Granola with Cinnamon and Nuts

I always stop my husband from buying granola or granola bars and promise him that I will make them at home for him. But never get around doing that and he keeps asking me for them. After procrastinating for as long as I can, I finally made him this Cinnamon-Nut Granola from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain baking cookbook.

This granola is a perfect balance of salt and sweet, crisp and crunch, fruit and nuts. Using butter to make the granola gives it a ton of flavor, especially in combination with cinnamon. But you can easily substitute vegetable oil or coconut oil for the butter. Varying the fruits and nuts in the granola is the fun part, so feel free to use whatever you have in your pantry.

Read more »

Peanut Butter and Banana Breakfast Sandwich

Blogging Marathon# 59: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Instant Breakfast

Dish: Peanut Butter & Banana Sandwich

My theme for this week's blogging marathon is 'Instant Breakfast' and Valli wants it to be a quick dish that can be made in less than 20 minutes. So I have 3 easy to make dishes that are filling and delicious.

Breakfast in my household is usually cereal, oats or quick sandwiches, I don't usually cook anything elaborate except for when we have company. So this instant breakfast recipe theme is definitely up my alley and I'm going to share them here this week.

Read more »

Honey Mustard Sauce

Buffet on Table: Week 3 -- Condiments from Countries

Day 14: US -- Honey Mustard Sauce

Today's condiment is extremely simple to make with just 3 ingredients. It can be used as a dip or dressing or as a sandwich spread.

This recipe was not on my initial list, but then this sauce sounded just too good not to try. I recently bought a small jar of whole grain mustard and it went right into this delicious sauce. If you don't have access to store bought mustard, then make it right at home -- here's America Test Kitchen recipe on how to make it at right at home.

Read more »

No Knead Honey Oat Bread

Bake-a-thon 2014: Day 6
Bake of the day: No Knead Honey Oat Bread

I like baking bread and usually use either my stand mixer or breadmaker to knead the bread. But I recently started making no-knead breads. As the name suggests there is no kneading required to make these breads. No-knead bread was how people made bread thousands of years ago -- before they discovered that by pulling, beating, stretching, stirring or otherwise 'kneading' wheat doughs they could speed up the gluten-developing process. A renewed interest in this technique started after a no-knead bread recipe was published in 2006 in The New York Times.

Read more »

Greece -- Loukoumades (Greek Donuts with Honey syrup)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days

Country: G for Greece

Dish: Loukoumades (Greek Donuts with Honey syrup)
We are going to Greece today and I just found out that it is officially know as the 'Hellenic Republic'. That is my geographic tidbit for the day :-) Greece is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia & Africa.
Greece is the home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe and is considered the birthplace of Western civilization. Greece has a rich culture that has evolved over thousands of years. Modern democracies owe a debt to Greek beliefs in government by the people, by the jury and equality under the law.
Greek cuisine is characteristic of the healthy Mediterranean diet. Greek cuisine incorporates fresh ingredients into most of its dishes. With the rich culture it has, some of the dishes can be traced back to ancient Greece.

The most characteristic and ancient element of Greek cuisine is Olive Oil, which is used in most dishes. Wheat is the basic grain, though barley is also grown. Greek cuisine uses flavorings like oregano, mint, onion, garlic, dill more than other Mediterranean cuisines. They also, especially in the northern parts of Greece, use sweet spices like cinnamon and cloves with meat dishes.

Read more »

Middle Eastern Date & Honey Cake

We are travelling to the Middle East for this month's 'Home Baker's Challenge'. Rafeeda, our lovely host for this month gave us some delicious sweet and savory dishes from Arabia to choose from. Since my family loves sweets, I made a deliciously sweet Arabic cake.
I wanted to bake this cake last month itself, but I ran out of dates and the whole month passed by before I realized it was the deadline to post for the event. So I rushed and bought some dates and made this cake last night. My husband who has a very big sweet tooth, absolutely LOVED it. It was a little too sweet for me, since it has all the sugars you can possibly think of. May be next time I cut down on the other sugars and use only honey.

Read more »

Homemade Turkish Baklava Recipe

Blogging Marathon# 37: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: National Dishes from around the World
Dish: Turkish -- Baklava

For the final day of this week's marathon I made Turkish national dish, Baklava. I don't remember the first time I tasted baklava, but it was love at first taste. Baklava is a very rich, sweet pastry made of layers of Phyllo (fillo) dough filled with nuts and sweetened with honey and syrup. 

