The summer has just about started in dubai and its so hot, I cant even imagine what July and August would be like, thats suppose to be the peak summer here. Lemonades and summer go hand in hand.
This one has the awesome combination of strawberries and watermelon in it so its sweet and sour and tangy and when its chill its bliss.
Ingredients:
1 small watermelon
2 cups of strawberries
12-16 tablespoons of lemon juice
3/4 - 1 cup sugar
Ice.
Directions:
- Scoop out the watermelon from its shell and de-seed it.
- Wash the strawberries and cut off the stalk.
- Blend the watermelon, strawberries lemon juice, sugar and ice.
- The sugar and lemon juice quantity will vary depending on how sweet and sour you want it.
- Coat the rim of your glasses with some colored sugar and keep them in the fridge to chill.
- Just before serving place a skewer of strawberries and watermelon in the glass and pour the juice in it.
I love it when i have something that looks and tastes fab for my breakfast... these sandwiches are healthy and packed with nutrition and can keep you full for a long time.
Good food in the morning gives me a total kick and sets the mood for the day (i hate hate hate it when my breakfast is dull). Weekends is when i absolutely have to have something good on my plate. These sandwiches are great for lunch and dinner as well.
Ingredients:
For the sandwich:
- Bread (I used mutli grain , if the mood is to indulge feel free to use white bread or whatever floats your boat)
- Lettuce
- Cheese slices ( again I used low fat)
For the sausage:
- Chicken mince 400 gm
- Bread crumbs 4 -6 ounces
- 1 egg
- Salt
- Pepper
For the baked eggs:
Directions:
Baked eggs:
- Preheat the oven to 350 f.
- Grease a muffin tin and break the eggs and pour 1 egg in each cavity
- Sprinkle salt and pepper on each of them
- Bake for about 15-17 minutes for fully cooked ones.
- If you like the yolk to be oozy then you can stop in about 10-12 minutes.
Sausages:
- Wash the chicken mince and add in the salt pepper (you can also add chilli flakes if you want them spicy and any other seasonings you like. I like them simple so i just stuck to salt and pepper).
- Add in the egg and mix it well.
- Now carefully add in the bread crumbs little at a time and keep mixing well. it acts as the binding agent here so stop when you see your mixture coming together and all the moisture seems to have been absorbed. I marinated this and left it overnight, but its not necessary.
- Dip your hands in some oil and grease your palm and make patties of the chicken mixture and shallow fry them pressing them down with a flat spoon to flatten them and fry till they are brown on either side and keep aside. (Don't make the patties too thick, they wont fry too well).
- When the sausage is almost done cooking place a slice of cheese on it and let it be on the pan on low flame till it melts over the sausage.
Assembling:
- Grease a flat pan with some oil and place the slices of bread and let them toast. Keep the flame low. Remove them just when they feel crisp. Don't let them brown too much. If you are not a fan of toasted bread you can skip this step.
- On your bread slice first place a leaf of lettuce and then the chicken sausage with the melted cheese and on it the baked egg an close with the another slice of bread.
If you are a fan of tarts and can't get over how cute they are and how perfectly they fit into any menu. This recipe is a must try.
Its quick work, simple, no mess and doesn't need many things and tastes fab.
They can be made and stored in the fridge for a few days, but if you are topping it with the spinach the crispness of the spinach on top might not last if refrigerated and hence that part is best done before serving.
Ingredients
- Ready short crust pastry
- sweet corn kernels
- chopped spinach
- cream cheese
- salt & pepper
Directions:
- Roll out the shortcrust pastry to half an inch thickness and use a cutter to cut out circles and place them in a tart tray ready to bake.
- Mix cream cheese, spinach, corn, salt and pepper in a separate bowl. The quantity of spinach and corn to put in could depend on how cheesy you want your tarts to be, the lesser amount of corn and spinach the cheesier the tart.
- Fill in the tart shells with the cheese filling .
- Chop some additional spinach and sprinkle some salt and sugar on it and toss well.
- Top each tart with some corn nibblets and then the sweet and salt spinach mixture.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 175-180 degree Celsius for about 25-30 mins or till the tarts are crispy ans cheesy mixture set and the spinach on top is crispy.
- enjoy them warm
Its like a dream come true when my daughter tells me that her glass of milk has been gulped down... otherwise it takes a million pain staking explanations, begging, pleading, bribing and what not..and if I'm lucky it might just be almost over..
One of the easy ways of ensuring that my daughter finishes her milk is by offering her cookies.. she enjoys plunging them in her glass and gulping them down and somehow sooner or later the milk also seems to get into the tummy.
Got this recipe from the the lifescoop blog. The direct link is http://lifescoops.blogspot.ae/2013/02/spritz-cookies-swedish-butter-cookies.html. It seemed like a fairly easy recipe so i tried it out n its actually quite good.. its easy to make and if you have a cookie press life cant any simpler ;)
If you bake them as per the recipe to set set, the cookies are slightly chewy, But if you bake them a tad bit more till they turn slightly brown they are more like a biscuit and get that crisp finish them them ..so you get the crunch when you bite them.. so you could choose the kind you prefer.
You could also colour them as you please or not.
I make them in nice colours and use a press so they look appealing and i baked them a little more than just set but not really brown. My daughter absolutely loves them.
If you don't have a cookie press and your looking to roll them and use a cookie cutter then keep some extra flour on your hand as u might need it to bind the mixture to make it easy to handle as roll out.
Ingredients 1 cup - Butter, softened 1/2 cup - granulated sugar 2 ¼ cups - All-purpose flour 1/4 Tsp - salt 1 - Egg 1 ½ Tsp - vanilla essence Food color (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon.
