Mocha Mousse

So guys, I told how much I relished the Nutella mousse I made few days back. This time I took it up a notch by adding coffee flavor to the mousse. Coffee + chocolate really takes the flavor to the whole new level. Coffee is one of those flavors that everybody likes- classic caffeine kick, nothing quite like that!! This yummy treat is not just a crowd-pleaser, it's very easy to make with just 4 or 5 ingredients. This recipe is so versatile guys, just whip the cream and add whatever flavor you would like to and that's it!! Next on my list is salted caramel!! let me know what's your favorite flavor in the comments.. If you're not a coffee person(what a shame), do check out my mango flavored mousse and Nutella mousse..

INGREDIENTS

1. Heavy cream/whipping cream- 2 cups
2. Chocolate chips- 1 cup
3. Sugar- 3 tbsp
4. Vanilla extract(optional)- 1 tsp
5. Instant coffee powder- 2 tbsp

METHOD

• In a bowl, whip the heavy cream with sugar, coffee powder & vanilla until soft peaks form.
• Put the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and heat it till it melts.
• Let it chill for a bit. Once not so hot, gently mix it with the whipped cream.
• Chill for atleast 30 mins before you serve..
• Enjoy!

Hearth n soul bloghop

French Toast

My idea of perfect weekend is to hang out with friends starting Friday night which goes on till Saturday night, wake up on a Sunday morning (5 mins before 12 PM is still Morning right? ) and have a tummy-full of breakfast or brunch.. Mostly I'll be making sandwiches, scrambled eggs, waffles, you know the ones which can be made in a jiffy with minimal ingredients and preparation.. 
Recently I made French toast and we love it because it's easier to make than I thought and it's the best way to use up the bread which is gonna go stale in couple of days..
This recipe is from the back of my vanilla extract bottle and it's definitely a keeper! I love them with a generous drizzle of maple syrup but if you have some time and patience, top them with fresh sliced fruits or some Nutella, custard or whipped cream..

Ingredients

1. Egg- 1
2. Milk- 1/4 cup
3. Bread Slices- 3
4. Sugar- 2 tsp
5. Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Method

1. Beat egg, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl.Stir in milk.
2. Cut the bread diagonally into 2 halves.
3. Dip them in the egg mixture and make sure both the sides are coated evenly.
4. Cook them on a greased non-stick pan/skillet until both sides are browned.
5. Serve with maple syrup.

DIY Cherry Blossom decor

Hello, my lovelies...

How many of you got lucky to see the beautiful Northern Lights? Do tag us on twitter if you got any good pics... I'm a sucker for all things beautiful & unique.. like northern lights, rainbow, sunset, cherry blossom...Speaking of cherry blossom,  I stumbled upon a beautiful DIY decor recently and I badly wanted to recreate it. Thank you so much Mandee for the beautiful printable.. I love it..love it ..loveee it.. You guys should totally go check her blog.. You'll fall in love just like I did!!

Just so you guys know, its absolutely legit to make cherry blossom decor in Fall season..Or I just couldn't wait till next spring. LOL. Did I tell you, this project costs almost nothing and it is the easiest cherry blossom decor I have come across!!! All credits goes to Mandee, the genius..

Hey!! Did you notice my Chicago Bean masterpiece?? If you guys haven't seen/heard about it, don't worry!! Its nothing like this.. its much more beautiful..you guys must see when you plan to visit Chicago. 

And the other centerpiece at the right, I guess you guys would have seen it already if you have been following the blog else click here. Ok now on to this project..let me tell what we need

• Cherry blossom printable
• paper
• some branches
• scissors
• glue

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Roll-ups

 My husband & I regularly go to the park across the street, watch the sunset  & sometimes I carry snacks with me to munch on. Going to that park is favorite part of my day for various reasons.
1. I love to breathe in summer air 
2. I love watching the sunset, every sunset is beautiful! 
3. I love to see the happy, smiling faces 

I love summer evenings. I want summer forevvvver. OK may be Summer and Fall

So, one such day I was waiting for my husband to arrive from work and was wondering what do I do for snack today. I had some Bread.......
and I had cream cheese frosting.....
and I had GOOGLE to help me out. Hence the idea Cream cheese roll-ups. 
It's actually not at all difficult- Really! You'll thank me later. We are using ready-made cream cheese frosting for filling  & bread instead of pastry. 

