Broccoli Cheddar twice baked potatoes

Sorry for being MIA the past week. It wasn't because I was busy, it was because I was lazy or to put it out decently I could say that I was hit by the writer's block. Well I can even say that I am blocked. I have not been cooking properly, I still have to do the laundry and then there are all the other household chores. Sometime you need a break, a break from daily routine and thats what I took. I am slowly coming out of my slumber. There's not much cooking up in the kitchen and that's why I am sharing a super simple recipe here which you can put together in a matter of mins and is delicious with all that ooey gooey cheese on top.

Prep time: 15 mins; Cook time: 1 hrs; Serves - 1 ~*What U Need*~ Russet potatoes - 1, washed & scrubbed Broccoli florets - 1/2 cup Italian seasoning - 1 tsp Granulated garlic - 1/4 tsp Sour cream - 2 tbsp Unsalted butter - 1 tbsp Whole milk - 2-3 tbsp Salt and pepper Shredded Sharp Cheddar - 1/2 cup How I Made it: Cut the potato in half. Pressure cook for 2 whistles or till cooked throught. A knife should pass through easily. Allow the potatoes to cool slightly, and scoop out most of the flesh and place in a bowl. In a small pot, warm together the milk and butter until the butter is melted and the mixture is hot but not boiling. Pour mixture over the scooped potatoes along with the sour cream, salt and pepper. Mash the potatoes until smooth and creamy, add the broccoli, granulated garlic, half of the grated cheese and give everything a good stir. Scoop the potato mixture inside each half of potatoes, top with the remaining cheese and bake them for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is fully melted.

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Three Pepper Casserole | Tomato & pepper Casserole | Easy kids Lunchbox Recipes

It was a big day for us, today. Another milestone in our lives; another day to be marked in the calendar. Today we enrolled our son into preschool and he starts school from Thursday. All these changes are really making us emotional. Well there are lots to take in, right from look he is already ready for school to how is he gonna adjust to the new environment to is he gonna be okay without me. But that needs to be done has to be done at the right time. So wish me luck everyone for all that is happening right now.

A few days back, I got an email from Indusladies about their Kids lunch box recipe book event announcement asking me if I would like to participate. With everything going on, the concept fitted the bill just right and I sent out an okay e-mail right away. And this is what I came up with. Kids love anything with cheese and that layer of melty stringy cheese will definitely ooohhh your kids to take a mouthful and more...

~*What U Need*~ Cooked rice - 2 cups Red, yellow, orange peppers - 1 cup, chopped Crushed tomatoes - 1/2 cup Garlic - 2, chopped Onion - 1, medium, chopped Olive oil - 1 tbsp Salt, pepper - to taste Italian seasoning - 1 tsp Mozzarella cheese - 1 cup How I Made it: Heat oil in a saucepan. Add the garlic and saute for a minute followed by the onions. Saute till brown. Add the peppers and saute for 2 mins. Add the tomatoes and combine together. Season with salt, pepper and italian seasoning. Transfer to a greased loaf pan and top with loads of grated cheese. Preheat oven to 350F. Bake the casserole for 25-30 mins or until the cheese is melty and bubbly.

Serve warm!!!

I am linking this to the kids lunchbox event @ Indusladies

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Avocado Egg Salad Sandwich | Sandwich Recipes

Avocados have never been a favorite with the boys of the house. But I make it a point to include avocados in pappu's diet twice a week given the numerous health benefits of the fruit. Did you know that avocado is a fruit??? Well, I didn't and I had to browse to know that. Silly me. I like to incorporate avocados in our diet atleast occasionally and I usually make guacamole with tortilla chips for our evening snacks. When it comes to guacamole the huss never complains but when it is avocado in any other form, he just walks away. So I had to resort to another recipe. And this egg salad is what I came up with. You sub the mayo of a regular egg salad with avocado and job done... a healthy and filling sandwich.