- Stir in flour, salt, egg, and vanilla extract.
- Place dough in cookie press. Form desired shapes on ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake 5 to 8 minutes or until set but not brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.
When the weekend finally arrives, I want to wake up to a lavish breakfast in bed. "Snap out of it". I am the mother, so I have to provide this LAVISH Breakfast and in bed ! double the work and double the dishes... already thinking lets chuck the idea and make something simple....
But then again who wants to resort to the regular scrambled eggs on toast or the cereal?.. Not me ! and not my husband either.. he really looks forward to something interesting on his plate on a Friday morning ( weekend in the Middle east is Friday and Saturday.. weird??...wait !!.. we work on Sundays !!! -- it took me a long time to get used to that idea)
This breakfast idea is really simple, no mess and doesn't bring along a long line of dishes (yayy!!!) Its easy to make and nutritious so even a good idea for kids, at the same time looks a little fancy and brings along the feel good factor. Its a quick recipe so can be done even on a weekday if you are a little organised, or can be made and refrigerated for about 2-3 days. Also, its a flexible recipe that can be altered to your taste and availability of ingredients.
Fritatta cuppies
Ingredients:
eggs
milk
veges of your choice - onions/zucchini/mushrooms/corn/spinach/coloured peppers/
cheese(cheddar) shredded
salt and pepper (any more spices of your choice can be added like chilly flakes/oregano etc)
Method:
1.Preheat oven to 170 degree Celsius
2.Chop all your veges in small cubes.
3.Crack a few eggs in a big bowl, add a few tablespoons of milk and whisk them with salt and pepper.
4.Add in the cubed veges and the shredded cheese.
5.Put the mixture in to a greased muffin tray and bake in a preheated oven at 170 degree Celsius for about 25-30 mins or till golden brown and set(toothpick inserted comes out clean)
Gobble them up when hot. They can be topped with sour cream. It makes them yummier.
What to cook ? is the first question that hits me each morning..
What to put on the menu is a big dilemma with this strong urge to make something that looks fab, tastes fab and more importantly is kitchen friendly ;). Something that can be cooked as a part of 'regular cooking' yet brings along feel good factor so you don't feel like Oh!god. Same old boring dinner again.
There's something yummy in traditional cooking but roasting of all the masalas in my mum's recipes is a never never never ending process (add some more nevers). So, I was on the look out of a recipe that's quick yet brings the taste of traditional home cooked curries and tastes as good.
I came across this recipe on some group on facebook.. Its a Hyderbadi style chicken curry that's super duper easy and since it involves marination there is no long roasting process involved. It goes perfectly with any kind of Indian bread or even with rice.
Ingredients:
Ginger garlic paste 2tbsp
chicken 1kg(cut into pieces as per your liking)
onions 2-3 finely sliced plus for garnish
yogurt 1 cup
green chillies 2-3
almonds ground 3tbsp
cashew nut ground 3tbsp
garam masala 1tbsp
cardamom 2
red chilly powder as per taste
saffron strands 5-6
oil
cloves 23
turmeric powder 1tsp
cinnamon 1 stick
black pepper cons 4-5
lemon juice 3tbsp
salt to taste
coriander and mint few leaves chopped plus for garnish
Directions:
1.Heat the oil, fry the onion slices until brown and then take out and spread on an absorbent paper.
2.Marinate the chicken with the fried onions, almond paste cashew paste, red chilly pwd, salt, ginger garlic paste, garam masala pwd, lemon juice, yogurt saffron, some chopped coriander and mint and add oil till it covers 1/3rd of the chicken for at least 3-4 hours, but overnight is best.
3.Heat oil in a large pan, add black pepper cons, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and fry for a minute.
4.Add in the chicken with the marinade and fry for sometime on medium flame.
5.Add in some water and simmer and cover and cook till chicken is fully cooked and the gravy has found a cooked smell to it and oil begins to rise up.
6.Garnish with fried onions, coriander and leaves.
I am a crazy crazy fan of Cinnamon buns ... tried it for the first time ever after i got to Dubai and I am in love with it ever since... have always wanted to try making them but when I see the recipe and for the amount of effort and time it calls for i realise it doesn't fit into my not so scheduled day with my kiddo around so I need to satisfy my craving to bake something by making something that is fast.
This recipe of the cinnamon swirl bread is really simple and all it needs is a bowl and a wooden spoon so there's no worry that your baby's sleeping and you cant use the mixer . Just throw it all in, mix, bake and voila !!!!
I stumbled across this recipe a while ago and had saved it up... I somehow never tried it and now i am not able to trace the source of the recipe either..
Its got a crumbly top and the bread inside is soft and the cinnamon flavour burst in your mouth is wonderful. The recipe has a glaze but i didn't do it. I felt like its not really needed, but if i had to glaze the bread i'd rather use the cream cheese glaze on it .. I love how cream cheese and cinnamon go along... The bread by itself is not very sweet but just enough. Its perfect with a cup of coffee.
Bread Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking pwd
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg at room temp, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup yogurt
Swirl Ingredients:
1/3 cup sugar
2tsp cinnamon pwd
2tbsp water
Directions:
1.Preheat the oven to 175c
2.Grease a bread loaf tin
3.Mix the wet ingredients - yogurt, egg, vanilla and milk
4.Mix the flour sugar salt and baking powder separately.
5.Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix just to combine.
6. Mix the swirl ingredients in a separate
bowl and keep aside
7. Put the bread mixture into the loaf tin and drop the swirl mix in blobs on it and run a knife in it to create a swirl.
8.Bake for about 40 mins or till a toothpick comes out clean
