Spinach & Sundried Tomatoes Pasta/Spinach & Sundried Tomates Pasta Recipe with step by step photos

I love to eat pasta, but I am not a cheese person. So most of the times, I try to avoid as much cheese as possible, but my kids love cheese to the core. Today I made creamy, healthy, tangy and flavorful pasta without adding cheese, it was really a winner. The addition of milk made it creamy, the addition of spinach made it healthy, addition of sun dried tomatoes gave some tanginess and the rest of all the ingredients gave a boost to the whole dish. Do check out other delectable pasta varieties here...

Here’s how to make Spinach Pasta with sun dried tomatoes with step by step photos…

Banana Bread with Wheat Flour Recipe [No Butter & No Eggs]/Banana Bread with Wheat Flour Recipe/Banana Bread with step by step photos

As I said in my earlier post I am making and baking a lot of healthy snacks at home. One such healthy bread I made is the Banana Bread with wheat flour. My kids liked the banana muffins a lot, so thought of making banana bread with wheat flour without adding butter or eggs. Try this healthy banana bread friends, you will surely love it.

Here’s how to make Banana Bread with step by step photos…

Dates & Nuts Cake Recipe[Egg less & Butter less]/Dates & Nuts Cake Recipe with step by step photos

Dates & nuts cake is a delectable and a very easy cake to make. The most astonishing part is, though the cake is egg less and butter less, it is still spongy, soft, moist and yummy. The addition of nuts is optional, but when added has small crunchy bites makes the nutritious and healthy.

Here’s how to make Dates & Nuts cake with step by step photos…

Caramel Custard Pudding/ Mexican Flan - Happy Valentine's Day

Today from Priya’s Virudhu, we are wishing each and every one of you, “Happy Valentine’s Day”. Love for your friends, family or any one special is always in your heart, Valentine’s Day is the special day to express your true love, show that you really care and cherish all the little moments. So for this special day, I made Caramel Custard Pudding as a special treat for my loving family. It is a very light, delicate and heavenly tasting dessert prepared in most of the places in India. 

Here’s how to make Caramel Custard Pudding with step by step photos…

Blueberry Muffins Recipe [No Butter]/Blueberry Muffins Recipe/Blueberry Muffins Recipe with step by step photos...

Today I made very simple and easy blueberry muffins for my kids. The fresh blueberries in the muffins were really extraordinary. Blueberries are one type of berries with dark indigo colour and have the highest antioxidants level. The blueberries activate fat burning genes in abdominal fat cells to assist with weight loss. So, one handful of blueberries in your morning breakfast helps in burning the excess fat.  Not only that they are rich in vitamin C, E, riboflavin, niacin and folate.

Here is how to make Blueberry Muffins with step by step photos…

Homemade Tahini Paste/Sesame Seeds Paste-Middle Eastern Delight

Tahini is a paste made by grinding roasted sesame seeds along with olive oil, used in North Africa, Greece, Turkish and Middle Eastern cuisine. Tahini plays a vital role in Middle Eastern recipes and is a foundation for many recipes likehummus, baba ghanoush, halva etc and also served as a dip on its own [Wikipedia]. Tahini paste can be purchased from shops, but can be made at home in a jiffy. I personally love Middle Eastern dishes and prepare hummus, falafel, baba ghanoush etc at home. Tahini is an excellent source of omega-3, omega-6 fatty acids and is also rich in copper and manganese. Tahini has relatively high levels of calcium and protein and is perfectly suitable for vegetarian and vegan diets.

Here's how to make Tahini Paste with step by step photos....

Red Velvet Cake Recipe/Red Velvet Cake Recipe with step by step photos

I am so happy to share with you all that today Priya’s Virundhu is celebrating First Blog Anniversary. This day last year I started this wonderful journey of blogging. It’s been a whole year and it is totally unbelievable as time flew really fast for me. The blogging world is really amazing and I am really happy to have come across so many wonderful, inspiring and loving bloggers. This virtual world has taught me so many things and I made lot of sweet friends. This journey of one year has been tremendous for me and I have successfully posted 352 posts. This is really a great achievement for me and it is all possible only because of your love and support.

Here's how to make Red Velvet Cake with step by step photos...

On this special occasion I would like to thank all my readers, followers, visitors, subscribers, co-bloggers, facebook fans, friends and family whole heartedly. Thank you all for the great support and encouragement you all have given me without which I could not have reached up to this point. I request all of you to keep giving the same support and encouragement in the coming years as well. As a special thanks to each and every one of you I am dedicating this yummylicious Red Velvet Cake, with true love.  

