Watermelon Salsa

This watermelon salsa recipe does not technically require an entire blog post. But the clicks were so colorful and pretty, that I thought I needed to do another post just for them. Like any other no-cook salsa, all this recipe requires is mixing of the ingredients. So the more fresher and sweeter the melon, the more tasty this salsa is going to be. 

 Recipe is from a book that we got from my kid's Pediatrician's office. Even though my 5 year old wasn't very impressed with the salsa, I really enjoyed it's refreshing taste. I served it with Grilled veggie Quesadillas.

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Chocolate Custard with Custard Powder

Blogging Marathon# 30: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Kid's Delight - Summer Special
Dish: Chocolate Custard with Custard Powder

Day 2 of BM# 30 and my theme for this week is "Summer Specials". This month's Kid's Delight event is being hosted by the talented Chef Mireille @ Global Gourmet. I love her theme because it is crazy hot here and my 5 year old is driving me crazy with his little demands. So I've been looking for some kid friendly recipes to please my picky eater.

Today I made something sweet with one of his favorite ingredients, chocolate. He doesn't eat vanilla in any form and he wouldn't even touch the regular custard. So I added some cocoa to custard and made a chocolate version of it and he loved it. I wish I had thought of it earlier!!

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Kid's Delight-5 Ingredient Fix Roundup

Finally I'm here with the Kid's Delight-5 Ingredient Fix roundup. First off big thanks to Valli for letting me host the event. Thanks to all of you who have sent your delicious dishes to the event. My special thanks to my non-blogging friends and cousins who took time out of their busy schedules to cook, take pictures and write about their kid's favorite dishes.

As Priya said in her email that this is not a tough theme, but it definitely makes you think about what we are feeding our kids. Basically my concept is 'less is more' and that holds good for kids food too. I'm so glad so many of you joined in to share these delicious kid friendly dishes. There might be some dishes that have more than 5 ingredients, but I let them slide since the whole point of the exercise is to have fun.
I think I've included all the entries that I received. If I missed your entry, I sincerely apologize and if you leave a comment on this post with the link, I will update the post with it. Thank you.
So without further ado, here are the entries:

First up is my dear friend Jyothy who sent 3 of her daughter's favorites:

Carrot Rava Laddoo 

Carrot Rava Laddoo

 Sago Murukku (Saggubiyyam Murukulu)

 Sago Murukku (Saggubiyyam Murukulu)

Banana Mini Rounds

Banana Mini Rounds

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Kid's Flower Pot Dessert

Kids love Ice cream. Kids love Cake. So what happens when we combine 2 of their favorite desserts in one easy to make/ assemble dessert -- they will ABSOLUTELY LOVE it. I made these for a party last weekend and all the kids when googoo-gaagaa over it. This is will be my last entry for Valli's Kid's Delight: 5 ingredient fix event happening right here this month.

I saw Pioneer Woman make edible flower pots on her show and thought it is a cool idea to serve cake and ice cream in a little terracotta pot, sprinkled with oreo (dirt) and some gummy worms. I bought tiny terracotta pots (2.25") from AC Moore and they were just the right size for my little guests. 'Ice cream wafer cones' would also be great as edible flower pot.
I used homemade chocolate cake and homemade flavored ice creams (here are recipes for homemade ice creams). But good quality store bought stuff would work perfectly. Pioneer woman used store bought pound cake.

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Chuduwa (Poha Mixture)

Post & Recipe Courtesy: My dearest Cousin Pallavi

One more entry from my cousin Pallavi for Valli's Kid's Delight: 5 Ingredient fix event being held right here on my blog. I'm going to let Pallavi do the taling today :-)
The recipe that I am going to share here is extremely easy to make. This is yet another recipe I learnt from My Mother-in-law. ‘Chuduwa’ is very famous in Telangana. My kid loves to have it all the time. It serves as a snack. Equally liked by adults too (spice level varies). 

