Gujarati Handvo

"Handvo" is a traditional Gujarati snack made with number of lentils and rice. You can't find them easily in restaurants. It's a healthy homemade snack usually taken for breakfast. Although you find lot of  readymade handvo mix in the supermarkets, I never tried one. Coz making handvo at home from scratch is very much easier and nothing can taste as good as homemade. 

I and my friend were recollecting our days at Surat couple of weeks ago. We were drooling over some of the gujarati foods during our talk. What else can make a discussion more nostalgic?? Can't stop ourselves talking about our favourite few like Khaman, Dhokla, Idhra, Khandvi, Handvo etc.. These are very few of gujarati delicacies. Gujarat is more famous for its breakfast and snacks. While on chat she asked me "why don't you post one of these??".. Yeah That's true. Shame on me!! It totally got skipped out of my mind and being blogger since 5 months now how could I miss out such goodies..

Hmm.. I promised her I would soon post few of them. So here I am with one of the healthy & delicious gujarati snack "Handvo". I'll make sure I post rest of the luscious & yummy food from Surat asap. Hope you guys enjoy this classic and elegant snack along with us :).

Kumbalanga Moru Koottan / Ash Gourd in Yogurt Gravy (Kerala style)

Yet another mom's signature dish straight from Kerala. Moru kuttan is very common in Kerala and easy to make. This is a yogurt based vegetable curry flavored with coconut. Traditional tempering adds more flavor to the curry. This simple yet yummy curry will woo you for sure.

Fabulous Blog ribbon

Woo hoo!! I am here with a blog ribbon award passed to me by our own fellow blogger R.Punitha from "http://southindiafoodrecipes.blogspot.com/" ....She got a wonderful space to visit. It's a place where you'll find awesome South Indian delicacies from her kitchen. Thank you so much for passing it to me and making me feel so happy.. Loved the award. 

By the way the blog ribbon has few rules to follow.. And here it is..

Rules of this ribbon:
Rule 1 : Post rules on my blog.
Rule 2 : State '5 most fabulous moments either in real life or blogosphere'
Rule 3 : State '5 things I love'
Rule 4 : State '5 things I hate'
Rule 5 : Pass this ribbon to '5 lovely blogger friends' (leave a comment in their blog to notify that you've passed them this ribbon).

Rule 1

Already accomplished above.

Rule 2 : '5 most fabulous moments either in real life or blogosphere'

1. Being with my mom, dad, bro & family. 
2. When I was selected in campus interview.
3. When I decided to marry my very best friend..
4. The very first trip to China..
5. Realizing my passion for food & cooking and started my own food blog :)

Rule 3 : '5 things I love'

1. Family & Friends
2. Food - Cooking, cuisine, restaurants
3. Photography 
4. My iPad 2
5. Roller coaster ;)

Rule 4 : '5 things I hate'

1. Bugs
2. Dentist 
3. Waking early morning
4. Sex discrimination
5. Noisy people

Rule 5 :  '5 lovely blogger friends' 

1. Sonali Pradhan -  http://www.onlyfishrecipes.com
2. Kavi -  http://myedibles.blogspot.com
3. Abhilasha -  http://carrotsandcherries.blogspot.com/
4. Sangeetha Nambi -  http://recipe-excavator.blogspot.com
5. Vimitha Ananad -  http://vimithaa.blogspot.com/

Hope you guys accept this award.. 

Dates Cake (Eggless & Butterless)

Hi!!
Here is a kind of healthy baking.. The fancy words "eggless" & "butterless" doesn't mean so much to me...However I would prefer to use less fat as much as I can. We may have read in many health articles that "Butter" has high calories from its saturated fat and also has high cholesterol which is bad for heart.. So nowadays I am using Olive oil instead of butter. And "eggless" was unintentional. I didn't have egg in my fridge so I didn't use it. But the cake turned out just fine and super moist. Unbelievable!! Therefore I have to admit that we can also go healthy in baking without losing the divine taste of real baking.For me healthy baking is all about no butter, no white sugar and no white flour..Rest all fine..
Since I cook eggs daily in various form, a piece of advice for you guys out there..Do not ignore the eggs if you ain't vegan or allergic. Egg is a good source of protein. In fact many agree that it helps to reduce weight ;) Good news isn't it?? Why wait?? Try it out !!

Aloo Palak / Spinach & Potato Masala

Aloo palak is a subtle spinach dish with potato. This is a healthy and delicious veggie delight to go with roti or any other Indian bread. I have seen some people use pureed spinach in this. But I use chopped spinach along with stems. I believe pureeing would kill all the nutrition the spinach holds. Anyways thats all upto to you.. For me I like the texture of my aloo palak more than that of pureed spinach masala.. And also I use to saute them in brief so that I can get most of its vitamins ;) Such a health freak huh??... So here's my Aloo palak in my style.. 

Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Crostini

It's been a while I made this luscious appetizer. This is one appetizer never be left lonely on the plate at the end of a meal. Creamy & nutty red pepper pesto is divine, comfort & lip smacking sauce I ever made. Goes well with pasta, as a dipping sauce and in crostini. The roasted red pepper adds more flavor to the pesto. Never be lazy to roast the pepper.

Whenever I see the vibrant red peppers I just dream of the pesto I used to make long back when we were in North China. You find ample quantity of red pepper there. I used to make in large quantity and freeze them for later use. Here in Guangzhou I see them on & off. So I bought them last week when I found them in farmers market.

Here we go with nice & crisp crostini with red pepper pesto. I am bit unhappy that I totally lost the original recipe owner as I have been making this pesto since long time & never had any record of the original recipe. Anyway I am very much grateful to the person who shared this awesome recipe in web. :)