Does it look delicious? It is, Trust me!
Crispy n cinnamon-y on the outside, soft n gooey on the inside which showers your taste buds with cream cheese. Sounds good to you? here's how we do it....

Tofu Fried Rice

Tofu Haters be like - Yikes! Tofu 

Me - I know, right? I never liked tofu until I tasted Veggie-Tofu Fry.
        Also FYI,tofu is rich in protein & calcium & has a low calorie count. 

Tofu Hater - Yeah OK! But it's so bland & boring!!

Me - That's the best part, right? It's like a blank canvas and it happily        absorbs whatever flavors you throw at it which makes it palatable.

Tofu Hater - so, how do you make this Tofu Fried rice? 

Me - it's very easy & can be done in a jiffy if you have leftover rice handy.                                  Here's how I do it :)

Besan Ladoo/Chickpea Flour Sweet Balls

If somebody asks me, 'What is your signature dish (sweet) all your friends rave about?' I will shamelessly scream that it is Besan Ladoo.

Ok! Before you judge me...

I prepared this delicacy for Diwali, one of the many other significant festivals in India.Yeah, we Indians love to celebrate. Seriously, This is the easiest Indian sweet dish I have ever prepared and can be done in a jiffy with only a trio of ingredients.

Now, tell me who wouldn't be elated if people rave over such an easy-peasy dish. 

source: giphy

12 Yummy {No Bake} Desserts

Summer is here!!! The last thing most of us would wanna do is turning on the oven, right?

Don'tcha worry! We're here with a dozen of scrumptious desserts from all over the Blogosphere just for youuuu. 

Who wouldn't love 'No Bake' Desserts? First off, its dessert and its oven free!! So, let's take a look ...

 Hey! get a  tissue just in case if you drool over the screen ;)

Sweet Kuzhi Paniyaram

Sweet Kuzhi Paniyaram is a popular and traditional recipe of Chettinadu. This is a snack recipe, which can also be served as breakfast or appetizer for dinner. It is a favorite snack among kids, you can give this sweet paniyaram when they return from the school. They will surely love it. In earlier post, I have already posted the masala paniyaram version. The batter is same for this recipe also. This recipe will have excellent taste of jaggery, coconut and cardamom and healthy too. Here you go with the recipe....

                      

DIY Personalized Fridge Magnets

Hello All ! Guess who's back after a long, blissful break where I ate lavish amounts of food and had copious amounts of fun.

So,earlier this week when I was loading  my pantry and refrigerator, found couple of promotional fridge magnets that have been given by companies. You know I can't throw away scraps, and you know how we love to re-create something nice out of these scraps like our Desk Organizer using tissue rolls, earrings holder using a photo frame. 

Speaking of fridge magnets, my husband likes to have  a huge collection of them. So I thought why not give these dull babies a jazzy make over. These can be done in a  jiffy and that too with the things found around the house.These are kids friendly hence would make a great gift for father's day.

Mango Milkshake

                                       

Hello everyone!! It is summer time and hence it is officially 'Mango Time' ! I guess even the hot climate is bearable and something to long for, when there are mangoes! Among many other mango recipes, mango milkshake is my personal favorite.This shake is very easy to make and kids will definitely love this delicious and juicy mango shake. Here you go with the recipe for mouth watering mango milkshake

                         

Snickers Peanut Butter Cookie

I am heading to India in few days for a solid 1 month vacation. I'll be visiting my family, friends, favorite restaurants. Ah, I literally cannot wait!

I just finished emptying my pantry, since I am gonna be away from kitchen for 1 month. Whoa! I must say it was quite a purge challenge, using up all the odds and ends from pantry & freezer and reinventing a menu out of that. It's so satisfying to know that I din't waste anything and used it up pretty well before everything got expired. One such thing among which needed to be used soon was a half jar of peanut butter.There was no second thought, I knew I am gonna bake my favorite peanut butter cookie. But this time I planned to take that classic peanut butter cookie up a notch by adding guess what? Snickers .. YES! No prizes for guessing that ;)

Oh BTW Snickers is not from my purge party, its from my regular candy jar which never goes out of stock. :D

Vegetable Upma (Savory Semolina Porridge)

Well, this one needs no introduction! Vegetable upma, as most of you would know, is one of the most popular South Indian breakfast dishes. Liked by some and disliked by many :D

A small confession:

I have always hated upma as a kid. Why you ask? Simply because it was a torture and it was prepared too often. My mom realized that I was really having a tough time with upma and she made her version of upma with veggies.

