Well, I served this for breakfast. I can explain why. Lately, my husband has been acting little weird oops not little, a little too much weird actually Every morning as soon as the alarm blares out, the first sentence that comes out of his mouth would be “Honey, could you please make me a killer breakfast?”. I am still not clear what he means by killer breakfast. But one thing was crystal clear that he was giving me signals of how tired and bored he was with the usual breakfast I serve. it’s big time I make him something different, or in his words a killer one. Hence, my search for killer breakfast had begun a few days ago.

At first, I ignored his killer breakfast request, but when I started getting this request every morning I couldn’t just ignore it. I took this as a challenge and finally made him a killer breakfast yesterday morning.

Obviously, I don’t want to spend too much time cooking in the morning as I am too lazy to cook in the morning. The main reason why I picked this recipe is that this recipe called for zero cooking time, in fact it’s baked. You just need a pack of puff pastry, whipped cream and strawberry and you could make a killer breakfast or dessert in no time.

If you have more time or if you are in a real mood to make a heavy breakfast, then you should consider making homemade buttermilk pancakes that I make often during weekends and serve this as the dessert.

Strawberry Napoleon

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry sheets, thawed at room temperature- 1
• Whipped topping or heavy cream whipped- 1 cup
• Confectioners sugar- 1/4 cup
• Milk- 1 tsp
• Strawberries sliced- 1 cup
• Semi-sweet chocolate or chips, melted- 1/4 cup

Preparation:

Baking Puff pastry sheets:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• If using frozen puff pastry sheet, thaw it at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• You could even defrost the frozen puff pastry sheets for 1- 2 minutes in a microwave, make sure not to burn the sheets or cook it.
• Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface.

• Cut into 3 equal strips or rectangle shape along the fold marks.
• Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
• Place the cut pastry sheet on the baking sheet.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

• Let it cool down.

Making sugar mixture:

• In a small bowl, stir confectioners sugar and 1 tsp milk, keep aside.

How to whip cream:

• If you are using whipping cream or heavy cream, then you need to whip the cream.
• You could use a hand whisk or electric hand mixer or even stand mixer fitted with a beater attachment to whip cream.
• Use chilled cream, chilled steel or glass bowl and chilled beaters or whisk for better results.
• Place the bowl you are using for whipping the cream and the whisk or beater in the freezer for 15 minutes before using it.
• Place the bowl with the cream in a large “ice-water bowl” so that the cream remains cold while you whip.
• Beat the cream on low speed first, then increase the speed slowly and beat the cream.
• If you are adding sugar or any other flavorings, add them while you whip it.
• Stop whipping the cream when the cream has doubled in volume and forms stiff peaks.
• Make sure not to over whip the cream as it will start to curdle and turn into butter.
• Use the whipped cream immediately, if not cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

How to melt chocolate:

• If you have a double boiler use that to melt the semi-sweet chocolate or chips.
• If you don’t have one, then half fill the saucepan with water and boil the water.
• Take a glass bowl which sits well on the saucepan, put the semi-sweet chocolate chips in it.
• Place the glass bowl with chocolate on the boiling water and keep stirring the chocolate chips.
• The chocolate will start to melt and changes into liquid.
• Remove the bowl from the water and keep aside.

How to assemble:

• Using a sharp knife, cut each of the baked pastry sheets into 2, forming a total of 6 slices.
• Take one of the puff pastry slice.
• Spread confectioners sugar mixture on the puff pastry.
• Spread 1-2 tbsp of whipped topping or cream on the puff pastry.
• Top with 3-4 strawberry slices.

• Repeat this until you make 3 puff pastry layers.

• After layering, drizzle melted chocolate on top of the puff pastry.

• With 1 puff pastry sheet you could make 2 strawberry napoleon.
• Use more of the puff pastry sheets to make more.

