Roasted Almond Biscotti

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 5/19/2013 10:43:00 AM

'Sometimes baking alone is solace. It’s so much fun because the kitchen is closed, daily chores wrapped up and the entire house is fast asleep enjoying their deep slumber. And then you creep tiny footsteps into your kitchen knowing you'll venture into your little space with absolutely no snooping. It’s all your time, your space and just the you that you know. I enjoy that little 'me' time I get when I am there, putting together flour, sugar and nuts to amass into a sweet smelling dou(...)'

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Lasooni Dal with Paanch Poran

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 5/12/2013 11:28:00 AM

'Somewhere in the beginning of this year I made a silent resolution to post more savories than desserts as my collection of desserts in my content repertoire had shamefully grown than any other category. Time and again I kept reminding myself about readers being aghast about the paramount number of desserts I had on my blog, as if I had convinced them that this is all we had daily. I had many mailing for basic recipes, as basic as making butter and ghee at home, more savouries for br(...)'

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Basic Eggless Chocolate Cake

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 5/6/2013 5:32:00 PM

'I wonder what would have come of me if those several inspirational blogs (not food alone) around the web didn’t exist. Things wouldn’t have been so stimulating. Ideas novel and fresh, drawing verves to my relentless motivation and fueling enthusiasm to my ever fretful blogger’s mind. There are many I hop on, read through, admire and pass over. Then there are some that etch me to a point that I desire going back to them time and again. That element of ingenuity, a sense of magnetism,(...)'

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Baby Spinach, Apple & Walnut Salad with Raw Mango Dressing

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 4/20/2013 7:36:00 PM

'The western world has been calling that the spring has sprung in, oh though finally. But for us here in Bangalore, even calling the beckoning summer as summertime is nothing short of an understatement. With the mercury touching an all high of 38-40 degrees C by the day, and not getting any better by the nights, adding the woes of humidity in air, our sweat glands at their mechanical best, what feels like is an hour’s workout at gym even in our fan-sped, well ventilated, curtain draw(...)'

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Mum’s Cheat Vegetable Huli

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 4/15/2013 6:31:00 AM

'In the small town where I grew up majorly, life was simple, time had a hold and things were slow. I had a blissful childhood in safe shelter of love, care and freedom. It was indeed the small town charm that made life simple and modest in a community replete of love and affection from all in the neighbourhood. Life there had an advantage and as kids, we majorly enjoyed the proximity of our school to home, which brought us the perks of walking down home during the lunch time. As the (...)'

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Masala Shavige Uppittu

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 4/9/2013 7:13:00 PM

'Delhi was fun! A whole lot of fun! We are back after having a fabulous time there and it’s taken a week to unpack and settled down to routine like usual. I stayed away from blogging on Veg bowl for a while, didn’t blog hop either, nor did I check my mails. I did no business with my laptop, since I needed an intentional short break away from home chores and the daily grind at work, and this family function was just the perfect excuse. The engagement ceremonies went off smoothly and w(...)'

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Garlic Spaghetti in Basil Almond Pesto

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 3/30/2013 2:06:00 AM

'I’ll be silent for a week or so. We are off to Delhi for a short vacation. My dear brother in law is soon getting hitched for a lifetime. He'll be getting engaged in a couple of days, so we’ll have big fat ceremonies to be a part of, several families to meet and great, some partying, rasta shopping too and, of course lots of good food to relish. We've been eagerly looking forward to the roka ceremony, followed by a series of colourful and interesting occasions like shagan and chunni(...)'

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Fresh Basil and Cucumber Sandwich

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 3/25/2013 2:55:00 AM

'Sunday morning we made a picnic to the nearby animal farm. The little one had been excited about it all through the Saturday as she played and constantly babbled the names of the animals she was supposed to pay visit to. Frisking through her set of animal toys, she managed to identify most of them by names, and we bribed her to take her out for that feat. We left early on Sunday. The morning I woke up and quickly toasted these sandwiches for the munch. A slather of butter for the(...)'

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Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 3/20/2013 6:09:00 PM

'I am not giving up baking with dark chocolate, but certainly you’ll see them reducing a bit in this space. You know well that all this while I have been using Morde Dark Chocolate in my bakes. While I have nothing against them and do love the fact that they are cheap (say 200 bucks for 500 gms), I’m increasingly aware that it comes at a cost that’s detrimental to our health. Stripped of all the cocoa butter and replaced with hydrogenated vegetable fats, including trans fats, it took(...)'

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Whole Wheat Banana Bran Loaf

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 3/15/2013 6:55:00 AM

'Four years up with blogging on Veg Bowl and it almost feels unreal. Why? Because I admit I never thought I would take up blogging seriously. I began blogging more than five years ago. Before writing on Veg bowl, I blogged privately on a personal space which was limited to few of my family and friends. The huge inspiration came when I accidently stepped on a couple of family blogs and took hours to read through them. I was awestruck, and almost felt one with them. I thought it was a(...)'