Banana Muffins [Low Fat Version] /Banana Muffins Recipe/How to make Banana Muffins with step by step photos

 This Banana Muffin is a tried and tasted recipe from a cook book. It is a low fat version by the weightwatchers. These muffins are gorgeous for breakfast, served with honey and glass of milk. Do try it out friends, you will surely like it.

Here’s how to make Banana Muffins with step by step photos…

Raspberry Muffin Recipe/How to make Raspberry Muffin with step by step photos

I had a box of raspberries left in my freezer, so wanted to make some muffins with them. I had bookmarked this raspberry muffin recipe long time ago, so made it this weekend and the kids loved it. Just try out this pink and colourful muffins, you will surely love it.

Here’s how to make Raspberry Muffins with step by step photos….

Tomato & Mozzarella Pasta Bake Recipe/Pasta Bake Recipe/Tomato & Mozzarella Pasta Bake Recipe with step by step photos

As we all know that Pasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine. Pasta is made from durum wheat flour mixed with water and formed into sheets or various shapes, then cooked and served in different forms and varieties. As far as the pasta bake is concerned the amount of pasta sauce added is more and slight twist is given by adding a layer of cheese on top and baked just before serving. Another twist that can be given to the pasta bake is you can add any leftover steamed or grilled vegetables, sauces etc.

Here is how to make Tomato & Mozzarella Cheese Pasta Bake with step by step photos.

Lemon Couscous – Indian Style/Lemon Couscous Recipe/How to make Lemon Couscous Recipe with step by step photos

Couscous is a traditional Berber [kind of food eaten in North Africa] dish of semolina which is cooked by steaming. It is traditionally served with meat or vegetables. Couscous is a staple food throughout the North African cuisines of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and Libya. The process of manufacturing couscous is labour-intensive. The semolina is sprinkled with water and rolled with the water and rolled with hands to form small pellets, sprinkled with dry flour to keep them separate and then sieved. Any pellets which are too small to be finished granules of couscous and fall through the sieve are again rolled and sprinkled with dry semolina and rolled into pellets. [Info source: Wikipedia]. These pellets are packed and sold in the shop as couscous. Here I have prepared the same couscous with Indian spices and lemon juice. This lemon couscous can be had for lunch with any vegetable stir fry or for dinner with just pickles. Meanwhile do check out other interesting and healthy Breakfast Recipes here.

Here’s how to make Lemon Couscous with step by step photos…

Crostini with Cherry Tomatoes & Mozzarella/Crostini with Cherry Tomatoes & Mozzarella Cheese with step by step photos

For this month’s IFC challenge we are exploring the Campania cuisine of Italy chosen by Priya Suresh. Campania is a highly populated region in the Southern Italy, located on the Italian Peninsula with the Mediterranean Sea to the West.

Campania’s exuberant cuisine relies on sun-kissed vegetables and herbs, salty capers, dried pasta and fresh farmhouse cheeses, chief among them water buffalo’s Mozzarella. Campania is home to over 80% of Italy’s water buffaloes, so the Campani produce a number of delicious water buffalo’s milk cheeses. For this month’s IFC challenge I chose to do the Corstini with cherry tomatoes & mozzarella. Thanks a lot Mrs. Priya for the wonderful challenge.

Here’s how to make Crostini with step by step photos…

Vanilla Mug Cake Recipe [Eggless] in Microwave /Vanilla MugCake Recipe with step by step photos

Now that term holidays have started for my girls, I am really busy running around with them. Today I just made a simple Vanilla mug cake in microwave which can be made in a jiffy. It is delectable and easy to make, the best part is the individual portions.

Here’s how to make Vanilla Mug Cake with step by step photos…

Spooky Witches Fingers and A Prize

This Spooky Witches Fingers is for the Home Bakers Challenge started by Mrs.Priya Suresh and this month hosted by Mrs. Nalini . Thanks a lot Nalini for this wonderful challenge and my kids loved these spooky cookies.

Here's how to make it with step by step photos...

Hello Kitty Cake for Birthday Party/Hello Kitty Cake Recipe/How to make Hello Kitty Cake with step by step photos

Hello friends,

Last week was my little girls birthday, she loves Hello kitty so I ventured into making one for her. Though I have baked cakes, I have not done the piping of frosting before. So I tried my hands on it , my girls and all my friends liked it a lot. The cake was really a very big hit in her party. I thought of sharing with all of you so that it will come in handy for you all. Please check out how to make Vanilla Cake and Mascarpone Cheese Frosting in the respective links.

