Cherry Oats Bar(Vegan)

Tags

Cherry Crumble Bar, Cherry Jam, Cherry vegan dessert, Fiesta Friday, Fresh Cherry recipes, Oats Bar, Oats Cherry Bar, Oats Cherry Crumble Bar, Oats Cherry vegan recipe, Oats Flour, Oats Vegan Bar, Oats Vegan snack bar, Vegan Snack bar

My hubby gets big pack of granola bars from Costco. I used to munch them often 😛 Now that I have started to bake myself, wanted to give this a shot and this turned out YUM 😀 Guess what, this is a vegan version luckily I nailed it 🙂 When ever I try something vegan, it turns out to be big flop be it cup cake, muffin, cake..I had to throw all of them 😦 I hate to throw food 😦 My vegan trial have so far worked out with cookies and bars 🙂 Yay!!! No further lets go to the recipe.

 

Recipe Source: peanutbutterandpeppers (made small changes)

Ingredients:

For base :

Oats Flour : 3/4 cup (grind 3/4 cup rolled oats to flour)

Rolled Oats : 3/4 cup

Baking powder : 1 teaspoon

Cinnamon ground : 1 teaspoon

Salt : 1/2 teaspoon

Water : 1/4 cup

Honey : 1/4 cup

Vanilla Extract : 1 teaspoon

For Cherry Jam:

Fresh Cherry : 2 cups seeds removed

Dark Brown Sugar : 2 tablespoons

Corn Starch : 1 teaspoon

Water : 1 teaspoon

For Topping:

Oats Flour : 1/2 cup

Rolled Oats : 1/2 cup

Dark Brown Sugar : 2 tablespoon

Oil : 2 tablespoons

Salt : 1/4 teaspoon

Method:

To prepare cherry jam: place the pitted cherries in a pan, heat in medium. Add the dark brown sugar. Cherries would ooze out water content, heat it in medium continuously.  Get the corn slurry ready by mixing corn starch and water together. Add this to the cherries, it would start getting thicker. Stir for 3 to 4 mins and stop. Cool down.

Preheat oven to 375 F and grease a baking sheet with oil.

To prepare base: Mix all the items for base in a bowl and place the batter in the greased baking sheet. Level it to form the base.

Now on top of it, add the cherry jam prepared. Level it to cover all over the base.

For topping : Mix all the ingredients mentioned in for topping. Drizzle it over the cherry jam, so it covers completely.

Bake it for 35 mins and then cool down for 20 mins. Then it can be sliced.

Bringing this healthy bar to Fiesta Friday 🙂 Happy FF dear friends 🙂

Advertisement

Aadi Kummayam (Chettinad Special) My 100th post :)

Tags

Aadi Kummayam, Chettinad aadi kummayam, Chettinad Desserts, Chettinad Snacks, Fiesta Friday

Here is my 100th post 🙂 I don’t know how did I reach till here. Few days back I noted I was in 97th and I started thinking what should I post for my 100th post. I was first thinking of a Tamil food. As I am from the chettinad community, many of my friends in Facebook have been asking me to post more of chettinad food. Chettinad is a community of people in the southern Tamil Nadu of India. Food in chettinad is very famous ( Now you know how I became a foodie 😛 )

And a good news, Malar’s Kitchen is now in Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Malars-Kitchen/1516965231871483 . Please do visit the page and give your likes 🙂

Aadi kummayam is a very healthy dessert of chettinad food. In the marriage evening snack, this is one dish which is available for sure. When a girl enters her puberty, every day morning this dish is given along with 1/8 cup of sesame oil and a raw egg for her breakfast . It contains Urad dal which helps in strengthening the bones.  And it is a lip smacking dish 😛 Ladies during the mensuration can prepare and have this. Ideally this is prepared with palm sugar / karupatti , not gur. Since I had very little karupatti, I added palm candy(gur). In marriage or function, ghee is used, for home purpose we restrict to sesame oil. Sesame oil cools down the body, so I prefer this.

