TGIF

Friday mornings put me in a great mood. I woke up today feeling super upbeat and I guess the positivity translated into my food. You know your cooking is a hit when the husband takes that first bite and goes mmmmmmm for what seems like a sweet eternity! If a carnivore of a human being such as him can drool over this recipe, I am sure that vegetarians will love it too. So here goes:

STUFFED BELL PEPPERS WITH GARLIC BREAD

Serves 2

1.  2 nos. Green( or Red or Yellow) Bell Peppers
2.  1/2 Onion ( chopped finely )
3.  1/2 Tomato ( chopped finely )
4.  1/3rd cup of boiled rice
5.  1/3rd Cucumber ( chopped finely )
6.  1/3 rd block Firm Tofu
7.  1 medium Green Chilli ( chopped )
8.  Fat Free Crumbled Feta cheese ( for topping)
9.  2 tsp of garlic paste
10. 1/2 tsp Oregano
11.  1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
12.  Bread ( your choice, can be ciabatta, Italian, French or good ol whole wheat bread slices lying around at home)
13.  Spices of your choice ( I used coriander, cumin, red chilli powder)
14.  Olive Oil
15.  Salt

• Set a pot of water, big enough for the bell peppers, to boil. Sprinkle a pinch of salt in the water. Once the water starts boiling, soak the bell peppers and let cook for 3 minutes.
• Take the bell peppers out and set them on a kitchen towel to dry.
• Now heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, add the onions. Saute the onions till they are lightly charred. Now add the tomatoes and green chilli and let cook for a minute. Add the spices and salt to taste.( In the meanwhile, set your oven to preheat at 350 degrees.)
• Add the cucumber to the pan and cook for a minute. Now crush the tofu and add the tofu and rice to the mix. Let the mixture cook on medium heat for 5-6 minutes.
• Take the boiled bell peppers, remove their cores with a spoon and char them slightly on high heat. I placed the bell peppers on the stove-top sans any pots or pans.
• Take a baking pan and line it with aluminum foil. Spray it generously with PAM spray. Stuff your bell peppers with the now cooked rice and tofu mix. Sprinkle feta cheese on top and you are all set. Bake the bell peppers for 35 mins.
• On to the Garlic Bread now. In a small bowl, mix 1 tbsp of olive oil, oregano and italian seasoning. Add a touch of salt to the mix. Slice the bread and coat generously with the mix.
• When you are 25 minutes on your bell pepper timer, put your garlic bread in the oven. Let bake for 10 minutes. At the 35 minute mark , take the peppers and bread out and serve warm.

10 reasons why your cooking is atrocious

I have no idea why your cooking sucks. But now that I have your attention, I hope that you will go on to read the rest of the post. What?! Well, my apologies if I have you all nettled, but “10 reasons why…” seems to be the latest gimmick that works, atleast on me. As long as the caption commences with a “10 reasons why…”, the trailing end of it is inconsequential. It might as well be ” Kim Kardashian is pesky” or ” Obama’s economic policies are a complete washout” for all I care. Dear author, you had me at 10 reasons

No more hoodwinking now, I promise you that. The real purpose of this post is to share with you the latest vegetarian recipe that I tried. It is an interfusion of the Indian staple, curry, and the good ol’ sandwich.

CURRIED TOFU SANDWICH

1. 2 slices of bread ( 90 cal if you use whole-wheat, low carb

Sara Lee. Feel free to substitute.)

2. 1 tbsp Light Mayo ( 15 cal)

3. 1 tsp Greek Yogurt ( 8-10 cal)

4. 1 tsp Curry Powder ( Substitute for curry powder is Cumin and

Coriander powder combined in equal proportions)

6.  1/2 tsp Red Chilli powder

7. 1 1/2 tsp sweet mango/ sweet onion pickle ( 15 cal)

8. 1 wedge of Firm Tofu (35 cal)

9. Crumbled Feta Cheese to taste  ( 15-30 cal)

10. Handful of Spinach ( 5 cal)

11. 2-3 nos. Grape (12 cal)

12. Salt & Pepper

In  a small cup, combine the mayo, yogurt, curry powder, red chilli powder, pickle and feta cheese. Mix well to break down the feta cheese. Slice the grapes in half and add to the spread. If you have the time, brown the tofu wedge on both sides in a hot pan with some salt and pepper. If not then stick to uncooked tofu. Spread the mix evenly on both the slices. On one of the slices line your greens (I used spinach for my sandwich). On the other slice place your tofu, then season lightly with salt and pepper. Press the slices together and voila! You are all set.

Going the Vegeterian Way – Pancakes much?