Beware; these beef balls will make you go insane…

Basketball, Volleyball, golf ball and beef balls are lined up in front of you, which one will you pick??? I can hear the unanimous screaming from all of you “Beef balls, beef balls, beef ballsss…

When the beef balls came out of the oven well done and browned, my husband who was calm and humble until that time, transformed into a selfish and greedy being. For the first time, he couldn’t wait till the beef balls got a neat presentation and did few posing in front of the camera. He begged me and bugged me like crazy for these beef balls. Can’t blame him, it’s the beef balls that made him insane. Finally, I was forced to throw few beef balls into his mouth just to make him shut. In just seconds he finished it and sneaked into the kitchen to gobble up other beef balls too. Gosh, what’s the matter with this man? I screamed. And I had to wind up the photo session real fast.

This recipe is adapted from Rachael Ray. These are the same meat balls, which are used for making the popular “Spaghetti and meat balls”. I ignored the spaghetti and just made the meatballs. This could be served as a finger food or as an appetizer, either way there will be a high demand for this and will vanish from the platter in just a matter of seconds.

Beef Balls

Ingredients:

• Groung beef- 1 pound
• Minced garlic- 1tsp
• Worcestershire sauce- 2tsp
• Egg, beaten-1
• Bread crumbs- 1/4 cup
• Grated parmesan- 2 handfuls
• Italian seasoning- 1 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Non-stick cooking spray- to grease the baking sheet

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 425 F
• In a large bowl, combine ground beef, minced garlic, worcestershire sauce, egg, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, ground pepper and salt.

• Make medium sized balls out of it.

• Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray and place the balls on it.
• Bake the balls for initial 15 minutes.
• After 15 minutes of baking, turn the balls to the other side and bake for another 10 more minutes.

• Take the balls out of the oven, insert a tooth pick into each balls and serve hot with ketchup or any other sauce.

Tips:

• You could even make patties out of this seasoned ground beef and bake it.

• Baked beef patties can be used for making burgers, place the patty between the hamburger buns and top it with grilled onions, pickled cucumbers, sliced tomatoes, lettuce and smear the buns with mayonnaise.

It was 5 years ago when I had made my first cake with this batter, this time tried butter cupcakes with the same batter…

My mom is an awesome cook, but she never did any major baking. This was the only cake she used to make when I was young. She used to make this cake not in an oven but in a pressure cooker and surprisingly it came out pretty delicious. So when it was my turn to make cake, I didn’t go behind any new recipe but followed my own mom’s recipe. Today, just by a click many cake recipes would line up right in front of me. But I have always found a special attachment towards this cake and hence always ended up making this.

It’s been a while since I’ve baked this cake, so today I tried making cupcakes with the same butter cake batter. Just like the cake, cupcakes turned out pretty darn incredible too. This butter cupcake is super easy to make and would be perfect for any tea party.

Butter cupcake

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour – 1 1/2 cups
• Powdered sugar or granulated sugar- 1 1/2 cups
• Butter(unsalted) – 100 gm or 1/2 cup
• Eggs(white and yolk separated) at room temperature- 3 nos
• Baking powder – 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla extract- 1tsp

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar together using a hand mixer.

• Separate egg white from the egg yolk and place in separate bowls.
• Beat the egg whites and egg yolks separately with hand mixer.

• First, add the beaten egg white to the butter-sugar mixture and combine with a whisk.
• Now add the egg yolks and combine well.

• Add vanilla extract to the above mixture.

• In a bowl, mix all purpose flour and baking powder.
• Add all purpose flour/baking powder mix little by little to the wet mixture and fold it using a whisk.

• Don’t over mix the batter, fold it gently until just smooth.

• Place paper cups on the cup cake pan.
• Fill the paper cups no more than three-quaters full with the batter.

• Bake it in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a fork comes out smooth when inserted into the middle of the cupcakes.
• After the cupcakes are done, remove from the oven and let cool down.
• For a fancy look, I decorated the cupcakes with semi-sweet chocolate morsels, which will slightly melt from the heat of the cakes.

As always I was quite satisfied with the taste of these cupcakes; but I was disappointed when I saw my cupcakes come out slightly sunken on top. Seeing this, I immediately google searched for the reasons that caused this. Here is what I found:

Three main reasons for sunken cupcakes or cakes:

• Over-mixed batter.
• Too much baking powder or soda.
• Overfilled cups.

