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.

Serving fresh and homemade breakfast on weekdays is almost out of question as I easily fall for instant breakfast. But on weekends I try to treat my husband with some refreshing breakfast hot right from the stove or oven. This weekend, I made dates couscous and poached eggs. Couscous when combined with dates made the perfect sweet dish and poached eggs a great protein rich food. This was the first time I made poached eggs. It was little tricky to make the perfect poached eggs, by following certain instructions you could make it quite right.

This dish could be served for breakfast or brunch and it takes only less than 10 minutes to make this.

Dates are a great source of dietary fiber, also dates are fat-free and cholesterol free. I always have dates in my refrigerator.  I love dates so much that I end up baking my favorite dates cake in caramel sauce at least once a month.

Dates Coucous and Poached Eggs

For making Dates Couscous

Ingredients:

• Dates, chopped- 6-7 no’s
• Couscous- 1 cup
• Water- 1 1/4 cups

Preparation:

• Heat 1 1/4 cups of water along with the dates in a saucepan, let the water come to a boil.
• Remove from the flame and add the couscous into the water.
• Cover the pan with its lid and keep aside for 3 minutes.
• Open the lid and stir the cooked couscous with a fork.

To make dome shaped couscous:

• Place the couscous in a small bowl.
• Using the back of the spoon even out the surface.
• Cover the bowl with a plate and turn it upside down and tap on the back of the bowl.
• Couscous in the shape of a dome will easily fall onto the plate.

Making Poached Eggs

Ingredients:

• Eggs- depending upon how many you are making
• Vinegar- a dash
• Water

Preparation:

• Heat a saucepan filled two-third with water and let the water come to a boil.

• Add a dash of vinegar into the water.
• Crack an egg into a small bowl.

• When the water comes to a boil, lower the heat so that the temperature of the water drops.
• Ideal temperature of the water for making perfect poached eggs should be 160-180 degrees F. You could use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water.
• Carefully lower or drop the egg into the water.

• Wait 3-4 minutes until cooked.
• Using a slotted spoon remove the egg from the water and let the excess water from the egg drip back into the saucepan.

• Poached eggs should be served immediately and while it’s hot.
• Sprinkle a dash of ground pepper and salt on the poached eggs.

Tips:

• Don’t drop the eggs into the boiling water, as the eggs will get tough.

If you are in south India and if you haven’t tried Dosa, you sure is missing the most popular veggie delight. I don’t think anyone can ever miss this as this is seen on the menu of almost all South Indian restaurants. They even have a separate menu for dosas and when you go through it, you would get pretty confused on which one to pick. Some of the common varieties are Plain dosa, Rocket dosa, Masala dosa, Butter dosa, Paper dosa, Onion dosa, Open dosa, Mysore masala dosa etc. I could go on and on…

I still remember the first time I had Rocket dosa, when I was 8 years old at my favorite Arul Jyothi restaurant in Trivandrum, kerala. When the waiter heard my order, he actually stared at me for a while. I felt quite weird about his staring. But, when the rocket dosa was placed in front of me, first thing that came out of my mouth was: Oh My God! I literally looked around embarrassed and almost everyone in that restaurant stared at me astonishingly. Just as the name rocket, that dosa was around 5 feet long, not to forget this was ordered by an 8 year old. While ordering it, I had no idea how it would look and never thought it would be this huge. My parents started to laugh seeing my embarrassed expression on my face. Soon I overcame my embarrassment and started to dig in. I couldn’t even eat half of that dosa, let alone finishing it. It’s been several years yet the taste of that dosa still lingers in my mouth, it was crispy, thin like a paper, crunchy and absolutely delicious.

What is Dosa?

Dosa is a crepe made from rice and black lentils. This is the popular breakfast served in most of the houses in south India.

Dosa is made rather small in houses. But in restaurants they make it huge and paper thin with different stuffings inside it. I am still unsure about how they make super crispy and super thin in restaurants. It seems it’s a secret known just to them. I need to bribe a South Indian chef to reveal this secret of making crispy dosas

Hot dosas with chutney or sambar along with filtered coffee, Gosh! even the mere thought of it makes my mouth flood like crazy.

I don’t make this quite often, hence on the days I make dosa, I devour it until my stomach can hold any further. My favorite way of having dosa is with Tomato chutney, which my aunt used to make often.

