Chocolate Pudding Pops

Blogging Marathon#65: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Kid's Summer Vacation Recipes

Dish: Chocolate Pudding Pops

So for the final day of this week's blogging marathon, I have any sweet treat for the kids. The recipe for these Chocolate pudding pops is from Nupur's blog and I knew I would make them as soon as I saw her post.

Both my kids son love chocolate and these pops are perfect afternoon treat for a warm summer afternoon. They are very easy to make, make some chocolate pudding, pour into molds, freeze and serve.

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Vegan Lemon Cupcakes

We are cruising past May with jest speed, last weekend was my birthday and Mother's day. We had a fun weekend getaway to Connecticut and a beautiful Mother's day party at a dear friend's house. Hope you guys had a good Mother's day. But make sure to appreciate your mom not just on her special day, but every day of the week -- she deserves it :-)

I made these cute little mini lemon cupcakes for Mother's day last weekend. It is a variation of the basic vegan vanilla cupcake recipe, but instead of vanilla flavored with lemon zest and pure lemon extract.

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Madhya Pradesh -- Indori Poha with Jalebi

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 15
State: Madhya Pradesh
Dish: Indori Poha with Jalebi

We are exploring Madhya Pradesh today. Madhya Pradesh is in Central India and the name literally means 'Central Province'. It is nicknamed 'Heart of India' because of its geographical location in India and it is the second largest state in the country by area. Madhya Pradesh is home to a large tribal population, who have been cut-off from the main stream development.

Cuisine: Like any other state the cuisine of Madhya Pradesh varies regionally. Wheat and meat are common in the North and West while South and East are dominated by rice and fish. Bhopal is known for meat and fish dishes. From what I've read, Indore is foodie's paradise and therefore it's now on my bucket list :-) Street food of Indore is renowned with eateries that have been active for generations.
Specialties: Dal bafla (consisting of a steamed and grilled wheat cake dunked in rich ghee which is eaten with daal and ladoos), Poha and Jalebi.

Today's Dish(es): When I read that the most famous breakfast item in Indore is Poha (flattened rice) with jalebi, I knew I had to make it. Jalebis are made all over India, but the combination of poha with jalebi is something that is very unique to Indore.

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Malaysian Apam Balik (Crispy Malaysian Pancakes) -- Eggless Recipe

Blogging Marathon# 38: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: One Dish, Different Countries
Dish: Malaysia -- Apam Balik

Day 2 of BM# 38 and today I've Malaysian sweet pancakes for you. Apam Balik is a crispy thin pancake that is usually filled with sweetened peanuts. These are usually sold at specialist roadside stalls throughout Malaysia.
Watch this video to see how expertly the guy makes apam balik. I especially like the technique he uses to take them off the pan.

Traditionally these pancakes are made in brass molds since brass distributes heat evenly and the metal itself is thick and heavy, so food does not scald that easily. This post has clear pictures of the brass molds used to make Apam Balik. I don't own brass pans and have no plans of buying them, so I used a nonstick pan to do the job. After looking all those gorgeous looking pancakes, mine didn't turn out as golden and crispy in the pictures, but they tasted great.

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Paneer Lababdar

Blogging Marathon# 37: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: Member's Choice
Dish: Paneer Lababdar

For the final day of this month's blogging marathon, I decided to try 'Paneer Lababdar' - a dish suggested by one of the BM members. This is the first time I heard about this paneer curry and the name itself sounded very interesting that I had to try this dish.

Our BM members came up with an awesome list of dishes to choose from,some of them were actually on my to-make list too. But I wanted to keep this week simple because I got busy prepping for the upcoming mega month long marathon. Also a new paneer recipe is always welcome in my kitchen.

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Individual Pumpkin Pies in Baby Food Jars

I'm currently obsessed with desserts made in baby food jars. I have been collecting my daughter's baby food jars and using them to serve individual desserts at parties. Idea actually came after seeing these cute little mango pannacottas that Sia @ Monsoon Spice served for her son's birthday. I fell in love with her clicks and the idea of reusing baby food jars and started to store them instead of recycling them.

I made individual cheesecake parfaits for my daughter's first birthday. They were instant hit at the party. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures of them. Will definitely plan to make them soon and post it here for my own future reference.

I made these individual pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving party. This is more like a parfait with the flavors of pumpkin pie -- crispy graham cracker layer, sweet pumpkin pudding layer, crunchy candy/ toffee layer, creamy cinnamon-whipped cream layer. 

After making this pumpkin tiramisu which had a homemade cake layer along with the pumpkin pudding layer, I wanted to make something that was quick and easy to make. I also wanted to add different textures to the parfait which is why I added some crunchy, sweet candy bits as a layer.

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Coconut Ice Cream

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 3/ Day 4
Theme: Seasonal Dishes - Summer Dessert
Dish: Coconut Ice Cream

Summer means time for ice creams. Even though some might say (I'm sure my husband will agree) that ice cream can be eaten any time of the year. But at least in summer I don't have to say it's too cold outside to eat an ice cream :-)
I have stopped buying store bought ice creams more than 3 years back, when I bought my ice cream maker.  I make sure that the freezer is always stocked with vanilla and mango ice creams and I keep making new / fancy flavors when I feel like it, may be once every 3-4 months, but more frequently in summer.

I like my ice creams nice and creamy. I don't like icy stuff and since we are pretty good at portion control, I make full fat ice creams, so we can indulge once in a while.

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Sweet Corn & Coconut Pudding

Blogging Marathon# 26: Week 3/ Day 3
Theme: Pick 1 ingredient and Cook from 3 books -- Dessert
Dish: Sweet Corn & Coconut Pudding

I have been watching a lot of Indian cooking shows lately and it looks like 'sweet corn aka American corn' is the latest 'hot' ingredient. Recipes ranging from breakfast upma to filling biryanis/ kurmas and desserts are being made with this versatile ingredient. Though I found it hard to find a dessert recipe with corn in my cookbooks, I would have definitely found a dessert recipe on one of the cooking shows.

Today's recipe is from "Viva Vegan" cookbook by Terry Hope Romero. Majarete is a light sweet pudding from the Caribbean island nations and some South American countries. This recipe is based on majarete found in the Dominican Republic, which is corn based, creamy and coconut scented with vanilla and cinnamon.

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Vegan Burger made with Refried Beans

Vegan MOFO Day 2: I planned to cook today's vegan lunch in 30 minutes and post it under '30 minute meals', but little did I know that my 3 week old had her own plans. I was hardly in the kitchen for 10 minutes, she started to cry and wanted to be fed and so my 30 minute meal ended up being more than an hour meal. Even though I wasn't able to make the meal under 30, but I'm sure it can done if there are no distractions.

One of my favorite things to do while on maternity leave is to watch tons of TV. Feeding time is the best time to catch up on Law & Order: SVU marathons and loads of cooking shows. One of the cooking shows I've started watching is Bal Arneson's Spice Goddess on Cooking Channel. I'm not too thrilled with her Americanized Indian accent and her over using of spices, but this Veggie Burger did catch my attention when I watched it. She used canned refried beans as the base for the burger and I thought that was a pretty genius idea.

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