Frog Eggs {Chi Seeds}

Chia seeds are pretty popular in drinks in India. I always avoided them because I'd think of them as frog or fish eggs growing up. I imagine the texture to be slimy and thick as it goes down my throat. Eek! I don't even know how they taste. A few people I am subscribed to on YouTube have recently begun drinking chia drinks. I googled chia seeds a few minutes ago to find out that these are the same "fish eggs" my mom has been trying to get us to drink for years.


The photo on the left are the dry seeds. On the right is what they become after soaking in water. They seem to grow or develop a gelatinous membrane around them.

I think it's funny when healthy things become "trendy" when in many cultures, people have been doing the same things for centuries. Although I haven't taken advantage of chia seeds in the past, I did some research and don't mind giving it a try. However, I won't be running out to whole foods to buy the expensive drinks or seeds. They can be easily found at your local Indian/Pakistani store for cheaper.  The Mamma Chia drinks on the left are pretty popular, I guess. Because that's what first came up when I googles "chia seeds". They're pretty pricey per bottle, too.



My mom has been trying to get us to try them for more than two decades. Now that I see people on YouTube getting into it, so will I. Lame, right? I can see my mom rolling her eyes already haha. I'm not one to jump on the bandwagon, but I only became interested after finding out that this is what I've seen growing up. And I didn't realize it had so many health benefits. So I will give it a shot. :)

I'm going to list some health benefits of Chia seeds I found on a website. Click here to read the details.

1. Lose weight without starving
2. Balance blood sugar levels
3. Prevent diverticulosis/diverticulitis, especially in the elderly
4. great source of Omega-3
5. great source of anti-oxidants
6. use as substitutes on baking and cooking
7. control food cravings

And HERE are other ways to incorporate Chia seeds into your life. You can even use it as an egg substitute for baking! Apparently this works like Tofu - it's pretty tasteless and takes on the flavor and even enhances the flavor of whatever you put it in. 

Now, I'm not sure when or how I'll be using Chia seeds. But I thought it was interesting that things my Indian Culture has been using for centuries is only now becoming a trend. Same as Turmeric and other Indian spices and foods. 

If any of you have tried Chia Seeds, leave a comment below and let me know how you like it. Maybe that'll get some courage in me to try it. :)

Banana Bread

You will hate me because this is going to make you gain unnecessary weight and make you unhealthy, but happy. So maybe you won't hate me. I do not have a photo, because I forgot to take one and a few hours later, there wasn't much to take a picture of. It is that good. My mom gave me this recipe, I'm not sure where she got it from, but she's been making it since I was little. And she gets an A+ every time.

I have to hide my fresh Bananas in a brown bag in the pantry for about a week. Less, if I find some browning one's at the grocery store. Otherwise they finish before they can properly ripen for this bread. You want it to get to the point where the peel is mostly brown/black. but not too bad that it's ready to throw out. I'm not sure if that's safe, but definitely not appetizing. I wait until it's black on the outside, and the bananas still hold their shape but are soft. You don't want pretty, yellow bananas. As they ripen, they become sweeter and more delicious.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:
2-3 ripe bananas, sliced
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 cups of brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup olive oil, you can probably use any vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. preheat oven to 375 F
2. grease a loaf pan
3. Mix together dry ingredients, except walnuts
4. in another bowl mix together wet ingredients, inclusing bananas. You can mix this until the bananas get mashed, with chunks in it. But don't go as far as to make a puree.
5. mix the wet and dry ingredients. Mix until it is JUST mixed. Do not over mix.
6. fold in walnuts.
7. Pour batter in loaf pan. if you aren't going to sit around and lick the bowl, scrape of every bit. I hate how they leave so much mix in the bowl on cooking shows.
8. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or when toothpick comes out clean.

note: my oven cooked the top quickly but the inside was still mush. What I did was cover the bread in foil at this point, to prevent further browning and  possible burning. I lowered the temperature to 350 F and checked it every 10 minutes until the toothpick came out clean. If you like the center to be super soft, then you can take it out a little earlier. Next time I am going to try baking it at 350 F, since my oven seems to cook things in half the time, not allowing the inside to cook much.

Easy Italian Chicken with Greek Garbanzo Bean Salad

 

 


You cannot fail with this recipe. Cannot. Cannot. Even if you wanted to.

My husband wanted to start eating baked or grilled chicken for lunch, rather than eating something fried, oily and unhealthy from the cafeteria at his workplace. So I needed something with a lot of flavor,  that wasn't fattening and easy to eat. Something healthy and filling.

I found this Italian chicken recipe and it was like child's play. And delicious, too! I cooked it the night before and stuck it in a storage container in the fridge along with the marinade I cooked it in, so it could absorb more moisture while it sat in the fridge overnight. The result? Very juicy chicken, despite baking for an hour in the oven. I also spooned the marinade over the chicken halfway through baking time.

But a chicken breast was not enough. Instead of adding pasta or turning it into a sandwich I paired this with this Greek Garbanzo Bean Salad. I messed with the measurements a little but it turned out great. And since the flavors were similar, I sliced up the chicken and stuck all of it in one box.

