Fig & Banana Smoothie | Fresh Fig & Banana Breakfast Smoothie

Let me get this straight. Am not back, officially am not back... I need time and I am taking a break. As many of you know I have moved to the U.S and managing the kid, the jetlag, the home improvement cum maintenance and food for our tummies is really becoming a pain in the a**. And trying to squeeze in blogging is totally out of question and so I have decided to go on a break. I might post a recipe then and there but donot expect them on a regular interval. Lets see when things are gonna straighten out, hopefully it does and I am looking forward to continue blogging as before. Till then ciao, and don't forget to visit my old recipes. Lots of love...

Coming on the recipe, I have a lot of recipes in my draft, mostly cooked by amma and so am planning to publish them as and when time permits. And this is one among them. She whips this whenever we are out of breakfast ideas and when we have fresh figs in the pantry. Bananas are a staple and they undoubtedly go into any smoothie recipes for us. But you can replace them or totally ignore them. Try this when u are out of time for an energy packed smoothie.

~*What U Need*~ Fresh Figs - 3 Ripe Banana - 1 Cold milk - 2 cups Honey - to taste Water - to bring to desired consistency Nuts to serve How I Made it: Peel and chop the figs. Chop the bananas. Add all the ingredients except the nuts in a blender and blend till smooth.

Serve chilled!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

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Peanut Butter milkshake | PB Milkshake

Mr.A hates cooking or to be more precise anything cooking. Right from prepping to chopping to sauteing he detests cooking... And so on days when I am late from office or on days when I am lazy to cook us a decent meal, we order take-aways. However he makes smoothies (at times) when mood suits him. And we have it for breakfast with some toast or at times pour it into our cereal bowl, top it with cornflakes and nuts and dig in.

Mostly he makes this nutty banana smoothie cos bananas are a pantry essential at my place and most of the times we will be having one or two over-ripe ones, atleast. But when we are out of bananas, he tries something new or suggests a new combo (I would like to put that as "makes me try something new"). We tried this when were out of bananas, had an untouched bottle of peanut butter tat was gonna reach its expiry date and a desire to try something new.

Most of the recipes I came across used too much of peanut butter, say 1/2 cup for every one cup milk. We did not want the smoothie to be that heavy and so we reduced the amount of pb but if you want the drink to be thick, creamy, luscious and heavy then go with the original recipe.

~*What U Need*~ Milk - 2 cups Peanut Butter - 1/4 cup Sugar - 2 tbsp Vanilla ice cream - 2 scoops(optional) Icecubes - optional

How I Made it:
In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend till smooth. Pour into chilled glasses; serve immediately.

Serve chilled!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

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Strawberry Oats smoothie | Easy Breakfast Recipes

Weekend grocery shopping is one thing I love... Not because its weekend but because shopping is therapeutic to me just like baking. And when it comes to exotic seasonal fruit shopping, its gala time for me. Especially the reddy red strawberries... Oh how I love seeing them stacked on a bed of fresh green leaves. Strawberries are at their best when in-season. Ripe, red, sweet and less tart. Off-season they are just the opposite, but that never stops me from grabbing a box or two every weekend.

The off-season berries are great for jams, preserves, ice-creams, tarts, curds or any other desserts. All you need is sugar to sweeten 'em up. As it goes, last week when I went grocery shopping, I saw them, they were red, ripe, big and juicy... I was surprised to see such juicy berries off-season and I didn't want somebody to tell me to grab a box. Added to that my niece was coming to visit us that weekend. She loves strawberries, anything strawberry to be specific and those juicy berries was everything that I needed.

I made some strawberry cupcakes to pack for her and the rest was blended into milkshakes, popsicles, some strawberry glee to top a simple milk pudding and then a glass of this strawberry oats smoothie.

~What U Need*~ Quick Cooking Oats - 5 tbsps Strawberries - 1/2 cup Chilled Milk - 2 cups Sugar / Honey - 1 tbsp Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp(optional)

How I Made it:
Dry roast the oats till light brown and a nutty aroma comes off. Blend to a smooth powder. Add the remaining ingredients and blend till smooth.

Serve chilled!!!

** My Notes:
** Always ripe and red berries.
** You could add a handful of nuts or chocolate chips too when serving.
** You can use a mixture of raspberry, blueberry and strawberry.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

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Choco-Banana Oats Smoothie | Easy Breakfast Recipes

Easy Breakfast Smoothies is one thing I resort to when I am out of time. A tall glass, like a beer glass of smoothie of some kind with an apple or toast makes a complete and filling morning breakfast for us. These days Bananas are trying to sneak into anything and everything I make. Be it a bread or a muffin, I am always browsing for recipes with banana in them. 'A' panics whenever I pick up a wilted banana and shouts "Please stop baking banana breads!!!Just give it a rest".

