Home made Peanut Butter Cup | Candy Recipe

Peanut Butter Cup, a delicious snack/treat made from just 3 ingredients such as peanut butter,chocolate & coconut oil. The recipe is so simple, completely vegan and you can make them in minutes. To be honest, i don't like chocolate as it is, yeah, i know, certain things you can't say it in public and i guess this is one among them :-) But what to do, truth to be told,right?? But i like light coating of chocolate on bakery items or on waffers like munch and this peanut butter cups. The big advantage of making peanut butter cup at home is that you can adjust the proportion of peanut butter and chocolate as per your liking. 
Here in the recipe i have used less chocolate just enough to coat the peanut butter, but you can easily double up the chocolate in the recipe. This recipe is been in my drafts for around 10 months, somehow i feel that writing the new recipe is much easier than editing the existing drafts. But today i was determined to edit this post and share. Phew, successfully i did :-)

Home made Peanut Butter Cup

Preparation Time : 30 min | Cooking Time : 1 mins | Makes : 12 
Recipe Category: Candy | Recipe Cuisine: International

Ingredients
Peanut Butter - 1/4 cup
Chocolate chips - 1/2 cup
Coconut oil - 1 tbsp

Procedure

Take all the ingredients required, in a microwave safe bowl, add the coconut oil and the chocolate chips.Microwave it for 30-45 secs until the chocolate is completely melted. For every 15 secs, take the bowl out and give a stir and microwave it again.After 30-45 secs the chocolate would be all melted and creamy. Mix it with a spoon well.Now take the cup cake liner and arrange it in a tray, add 1 tsp of chocolate mix in each liner and keep it in refrigerator for 15 mins or until the chocolate is firm.After 15 mins, take the cupcake liners out and add a tsp of peanut butter in the center of each cup. Gently smooth the top with the spoon.Again add a tsp of chocolate mix on each cup, gently tap the tray so that the chocolate sauce evenly cover the peanut butter. Refrigerate for 15- 20 mins or until it's firm.Peanut butter cup is ready to serve.

Notes:

• Don't over cook the chocolate in microwave, just take it out for every 15 secs and mix it well and stop cooking once it all melted.
• If the chocolate sauce is thicken for the second pouring, just microwave it for 10 secs,it will be all creamy and pourable.
• If you want more chocolate layer, you can easily double up the amount of chocolate in this recipe.
• Coconut oil helps to firm up the chocolate nicely.
• Here i have used milk chocolate chips, but you can use the variety you like
• You can use smooth or chunky peanut butter as per your liking.
• Refrigerate until serve.
  

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Egg Kothu Idiyappam | Kothu Idiyappam | Idiyappam Recipe

Egg Kothu Idiyappam, a delicious breakfast/ dinner item made .from the egg and idiyappam. If you have been reading my blog regularly, you might knew by this time that how much i love idiyappam or you can simply say that by looking at my idiyappam collection here. So i'm always looking for some different types of idiyappam and this idea caught my attention when i was browsing through pinterest some times back, ever since i have been making this regularly at out home either for breakfast or dinner.
This recipe is such a versatile one, you can make it just with eggs like how i have prepared it here or if you like veggies, you can add that too. To make it faster, you can use one of those readily available idiyappam or sevai pack, cook as per the package instructions and use the same in the recipe, i have tried this with ready made idiyappams/sevai a couple of times and that too tastes equally good as the home made idiyappam. But if you're using ready made ones, make sure that you have added enough salt while cooking since most of the ready made sevai doesn't has salt in it.  Now let's see how to make this yummy egg kothu idiyappam.

Egg Kothu Idiyappam

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Breakfast/Dinner | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Cooked Idiyappam - 1 cup
Egg - 2
Onion(small) - 1
Tomato - 1
Green chili -1 
Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1/4 inch piece
Cloves - 2
Cardamom - 1
Coriander & curry leaves - few
Salt - to taste

Procedure

Heat the sauce pan with oil, add the cinnamon, cloves and cardamom and let it saute for 30 sec,then add the onions & curry leaves and saute till the onions become translucent.Add the ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell leaves and then add the tomato and spices(turmeric,chili,coriander and garam masala powder) and salt.Saute till it becomes mushy and then crack open the egg and start mixing immediately.When then eggs are almost done, add the idiyappam and mix it gently until everything is thoroughly mixed. Add the coriander leaves on the top for garnishing.Tada, Egg Kothu Idiyappam is ready.  Serve it with raita or as it is also,it's good.

