Honey Mustard Chicken Salad

ALL YOU NEED

2 Chicken Breast/thighs

DRESSING:

1/2 Cup honey

1/4 cup mustard

2 cloves garlic grated

tiny piece of ginger grated

Salt to taste

black pepper to taste

SALAD:

You can use your favorite salad mix this is what I used:

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Onions

Mixed Bell peppers

carrots

Avocado

METHOD:

Combine all the dressing ingredients, mix it, keep it aside.

Cut the chicken into desire piece size and mix half of the dressing. Let it sit in the fridge for atleast an hour.

When it's time to cook, oil a grill pan nicely and place the chicken. you want it to cook through plus get the grill marks...

Just like this (Looks fancy), Slice the chicken  

Cut the vegetables for salad and place them in a bowl and add the chicken..

Simple right!! It's ready to be served...

Cashew Chicken Curry

ALL YOU NEED:

Whole chicken cut into pieces (2 lbs)

1 1/2 tbsp ginger garlic

1 tbsp kasoori methi

Cilantro and green chili for garnish

1 small Cinnamon stick

1 tsp cumin

3-4 cardamom 

Marinade:

20-25 roasted Cashews

1 tbsp peppercorns

1 tbsp coriander seeds (roasted)

1 small onion chopped  

METHOD:

Gather all the ingredients 

Cook the onion in a pressure cooker until translucent..

Mix the cooked onions with the cashew, peppercorns and rest and blend it with ginger garlic and marinate the chicken atleast for an hour..

This is really simple now... When it's time to cook, Heat oil in the pressure cooker, add cinnamon stick, cumin, cardamom 

To this add the Kasoori Methi, little bit of water depending on how much curry you want, close the lid and let the chicken cook through...

Garnish with Cilantro and green chili

Ready to be served...

Gobhi Aloo

This is a classic Indian recipe. Everyone has a different version, this is mine, hope you'll will like it.

ALL YOU NEED:

1 Cauliflower
2 medium potatoes
1 onion sliced
2 medium tomatoes
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 1/2inch ginger
salt to taste
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp garam masala (optional)
Oil to cook
3-4 green chillies
cilantro to garnish

METHOD:

Take the cauliflower florets submerged in water and put them a microwave safe bowl. This is my way of blanching them, in it goes for 5-7 mins...

Heat oil in a pan, slice the potatoes in cubes and cook them until brown. Keep them aside and add a bit more oil, cumin seeds and onions, cook until translucent.

Add tomatoes to the pan, let them cook covered on a low flame, uncover and mix it with the rest,

add the potatoes... 

Add the cauliflower with Salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala(optional). Mix it all and cover it until cauliflower is cooked on a medium flame.

You can tell if the cauliflower is cooked when you are able to put your spoon through and it breaks easily.

When you uncover it, it might have some water from the steam, let it all evaporate...

Towards the end add grated ginger, cilantro, green chillies

Ready to be served...

Indian thai chicken coconut curry

I personally love Thai food so thought of cooking some at home but I didn't have the red/green paste they use so I made some with tomatoes and Indian tadka. It's a very easy fusion, we liked it hope you will too...

ALL YOU NEED:

2 chicken breasts cut

1 tbsp garam masala

4-5 garlic cloves crushed

1 inch ginger piece crushed

4-5 green chillies crushed (use according to your taste)

1 medium chopped tomato

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 can (14 oz) coconut milk can

Salt to taste

Any and all vegetables you want

I used: sweet peppers

colored bell peppers

onions

zucchini

green onions

2 tbsp olive oil

METHOD:

Heat a wok with olive oil and cook the chicken with salt and Garam masala (90%). Keep it aside when done.

In the same wok add other tsp of olive oil and add tomatoes with ginger, garlic and green chillies. Cover and cook until the oil separates...

Add the veggies you want in the wok and cover it with the tomato paste. 

Add 1/2 cup water and then add the coconut milk. Cover for 3-5 mins and let the vegetables cook...

Also add the chicken and cook it without the lid for another 3-4 mins and it's done... 

You can keep the consistency of the gravy according to how much you want.