If you decide to make this, enjoy!

ps - I apologize for the quality of the photos, I took them with my phone.

Okay so I've been on a soup rage. Every weekend I make 3-4 quarts of hearty soup for the entire week. Its been absolutely amazing, very very filling, and perfect for the winter! Here's the recipe I use. The bulk of the work is in chopping everything.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash cut in 1/2 inch cubes  (or a Zucchini, or 2-3 yellow squash, or a mix of both!)
1 chicken breast (1/2 inch cubes)
1 red onion chopped
1-2 garlic cloves diced
Spices: palmfuls of oregano, lemon pepper, paprika, and chopped parsley, and salt and pepper to taste (sometimes I add thyme, chives, and cajun)
1-2 carrot stick peeled and chopped
1-2 celery sticks chopped
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup barely or bulgar washed
1 cup mixed beans washed (white beans, black eyed peas, kidney beans, chick peas, lima beans, pinto beans, etc) --> I just use prepackaged mixed beans bags
2 chicken or beef bouillon cubes
3-3.5 quarts water

Directions:

1- Boil water in a 4 quart pot with the bouillon cubes. Add all washed beans and barely and let it boil on med-high.
2- In a wok warm 3 tbsp oil and add onions. Once the onions are soft and pink, add garlic and chicken. Cook the chicken until opaque white and add all the spices. Next add all the chopped vegetables and tomato sauce. Cook for about 5-7 minutes until everything is a bit softened.
3- Transfer all the vegetables into the pot with water and keep on high. Add any extra salt or spices needed. (If you feel it tastes too tomato-ey then just add a bit of sugar or cinnamon)
4- Let it cook mostly covered for about an hour. If you have a pressure cooker you can cook in there for about 20 minutes.
5- Enjoy with toast or croutons!

You can play around with the recipe and add other vegetables like broccoli, potato, etc. Hope you enjoy it!

Peach Cobbler

This peach cobbler is super easy to make. I've made it twice with great reviews. I wish I could make it over and over until peaches go out of season! I don't believe in using frozen berries for anything other than smoothies and cold things. Eat it warm with vanilla ice cream. It's delicious and you'll love it. :)


My photo isn't that great, but I made two batches last time since we had a lot of people over. Photo credit, my SIL with her cell phone. 

Here's the link and the recipe is below. 

Ingredients

• 4 cups peeled, sliced peaches
• 2 cups sugar, divided
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• Ground cinnamon, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the peaches, 1 cup sugar, and water in a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Put the butter in a 3-quart baking dish and place in oven to melt.

Mix remaining 1 cup sugar, flour, and milk slowly to prevent clumping. Pour mixture over melted butter. Do not stir. Spoon fruit on top, gently pouring in syrup. Sprinkle top with ground cinnamon, if using. Batter will rise to top during baking. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

To serve, scoop onto a plate and serve with your choice of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

The only "downside" to this is that it requires self-rising flour. I did not have self-rising flour but followed a recipe to make some. I didn't see myself using the flour often enough to go buy a bag. But it turned out great either way. I am lazy so next time I think I'll just buy some self-rising flour. 

Banana & blueberry nutella crepes

Crepes! I love them sweet & I love them savory. I love them in the morning and I love them in the evening.

Pardon the photos, I didn't think I'd be blogging about this. And pardon the lack of presentation, as I knew my baby sister wouldn't care about how it looks & I was too busy dying starving fasting to make it look pretty. As long as it has nutella on and in it, she's good to go.

I thought these would be difficult because they're so thin. But after one or two I got the hang of it. I made these a few days ago for my little sister for breakfast. And then again for when we broke our fast.

I love all recipes. I get most of my stuff from there. Here is the basic recipe I used this time. I've tried it with vanilla and nutmeg as well, but went plain this time. For the filling I used nutella, bananas and blueberries. The top of the crepe is sprinkled with sifted powdered sugar.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Directions

1. In a blender combine eggs, milk, flour, salt and oil. Process until smooth. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.
2. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and brush with oil. Pour 1/4 cup of crepe batter into pan, tilting to completely coat the surface of the pan. Cook 2 to 5 minutes, turning once, until golden. Repeat with remaining batter.

ps - I used butter, not oil to cook them. Butter makes everything better. 

Easy Stuffed Mushrooms

I made these recently for a party and I got a few requests to make them again as well as requests for the recipe, so I thought it blog worthy and have decided to share the recipe with you today.

When I think of stuffed anything I think a lot of work. I don't know why. I've made polenta stuffed peppers before and spinach and mushroom stuffed chicken, both which have turned out DELICIOUS. But I tend to shy away for recipes with the word "stuffed" it its title. I'm glad I made these. Make these and you will, too. :)

I really shouldn't blog about food while I'm fasting but I thought I'd post this before I forgot. And I haven't posted in months so it's about time.

These are quick and simple. Recipe at the bottom.

1. Clean the mushrooms with a damp paper towel or cloth. Remove stems. I prefer you NOT throw them away and there are recipes that reuse the stems but this one doesn't/ Make a fritatta or omlette or quiche with the stems.