Tomato Chutney:

• Recipe courtesy-My dear Aunt

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes, chopped – 4 nos
• Small onion, chopped – 10 nos
• Garlic, minced – 1tsp
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Chilly powder – 3/4 tsp
• Salt – to taste
• Oil – 2 tsp

For seasoning:

• Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
• Dry Red whole chilly – 2
• Curry leaves – 4 – 5 nos
• Oil – 1 tsp

Preparation:

• Heat oil on a wide pan, add onion and saute till tender.
• Add the tomatoes, cumin seeds, garlic, chilly powder, salt and saute until the tomatoes get mashed up.

• Remove from the flame and let cool down slightly.
• Grind this to a smooth paste and pour it into a bowl.

• In the same pan, heat 1tsp oil, splutter mustard seeds, add dry red whole chilly and curry leaves to it.
• Remove from the flame and pour this seasoning over the tomato chutney.
• You could even sprinkle chopped cilantro over it.

Dosa:

Ingredients:

• Raw Rice, ponni rice or sonamassori rice- 2 cups
• Black lentil or Urad dal- 1cup
• Chana dal- 1/4 cup
• Fenugreek seeds- 2 tsp
• Water- enough to make the batter
• Ghee

Making the Dosa batter:

• Wash the rice, lentil and chana dal well.
• Soak rice, lentil, chana dal and fenugreek seeds in water for about 6 hours or overnight.
• Drain all the water from the rice and lentils and grind it to a smooth paste by adding little water to it.

• Pour the thick batter into a large bowl and add enough water to thin it down.

• Keep the batter aside in a warm place and allow it to ferment, which will take 6 hours or so.
• During summer the batter will ferment faster, so you could keep it on the kitchen counter top.
• During winter it takes a long time, so keep the bowl with the batter inside the oven this will speed up the fermentation.

Making Dosa:

• After the batter has fermented, take as much as batter as you want in a separate bowl and refrigerate the rest which will last for few weeks.

• Add little salt to the batter and combine well.
• Heat a non-stick pan or cast iron over medium high heat.
• Spread little ghee on the pan.
• Fill the ladle with dosa batter and gently pour the batter onto the center of the pan till the ladle is empty.

• Now begin to spread the batter in circular motion till it forms a thin round shape.

• The dosa will start to develop tiny holes at this time.
• Drizzle little ghee over the dosa and lift the pan and swirl so that the ghee will spread all over the dosa.
• When the top part looks cooked, flip it to the other side.

• The bottom part will have a golden brown color and let the both sides turn light golden brown.
• Remove from the pan and keep aside.

For making Tomato Dosa:

• Spread the prepared tomato chutney over each dosa and fold it.

• Serve this with tomato chutney on the side.

Tips:

• Serve dosa while it is hot.
• You could keep the dosa batter in the refrigerator, it will last for few weeks.
• For making crispy dosa: increase the amount of Rice.
• For making soft dosa: increase the amount of Black lentil or Urad dal.
• You could increase the size of the dosa accordingly, for making huge rounded dosa you need huge pans.
• Make dosa on a cast iron, this will give better results.

I always grill zucchinis, stir fry ‘em, saute ‘em, stew ‘em but never ever thought of turning them into pancakes…

I had no intention on giving zucchinis a pancake makeover until I saw the recipe of Zucchini pancakes at My Fabulous Recipes. I honestly screamed with joy when I landed on this recipe. I’ve found a new way of devouring zucchinis. Also, this recipe came to me on the perfect day when I was looking for ways to do something with the zucchinis that had been sitting in my refrigerator. I bookmarked this recipe right away and had made these pancake for breakfast, next morning. What a perfect way to start the day! I enriched my body with these pancake and I was seen energetic and healthy for the rest of that day.

I added scallions instead of red onions, you could make your own twist to this recipe by adding different spices and veggies.

Zucchini Scallion Pancakes

Ingredients:

• Zucchini, peeled and diced very small- 1
• Scallions or green onions, chopped small- 2tbsp
• Egg, beaten- 1
• All-purpose flour- 4tbsp
• Baking powder- 1/2 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- as needed
• Olive oil or cooking spray

Preparation:

• In a small bowl, beat the egg with a fork and keep aside.