If you know how to handle ‘Rice flakes (poha/Atukulu) then you are almost done with the recipe. To make this recipe I prefer Thin Poha over thick. My mother-in-law uses half & half of Thin & Thick. Thicker ones are hard enough to chew. Thinner ones are easy to deal with in many ways.

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Sabhudana Khichdi

Recipe Courtesy: My dearest cousin Pallavi

Continuing with the guest posts for Valli's Kid's Delight: 5 Ingredient event being here right here on my blog. Today I have my dear cousin Pallavi's Sabhudana Khichdi. Pallavi lives in Delaware and has 2 beautiful daughters. She is a great cook and makes amazing Andhra dishes. She is a busy working mom, so big thanks to her for taking time and sending 2 delicious dishes for the Kid's delight event. She even took awesome step-by-step pictures.

I'm going to turn it over to Pallavi now:

I have been waiting all these days for my elder kid to ask me make a specific dish of her choice. Before hitting the bed her wish was for Sabudana kichidi for next day’s lunch pack. Immediately Pavani’s (Proud to say my cousin) Kids Delight Even flashed in my mind. Sabudana Kichidi is not much famous in Andhra (my native place). I had it the very first time and often during my stay in Mumbai. Probably I like it as much as my kid does. Later I learnt it from my Mother-in-law, a magical chef. People often say she cooks with lot of passion and love. I learnt basics in cooking only after marriage that too inspired from my Mother-in-law’s cooking. 

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Banana Nutella Nut Milkshake

I wrote about my son's love for chocolate a lot of times. His mom is obsessed with everything related to cooking and eating and he is obsessed with everything chocolate. The other day when he had to pick between vanilla and strawberry ice creams, he told me very seriously that he doesn't like vanilla. I couldn't help myself from laughing out loud because I wasn't sure if he knew why he didn't like vanilla. My guess is he thinks he shouldn't like vanilla because he loves chocolate :-)

Well anyway, chocolate actually makes him eat bananas, because he eats bananas drizzled with chocolate syrup. Not the best way to eat a fruit, but I'm happy he's at least trying it. I believe in baby steps and I'm sure one day he'll get better at trying and tasting different foods.

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Banana Mini Rounds (Banana Ebelskivers)

Recipe Courtesy: My dear friend Yagna Jyothy

Another yummy kid friendly creation from my friend Jyothy. She calls them Banana mini rounds, a  fun name for kids to get excited to eat. They look similar to appam and they sound simple to make and delicious to eat for both kids and adults alike. 

Here's what Jyothy had to say about the recipe: "The recipe was put together by something my sister said she made for her coffee mornings out of left over bananas- as I was complaining about bananas rotting often in the kitchen."

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Sago Murukku (Saggubiyyam/ Sabudana Murukulu)

Recipe Courtesy: My Dear friend Yagna Jyothy

Here's another crunchy and delicious snack recipe from Jyothy. Here's what she said on how and what made her make these murukkus for her daughter Raaga:"Cheese puffs are my husband's favorite junk food and he keeps them stocked at home much to my annoyance. Raaga has been munching on them lately and it got to a point where she has to have a handful of them EVERY evening while I make dinner. I decided that if she must eat junk, it might as well be something homemade- and somehow minimize the junk factor. Put in a call to my mom and got this recipe. Raaga has not eaten cheese puffs since I made these. My next goal would be to move from murkulu to fresh veggies for a pre-dinner snack, although that may just be my wishful thinking."

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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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Vegetarian Tacos with Pinto Beans & Cheese

Blogging Marathon# 28: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: Kid's Delight - 5 Ingredient Fix
Dish: Vegetarian Tacos with Pinto Beans & Cheese

Today's dish for Kid's Delight - 5 ingredient fix is my son's latest favorite. My 5 year old is slowly getting better at trying ingredients and dishes these days (knock on wood). I was surprised when he wanted me to order 'tacos' at Chipotle and surprised me even more when he liked them a LOT. He especially loved the corn salsa they put on his tacos and now he says that corn is his favorite veggie (not sure how long that will last). Anyway, right now I'm a happy camper because at least he's willing to try something new instead of just saying 'no' for everything.

