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WHAT I EAT IN A DAY TO LOSE WEIGHT

WHAT I EAT IN A DAY TO LOSE WEIGHT

Yummy Cheesy Potato and Corn Chowder soup for cheese lovers in winter season

Cheesy Potato and Corn Chowder

  

INGREDIENTS                                              

• 2 tablespoons margarine
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 3 cups peeled and cubed potatoes

• 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles
• 1 (2.5 ounce) package country style gravy mix
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup shredded Mexican-style processed cheese food
• 
  

• DIRECTIONS   
• In large saucepan, melt margarine over medium high heat. Add celery and onion; cook and stir until tender, about 5 minutes.
• Add chicken broth; bring to a boil. Add potatoes; cook over low heat for 20 to 25 minutes or until potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally.
• 
  Stir in corn and chiles; return to boiling. Dissolve gravy mix in milk; stir into boiling mixture. Add cheese; cook and stir over low heat until cheese is melted..Add chicken broth; bring to a boil. Add potatoes; cook over low heat for 20 to 25 minutes or until potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally.

VEG RECIPES veg soups

Paal poli recipe || how to make paal poli | diwali sweets

                                    Paal poli recipe

   Paal poli or paal poori is a simple milk based sweet with poori made with rava/sooji/ semolina, deep  fried and dunked in sweetened milk. As a kid we used to eat chapati soaked in milk or even the regular  wheat flour poori soaked in milk. When ever chapathi or poori is left over, mom soaks in milk and we have it as snack. Even my MIL does the same but only with poori. It’s their family favorite. I like the flavour of  wheat poori soaked in milk. Paal poli is a fancy name given to this simple idea also a few more  ingredients to make it special. We add cardamom, some nuts to the milk and the poori is either made  with maida or with rava. I made this paal poli with rava. I saw this in my old cook book I am having, as  paal poori. I have never made this fully with rava, this is the first time I am making. The cookbook  suggested adding orangefood colour. But I used saffron as these days afraid of using food colour. Since Vj is  not a big fan of nuts and cardamom in anything, I used nuts just for click sake. This recipe can be altered  by making the milk more flavourful with cloves and even edible camphor.

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Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Sweet
Prep Time: 1 Hr dough resting time + 30 mins  |  Cook time: 20 mins   |  Serves: 4

 Click here for cup measurements

 Ingredients 

Semolina / Rava/ sooji – 1 cup

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Ghee – 1 tsp

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Salt – 1/4 tsp

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Milk – 2 cups

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Cardamom – 1, powdered

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Saffron – A pinch

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Sugar – 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp or as needed

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Almonds  or pistachios, chopped – 1 tbsp

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Oil – to deep fry

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Method

1. In a bowl, mix rava, ghee and salt. Add lukewarm water as needed and make a dough. Knead well and keep aside for an hour  minimum.

2. Mean while prepare milk by boiling it, add sugar and mix well.

3. Soak saffron in warm milk and add it to the milk. Mix well and boil in low flame for 2 minutes. Add cardamom at this stage.

4. After an hour, knead the dough again for 5 minutes to make it smooth. Divide into equal sized balls.

5. Dust with maida and roll into pooris.

6. Heat oil and deep fry the pooris, both sides.

7. Press the excess oil in kitchen towels. Arrange the pooris in a shallow plate. Add the boiled milk, it should be hot and soak the pooris.

Notes

• You can deep fry the pooris in ghee if you want to make it more rich.
• Make sure to absorb the excess oil in kitchen towels.
• You can make the milk more flavourful with cloves and even edible camphor.

Let the pooris are fully immersed in milk and gets soaked well for atleast 30 mins before serving. Garnish with chopped nuts if desired. 

sweets

Sweet potato poli recipe| how to make sweet potato poli | south indian | diwali sweets

                                 Sweet potato poli recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Sweet
Prep Time:  3 Hr Dough resting time    |  Cook time: 30 mins     |  Makes: 12

Ingredients

Sweet potato – 3

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Jaggery – 1 cup

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Coconut, grated – 1/4 cup

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Cardamom – 1, powdered

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For dough

All purpose flour/ Maida – 1 cup

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Turmeric – A pinch (optional)

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Ghee or oil – 1/4 cup

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Salt – As needed

Method

1. First prepare dough prior atleast 1 hr to 3 hrs before making poli. In a mixing bowl add flour, salt, turmeric, ghee or oil and required water.