Recipe Source : My Grandma 🙂

Ingredients for Aadi Kummayam powder /maavu:

Urad dal : 1 cup

Moong dal : 1/4 cup

Raw Rice : 1/4 cup

 

Method to prepare the powder / maavu:

Dry roast urad dal, moong dal, raw rice all separately till they change to slight brown color. Allow it to cool. Then grind all of them together to a very fine powder. ( As I just have a blender, I couldn’t get a fine powder though)

This powder can be stored and used later.

After roasting

Grind to powder:

 

Ingredients for Aadi Kummayam:

Aadi Kummayam Powder : 1/4 cup

Palm Sugar and palm candy / karupatti and vellam(both combined)/ Gur : 1/4 cup

Water : 3/4 cup

Sesame oil or Ghee(clarified butter) : 1/4 cup

Method to prepare Aadi Kummayam:

In a pan, combine aadi kummayam powder, water and mix well to a fine watery paste. Heat palm sugar and plam candy(vellam and karuppati) with 1 teaspoon water. Heat only till it gets dissolved. Once it is dissolved, add this mix to the prepared watery mix.

Now heat this in a pan, make sure no lumps are formed. We need to keep stirring otherwise lumps would form. Once it starts getting thicker, add sesame oil slowly every 3 to 4 mins.

At the stage where it comes to the halwa consistency stop and cool down.

 

 

It can be served while hot or even when cool. It need not be stored in refrigerator. Will be good for 2 days. Hope you enjoyed friends 🙂

Getting this to Fiesta Friday 27, an authentic dish from my community 🙂

Cherry Cake

Tags

Cherry Cake, Cherry Sryup, Fiesta Friday, Fresh Cherry Cake, home made cherry syrup, how to make cherry syrup, Oats Flour Cake, simple fresh cherry cake

We had got a big pack of cherries, same day we had a friend visiting us he had also got us a big pack of cherry. Now I have two big packs in the fridge 🙂 I have to do something with this, so I decided to make a cake. This time instead of whole wheat flour, I thought of trying with Oats flour.So here it is, bringing it to Fiesta Friday #26 I have already seen a lot of wonderful recipes submitted, mine is a small try. Angie has mesmerized me with her beautiful pie 🙂

Ingredients:

For Cake

Oats Flour : 1 Cup ( I just blended the rolled oats in a food processor for a mins time and oats flour is ready 🙂 )

Egg : 1

Vanilla Extract : 1 teaspoon

Butter : 2 tablespoon

Brown Sugar : 1/4 cup

Fresh Cherries : around 25 ( seeds removed)

Milk : 1/4 cup( I used full cream milk)

Baking Powder : 1/2 teaspoon

Salt : 1/2 teaspoon

For Cherry Syrup topping:

Fresh Cherries : around 15 (seeds removed)

Brown Sugar : 2 tablespoon

Cornstarch : 1 tablespoon

Water : 1 tablespoon

Method:

For Cake

For the cake , mix all dry ingredients together.

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease the baking tray of 9 inch round with butter.

In a blender add the eggs, butter, vanilla extract and milk to blend it. It would look a bit curdled, don’t worry about it.

Mix dry and wet ingredients together. Pour it in the greased baking tray. Place the cherries on the top.

Bake it for half and hour or until the tooth pick comes out clean.

Cool it for half an hour.

While it cool down we can prepare the cherry syrup.

Cherry Syrup

Place the cherries in a small pan, add sugar and heat it.

Cherry would start oozing out the water content.

Mean time prepare the corn slurry by mixing water and corn starch.

When both cherry and sugar blends well and is a bit watery, add the corn slurry.

It would start getting thicker. Mash the cherries and keep mixing. When all the cherries are mashed well and it is thick, stop and filter the syrup to remove the skin of cherries.

Now place the cake in a tray and cut it to pieces, pour the syrup and serve 🙂

Yellow Pumpkin Curry/ Parangikai Masiyal

Tags

Fiesta Friday, Indian style yellow pumpkin curry, Parangikai masiyal, Yellow Pumpkin, Yellow Pumpkin Curry

Yellow pumpkin is one more favorite of mine. This is South Indian style dish which is usually prepared with Yam/karunai Kilangu. I tried it with yellow pumpkin and this is a perfect dish for roti/chapathi. Bringing this colorful dish to Fiesta Friday # 26 The recipe is very simple 🙂

Ingredients:

Yellow Pumpkin/ Parangikai : 7 inch piece

Onion : 1/2 of large

Lime Juice or tamarind pulp : 1 tablespoon

Red Chili Powder : 3/4 teaspoon

Salt : 1 teaspoon

Oil : 1 teaspoon

Mustard Seeds : 1/2 teaspoon

Urad dal : 1/2 teaspoon

Curry Leaves : Few

Cilantro Leaves : to garnish

Method:

Chop Yellow pumpkin to small pieces, remove the hard skin.

