Chickpea flour Pizza with Pesto

Blogging Marathon# 66: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Pizza

Dish: Chickpea flour Pizza with Pesto

After yesterday's Instant pizza recipe, I have another instant pizza today too. This one's made with chickpea flour or besan. The crust tasted a lot of cheela to me, but instead of cooking on the stove top, the crust here is baked in the oven. Apparently this chickpea crepe is also associated to France where these are called Socca and are a popular street food usually served with frosty-cool rosé.

As I was looking for instant pizza bases, I found this Socca Pizza recipe on Cookie and Kate blog. The chickpea base in baked under the broiler until set -- so the longer it bakes, the more crispy and browned the pizza gets.

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Saag Pizza (Indian Style Spinach Pizza)

Blogging Marathon# 66: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Pizza

Dish: Indian Style Saag Pizza

We are into 2nd week of blogging marathon and my theme for this week is 'Pizza'. With the kids home on summer vacation, I knew they would be very happy if I made some pizza at home, so picked the theme. First up is a Indian style pizza topping on an Instant pizza crust.

I have quite a few pizza recipes on the blog and most of them are traditional crusts that need at least 3 hours to up to 18 hours of rise time. So I wanted to try a crust recipe that doesn't need too much time to make. This recipe from Mel's Kitchen worked out perfectly. It needs just 10 minutes of rise time and then you are ready to make pizzas.

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Easy to make Pizza Dough with Italian Vegetarian toppings

Blogging Marathon# 64: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Cook from 1 European Cuisine -- Italian

Dish: Pizza Dough with Italian Vegetarian toppings

Pizza is probably the most popular Italian dish all over the world. Each country conveniently customized the toppings to appeal to the local tastes -- like the spicy toppings in India and the extra cheesy toppings in America. But from what I heard, Italian pizzas are not overloaded with cheese or toppings and are usually made with light and refreshing tomato sauce instead of a slow simmered heavy tomato sauce that the American pizzas tend to use.

I've a few pizza recipes on the blog already, but wanted to try a new pizza crust recipe from King Arthur flour. They say this is the 'easiest pizza you will ever make'. After making it I can assure you that it is in fact very easy to make this pizza.

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Cheese and Potato Gözleme for #BreadBakers

I almost forgot that today's the posting day for #BreadBakers. I'm glad that I checked Facebook to see our lovely Host, Anshie's post about the event, otherwise I would have totally forgotten about it. So thank you Anshie for reminding and also for being such a gracious host.

Our theme for this month is 'Griddle breads' and I almost wanted to make an Indian bread. But then as I was looking through my Pinterest boards, I found these Turkish Gözleme that I had pinned a while back.

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Butternut Squash Queso Fundido

Super Bowl weekend is coming up and I'm sure all sports fans are gearing up for a fun game night. I am not a big football fan and don't follow it too closely. But I'm excited about the half time show and the commercials more than the game itself :-)

This queso dip made with butternut squash will be a yummy addition to your super bowl party menu. It is secretly healthy with the addition of squash and sports two-thirds less fat than the classic queso (or cheese) dip.

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Three Cheese Potatoes

Blogging Marathon# : Week 1/ Day 3

Theme: Taste of Home Top 100 recipes of 2015

Dish: Three Cheese Potatoes
For the final day of this week's blogging marathon, I made this very addictive 'Three Cheese Potatoes'. My son is a self acclaimed super lover of both potatoes and cheese, so this dish was a hit with both my kids.

The original recipe for these three cheese potatoes on Taste of Home were made on the grill. But since it's very cold to grill, I made this recipe in the oven. Pre-cooking the potatoes before baking makes the dish cook faster. If not just bake the dish longer until the potatoes are tender.

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Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Blogging Marathon# 61: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Taste of Home Top 100 recipes of 2015

Dish: Cauliflower Soup

Starting a new month with a new edition of blogging marathon today. My theme for the first week is cooking from 'Top 100 recipes of 2015 from Taste of Home'. It was quite a task choosing just 3 dishes from that list. I scrolled up and down that page a million times before picking my dishes.

First up is this creamy and delicious cauliflower soup. It is a very easy recipe to make -- cook cauliflower, make cheesy white sauce, mix them together and serve hot!!