Now I know what went wrong on my side. I did two mistakes, over mixed the batter and also overfilled the cups. Next time I will fix this for sure.

Tips:

• You could use the same batter to make butter cake, pour the batter on a greased cake pan and bake it for 20-25 minutes.
• My mom makes this cake in the pressure cooker:

Pressure cooker Butter Cake

• Make the batter following the above mentioned method.
• Pour the batter on a greased cake pan.
• Place the cake pan on a cooking rack that comes with the pressure cooker or any rack or flat steel plate and keep it inside the cooker.
• Close the pressure cooker with its lid, without the sealing ring and the whistle and don’t add water into the cooker (this is not steam cooking).
• In low heat, cook the cake for about 30 minutes or until its cooked.

It’s creamy, it has shrimp, it has cheese and it’s on a jalapeno, oooo it’s spicyyy and oh wait, it’s baked too…

My obsession with jalapeno has started not so long ago, it’s only been an year now. When there is a hint of jalapeno in my dishes I will devour it happily, of course with few glasses of ice cold water. My favorite pizza topping is jalapeno. My favorite burger is the one loaded with pickled jalapeno. My favorite Thai food is garnished with jalapenos. My favorite bread is jalapeno cornbread. By now it must be crystal clear to you that I am a genuine jalapeno lover This doesn’t mean that I will ever dare to eat jalapeno as it is, I am not in for such challenges. I would rather hide

I’ve had stuffed jalapenos in many Mexican restaurants, since then I’ve been wanting to make this in my kitchen. Finally, I did make it. I bought a few pounds of jalapeno during my last grocery shopping. I wanted to make a different stuffing for the jalapenos. That day I had shrimp in my freezer. So, I made a stuffing with shrimp, cream cheese and parmesan cheese.

Be careful while seeding the jalapenos, if you want you could have the hand gloves on. Avoid the screaming part by accidentally rubbing your eyes with your jalapeno hands. If this happens for some reason, wash your eyes with cold water several times and if this doesn’t seem to work “Call 911″ immediately (just kidding).

I loved the bite of the shrimp from it, the creaminess and the mild spiciness from the jalapeno. While baking this, your house will smell as if you have jalapeno candles lighted on. Your eyes will have a slight burning sensation, but when you have a bite of this baked stuffed jalapeno you’ll forget about everything and your taste buds will melt into this.

Creamy Shrimp Stuffed Jalapeno

Ingredients:

• Jalapeno, halved and seeded, large- 7 no’s

• Shrimp, deveined, cooked frozen, minced- 6 no’s
• Cream cheese- 5 tbsp
• Parmesan cheese- 3 tbsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Dried Parsley- 1 tsp

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 425 F.
• Rinse the jalapenos, pat dry and cut them into halves vertically.

• If you want you could wear a hand glove while removing the seeds from the jalapenos and keep aside.
• Mince the deveined, cooked shrimp and keep aside.

• In a large bowl, combine the shrimp, cream cheese, parmesan cheese, ground pepper and dried parsley.

• Place 1 tsp of this stuffing on to each jalapeno.

• Bake the stuffed jalapenos for 25 minutes or until the top of the stuffing starts to turn golden.

• Let cool down for few minutes and serve immediately to kick off your smashing party.

Tips:

For Vegans: You could substitute shrimp with other veggies like green pepper or potatoes.

Make this Valentine’s day more personal, give a touch of love to everything, make it delightful and romantic…

This V-day skip making a reservation to a restaurant, instead whip up a delightful  dinner in your kitchen in under 30 minutes. Oh ya, you heard me, Valentine’s day dinner in under 30 minutes which includes appetizer, main course, salad and dessert. If you think that you can’t make restaurant style fancy dinner at home, then you are totally wrong. If I can make it, you can make it too.

Here are a few special dishes I whipped up in under 30 minutes which could be made for V-day dinner. It’s not about just cooking food, give your special touch to everything you make, get creative and you will see the magic. Everything will turn out as perfect as you want.

