Category: Recipes

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2-minute chocolate ragi cake ( gluten free)

Akanksha , my daughter likes to make quick mug micro cakes . I discovered this quick and easy recipe which I modified to her taste.  It is very simple and easy even the kids can make.

Ingredients

  • Four Tablespoon ragi flour
  • One Tablespoon Almond flour ( this helps to cut bitterness but u can increase one tablespoon of Ragi flour if u like the taste or you do not have Almond flour)
  • Three Tablespoon brown sugar/jaggery powder
  • One Tablespoon of cocoa powder
  • One fourth Teaspoon baking soda
  • One fourth cup milk
  • Two tablespoon Oil
  • Half teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Dark chocolate melted or Ganache for decoration (optional)

Method

  • Take a big mug or small size bowl of borosil.
  • Add the Dry ingredients in the bowl.
  • Then add wet ingredients and mix well.
  • Adjust the consistency by adding more milk.
  • Put it in the microwave for two to two and half minutes.
  • Let the cake cool in the microwave for another minute before you take it.
  • Once it’s cooled, top it with any kind of your favorite melted chocolate and sprinkles.
  • Then ENJOY!

It is a quick healthy fix for sweet craving and easy to make. The best part is that it is gluten free and delicious.

You could replace the almond flour with whole wheat flour also. It comes out fairly decent.

You could also refer to the Regular Ragi Chocolate Cake already in the blog for making a regular standard cake ( pl give the link)

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Carrot Chutney

These days it is a trend to have a lot of dips and chutneys with your snacks and chips and dip.  I had done this variation when suddenly I had someone visiting us and was allergic to tomatoes and I wanted a saucy kind of chutney and this variation was invented.

The healthy carrot chutney goes well with south Indian, momos and salad and Kababs. 

It is very simple to make and does not need fancy ingredients. The recipe is for approximate one bowl, you can increase and decrease ingredient quantity as per your taste

Ingredients

  • 2 medium size coarsely grated Carrot
  • 2-3 Red dried chilly
  • One medium size Onion
  • 2-3 Garlic cloves (usually necessary but can skip if u do not eat garlic)
  • A small bowl of Tamarind
  • One tablespoon Coriander seeds
  • Two tablespoons of Peanuts
  • One teaspoon of mustard seeds
  • Half teaspoon of cooking oil
  • Salt to taste

Method

1.   Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and then all the ingredients with salt

2.   Saute this till it is soft and mushy

3.   Cool it

4.   Grind it paste and adjust consistency as per you liking

5.   Incase u are using this with south Indian platter than u can give it additional seasoning of curry leaves and red chilies otherwise it is good to go

This is one of the favorites of the kids and they do not realize it has carrots . Also Use this Recipe along with our Kababs mentioned in the blog

https://bakesngrub.com/kali-masoor-kebabs/

 And as my Husband says the Chutney is marvelous. 

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Chinese Salad

Salad is very important when you are looking for healthy options. But people like me suffer from severe sulphur allergies and cannot eat raw stuff. I tend to modify my salads to a little cooked version. You can use the dressing for any variety of vegetables or mix it with sauteed vegetables.

Chinese salad

Dressing

Half cup water

One tablespoon of sugar

One teaspoon vinegar

One teaspoon of corn flour

Salt and pepper to taste

One teaspoon of tomato sauce

Half tablespoon of Worcester sauce (you can add soya sauce)

chili flakes to taste or even chilly sauce

Method for Dressing

Mix all this in a pan and give it 3-4 boils stirring constantly till it is thick

Let it cool and keep in a bottle.

Mix in vegetables

Ingredients for Salad

One cucumber Chopped

One-fourth Cup Carrot Chopped (optional)

One-fourth cup of Beans chopped (optional)

Half a cup of boiled noodles

One or two Spring onions Chopped

A few nuts

 green chilly strips

one cup of shredded cabbage

Method

 

Par boil Carrot and beans if using

Mix the dressing in all the vegetables

Note– People like me who cannot eat raw vegetables will sauté cabbage, spring onions and bell peppers and mix them in the dressing. The recipe shown is my version where you sauté the vegetables.

When you eat this delicious salad you will be crunching your way into a healthier lifestyle. Happy Eating!!

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Orange Cake

Since everyone loves cakes and are open to trying new recipes, here we
go with another Whole Wheat Cake with Orange which is a healthy cake for
all fitness freaks and gives added Vitamin- C.

Recipe:– This recipe will give a cake of approximately 475 gm and give the
best result with fresh oranges. As you all know I am a believer of making
cooking simple so this is also one pot recipe with no beater and is eggless.
I have not tried this with eggs at all. I felt eggs would overpower the orange
flavour.

