Valentine's special sheer khurma! xoxo

So it's that time of the year again... love is in the air! Although i am of the opinion that love should be celebrated every day of the year, but in this busy world full of war and chaos, it is important to spare time to spread happiness through love. We can spread love through small gestures by bringing joy in other's eyes. 

Today, for this special day, i wanted to make sheer khurma (its just a fancy name for good ol' milky seviyan) for various reasons: 

1. For my husband because i love him.

2. i wanted to force feed my toddler some milky "meetha" which he hates.

3. in the memory of my late father-in-law because he loved it and i knew my mother-in-law will like this gesture.

4. and baking a chocolate cake for valentine is too cliché.

You will need 1 packet of vermicelli, 2-3 cardamoms, 3-4 dry dates (sliced) , 1 litre wholemilk, half cup sugar, 1 tablespoon of clarified butter (ghee), handful of almonds and pistachios. 

Here goes the easiest recipe:

In a pan, stir fry cardamoms, dry dates slices and crushed nuts in one tablespoon of ghee. Add vermicelli in it and fry until golden brown. 

In another pan, bring milk to a boil and add sugar in it. Now mix everything together. cook for a few minutes untill vermicelli absorbs the milk and your sheer khurma is ready to serve. Garnish it with crushed nuts. You can serve it hot and cold both, according to your desire.

Cheesy Spinach Chicken

Hello again from Islamabad! i know its been a long time since i have been in touch with you all but these past weeks have been really busy with the season of flu and all. Long story short, i am here with another recipe for all the Popoyes out there. This cheesy spinach dish is loaded with iron and healthy calories. You will love it, your spouse will definitly love it and your children are bound to give it a shot.
Here are the ingredients:
Fresh Spinach (finely chopped)
1/2 kg chicken pieces
Half cup grated cheddar cheese
One cup chopped onions
One cup chopped tomotoes
2 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
3 tablespoon cooking oil
Half cup yogurt
2-3 green chillies
One teaspoon cumin and coriander powder, salt and pepper to taste.
Recipe:
In a pan, fry spinach in one tablespoon oil. In another pan, fry onions in oil until light golden. Add in chicken, cumin coriander powder, salt, pepper and ginger garlic paste and fry until chicken pieces are half tender. Then add tomatoes and yogurt. Once its cooked, mix fried spinach in the chicken and finally add grated cheese. Your cheesy spinach chicken is ready. Om nom it away! 

Baba's Birthday Cake

Homemade cheesy plain cake with lemon cheese syrup topping. 

Oatsy-Mutton Soup

I know this picture above doesn't look appetizing much, but it's because i had no time to make good presentation of it before feeding it to my hungry baby. It tasted great though!
In today's lunch for baby, i made him an oatsy mutton soup, which tasted very much like mutton haleem sans lentils. For this soup, all you need is muton stock (u can use chicken stock too), a teaspoon of garlic paste, shredded boiled mutton pieces, oats, a pinch of turmeric and cinnamon powder, salt and pepper to taste.
The recipe is super easy and a win-win situation for new moms as it is not time-consuming at all!
Oats are very good for growing babies as they are full of fibre and considered as a wholesome food. I have used Quaker white oats for this purpose.

All you have to do is boil 2 tablespoons of oats (for one baby bowl serving) in a cup of mutton stock in a pan.
Put in shredded boiled  meat, garlic paste and cook until soft. Then add in turmeric powder, cinnamon powder, salt and pepper. Cook until it becomes a mush, perfect for your little toothless.
C ya!

