For the final day of this week’s ‘festival special’, I have a ‘Tiranga sandwich’ for Republic day. Tiranga means tri colored representing the 3 colors of the Indian flag, green-white-saffron. There were quite a few tiranga (tri colored dishes) dish ideas to make but I picked the easiest of all. This sandwich has all my favorite ingredients – spiciness from the mint chutney, creaminess from ricotta cheese (or grated paneer) and tangy from ketchup....

So, back to school has been fun. First my little man had a cold for a week. Then N, E, and I all got the stomach flu. I think it’s making me go a little crazy. Between the lack of sleep and all the grossness, I’m really ready for a little normality. Whatever that is. In the meantime, easy meals are a must. If we’re eating. About this Tortellini with Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce This little pasta number is ready in 25 minutes and is a quick and easy vegetarian meal....

The words “triple chocolate” always get my attention, how about you? I rarely can resist anything that boasts triple chocolate and these muffins are no exception. How long it takes: 38 minutes Equipment you’ll need: mixing bowls, muffin tins, oven Servings: 18 muffins Add bananas to the mix and I’m a goner, for sure. You’ll find all sorts of recipes that combine bananas and chocolate on my site, like banana chocolate chip cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting....

I couldn’t wait to share this Turmeric Orange Smoothie Bowl recipe as it’s my favorite sunny bowl of breakfast these days. After all, that month of holiday eating combined with the holiday activities (shopping, hosting parties, meetups with friends, late nights). We both were feeling so tired and almost sluggish in our daily activities that I definitely needed to come up with a ‘pick-me-up’ food quickly to supercharge us. And that’s when I made this smoothie bowl also called ‘Our Little Bowl of Sunshine’ … ( I literally drooled and kept looking at the bowl for 5 minutes before digging in)....

Theme: Bookmarked recipes from BM# 39 Dish: Himachal Pradesh Thali Day 2 of the marathon and today we are travelling to Himachal Pradesh all the way in Northern India. This is one of the states that I had bookmarked a lot of recipes and figured its better to feature them all in a thali. All the dishes are very simple to make and it took me a little over 1 hour to make them....

As soon as I shared my lasagna soup recipe with turkey Italian sausage, I knew I needed to create a vegetarian version of lasagna soup, too. How long it takes: 50 minutes Equipment you’ll need: soup pan or Dutch oven Servings: 10 I wanted it to remind me of Stouffer’s vegetarian lasagna which is one of my guilty pleasures. The creamy sauce with the pasta and all those vegetables is just irresistible to me....

I love Thai food. Period. I love Thai food to such an extent that when my friends asked me where to cater/what food I want for my baby shower (mine was not a surprise one), I immediately answered Thai food from one of our favorite restaurants. So we had the party at home and went to the restaurant to enjoy the Thai food. Now you know why I was behind the authentic Thai ingredients....

I have already explained about the benefits of neem in my vepampoo sadam post. Neem tree is genuinely an Akshaya Patra (inexhaustible vessel err tree) of medicines. Also, I have mentioned this many times on my blog. My favorite recipe is rasam, and I can drink gallons of rasam any time.:-) In my TN cuisine journey how can I skip rasam? In the letter V, there were zillion options, but I made up my mind to prepare this Vepampoo rasam for sure....

With dreamy white chocolate liqueur (think Godiva or Ghirardelli, your favorite brand of chocolate) and the bittersweet coffee bean flavor of Kahlúa, sipping a white chocolate white Russian is a little like eating the best chocolates, from a glass instead of a box. Albeit, with a kick. There is a bit of alcohol involved, too. Drink responsibly! White chocolate. White Russian. White Christmas. White chicken chili. White wine. White rice....

Bhatura’s are fried flatbread made using all-purpose flour or maida as it’s called in India. The dough is made using few ingredients and kept overnight to ferment. Once fermented, its rolled into oblong or circular shapes and fried till golden brown on both sides. Usually served with Chole (Indian Chickpea curry) or any kind of vegetable curry. Together they are popularly known as chole-bhature and is a popular Indian weekend breakfast/brunch....