• In a large bowl, combine zucchinis, scallions, beaten eggs, flour, baking powder, ground pepper and salt using a fork.

• Place a non-stick pan over medium heat.
• Spray cooking spray or drizzle olive oil on the pan.

• Drop a spoonful of zucchini batter on the pan and spread it evenly to almost round shape.

• Let the bottom side turn golden brown and flip it to the other side.

• When both sides have turned golden brown and cooked well inside, transfer to a platter.
• Enjoy these zucchini scallion pancakes with ketchup.

Tips:

• There is no need of peeling the zucchinis.
• You could add red or white onions chopped instead of scallions.
• You could even try adding different spices or veggies.

There’s nothing more refreshing than fresh fruits. Fruits never demands any extra touch ups, its perfect the way it is. Just imagine how the fruits would taste when it’s given a little fancy makeover before you serve it to your valuable guests or for precious self. A little fancy makeover would double the joy and entertainment for sure.

My new hobby is collecting recipes from almost anywhere. It could be the recipes from the back of cans, boxes, bottles and jars, or from any food magazines found in the grocery stores or from a total stranger or even from a restaurant chef (if he’s willing to reveal his recipes). I will never let go anything which could provide me with free recipes and food ideas. I may or may not try these dishes in my kitchen, but I feel happy while collecting these and that’s what matters, right?

This is one such recipe from my collection, it’s a free recipe that I got from a grocery store near to my house. This morning I woke up with zero intention to make a heavy breakfast. When I opened the refrigerator for milk, my eyes met with the huge bag of oranges that has been sitting idle for the past few days. Suddenly, I recalled the recipe I had collected from the store which called for oranges. I looked at the recipe and voila, I had everything to make a refreshing orange salad. This recipe also matched well with my criteria of easy breezy preparation. If I come across any kind of quick recipes, I sure will try that in my kitchen without any hesitation. I didn’t have to make a heavy breakfast to jump start my Sunday, with an easy fancy orange salad I was uplifted

Start your day with this refreshing Orange salad or just have this whenever your body and mind needs some refreshment…

Orange Salad

• Serves: 4
• Preparation time: 10 minutes
• Cook time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• Oranges- 2 large
• Granulated Sugar- 1/4 cup
• Whole cloves- 2
• Cinnamon stick- 1
• Fresh mint, finely chopped- 1tbsp
• Toasted shelled pistachios- 1/4 cup
• Fresh Raspberries- 1/4 cup
• Orange peel grated- 1 tbsp

Preparation:

• Using a grater, grate the orange peel and keep aside.
• In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup water, sugar, cloves, cinnamon; bring to boiling and reduce heat, simmer until sugar dissolves.
• Stir in mint, remove from the heat and let cool.

• Remove the skin of the oranges and the white pith from it.
• Slice the oranges crosswise into rounds 1/4-inch thick.

• Place 3 to 4 orange slices on each of 4 plates, top with pistachios and raspberries.
• Drizzle with 2 teaspoons of the syrup and sprinkle with grated orange peel.
• Serve immediately.

“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”…

Love is in the air and most of the people are seen busy getting gifts for their loved ones. I’ve decided that this Valentine’s day I am going to express my love to my valentine through delicious food. When everything seems to fail, delicious food helps me to win over my husband’s heart. I am not going to wait till dusk to make a special dinner for him, but this time love showering is going to start from dawn itself, the moment he wakes up.

Who wouldn’t love to see breakfast ready on the dining table as soon as they jump out of the bed? My husband loves this and I terribly fail to do so almost everyday. So this valentine’s day I am going to surprise him by this special Valentine’s day breakfast. If you are someone just like me wanting to surprise your husband or wife right from the dawn of Feb:14 th, then do join me and here I share with you an easy, yet delicious and nutritious breakfast.

Valentine’s Day Breakfast

Heart shaped French Toast

Ingredients:

• Whole Grain bread- 4 or according to your needs
• Eggs- 3
• Sugar- 2 tbsp or according to your needs
• Cinnamon powder- 1/4 tsp
• Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp
• Butter or Ghee- 1 tsp per slice

Preparation:

• Whisk eggs, sugar, cinnamon powder, vanilla extract in a bowl and keep aside.

