Banana Berry Blast and awards

Its the season of fresh ripe strawberries here and the ones got at this time are bright red and beautiful even to look at. What else do you need to grab a packet or two whenever you lay eyes on them. The recent pack that I got had a few berries which were slightly on the sour side and hence I added a very ripe banana to our milkshake and the shake was a blast of flavors.

~*What U Need*~
Strawberries - 6
Ripe Banana - 1
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 tbsp
Ice cubes - 2 to 3

For garnishing
Walnuts and whole strawberries

How I made it:
Hull the strawberries. In a blender, add the hulled strawberries, banana, milk, sugar and ice cubes and blend well.

Serve garnished with walnuts and whole strawberries.

Now onto the awards shared by my sweet fellow bloggers. Thanks a ton guys.

Sonali of Only Fish recipes shared "Liebster blog" and "Versatile blogger" award




The versatile blogger and Inspirational blog award from Recipe World.



The versatile blogger award from Maha of mahaslovelyhome.

The rules for accepting this award are:
1. Add the Versatile Blogger Award.
2. Thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.
3. Share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.
4. Include this set of rules.
5. Forward this award to 15 fellow bloggers, and inform them with a comment on each of their blogs.

I share these set of awards to following fellow bloggers
> Melange
> Roshu of World of Tastes
> Sobha of Good food
> Asiya of Chocolate and Chillies
> Poonam of Kande Pohe
> Faseela of Good food ends with good talk
> Preeti of Preeti's Kitchen Life
> Anjali of Spice n Sugar Tales
> Kalpana of Life with Spices
> Reshmi of Easy Cook
> Kaveri of Palakkad Chamayal
> Gayathri of G3 Food Spot
> Sravs of SravsCC
> Julie of Erivum Puliyum
> La@ Food Slice

Now onto 7 random info about me
> I am a die hard Harry Potter fan and this was one of the few things that I first shared with my huss the first time I saw him. In fact the first condition that I posted to him was to take me to every Harry Potter film first day first show.
> I love traveling and some of my must-go places are Ireland and Switzerland
> One of my wildest dreams is to attend the La Tomatino Festival @ Spain
> I was never into cooking and never did I think that it would turn into my passion let alone start an own cookblog.
> I am crazy about baking and am now mad about collecting baking pans and most important of all gotta get a good OTG.
> I like being independent and pregnancy has sent me into a dormant state but I am happy about that.
> I had never seen F.R.I.E.N.D.S till my marriage and it was the huss who introduced me to the series and now I have seen all the seasons 4 to 5 times. Bing bang theory and two and a half men also joins the list.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

Interested!!! Click to read more...

Appy Nutty / Cornflaky Milkshake

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. We follow this phrase every day. Our daily fruit box will have one apple, some nuts and 5-6 dates each. Days when we skip having this, we make plain apple milkshakes. I love having the milkshakes rather than chewing on the apples and so mostly skip the fruit box wanted-ly. Adding nuts / cornflakes was A’s idea and we found the combination to be rich and filling. We first tried adding nuts to the milkshake and the next time when we made this, we added cornflakes. Both were equally good, however I preferred the latter.

~*What U Need*~
Red delicious Apple – 2
Walnuts, Badam, Pista / Cornflakes – a handful
Milk – 2 cups
Ice cubes – as needed
Sugar – 2 tbsp
Water – if needed

How I made it:
Peel the skin and core the seeds of the apple. Cut into pieces and drop into blender.
Add the milk, nuts(/cornflakes), sugar and ice cubes and water if needed.
Blend well till you get a smooth mixture. Tit-bits of nuts is okay.

Serve chilled.

Notes:
You can replace the nuts with plain cornflakes to get a crunchy smoothie or you can add both.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

Interested!!! Click to read more...

The one where Mangoes are blended two ways

The mango season has come and gone. It is nearly the end, yet you would not have come across any mango recipes in my blog. I have not blogged any recipes with mango. What have I been doing all these days, u may ask. The answer is I have been enjoying each and every day of the season eating tons of fresh mangoes. No diluting the flavor with milk/cream/flour. Just fresh cut mangoes.