2. Knead well to make a loose dough.  Keep aside for minimum 3 – 4 hrs.

3. Mean while you can prepare the puran / stuffing. Keep sweet potato in a container, inside pressure cooker. You can add little water as usual in the pressure cooker, but no need to add water to sweet potato. Idea is to steam it. You can add water and cook, but it could retain water and take bit longer to get puran done. So I opted steaming without water. Pressure cook for 4-5 whistles.

4. Peel the skin once cold and mash it well without any lumps.

5. Melt jaggery with little water just to immerse it. Filter it to remove any impurities.

6. Add it to the sweet potato and heat over medium flame. Mix well.

7. Once mixed, add grated coconut and cardamom. Keep stirring until it becomes thick.

8. On cooling, it gets non sticky. So switch off accordingly. Once cold enough to handle, roll into equal sized balls.

9. After 5 hrs, the oil or ghee would have slightly oozed out. Knead again to make it smooth and pliable. Divide into equal lemon sized balls.

10. Flatten the rolled dough into thick disc. Keep the stuffing inside and cover it with the dough.

11. Seal and flatten to thin polis. Oil will be oozing from the dough, so you may not need any oil for greasing, if needed use accordingly. You can check the video for better understanding.

12. Carefully transfer to hot tawa and cook over medium flame. Drizzle sesame oil or ghee.

13. Cook by gently pressing the poli with ladle so that golden spots appear. Repeat to finish and stack the poli.

Notes

• The mashed sweet potato I took  gave exactly one cup, when mashed. So use this a guidance. 
• Since we use oil, you may be getting a non sticky dough with little water itself, but make sure to add more water to make a loose dough, not a dough like the regular chapati dough, this should be really soft and loose to handle. 
• You can use sesame oil as vegan option for ghee. 
• You can use half maida, half wheat flour too. 
• You can use more coconut or less, but increase or decrease jaggery as needed. 
• You can use sugar instead of jaggery.

sweets

Double Roti ka Halwa recipe (Indian bread pudding/Bread Halwa) - diwali sweets and desserts

Double Roti ka Halwa recipe (Indian bread pudding/Bread Halwa)

Double ka Meeta

 Prep Time : 15 mins
 Cook Time : 20 mins
 Serves: 2
 Recipe Category: Dessert
 Recipe Cuisine: Indian-Hyderabad
 Author:kusuma

   Ingredients needed

   Bread - 9 slices
   Milk - 2 1/2 cups
   Sugar- 3/4 - 1 cup (as per your taste)
   Kesari color - a pinch (mix it with a little milk)
   Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
   Oil for frying
   Ghee - 1 tbsp for frying nuts

   Nuts and dry fruits

   Raisins - 10
   Cashew nuts - few
   Pistachio - few
   Toasted almonds - few

Preparation

Remove the edges of the bread, cut it diagonally and sun dry it or air dry it (under the fan) so that it does not absorb much oil.

Deep fry the bread in oil until brown on low flames to prevent the bread from getting burnt. Keep it aside. Traditionally it is deep fried in ghee but I have used oil.

Fry raisins, cashew nuts in ghee separately. Keep it aside.

Boil milk and add kesari color to it.

Method

Take just enough water to soak the sugar. Add cardamom powder and boil the sugar water. Prepare sugar syrup. The sugar syrup should neither be thin nor thick.

Add the fried bread to the sugar syrup and cook for a few minutes.

Then add milk, simmer and cook uncovered till it reaches a semi solid state. It should not be dry.

Garnish with cashew nuts, pistachio, raisins and toasted almonds.

Enjoy it warm or cold as it tastes great both ways. I prefer to have it warm.