Boil yellow pumpkin with very minimal water till it becomes soft.

Remove it and mash well. It has more water content in itself, so save the water in a bowl and keep aside.

Next heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds , Urad dal when it splutters throw the curry leaves. Next add the onions and saute till translucent.

Now add the mashed up yellow pumpkin along with the water saved from boiling and mix well.

Add lemon juice or tamarind pulp, red chili powder, salt and mix well.

Cook for 5 mins. Water would get absorbed (few drops can be remaining it can go with the curry)

Now stop and garnish with cilantro leaves.

This is just perfect for roti as side dish 🙂

Vegetable Semolina Savory Cake

Tags

easy savory cake recipe, Fiesta Friday, savory cake, savory cake recipe, savory cup cakes, semolina cake, semolina cup cakes, Semolina Savory cake, vegetable cake, Vegetable savory cake, Vegetable Semolina Cake

I have been wanting to prepare this recipe for a very long time. As always preparing cake for me is interesting. A savory cake was quite new to me, as I have never heard of it ( I know don’t hit me guys 😛 ) Getting this to Fiesta Friday #25 . This turned out awesome, just prepared it in the evening for tea time snack. We finished of all the cup cake for dinner now 😀 As making my husband eat dinner is a big deal for me. He is too health conscious and he eats only fruits for dinner. With these cup cakes, he ate it for dinner Yay!!!

This is a very simple savory cake, just made cup cakes out of it. I hope you guys enjoy this 🙂

Ingredients:

Semolina : 3/4 cup

Yogurt : 1/2 cup thick

Water : 3/4 cup

Salt : 1 1/2 teaspoon

Baking Powder : 1 teaspoon

Oil : 1 1/2 tablespoon

Carrot : 1/2 cup shredded

Cabbage : 1/2 cup chopped finely

Peas : 1/4 cup

Red Onion : 1/4 cup

Red Chili Powder : 1 teaspoon

Ginger : 1 teaspoon heaped

Sesame seeds : for topping over the cake

To temper :

Oil : 1/2 tablespoon

Mustard seeds : 1/2 teaspoon

Cumin Seeds : 1/2 teaspoon

Curry Leaves : Few

Asafoetida : a pinch (optional)

Method:

• Mix semolina with red chili powder, salt, baking powder and the vegetables with onion.
• Preheat oven to 375 F and grease the baking tray with butter.
• Add 1 1/2 table spoon oil and ginger with this and mix.
• Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, when it crackles add cumin seeds and asafoetida. Next add curry leaves. When it splutters add it to the mixture and mix well.
• Blend Yogurt with water and add it with the semolina.
• Batter should be watery, pour the batter in the cup cake tray.
• spread some sesame seeds over the top.
• Bake it for 30 mins.
• After baking cool down for half an hour.

Serve it with hot onion chutney or tomato ketchup 🙂 This is one best tea time snack.

Healthy Cookies sans egg, butter, oil, sugar

Tags

Butter less cookies, Cookies, Fiesta Friday, Healthy Cookies, Oat Meal Cookie, Oatmeal Coconut cookie, Oats Flour Cookie, Sugarless Cookies, Vegan Cookies

I can’t wait to post this healthy recipe. I didn’t want to use butter, sugar, eggs for cookies. I was searching for options to avoid butter. As I already had idea for sugar to be replaced with dates. Some articles suggested to use Oil instead of butter, but I didnt want to use oil also 😛 Phew got this post from Jhuls @ The not so creative cook on healthy substitutes for baking. So I decided to bake with banana as the substitute for butter.

The first time I tried made with Whole wheat flour and was not very satisfied with the outcome, though it was good. So next baked with oats flour and this came out well. I am giving the recipe with Oats flour which turned out very well.