Also, while serving food for special occasions, do spend little time on plating and arranging the table. Make it simple and it will look elegant!

Appetizer:

• Onion Rings: Click for recipe

• Scallion Tempura: Click for recipe

Main Course:

• Baked Succulent Salmon: click for recipe

Salad:

• Romaine Sweet Hearts: click for recipe

Dessert:

• Chocolate Pistachio covered Strawberries: click for recipe

Fruits:

• Strawberry and Raspberry

Sharbat:

• Rooh Afza

If you are searching for a fancy appetizer to impress your friends, here’s one from my cook book: Baked Beefy Potato…

A real fancy appetizer you could make for super bowl party – Baked potato with a twist! While having the potatoes you also get the bite of beef stuffed inside it. This definitely makes the perfect appetizer, especially for a super bowl party.

I first baked the potatoes, then scooped out the flesh and mashed it with heavy cream and added browned seasoned ground beef with it. Stuffed the potato skin with the beefy mashed potatoes and gave them a final baking.

Watch the magic: this is going to be the fastest selling appetizer and your friends will be curious to know how it’s made. Make sure to keep the recipe print outs for them or send them here

Beefy Potato:

Ingredients:

• Potatoes, whole- 4
• Heavy cream, fat free- 1/2 cup
• Butter, slightly melted- 2tbsp
• Cheddar cheese- 1/4 cup
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Parsley leaves, chopped- 1 handful

For making Beef:

• Ground beef- 8 oz
• Onion, minced- 1
• Garlic, minced- 1tsp
• Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Olive oil- 2 tbsp

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 4ooF.
• Wash the potatoes and pat dry with paper towel. Prick the potatoes all over with a fork.

• Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 50-55 minutes or until tender.

Preparation of Beef:

• In the meantime, heat a non-stick pan over medium heat and add olive oil.
• Add the ground beef to the oil, add ground pepper and salt,  saute it until it turns brown and well cooked.

• Add the onions and garlic to the beef and saute until onion turns tender.
• Add cumin powder and saute for few minutes.
• When the beef has cooked well, remove from the flame and keep it aside.

Stuffing:

• After 50-55 minutes, take the potatoes from the oven and let cool.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
• Cut the top part of the potatoes horizontally and scoop out the flesh from the potatoes leaving behind little flesh on the skin. Don’t break the skin of the potatoes.

• Reserve the skin of the potatoes for stuffing.
• Mash the scooped potato flesh using a potato masher or a wooden fork without any lumps.

• Add the heavy cream, slightly melted butter, ground pepper, salt and cheddar cheese to the mashed potatoes and combine everything well.

• To the mashed potatoes add the seasoned browned ground beef and mix well.

• Stuff the potato skin with the beefy mashed potatoes and sprinkle with parsley leaves.

• Place the stuffed potato skins on greased baking sheet.
• Bake the stuffed potato skins for another 20-25 minutes.
• When it’s done, place on a platter and serve.

Tip:

• You could use fat free heavy cream and fat free cheddar cheese.

It’s 35F outside, but feels like 25F yet unbelievably windy and freezing. In this weather anyone would unanimously crave for one thing, a bowl of hot soup…

It’s Friday evening and I am excited to welcome the weekend. I thought I should make this weekend special with some special cooking. So I drove out for a quick grocery shopping.

The weather has been less crazy for the last couple of weeks, but the snow is still there now turned into ice on the sidewalks and almost everywhere. I don’t know what I was thinking while I had my high heels on. It was really scary walking on the sidewalks with the heels. Each step I placed pretty cautiously to avoid any slipping and thus creating a funny scene for the people out there. If something had happened my fall would have qualified for “America’s funniest videos”. Anyway, I am safe and still kicking more than before.

After coming home, I demanded a bowl of soup to myself. I had no other choice but to obey my boss. I started making the soup.