Ingredients

  1. one cup Whole Wheat flour
  2. one tablespoon Corn flour
  3. half teaspoon Baking soda
  4. half teaspoon Baking powder
  5. one pinch Salt
  6. half cup cup Castor Sugar
  7. 1/4 cup Cooking oil (can not be replaced with butter)
  8. one cup or 200 ml Fresh orange juice or Tetra pack one
  9. one teaspoon Orange zest or ½ tsp orange essence or 1 tbsp marmalade

Methods

  1. Preheat your oven to 180 degree C.
  2. Sieve the dry ingredients- whole wheat flour corn flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and keep aside. Sieving is very important for airing the mixture
  3. In a bowl take the wet ingredients- castor sugar, oil and orange juice. Beat well with Hand.
  4. Add Orange Zest/ Essence
  5. Now add the sieved flour mixture and mix softly in cut and fold in one direction
  6. Mix everything very well with a spatula and check there should be no lumps in the cake batter
  7. Pour the batter in a lined or greased cake tin of about 6 inches.
  8. Bake in a preheated oven for 180 degrees C for 30-35 minutes or till the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  9. Cool the cake before cutting slices

After all that hard work, treat yourself with a big slice of the decadent cake with tea or coffee.I PROMISE eating a big ol’ slice will be worth it!!

P.S. add some chocolate chips to attract kids,trust me it works all the time… 😉


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Carrot Cake

This recipe holds a lot of nostalgia, passed down from my mom, who insisted on feeding my kids healthy. It’s a simple one-pot recipe, no fancy equipment needed.

Ingredients

  • 1 Cup Oil (not to be replaced with butter or ghee)
  • 2 Cup Whole wheat flour
  • 3 Cup Red Grated Carrot  ( preferred Red winter)
  • 2 Cup Sugar
  • 4 Eggs Or replace with 1 cup to 1 cup and ¼ cup milk
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • 1 tsp Baking soda
  • 1 tsp Garam masala
  • Walnuts and almonds for garnishing

Method

  • Put all the ingredients and mix with hand.
  • Pl note donot use any beater or spoon as it will break due to thickness in the batter
  • If using eggs beat them slightly with fork and add to mixture
  • Bake in pre heated oven for 40- 45 min at 200 degree Celsius. Time may vary esp. for eggless one as it take time. Tooth pick should come out clean
  • Pl note the recipe is for 1kg cake
  • Points to remember
  • I donot recommend using this with orange carrot but if doing pl use All purpose and Whole wheat – 1 cup each and sugar cannot be reduced
  • Batter has be to falling in lumps and not a flowy one You need to be extra careful on eggless batter that u donot overmix or add extra milk otherwise cake will get brunt feeling. Pl add slowly the quantity of milk. It can vary due to the quality of whole wheat also.

Happy Cooking and Build the Mom and Kids bond.

It’s joy of cooking with kids and making memories with laughter and warmth of the bonds been built that motivates me to do stuff with them

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Pizza Muffins

This is one of my favourite especially when I have to feed vegetables and also very popular in my kids tiffin. One can be rest assured that tiffin would be finished if pizza muffins are there. I have to pack extra as per their instruction which is used for trading. I am sure you would also love to try the same.

Ingredients

  1. All-purpose flour- 1.5 cup ( you can do even half whole wheat )
  2. Baking Powder- 2tsp
  3. Baking Soda- ¼ tsp
  4. Salt- ¼ tsp
  5. Olive oil- ½ cup
  6. Milk ¾ cup
  7. Curd- ½ cup
  8. Tomato Sauce- 1 tbsp
  9. Cheese -1/2 cup
  10. Vegetables finely chopped- Capsicum, Bell peppers, Carrot
  11. Boiled sweet corn- ½ cup
  12. Tomato- ¼ cup (De-seeded and chopped)
  13. Oregano and pizza seasoning
  14. Pepper- ¼ tsp

Method

  • Sieve the dry ingredients like all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt together
  • Take a bowl and add curd, milk, oil and tomato sauce
  • To the wet mixture add the dry ingredients plus pepper & pizza seasoning
  • Fold the ingredients gently and add half of the vegetables, corn, tomato and cheese
  • Put the batter in a muffin mould. Fill upto 3/4th and then add little bit of all vegetables in each mould. Top with a swirl of tomato sauce and sprinkle little cheese
  • Bake for about 15 min in a preheated oven at 180 degree. Check if toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool on wire rack

You can do variation with vegetables depending on what one likes in your family. Also you can replace curd with one egg, if you want to use egg.

Do try these pizza muffins and let me know how they turned out.

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Ragi Chocolate Cake

Having lived and worked a decade down south, as a family we all have developed a taste for Ragi. 15 years back Ragi was not so much known in North India but more used in South for their regular eating. Our cook in Bangalore used to make amazing Ragi dosa, kheer and other stuff. Then as we moved to Delhi the kids choices changed and they had also moved to become teenagers.  Chocolate is their favourite choice and so I decided to experiment with Ragi and Whole wheat chocolate cake.  Tried many recipes and came out with this version.

 It turns out yum, initially I did not tell the kids but now they love it so much that they demand it.  No guesses here the mother will be very happy.

