Banana Ragi muffins

 W The last time we got bananas we went out of town on a small trip...guess what the bananas did when we were not around. They got ripe and started getting their skin all brown and sad. So...no one will touch them. Hence I had to go hunting for recipes to use up those yummy sweet ripe bananas. So I found this banana muffin recipe and I modified it just a tad bit and made it more healthy and it turned out super delicious.

Ragi which is Finger Millet is supposed to have quite a bit of health benefits. Also I like it. It has a bit of sweet after taste to it. Also this is a vegetarian recipe...no egg

Banana Ragi muffins (Banana and Finger millet muffins)

Banana ragi muffin

Ingredients

1. 2 large or 3 medium sized bananas
2. 1/3 cup sour cream or plain full fat yogurt
3. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4. 3/4 cup sugar (You can also reduce this to 2/3) or any other sweetener of your choice
5. 1 cup each of all purpose flour, ragi flour
6. 2 teaspoons baking powder
7. 1 teaspoon baking soda
8. a pinch of salt
9. If you want you can add chocolate chips to it (1/2 cup)

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees

Mash the peeled bananas with a potato masher into smooth pulp. Add yogurt or sour cream, sugar , vanilla extract and mix until the sugar dissolves. 

Sift the flours and baking powder and baking soda and salt and add it to the liquid ingredients and gently stir until well combined.

Add chocolate chips if using and mix to combine

Line a muffin pan with muffin liners and spray with cooking spray. 

Drop heaped tablespoon of the batter and bake for 20-23 minutes.

Let them cool for 5 minutes before serving

Avocado milk shake

Any new country you go to, there is so much to discover. It opens up your mind in ways that is just not possible by not going to a new land. You see so many new places, new people, new foods and new ways in which people live their lives. Recently we went o Saudi Arabia. It was a very different country in ways I never knew. Other than the language barrier the visit was a pleasant one.
May be I would avoid going there in the middle of summer , or in the beginning or in the end of summer but I would like to visit Saudi Arabia again.
 The variety of food from various countries really surprised me. There were so many things I wanted to try but couldn't . If I ever visit it another time, I know what I would like to try.

One of the things which was a real surprise for me...were the variety of fruits and vegetables available in Saudi. Looks like they import a whole lot of fruits and vegetables from all over the world. The biggest surprise were the variety of drinks and milkshakes...obviously to keep cool and hydrated from the desert heat.

The one thing I would never imagine was Avocado milkshake

Mango, Guava, Avocado and Strawberry milkshake

Avocado milkshake 

Avocado Milkshake

Ingredients:

1. 1 ripe hash avocado
2. 2-3 cups milk or 2 cups milk 1 cup ice
3. 1 tablespoon each of honey and sugar (adjust to taste)

Blend all ingredients together into a smooth milkshake and enjoy

Copycat Cane’s chicken

Chicken fingers

 

Paneer chaat sandwich

 So…it’s one of those days where whatever I have is not what I want for lunch. So I was looking g for sandwich recipes and I found a paneer sandwich but of course that as a base…I made my own paneer sandwich and yum yum yum …lunch 😊

Paneer Chaat Sandwich (Sourdough sandwich with spiced Indian cottage cheese )

Paneer Chaat sandwich

Ingredients 

1. 2 -3 tablespoons grated paneer
2. 1 tablespoon thick plain yogurt 
3. 2 tablespoons each of boiled sweet corn, boiled black beans
4. 1 tablespoon each of fresh cilantro and mint chopped fine, fresh squeezed lemon juice
5. 1 green chili finely chopped 
6. 1-2 teaspoons chaat masala
7. Salt to taste
8. Sour dough bread + butter to toasting bread 

Mix all the ingredients to become a homogeneous mix.

Heat a griddle and toast the bread with butter on one side.

Flip and toast with butter on the other side 

Pull the paneer mix on the bread and cut it into your favorite shape and enjoy

Chinese cookies

 Lightly sweetened cookies

Chinese cookies 

Ingredients

1. 2 cups all purpose flour
2. 4 tablespoons each of butter, cream cheese
3. 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
4. 1 large egg
5. pinch of salt

Mix the butter and cream cheese into a smooth batter and add sugar and mix until its melted. Add the egg and mix well. Add the salt and flour and mix for a smooth dough.
Divide the dough into 15-18 parts and flatten them into 1/2 cm thick cookies.

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 15- 17 minutes. Enjoy!!!

NOTE : Add chocolate chips to these cookies and make them into choc chip cookies :)

Sweet potato sticks

 Today has been one of those extremely cold days here and I wanted to eat some snacks but no snacks were available. I has sweet potatoes though…so I made easy sweet potato sticks

Sweet potato sticks ( Basked sweet potato snacks)

Sweet potato sticks

Ingredients 

1. 1 medium large sweet potato boiled for 20-22 minutes until soft.
2. 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
3. 4 tablespoons each of butter, cream cheese
4. 1 large egg
5. 1/4 teaspoon salt
6. 2 cups all purpose flour

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees F

In a bowl mix together butter and cream cheese until well combined. All sugar and mix well. Add the mashed sweet potatoes and the egg and mix well. Add the flour and salt and mix with a spatula. The dough may be a bit sticky.

In a baking sheet spread the dough with a spatula until it’s 1/2 cm thick. 

Note: I cut the dough into square with the spatula before baking. After 15 minutes at 400 degrees, I cut them into sticks and baked at 300 for 10 more minutes

Bake for 10 minutes and flip and bake for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 and bake for 10 minutes. Cool and enjoy

Maat ki phalli fry

 Maat ki phalli fry ( stir fried clusters beans with coconut and peanuts)

Maat ki phalli fry

Ingredients 

1. 12 oz frozen clusters beans beans thawed or fresh ends cut and cut into 1-11/2 inch pieces
2. 2 tablespoons oil
3. 1 medium onion chopped fine
4. 2 tablespoons each of besan and grated coconut, roasted peanut powder
5. 1 teaspoon each of coriander powder, chilli powder
6. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt (add more to taste), cumin powder, turmeric, mustard seeds
7. Few curry leaves

In a pan heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and fry till they start to splutter. Add the onions and fry for 2 minutes, make the flame to be high and add the cluster beans and fry for 10 minutes covered. Stir occasionally.

Add all the spices and mix, reduce the heat to medium add the besan and rest of the ingredients and continue to cook for 5 more minutes . Add coconut and peanut powder stir to combine, reduce heat to low and cook covered for 5 minutes. Add the curry leaves fry for 2 more minutes and enjoy with white rice and dal