Quick jacket potato

This is a really healthy meal for the children to have as a dinner or a lunch.  In fact a lot of healthy schools have this jacket potato as their lunch menu. Its just that normally it takes a really long time for the potatoes to get done in oven. I have tried many times and have seen that it easily takes more than an hour, I would say 1 hour 15 minutes or so.

Still always thought of giving it as a meal as its so easy to make and my kids love it. Only if, we could ignore the time taking part of getting potatoes bake for one whole hour. Well, I couldn't ignore the baking and waiting part of one whole hour. Finally, tried using microwave for reducing the time in conventional oven, result was outstanding.

Ingredients

Large Sized potato - 2

cheese - I took a mic of cheddar + mozzarella

Butter - 1 tablespoon

Bakes beans - 1 pot Heinz

salt and pepper - to taste

Recipe:

Pierced the potato skin with the tip of a sharp knife a few times all around. Keep it in microwave for 10 minutes. Turn it upside down after 5-6 minutes.

Make a 2 slits across like shown in the picture below.

Grate some cheese (I mixed mozzarella + cheddar) filled in the cut part and spread some over skin.

Add a spoonful of butter on top. 

Keep it on the top shelf of a preheated oven at 200 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Times vary according to different makes and sizes of the appliance.

Take it out of the oven when the cheese has melted and you can see a liitle golden brown color has started to show.

Immediately after, open a pack of baked bean and pour half of the one on one portion (1 jacket potato). sprinkle some cheese on top.

Add some salt and pepper to taste. Your jacket potato with baked bean is ready to serve.

Note : you you see the browning of cheese to quickly in your oven please reduce the temperature to 180-190 degrees and increase the time to bake.

This way the overall cooking time was 20-25 minutes for two portions of meal and honestly speaking I couldn't realize much difference in taste at all.

Happy cooking and happy eating to all !! Happy weekend as well.

Do email any questions or suggestions you have. 

Healthy Fruit Nuts and Oat bars

Halo everyone, This time I have come up with a really exciting recipe equally healthy for the kids and grownups. This can be a great afternoon snack or can be put in the lunchbox as well. Much better alternative than having a chocolate or sweeties and great fun way to have dry fruits included in their regular food intake. These are freshly made at home are are delectable to eat. I am sure you yourself wouldn't be able to stop after having one,  but .....hey... no problem,  you surely can have a second one guilt free !!

Ingredients :

Oats - 100 gm

Nuts - 200 gms  (mix of Almonds + Cashews + Pistachios +walnuts)

Dried Fruits - 100 gms (Strawberries+Cherries+Mangoes+Raspberries+Sultanas)

Butter - 100 gm

Castor Sugar - 100gm

Honey - 3 Tablespoon

Sesame Seeds - 2 tablespoons

Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoons

Recipe :

Preheat the oven at 160 degrees. 

Measure all the ingredients in weighing scale for the correct quantity.

 

Transfer nuts in a oven safe tray and keep it in oven for 10 minutes or so to have them lightly toasted.

Then put them in chopper to have them in really small pieces so that they can be easy to bind together.

I did put the dried fruits in a chopper as well. Finally all the ingredients looked like this. (See pic Below)

Prepare the baking tray by greasing it and lined with butter paper, so that its easier to take out.

Now, Keep the pan (heavy base) on medium heat and let it melt.

After that add sugar and honey to this and stir a bit.

Then add dried fruits, nuts and oats to this.

Also add the sesame seeds and grated coconut. Mix it really well.

Then transfer all this mixture into the baking tray and press evenly.

Bake it in a preheated oven at 160 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Times may vary according to different makes and types.

After you take out the tray let it cool down for 20 minutes and then cut into pieces in desired sizes.

Once made these can be stored in airtight containers for some time. 

Vegetarian Noodles - Indo Chinese recipe

Yummy Indo Chinese!! I am in love with the Indian modified version of these Chinese dishes. I also love them with loads of veggies with my noodles. I used egg less noodles for this and can proudly say that the result was heavenly. As we generally do not cook the vegetables fully in these noodles, we just need to saute them with oil and they add crunch to the recipe. For this we need the veggies to be finely chopped and this job takes time. But trust me the end result is worth all the effort.

Ingredients for the recipe are :

Vegetables: (all finely chopped)

Cabbage

Carrots

beans

mushrooms

capsicum (I used green and red both)

Mono sodium glutamate - a pinch (Chinese salt)

Soy sauce

Oil

Garlic cloves - finely chopped

some chillies - (you may omit these if its for kids)

Noodles 

In a large pan put some water, add salt, noodles, some cooking oil and bring it to boil. Once they are soft drain the water and immediately keep it under cold running water. Now, keep aside in a bowl.

Add caption

Heat oil in a pan. Add a pinch of  Chinese salt and finely chopped garlic to this.

Now add beans and carrots to this. Give it a stir and then add other veggies to the pan.

Quickly saute them.

Add noodles to this and some soy sauce.

Give it a stir and add salt to taste and some freshly ground pepper.

Optional : If you like the flavors, you may add 1 teaspoon of chili sauce and a teaspoon of tomato ketchup at this stage as well. 

Serve hot on its own or you may serve it with Chilli Paneer (which is much loved by my kids at home.)

Chili Paneer - Indo Chinese

After the recipe of vegetable noodles I am presenting this Indo chinese version of Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese). 

I will explain this recipe of Chilli Paneer in three different steps just to avoid the confusion with the ingredients and when and how they are to be used. This is how I find it helpful for myself as well.

1st step is to prepare the paneer. For this,

you would need the following ingredients

Paneer (As the main ingredient)

for coating - 

Plain flour - 2 tablespoon

Cornflour - 1 tablespoon

Baking Soda - a pinch

Salt - to taste

Soy sauce - 1 teaspoon

Mix plain flour, cornflour, soy sauce and salt with 3 tablespoon of water and make it into smooth consistency. 

                                     

Add cut paneer pieces into it and coat these as evenly as you can.

Take oil in a pan and keep it on medium heat. As soon as the oil gets hot enough start frying these coated paneer.

Turn them so that they are fried evenly.

Keep these aside.

 2nd step

You can use as many or as less vegetables you like. Personally, I like all the vegetables with a crunch and which are quite popular with chinese recipe. I would have loved spring onions as well but I had none of those. :-(

Hence I used : Cabbage, Carrots, Mushroom, Beans, Capsicum/ bell pepper 

After you have done this 2nd step of chopping successfully you can move on to  - the 3rd one.

3rd step

Now take 1/2 cup water and add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce to this. Add 1 tablespoon cornflour as well.

Finally assemble all of these together to make one appetizing dish ready and that too made at home.

You will need the following : all finely chopped

Onions - 1 medium sized

Garlic - 3 cloves 

ginger - 1/2 inch 

Monosodium glutamate - a pinch (also called Chinese salt)

Salt to taste 

Crushed black pepper

Heat oil in a pan and medium to high heat. Adjust if you think the flame is getting very high for you to manage.

Add a pinch of Chinese salt, then add finely chopped garlic + ginger.

Then add onions to this.

Now, add the cut vegetables to this and saute.

 

Add this mixture to the frying vegetables and keep stirring. If its too think you may would like to add 1-2 tablepoons of water. Then add coated and fried paneer to this. 

Mix this well and add salt and freshly ground pepper to this.

Your Paneer chilli is ready to serve. Serve hot with the vegetable noodles. Recipe is here Chinese Vegetable noodles