Ingredients:

Old Fashioned Oats : 2 cups

Instant Oats : 1 cup or Oats Flour : 1 cup

Dates : 10 (seeds removed and chopped)

Fig : 5 chopped to pieces

Coconut : Freshly grated or unsweetened frozen

Banana : 1 (medium ripe)

Nuts and Raisins : I used few walnuts, almonds, cashews, raisins(optional)

Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips : 1/4 cup (optional)

Vanilla Extract : 1 teaspoons

Baking Powder : 1/2 teaspoon

Salt : 1/2 teaspoon

Method:

Soak figs, dates in hot water for 15 mins. Soak nuts and raisins separately in hot water for 15 mins.

I made a fine powder of instant oats to make the oats flour. You can use the one’s which are available readily in market.

Grind all dates, figs, nuts, raisins well.Its better if it is a fine paste, if not that’s fine.

Next mash the banana well. Add the above paste of 4 tablespoons. If there is more you can store in fridge.

Add vanilla extract and mix well. With this add the oats flour and mix.

Next add coconut , I add around 4 tablespoons. Then add the old fashioned oats and mix well. Add salt, baking powder to this.

Finally added the chocolate chips as its my favorite, you can totally avoid this 🙂 Now the batter is ready.

Preheat oven to 375 F

Make balls and flatten them to get the cookies. In a baking tray grease with oil/ use parchment papers and place these cookies. It took around 40 mins to get some crispiness.

Cool and store in an airtight container.

Once you eat you will come to know there is absolutely no need for sugar 🙂

You can add cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder as well. I missed it 😛

 

 

Beet Samosa

Tags

Beet Samosa, Beetroot Samosa, Fiesta Friday, Healthy Samosa, samosa, samosa with wheat flour, Samosa without onion

I don’t think any one would say a NO to samosa. In India any party you go, any official meetings, evening time snack, appetizers, all around, you can always find samosa’s. Whether it is tastes good or bad, we are attracted to it 🙂 Mostly they are made with all purpose flour, potatoes or any other veggies and fried in oil. We had been to a potluck recently, lots and lots of samosa 🙂 prepared by the host. I thought why not get it to Fiesta Friday that’s again a huge party 🙂

I got the belief “You are what you eat” few years back. I have totally changed my lifestyle, eating habits and my mantra is “Eat well the right way”. I am very happy that my hubby feels the same way.

I was thinking on a lot of combination to prepare samosa, finally decided with beet and coconut. This is not a very new combination. They go very well together and I loved it. All the samosa’s are now finished 🙂 I would say till date, this is the best that I am bringing to Fiesta Friday 🙂 Usually my hubby doesn’t eat more than one piece, this time he ate 4, ummmm now you know 🙂 It was quite crispy and stuffing goes well with it.

Again I have changed the traditional way of using all purpose flour with whole wheat flour. Instead of frying got it baked 🙂 And this would be a great choice if you don’t want to use onions, garlic.

Ingredients:

For Stuffing:

Beetroot : 1 medium grated

Coconut : grated freshly or frozen unsweetened same quantity as beetroot after it is grated.

Cumin seeds: 1/2 teaspoon

Fennel Seeds : 1/2 teaspoon

Black Pepper Powder : 2 teaspoons

Cilantro leaves : few

salt : 1/2 teaspoon

oil : 1 teaspoon

For pastry:

Whole Wheat Flour : 1 cup

Salt : 1/2 teaspoon

Carom Seeds : 1/2 teaspoon

Water : 100ml (adjust according to the need)

Wheat flour for dusting

I couldn’t get all ingredients pictured , sorry friends 🙂

Method:

First Mix whole wheat flour, salt, carom seeds. Use water and make it to a fine dough. Let it rest till we prepare the stuffing.

Grate the beets. Steam it for 5 mins in high. Then cool it down.

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds, Fennel seeds. When they change color, add the steamed beets and cook for 2 mins. Add the grated coconut and mix. Now add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoon pepper powder and mix well. Cook for another 2 to 3 mins. Stop and add chopped cilantro leaves. Let this cool.

Preheat oven to 450F.

Mean time we can prepare the pastry sheets. Take a small cup and have a teaspoon of wheat flour mixed with water. This should be a paste which is used to close the ends of the samosa.