This has been on my to-make list for a very long time. But with really good Turkish friends we have always had good quality baklavas to enjoy, I never got a chance to try it myself. So this was my chance to make baklava at home and I've to say even though the process of making it is a little tedious with the phyllo (fillo) tearing and so on, but the final product is absolutely tasty and well worth the effort. It is also less expensive to make these at home.

Working with phyllo/ fillo dough is a little tedious and sometimes a little frustrating too as it tends to rip and tear. It is very important to keep the phyllo covered with damp towel at all times to prevent drying out. But it is not the end of the world, everything will turn out OK once the dish is finished.

Read more »

Whole Wheat Banana & Walnut Bread

Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Kid's Delight -- Cooking with Whole Grains 
Dish: Snack  -- Whole wheat Banana & Walnut Bread

For Day 2 of BM# 35, I made banana bread with 100% whole wheat. My son loves banana bread and I already have more than enough banana bread recipes in my blog, but I still keep looking for more banana bread recipes :-) I have always used half and half all purpose flour and whole wheat flour in the past, but this bread is made completely with whole wheat flour. 

Recipe is from 'King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking'. From my previous experience with baking with whole wheat flour, I thought the bread was going to be dense, but I was totally surprised how moist and fluffy the recipe turned out to be. Resting the batter for about 10 minutes before baking makes the whole wheat soft resulting in a softer bread.

I used egg replacer instead of eggs. I have been baking more eggless recipes with egg replacer powder these days and I'm really happy with the results. If you are into eggless baking, then investing in a bag of egg replacer powder is completely worth the money. It stays fresh for a very long time in the fridge, so eggless bakes are at your finger tips at any time.

Read more »

Oatmeal with Honey & Dates

Blogging Marathon# 33: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: BM# 32 Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Quick Oatmeal with Dates & Honey by Sreevalli

We start our last and final week of BM# 33 for this month and my theme for this week is 'Bookmarked recipes from BM# 32'. This was probably the hardest theme for me this month. I had a very tough time selecting 3 dishes to make from more than 550 dishes.

Finally after a lot of deliberation, I decided on 3 dishes based on the ingredients I had in my pantry. So for the first day I made this quick, simple and healthy Quick Oatmeal with Dates & Honey from Sreevalli's Ammaji's Recipes.

This was one of the recipes that I knew I would make right away because I love oatmeal and keep trying new recipes. The combination of dates and honey sounded very appealing to me and I wondered why I didn't think of it earlier.

Sreevalli made it in the microwave and called it quick oatmeal, but I made it on the stove top which takes a few more minutes than microwave. Either way this is a very quick and healthy breakfast that gets done in less than 10minutes. I generally use soy milk in my oatmeal, but any milk or even water (for a less creamy oatmeal) can be used.

Read more »

Wholewheat Oatmeal Bread

Blogging Marathon #25: Week 1/ Day 2
Theme: Baking with Whole Grains
Dish: Wholewheat Oatmeal Bread
Wholewheat Oatmeal bread has been on my to-make list for a while now. For some reason the combination of wholewheat and oats sounded delicious. So when I saw the theme "Baking with Whole Grains", I knew right away that I have to give this combo a try.

I found this amazing bread recipe on King Arthur Flour site (my go-to site for all things baking). When I saw that the recipe had 117 reviews and most of them with 5 stars, I knew that thiswais going to be a fantastic recipe. I wasn't wrong, this is probably the BEST bread I've ever baked in my short baking career. For all newbie bakers, this should be the first bread to try, so you can build your bread baking confidence.

Read more »

Walnut-Raisin Flapjack

These bars are full of whole grains which makes it healthy and filling. AND they are easy and quick to make. Recipe is from Vegetarian Bible by Sarah Brown.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Bible

Ingredients:

Margarine – 1 cup (I used Earth Balance Soy margarine)

Honey – ½ cup

Light Brown Sugar – ½ cup

Whole Wheat flour – 2 cups

Rolled Oats – 2¼ cups

Raisins – 1 cup

Walnuts – ½ cup, chopped

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 7”x11” baking pan.
  
• In a small saucepan, melt margarine, honey and sugar on medium flame.
  
• In a mixing bowl, whisk flour, oats, raisins and walnuts until well combined.
• When the margarine mixture comes to a boil, add to the flour mixture and mix thoroughly.
  
• Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.
• When done, remove from the oven and score into 12 pieces. Cool completely in the pan before removing the bars.
  

These bars are great as an afternoon treat that keeps you going till dinner. This is my entry to Sunday Snacks- Grab n Go being hosted this time around by Pallavi @ All Thingz Yummy.

Check out DK's wonderful Cranberry & Oats Bars.