Note - Both the milk and the sugar syrup should not be hot as there are chances of the milk curdling. So make sure, the milk is at room temperature while adding to the sugar syrup or the sugar syrup should be at room temperature.

sweets

Apple halwa | how to make apple halwa | diwali sweets

 Apple Halwa is a scrumptious dessert. We all know a famous saying "An Apple a day keeps Doctor Away". Such a nutrition rich fruit is apple. But I have seen many kids running away from it. So this dish is one way of making the kids eat Apple. I wont say that this is a healthier way to eat apple, but instead of fully ignoring apples, we could try this way of including apples atleast once in a while. This Apple Halwa is absolutely calorie rich dish only. I would strongly suggest to make this dish for the kids!!! Now... Lets see how to make this yummy and tasty Apple Halwa.
Apple Halwa, tastes much similar to our famous and popular "Irutukadai Halwa " (Tirnunelveli Halwa / Wheat Halwa). The texture, color and taste are much similar to Tirunelveli Halwa.  . So, if you plan to surprise your family and friends with a yummy dessert, you should plan to make this delicious halwa.

Preparation and Yield:
Preparation time 10 mins
Cooking Time 40 mins
Yield 200gms

Ingredients:
Apple 3
Sugar 1 Cup*
Cardamom Powder 1/4 teaspoon
Orange Food Color a Pinch
Ghee 2 tablespoon
Cashew nuts 5-6
Almonds 5

* 1 Cup = 250ml

Method:
Wash and peel the apples and chop it into small cubes. Soak it in water to avoid decolouring. Add the apple pieces to the mixer and grind it to a nice and smooth paste

Heat a teaspoon of ghee in a pan and add broken cashews and almonds and fry till they are slightly golden brown color. Take these out and set it aside. To the pan, now add the ground apple pulp and saute it in ghee

Keep stirring the apple pulp till the water is absorbed. Then add sugar to the pan. Adding sugar again dilutes the apple halwa. Keep stirring to avoid halwa getting burnt.

Add food color and mix well. Then add cardamom powder also and continue stirring the halwa

Add rest of the ghee and keep stirring, till the halwa becomes thick and starts to roll like a ball without sticking to the sides of the pan. Finally add roasted cashews and almonds and mix well. Switch off the flame and keep stirring the halwa for couple more minutes.

Mouth-watering Apple halwa is now ready to serve!

sweets

dates and nut ladoo | diwali sweets

Dates Ladoo, a very healthy dry fruits and nuts ladoo. Sometimes many of our kids even the grown ups, show no interest to nuts and dry fruits which are very healthy for us. Consuming dry fruits especially dates, raisins are very good for blood circulation and has other medical benefits too. Also nuts such as almonds, walnuts are also good for health.

Here I have given a very simple and healthy ladoo recipe with dates and other nuts and raisins. We are not going to add any sweetener and also not going to add more ghee/butter to prepare this yummy ladoo and hence making it a healthier recipe.


Preparation Time 5 mins
Cooking Time 10 mins
Yield 12-15

Ingredients:

Dates 1 Cup **
Raisins 2 tablespoon
Mixed nuts * 2 tablespoon
Dry Coconut 1/4 Cup
Vanilla Essence 1/2 teaspoon
Ghee 1 tablespoon


** 1 Cup = 250ml
* Mixed Nuts - I have added peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts and some walnuts

Method:

We can use store bought seedless dates. I bought the  dates with seeds, hence I need to  de-seed them. Take half of the deseed dates in the mixer

Grind the dates in the mixer to a coarse mixture. Take the ground dates in a bowl along with rest of the whole dates. Heat a pan and add the dry nuts and roast them for 2 minutes.

Take the roasted nuts to the mixer and give a single pulse and crumble them. Add the crumbled nuts, dry coconut and ghee in a bowl.

Add vanilla essence and mix well to make like a dough. Make small lemon sized balls out of the dates dough and keep it in plate.