Here’s how to make Hello Kitty Cake with step by step photos…

Savoury Kugelhopf – Eggless

For this month’s IFC challenge we are exploring French cuisine chosen by Shobana. French cuisine is one of the most challenging vast cuisines of the world. In particular Alsace-Lorraine region is chosen for the challenge which inherits partly German and partly French Culture.

Alsace and Lorraine are separate regions in France’s North-Eastern corner, and share borders with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland. Alsatian cuisine, is based on Germanic culinary traditions, is marked by the use of pork in various forms. Traditional dishes include baeckeoffe, tarte flambee, quiche lorraine, choucroute and fleischnacka. Southern Alsace, also called the Sundgau is characterized by carpe frite that also exists in Yidish tradition. Though there are many recipes to try from this region, we were asked to pick one from Tarte Flambee, Kugelhopf and Quiche Lorriane.

I chose to make Savoury Kugelhopf, which is soft yeasted cake. Kugelhopf is usually a sweet cake made with raisins, almonds etc but this Kugelhopf is a savoury bread filled with vegetables like onions, bell pepper, tomatoes and zuchhini.

Simple & Versatile Vanilla Cake/Vanilla Cake Recipe/How to make Vanilla Cake with step by step photos

This is a simple and versatile vanilla cake, very easy to bake. Anybody can bake this soft and fluffy cake can be used for any birthday and party cakes. You can make this vanilla cake and apply butter cream frosting or cream cheese frosting or any kind of frosting. Here I have posted only the vanilla cake will be posting cream cheese frosting in my future post. You can enjoy this vanilla cake without any frosting as well.

Here’s how to make simply & versatile Vanilla Cake with step by step photos…

Honey Drizzled Semolina Cake Recipe/Basbousa/Rava Cake/Sooji Cake/How to make Sooji Cake with step by step photos

This Honey Drizzled Semolina Cake is for the Home Baker’s Challenge started by Mrs.Priya Suresh and hosted by Mrs. Shama Nagarajan. Thank you very much Mrs. Priya Suresh and Mrs. Shama Nagarajan for this wonderful and exciting challenge.

This month Mrs. Shama had chosen  5 different types of  cakes and muffins. Off all the five recipes I chose to do the Honey drizzled Semolina Cake. This cake is called as Basbousa/Hareesa in Arabic, Revani in Turkish, it is nothing but a sweet cake made with semolina  and soaked in a simple syrup. The basbousa or the honey drizzeld semolina cake is found in the cuisines of Eastern Mediterranean under different names. [Source:Wikipedia]

This cake is very easy to make, it is really soft, moist and spongy. Once you start you can never stop eating them. Try it out guys you will surely fall in love with it. Usually nuts are placed on top of the cake as part of decoration on each piece of cake, which you can do it before serving. My kids were in a hurry for the cake so could not place almonds before the clicks, even my clicks were in a rush.

Here’s how to make Honey Drizzled Semolina Cake with step by step photos…

Chinese Scallion Pancakes Recipe/How to make Chinese Scallion Pancakes

I am happy to be part of IFC – International Food Challenge initiated by Mrs. Saraswathi Tharagaram of Saras yummy bites and Mrs. Shobana Sekar of Kitchensecrets and snippets. The objective of this challenge is to explore the world cuisine, try and taste international recipes and learn about different heritage and food in other parts of the world. Thank you very much Sara and Shobana for this wonderful challenge.

The very first challenge in IFC for this month is the Cantonese Cuisine which is one of the main cuisines of China.

Chicken Fajita Recipe– Mexican Delight/Chicken Fajita/How to make Chicken Fajita with sep by step photos

Yesterday I posted a very easy and a quick Mexican/Spanish rice. Today I am posting another Mexican delight – Chicken Fajita[Pronounced as fahHEEtah]. Fajita is a Mexican term or Tex –Mex for little meat (chicken/beef) strips, grilled and served with mexican rice, onions, bell peppers, sour cream, slasa and guacamole. The chicken/meat fajita is served sizzling hot in an iron skillet to our table in restaurants. The sizzling sound, hot steam and wonderful aroma will just want us to complete the whole skillet. These fajitas are wonderful party food and when you have lot of friends come over to your place. Also check out other interesting and mouthwatering Chicken Varuvals/Fry/Biryanis/Gravies etc here, Mutton/goat Meat Recipes,Fish & Egg Recipes

Here’s how to make Chicken Fajita with step by step photos…