• For making heart shaped french toast, you need to get a heart shaped cookie cutter, available in almost all stores.
• Place a single slice of  bread on a cutting board and center the cookie cutter over the bread slice.

• Gently press the cutter into the bread.

• Remove the bread around the outside of the cookie cutter and save these for making bread crumbs or bread pudding.
• You will have heart shaped bread on the board.

• Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat, add the ghee or butter.
• Dip the heart shaped bread into the beaten egg one at a time and place on to the ghee or butter.

• When it turns golden brown, flip to the other side using a spatula and let it turn golden brown on that side as well.

• Transfer to a platter and serve warm with fruits and hot chocolate.

Tips:

• If you want you could pour maple syrup on the french toast while serving.
• Just increase the eggs, sugar, cinnamon powder and vanilla extract accordingly to make more french toasts.
• Don’t throw away the bread from the outside of cookie cutter, you could make french toast with them too or use for making bread pudding or bread crumbs.

Good Morning World!  ”I do this everyday, I wake up in the morning and seeing the sun rising up over the horizon, I raise my eyes up into the heaven and Thank God for giving me the privilege to see this day”-Touching words from the person who successfully completed his 100 years of life, you heard me, 100 years. Can you believe this, living for 100 years in this amazing world, that’s a pretty long long lifeline. Obviously, when we see such people the first thing we would like to know would be the secret of their long life. And this was his secret which was really touching and inspiring…

My humble effort in learning to say Good morning in different languages, I thought I would share with my dear readers too.

• Afrikaans (Southern Africa)         Goeie môre
• Arabic (Lebanon)                             Sabah el-khayr
• Bulgarian (Bulgaria)                       Dobro utro
• Czech (Czech Republ                       Dobré ráno
• Dutch (Netherlands)                       Goedemorgen
• French                                                 Bonjour
• Farsi (Pakistan)                               Sobh beh’khayr
• German (Central Europe)              Guten Morgen
• Greek (Greece, Cyprus)                  Kalimera
• Hakka (China, Malaysia)            Zao sin
• Hindi (India, East Asia)              Shubha prabhaat
• Hungarian (Hungary)                 Jó reggelt
• Italian (Cent. Europe, E Africa) Buon giorno
• Japanese (Japan)                           Ohayo
• Kwéyòl (Haiti)                                 Bon maten
• Latin (Vatican, ancient Rome)   Ut vales hatie mane?
• Polish (Poland)                                Dzien dobry
• Russian (Russia)                              Dobroye utro
• Spanish (America, Spain)              Buenos días
• Thai (Thailand)                                 Sawatdi torn chao
• Ukrainian (Ukraine)                        Dobri ranok
• Vietnamese (Vietnam)                     Chào buổi sáng
• Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil)         Bom dia

Finally in my Mother tongue, Malayalam: Suprabhaatham!

Fridays are  always filled with excitement, everyone will be seen cheerful and bouncy. The undebatable reason: today is the last day of the week and knowing that weekend is ahead of us, makes Fridays the best.

On weekdays, my breakfast is mostly limited to cereals, oats or just fruits. So, on weekends I try to make something different and delicious. Here is an easy and healthy breakfast you could whip up real quick on weekends. Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend!

Banana Pancake

Ingredients:

• Plantain or banana, ripe- 2
• Corn flour-2 tbsp
• Sugar- 2tbsp
• Milk- 1 1/2 tbsp
• Cardamom powder-1/4 tsp
• Raisin- 2 tbsp
• Cashew nuts- 1 tbsp
• Ghee or Butter- 2-3 tsp

Start your New Year with these cinnamon raisin rolls fresh from the oven, and you will be sweet like these rolls for the entire 2010…

When I baked these rolls, my house was filled with the aromatic and mesmerizing aroma of cinnamon. I couldn’t help but keep inhaling all the aroma that I even forgot to exhale. Cinnamon rolls are my favorite, the flavor of cinnamon is really addictive that I can just live on cinnamon rolls for few days, no kidding. I’ve never tried making cinnamon rolls in my kitchen, as I thought it was kind of tricky to make the perfect rolls. So I always get these from Cinnabon, which are usually found in the shopping malls. But, couple of days ago, I suddenly had the craving for these rolls, it was on a late snowy night. In order to fulfill my late night cinnamon roll craving, I didn’t have any other choice but to bake it in my oven. I found a really good recipe for making these and without any further pondering I got indulged in baking. It wasn’t that hard as I thought, but had to wait an hour long and an extra 45 minutes for the dough to rise. Finally, when I curiously had the first bite of this roll, I felt that the wait was absolutely worthy. I had 3 rolls in a single sitting and this kind of abated my craving.

