Applesauce Cinnamon pancakes

Who doesn't love pancakes? (well, except my son, who doesn't like anything sweet). They are deliciously yummy, easy to make and healthy for your tummy. Ok, maybe not very much healthy if you are using the wrong ingredients. But here, i am going to share with you all a healthier version of applesauce pancakes which you can make from scratch, with simple ingredients that you probably have in your home right now. 

Without further ado, here is the recipe:

Ingredients: 

Apples (2, grated), water (1 cup), cinnamon powder (1/4th teaspoon), salt (a pinch), brown sugar (3 tablespoon), honey (1 tablespoon), butter (two tablespoon, melted), full cream milk (1/4th cup), 1 egg, whole wheat flour (half cup), baking powder (half teaspoon).

Recipe:

For applesauce, boil grated apples in a pan in one cup water until soft. Add cinnamon, pinch salt and brown sugar in it. Cook over medium heat. 

In another bowl, beat egg, milk, honey and butter together. Add applesauce mixture and baking powder in it and mix until smooth. In the end, add flour and mix with a spatula. Pancake batter is ready! 

Heat a lightly greased frying pan or griddle over medium heat, scoop pancake bater onto the pan, using approximately 1/4th of the cup for each pancake.  This batter can make 8 to 10 small pancakes.

Brown on both sides and serve hot. 

White sauce Singaporean rice

Singaporean rice are our all time favourite, Its 1 o clock in the morning so i am just going to skip my rant and be done with the recipe. here it goes...
Ingredients:
White Rice (3 cups- soaked and boiled)
Minced beef (half kg)
Olive oil (3-4 tablespoon
Onion (2 small- fine chopped)
Tomatoes  (2-3 diced)
Ginger-garlic paste (2 tablespoon
Italian seasoning
Cinnamon stick (grinded- a pinch)
Spaghetti  (one packet- boiled)

For white sauce:
Butter (3 tablespoons)
Milk (2 cups)
Flour (2-3 tablespoons)
Salt and pepper as per taste.

Recipe:
In a pan, fry onions and ginger-garlic paste in oil until golden brown. Add minced beef in it and cook for 25 minutes with a covered lid until it becomes tender in its own juices (Add a cup of water in it). Then add diced tomatoes, cinnamon, salt and pepper and cook for 5-10 minutes more. keep it aside.

In another pan, make white sauce by melting butter on a medium flame and adding flour in it. Add milk very slowly while stirring continuously until it becomes a paste. Add in salt and pepper. Once the white sauce is ready, add boiled spaghetti and Italian seasoning in it and mix.

Assembling: in a pot, first add boiled rice, then white sauce spaghetti, then minced beef masala, and make layers in a similar manner (rice-spaghetti-meat). Garnish with capsicum and remaining white sauce. Your saucy Singaporean rice are ready!

Family

Your family is one and only place where your life begins; and ends too, for that matter. They are the people to whom you are related by birth, or by marriage. The importance of family in our lives cannot be denied. They are all equally important, without them life is nothing as they are the ones who accept you the way you are. They would do anything just to see you smile and love you no matter what.
Family is all about love and without love, i have seen families torn apart. Love is the force that binds the hearts of people. Families without having a regard for one another's feelings are plastic families, easily broken by the blows of life. When families are torn apart due to differences in opinions or lifestyles, one truly realises the importance of people on whom your life's happiness was dependant.
Life is too short and we should not take it for granted. Families construct the future of children and they should not be deprived of a happy life by living in a happy working family, because a happy family = a happy mind = a happy society having a better future.

Sugar, spice, and all things nice?

I don't get this notion of associating the catchphrase 'sugar, spice and everything nice' with girls only, i mean why should the girls are supposed to act nicely in front of the world as opposed to boys? Aren't our values same for both? This mindset is wrong on so many levels, and if a layman thinks that women are made up of sugar, spice and all things nice, then he is living a delusional life. Being a human being, it is the right of women to speak up their mind, to show how they feel instead of losing their own identity in pleasing others. They can be furious and rude if they feel like it and people should stop expecting nicer things only from a 'softer' gender.
I am not a feminist, neither do i preach anything; but it is high time that we teach our boys not to expect all things nice all the time from the opposite gender.
Moral lesson from life= less expectations, more happiness; it is simle mathematics, they both are inversely proportional to each other. 

