My first attempt at Homemade Hummus

So thought I'd kick off this year's blogging with a couple of simple things I tried recently. Here's to hoping this year is a productive one for the Kadhai Sisterhood ;)

 

I've been meaning to try to make my own hummus since I had some at a friend's house a couple of years go but never quite got around to it...until yesterday! It was so easy and so good, I don't know why I waited so long. (I should have taken pictures...from next time I definitely will)

 

Ingredients:

1 cap Chickpeas

2 tbsp Tahini / Sesame Paste

1-2 tbsp Olive Oil

3 cloves Garlic

1-2 tsp chill powder

1/2 tsp cumin powder

(I'm sure the spices could be pretty much anything...I kept it simple since it was the first time but plan to experiment more)

1 tbsp Lemon juice

Salt to taste

 

Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend together. Mine was a little dry so I added a few tbsps of water half way through (could also increase the amount of oil but I was trying to keep it healthier than store bought).

That's it! We served it with home made pita chips - Just whole wheat pita toasted in the oven.

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Banana Bread

Since Swati said she had a couple of ripe bananas lying around thought I'd share this since it was so easy!

 

Ingredients:

 

2 Large Ripe Bananas

1 Cup Flour

3-4 tbsp brown sugar (depending on how sweet your bananas are)

4 tbsp butter

1 egg, beaten

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

 

Mash the bananas. In another bowl cream the sugar and butter together and add in the beaten egg. Mix with the bananas. Mix the flour with the salt and baking powder

Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350F for 45 minutes.

 

It was quick and super moist. I'm sure it would be great with nuts or choc chips also :)

Swiss Apple Pie

So Saugar being the all-american boy loves his apple pie - however I can't imagine making a full-on pie with the crust etc - i have no idea how much butter is in that thing and i don't have the patience. So I got really excited when I came across this recipe - it's not quite an apple pie but it was SO good - both by itself or even better warm with some vanilla ice cream. AND it was SO easy! I did a little tweaking to the recipe because I like a bit of spice (so added the cinnamon and nutmeg)

 

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Flour

3/4 Cup Sugar

1 large apple chopped (the pieces were a bit more than 1 cup - I would use a more tart apple next time, the one i used was sweet and the thing was a tad too sweet)

Handful of chopped nuts (I used almonds which were good but I can imagine walnuts or pecans would be great)

1 Egg

1 tsp Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

Pinch of nutmeg & Pinch of cinnamon

 

In a bowl beat the egg first and then beat in the sugar. In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients (Flour, baking powder, salt). Mix the wet and the dry ingredients - note that the batter will be very thick. Fold in the apples and the nuts. Add the spices. Pour into a greased cake/pie tin and bake for 25 mins at 350F.

 

It was great just warm out of the oven!

 

xo

 

Turkey Sloppy Joes

The other day we were watching Food Network and there was a special on Sloppy Joes - so Saugar goes "ooh i haven't had one in years". Well I haven't had one ummm ever. So typically I guess they are made out of beef so we decided to make our own with turkey. I didn't expect to like it honestly and was doing it more for Saugar, but i loved it! And it was so easy to make!

 

Ingredients:

1 Pound ground turkey

1 Onion finely chopped

1 Capsicum finely chopped

2 green chillies (or more) finely chopped

2-3 cloves garlic finely chopped

2-3 tbsp barbeque sause

2 tbsp tomato sauce

2 tsp chilli sauce

1 tsp worchestershire sause

1 tsp vinegar

1-2 tsp paprika

1-2 tsp cumin powder

Buns

 

In a hot pan brown the turkey. Once the turkey is fully cooked, take it out. In the same pan, fry the onion, capsicum, chillies & garlic. Half way through cooking the vegetables, add the spices (we used paprika and cumin but no reason not to add others - or increase the volumne). Once they are all cooked, add the turkey in and mix together. Add all the sauces and salt, mix, lower the temperature and let it simmer for as long as you can. We let it cook covered on a low heat for an hour and a half and i think that really got all the flavours together. Once you are happy with the flavours (adjust spice as you want) - uncover, increase the heat till a lot of the liquid evaporates. It shouldn't be totally dry since they are meant to be 'sloppy'

 

Toast the buns on a pan with a bit of butter. Then serve the turkey on the bun

Simplest cake ever - but Oh so Good!

This blog has been asleep for a while so thought I'd wake it up...Haven't lost my love for cooking, so why not :)

 

So a few weeks ago I baked a cake for my Father-in-Law's birthday but since he's diabetic we did it with splenda and the texture wasn't quite right. However it still tasted great, and a couple of weeks ago Saugar wanted to re-try it but with sugar and the right proportions. It was super simple and it is just a plain vanilla cake but the texture (especially when straight out of the oven) was amazing. We thought about icing it but it tasted great by itself so didn't bother :)

 

I think it's a good sponge cake recipe - and i might play with it a bit in the future to try other flavours

 

Ingredients:

 

1 Cup Flour

1 Cup Sugar (warning - it was on the sweet side - at least for me - but don't want to mess up the texture so sticking to the proportion)

1/2 Cup Milk (I used skim and it was fine)

4 tbsp Butter/Margarine

3 Eggs

1.5 Tsp baking powder

1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

Pinch of salt

 

Mix the Flour, salt and baking powder in one bowl

In another bowl, beat the eggs well and then beat the sugar and vanilla essence into it

Combine the two to form the batter

In a saucepan heat the milk and melt the butter into it. Once the mixture is hot, add it into the batter (warning: the batter is on the runnier side so don't worry)

Pour into a greased cake tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 360F for 20-25 minutes (check the doneness first with a skewer)

Noodles Omelette

Now this really isn't a recipe...but it's a fun breakfast my mum used to make when I was little, and I started making it myself recently. Both Saugar and I love it and now I think I make it at least every other weekend. It's hard to mess up, it's comforting and I always have everything I need for it.

1 packet maggi (I always use masala but I'm sure any of them would work, or any instant noodles for that matter)

3 eggs

2 tbsp grated cheese (freshly grated tastes a lot nicer than pre-grated, but either is fine...or no cheese at all is fine too!)

Cook the maggi as you would usually. Just make sure it's not saucy and it's almost totally dry. 

Beat the eggs well with a pinch of salt till well mixed and fluffy.

Add the noodles into the egg

Heat a small pan with a tiny bit of oil. Once hot, pour the egg mixture it. Let it cook for a couple of minutes, then add the grated cheese. Turn the heat to a medium and let it almost completely set. It takes a good 8-10 minutes. Flip the omelette. Let it cook for a couple of more minutes

Add a little salt and pepper and that's it :)

It's the perfect weekend breakfast for the two of us :)