Quinoa is gaining a lot of popularity among most blogs. It is super healthy and as I had already mentioned I love to substitute it for rice. I have posted quinoa with yogurt here and an Indianized quinoa salad here over the years. I have used quinoa in most varietes of rice and I must agree that it tastes awesome with puliodharai mix. I use 777 brand or MTR or a combination of both the brands in making quinoa puliodharai. It completely masks any smell that most people think quinoa has and keeps the taste perfect. So for all those who are always looking out for news recipes with quinoa, this one is sure to impress you.

Gadgets:

Wok
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Spatula


Ingredients:

Cooked Quinoa - 1 cup (1/3 cup quinoa cooked with 1 cup water)
Puodhari Mix MTR's or 777- 3 tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Asafoetida - a few shakes
Raw Peanuts - 1/4 cup
Curry Leaves - a few

Preparation:

1. In a wok add some oil and when it warms up add asafoetida and curry leaves.

2. Add peanuts and roast it.

3. Turn out the heat and add puliodharai mix and mix it well.

4. Add the cooked quinoa and mix well and serve hot.

After school snack is a big deal for my daughter.She always wants something special and interesting with a wow factor. These days she wants to help me with preparing it at times. I wanted to come up with different snacks using some of the same ingredients. So as I was walking past the fruit bins at Sprouts I came across something that might be easy for me to assemble fast for my daughter and at the same time a snack that she can have fun with. I added a few boxes of blue berries, dessert cakes, a couple of scoops of granola and regular carton of heavy whipping cream to the shopping cart. The last 2 days she has been so elated with her after school snack. I have made for her 2 different snacks so far. Yesterday was the parfait and today I made the following layered dessert shells.A fun way to get them to eat fruits and nuts.

Gadgets:

Bowl
Electric Mixer with Whisk attachment
Measuring cups and Spoons
Plate

Ingredients: ( 1 serving)

Heavy Whipping Cream - 1/4 cup
Powdered Sugar - 2 tsp
Dessert Cakes - 2
Blue Berries - 1/2 - 1 cup
Gronola - 1/2 cup

Preparation:

Happy New Year to everyone who visits my blog. Its nice to get back to blogging after the winter break. Decided to start this new year with something sweet, delicious and healthy and wish that all of you have a wonderful year filled with laughter, good health, peace, happiness and delicious food. Most moong dhal kheer have some of  the following ingredients: jaggery, milk, moong dhal, cardamon, coconut, ghee or butter and nuts in their recipe. The kheer I prepared had most of the above ingredients, but I must mention that instead of milk I used a can of carnation milk and for the nuts slivered almonds along with some cashews. This was the best part of the kheer. I loved the texture the almonds created. It tasted best hot off the stove.

Gadgets:

Pressure Cooker
Pan
Bowl
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Seasoning Wok

Ingredients:


Moong Dhal - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Water - 2 1/2 cups for Moong dhal and 3/4 cup for melting jaggery
Cardamon - 6 pods
Carnation Milk - 1 can
Fresh Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Slivered Almonds/ Cashews - 1/3 cup

Preparation:

1. In a pressure pan add 2 1/2 cups of water. Add the moong dhal and pressure cook to 3 whistles.

2. Melt jaggery in water and filter the liquid to remove the sediments in the bottom.

3. When the dhal is cooked add the jaggery water and allow it to boil on low for 3 minutes.Add the grated coconut and cook for another 3 minutes.

4. Add carnation milk and mix well allow to simmer for 2 minutes.

5. In a seasoning wok add ghee and lightly roast the nuts. Add them to the kheer.

6. Crush the cardamon pods and powder the seeds and garnish, Serve hot.