Homemade Greek Yogurt

These days, my life revolves around two people: my nine months old son and my 27 years old better half. It's really a tough work trying to please their taste buds with new dishes every week, but still, hard work pays off. Every day is a new day for me where i face the challenge of trying to make something good enough that my choosy 9 months old can eat (thank God my husband eats everything that i make). Unlike me, my son likes unsweetened things more than sweetened dishes (which is a good thing i suppose) but it leaves me with a little less options as baby food mostly comprises of sweet-tasting dishes. Just like any other mom, i try to make whatever he likes and i am happy as long as he is eating healthy homemade food.
In his today's lunch is homemade greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is much more creamier and rich in texture than plain yogurt, also it is less tangy in taste. It is the best first food of your 6+ months old baby. When i came across the word "greek" yogurt, i thought it must b a delicacy, something which should be hard to make at home. But then i read the method on internet and realized how much easy it is!
I am dedicating this recipe to my mother-in-law, who taught me how to make yogurt at home in the first place.
For making 5-6 baby bowl servings of greek yogurt at home, you will need 1 litre milk (the creamier, the better), 3 tablespoons of starter yogurt, an earthen pot with any lid to cover it (matti ki handi). You can use any airtight plastic container too but avoid using stainless steel utensils for making yogurt. This is the pot that i use for this purpose:

Now first thing first, boil the milk  and let it cool till it become lukewarm. Check with your finger, it should not be very hot. Pour it in the pot and mix starter yogurt in it. Cover it with a lid. Now wrap the pot with warm clothes or you can place it in a hotpot/oven to keep warm and leave it for 5-6 hours to set.
Check after a few hours, the yogurt should be set and ready, as shown in the picture below:

Once the yogurt is set, separate the whey (acidic watery liquid) from the thicker part with the help of a muslin cloth or cheesecloth.

This separated creamier part is the greek yogurt which has no acidic whey in it, and it's high in calcium, therefore good for teething babies.
Yummmm!

Potato peelies

Potatoes potatoes everywhere
 Eat them without a blink
Potatoes potatoes everywhere
It's all we can think (much love to Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Who doesn't love eating potatoes, name one person and get an award of fried potatoes free from me!
Now this recipe is an easy one and everyone will love it. When you are in a hurry, make potato peelies peeled with the help of a peeler (alliteration of P sound, huh). Btw i used to call potato peeler a 'piller' once when i was a child.
Anyway, for this dish you will need 2-3 potatoes (one potato per serving), 2-3 cloves garlic, capsicum, mint leaves, cumin seeds, coriander powder, turmeric powder, 2 tablespoons of butter, salt and pepper to taste.
I like to make potato peelies on a 'tava' but u can use a non-stick pan for this purpose. Here is the recipe:
Wash potatoes thoroughly with water and take their brown peels off. Now, with the help of a peeler, make very thin potato slices, as shown in the picture below:

Afterwards melt butter in a pan, add garlic and fry potatoes in it.

Add all the above ingredients on it and cover with a lid so that they are cooked properly! Cook them until the peelies are soft. Potato peelies with the delicious aroma of garlic, capsicum and mint is ready to serve.

p.s: u can add fried chicken chunks, tomatoes and onions in it too for a different and yummier touch. 

Once upon a time

Buttered toast, an egg and a cup of tea... Ah breakfast! My favourite time of a day. I have always loved breakfast because in the morning you can forget about calorie intake even if you are on a diet (atleast most people do). Breakfast should comprise of energetic food and what can be more energetic than proteins! Moreover, having a nutritious breakfast is very good for your child's health in their growing age.
But the thing is, children are easily bored by the same kind of food every day and mothers don't have much choice in breakfast except to give them eggs, bread, cutlets, whole wheat chapatis, etc. Now if you want to make your boring bread and eggs interesting for your child, you should try out new ways to present it. Adding cheese and tomatoes can be one of the fun ways to make boring scrambled eggs interesting.
For an example, if you look at this picture below you will see that  this Saturday morning breakfast made by me once upon a time back in my university days includes nothing but a slice  of toast and an egg.

I took a piece of bread, took out a heart-shaped piece from it with the help of a knife and toasted them in a pan with a teaspoon of butter. Then i poured an egg over it and left it to cook. Keep the heat on low if you don't want it overcooked. Looks artistic, right? But it's very simple and looks good to serve.
So if your mornings are boring af, make them more interesting by bringing out the artist in you!