Serve it with rice and enjoy..:)

Khichdi- baby food

This is an easy and quick recipe which every Indian mom loves. The ingredients are easily available in every Indian pantry and its a decent source of protein.
My kids love it and it's my go-to recipe for them...

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup malka masoor Dal (Yellow Lentil)
1/2 cup basmati rice/ sona masoori rice
2 tbsp ghee
4 cups water
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder

METHOD:

Mix lentils and rice in a bowl and wash them thoroughly.

Heat ghee in a pressure cooker and add the mix with water. Also, add salt and turmeric powder. Close the lid and let the cooker do it's magic. 

Cook it until 2 whistles for the pressure cooker on high flame and then 10 mins on low flame (however many whistles, I don't ever count)

Once it's done please don't be in a hurry to open the lid. When done wait until it cools down and blend it.

You can store this in the refrigerator for 3 days or freeze it using an ice cube tray for a month. Thaw as needed.

Thawing/ Warming Instructions:

In a pan boil water (this will decide the consistency you want , so add water accordingly) and the desired quantity of khichdi. Mix it and let it cool down before you feed the baby.

Happy mommy happy baby!! :)
Enjoy!

Easy everyday chicken

Sorry for being MIA for so long but what better way to come back with an easy chicken recipe. It's a very basic Indian masala cooked with chicken. So here it goes...

ALL YOU NEED:

1 Whole chicken cut into pieces (or you can use which ever you regularly use at home)

1 medium sized onion chopped
2 medium tomatoes chopped
1 tsp each Garlic and ginger paste (or u can use chopped as well)
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp red kashmiri mirch powder (it's just for the color)
Salt to taste
Cilantro chopped for garnish
2 Green chillies chopped for garnish
1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds

METHOD:
Start with heating oil in a pan with cumin seeds. Add onions once the seeds start popping. Cook onions until translucent.

Add ginger garlic paste (chopped), stir them a minute or two and in goes tomatoes. Cover it with a lid and let the tomatoes cook on medium flame for about 5-7 mins.

Now after 5-7 minutes when you open the lid you want to cook the masala a bit more. Refer this picture...

When done, you can add the chicken with salt, garam masala, kashmiri mirch.. give it a good stir so that the chicken is coated with the masala and cover it. Keep it covered until the chicken is fully cooked.

Masala coated chicken

Please make sure it's well cooked. It took me around 7-10 mins, cook yours depending on which part of the chicken is being used for this recipe.

Remove the lid and cook it for another 2-3 mins so that the extra water evaporates...

Garnish with cilantro and green chilies..

Ready to be served. 

Note: I don't add any chili while cooking the food as I serve it to my babies so with all means you are most welcome to add chilies during any part of the process.

Blue Cheese Salmon Salad

Happy New Year you'll!! So like every year we start with a resolution of loosing some pounds likewise this year... let's see how long we can follow it, have to loose some holiday weight...My inlaws family visited us for the holidays... it was so much fun and scrumptious food..:D 

Decided to make something light but delicious.. hope you'll will like it. It's a super easy recipe and ready in minutes..:D

ALL YOU NEED:

Salmon (I eyeballed it good enough for 2-4 ppl)
Black pepper
Salt to taste
1 tsp Garlic & Ginger paste each
Dried Oregano
Blue Cheese Dressing (I used low calorie greek yogurt based dressing, you can use the real one if you like)

Vegetables as many as you want and whatever kind you want
I used small portions of:
Onions
Bell pepper (Red, yellow & green)
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Green chili
Green onion/ spring onion
Cabbage
Celery
Cilantro
Parsley
Mint leaves

METHOD:

Start with Heating a grill Pan with few drops of olive oil and placing Salmon with Ginger garlic paste, black pepper, salt, dried oregano...

while it's cooking start breaking it into pieces...

Side by side chop all of the veggies and place them in a salad bowl/ container

Once the salmon is cooked and the veggies are chopped mix everything together add a bit more salt to the vegetables...

Add the Blue cheese dressing.. I added 2 tbsp because we are not much into dressings but you can use it to your desire...:D

This is the dressing I used...delicious without guilt ;)

 Mix it all well and wallah it's ready...:D

 I served it with the side of Rosemary potato fries and some sweet potato fries (Baked)

Make sure you guys try it..makes a yummy left over sandwich..:D