 I must say I eventually quit Upma haters club. I assure you it tastes too good plus healthy and can be prepared in a jiffy!! So let's get straight to the recipe !!

Roasted Peanut Salad

Yippee!! I ll be traveling to India soon and I am thrilled to bits, so SO excited  There are lot of things I miss about India.

  Family and friends of course are at top of the list (Oh! Skype, what would we do without you)

My favorite food- Though we get Indian food and groceries here there are certain few things I am not contented with.One such thing is peanut salad. 

During my college days my friends & I used to go to this restaurant like once a week just to eat this. It was so funny that the waiters stopped giving us the menu card after few days and happily served us the salad. I made my version of this salad and although it wasn't really close to the one I love, my husband loved it :)

So what exactly is this roasted peanut salad ?

It's simply a salad which is protein rich, scrumptious and refreshing since it is made of fresh ingredients & super easy to whip up.

INGREDIENTS

• roasted peanuts - 2 cups
•  chopped onion - 1 cup
• chopped tomatoes - 1 cup
• chopped cucumber - 1 cup
• finely chopped green chilli - 1 or 2
• juice of lemon - 1 tbsp
• chaat masala - to taste(optional)
• salt - to taste
• finely chopped cilantro - to garnish 

METHOD 

Add the roasted peanuts in a bowl.

Add onions & green chillies

 some tomatoes

and some cucumber

add salt, lime juice & chaat masala

 Toss well and garnish with finely chopped cilantro.

Serve it as tea time or mid night snack with some drinks

Linking this post to
Savoring Saturdays Favorite Recipes Event favorite recipes event

Avocado Pina Colada Bars

Every time I go to Costco I am drawn towards Fruits aisle and I have been obsessed with avocados lately. I have been including them in my breakfast, lunch and what not! Just when I thought I was running out of ideas I came across this fun treat by Raia' Recipes and I couldn't wait to try it. Well I wouldn't say this is copycat version of it since I have changed few ingredients as per my Mr.Taste Buds's demand.Here we go, No BAKE ! No SUGAR! No Artificial colors! Less dishes to wash!- You are going to love these bars.  

How many Pina Colada lovers out there? Pina Colada is a Puerto Rican cocktail made with rum, coconut & pineapple juice. But in my dictionary anything I make with coconut & pineapple is Pina Colada :P

How to remove unwanted stickers?

Hello folks! It's been quite some time since we posted an interesting tip. Thanks to all you awesome people out there who wrote back that the cilantro storage worked wonders for you just like it did for me. I was recently into re-organizing and that obviously included re-using of old containers for storage. That was when I realized how frustrating it can be when you try to remove the labels/stickers from containers and get your finger nails all chipped.  

And then comes the next headache – price stickers! I don’t understand why few price stickers are hard glued, that it's next to impossible to remove them. I seriously doubt if it is any form of advertising that the companies  has taken up so we don’t remove the stickers and market the price everywhere we take the product. Clueless!

But here is a quick solution for removing any stickers in few seconds with absolutely no scope for frustration.

All you need is a hair dryer!

• Aim your hair dryer at the sticker you may want to remove and blow hot air to it for about 30 seconds.
• Try peeling from a corner of the sticker. If it doesn’t peel off, blow hot air for another 30 seconds and try again.
• You should now be able to peel off the sticker completely.

  You can now have sticker free products! Reuse any old containers for storage and also you need not worry about carrying along with you the price stickers of snack box, lunchbox, water bottles etc.

Note: 

1. On further browsing, I came to know that this method can be used to peel off the bumper stickers as well. I have not personally tried it, though.

2. I went all crazy and removed the stickers from whatever products I could come across.That was when I found out that if you blow very hot air very close to a 'not so good' quality plastic container for a long time,it might actually damage the container. One of my container has a dent in one corner as a result of this. Damage is really minimal but I think I should mention it.So make sure you blow the hot air not too close to the container and not more than 30 seconds initially. If it doesn’t come off, you can always do the next 30 seconds.

