Whole Wheat Belgian Waffles

Recipe (Makes about 6-7 waffles)

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1 cup
Baking powder - 4 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Sugar - 2 tbsp

Oil - 1/3 cup
Egg - 1 (you can optionally replace with a large ripe mashed banana)
Milk - 1 cup
Vanilla essense - 1 tsp

Garnishing: (any or all of the below 😉)
Syrup of your choice - maple, chocolate, caramel
Whipped cream
Jam
Fruits

Method:

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar until evenly mixed.
In another bowl, whisk the oil, egg, milk and vanilla.

Add the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and mix into a smooth batter.

Heat the waffle-maker and coat it well with either butter or some oil spray.

When ready, pour the batter into the waffle maker until the brim and let it cook as per the wafflet maker's specification.

Gently dislodge the waffles from the waffle maker and transfer to the serving plate.

Yummy waffles are ready to be served with fruit, whipped cream or syrup.

Verdict: Well Sunday breakfast is a no-brainer with such recipes in hand. Healthy for the most part and yummy to convince kids to finish up with a glass of milk. What more can one ask for?

Egg curry

Bored of cooking the same veggies and yearning for something spicy yet healthy to serve? That particularly happens to me on rainy evenings. So a couple of days ago, I got bored of carrots and beans and green peas, and was looking to make something quick and tasty, and something that my little one will eat as well. I realised there were a dozen eggs in the fridge and decided to make some egg curry. My Little one calls it, "maasa egg", her way of saying "masala egg".

The recipe is very simple. Just finely chop a large onion, and a large tomato, fry them to a pulp, add the necessary spices and finally add boiled eggs. Serve hot with rice or roti. 

Simple isn't it? Easy when you are running short of time too. 

Recipe 
Ingredients:
Eggs - 6-7 boiled 
Onions - one large or two medium sized ones, finely chopped 
Tomato - one large or two small ones 
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp 
Salt - to taste 
Coriander powder - 1/4 tsp 
Tumeric - a pinch 
Oil for frying 

Tadka: 
Curry leaves - 5-6 

Cumin - 1/2 tap 

Method: 

Chop the onions and tomatoes finely. In a heavy bottomed utensil, heat a tablespoon of oil (I prefer olive oil for this).  When the oil is hot, add the curry leaves and cumin. When the cumin is changing colour, add the chopped onions. Add a pinch of turmeric and fry the onions until they are transparent. Add the chopped tomatoes, salt, chilli and coriander powders and continue frying, until the whole mixture looks well blended. 

Now, add a little water and cover the kadai with a lid.  The onions need to cook until soft. Add additional oil if necessary. 
Finally, the curry looks like this in the picture above.  Now make slits in the eggs as shown in the picture. I make four such long slits around the eggs.  

Gently drop the eggs into the curry, toss them around to coat the sides and turn off the flame.  

Transfer to the serving bowl, garnish with more curry leaves or coriander leaves and serve hot with rice or chapati. 

Note 1: 
If you have some time, before adding the eggs, you can cool down the curry and grind it into a paste. That will yield a smooth curry. 

Note 2: 
Boil the eggs only until the yolk is fully cooked, and still yellow in colour. Sometimes the egg yolk starts turning grey, and that is a sign of overcooked eggs. 
I use the pressure cooker, with a slice of lemon in the water, and keep on high for just one whistle. I remove the eggs as soon as the cooker cools down and peel them. 
If boiling in a saucepan, boil for about 15-20minutes. 

Verdict: Simple, quick, go to menu when short of time or ingredients. 

Pillow Cakes

Hello All! I am back from an extended hibernation mode.

Thank you so much for your patience and continued patronage. I see some likes cropping up on my Facebook page every now and then. I am very grateful for that and it is a reminder for me to share the joy of cooking with the online community.

Well, there really is no specific reason for being away from the blog, I think I was just overwhelmed with the entire parenting experience all over again!

I was just reminiscing to my elder daughter about all the yummy baked goods I used to make for her and ended up showing the blog, while my little one saw all these pictures for the first time, that I had baked cookies and cakes and brownies, she had a forlorn look on her face. At that instant I decided to resume blogging as she is now slightly older and independent and is also very helpful around the kitchen. She was thrilled.

Little tummies need to be filled and "yummy yummy food for the tummy" is always being cooked, but not being photographed and blogged about.

I did not have the luxury of plating up and photographing, simply for lack of time and/or not being able to find my phone. Two kids need digital baby sitters you see and my phone serves me well.

So what better way to get back on the blog than with a tasty and quick breakfast option for lazy Sundays!

I honestly wanted to make better use of the sandwich maker and was looking at recipes I could use it for and came across these easy breakfast/snack options.

The little one does not have a sweet tooth and is a very picky eater. But chocolates, cakes and ice-creams are always welcome on her palette.

So let us go back to the delicious pillow cakes baked in the sandwich maker.

I picked a recipe that called for whole wheat flour. I just omitted the sprinkles and used a piece of dark chocolate for the filling. You can skip this if you please.

Recipe

Ingredients
Whole-wheat flour - 1 cup 
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Milk - 1/2 cup or as needed
Oil - 3 tbsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Chocolate pieces - if using

Icing sugar for sprinkling

Butter for greasing the sandwich-maker plates.

Method

1. Mix oil, sugar, vanilla and egg in a bowl until combined.
2. Now add in flour, baking powder and fold gently.
3. Pour milk and fold gently till smooth batter.
4. Heat the sandwich maker and grease with some butter.
5. If making plain cakes pour the cake batter into the moulds to the brim.
6. If using chocolate filling, pour a little batter, place a piece of chocolate and cover with another layer of batter.
7. Cover and let it cook for about 5-6 mins. 
8. Remove form mould, dust with icing sugar and serve. 

The sandwich-maker's ready indication may over cook the cake. Keep a watch on the progress and remove the cakes when they are golden brown. 

Verdict:
When served hot these cakes just vanish, each kid downs about two of these easily. Need I say more?