Cooking and Me

My love for food started from a very young age, I had a recipe book where I used to jot down recipes since the time I was in fourth grade. After getting married I got more hands on chances to try out new recipes with a very loving food critic at home. My friends usually ask me how I make a specific dish saying I would have found the easiest way of making it. It is actually after we started solids for our son that I realised it just takes a small effort from our end to cook things at home which would end up being healthier and tastier than store bought ones.
So here are a few tried and tested recipes which has managed to satisfy our little one's taste buds. Hope you will try them and let me know how it turned out :)

Whole Wheat Dates and Choco Chunk Cookies:

Whole wheat – 1 cup

Jaggery (powdered) – 1 cup

Melted Butter – ¾ cup

Dark chocolate (roughly chopped) – ¼ cup

Dates - (roughly chopped) – ¼ cup

Milk – as per need to adjust dough consistency

Method:

• Preheat oven at 180 degree for 10 minutes.
• Mix whole wheat and jaggery in a bowl.
• Add the melted butter and prepare cookie dough. To adjust the consistency of the dough add milk if required (consistency should be like roti dough).
• Add in the dates and choco chunks and mix lightly so that it reaches all over the dough.
• Make small balls and lightly press. You can also flatten the whole dough with a rolling pin and cut out shapes with a cookie cutter.
• Bake for 15 minutes and cool for a while at room temperature.
• Note: The cookie hardens as it cools so do not over bake it.

Spinach and Potato Tikki

So last week there was fresh spinach in our balcony garden and decided to try something different and trust me it has become a new favourite at home!

Spinach (Palak) : A bunch

Potato: 2 medium sized (boiled and mashed)

Garlic: 3 cloves (Optional)

Dry mango powder: (1 tsp)

Cumin: ½ tsp

Green Chilli: 1

Salt: As per taste

How to make:

• ·         In a pan, add oil and once it turns hot add cumin and garlic and sauté for a minute. Now add the spinach to it and cook on low flame till the leaves are wilted and water completely evaporated.
• ·         Let this mixture cool and grind it to a smooth paste along with green chillies.
• ·         In a bowl, add the mashed potatoes, spinach puree, salt, dry mango powder and mix well. Make sure that there is no water and to get the right consistency add a bit of rice flour if required.
• ·         Make small balls out of this and shallow fry on medium flame.
• ·         Crispy tikkis ready!

Note: To make a healthier version just brush oil on the tikkis and bake them for 20 minutes.

Garlic Pasta:

Boiled Pasta: 1 cup

Garlic: 4 cloves

Milk: 1/4 cup

Butter: 1 tbsp

How to make:

• Heat a pan and add butter to it.
• Once the butter melts, add chopped garlic and saute for a minute. 
• Now pour milk and add a pinch of salt, let the milk boil and reduce a bit.
• Add cooked pasta and keep it on low flame till the milk reduces and coats the pasta well.

Note:

To add more veggies to it you can either add stir fried veggies or grind carrot/ broccoli/ beetroot along with garlic and continue with step 2.