Cinnamon rolls with the hint of raisins and topped with the vanilla-sugary glaze on it was beyond my taste buds expectation.

Cinnamon Raisin Rolls:

• Recipe Courtesy: Rachael Ray
• Preparation: 45 Min(plus rising)
• Bake: 25 Min

Ingredients:

For making the Dough:

• Dried Yeast- 1/2 ounce( 2 envelopes)
• Lukewarm water-1/2 cup
• Milk- 3/4 cup
• Butter, melted-7 tbsp
• Granulated sugar-3/4 cup
• Egg, large-1
• Salt- 1tsp
• All purpose Flour- 4 to 4 1/2 cups
• Light Brown Sugar-1 cup
• Ground Cinnamon- 2 tbsp
• Raisins-3/4 cup

For making the Sugar-vanilla  Glaze:

• Confectioners sugar-2 cups
• Milk- 3 tbsp
• Vanilla Extract-1/4 tsp

Preparation of the Dough:

• Combine the yeast and lukewarm water and set aside for 10 minutes.

• In a small saucepan, heat 3/4 cup milk over medium-low heat.
• In a large bowl, combine 4 tbsp melted butter and the warm milk.

• Using a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the dissolved yeast into the milk-butter mixture on low speed.
• Mix in 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the egg and salt.



• Add 4 cups flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix until smooth.

• If the dough is sticky, add up to 1/2 cup more flour.
• Knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes.
• Place in a bowl, cover with the plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

• Stir together the brown sugar, the remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar and the cinnamon.

• On a floured surface, roll out the dough to form a 12-by -24-inch rectangle.

• Brush with the remaining 3 tbsp melted butter and sprinkle the brown sugar mixture and raisins on top.
• Starting with the long side, roll up the dough jelly roll style, then cut into 1- inch slices.

• Place in greased baking sheets, let rise for 45 minutes.

• Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the rolls until golden, about 25 minutes.

Making the Vanilla-Sugar Glaze:

• Stir together the confectioners sugar, vanilla and remaining 3 tbsp milk.
• Drizzle this glaze over the rolls taken from the oven, serve warm.

Tips:

• Knead the dough until really smooth for 5 minutes so that the resulting cinnamon rolls will be soft.
• Drizzle the Vanilla-sugar glaze according to your needs, the more the tastier.

Good morning! How about Homemade buttermilk Pancakes topped with Pomegranate syrup for breakfast…

For me, heavy breakfast means pancakes topped with maple syrup. I must admit that I am not avid about having heavy breakfast everyday. And I often try to skip breakfast, I can pile up many excuses, for instance: lack of time, not hungry and lazy to even do the least amount of work in the morning: taking a bowl and pouring the milk over the instant cereal. I know I am pathetic during the dawn of the day. But my husband is just the opposite, he eats a heavy breakfast no matter what. And here are the list of things he has to say when it comes to breakfast:

It is very important to eat a heavy break fast, as it is breaking the fast after 8-9 hours of starving at night. Our body will be desperate for fuel in the morning to run for the rest of the day.

Hence, starting your day with a good breakfast

• Boosts your energy
• Increases your attention span
• Heightens your sense of well-being.
• Provides at least one third of the day’s calories.
• Makes you feel great for the entire day.

Breakfast is the first chance that body has to refuel its blood glucose levels. Glucose is the main energy source of body and it is also required to fuel the muscles needed for physical activity required throughout the day.

Health benefits of eating breakfast:

• Helps to maintain your healthy weight.
• Your appetite will be satisfied longer.
• Helps reduce obesity.
• Prevents from binging for the rest of the day
• You immunity increases and you will be less prone to diseases.
• Lower cholesterol levels

Warning:

If you are thinking skipping breakfast will make you skinny, it’s time for you to rethink! Research indicates that those who skip breakfast are likely to become overweight with time due to extreme hunger later in the day.