Notes:

• If you like, you can add the veggies like carrot & capsicum along with onions.
• Add less or more spices as per your liking.
• Don't over cook the egg, just when it starts to set, add the idiyappam.
• My idiyappams have salt in it already, so i have added salt only for masala & egg.
  

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Maida Poori | All Purpose Flour Poori | Breakfast Recipe

Maida Poori, a delicious and fluffy poori made from all purpose flour/maida instead of atta/whole wheat flour. As we grew up, this maida poori is the only poori that Amma used to make and for very long time that i didn't know that authentic poori is made with atta/wheat flour. So still i'm fond of this poori more than the poori made with atta/wheat flour. Making of this maida poori is so similar to the regular poori and it taste fantastic with potato masala or with chana masala. Compared to atta poori, this poori absorb less oil while frying if you make the dough properly and you don't feel that grease of oil in your hand while eating.

Till our marriage, ST didn't like poori much and later he started liking it because of this maida poori that i have prepared and he always say that it's not at all oily and he liked that very much in this poori. Just like ST, if you don't like poori because of its oily texture, then give a try on this, i'm sure that you will like it.

Maida Poori

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 10 mins | Serves : 8-9 
Recipe Category: Breakfast | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup
Rava - 1 tbsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Water - as needed.
Oil - for frying

Procedure

Take maida , rava & salt in a bowl. Mix it well, then add the oil.With your finger tips mix the oil with the flour well. Add water little by little and make a stiff dough with your hand.Cover it & let it aside for 10-15 mins.Make equal size balls from the dough. Take a dough and roll into small disc with rolling pin. Do the same for the all the dough and then heat the oil in a kadai for frying. Once the oil is well heated(if you drop a piece of dough in the oil, it should come up on the top immediately) drop the rolled dough and with the help of spatula, gently press on the top. It helps to puff up the poori.Flip on other side and cook that side also till it becomes golden brown.Drain it from the oil and place it on tissue paper. Repeat the same for the remaining dough.Tasty & Fluffy poori is ready. Serve it with poori masala.

Notes:

• Make the dough as stiff,otherwise it absorbs lot of oil while frying
• Try to avoid using flour while rolling the poori or use very little and dust it well before drop it in oil. The excess flour will make the oil dirty/cloudy while frying.As we continue the frying, it becomes dark in color and sticks to the poori.
• Don't keep the dough more than 30 mins. It will absorb more oil while frying.
• Make dough just 15 - 30 mins before frying.
• Don't place the rolled pooris on the paper, it absorbs all the moisture from the dough,so while frying, the pooris doesn't puff up well and it becomes very hard.
  

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Theatre Style Buttery Popcorn | Home made Popcorn

How many of you like theatre style buttery popcorn ?? If you're one of them, then this recipe is for you. Trust me, once you have tried this way of making popcorn at home, you never ever thought of buying one of those ready made microwave popcorn. The recipe is so simple and the key ingredients here is Coconut oil, it gives that wonderful aroma to the popcorn just like how you get it in movies.
In addition, if you want those extra buttery flavor, then add a tsp of ghee at the end to make it even more delicious and buttery.I have tried this with and without ghee, either way, it tastes good, so if you're diet conscious and don't want to add those extra fat from the ghee in to your diet, feel free and skip it altogether, still it tastes as good as those movie popcorn. Now let's check out the recipe.

Theatre Style Buttery Popcorn

Preparation Time : 2 mins | Cooking Time : 03 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: International

Ingredients
Dried Corn kernels - 1/4 cup
Coconut oil - 1 & 1/2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Ghee- 1 tsp(optional)

Procedure

First take a large pot and put it on flame, add the coconut oil and let it hot,then add few corn kernels into it.Wait till it pops, now it's time to add all the corn kernels, mix it with oil well.When it starts to pop, cover it with lid and let all the corns to pop. It takes around 1 to 1.5 mins. Once all the corn kernels are popped, switch off the flame & open the lid, add the salt.Shake the pot to mix it well.Finally add the ghee and cover the pot with lid and shake it well. It helps to coat the popcorn with ghee evenly.Tada Tasty Theatre Style Pop Corn is ready. Serve it immediately.

