Recipe Stash

I realized that over the course of the years I have accumulated soooo many recipes - some saved in my email as drafts, some as links, some as magazine clippings, some in the form of facebook posts and still more in the form of the numerous sites and blogs I have subscribed to and do not have the heart to unsubscribe!! So, this year I decided that it's high time we get into action and at least scratch the surface of the recipe stash and try some of the stuff

The first is a healthy fruity semolina bread that I tried

I got this recipe from a facebook group called Homebaker's Guild. This is a heavy bread with the goodness of fruit and nuts, semolina, coconut flour. 

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients: All Purpose Flour - 1 cup; Semolina (Sooji)- 1 cup; Coconut Flour - 1/2 cup; Whole Wheat Flour - 1-1/2 cups; Baking Soda - 1-1/2 tsp; Salt - 1 tsp; Goji Berries - 1/4 cup; Dried Cranberries - 1/4 cup; Crushed Almonds - 1/4 cup; Honey - 1/4 cup; Eggs - 2 (I used buttermilk instead); Melted Butter - 1/4 cup (I used olive oil); Yogurt (Dahi) - 2-1/2 cups; Beetroot Pulp - 1/4 cup 

PROCEDURE

1. In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients and fruits. (1-9)

2. In another bowl mix together all the wet ingredients. (10-14)

3. Mix the two together into a nice ball of dough.

4. Form a rough ball of dough and place in a Dutch oven/ Ceramic pot / Earthern Pot (mitti). 

5. Optional step - Put a cross on it with a knife. 

6. Bake covered with aluminum foil in a pre heated oven at 220 degrees C for 20 mins. Then uncover it and bake for another 

20-25 mins. Check your loaf and bake accroding to your oven.

7. Cool it and dig in!

NOTES-

1. If you don't have coconut flour, use dessicated coconut or whole wheat flour

2. Replace eggs with 1 banana for a sweet version or 3/4 cup of buttermilk (milk + vinegar)

3. Replace beetroot with spinach or carrot

Being summer in this part of the globe, next is a summer cooler. I have been wanting to try my hand at veggie juices/coolers

Here's a cucumber-lemon-mint cooler with no sugar. Just blend all the ingredients with a tsp of honey and serve chilled.. as simple as that!! 

Do try these and hope you like them. That's all today folks.. will be back soon with more recipes and stitchy updates.
Till then.. take care.. be happy.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir!!

Diwali!!!

Yes.. the festival that everybody looks forward to the most all through the year is over!! Some parts of India celebrate Diwali today. Wishing all my friends here a very Happy, prosperous Diwali

I do not know how many do this, but as soon as the annual holiday calendar is released, first thing I check for is Diwali. This is one festival that I look forward to each year from the beginning of the year. Even thinking about Diwali brings so much joy and happiness. And just like each year, Diwali is over in the blink of an eye.. sigh!!

I tried a new sweet this year - Maalpua. It's a north Indian sweet dish. These are basically crisp pancakes made out of refined flour and milk, soaked in sugar syrup. I wanted to make this a diabetic friendly sweet as majority of my family members are diabetic - the husband, dad and mil. I got the basic recipe for Maalpuas from here. For the sugar syrup I used Sugar Free Natura and used the recipe from here. It was a big hit with everybody - except me :( I did not like the taste of sugarfree, but the hubby, mil and my dad just loved it!! I thought it left some kind of a bitter after-taste

On the stitchy front, I have a picture to share my progress.

With only a month a half more to the year, I am sure I cannot finish this project in 2015. But I am pretty sure that the day is not very far when I share a 'completed' post!!

So, till next time.. Take care.. Be Happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir

And we won!!!

Yay!!! We won the world cup!! India are the world champions in cricket!! Isn't it awesome. After 28 years, now India are the world champions again!!! Am sooo excited. The final match was so exciting till the end. It was an absolute nail-biting finish. Our apartment association had organized a big screen and projector for the match to be relayed in the lawn. The second half was watched by almost everybody in the apartment - old and young - together.

Apologize for the poor picture, but that was the big screen telecasting the match.

All ladies had b(r)ought a whistle to join in th excitement and children brought any noise-making device that they had. Boy, was it electrifying!! And when the captain MS.Dhoni hit the winning shot - and what a shot it was!! - there was such a great roar that went up!!! This is right after the winning shot!! Everybody crowded in the front as close to the screen as possible and Sachin being taken around I had (coincidentally?) made a new sweet and it turned out that we had the sweet to celebrate our win. This was a new recipe that I found in the latest Goodhouse Keeping magazine. It's called Chenna pudding

This time I do not have a stitchy update. It's too little to be shown here.

Guess what, I have a new follower!!! I now have 15 followers :d Thank you all for your encouraging comments and suggestions. Am inspired by each and every one of you to keep goin on my crafting expeditions. Thank you soo much again. Words are not enough to express how much you inspire me :)

So.. till my next update. take care.. keep stitching.. Au Revoir... :)