Alphonso, neelam, banganapalli - any type of mangoes jumped into my grocery bag in kgs... of course with my aid. Mr.A has been pleading with me to make something else to the regular cut fruits and I have been ignoring his offer as I am a die-hard fan of mangoes especially fresh. I prefer to relish the fruit as such... Only did I come back to normal senses when yesterday the grocer uttered the words "The mangoes are not of good quality,amma. The fresh stock will take time to come... Season mudiyudula ma... ( Season is coming to end dear)." Oh dear, I haven't made anything different with the King of fruits... What an idiot...

Ever since I have been jotting down ideas on what to make... here and there. Fresh breads, milkshakes, smoothies, mousses, jams, granitas, coolers, preserves... Oh the list is endless and I am not sure if I can achieve my heart's target within the end of the season. If not, my ideas would be carried over to the next season...

So for the first step, it is mangoes blended in two ways... A milkshake and a lassi... Perfect chillers. The milkshake we had for breakfast with some scrambled eggs and the lassi we had for dinner with macaroni.

Mango Milkshake
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~*What U Need*~
Ripe mangoes(Alphonso) - 2
Sugar - 2 tbsps
Milk - 1 1/2 cups
Water - 1/2 cup
Mango Ice cream - 1 cup (optional)
Ice cubes - 10

How I Made it:
Blend all the above ingredients together. Serve chilled topped with a dollop of mango ice-cream

Notes:
* If you are mangoes are too sweet, then alter the sugar as needed.
* Adding ice-cream definitely alters the taste. It gives a unique creaminess.
* If you feel that the shake is in a puree consistency then add water/milk and blend together

Mango Lassi / Mango Yogurt-Smoothie
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~*What U Need*~
Ripe mangoes(Alphonso) - 2
Sugar - 2 tbsps
Chilled Yogurt - 1 1/2 cups
Water - 1/2 cup



How I Made it:
Blend all the above ingredients together. Serve chilled in a tall glass. Garnish with chopped mangoes

Verdict: It is mangoes and just a matter of seconds... What else do you need to make this...

Interested!!! Click to read more...

Choco Chikku / Sapodilla Milkshake

Choco Chikku is one famous fresh juice that I often have in my office. They serve it in a beer mug-like glass and having one just fills your tummy and chases away your hunger. I usually opt for this milkshake with a boiled egg sandwich to complete my lunch whenever I miss taking home-made lunch. A simple but complete lunch.
Again its chikku season here and all the sapodillas of this season taste sweet, honey-like and heavenly. I got a whole 1 kg of chikku when I went grocery shopping this time... All the fruits started ripening on the same day and I thought of replicating my favorite office drink.I divided the juice into 2 batches and to one part added some chocolate flavored Whey powder which was served as Mr.A's after-exercise health drink.

~*What U Need*~
Chikku / Sapotta / Sapodilla - 4
Hershey's Chocolate Syrup - 2 tbsp
Milk - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Chocolate wafer sticks - 2
Chocolate Whey Powder - 2 heaped tbsp
Chocolate ice cream - 1 scoop (optional)

How I Made it
Peel the skin of the chikku and de-seed the fruits. Cut into pieces.

Blend together the chikku pieces, choco syrup, coffee powder, milk, water and sugar till combined well.

Garnish with extra chocolate sauce and wafer sticks. Scoop on top a dollop of ice-cream and serve. I skipped the ice-cream :(

Chikku Health Drink
Mix the whey powder with the milkshake and serve as an after-exercise drink.

Note:Adjust the sugar as per the fruit's taste. The ones that I used were so sweet and so 2 tbsp of sugar was sufficient for me.

Interested!!! Click to read more...

Fresh Fig 'N' Honey milkshake

I got a fresh packet of figs a few days back after reading an article on the health benefits of fig. I didn't have the slightest hint on what to do with the figs but blindly bought them. After a lot of thought process, I decided to make Fig 'N' honey milkshake.

Click here to read abt the health benefits of figs

Makes - 1 glass; Serves - 1

~* Ingredients *~
Fresh Figs - 3
Honey - 2 tablespoons
Milk - 3/4 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Ice cubes - 2

The Making:
Blend all the ingredients till mixed well.

To serve, pour 1 tbsp of honey to the bottom of a tall glass. Pour the milkshake on top of this.
Add some fresh fig pieces on top and serve chill.


Note:
* Increase the honey as per ur palate taste but do keep in mind the addition of honey to the glass during serving
* I added 1/4 th cup water because if not you will get a puree kinda consistency. So alter the water content as per ur wish...

Interested!!! Click to read more...