~*What U Need*~ Hard Boiled Eggs – 2 Avocado – 1 Lemon – 1 tsp Salt, pepper - to season Italian seasoning - 1 tsp Garlic powder - 1/4 tsp Honey mustard - to serve Lettuce leaves - 4 Bread of your choice How I Made it: Chop the eggs and avocado. Add 3. Add lemon juice, italian seasoning, garlic, seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix well but donot mash them. Slice the bread. Place the lettuce, top it with the salad, drizzle the mustard sauce. Close the sandwich.

Serve with juice!!!

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Roasted Capsicum & Tomato soup

Its time to post the recipe for the Ssshhh Cooking secretly challenge and I am glad that I am on time. I was paired with +Nalini of Nalini's Kitchen and the secret ingredient was capsicum and/or ginger. I first thought of a simple stir fry but then its been a long time since we had had soup and bread and so settled for this flavorful soup. To me any soup needs to have bread by the side or atleast in the form of croutons. Since I didn't have any bread at hand, I made some rosemary olive oil focaccia from scratch. The crusty and flavorful bread was a perfect accompaniment for the soup and we really enjoyed it for dinner.

~*What U Need*~ Olive oil - 1 tbsp Onion - 1, small, chopped Garlic - 1, chopped Diced tomatoes - 1 can(440g), I used Italian style Red Capsicum - 1 Water/Vegetable stock - 1 cup or more Salt - to taste Pepper - to taste Italian seasoning - to taste How I Made it: Cut the capsicum and remove the seeds. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet and broil for 5-7 mins till the skin is deeply black. Once out the oven cover and allow to sit for 10 mins. Peel and chop the roasted capsicum. Set aside. Heat oil in a pan, add garlic and onion and cook till soft. Add the tomato, capsicum and water, season and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 mins. Cool slightly and blend well. You can pass through a sieve too. Reheat over low heat. Pour into bowls and sprinkle with extra seasoning and olive oil.

Serve with some bread. I made some focaccia to go with the soup. A perfect combo.

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Naanizza ~ Indianised | Dal Makhani Naanizza

What do you do when you have leftover naans and the urge to have something different, you make naanizza. To put it simple it is jut naan + pizza. And if you still don't get it, let me simplify it for you. You are so lazy that you buy frozen naans or use leftover naan breads for the pizza base and top it just as you would do for a regular pizza. It tastes just right like any pan pizza and you can get creative adding loads of cheese or shredded chicken or pepperoni or just capsicum and mushroom. The sky is your limit when it comes to toppings.

This naanizza is fully Indianised!!! And I mean totally. The pizza sauce is replaced with dhal makani and I topped that with chopped onions and tomatoes and just a few sprinkles of mozzarella. But just go overboard with the cheese if you are in for it. If you do not have leftover dal then just use 1/4 cup of pizza sauce. I will share the basic naanizza recipe soon.

~*What U Need*~ Leftover Naan - 2 to 3 Onion - 1/4 cup, sliced Tomatoes - 1/4 cup, diced Dal makhani - 1/2 cup Grated mozzarella - 1/2 cup Italian seasoning - 1 tsp How I Made it: Preheat oven to 425F. Brush olive oil on the naan, spread dak makhani and top it with onion, tomatoes, cheese and italian seasoning. Bake for 7-10 mins depending on how crisp u need the pizza to be.

Serve warm.

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Pasta in Red bell pepper Sauce

We make pastas once in a week and it mostly falls on Thursday. Without saying Thursday nights have become pasta nights for us which the huss has never been keen about. I like trying new varieties of pasta every time but the huss has never been a great fan. He never enjoys it but he never hates it. So it has always been my take on the pasta that makes to our plate. I mostly make a simple pesto pasta cos I love the fresh flavors that it gives to the pasta. But at times I like to experiment too.

Like this red bell pepper sauce pasta. The sauce was sweet, slightly tangy and gave a mild hot flavor to the pasta dish. I like using fusilli pasta because the sauce coats the pasta beautifully but you could use what ever your pantry holds. Grate some parmesan cheese over the piping hot pasta or if you are like me, sprinkle a generous helping and then indulge to your heart's content.

