Rose Milkshake

It's officially Summer in our neck of woods and the temperatures are slowly rising. So this colorful and refreshing Rose milkshake is just perfect for the season. Recipe is from a TV cooking show.

It wasn't until recently that I got to know that my mom likes rose milkshake. We were talking on the phone a few weeks ago and she was telling me about how she used to drink it when she was little. I wish she had told me that while she was in US, I would have made this for her. Next time she visits us, I know what to make for her.

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Lemonade Concentrate

Blogging Marathon#65: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Kid's Summer Vacation Recipes

Dish: Lemonade Concentrate

Whenever my son thinks he needs money to buy something from school, he asks if he can open a lemonade stand. My answer is always is 'go ahead, but don't ask me to make the lemonade'. He doesn't really get the concept that he has to spend money first to earn later.

But I wanted to make him lemonade anyway because my husband bought 2 huge bags of limes and lemons and as they say when life gives you lemons (and limes), make lemonade. Which is exactly what I did :-)

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Piyush (Gujarati Yogurt Drink)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 
Day 16: P for Piyush
Today I have a creamy and delicious dessert perfect for the summer. It is Gujarati version of lassi and is made with Shrikhand. Initially I had a savory dish planned for P, but then I saw this Piyush recipe on Tarla Dalal.com and since I already had Kesar Shrikhand in the fridge, I made it right away. Also with the sweltering summer heat in India, this is a perfect cooling drink.

Piyush is nothing but jazzed up version of shrikhand. It is mixed with more yogurt (or buttermilk) and thinned out with milk, then flavored with spices. This was one of the easiest and one of the yummiest yogurt based desserts I've ever made. Since I was the only having this at home, I thoroughly enjoyed making and drinking this creamy and rich Piyush.

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Homemade Hot Cocoa (using Raw Cacao powder)

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Chocolate

Dish: Hot Cocoa

We are starting a new edition of Blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is 'Kid friendly Chocolate dishes'. Kalyani is hosting this month's Kid's Delight event with this universally loved ingredient as the theme.

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Vegan Eggnog with Almond Milk

I've heard a lot about Eggnog but never tried it myself. The thought of drinking raw egg didn't really appeal to me. Last year I made this Mango Eggnog and it was quite a hit even with the kids.

This year I was tempted to try a vegan eggnog recipe when I saw this on Food52. It  is made with soaked cashews and full fat coconut milk to make it thick and the spices give the required oomph and deliciousness. I looked for more vegan eggnog recipes and found another recipe from Tasty Yummies, this one is made with cashew milk, soaked raw cashews and coconut milk.

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Banana Strawberry Protein Smoothie (Sunwarrior Product Review and a Giveaway)

I posted about my new exercise routine that I started at the beginning of this year here. Recently I fell off the P90X wagon -- mostly because I was getting bored of doing 1 hour long workouts over and over again. But I didn't want to stop exercising altogether, so I started doing 30 minute cardio and aerobic workouts watching you tube videos.
After a workout I try to drink a healthy smoothie (either by adding protein powder or peanut butter or chia/ hemp seeds). Recently Sunwarrior reached out to me to do a review on their new product line -- Classic Plus.

Like all the other Sunwarrior products, Classic plus is also based on the original rice protein and has added amino acid balancing effects of peas, chia seeds, quinoa and amaranth. Read more about it here.

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Honeydew Citrus Juice

I am enjoying the warm summer weather, the lovely fresh summer fruit and my backyard garden these days. It makes me sad that it's already middle of summer -- I wish I can hold on it a little longer.
May be I can with this refreshing drink made with honeydew melon and citrus juice. I bought a honey dew melon the other day, it was super juicy, sweet and delicious. After eating most of it as is, I used the rest to make this drink.

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Mango Almond Smoothie

Blogging Marathon# 54: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Fruits in any form

Dish: Mango-Almond Smoothie

We are starting a brand new week of blogging marathon and my theme for this week is 'Fruits in any form'. It's for Valli's Kid's Delight event being hosted this month by Harini. I have 2 extremes at home, my son doesn't want to touch any fruit and my daughter loves most of the fruits. So for this week, I've tried to make dishes that would (hopefully) please both of them.

First up is this delicious and nutritious mango-almond smoothie. With mango season in full swing, I am making sure to keep fresh, juicy mangoes in stock all the time. We eat most of them as is -- peeled and diced.

