Easy Coconut Laddoo (using condensed milk)

Blogging Marathon# 60: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Easy Coconut Laddoo (using condensed milk)

We are starting the last week of this month's blogging marathon and my theme for this week is 'Bookmarked recipes'. First up is an easy to make coconut laddoo recipe from Jyothi Rajesh's Curry Trail blog.

I bookmarked Jyothi's recipe the minute I saw it on FB. Her clicks were just amazing and adding rose syrup to coconut laddoo sounded so exotic. I made these cute little laddoos to bring to a friend's house.

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Oats Rava Laddoo

Traditional Rava laddoo gets a slightly healthy makeover with the addition of ground oats in this recipe. Saw this being made on a Telugu cooking show couple of days ago and then tried it today.
Oats are lightly roasted and ground. They are then added to the regular rava laddoo ingredients -- rava/ semolina, sugar, dry grated coconut and dry fruits. Melted ghee and warm milk act as glue to hold these laddoos together.

These tasted exactly like the regular rava laddoos. My 2 year loved them (she loves anything with nuts & raisins in it), but I was surprised that my super picky son also liked them. They are quick and very easy to make -- takes about 15 minutes to make the entire batch. Also these are goof-proof, especially for people like me who are prone to screw up consistency of sugar syrup, this is the perfect recipe :-)

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Rajasthani Goond ki Laddoo

I have never heard or saw edible gum/ goond until I had my son about 7 years ago. My MIL sent some laddoo made with various healthy flours and goond and said they are really nutritious and good for nursing mothers. Goond is an 'edible gum' extracted from the bark of a tree. It looks like a crystal and comes in quite a few colors and sizes. I was ecstatic to see it in the local Indian store and that too in couple of sizes (and price points). I bought a package and made these nutritious laddoos for the Rajasthani thali, but of course I forgot to put them in the thali.

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Dates & Nuts Laddoo

BM# 34: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Cooking from Sapana's blog
Dish: Dates & Nuts Laddoo

It has been a very busy weekend. Saturday whizzed by really fast with 2 birthday parties -- my sister's where we had lunch and evening snack with cupcake cutting then a surprise 50th birthday party for a friend. Of course we were late for the surprise part since we were driving from one corner of New Jersey to another. But all in all it was a great day with loads of good food and fun with family and friends.

Sunday started out lazy but soon became busy with house cleaning and laundry. We are hosting our first ever Thanksgiving party this year and even though it's going to be a potluck, I'm getting nervous about the menu, quantity of food, decor and just about everything related to hosting a party. So rest of the Sunday quickly went by with menu planning, laundry folding and Kung Fu Panda watching (not sure how and when the last one got onto the list -- but it's definitely worth the time, kept my mind off the impending work).

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Carrot Ravva Laddu

Recipe Courtesy: My dear friend Yagna Jyothy

I reached out to my cousins and friends to contribute to Valli's Kid's Delight: 5 Ingredient fix event that I'm hosting here this month. I'm so happy that they took time from their busy schedules to make some of their kids favorite dishes and send them over to the event. 

First recipe comes from my friend Jyothy, who lives in Portland, Oregon and has a most lovable little daughter, Raaga. Though I haven't seen Jyothy in over 12 years, I've been in virtual contact with her on Facebook. Thanks to the world wide web and to Facebook for connecting people together and making the world much smaller (virtually). Here's the recipe for Ravva Laddoo from Jyothy that she made healthier with the addition of grated carrot. She says these are Raaga's favorite and she enjoys them for breakfast and dinner.

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Boondi Laddoo

Wish you all a very Happy Ugadhi.

Andhariki Vijaya naama samvathsara Subhakankshalu

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Traditional Dishes

Dish: Boondi Laddoo

This year's Ugadhi day has been a little confusing. Everyone in India is celebrating on April 11th, whereas the North American telugu calendars say it is the 10th. So 10th it is for us NRIs in America and hence the wishes a day early.
For the second day of traditional dishes I chose to post the boondi laddoos that my mom made. I think  my mom makes the best home made boondi laddoos that I've ever tasted. I remember her sitting on a small stool with the stove on the floor and making these laddoos almost like Sridevi in English Vinglish. Like I said before I wish I had learnt making these earlier because most of the traditional dishes need practice to perfect the technique. Well, I guess it's never too late to start trying. Hopefully I can learn to make at least some of these goodies soon.

You can easily tell the difference between a well made boondi laddoos and a so-so laddoo. Some of the store-bought ones, you can see the sugar crusted all over the top and they are too dry to eat, a well made one very moist and there is no extra crunchiness from the sugar.

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