Throwing a wilted banana into the bin is a strict no-no to me. Its such a versatile fruit that you can sneak it into anything sweet, like this banana bread pudding that I made sometime back and now this smoothie. Adding roasted oats makes it extra filling and extra healthy. You can also add a few handful of blanched almonds when blending and garnish with candied walnuts to make it rich and crunchy. A handful of cornflakes will also give it a good crunch and I am thinking the Kelloggs 'K' here (the one which promises weight loss in weeks). On that note, I don't know how it works and it has never worked on me, but I love its taste ~ its extra sweet though I don't know wat they use to make it that sweet. Point to remember: I have to take a note of that next time I buy it. In that case, have it immediately or all you get will be sogginess.

~What U Need*~ Serves - 2 Beer glasses / 3 persons Quick Cooking Oats - 5 tbsps Ripe Bananas - 3 Chilled Milk - 2 cups Sugar / Honey - 1 tbsp Cocoa Powder - 2 tsps Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp(optional)

How I Made it:
Dry roast the oats till light brown and a nutty aroma comes off. Blend to a smooth powder. Add the remaining ingredients and blend till smooth.

Serve chilled!!!

** My Notes:
** Increase cocoa powder if you need it more chocolate-y. I wanted the banana flavor more and so used 2 tsps alone.
** Since I used Cadbury's cocoa powder, I skipped vanilla extract as Cadbury's cocoa has vanilla flavor added to it.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

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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...

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Muskmelon - Banana Smoothie

I love having fresh juices and when it is a combination of two fruits that I love, I adore them. The melony season is fastly coming to an end here, and I in my bizarre senses stacked my fridge with musk- and water-melons and there are lots many of them. They are starting to get too ripe. So I am just mixing all the fruits that I get hold of to make smoothies. This is one of that kind. It was melony and I loved the lingering banana-y flavor.

Serves - 4

~*What U Need*~
Muskmelon - 1
Banana - 2
Sugar - 4 tbsp
Milk - 1 cup (optional)
Water - 2 cups
Ice cubes - 7-8

How I Made it
De-seed the muskmelon and scoop out the pulp
Blend this with banana, sugar and ice cubes adding the milk and water.
Bring it to smoothie consistency
U can substitute the milk with water if you want a fresh juice.

Serve chill.

Sending this to Healing foods - BANANA held at Krithi's kitchen and announced by Siri of Cooking with Siri

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Strawberry Chewy Smoothie

I have been craving for strawberries but nah am not pregnant... maybe am getting more romantic day by day... *winking* Deliberately in need of a strawberry smoothie, I went on a treasure hunt for fresh strawberries... And finally landed on a box of these romantic fruits... So made a fresh strawberry smoothie... Here's the recipe:

Serves - 2
~*Ingredients*~
Fresh strawberries - 5
Sugar - 2 tablespoons
Almonds - 3
Strawberry chews - 2
Chocolate vermicelli - to garnish
Milk - 2 cups
Ice cubes - 5

The Making:

Slice the strawberries to pieces
Add the milk, Ice cube, Almonds, sugar and sliced strawberries to the blender.

Blend well till combined.
Pour into a tall glass
Chop the strawberry chews to tiny pieces and drop into the strawberry smoothie

Garnish with chocolate vermicelli and serve chill

Sending this to Food palette series : Pink held at TorviewToronto

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Banana Dates Nutty Smoothie

Yesterday was a hectic day… Needless to say I was banging my head on the office computer till 9 in the night. Asked my huss to have his dinner at my mother-in-law’s house thinking that I could grab something from the office canteen. Being the workaholic I am ;), I was not able to move my eyes from the computer monitor. So grabbed my bag at 9.15 and flew to home with the thought that husband dear would have prepared something for me.

My huss won’t disappoint me at any cost. The first words that came out of his mouth on seeing me were “What did you have at office for dinner?”... Phew!!!! Rumbling through my fridge with my tummy grumbling with hunger, I couldn’t find anything that could be cooked in minutes.

So came up with this yummy milkshake. 2-minute yummy tummy filling drink.

Ingredients:

Ripe Banana - 1

Dates - 7-8

Black grapes - 10

Milk

Walnuts

Almonds

Optional: You can add honey / chocolate sauce

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