cake pops

I love the cake pops we get in Starbucks.  I wanted to make some when my girls have winter break.  I made these last week and it came out pretty good. I would not say that it looked professional but the taste was good. I used the pre-packed Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix for basic cake and betty crocker chocolate frosting for mixing the cake.

I followed the recipe from the site Love from the Oven.  Check out this site and its an awesome site with lots of cookie recipes.

Sundal Sandwich

This is a easy breezy sandwich and a nice way to use the leftover sundal.  I made sundal for weekend evening snack and as usual one of my twin didn't eat properly. I had half cup of sundal and i didn't want to waste it. I used it for my breakfast sandwich, the next day.

Ingredients:-

1. Bread slices - 2
2. Garbanzo sundal - 1/2 cup
3. Butter - to spread
4. Cheese slices - 1

Take a pan, toast the bread slightly. Spread the butter, sundal and place the cheese slice on top of the sundal and cover it with the other bread slice. Now toast it again in the pan, it till becomes golden brown. It was really filling and a nice way to start your day with this protein rich breakfast.

Bell Pepper Rice

My MIL made this rice last week. I make bell pepper / capsicum rice too but in a regular fried rice way. But this is something new which she made. She used a masala powder (homemade) to finish this rice. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Basmati Rice - 2 cups
2. Bell Pepper/Capsicum - 1 1/2 cups (chopped)
3. Onion - 1 medium sized (chopped)
4. Green Peas - 1/2 cup ( she used frozen)
5. Butter/Oil - 2 tbsp 
6. coconut oil - 1 tsp
7. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. urad dhall - 2 tsp
9. channa dhall -  1 tsp
10. fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
11. Green chillies - 2
12. Turmeric powder - 3/4 tsp
13. Salt to taste
14. coriander leaves - for garnishing

Masala:-

1. Coriander - 3 tbsp
2. channa dhall -2 tbsp
3. Urad dhall - 2 tbsp
4. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
5. fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. White sesame seeds - 1 tsp
7. Cardamom - 1
8. Clove -3
9. Cinnamon stick - 3 small pieces
10. Red chillies - 3 (acc to taste)
11. peanuts - 3 tbsp (optional - toasted)

Soak Basmati rice in water for half an hour. Take a pan, sprinkle a drop of oil/butter and fry the ingredients one by one to golden brown,  given for masala and let it cool and grind it into coarse powder. Keep it aside. Meanwhile, in the same pan, add one table spoon oil or butter. Add mustard seeds. When it crackles, add the urad dhall, channa dhall, fenugreek seeds &green chillies. Fry it till it becomes golden brown.  Add the chopped onion to it and fry it for few seconds. Add the chopped bell pepper, green peas to it and fry it for couple of minutes adding turmeric powder and required amount of salt (for both rice & masala) in medium flame.  Drain the basmati rice fully and add it to the ingredients and fry it for a minute. Transfer everything to a pressure cooker and add required amount of water and let it cook upto 2 whistles. ++ . When the pressure is released, open the cooker,  add the grounded coarse powder to it, remaining oil or butter, coconut oil and mix it with the rice. Make sure you don't break the grains. Enjoy the rice with onion raita & potato chips.

++ - In this stage, my MIL added required amount of water (1:1 1/4) directly in the pan and cooked the rice directly in the pan. I am not good in doing that process, so I have mentioned my way of cooking the rice. If you are confident enough to cook the rice in the pan, you can do so.