~*What U Need*~ Onion - 1, medium, cubed Garlic - 2 cloves Red bell pepper - 1, medium, cubed Cashew nuts - 4 Olive oil - 1 tbsp Salt - to season Pepper powder - to season Italian seasoning - 1 tsp Pasta - 2 cups, cooked Cooked Pasta water - 1/4 cup How I Made it: Heat oil in a pan. Add the chopped garlic cloves and saute till brown. Add the onions and fry till golden brown. Add the cubed peppers and roast till blistered. Add the cashews and saute for 2 mins. Cool and transfer to blender and blend to a smooth paste adding the cooked pasta water as required. Return to the saucepan and saute till slightly thick. Season with salt, pepper and italian seasoning. Check the flavor. Add the cooked pasta and mix well. If needed sprinkle some pasta water. Remove from heat. Sprinkle some cheese if desired.

Serve warm!!!

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Spinach Cheddar Muffins | Spinach Cheddar Breakfast Muffins | HBC#5

Its time for the HBC post again. I thought that I would never make it. Thanks to my laziness this time and I don't know why but I was not in the mood for baking. In fact, even cooking has taken a backseat. I haven't made the dosa batter for two weeks, its been uppma for days and yesterday night it was the hubby who made dinner for us. And don't ask about his lunchbox, he's been eating pasta and pizza at the office for weeks together. I just don't know what's on to me. But I know that I am off and not right for some stupid unkown reason.

However, I didn't want to skip the challenge and when I went through the group, I saw many friends putting up these spinach cheddar muffins. Sounded great for breakfast and mustering some self perseverance, rolled up my sleeves and got onto baking these soft yummy muffins. Talking about the challenge, it was Shama of Easy2cook recipes who picked up the recipes for this month's HBC challenge and there were both savory and sweet bakes. I was first hooked to the Honey drizzled semolina cake that she had suggested and I had made up my mind that the cake it was. But then I switched on to the savory bake. The semolina cake, I still am gonna try that some day.

Adapted from here ~*What U Need*~ All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cup Baking powder - 2 tsp Baking soda - 1/2 tsp (I used 1/4 tsp only) Garlic powder - 1/2 tsp Bacon - 2 tbsp, fried in oil Red chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning - 1 tsp Pepper powder - a dash Salt - 1/2 tsp Butter - tbsp (I used 4tbsp butter + 2 tbsp olive oil) Whole Milk - 1 Cup (I used 1/2 cup milk plus 1/2 cup buttermilk) Egg - 1 Spinach - 1/2 cup, fresh, chopped Mild cheddar cheese - 1 cup, shredded How I made it: Pre heat the oven to 350 F. Prepare the muffin pan by greasing and flouring it and keep it aside. I greased it with some oil. In a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients(flour, baking powder, baking soda, & salt) and mix well. In another bowl add the milk+buttermilk mixture, melted butter, oil, egg and mix well. Now add cheddar cheese, followed by seasonings (garlic powder, red chilli flakes, italian seasoning, pepper powder) and combine. Throw in the chopped spinach and mix well. Add this to the dry ingredients and fold gently. Scoop 2 tbsps into the muffin pans and bake for 25-30 mins. The recipe says you get 12 muffins but I got 10 muffins only. :( Cool and remove it from the muffin pan and serve it. ** My Note: ** I have given all the changes that I made in blue. ** I used bacon because my huss loves and the whole lot was finished by him.

Serve for breakfast with some orange juice... We had it with some coriander cashew pesto...

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Oven Baked Vegetables

Cutting off oil as much as I can from our foods has become a routine ever since I got my OTG. I still remember the days when we were in search of an OTG that would suit our kitchen, that would be best for us. 'A' was fed up with my regular routine to all electronics shops on weekends and that too during the final days of pregnancy. He used to give me queer looks when I got dressed up to go to the shops. "Why don't you catch some rest and lets get the OTG after the baby arrives?". Bet he knew the return answer he would get cos he would walk away away silently to get dressed up.

As I said, I have tried to bake things whenever I can, so that oil can take a backseat in our daily food. So I baked some veggies not for our evening snack but for our dinner. Wraps, sandwiches and many more ideas were there and without a second thought I baked them. They were good~ in fact too good that just as the second batch was slid in, I started popping the cooled first batch one by one... I saved some though for our dinner and turned them into a light yet filling dinner. Do check out my coming posts to know what was cooked.

