weather, some welcome rain and farmer's markets full of persimmons and apples. So it seems like pumpkins are the flavor of the season (Halloween was just a month ago), but after eating pumpkin waffles and pumpkin muffins I was in the mood for something different. Since I have been making a conscious effort to include a variety of gluten free flours in my diet, in a recent chat with my aunt, Ameeta, she mentioned that I could try to make pancakes with amaranth flour. She gave me her recipe, I tweaked it to include dates and almonds and the result was a wholesome, gluten free, morning breakfast recipe that my toddler loved! Go ahead and try it, it will not disappoint you.

For four pancakes, you will need:

1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 ground almonds
1/2 cup amaranth flour
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
A generous amount of cinammon
Sugar or honey to taste (I used about 2 tbsp of sugar.)
2 Mejdool dates, pitted, chopped
One banana and chocolate syrup (Midnight Moo from Trader Joe's)

Beat the egg and then add the milk and sugar (or honey). Mix the dry ingredients and spoon in the dates. Add the dry ingredients to the egg-milk mixture and mix to form a smooth batter. Pour the batter into a preheated nonstick pan that has been greased with a small amount of butter. Cook the pancake covered with a lid until small holes form. Flip and cook again until the second side is done.

Serve warm with chocolate syrup and chopped bananas.

Yummy!

Healthy Wheat Puffs Chivda with Walnuts, Peanuts and Raisins

I often crave for healthy snacks! Between caring for a toddler, managing to do some work and keeping the house running, where is the time to eat! A nutritious snack around 3 pm is all I need to keep me going for the rest of the evening and while sweet snacky ideas abound (I am thinking muffins, cookies and cakes), savory snacks can carry as much a punch. I had puffed wheat cereal in my pantry (Arrowhead Mills brand) and decided to make a wholesome savory dish called "Chivda" with it. Its a crispy, crunchy snack and can be made with many different puffed grains.

I used:

1/2 packet of the wheat puffs lightly roasted in a pan on the stove to make them crisp. This can get tricky, constant stirring of the puffs is recommended to avoid them from getting burnt.
1/2 cup of walnuts.
1/2 cup of dry, roasted peanuts, unsalted.
1/2 cup of raisins.

For the 'tadka', you will need:

1/4 cup canola oil (this can be reduced to about 1/8 cup if you want).
4 dried red chillies.
5 curry leaves.
1 tsp cumin seeds.
1/2 tsp cumin powder.
1/2 tsp coriander powder.
1 tsp fennel seeds.
1/4 tsp asafoetida and turmeric each.
Salt and sugar to taste.

In a large pan, heat the oil and add the cumin seeds, red chillies and curry leaves. When the cumin seeds sputter add the fennel seeds, asafoetida and turmeric. Now, add the cumin and coriander powders. Stir briefly and add the nuts and raisins. Stir the mixture for about a minute, the raisins may swell, but that is perfectly normal. On cooling they will regain their original shape. Finally, add the roasted wheat puffs. Sprinkle salt and sugar to taste. Mix, stir well (at this point turn of the heat on the stove) and allow to cool. Store in a air tight container. This chivda remains fresh for about 10 days. It never really lasts that long in my house. Its gone in about three days!

Easy Dairy Free Orange Almond Cake

I often have requests for cakes that are either dairy free or gluten free. So I decided to make a cake with orange juice and egg whites. The result, a cake that was not too sweet, a perfect accompaniment to afternoon tea or coffee!

You will need:
1 cup of Odwalla orange juice.
Two and a half cups of Trader Joe's Multi-grain Baking mix.
2 tbsp powdered almonds.
1/4 cup cane sugar (brown).
1 tbsp honey.
1 tsp cake spice from Penzeys.
1/3 cup egg whites.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix the flour, almond powder and cake spice in a large bowl. Whip the egg whites and orange juice together, add the honey and sugar, mix thoroughly. Pour this liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, mixing constantly to avoid any lumps. Pour the cake batter in a round cake pan or in an eight inch by eight inch, baking dish. Bake until a toothpick or a fork comes out clean when inserted in the cake. Note that this cake is not very sweet, and has a decidedly spicy flavor to it. Just increase the amount of sugar by another 1/4 cup if you prefer a sweeter version of this cake.

Cool, cut into pieces and serve with Chai or Coffee. Enjoy!

Dried Fruits, Nuts and Seeds - All in a Bread

I have been wanting to bake a bread with dried fruits for a while now. I have this wonderful vegetarian cook book called: Vegetarian: Over 300 Healthy and Wholesome Recipes Chosen from Around the World, that I have been referring to quite often over the past several years. The book is edited by Nicola Graimes and has a wonderful recipe for a fruit and nut bread. I halved the proportions of most of the ingredients from the original recipe in this book (page 496) so that I could make a loaf that would yield biscotti size pieces which would be ideal for an afternoon snack or morning breakfast with a cup of hot tea! The bread is quite nutritious too, see the ingredients below and you'll know why! 

Note: I tend to use less sugar than called for due to the sugar content of the dried fruits.

1 cup pancake and baking mix; I used the multigrain mix from Trader Joe's.
1 egg, beaten.
1/3 cup low fat milk.
1/2 tsp baking powder.
1/8 cup sugar.
1/2 cup chopped raisins.
1/4 cup cranberries.
1/2 cup mixed nuts and seeds (sunflower seeds, pistachios, almonds, walnut pieces).
7 dried figs, chopped.
1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder.
1/4 tsp ground cloves and cardamom powder.
A dash of freshly grated nutmeg.

The oven will need to be preheated to 350 degrees C. Apply a light coating of butter to a bread loaf dish (I use the Anchor Hocking 5 Inch x 9 Inch Glass Loaf Dish). Now mix the baking mix, baking powder, spices, nuts, and seeds in a large bowl. Mix the sugar and dried fruits in a separate bowl. Now, add the beaten egg and milk to the dried fruit and sugar bowl. Stir. Pour this into the large bowl containing the baking mix with the nuts and spices. Mix gently to make sure that the the mixture is homogeneous and has no lumps of flour. I use a spatula for this and make clockwise turns and flip over the spatula after every turn. Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf dish and bake for about 20 minutes. Use a fork to test whether the loaf is done. It should come out clean when inserted into the loaf. Remove from the oven and cool.

To cut the loaf into biscotti size slices, use a spatula to release the loaf from the sides of the dish and lift the loaf. It lifts pretty easily. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. Cut  into 1 inch wide slices.

Serve with butter on top! Yummy.....