The yummy and healthy Dates Ladoos are ready to munch!!!
Dates Ladoo

Dates Ladoo

sweets

Pottukadalai Murukku-Rice Flour Chakli Recipe-Easy Murukku Recipes-diwali snacks

pottukadalai Murukku-Rice Flour Chakli Recipe-Easy Murukku Recipes

As Janmashtami/Gokulashtami and many other festivals are nearing, I wanted to post traditional murukku recipes which was due for a long time. Every time I post murukku recipes, I get lot of questions, asking me, if we can do murukku with store bought flour. As those who are living abroad have no access to flour mills/rice mills, I made this murukku with store bought flour and it turned out very delicious. Today we will learn how to make murukku with split roasted gram dal flour, rice flour and urad dal flour following this easy recipe with step wise pictures.

Pottukadalai Murukku
 Prep Time : 15 mins
 Cook Time : 30 mins
 Yields: 25 Murukkus
 Recipe Category: Snacks-Murukku
 Recipe Cuisine: South Indian
 Author:kusuma

   Ingredients needed

   Rice flour - 2 cups
   Whole skinned Urad dal flour -1/2 cup
   Roasted gram dal/pottukadalai flour - 3/4 cup
   Cumin seeds/Jeera - 1 tsp
   Hing/asafoetida - a pinch
   Melted Ghee - 1 tsp
   Hot oil - 1 tsp
   Salt to taste

   Oil for deep frying
   Murukku maker

Preparation

In a pan/kadai, dry roast whole urad dal until it turns very light brown. Do not over roast it. Remove from the pan and switch off the flame. In the heat of the pan, dry roast the roasted gram dal (pottukadalai in Tamil and bhuna chana in Hindi) slightly.

After it cools, powder both separately to a fine powder and sieve it. Powder the remains again and sieve it. Do this for both urad dal and roasted gram dal.

Sieve rice flour (buy good quality rice flour. I have used store bought rice flour for making this murukku) and keep it aside.

preparations for pottukadalai murukku

roasted gram dal

Method 

In a bowl, mix together rice flour, urad dal flour and roasted gram dal flour well with your fingers.

preparation for murukku

Add cumin seeds, melted ghee, hot oil and mix well.

pottukadalai murukku recipe

In a bowl, mix together salt, hing and 1/2 cup of water (this is done so that the salt will get mixed with the dough evenly). Add the salted water and more water, little at a time to the flour and make a dough. Once you can gather the dough, stop adding water. Do not add too much water as the murukku will keep breaking when squeezed through the murukku maker. Taste the dough and check for salt.

murukku dough

I used the 3 holes disc in the murukku maker for making this murukku.

murukku maker

Now take a portion of the dough and put it inside the murukku maker. Press it and check it. If you find it hard to press, you can  add 2 or 3 drops of water and mix the dough well again.

Grease 2 or 3 ladles or small plate with oil for placing the squeezed out murukku. Place the dough inside the murukku maker and press the dough through the 3 hole disc on the ladle or small plate, in a circle to form murukkus as shown in the picture below. You can also press the dough through the 3 hole disc directly into the hot oil. I am more comfortable with this method.

Making murukkus

Heat oil in a kadai (To check if the oil is hot, drop a piece of dough into the hot oil, if it raises to the surface immediately, the oil is hot enough to fry the murukkus). When the oil is hot, reduce the heat to medium and slide the murukku from the ladle into the hot oil gently. You can fry 3 or 4 murukkus depending on the quantity of oil and the size of your kadai.

After dropping the murukku into the hot oil, let it cook for a few seconds, then flip it over to the other side.

Fry the murukku until golden brown. When the murukku is done (or cooked), you will not see bubbles on the surface. Compare the picture above and the picture below to have a better idea. The picture above has bubbles and in the picture below there are no bubbles and you can see the murukku well as they are cooked.

Rice Flour Chakli

Once done, remove from the oil with a slotted laddle and place it in a colander or paper towel to drain off excess oil if any.

After frying the first batch, you can taste and see. If you feel it is too hard, you can add a tsp of hot oil to the dough, mix it well again and then continue to make murukku. If you feel, you need more salt, you can add to the dough, mix well and then continue.

Repeat the process for the rest of the dough.

Enjoy with a cup of hot ginger cardamom tea or South Indian Filter Coffee.

Storage and Shelf life - Once it cools, store it in an air tight container at room temperature. Stays good for a month.

snacks VEG RECIPES