~*What U Need*~ Potatoes - 1(medium) Carrots - 1 Baby Corn - 2 Capsicum - 1 Olive Oil - 1 tsp Salt - to taste Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning - 1/2 tsp

How I Made it:
Cut all the vegetables as desired. I cut them into 1/4 inch pieces. Preheat oven to 220 C. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, keep aside. Mix all ingredients till the vegetables are evenly coated. Arrange in a single layer on the baking pan. Bake for about 10 minutes. Remove, turn the pieces over and bake for another 10 mins.

Do wait for my next post to see what I did with my baked veggies.

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Stove top Pizza with seasoned kidney beans mash, veggies and cheese | HBC#1

Baking is therapeutic. Nothing can beat the self satisfaction that you feel when you see that bread or cake puffing up and getting that golden brown color. Not to forget the aroma of that fresh baked goodie wafting throughout your house. I have never been a part of any foodie groups and so when I first saw Priya akka's open invite for a baking challenge, I so wanted to join... Its all about baking, simple honest baking and that made me join the Home Baker's challenge, a group of friends who love baking, who have joined hands to learn and excel in baking, helping each other.. I am not sure how far I can journey with them but till now I am trying my level best to keep up with em.

For the first month's challenge, we were asked to make pizza. We were given recipes, we asked questions, there were friends to help us out and now everyone has come up with a gorgeous pizza creation. Just when I was all set to bake my pizza, my oven decided to give up on me and rather than me giving up on the pizza making part, I started browsing for stove top versions. After seeing this, I was confident enough to go on and so I made a stove-top pizza.

As for the toppings, I used some kidney beans, seasoned them with some italian herbs and pepper, mashed them really well and spread the mash on top of the pizza. I picked the idea from a tv cooking show, originally it was used as a filling for enchiladas. The topping was good, and paired well with all that cheese... On the whole the pizza was a hit, appa gave a thumbs up and so did amma. We had it for dinner, a medium sized pizza each with some cold mango juice.

~*What U Need*~ Recipe adapted from here For Pizza dough All purpose flour - 1 cup Active dried yeast - 1 tsp Warm water - 1/4 cup Salt - 1/2 tsp Canola / olive oil - 1 1/2 tbsp Seasoned kidney beans mash: Kidney beans - 1/2 cup Onion - 1/2 cup, finely chopped Green chilli - 1, finely chopped Chopped garlic - 1 tbsp Pizza sauce - 1/4 cup Italian seasoning - 1 tsp Pepper, salt - to season Oil Other toppings Onion, tomato rings Corn kernels - 1/4 cup Pizza Cheese - 1/2 - 1 cup

How I Made it:
The Pizza dough:
Mix the warm water and yeast in a small bowl to blend. Let stand until the yeast froth and gets activated, about 5 minutes. Mix the flour and salt, add oil and mix well. Add the yeast and mix till you form a dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a large oiled bowl and turn the dough to coat with the oil.

Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and set aside in a warm area until the dough doubles in volume, about 1 hour. Punch the down dough and divide into 2 equal balls.

Seasoned kidney beans mash:
Soak the kidney beans overnight. Cook till soft, about 3 whistles in the pressure cooker. Heat oil in a kadai, add the chopped garlic. When the raw smell leaves add onion and saute till brown. Add the cooked kidney beans.

And followed by the pizza sauce and then the italian seasoning. Now start mashing it, if needed add a splash of water. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a tawa till it is hot, then reduce the flame to low. Roll pizza dough and then transfer the hot tawa, cook covered for 5-7 mins till brown and crisp. Flip and spread the pizza sauce, kidney beans mash, veggies, cheese and cook covered for another 5 mins till the cheese is all melty and bubbly. Remove, slice and serve.

Serve warm with some aerated drink.

** Notes:
** The dough can be used immediately or stored airtight in the refrigerator for 1 day.
** You could keep the pizza simple by just topping it with onions, tomatoes and other veggies.
** Skip the veggie part, add two types of cheese of choice for a kids friendly margherita pizza.
** Sky is the limit for the list of toppings that can go on a pizza, so innovate.

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