Notes:

• Ghee is optional, without ghee also it tastes good.
• Use fine salt, it helps to season the popcorn evenly.
• Serve it immediately, it tends to become soggy when it sits for hours.
  

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Eggless Spinach Muffins | Muffins recipe | Breakfast recipe

Spinach Muffin, a delicious and healthy muffins made from the spinach. Almost a year back, i had tried this recipe from pailin's kitchen for the first time with slight variation and immediately fell in love with it. The original recipe has egg in it, but i replaced it with more curd & milk and the result was awesome with wonderful texture and taste. Ever since i have been baking this muffin regularly at home and it's one of our favorite bakes that i used to make at home. It's very mild in sweet and tastes absolutely delicious. It can be served as breakfast or snacks on the evening, either way it's too good. Now let's check out the recipe for this  healthy spinach muffins.

Spinach Muffins

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Makes : 8 
Recipe Category: Muffins | Recipe Cuisine: International

Ingredients
Baby Spinach - 100 gm
All purpose flour - 3/4 cup
Wheat flour - 1/4 cup
Butter - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Curd - 1/3 cup
Milk - 2 tbsp
Banana - 1/2 
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
Vanilla essence -1/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Nuts and dry fruits - 1/4 cup(optional)

Procedure

Preheat the oven at 350F
Measure and take all the ingredients, in a mixie jar or blender jar, add the curd, milk, melted butter, vanilla essence and spinach.Grind them into smooth puree and keep aside. Take a bowl for mixing dry ingredients, add all purpose flour and wheat flour in the bowl and then add baking soda.Next add baking powder, sugar and cinnamon powder one by one.Mix it all together and sieve it once to remove any lumps. In an another bowl, mash the banana and keep it ready.To the flour mixture, add the spinach puree and mashed banana. Mix it together well.If you're using dry fruits and nuts, add at this stage and mix it together well.Take the muffin pan and line them with liner and pour the batter evenly on the pan. Bake at 350F in the preheated oven for 20-22 mins or until the tooth pick inserted in the center will come out clean.Tada, Healthy and tasty Spinach Muffins are ready.

Notes:

• Instead of baby spinach, normal spinach can also be used here.
• Make sure everything at room temperature before starting.
• It makes 8 medium size muffins.
• You can freeze this muffin and microwave it just before serving.
  

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Oats Upma | Breakfast recipe | Oats Recipe

Oats Upma, a healthy and quick to make breakfast with oats and indian spices.  Few years back oats was getting popular in India like anything and almost all the indian dishes have an oats version like oats upma, oats dosa , oats khichdi and the list goes on. As of now, the whole world had already tried everything possible with oats and moves on to the other grains.But here i'm sharing my first oats recipe now since i'm so reluctant to try instantly when something new comes into market, as usual i have taken my own phase of time to get to know about that and slowly started to use in my cooking. Now for last one year i have been cooking oats regularly at home and now i'm quite confident about how to handle the oats and out of all my experiments with oats, this upma is my most favorite breakfast recipe with oats. It's really very simple and delicious with mild flavors and comes handy on your busy mornings. Now let's check out the recipe.

Oats Upma

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 10 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Oats | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Quick Oats - 1 cup
Onion - 1/2(small)
Water - 1/2 cup
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Red chili powder - 1/4 tsp
Sambar powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few

Procedure

First chop the onion into small pieces, measure and take the oats. Heat the pan with oil, add mustard and urad dal, let the mustard crackle.Add the onions and saute it becomes translucent and then add the oats.Add the spices(turmeric,chili & sambar powder) and salt, mix it all well together and then add the water on the oats little by little and mix it with spatula simultaneously.Make sure that the oats is completely wet, keep the flame in low and close the pan with lid and cook it for 5 mins. Stir it between to avoid sticking at the bottom. Tada, non sticky, fluffy oats upma is ready. Add some coriander leaves on the top while serving. Serve it with your favorite drink, we had it with strawberry smoothie.

Notes:

• Depends on the moisture in the onions and oats quality, you may need more or less of 1 tbsp of water as i mentioned here.
• Don't pour all the water at once. Slowly add the water and gently mix the oats. It helps to make sure that every grain of  oats is completely wet.
• Add the spices more or less as per your liking.
• Upma tastes good as it is, but if you like, you can serve them with chutney or sambar.
  

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