 

Divide dough in to balls. Using a rolling pin and board, dust with some wheat flour and make round breads.Cut it to 2 pieces and fold as shown.

Once done, using the flour paste which is prepared , stick the edges and conceal it. Pastry pockets are ready. I did not cook before using, as I am preparing freshly.

Take the stuffing and put it inside the pastry pockets. Pinch the edges.

You can use little oil to just give a finish touch at the edges and this oil prevents from the samosa to break.

In a baking tray use baking sheet, or I just greased it with butter, place these samosa’s and bake it for 25 mins. In between just slip sides and bake.

Serve with hot mint chutney or tomato ketchup.

Baked Avocado, Mung sprout Patties

Tags

Avocado, Baked cutlet, Baked Mung bean sprout avocado patty, Baked Patty, Fiesta Friday, healthy patties, Mung bean sprouts, Mung Sprouts, Sorghum Flour, Sorghum Flour patty

Sometime back I had posted a salad with Mung sprouts and avocado from then , I have gone crazy with this combination. Yeah You won’t believe I tried to make Indian style Idli (steamed rice cake) with this combo by adding some rice. Tried it as I have heard about Sprouts Idli, but this turned out to be a disaster 😛  I had to throw off the complete batter 😦

I thought of making beet patties, suddenly this flashed in my mind why not use mung sprouts and avocado to make patties. Now I didnt want to use oil 😛 so baked them. Wanted to make it with corn flour but I was out of stock. Other choice was Chickpea flour,but I didn’t want to combine sprouts with this as both might increase gastric issues. I had Sorghum Flour/Jowar Flour which I am using these days instead of whole wheat flour. Sorghum is gluten free, high protein and cholesterol free. I made it as a tea time snack. I try to prepare some snack everyday and my hubby asked what’s today, I said I have baked something without oil. He said OMG you have gone crazy these days not using oil, its not that oil is totally bad 😛 . I guess after I started baking I just love it to a great extent that I feel like baking everything hahaha….I feel so excited to wait and watch how it turns out. After he tasted it, he said hmm this is good and very different. After 2 patties we feel that we are full. Yeah because of sprouts and avocado it makes you feel very full.

Process was quite simple, but for me to decide the ingredients took some time 🙂

I am bringing this to Angie’s Fiesta Friday #21 party. This is such a lovely party where I am finding lots of new friends with great recipes.

Ingredients:

Mung bean sprouts : 3/4 cup

Avocado : 1 medium

Sorghum Flour : 1 cup

Dill leaves : 1 tablespoon heaped

Cilantro leaves : 3 tablespoon finely chopped

Red Onion :1/2 one large finely chopped

Lemon Juice : 1 tablespoon

Ginger : 1 teaspoon grated

Cumin powder : 1 teaspoon

Coriander powder : 1 teaspoon

Salt : as required

Pepper Powder : 2 teaspoons

Roasted Semolina: 1/4 cup just to coat

Method:

First combine Mung sprouts, avocado, ginger, dill leaves in a blender. Grind it to a coarse paste. If needed add little water.

Once done take this in a bowl. Mix salt, cumin powder, coriander powder, pepper powder, chopped cilantro leaves, onion. Mix well. Now slowly add sorghum flour and make a fine batter. Check for salt and spice, if needed more you can add it. If more then mix some more lemon juice.

Make it to any shape which you want, I prefer the usual round. Soak it in roasted semolina and coat the patty. I used Semolina to get the crispiness. You can avoid it as well.

 

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease a baking tray with butter or any spray. Place these patties. Bake them for 30 mins. After first 15 mins, flip side and bake.

I served it with cilantro chutney.

You can skip semolina if you don’t want to use it. Also this can fried with oil in a skillet. Instead of pepper powder, green chili can also be used. You can serve it with tomato ketchup as well.

 

 

 

Whole Wheat flour Blueberry, Chocolate chip cake

Tags

Blueberry cake, Blueberry Chocolate chip cake, Cake, Chocolate Chip Cake, Fiesta Friday, low fat cake, Wheat cake, Whole Wheat Flour cake

I have once tried to bake a brownie with the ready made packets available in the market. I somehow couldn’t get the desired output, the brownie got burnt 🙂 I guess I didn’t follow the correct instructions. I lost interest in baking and for pastry I always go to the bakery and buy. But when I see so many people giving such lovely cakes, muffins, pies, etc I totally wanted to do it myself from scratch.