Creamy Cocoa-Nutella sponge cake

Everyone loves short-cuts to some extent to save their energy, even if they deny it big time! And if you are a mom of small human beings with your hands completely full, you will love short-cuts of every little task, so that you can spend more quality time with your little ones.
Talking about taking short-cuts, let's not forget microwave cakes! They are one of my favourite desserts which takes up less time, less energy but taste delicious nonetheless.
Today's dessert: cocoa sponge cake with nutella and cream toppings (mmm pair it up with hot coffee and it's heaven on Earth!)
Ingredients:
For 1 cup all-purpose flour, you will need 3 medium eggs, 5-6 spoon cocoa powder, a little less than 1 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons melted butter, vanilla essence (2 drops), baking powder (1 teaspoon), half cup milk, nutella spread and cream as per desire.
Recipe:
In a blender, blend together eggs, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder, milk, butter and vanilla essence. Take this mixture out in a bowl and mix in the flour thoroughly with a spatula. Pour this cake mixture in a greased microwave dish/bowl (which is greased with a little oil and flour) and microwave for 10-15 minutes. Your sponge cake is ready. Top it with nutella, cream and chocolates chunks to make it moist and super gooey.

Fish Head Curry

There is something fishy going on with the weather in Islamabad these days, as we don't know whether to pack our warm clothes and sweaters or not. Therefore to give tribute to this weather and the parting winters, we cooked fish head curry for our dinner. It is a simple yet delicious dish which is not very time consuming and you can pair it up with rice or chapatis.
So here goes the recipe as told by my mother in law (before marriage i had no idea that fish has an edible head):
Ingredients:
You will need the pieces of fish head (obviously), u can add pieces of fish meat as well.
For marination: Ginger-garlic paste (2 tablespoons), vinegar (2 tablespoons), soy sauce (1 teaspoon), turmeric  (half teaspoon),a pinch of oregano, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, cumin seeds and coriander powder, salt and peper as per taste.
For curry masala: 3-4 chopped onions, 3 chopped tomatoes, 3 tablespoon cooking oil, ginger garlic paste.
Recipe:
Marinate fish head and meat pieces in vinegar and other marination ingredients for one hour before cooking.
Take a pan and fry onions and ginger garlicpaste in it until golden brown. Then add fish pieces one by one as they are very delicate and can be messy when they get too much soft. Fry fish pieces for 3 to 4 minutes until they are golden brown from both sides and take them out carefully in a plate and put them aside for now. Now add tomatoes in the pan with onions and cook for 5 minutes with a closed lid. When the onions tomatoes masala is ready, add 2 glasses of water in it and adjust salt. Then add fried fish pieces into the curry. Let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes on low heat. Garnish your yummy fish head curry with coriander and parsley leaves.

Mix vegetable pulao

Simplest and easy to cook. You can serve it with chicken/fish curry or any daal of your choice.
Ingredients:
Rice (2 cups- soaked for half an hour and drained )
Water (3 cups)
Cooking oil (3-4 tablespoons)
Onions (2-3 chopped)
Garlic-ginger paste (2 tablespoons)
Salt (to taste), turmeric powder (a pinch) garam masala powder (1 teaspoon), coriander powder, cumin seeds, 1 cinnamon stick, black pepper, white vinegar (1 teaspoon)
1 cup of Vegetables of your own choice (i used carrots, green peas, green capsicum and potatoes)
Recipe:
In a pan or a rice cooker, fry chopped onions and garlic-ginger paste in oil until golden brown. Then add all the spices (except garam masala powder) and sliced vegetables and a little(half cup approx) water. Put the lid on the pan and let it simmer for 5 mins until the vegetablesare half cooked.
Now u can add 3 cups of water and bring it to boil.

As the water boils, add soaked rice into the pan and cover it with a lid for 5 minutes.
At this point, it should look like this:

Now check the salt and add garam masala powder and vinegar in rice. Cook on high flame with lid covering the pan for 5 more mins. When the rice starts absorbing water, cook them on low flame for the next 10-15 minutes until rice are soft. Garnish it with fresh coriander leaves and green chilli.
Mix vegetable pulao is ready to serve.