A perfect sweet treat to make with juicy winter carrots. Serve either warm or chilled and enjoy this amazing Afghan dessert. About the Recipe Gajar ka halwa (aka carrot halwa) is a very popular Indian dessert. Today I have an Afghani version that is very similar to it but uses slightly different ingredients. This recipe is adapted from ‘The New Middle Eastern Vegetarian’ cookbook by Sally Butcher. This Afghan halwa resembles Indian gajar ka halva....

How long it takes: a few minutes to prep, 18 minutes to air fry Equipment you’ll need: mixing bowl, air fryer Servings: 4 If you have a head of cauliflower in your fridge (and even if you don’t), trust me: you need to try this recipe! Run, don’t walk. The air fryer is an easy method to make perfectly cooked, flavorful cauliflower. Because it doesn’t need a lot of oil, this method is lighter than pan-frying, and faster than oven-roasting....

For traditional vathal kuzhambu, we use sun-dried vegetables called vathals. But for this kind, along with sun-dried vegetables, we use onion, tomatoes, and also fresh veggies like drumstick, brinjal, okra. Fresh vegetables are entirely optional. I have tried this kuzhambu with and without vegetables. This arachuvitta vatha kuzhambu is much similar to Kalyana vathal kuzhambu served at weddings. Arachuvitta | Varuthuaracha Means- Arachuvitta is a Tamil word meaning “grinding” or “ground....

The coconut oil tempering and adding grated coconut make it oh-so-delicious, and it’s a great breakfast or dinner option. Check out how to make this delicious arisi upma with detailed step-wise pictures. Upma varieties Upma, the savory dish, is a staple breakfast/dinner option in South Indian households. While you can find rava kichadi on the restaurant menu, there are so many other varieties you can find only in South Indian households, like semiya upma, godumai rava upma, puli upma, aval upma, etc....

Anyone else obsessing over asparagus right now? I’ve been picking up a bunch nearly every time I hit the grocery store and I’m so thankful that it is vibrant green, crisp, and fresh. No wilted, sad asparagus in sight. How long it takes: 30 minutes Equipment you’ll need: sheet pan (13 x 18 inches) Servings: 14 We might be eating asparagus with every meal this summer. Grilled, sautéed, roasted, pickled, ribboned, and any other way I can get it....

Today’s post is for ‘Cooking from Cookbook Challenge’, an event started by Valli @ Cooking4allSeasons. This basic vegan cupcake is my go-to recipe and I was surprised that I haven’t posted it here yet. I have made these a number of times and they have never failed me. Recipe is from ‘Vegan Cupcakes take over the World’ by Isa Chandra & Terry Hope. I made these recently for my son’s birthday and took pictures to post them....

Don’t you just love beets? I know I do! Just the color alone is amazing, that deep red with the shocking pink juice. It’s not surprising that the phrase “her face turned beet red” describes a person blushing deeply. Can you think of anything that has a deeper red color? How long it takes: 20 minutes Equipment you’ll need: small food processor Servings: makes 12 appetizers And the amazing sweet, yet earthy flavor of beets!...

I’ve been making these cookies for more than 10years now and there has not been a single person who didn’t like them. So What Makes these Cookies that Special? It’s that rich ‘coconut flavor’ along with perfectly stuffed chocolate chips that give you a good chewy bite. To add that rich flavor, I’m adding a mix of coconut sugar with coconut oil (you can use olive oil or canola oil too)....

Blueberry Rum Cake – using coconut rum is Perfect for Summers We already have dad’s favorite breakfast dishes planned for the morning but I definitely wanted to make something that he really likes. So I finally decided upon a special, quick and super moist Eggless Blueberry Cake. I’ve decided to keep the cake eggless as our breakfast would be heavy with lots of eggs and also as this recipe can be enjoyed with many of my vegan friends (Use vegan plain yogurt of choice)....

This week has gone by so quickly but I’ve been confused about days (maybe because last week was a long weekend)…maybe… but I couldn’t wait to share these Blueberry Turkey Pull Apart Rolls that are my special breakfast in bed recipe. As you all know we are soon approaching Mother’s Day and usually I post one recipe for it every year but this year, I thought why not start with a breakfast recipe and a few more for the special day....