How can I not agree to these, but in the morning my foggy brain seems to disagree with these facts. After knowing all the undebatable facts and benefits about breakfast, nowadays I try not to skip the breakfast as I am concerned about leading a healthy life.

What is good for breakfast, an overview:

A glass of milk: provides the necessary protein to our body

Fruits: Apple is the best among the fruits to eat for break fast

Whole grain wheat bread: Toast couple of whole grain wheat bread, as the whole grain wheat bread is rich in fibers and good carbohydrates. You could smear butter or jam on the bread.

Egg white: Egg whites are packed with proteins, eat boiled egg whites or fry egg whites in little oil and make a sandwich with bread.

Cereal: Easiest and the quickest break fast, a bowl of cereal in milk, topped with fruits, provides all the necessary vitamins, minerals and fibers.

Oats- Oats is the most healthy break fast, as it helps to lower cholesterol.

These are the some of the common quick and easy breakfast you can have without any effort.

If you think you can spare some time for whipping up a heavy breakfast: pancake, waffles, scrambled eggs are some of the best break fast dishes.

On weekends I try to make a heavy break fast and I always end up making pancakes using the store bought pancake mix, in just minutes pancakes will be ready on the table.

But last weekend, being the Thanksgiving weekend, I wanted to make a special break fast and so decided to make pancakes from scratch. Also, I came up with a recipe for the pancake syrup using the POM wonderful 100% pomegranate juice. I am going to submit this recipe for the POM 2009 contest.

Homemade Butter milk Pancake topped with Pomegranate syrup, who would say no to this breakfast. Keep reading for the step by step instructions on making the the pancakes and the syrup.

Pomegranate Syrup:

Ingredients:

• POM wonderful 100% pomegranate juice- 1 cup

• Brown sugar- 1/4 cup or depending upon how sweet you want your syrup to be
• Ground Cinnamon- 1/2 tsp
• Butter-1 tbsp
• Corn starch- 1/2 tsp, dissolved in little cold water.

Preparation:

• In a saucepan, in medium heat melt the butter.
• Add brown sugar and dissolve it in the butter. Add 1 tbsp pomegranate juice and stir constantly to dissolve the sugar.
• Add the pomegranate juice and mix it.
• Add ground cinnamon to the mixture and keep stirring.
• When the juice starts to boil, add corn starch, stirring constantly until the corn starch dissolves in the juice.

• When the sauce thickens, remove it from the heat and pour it into a serving bowl.
• Keep aside to serve with the pancakes.

Butter milk Pancakes:

Ingredients:

• Unbleached all-purpose flour- 2 cups
• Granulated sugar-1/4 cup
• Baking powder-2 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda-1/2 tsp
• Kosher salt-1/2 tsp
• Butter milk- 2cups
• Eggs- 2 large
• Unsalted butter, melted in microwave or on the stove and let it come to room temperature- 3 tbsp
• Vegetable oil for griddle or pan- 1 tbsp

Preparation:

• In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the butter milk and eggs.

• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
• Whisk gently until the dry ingredients are almost incorporated, stop before the batter is evenly moistened.

• Add the cooled melted butter and mix just until the batter is evenly moistened, don’t worry if there is lumps.
• Let the batter rest while you heat the griddle.

Heating a griddle or a large skillet:

• Heat the griddle over medium heat until drops of water briefly dance on the surface before evaporating.
• Lightly oil the griddle.
• Pour 1/4 cup of batter on to the griddle for each pancake.

• Let cook undisturbed until bubbles rise to the surface and the edges look dry, 1-2 minutes.
• Check the underside to make sure it is nicely browned.
• Flip to the other side.

• Cook until the second side is nicely browned.
• Transfer the pancakes to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven until you finish the batter.

• Serve hot with Pomegranate syrup, you can even top the pancakes with whipped topping, sprinkle little cinnamon powder and garnish the topping with rosemary.

Tips:

Make ahead:

• Cooked pancakes will keep sealed in the freezer bags for up to 2 days in the refrigerator and up to 1 month in the freezer.
• Defrost the pancakes in the refrigerator overnight and reheat in the oven at 350F for 5 minutes.