Banana Pancake Bites

 This is super delicious. A bit of a work to make but its delightful to see all the people's happy faces when they discover the secret after the initial happiness of seeing tiny pancakes

Banana Pancake Bites

Banana Pancake Bites

Ingredients:

1. 1-1/4 cup pancake mix
2. 2 medium sized bananas sliced into 1/4 thick rounds
3. butter for frying pancakes.

Mix the pancake batter little thicker than usual. Heat a griddle and spread butter all over.

Add few pieces of bananas into the batter and flip them so that they are covered in batter on both sides. Using a fork drop each banana piece and some batter onto the griddle and fry for 1-2 minutes. Flip and cook 1 more minute. Add some more butter if needed. Enjoy as is or with maple syrup

Chicken Samosa

 Spicy chicken samosa is pretty awesome. Its great for tea time snack or make the spice level low so that it becomes a yummy lunch for school or office.

Spicy Chicken Samosa (Indian Empanada with ground chicken)

Chicken Samosa

Ingredients:

1. 1 lb ground chicken
2. 1 medium small onion chopped
3. 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
4. 1/2 teaspoon each of chilli powder, curry powder
5. 3/4 teaspoon salt
6. 1 tablespoon fenugreek leaves
7. 1/2 cup frozen peas thawed
8. 1/2 cup chicken broth
9. 1 tablespoon oil
10. Oil for spraying on the baking sheet

Mix all the spice ingredients in the chicken. Heat oil in a pan and add the onions and fry for 5 minutes. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for 1 minute. Add the chicken and stir and break well and cook for 10 minutes or until no longer pink. Add the chicken broth or water and cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add peas and cover and continue for 5 more minutes. Garnish with cilantro and cut the heat and let it cool

Home made dough or use store bough empanada circles. Cut them into halves. Fill each half with 1-1.5 tablespoons chicken filling. Touch your finger with water and run it at the edges. Close the half circle into a triangle and lay on a sprayed baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the samosas with cooking spray. Bake for 15 minutes. Flip the samosas spary again and bake for 15 more minutes. Let it cool a bit and enjoy

Thai Peanut Ramen noodles

 I love saucy noodles, I love peanut butter. Like the Geyco from Geico says "why not marry them?"

Thai Peanut Ramen noodles

Ramen noodles in spicy peanut sauce with vegetables and Egg 

Ingredients:

1. 1 Package Ramen Noodles
2. 1 tablespoon each of Creamy Peanut Butter, Low Sodium Soy Sauce, roasted chopped peanuts
3. 1 Teaspoon each of Chili Garlic Sauce, Sesame Oil, Honey or sugar
4. 1 Green Onions Sliced Optional
5. 1 egg soft cooked
6. tiny pinch of salt per your taste preference

Cook the ramen noodles according to package directions (without the spice packet). Drain 2/3 water and set aside.
In a medium bowl whisk together the peanut butter, soy sauce, chili sauce, sesame oil, and honey/sugar.
Pour the sauce over the noodles and toss to coat.
Serve topped with sliced green onions and crushed peanuts and egg if desired.

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Murgh Kalimirch

I have exhausted my recipe stash in the last one year of pretty much eating every meal at home. In my eternal search for something new I stumbled upon this delicious recipe which has a ton of black pepper in it.  It worked out great for a cold evening. The original recipe is here  . If you want a dry stir fried curry here is another black pepper chicken recipe

Murgh Kalimirch ( Chicken in yogurt gravy with black pepper)

Ingredients

1. 1 medium large onion chopped
2. Handful of  Cashew Nuts
3. 1 tbsp Vegetable oil
4. 3-4 Cardamom
5. 1 bay leaf
6. 1 teaspoon Ginger garlic paste
7. 1 lb chicken breast cut into bite size pieces
8. 1 cup plain yogurt lightly beaten
9. 1  teaspoon each of Coriander powder, salt, freshly ground black pepper
10. 1/2 teaspoon Cumin powder
11. 1 tablespoon Kasuri Methi

Heat a cup of water and add the onions and cashews to it and let sit for 5-7 minutes. Drain and grind the onions. Reserve the liquid.

Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add cardamom and bayleaf to the pan. Add onion paste and fry for 8-10 minutes.Add ginger garlic paste and fry for 2 minutes.

Now add chicken and fry for 10 minutes on medium high heat. Add yogurt and reserved onion water and mix well. Add all the spices and mix well. Simmer for 10 minutes. Enjoy with roti, steamed rice or Zeera rice

Ancient grains Dosa

 Exactly a year when we were getting into lock down, we went to Costco and my husband was on one of those healthy shopping sprees and got a box of Tasty bites Ancient Grains. Of course after eating it a couple of times, it was forgotten in the pantry. Today I used one of those packets and the dosa was super delicious.

Ancient grains Dosa (Crepes made of Ancient grains and lentil/rice batter)

Ancient grains Dosa

Ancient grains crepe

Ingredients:

1. 1 8.8 oz Tasty Bites Ancient grains pouch
2. 1/2 cup urad dal flour
3. 1/4 cup rice flour
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt
5. 2 cups water
6. Oil for cooking the dosa

Grind the ancient grains into a smooth paste with 1/2 cup water. Heat the rest of the water for 1 minutes in the microwave. Mix all the ingredients together except oil and set aside for 20 minutes.

Heat a griddle. Take a ladle of batter and add it to the center of the griddle and with a light hand spread it into a circle with outward motion until it gets to 6 inch circle. Drizzle oil around the dosa and cover and cook on medium low for 2 minutes. Flip and add little oil and cook for 2 more minutes. Serve with your favorite chutney or curry

Banana split Cake

This is one of the most awesome dessert recipes I have ever made. Its so easy to make but tastes like heaven. My son says he wants this for this birthday instead a a cake...and that is a huge compliment :)

The original recipe is here 

Banana Split Cake (No bake layered cake with cream, pineapple and banana)

Banana and pineapple layered cake

Ingredients:

1. 9 graham crackers, crushed (about 1-1/2 cups)
2.  1 cup sugar, divided
3.  1/3 cup butter, melted
4.  2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
5.  1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple in juice, drained
6.  3-4 bananas peeled and sliced
7.  1 5.1 oz JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
8.  2 cups cold milk
9.  2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, divided

Combine graham crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar and butter; press onto bottom of 13x9-inch pan. Freeze 10 min.

Beat cream cheese and remaining sugar with mixer until blended. Spread carefully over crust; top with pineapple. Arrange the sliced bananas over pineapple.

Beat pudding mixes and milk with whisk 2 min. Stir in 1 cup COOL WHIP; spread over banana layer in pan. Top with remaining COOL WHIP. Refrigerate 5 hours.

Serve with ,pre sliced bananas or cherries if desired

Shrimp Okra Fry

 Okra fry and shrimp fry are super delicious dishes. This dish combines both of those and creates one yummy dry fry dish, to be served with white rice and dal.

Shrimp Okra Fry( Okra and shrimp fried with Indian spices)

Shrimp Okra Fry

Ingredients:

1. 1 lb medium or large shrimp peeled and deveined
2. 12 oz frozen okra thawed or fresh okra, ends discarded and cut into 1/2 inch rounds.
3. 1/2 cup red onion sliced
4. 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
5. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
6. 3/4 teaspoon salt
7. 1 teaspoon each of cumin powder, coriander powder, chilli powder
8. 1 tablespoon oil

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions till they start turning dark brown. Add okra cover and cook for 10 minutes on medium heat. Add all the spices and ginger garlic paste and stir well and fry for 2 minutes. Move the okra to the edges of the pan and add the shrimp. Let them cook for a minute. Flip and cook for 1 more minutes. Stir to combine. Fry for 5 more minutes or until you are sure the shrimp are cooked through. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy with steamed rice and dal or any of your favorite rice recipes