During the winter, soups have been my cozy comrade. A bowl of warm soup gave me the feeling of summer, at least to my mind

When making the soup, I first oven roasted the veggies – tomatoes and carrots (after seasoning them with olive oil, ground pepper, basil leaves and salt). Then pureed the roasted veggies and cooked slightly with chicken stock. Finally, I finished it with heavy cream.

When I had a sip of this hot soup, I pictured myself on the beach, sun bathing

Roasted Tomato-Carrot Soup

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes, halved-4
• Carrot, cut into wedges-2
• Garlic, chopped- 1 1/2 tsp
• Basil leaves- 2-3 no’s
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Olive oil- 2 tbsp
• Chicken stock, low sodium-1 1/2 cups
• Bay leaves, fresh or dried-2
• Parsley, dried- 1 tsp
• Heavy cream- 1/2 cup

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 450 F.
• On a baking sheet, place the halved tomatoes, cut carrots and season them with olive oil, garlic, basil leaves, ground pepper and salt.
• Give the veggies a stir and put them in the oven.

• Roast them for 15-20 minutes.

• Let cool for sometime and puree the roasted veggies in a blender.
• Heat a wide pan over medium heat, pour the pureed veggies into the pan.
• Add bay leaves, chicken stock and let come to a boil.
• Finish the soup with heavy cream and parsley, heat for few seconds and remove from the heat.

• Discard the bay leaves from the soup.
• Serve the soup in bowls and enjoy with croutons.

Tips:

• You could make this soup just with the tomatoes.
• Healthy version: add fat free heavy cream and water instead of chicken stock.
• For vegans: Substitute vegetable stock for chicken stock.
• For a fancy presentation: I served this soup in a tomato itself, cut the top of the tomato and scoop out the flesh from it and pour the soup in this bowl.
• PS: This soup served in a tomato is not enough to fill your craving, you will definitely ask for more.

Healthy lasagna??? Are you kidding me? How could that be possible? Isn’t lasagna supposed to be layered with cheese and topped with extra grated cheese???

Aren’t these the questions that popped into your mind when you read the title, healthy lasagna? I warn you, don’t underestimate lasagna; it does have a different face that only few people might know, a healthy humble one. Most of us haven’t had the chance to meet with this healthy version. We always come across the extra cheesy, extra unhealthy version and these obviously make it extra delicious. Do you know the reason why you haven’t met with the healthy version? It’s simple; you haven’t yet made the effort to meet that one. If you did, you wouldn’t be still hanging out with the unhealthy version.

I’ve had lasagna in restaurants – just a couple of times though! Both the times, one thing I’ve done while eating lasagna is removing most of the cheese from the lasagna and trying to cut down fat. When I am done, a heap of cheese was found on my plate. Now, you may ask: “Did you really do that?” and my answer: “Yes, I had to do that”.

When I was almost successful in removing most of the cheese from the lasagna, there came the waiter and asked me politely: ‘Madam, would you like some grated parmesan cheese sprinkled on your lasagna?’ I wasn’t surprised a bit to hear this, as my dear hubby sitting on the other side of the table enjoying his lasagna without any guilt.

I know, those of you reading this, especially lasagna lovers may have started throwing tomatoes on me or may have left this page by saying: ‘screw you and your healthy lasagna’: P Thanks for the tomatoes, I would be making tomato soup tomorrow, lol.

No offense meant to lasagna and lasagna lovers. I had been trying to figure out why I give so much disrespect to lasagna. Am I ignorant on eating lasagna by not enjoying all the cheese? May be! Honestly it’s just that I can’t handle that much cheese. If I force myself to eat all the cheese, I get dizzy and there would be a fair chance that I would act insane after that. So lasagna lovers, please pardon me for not enjoying the lasagna in its proper way, pretty please?

I’ve always thought that lasagna can only be made with layers of cheese on it and in the unhealthiest way. Hence, I never cared to go through the trouble of getting different kinds of cheese and making it in my kitchen.

It was on January 19th, 7.35 PM I realized all these years I had misinterpreted lasagna. When I finally met with the healthy version of lasagna, I literally froze. It tasted extremely delicious and guess what? This time I didn’t worry about removing the cheese. I enjoyed it like everyone else.