I wanted to make tacos for him at home and what better day than today, 'Cinco de Mayo' (5th of May) to post them here for Valli's Kid's Delight event being hosted by me this month. 

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Vegetarian Pita Pizza with Meatless Meatballs

Blogging Marathon# 28: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: Kid's Delight - 5 Ingredient Fix

Dish: Pita Pizza with Meatless Meatballs

Kids LOVE cheese, kids LOVE pizza, so it's only obvious that we have a pizza post for Kid's Delight: 5 ingredient fix, that I'm hosting this month right here. Thanks to Valli for giving me the opportunity to host.

Coming back to kids and their love of pizza, my 5 year old son is no different. He absolutely loves pizza and he thinks Friday is the best day of the week and he wants everyday to be a Friday just because they have pizza for lunch in school. He wanted me to make meatball pizza because he saw that flavor on the pizza box and wanted to see how it tastes. So, of course I had to make it for him.

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Tofu Fried Rice

Blogging Marathon# 28: Week 1/ Day 1
Theme: Kid's Delight - 5 Ingredient Fix
Dish: Tofu Fried Rice

We are back to our regular blogging schedule for this month and my theme for the first week is "Kid's Delight - 5 ingredient fix". I'm hosting Valli's Kid's Delight event this month and for the next 3 days I will be posting recipes that are my kid approved and have 5 ingredients or less.

I was watching Dr. Oz's show this morning and one thing he said that was interesting was 'never buy any prepared food that has more than 5 ingredients' and 'if it has ingredients that a 6 year old cannot read -- do not buy'. But if you can make tasty and interesting dishes right at home, then there is no need to buy junk from outside. What do you guys think?

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Kid's Delight Event Announcement - 5 Ingredient Fix

This month is probably the busiest I have ever been since I had my daughter, both in blogging and personal life. If you haven't noticed I've been blogging everyday in this month along with some amazing bloggers for our monthly blogging marathon. I signed up Wilton Cake decorating class and that keeps me busy for 3days a week with the baking and prepping for the class and the actual class itself. Then it was my son's spring break, so had to keep him entertained during the day, thank god he's back in school today.
All that introduction was to tell you that I'm also hosting Valli's this month's edition of Kid's Delight event. Since I know how busy all of us are, I thought it would great to compile recipes that use 5 everyday ingredients to make something healthy and tasty for our little ones.
Put on your thinking caps and start cooking some kid approved foods, anything from breakfast foods to desserts, just make sure the dish has 5 INGREDIENTS OR LESS. I'll give you salt/ sugar, pepper/chili powder, oil/butter, tempering ingredients as freebies, everything else will counted towards the 5 ingredients. Lets have fun in coming up with some delicious dishes that our kids would love.

Event runs from April 15th to May 15th, 2013.

Here are the rules:

• Cook any kid approved dish with 5 INGREDIENTS OR LESS and post in your blog between the dates mentioned above.
• Freebies are Salt/ Sugar, Oil/ Butter, Pepper/ Chili powder and tempering ingredients.
• Link to this post and Valli's Kid's Delight announcement post is mandatory.
• Old posts need to be reposted with links to this post and Valli's Kid's Delight event announcement post.
• Do not have blog, but want to contribute, then email me your recipes to cookshideout@gmail.com. I will post them on my blog and include them in the round up.
• Multiple entries are allowed, in fact they are encouraged.
• Only Vegetarian dishes please, eggs are allowed.
• Use of logo is optional.

Here's how to send in your entries:

Email your entries to cookshideout@gmail.com before end of day May 15, 2013 with the following information:

• Your name
• Blog name/ Blog URL (if applicable)
• Entry Name
• Entry URL (if applicable)
• Include a brief description of the dish and how he/she enjoyed it
• I can take the pictures from your posts, but if you have disabled right clicking in your blog, please send me a picture of at least 580px wide. Non-bloggers please email me a picture along with your recipe details.

Looking forward to all your entries.