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Pizza Mac and Cheese

Blogging Marathon# 60: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Pizza Mac and Cheese

It was crazy snowy weekend in our neck of woods. I don't think I've seen that much snowfall in one day in all of my 15 years in the US. Storm stuck around the whole day Saturday and Sunday was spent in cleaning up the mess. Thankfully my husband was around for the shoveling, though I had to do my part too.

Coming to today's recipe for BM, I bookmarked this Pizza Mac and Cheese from Food52. I made this dish 3~4 times in the past couple of months. You can guess why -- who doesn't like pizza and pasta separately, now if you put them together it is absolutely delicious. My son went gaga over this dish.

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Hasselback Potatoes

Blogging Marathon# 59: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Holiday Bakes

Dish: Hasselback Potatoes

We are starting our last week of blogging marathon for this year and my theme for the week is 'Holiday Bakes'. I'm starting with a simple baked potato dish called 'Hasselback potatoes'.

Even though it has a fancy name it is not that difficult to make. Once you get the thinly slicing the potatoes without cutting all the way through part correct, everything else happens in the oven and is pretty much hands free from there on.

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Indian Style Nachos with Kidney Beans (Naan-Chos)

Blogging Marathon# 59: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: Bring on the Nachos

Dish: Indian Style Nachos with Kidney Beans

I was raking my mind on what nachos to make for today. I googled quite a bit to find something I liked and then found these vegetable chili nachos on Foodgawker. But instead of topping the nachos with traditional chili, I thought of giving the dish an Indian touch by topping it with Rajma masala (Kidney bean curry).

So I went ahead and Indianized (is that even a word???) all of the components and made it the same way as the regular nachos. This dish turned out so delicious and I was very impressed with my own creation.

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Spinach Artichoke Lasagna Rolls and Chocolate Risotto.... and a GIVEAWAY!

Can't believe holiday season is almost upon us and I'm very happy to be a part of Colavita and Perugina 'Join our Italian holiday Table' campaign this year. They sent me a large variety of their products including olive oils, crushed tomatoes, marinara sauce, artichokes hearts, olives, lasagna, arborio rice and some absolutely delicious Perugina chocolates. One of you lucky readers will also receive the same amazing products -- scroll down to the end of the post for more details of the giveaway.

Colavita is a family owned company and they have been importing and distributing Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil for over 30 years. Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil is recognized as the #1 Italian brand in the US and has earned awards from renowned cooking publications such as Fine Cooking and Cook’s Illustrated and general-interest magazines like Men’s Health. Perugina is Italy’s most renowned chocolate maker and Baci are Perugina’s most famous confection. Baci (which means “kisses” in Italian) are perfect as an ingredient in recipes, as a daily indulgence or as a gift for a loved one.

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Eggplant Parmesan for 1

Blogging Marathon# 57: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: Eggplant Dishes from here

Dish: Eggplant Parmesan

Today I have one of my most favorite non-Indian eggplant dish, Eggplant Parmesan. Fried breaded eggplant slices layered with cheese and marinara sauce makes this dish rich and calorie dense. I've eaten it a couple of times in restaurants and many times at buffet style parties.

I have already posted a lighter version of eggplant parm with roasted eggplant and creamed spinach. Today's recipe has all the components of the traditional Eggplant parmesan but is lighter on calories and it makes just 1 serving. So now I don't have to make wait for a special occasion or party to make this dish, I can make it whenever I feel like it.

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Grilled Cheese with Tomato Soup

Buffet on Table: Week 1 -- Combos from Countries

Day 3: US -- Grilled Cheese with Tomato Soup

We are stopping in the United States for a hearty and comforting combo of grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. This is a such a classic combination; crunchy, buttery bread and melted cheese just begs to be dunked in a big bowl of hearty tomato soup.

One good thing about this combo is that both the sandwich and the soup can be customized to ones palate. So I took the liberty and made them both with Indian flavors. Skip the green chutney and caramelized onion in the sandwich and you have an all American sandwich.

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Vegetarian Green Eggs (with Spinach)

Blogging Marathon# 54: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Cooking from Kid's Books/ TV shows

Dish: Green Eggs with Spinach

My theme for this week's Blogging Marathon is very interesting, it is 'Kid's Delight -- Cooking from Kid's Books/ TV shows'. PJ is hosting this month's Kid's Delight event with this very unique and interesting theme. My son loves to read books and like any kid watches TV too. So I thought it would be fun to make some dishes from books & TV shows he reads and watches.