How did I come up with the idea of healthy lasagna?

Jan 19th, Time: 5.30 PM:

While flipping through the TV channels, I landed on a channel that discussed about lasagna. After watching that program, my mind was full of lasagna. I felt that, being a food enthusiast if I don’t make lasagna in my kitchen at least once, it’s a big shame and an embarrassment. I made up my mind and I started whipping up lasagna my way. When it was ready, it turned out to be a healthy, nutritious and delicious lasagna with the goodness of spinach, kale and tofu in every bite. Not much cheese to worry about.

Now that I’ve met with the healthy version lasagna, there is no going back to the greasy version.

Healthy Lasagna with Spinach, Kale and Tofu

Ingredients:

For making the sauce:

• Onion, minced- 1
• Garlic, minced- 2 tsp
• Tomato sauce, no salt added, 8 oz can- 3
• Oregano, dried- 2tsp
• Basil leaves- 3
• Olive oil- 1 tbsp

Preparation:

• Heat a sauce pan over medium heat, add the olive oil, add onions and cook it for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.
• Add garlic, oregano, basil leaves and saute them for 1 minute.
• Now, add the tomato sauce and simmer for 10 minutes.
• When it starts to boil, remove from the flame and keep aside.

For layering:

• Tofu, firm, drained- 8 oz
• Spinach, fresh or frozen- 1/2 packet
• Kale, fresh or frozen chopped- 2 fresh leaves or 1/2 packet frozen
• Uncooked lasagna noodles- 6
• Parmesan cheese, grated- 1/4 cup + to sprinkle at the end, 2 -3tbsp

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Drain the water from the tofu and crumble it in a large bowl.
• Stir in 1/4 cup parmesan cheese until well combined.

• In a wide pan, cook spinach and kale by adding little water to it  until they are tender. Cool and squeeze out excess water and set aside.

How to assemble:

• To assemble lasagna, cover bottom of a 13×9-inch baking dish with half of the prepared tomato sauce.

• Arrange 2 sheets of noodles on the sauce.
• Layer pasta with half the cooked spinach and kale.
• With the back of a spoon, gently spread half of the tofu-parmesan mixture on the spinach-kale.

 

• Top with 2 layers of lasagna noodles, remaining spinach-kale and tofu-parmesan mixture.
• Layer remaining 2 sheets on top.
• Spread remaining tomato sauce on top.

• Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil.

• Bake at 350F for 1 hour.
• Uncover and evenly sprinkle 2-3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese.

• Bake about 15 minutes, until cheese is melted.
• Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.
• Here is the healthy, nutritious, easy on cheese lasagna. When you have a bite of this you will realize that this tastes almost like the estaurant style.

Tips:

You could make as many layers as you want, increase the amount of the ingredients accordingly.

Football Season=Chicken wings, any doubts??

Summer means a lot of fun; this doesn’t mean that all the fun comes to an end with the start of winter, fun still continues. Often winter is referred to as the season of hibernation, but I totally disagree with this. How could someone undergo hibernation when there are numerous indoor activities to do and enjoy. I love winter as much as I love summer. Winter season always wakes up the artistic Me, I get the motivation and interest to do a lot of crafty stuffs, from glass painting to flower making, I will be seen indulged in these crafts throughout the winter…Am I hibernating during winter?? Heck no.

Another thing, which makes winter exciting, is that this is the football season as well. Being football fanatics, my husband and I love-watching most of the games. On weekends we always have friends come over to our place and all you can hear is the guys cheering, screaming and shouting, while watching the game. This continues till the big game, Super bowl. Just watching the game sitting on the couch makes it real boring, but when there is some activity going on in your mouth as well, makes it interesting. One food everyone looks forward to while watching the game is undoubtedly “Chicken wings”. I love chicken wings as much as the guys love it. Often, my husband warns me by saying this, ‘chicken wings are for men, not for women; with my eyebrows raised I will continue to devour it, I couldn’t give a better reply than this. But I have to agree with him at times, this is definitely a guilt stuffed food. So to make this football season, guilt free and healthy I baked my chicken wings. There are gazillion ways of seasoning the chicken wings, so this time I seasoned the chicken wings with the things that are always found in our refrigerator/pantry.