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Tomato Kharabath

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 3/8/2013 1:32:00 PM

'Couple of years ago I got an Aloe sapling handed over to me by my mom so that I could plant them in a lone pot that sat empty for a while in my backyard. My Aloe grew beautifully even with unattended attention. She stood strong in the worst of weather, rains, dust, pollution and draught, grew stout by days and bred couple of more saplings till the pot could hold it no longer. Later when we moved into our own little nest, one of the first things I had on my mind was to do a bit of ki(...)'

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Coconut cream, Vanilla Bean & Roasted Almond Ice cream

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 3/2/2013 7:50:00 AM

'Do you have any specific flavour of ice cream you love and always prefer to go back to? More than a decade ago, before several flavors in unusual range flooded Indian markets, I remember each of us in our family had ice cream flavor of choice. As a kid, I was addicted to classic vanilla or occasionally the vanilla-chocolate combo (a scoop of each) just the way my little sister was. Dad’s huge fetish for dry fruits and nuts in his scoop of ice cream always left us amused, while for m(...)'

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Basil Almond Pesto

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 2/26/2013 5:00:00 PM

'Pesto, need I say what it means to me? Having been a lover for Italian food, I'm sure there should be no second thought that I love pesto. But strangely that wasn't how it started a few years ago when we first tasted it. Well, it was a love hate relationship that we started with. We did not really give into liking it till recently we acquired a taste for the famed pesto. For a while we despised pesto or even the word of it. Probably, because I never made it the authentic way. My (...)'

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Cranberry Dark Chocolate Brownies

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 2/21/2013 12:40:00 PM

'2nd February 2013: It was quite a relaxed Sunday. I plonked myself on my deep brown and black shaded sofa, threw my legs up on the aged teak coffee table that adorns my living and sat there gazing at a bunch of my favourite magazine collection from BBC GoodFood. The past one year has seen me as an ardent lover of their series and my subscription was due for closure. In the morning the courier guy had just hand delivered my last copy and I kept pondering if I should renew them or sti(...)'

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Ginger Lime Pops

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 2/16/2013 6:47:00 PM

'Tucked into our mom’s saree pallu, our little hands twirled into hers, carrying jute bags that we could fit ourselves in, we would often accompany our mom to do the weekly grocery shopping. Tip toeing into the busy streets of the weekly vegetable market, the lookout was always for the freshest of the produce they had to offer. The street side vendors, some on carts and others lining the pavements would sit with heaps of greens, fruits, vegetables and other kitchen staples, often cal(...)'

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Pan Roasted Fiery Balsamic Carrots

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 2/12/2013 5:24:00 PM

'I studied much in an all girls’ high school, so I don’t remember knowing Valentine’s day then. There was no excitement but life as usual like any other day. College life although had a different story to say. Valentine day brought was about the excitement to dress smart, an anxiety to get sneaky looks from boys, may be a couple of roses, candies and teddies too. Red was a too bold colour to wear, so it stayed away for the day. All were dressed their best for the day, yet they made i(...)'

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Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes (Off the Sun, in a Microwave!)

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 2/6/2013 5:49:00 PM

'I hold high esteem for the old school thought of sun-drying vegetables and fruits for prolonged life. I do consider its fabulous, no doubts. After all we Indians aren't novice to this technique. We've done it for ages. Our grandmas did it and our moms took over. The art of making crisp happalas (papads) and sandiges came down to us through traditions and we've enjoyed them endlessly on several occasions, meals and dinners. But, heck this technology is luring. Like, I've never though(...)'

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Rava Idli with Vegetable Sagu

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 2/1/2013 10:58:00 AM

'Traversing through my old posts recently, which in a way I don’t do too often, strangely it felt odd for me to read of what I had written. Some made me laugh, some made me feel stupid, some errors I fixed, some I felt proud of, I suppose it’s an anomalous sensation to read your own stuff. Some photographs made me think I should change, like the Marshmallows and S’mores, especially the ones I shot at night. Then as I dug deeper to my old, unheeded posts of 2009s, I thought they neede(...)'

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Masala Bread Upma

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 1/28/2013 3:12:00 PM

'I eat bread with not much favour to it. It's something I like to reserve as a last option. It wasn't until I began baking some at home did I really take much liking to it. Even as a kid I did not enjoy it much. At home, Sundays meant the day to relax and unwind and that meant some time off from cooking for mom too and that's when bread for our breakfast was an affair. We had many Sundays with bread sandwich for our breakfast. Saying that I do not rule out that homemade bread is inde(...)'

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Peanut Chutney Powder

Author : M D      Blog : Veg Bowl!      Date : 1/24/2013 5:35:00 PM

'I made this quite a while ago but I don't know why I had been procrastinating on this one. It just sat in the corner of my drafts and though every time I thought of posting it other recipes caught my attention. I finally decided to put this recipe here, least I forget and it goes into hiding. A while ago I had posted the recipe for a quick instant evening snack, Corn & Mint GuLiappa along with which I served this lip smacking peanut chutney powder. I promised then that I woild sh(...)'

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