Mango Pudding

 The one thing I miss about Indian summers is the king of all fruits, the one and only, Mangoes. I preferred eating them directly, biting into the skin and sucking its juice and all. Cut mango doesn’t give the same experience.  

But now as I am aging and probably getting more and more used to the easy lifestyle, I no longer want to deal with the mess of eating them like that. Even for desserts I prefer using canned pulp more than the fresh ones, just for convenience sake… Or sometimes buy cut fruits over whole fruits. I think in the process of building a comfortable life, I am becoming more and more lazy *sigh*..  

Anyways, found this extremely easy Vegan Mango dessert recipe in one of the FB groups I follow. If you use all readymade ingredients like me, then this recipe is as simple as putting all ingredients together and serving. But the consistency will be more "payasa" like than pudding :) 

You can prepare this well in advance, making this perfect for potlucks and parties. Enjoy!!

Veg Chow Mein

 Summer holidays is going on in full swing and my teen seems always hungry for something special(read: junk food). 

Veg Chow mein, I would say is a good mix of healthy and kid friendly. In the sense, you can add as many vegetables as you want and kids don’t seem to mind because it’s noodles. This recipe I got from a YouTube video(link given below). 

I generally substitute noodles with spaghetti. 

Enjoy!

Cabbage Dose

 Try this very yummy, and popular dose from coastal Karnataka region. This is basically heerekai chatti hittu, with finely chopped cabbage as vegetable instead of ridge gourd. I didn’t know it could be made with cabbage as well. My mom makes it with ridge gourd, spinach and dantina soppu(amaranth leaves). This recipe is from Hebbar’s kitchen [link given below]. 

This pic was taken when I made it for the very first time, hence the poor color and scarce veggies :). Now the color is lot more better and I am adding lot more cabbage, sometimes a mix of veggies like cabbage, spinach and onion too. But alas! the photographer(aka my husband) is showing a lot of “nakhara” these days to take pictures! 

Banana bread

 Here’s a fool proof recipe for banana bread, the one I have tried many many times. This recipe is from one of my favorite blogs for baking(link given below).

Bread comes out super moist and you can hardly tell any difference between this and the store bought ones. I have used milk and butter in this recipe, however the original recipe is for vegan banana bread[with suggestions for substitutions]. 

Do try! Happy baking!!

Nargis mandakki

 My husband and daughter love snacks like chivda and mandakki. So I always have either of them handy in the house for healthy snacking. Perfect with evening coffee. These are so easy to make and yield big batches with minimal effort - totally my kinda snack :)  However in my house, how much ever I make, they somehow manage to finish it up in 1-2 days, that’s a different story!!

Anyways, this particular mandakki recipe I tried is called nargis mandakki(video link given below). Apparently famous in Davangere region of Karnataka. You basically make dry green chutney, fry and mix with mandakki.  

The sweet added was little too sweet for me, but I haven’t eaten this before so I don’t know how exactly it should taste. But overall a very tasty snack. 

Do try! 

Antina Unde/ Gond Laddoo

 I always complain I never get things right the first time. But let me tell you how my mind works. Take for example this particular unDe. I see in the recipe that I should roughly chop dry fruits. Being the lazy/smart a** I am, I try to do this in the mixie. I pulse and see that it is very unevenly chopped, so I run couple more rounds and unintentionally powder them. For some reason, I do this with all the nuts, even after seeing that it didn’t work the first time. So instead of having coarsely chopped nuts, I now have their respective powders. 

To fix this I take couple extra and chop them by hand. Then I beat myself up for not doing this in the first place. Now I have double quantity of these, and I am not sure how much jaggery syrup to make to accommodate these extra things, that too in powder form!! So I add little extra jaggery, you know just in case, and turns out I added lot more than needed. So now to fix this I add almond flour to adjust the consistency. At this point my head is hurting, and I know that the littlest of the littlest thing can trigger me any minute…tick, tick, tick :))

Seriously, if I get a penny for every time I use almond flour to fix my dessert…… 

God bless that person who thought of selling almond flour ready made. Almond flour ki jai !! 

  

Coming to the recipe - this is a very poushtidaayaka unde, especially given to women during postpartum care, or when girls hit puberty. I would say women any age should consume these to keep ourselves strong.

Happy Mother’s Day ladies!! Stay strong!!

Rave Rotti - 2

 Tried this delicious rave(semolina) rotti recipe some time back. We as a family love our rottis. Rottis are basically thick pancakes made with stiff dough(batter) often made with rice flour/ ragi flour/ rave(semolina). Check out their links. 

Traditionally rottis are patted on a banana leaf and transferred to the hot tava. But this rotti is spread with your hands(or ladle), more like a dosa. So one step made easy. I got this recipe from vegrecipesofkarnataka (link given below).  

Enjoy this traditional breakfast with some coconut chutney and some butter.