Linking this post to: How to Tuesday

Kiwi Pineapple Smoothie

Whop! what an unrelenting, bitter winter it has been in Chicago. I have been longing for Spring and I'm pretty sure most of us are. I'm crazy about smoothies and I love to try various blends. Pineapple is one of our all time favorites. Instead of having a simple pineapple smoothie, I wanted to blend kiwi with pineapple and give it a shot. It was truly a trial but the fusion was really amazing. The preparation is pretty simple and its not only yummy, but packed with good benefits as well. Now here you go with the recipe..... 

About ingredients 

Kiwi: It is nutrient dense fruit which help to maintain healthy skin tone and texture, reduce BP and heart healthy. Most important aspect in kiwi is, its an immune booster. It contain Vitamin C and antioxidant.

Pineapple: It is an excellent source of  manganese which helps in building strong bones. It also has anti-inflammatory property, when taken regularly it helps preventing arthritis in elders. It has another important benefit in it, that is anti-coagulant.

                                                     Preparation Time: 5 mins

                                                      Serves :  2

                               

Ingredients

Pineapple (cut into chunks)	1 cup
Kiwi ( peel skin off and cut into chunks)	1 cup
Honey	2 tbsp
Ice cubes	½ cup

Method 

• Put all the ingredients mentioned above in a blender and blend till it get to a smoothie texture.
• Now pour the mixture into a tall glass and serve it cold :)

Tips 

• You can also use frozen pineapple, but I used a fresh cut one for this smoothie.
• You can also freeze the kiwi in a Ziploc bag and use it.
• If the fruits are frozen then you can avoid using ice cubes.
• You can also use sugar instead of honey.
• You can also add one banana with these fruits. If you add banana, don't add sugar or honey. The fruit itself will have right amount of sweet in it.

                       

 

Please try our other smoothie and milkshakes and do tell us your comments.

Slushy Strawberry Smoothie | Carrot Milkshake | Avocado milkshake |

Linking this post to:

empty-your-archive-47
The Wednesday Roundup 

Fat Tuesday
Help Celebrate My Birthday 

Slushy Strawberry Smoothie

In today's post I am sharing a super slushy, healthy (sort of), refreshing, satisfying, tingling, quick & fun to make ...Whew! I am running out of adjectives to describe my personal favorite- Strawberry Smoothie Recipe. The best part is you can make it a day ahead, freeze it and you can just grab n go to work/school !! *happy dance*

Just 3 Ingredients  |  Serves 1 | Time -5 min

 
- 3or4 fresh strawberries (hulled)
- 3 tbsp yogurt
- 2 tbsp honey / sugar



 Method

1. Pack strawberries in zip-lock kind of bag and freeze it for 2 hrs.

2. In a blender add all the ingredients and blend it until smooth and slushy .

3. Pour into tall glass and enjoy. And hey, sometimes you might need a spoon cos its' THAT thick !! :)  

Mint Thogayal/Paste

I know many of you would be wondering what this thogayal (pronounced as tho-ga-yal) is all about. I was storming my head all day long wondering how to explain but miserably failed to make full justice to the dish-

 ‘It is a thick paste/dip that is flavorful, tangy and aromatic.  I believe many of you would have come across Indian chutneys and this dish is very similar to that but thicker in consistency. Confusing? Lets just say it is a south Indian condiment that goes best with white rice.'

To me, comfort food is synonymous to something I crave for on a lazy day and this ‘Thogayal’ tops the list of my comfort foods as it can be prepared in no time and there is this happy ‘me’ relishing them with full gusto.'

So why don’t you give it an attempt to find out for yourself what I am talking about. Feel free to comment what you think is equivalent to this dish in your respective cuisines.

Cilantro-Lime Rice

I am so chuffed that you all liked my Veggie-Tofu recipe. As promised, here I am with the recipe for cilantro-lime rice. Usually at restaurants you find it as a side for any Mexican food or used as filler in burritos. 

This recipe is a huge hit in our family and there's more than 1 reason why we love it. 1) it's so quick to make  2) it's a flavor bomb.

Peanut Butter-Banana Waffles

It's true that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it's also true that you tend to skip it amidst the hustle and bustle. Grab-n-go and quick-fix recipes can be very time-saving. So here I am with an easy breakfast idea which is great when you are in hurry.