2. We will be grilling the mushrooms and they can get very dry if you do, so take a brush an coat each mushroom with olive oil or if you need to make a million like I did, put the mushrooms in a plastic bag and throw in oil. Toss it aside and make sure they all get coated with oil. They'll look dry, but they soak up a LOT of the oil. A light coat is enough.

3. Mix equal amounts of cream cheese and parmesan cheese. For about 80 mushrooms I used 3 cups of each. Flavored cream cheese is better. I used fresh chives. Add salt, pepper and garlic/garlic powder to taste.

4. Spoon the mixture into the mushrooms. Just enough to fill them is fine. If it looks like it's too little, don't worry. The mushrooms will shrink on the grill. I sprinkled the tops of my mushrooms with breadcrumbs and red pepper powder, to give it a little kick.

5. Heat a grill. You can use a stove-top one. If you don't have a grill just use a regular pan. It should be ok.  DO NOT bake these. See how some of them are burned in the pic? Those ones went in the oven and the tops burned. I was in a hurry and we were trying to expedite the last batch, since my grill was tiny.

6. Grill them, covered, until they are not firm anymore. But don't wait too long or else they'll become mushy. 5-10 minutes? And these are best served hot off the grill. Enjoy!!

7. Ps - I preferred the brown baby bellas over the big white button mushrooms in terms of aesthetics. I have no idea how the white ones tasted. But since the white ones are bigger I'd probably have used rice or spinach in the stuffing. The smaller ones become even smaller after cooking so filling them with nothing but cheese isn't as bad. :)

Garlic Chive Chicken

I found this amazing recipe from www.allrecipes.com. It has this cool function where you can type in ingredients and it chugs out recipes you can use!

Anyhow the recipe I found was Garlic Chive Chicken.

Basically I love the sauce thats used for the dish because its infused with garlic, lemon, and chives! mmhmm. You could use the sauce over things like perogies or crab cakes. Check it out!

Ingredients

• 1 head garlic
• 1 (8 ounce) package egg noodles
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh chives

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Wrap the garlic head in foil, and bake 30 minutes, until cloves are soft. Remove from heat, and cool enough to handle.

2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add egg noodles and cook for 6 to 8 minutes or until al dente; drain.

3.Slice off the top of the garlic head, and squeeze the softened cloves into a medium bowl. Mix in the chicken broth, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

4. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Lightly coat the chicken breast halves with flour, and cook in the skillet about 10 minutes on each side, until lightly browned. Set chicken aside, retaining skillet juices. Stir in the garlic mixture, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and return chicken to the skillet. Continue cooking the chicken about 5 minutes on each side, until no longer pink and juices run clear. Remove chicken, and arrange on plates over the egg noodles.

5. Mix the butter into the garlic sauce mixture in the skillet until melted, and stir in the chives. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and egg noodles to serve.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/garlic-chive-chicken/detail.aspx

Making Memories

Cooking can be a fun task if done right. I don't like to cook...until I convince myself otherwise.

My mother-in-law LOVES to cook. She literally thinks of what to make, who to feed and when to do it when preparing meals. Some days there will be four dishes, other days add-ons for "if we need an extra dish."

My mother was not like this. My mother is a laid-back person who doesn't cook if she doesn't need to. That means if her kids rather eat something other than rice with curry, she won't complain (unless its a few days in a row). She is also willing and able to eat "American" dishes such as pizza, pastas, baked foods unlike the oily salty spicy Bangladeshi dishes. My mother-in-law cannot eat outside foods. She barely eats anything anyone else makes.

When I was a teenager my mother would not make us cook meals. I could if I wanted to, yet she'd be around to yell if you did the slightest thing wrong. I wasn't responsible for feeding mouths. Usually cooking meant the meats were cut, the onions were chopped and all I had to do was toss food in a pot and stir on the stove.

Now it's different.

I have to cut meats, fishes, vegetables, prepare meals and cook. It's a part of my chores and duties as a wife.

As a teenager my mother prioritized our education, therefore she didn't force us to cook. I can only count a few dishes I knew how to make (enough to survive) before I was married at 20. I'd tell my mom, "I'll hire a chef, who needs to cook?" She would get upset.

I have no chef indeed but I do have a master chef, my mother-in-law, who chooses our meals, and a head chef, my sister-in-law, who cooks most of the food to make sure it comes out perfect. What do I do? I'm the helper. I cut, clean, stir, cook, and do whatever is needed on the side. In the end, we all help each other.

This reminds me of a hadith, a saying of the Prophet Muhammad, about helping people:

“He who removes a burden from a believer in this world will have his burden removed by Allah on the Day of Judgement.Whosoever eases the hardship of another, will be given ease by Allah in this world and in the Everlasting Life.... Allah continues to help a worshiper As long as he continues helping his brother...(Muslim)."

Religion can be a motivation to do good things you don't like, to earn rewards.

My sister-in-law said if a person starts a chore saying, "Bismillah" or "In the Name of God" and ends the task saying, "Alhamdulillah" or "Thanks be to God," the time spent is counted as a good deed.

Every time I think of how much I don't like to cook, I think of the blessings in disguise: my family is happy, I get to eat healthy and I spend my time wisely. Count your blessings.