Cup cakes & fruit bread

Made some cup cakes and fruit bread o’er christmas!!!

Here’s wishing you all a Merry Christmas & a sparkling new year!!

Dessert @ Creamstone, Hyderabad

I don’t have a so called sweet-tooth, craving for sweets always, but when it comes to ice-cream at Cream-Stone, Jublee Hills, Hyderabad…I can’t say NO. Especially the nice, creamy, chocolaty, nutty ice-creams…They are irresistibly and delightfully Yummmm!!

They have a very unique way of dishing out their ice-creams… instead of serving the regular scoops, they beat it with a mixture of nuts, waffles etc…and bring it to a creamy texture to serve with desired toppings, fruits etc. Interestingly, your ice-creams can be customized too, depending upon your flavour. My all time fave is the chocolaty, brownie ice-cream topped with warm chocolate sauce. It’s simply sinful…! 🙂

Here it is… sorry about the picture quality, was not carrying my camera, so managed to click using my Phone Cammy….

So, what’s your most desirable flavor of ice-cream?

Healthy breakfast option for kids

Well, feeding kids is the most difficult task, especially healthy food. Kids are somehow allergic to them but happily gorge on chips, doughnuts, fried stuff, colas and what not. It’s every mom’s nightmare and they make every effort to feed them with some healthy options, to balance their nutrient values and enhance their immunity system.A few healthy options for kids that I could think of:

(Pic courtesy: Google)

Fruits, green veggies, whole grains, protein, dairy products are the primary sources of all the nutrients. Let’s see how we can make interesting options so that kids not only eat them but enjoy eating them thoroughly:

• Fruits / Milk / Yoghurt – Fresh fruit salad, smoothies, milk shakes with fruit puree and nuts
• Green Veggies – Make vegetable pulao using soya chunks or make khichdi
• Whole grains – Healthy stuffed paranthas with potatoes, daal, peas..puree of palak or some shredded veggies. Make pancakes and cupcakes that has milk, nuts, eggs…and kids love them
• Meat / Eggs for the protein content / Bread – Use lean meat, boil some shredded chicken and use them for sandwiches mixed with shredded veggies like carrot, cucumber, cheese and a dash of mint chutney / mayo. Boil eggs or fry them to make sandwiches using whole-grain bread
• Beans – Try making tikkis of soaked and boiled kidney beans. Rich source of nutrients
• Nuts – Try giving cereal with milk and mixed dry fruits and fresh fruits too.
• Yoghurt – Try making some yummilicious dessert with low-fat yoghurt…like whip them with sugar, add some strawberry puree and serve chilled garnished with chopped fresh fruits and nuts.

Sometimes indulge them with fritters using veggies, alu chaat, burgers made of whole wheat buns and veg patties, tea cakes, etc to cater to their ever-changing taste-buds.

This is our special post towards Children’s Day :-)… A very very happy children’s day to all the little ones out there!!!

Bid adieu…

…to this season’s last few sweet & juicy mangoes!!

 

 

 

Rightly called the king of fruits was enjoyed through-out this summer season. Recently, I managed to get a few as it’s hardly seen in the market. I have made mango pudding, mango custard and milk-shakes very often while it was available in plenty and truly never got tired of it.

 

 

Instant dessert made out of the last stock – Chilled Mango shake with ice-cream and chopped  mangoes.

 

Ingredients 

1. Ripe mangoes chopped, 1 bowl

2. Preferably mango ice-cream or plain vanilla ice-cream

3. 1 Cup chilled milk

4. 2 Tbspn sugar

5. Mango syrup

6. Strawberry and chopped mangoes for garnishing

 

Process (Can serve upto 4 if glass sizes are medium)

In a mixie jar, take the ice-cream, milk, sugar, mangoes and run it through until smooth. Now while serving in glasses, pour some Rooh-Afza and a little mango syrup around the glass-edges with the help of a spoon to make it look colorful and tempting. Pour the milk-shake into the glasses. Now scoop out a little ice-cream and put into the glass as a third step. Garnish the top layer with lots of chopped mangoes and a strawberry with a dash of cream and serve it fresh & chilled to your guests.

Sweet beginnings with rice pudding

   Anyday…anytime this dessert will find a little place in your tummy. Isn’t?

Ingredients you shall need to prepare

Milk – 1 Lt.

Basmati rice / Gobindobhog rice (Bengali special rice for kheer/rice pudding) – 2 tbspn washed and soaked

Dry fruits (Cashwenuts & Raisins) – A handful

Bayleaf – 2

Powdered Cardamom – 2 pods

Sugar – 4 tbspn

Process

1. Boil the milk and reduce it to 1/3rd

2. Add the bayleaf and continue to boil

3. After 5 mins add the saoked rice and continue to stir

4. When the rice is cooked well and you find a slightly thick consistency, add the sugar, cardamom powder and dry fruits and stir it well for another 10 minutes on slow fire. It would turn ivory in color.

5. Chill it in referigerator before you serve and garnish it with shredded almonds and saffron strands