So for this football season, you don’t have to give up chicken wings for the sake of health, you could devour this Baked Glazed Chicken wings.

Ingredients:

• Chicken wings- 12 pieces, you could even use other parts of chicken.
• Low sodium Soy sauce-  8tbsp
• Tomato Ketchup-6tbsp
• Honey-2tbsp
• Pepper powder-1 tsp
• Garlic minced-3 cloves
• Olive oil-1tbsp
• Salt- if needed, watch out for the soy sauce as it already has sodium in it.

Preparation:

• In a zip lock bag, put the chicken and the all the above ingredients, close the bag and shake it as to coat evenly over all the chicken wings.
• Let sit for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
• Preheat the oven to 375F.
• Place the chicken wings in a baking dish with the sauce poured on it.
• Cover the baking dish and cook for 45 minutes in the preheated oven.
• Uncover and cook for 15 more minutes.
• Remove from the oven and scrape any sauce left from the baking dish and pour over the chicken wings.
• Serve hot.

Vegans, don’t worry you could marinate your choice of veggies in the above sauce and bake it at 375 for 20 minutes or until the veggies get caramelized.

Veggies I used:

• Green pepper- cubed, 1
• Cauliflower florets- of 1/2 cauli
• Zucchini- cubed, 1

Preparations:

• In a non stick pan, in low heat, combine the above ingredients: soy sauce, ketchup, honey, garlic, olive oil and pepper powder.
• Let the sauce thicken.
• Coat the veggies with this sauce.
• Put the veggies in a skewer and pour any sauce left over the veggies.
• Place on a baking sheet and bake at 375 F for 20-25 minutes.

Tips: You can change the amount of ingredients accordingly, if you want it spicy add more pepper powder, or if sweet add more of the honey. It is your chicken wings, and you make the rule!

Chicken wings are the best!

Midnight baked sweet potato fries…

Here is the flashback: Last night I was sleeping to glory cuddled under the blanket, suddenly my hubby (who had slept all evening and was watching TV the entire night) patted me, which partly woke me up and I heard him whisper into my ears that he wanted baked sweet potato fries. For a while, I felt like I am dreaming, if it was a dream I wouldn’t be surprised, as my brain is on food lately. But the reality was it wasn’t a dream, he seriously woke me up and asked for this in the middle of the night. Still drowsy, my reply was: have you gone mad, get back to sleep. I haven’t heard anything funnier than this in the middle of the night. I turned him down and went back to sleep. As I closed my eyes and tried hard to fall back to sleep, all I can think was about baked sweet potato fries. Guess what, my hubby’s wish was granted, I woke up and baked sweet potato fries at 1: 25 am. I had baked this couple of weeks ago and my hubby loved it. Now, I don’t know what made him want to eat this in the middle of the night. Anyway, this was the first time I baked at a totally odd time and I actually had fun doing it.

I always boil sweet potato. So to make a difference I tried to bake it after seasoning it with some spices. It actually came out pretty good, and when it is baked it’s all healthy. This baked sweet potato fries got three flavors in it: sweetness of the potato, the spiciness from the spices, and the caramelized flavor from baking. Your taste buds would definitely go crazy for these flavors, just like my hubby’s.

Ingredients:

• Sweet potato- 2, cut into long thin wedges
• Cumin powder- 1tsp
• Pepper powder-1 tsp
• Paprika-1tsp
• Salt-1/4 tsp
• Olive oil-1-2tbsp

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Peel the skin of the sweet potato using a peeler and cut into thin long wedges.
• In a large bowl toss the sweet potato along with all the spices and oil.
• Arrange potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and place on the middle rack of the oven.
• Bake it for 30-40 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through and the edges turn crispy.
• Serve immediately while it is hot.