So far the vegetarian experiment has been a mixed bag of sorts. I will be very honest – I miss my chicken and my fish. When I sink my teeth into a good looking sandwich, my taste buds bloom in anticipation. You see, they are so used to the juices that flow right out of that tender, smoked piece of chicken, sitting pretty between the soft buns. Instead, they discover firm tofu or veggie patties and they get a tad disappointed . The texture, the flavor and the whole experience feels a bit wrong, like its lacking that one key ingredient which makes a perfect bite. Maybe I should seek the help of a vegetarian so that they can point me in the right direction.

The recipe  that follows now is for all my doughnut dodging warriors who break a sweat in the gym and walk past the gorgeous palmiers, meringues and cream puffs that stare at them through the enormous display window of that favorite French bakery. You know you want it, but the science and mathematics of fats, carbohydrates, calories or whatever your enemy is, clouds your vision and muddies your brain. So you march on, winning over temptation but feeling defeated deep down.  No sweet victory that! A girl’s gotta have pancakes and so she shall.

BANANA PANCAKE WITH BLUEBERRY COMPOTE ( And without the crazy calories)

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Yields 5 servings

1. Whole Wheat Flour – 3/4th cup ( 300 calories)

2. All Purpose Flour – 1/4th cup ( 100 calories)

3. Ripe Banana – 2 nos (200 calories)

4. Fat Free Milk – 2 cups ( 160 calories)

5. Egg Whites – 2 ( 34 calories)

6. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – 2 tsp ( 10 calories)

7. Vanilla Extract – 1 1/2 tsp

8. Sugar Substitute – 2 1/2 tbsp

9. Baking powder – 2 tsp

10. Cooking Spray ( e.g. PAM) < 10 calories

The first step is to mix all the dry ingredients together. So in a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar substitute and cocoa. Add a pinch of salt and mix well to avoid lumps. In another bowl, mash the ripe bananas to pulp. Then add vanilla extract, egg whites and milk and mix well. Combine the dry and wet mix together and your batter is ready. Heat up a pan and once its hot, spray it with PAM. Now pour some batter into the pan and let it cook on medium heat for a while. Once the bottom is a bit cooked ( you can check by shaking the pan to see if the pancake slides easily across the pan ), flip the pancake over and cook the other side. Cook well till both sides turn golden brown.

BLUEBERRY COMPOTE

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1. Blueberry – 3/4th cup ( 60 cal)

2. Sugar Substitute – 1 tbsp

3. Water – 2 tbsp

Combine all the ingredients and pour into a hot pan. Keep cooking till the berries pop open.

Serve your pan cakes hot with warm blueberry compote on top. At about 175 calories per serving,this recipe ranks high on taste, high on health and low on calories and saturated fat. Enjoy!

Going the Vegetarian Way

Every fortnight or so, a weird thought/idea insidiously creeps into my mind. There is almost a routine to the unraveling of events post the invasion. I toss and turn in my bed spending many a sleepless nights, I plague the husband with a million questions and he quietly listens with nary a hint of debate and then the culmination of it all -my fugitive brain wanders off somewhere else, I presume, to birth another insane thought. But this time, there is a tiny bit of a difference. I have actually decided to act on it! So I am giving up my rapacious meat-o-philic ways to make way for a cleaner, greener self for the next 30 days. Getting into the how, why, what-ifs of it all will be yet another post altogether. This post is (hopefully) the first of a series of write ups to chronicle my experiments with healthful and  delectable vegetarian fare.

Today, I decided to kick start my morning with a green smoothie. As I took stock of my refrigerator, I discovered that the only green I had was celery. Now Mr. Celery is a tricky guy. While extremely crunchy, light and ridiculously low in calories, more than one stock of it in a single sitting is plain unpalatable. So I decided to go easy on the celery and stock up on fruits instead to mask the (for a lack of better word) celeriness of it. I believe the trick is to start out with a fruit heavy smoothie just to prepare the palette and gradually work one’s way up to primarily green smoothies.

APPLE BERRY (ALMOST ) GREEN SMOOTHIE

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1. 1/3 rd of a medium apple (25 cal)

2. 1/3rd cup of blueberries (25 cal)

3. 1 stock of celery ( 5 cal)

4. 10-12 seedless black grapes (45 cal)

5. 3 oz Fat Free Greek Yogurt ( 50 cal)

6. Splenda to taste

Throw them all in a blender, add 1/2 a cup of water and blend till the consistency is smooth. The advantage of a smoothie over juice is that a smoothie preserves the fibrous content of fruits and vegetables and so it is a lot more healthier and filling than juice. Also, Greek yogurt is a wonderful way for vegetarians to load up on protein and its gooooood stuff for your tummy! So take out your pretty wine glass, pour the smoothie in and take a sip – your good deed of the day is done! Next time, I promise to make a greener looking smoothie