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Tropical Smoothie with Hemp Seeds

Weather is slowly taking a beautiful turn in our neck of woods. I was looking through my last year photos and noticed that the trees were already in full bloom by this time, now we only have tiny buds on trees. But at least it is getting warm and I have no complaints.
I have a summery smoothie today with pineapple, mango and banana. I added some coconut milk to the smoothie and it reminded me of pina colada a little bit.

But the secret ingredient in the smoothie is "Hemp Seeds'. I read about these seeds in Vegetarian times magazine a while back and when I saw them in Trader Joes, I couldn't stop myself from buying them. I started adding them to my morning cereal, they don't have any distinct taste -- so blend well in just about anything.

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Thai Iced Tea (with Black Tea bags & Star Anise)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: 1 Cuisine -- 3 Dishes

Dish: Thai Cuisine -- Thai Iced Tea

For the final day of this month's blogging marathon under 'Thai cuisine' theme, I have a cold, refreshing Thai Iced Tea. I wanted to try a Thai dessert, but then couldn't get my hands on the ingredients, so after a little search I ended up on this Thai Iced Tea recipe by Giada.

Traditionally Thai tea is made from strongly brewed Ceylon tea. However, due to the high price of the Ceylon tea, a locally grown tea known as Bai Miang is commonly used along with added food coloring to make Thai Tea. It is flavored with either orange blossom water, star anise or crushed tamarind seed. This tea is sweetened with sugar and condensed milk and served chilled. Evaporated milk, coconut milk or whole milk are generally poured over the tea and ice before serving to add taste and creamy appearance.

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Hot Chocolate (Using Ganache)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Holiday Specials

Dish: Hot Chocolate

I have another kid friendly drink for the second day of this week's blogging marathon. Both my kids love chocolate milk and I have been making hot chocolate for them once in a while this winter. They love it so much that they would do just about anything to drink (clean the room, finish homework -- anything at all, gets done in no time).

I have 2 hot chocolate recipes on the blog already, one with unsweetened cocoa powder and the other with soy creamer. This hot chocolate recipe is made with ganache that can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator, so the kids can have their favorite hot chocolate in no time.

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Mango Nog (Alcohol free - Kid Friendly recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Holiday Specials

Dish: Mango Nog

My theme for this week's blogging marathon is 'Kid Friendly Holiday specials'. This is for Valli's Kid's Delight event being hosted this month by lovely Sandhya. For the first day, I have an alcohol free, kid friendly version of a holiday special drink, Eggnog.

Eggnog is a sweetened dairy based drink usually consumed during Thanksgiving and Christmas in Canada & US. It is traditionally made with milk and/ or cream, sugar and whipped eggs to give it a frothy texture. Brandy, rum or bourbon are often added. It is served with a sprinkling of ground cinnamon or nutmeg. It is also known as egg milk punch.

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Spiced Cranberry Pear Cider

It has been a busy weekend with a holiday brunch at home, lot of baking and cooking. With the weather being very cloudy and gloomy, I couldn't get a chance to take photos of the food or even the cookies. I saved a few, hopefully the sun will be out tomorrow and I can take come decent photos.

Today's Cranberry-Pear cider recipe is from Vegetarian times magazine and I made it for the brunch yesterday. It is spiced with ginger & cinnamon and is served warm which is perfect for the chilly weather and also for the sniffles and coughs.

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Limeade with Brown Cane Sugar (Agua de Papelon)

Blogging Marathon# 46: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Lemon/ Lime Recipes
Dish: Agua de Papelon (Limeade with Panela/ Jaggery)

For the final day of 'Lemon/ Lime recipes', I was thinking of making something sweet. But I'm not a big fan of lemon flavored desserts -- I prefer vanilla or chocolate flavors. As I was looking through 'Viva Vegan' cookbook, I found the recipe for a Limeade with Panela or South American unprocessed cane sugar.

I bought a slab of panela a while back but totally forgot about it until I found this recipe. Papelon or Panela (as it's called in Venezuela and Colombia) is produced by cooking the juice of freshly squeezed sugar cane down to a solid, crystallized mass. I wasn't sure how it would taste because it was really dark in color, I thought it will have a molasses-ish taste but I was pleasantly surprised that it tasted just like jaggery (our own unprocessed cane sugar from India).