For the first day, I made Vegetarian Green Eggs from Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham children's book. Like other Dr. Seuss books it is a very child friendly book with lots of rhyming words in simple vocabulary that even beginning readers will understand.

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Vegetarian Rice & Beans Burrito with Queso Sauce

Blogging Marathon# 53: Week 1/ Day 3

Theme: Tortilla based Dishes

Dish: Vegetarian Rice & Beans Burrito with Queso Sauce

For the last day of this week's marathon under 'Tortilla based dishes' theme, I made rice & beans filled burritos. We love Mexican food and I make it at least once a week. I always keep tortillas in stock for quick wraps, burritos or tacos.

Taco Bell happens to be our favorite fast food restaurant and before you start judging me let me tell you that is the only place where we get a decent choice of vegetarian options. Also they keep adding new items on to their menu unlike other fast food chains where we usually exhaust the dishes to try the first time we visit. Other Mexican fast food places we visit are Qdoba & Chipotle. So moral of the story is we love Mexican food and eat it quite frequently at home and outside.

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Vegetarian Fajitas

Blogging Marathon# 53: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: Tortilla based Dishes

Dish: Vegetarian Fajitas

Second day of tortilla based dishes and today I've some delicious vegetarian fajitas to share. Fajitas happen to be my favorite dish to order at Chili's restaurant. I've never made them at home even though they are quite simple to make.

Vegetarian fajitas are not on Chili's menu, but a nice waitress had it customized for me once and I got totally hooked. Every time I went to this Chili's location, I make sure to order their vegetarian fajitas.

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Vegetarian Sincronizada (Quesadillas)

Blogging Marathon# 53: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Tortilla based Dishes

Dish: Sincronizada

We are starting a brand new edition of Blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is 'Tortilla based dishes'. Valli gave us a list of tortilla dishes to choose from to make our lives easy. Tortilla is nothing but the Spanish version of Indian rotis. They are soft and made with finely ground wheat flour or corn flour.

So for the first day, I picked Sincronizada. The name seemed very complicated but making it is not complicated at all. Sincronizada is usually confused with Quesadilla, but they are considered are completely different dishes. Quesadilla is traditionally made with corn flour and is single folded. Whereas sincronizada is made with flour tortilla, has 'ham' as a mandatory ingredient and is usually made as a sandwich.

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Korean Onion Bread (Yang PaBbang)

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Korean Onion Bread from Varada's Kitchen
The second bread that I really wanted to bake right away was Varada's 'Korean Onion Bread'. It looked so colorful and interesting with the onion, pepper and cheese filling and topping. I remember seeing something similar in the local Korean bakery, which was another reason for me try it at home.
I made it for my Mother's day lunch and the entire loaf was gone by the end of the day. It looked and tasted delicious with the cheesy center and topping.

Original recipe had ham in it and Varada used red peppers instead. I think that was a brilliant idea because red pepper gave the bread a beautiful color and makes it taste hearty & yummy!!

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Vegetarian Molletes - Mexican Open Face Sandwich

After all the sweet & savory bakes in April, I'm starting May with a baked Mexican open faced sandwich called Mollete. When I think of May, I think of Cinco de Mayo that is celebrated on the 5th of May. The date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French at the battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. So May 5th means make Mexican food and enjoy!!
I was browsing through my 'Cookshelf -- Mexican' cookbook for some recipes and found this Mollete sandwich. It is a Mexican version of open faced sandwich that is filled with refried beans and cheese, then topped with a crunchy cabbage salad.

Molletes are traditionally made with bolillos, a savory Mexican bread that is similar to a baguette but is shorter in length and has a crunchy crust and soft inside. I couldn't find bolillo in my neighborhood, so bought wholewheat crusty rolls and made the sandwiches with them.

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No Knead Cheese Burger Buns

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 8

Bake of the Day: Breads -- No Knead Cheese Burger Buns

Today I have the recipe for some delicious burger buns that requires minimal hands-on time thanks to the no-knead method of preparing them. They are soft but sturdy enough to hold a veggie burger and all of its accouterments.

The ingredients are beaten in a mixing bowl for just 2 minutes and after that it is very very easy to make these soft, cheese-scented buns that are perfect for any kind of burger.

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