As this is my first baking experience from scratch , was a little confused whether to use All purpose flour or Wheat flour. I have heard and read that All purpose flour consumption must be reduced in our daily routine. So I did not want to make the cake with All purpose flour, to give a bit of change as I usually do 😛 I tried every ingredient with low fat items. At the same time I got reviews that whole wheat flour might give hard cakes. Then I finally decided, let give it a try with wheat flour Guess what it turned out so Yummy! I couldn’t stop eating the cake 😀 Here I am getting into Fiesta Friday #20

This does have eggs 🙂 I have used brown eggs.

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat flour : 1 1/2 cup

Dark Brown Sugar:3/4 cup

Baking Powder : 2 teaspoons

Salt : 1 teaspoon

Brown Eggs : 2

Vanilla Extract : 1 tablespoon

Fat Free Milk : 1 cup

Butter : 1/2 cup

Fresh Blueberries : 1 cup

Chocolate Chip : 1/2 cup

For topping:

Chocolate Chip : 1/4 cup

Butter : 1 tablespoon

Method:

First mix all dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Whole wheat flour, dark brown sugar, baking powder, salt. Mix well using fork.

Next Mix all wet ingredients together. Milk, butter, eggs, vanilla extract, chocolate chip, 1/2 cup blueberry put all these in a blender and blend for 3 to 4 mins until all of them mix well.

Now mix the dry and wet ingredients together slowly. Preheat oven at 375 F

Grease baking tray generously with butter. Pour the 3/4 cake mix. Next put the remaining blueberries over this. Then cover it with the remaining 1/4 cup cake mix.

Now bake it for 35 mins. I first tried 30 mins, but when I checked with tooth pick, I couldnt get it clear. So baked for 5 more mins. This time the toothpick came out clear 😀 Yay!

Cool it down for 30 mins. After cooling transfer cake to a tray.

For the topping, heat a pan and put the chocolate chips, butter and heat it together. Once they get melted cover the cake with this topping. Cake is done 😀 Yay! I could get such a lovely cake specially with wheat flour. It was not at all hard. May be not too soft as all purpose flour. But this was yummy 🙂

 

Mixed Fruit Mousse (Vegan friendly)

Tags

Avocado, Banana, Berries, cashews in mousse, Dates, Fiesta Friday, fruit mousse, Gelatin free mousse, healthy fruits, mixed fruit mousse, Mixed Fruit Mousse (Vegan friendly), mousse, Pomegranate, pomegranate juice

My dear friend Lori suggested me to enter into the Fiesta Friday. She is so sweet that she gave me the details and it looks like great fun. I am not gonna wait 🙂 Here is my addition to ‘Fiesta Friday’ Thanks to Angie from NoviceGardener who hosts this party.

I prepared this mousse for my fruits Thursday, it’s already Friday in many places around the world. Here it is still Thursday 🙂 . I am sure by now my blogger friends would know that I love banana and avocado’s. Another fruit of my choice is Pomegranate. All of them are healthy fruits. Recently in my fruits list are raspberry and blueberry. Today I prepared this mixed fruit mousse. I did not want to use Gelatin, as these fruits themselves would give thicker and creamier texture. This can be had as a dessert as well. Let me know your comments 🙂

Ingredients:

Avocado : 1 medium sized

Banana : 1

Pomegranate : 1

Blueberries : 12- 15

Raspberries : 12 – 15

Honey : 1 tablespoon

Dates : 2 pitted

Cashew : 15

Method:

 

Soak cashew in hot water for 15 mins. Remove the seeds from Pomegranate and put them in a blender, without adding any water, make it juice. In a filter, remove seeds and extract the juice.

Remove the seed from avocado. Put it in a blender with banana, dates, cashew, honey, raspberries, blueberries. Use only the pomegranate juice to grind.

Once done put it in a bowl and refrigerate it for 3 to 4 hours. Then add few pomegranate seeds in top and serve at room temperature.