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Pumpkin Smoothie & My 5 Fall/ Autumn Favorites

It's officially Fall here (September 22) and the weather is slowly getting chilly and crisp. I see the trees changing color and perhaps that is the best part of fall that I love -- all the beautiful colors. Fall also means kids going back to school, days getting shorter and days getting busier. Busy means less time to go shopping even for ingredients and favorite foods and I find myself doing a lot of online shopping these days. I didn't realize until recently that I can buy gift cards for just about any store like Walmart or Target or Whole Foods at a discounted price on Raise.com.
Raise is the first online marketplace to buy and sell gift cards, where you can buy discount gift cards to your favorite stores or sell your unwanted gift cards for cash. Their marketplace has a wide variety of brands; from Starbucks to Target and many many more. Buying a gift card to a specific store is a great idea, so the recipient can buy what they want instead of getting gifts that they don't really want/ need.
I wanted to share my 5 Fall/ Autumn food favorites and I'm sure I'll be using Raise to buy some gift cards to get my ingredients for the recipes.

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Banana Nutella Milkshake

Blogging Marathon# 41: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: Summer Specials
Dish: Banana Nutella Milkshake

For the 3rd and final day of BM# 41, I have a very simple and delicious kid friendly drink. It is calorie rich, and hence should be taken occasionally. Both my kids loved this creamy drink.

As I was thinking about this post's introduction, I was lost for a little bit since there is not much to write about the milkshake itself, apart from the fact that it is super simple to make and tastes amazing. So instead of me writing about something, I thought why not ask my readers a question and have you share your thoughts.

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Mango Lassi

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Mango Mania
Dish: Mango Lassi

This post is possibly the least planned and last minute one in the past couple of months. I didn't have any mango recipes in the drafts and neither had I planned for anything. I was dilly-dallying until the last minute today as if miraculously the post will 'post' itself. But one good thing we did was to buy a case of ripe mangoes from the Indian store this weekend and the yellow beauties inspired me to make one of my kids favorite, Mango Lassi. 

I have never tried making Mango lassi at home mostly because my son orders it every time we are in an Indian restaurant and making it again at home is quite boring. Also my husband being a yogurt-phobic, doesn't drink it -- so I usually make mango juice instead of lassi or smoothie. But today, it was finally time to try my hand at making the classic Mango Lassi.

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Xperience Hyderabadi Irani Samosa & Chai

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter X
Theme: A-Z Vegetarian Dishes of Andhra Pradesh
Dish: Xperience Hyderabadi Irani Samosa & Chai

For letter X, I was thinking of (e)xperimenting with a new ingredient or a new dish. But as I mentioned in my previous post, it has been a busy month and by the time I started to think of what to make that would fit the Andhra dishes theme, I drew a complete blank. My mom suggested couple of traditional Andhra dishes that we could try, but as luck might have it, we didn't have enough time to make them.

As I was thinking of different words that start with 'X', I stumbled on (e)Xperience and then I thought of Hyderabadi Irani Samosa & Chai experience. The main reason for me to associate (e)xperience with tea is my 1 year old daughter. Recently she started saying 'aaaaahhh' everytime she drinks something, be it her milk or water. I guess she saw one of us say it when we drink our morning coffee/ milk. It looked so cute to me that she's really enjoying the experience of drinking. And that is how I thought of doing Hyderabadi Irani Chai & Samosa.

Hyderabad is famous for its Irani cafes that are scattered all around the city and mainly in the old city. People sipping hot, milky Irani Chai, munching on crispy, crunchy onion Irani Samosa and gossiping with friends is a very common site at these cafes.

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Indian Style Cappuccino

Blogging Marathon# 31: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: Cooking BM# 31 Themes - Member's Choice/ Coffee Variations
Dish: Indian Style Cappuccino

I didn't plan to make Cappuccino for today's post. I'm not a big fan of coffee, even though I enjoy  an occasional latte or mocha from Starbucks. I don't like the bitterness that is associated with coffee and I end up adding whole lot of sugar. To avoid the unnecessary sugar intake, I pass on coffee and only indulge in it once in a while. 

I attended 'Vegan Donut' making class in ICE, New York yesterday and it was so much fun to working with the dough and making different flavored cake & raised donuts. Our instructor was Adam Sobel of the famous Vegan & Organic food truck Cinnamon Snail. He was informative, funny and very enthusiastic to teach the techniques and tips of vegan donut making. I came back home with a box full of goodies.

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Raspberry Lemonade

Here's another refreshing Summer drink that can be made ahead of time and can be served any time you have a craving for something cold and sweet. I was looking for a recipe to use up some raspberries I had in the fridge and found this Fresh Raspberry Syrup Soda recipe @ Savvy Eat. 

I made the syrup as per the recipe, but when I made the soda with just the syrup it tasted too sweet and one dimensional. Then  I added some lemon juice and voila it was instant hit with everyone.

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