This recipe makes about a 500 gm cake and you will need 7-8 inch pan

Ingredients

  1. Ragi Flour- ¾ cup
  2. Whole wheat flour/All-purpose flour – ¾ cup
  3. Coco powder- 2 tbsp (Could be replaced with drinking chocolate/Bournvita)
  4. Oil- 2/3 rd cup ( one could use butter but I prefer oil)
  5. Curd- 1/3rd cup
  6. Milk- ¾ cup
  7. Sugar- 1 cup (you could use normal sugar, brown sugar or jaggery)
  8. Vinegar- ½ tsp
  9. Vanilla essence- 1 tbsp
  10. Baking powder-1 tsp
  11. Baking soda-½ tsp
  12. Salt- 1/8 tsp

Method

  1. Sieve the dry ingredients Ragi, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Please do this step 2-3 times to ensure you incorporate air in the mix.
  2. Mix sugar with dry ingredients
  3. Mix the wet ingredients in different bowl – Oil, Milk, Vinegar, essence and curd. Please whisk the curd before mixing with the other ingredients.
  4. Now slowly pour this in to dry ingredients bowl which has sugar. Mix lightly with hand as you do not want air which has been incorporated in flour should be lost.
  5. Once mixed please pour in greased tin and bake in Pre heated oven for 25-30 min at 180 degree.  Skewer should come out clean once inserted.
  6. Remove from oven and cool.

One could do little chocolate frosting by adding molten chocolate or any other frosting over it . It tastes yum either ways.  I have tried replacing curd with egg but it does not come out that well so would suggest stick to curd for this.

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Oats Granola

Continuing my Trilogy on Oats related recipes thought of sharing this tasty granola. With summer time, it’s great to add to ice-creams, yogurts and or just munch on this healthy stuff. This one is very simple one and you can control the sugar or skip the sugar and make it healthier.

Ingredients

  • Rolled oats – 3 cup.
  • Almonds- ¾ cup chopped almonds.
  • Pumpkin seeds- ½ cup
  • Sunflower seeds- ½ cup
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1/8th tsp cinnamon powder
  • 2 tbsp apple juice
  • 1 tbsp or 15 gm butter
  • 4 Tbsp – honey (you can do 2 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp maple syrup also)
  • 1/4th cup brown sugar (you can skip and add 1-2 tbsp of honey)
  • 1 cup of dried fruits (cranberry, blueberry, kiwi…)

Method

  1. In a bowl mix the dry ingredients – oats, nuts, seeds, cinnamon, salt .
  2. In small bowl melt butter, add sugar, honey and apple juice
  3. Mix the wet and dry ingredients and spread on baking tray
  4. Bake for 20-25 min at 180 degree in pre heated oven.
  5. While baking please keep stirring the mixture and remove once the golden colour is achieved
  6. After it’s cooled then add dried fruits and store in airtight container
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Crunchy Oats Cookie

Hope everyone is careful during the Unlock-1. Virus is still there and we need to live with precautions and get used to new normal. I have been bit caught up in finishing my work assignments so could not share a recipe for last 10 days.  This time I wanted to share something related to Oats which is  healthy.  These Oats cookies are very simple to make and are an instant hit. You can do lot of variations on the same in terms of flour, addons and flavouring.

Ingredients

  • Butter – 100gm
  • Castor sugar – ½ cup or 100gm
  • Egg yolk – 1 [If you want to skip the egg, add 1 tbsp milk powder]
  • Maida/All-purpose flour – 1 cup [You can do ½ cup Whole wheat and ½ cup All-purpose or complete whole wheat flour]
  • Oats – 1/3 rd cup
  • Baking soda – ½ tsp
  • Walnuts / Chocochip – ¼ th cup or any nuts crushed. *

Method

  1. Sift together flour and baking soda. Add the oats also. Keep aside.
  2. Cream together butter and sugar
  3. Add the egg [or milk powder with 1-2 tsp of milk]
  4. Add flour with oats, nuts or choco chips
  5. Mix all the ingredients in the form of batter
  6. Make shapes or spoon the mixture in baking trays.
  7. Keep in fridge for 15 min or so
  8. Bake in preheated oven at 160 degree for 10-12 min
  9. Cool them on wire rack

Variations in flavour could be adding some custard powder or some nutmeg or chocolate chunks or raisins. It gives very different flavour and texture.

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Oats Moong Dal Tikki

This is a very healthy and high protein recipe and a good way to feed the kids oats. This is lipsmacking snack and has replaced the regular tikki.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup yellow moong lentils/Dal
  • 1 cup oats
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 1tsp garlic
  • 2 green chilles chopped
  • 1 boiled potato
  • 2 tsp chopped coriander leaves
  • 1 tsp spring onion/ or any vegetable like carrot (optional)
  • Dry spices as per taste- garam masala, coriander powder, amchur powder, red chilli powder
  • Salt to taste
  • Little oil for grilling

Method

  1. Soak Dal for about 1 hours
  2. Cook the dal in one cup water in open pan till dal becomes soft. This step is critical that dal needs to be cooked and not watery.
  3. Let it cool and if required you can coarse grind it. I did not grind but mashed with hands.
  4. Oats can be ground or used as it is.
  5. Mix all the ingredients and shape in rounds
  6. Grill them on non stick pan with little or no oil
  7. You can serve with regular sauce, mint chuntey or add curd

Tip- In case you find oats making it dry, please add 1 -2 tbsp of curd.