Easy spinach Lasagna

 
Ingredients:

• Butter - 2 tbsp
• Spinach - 1 full box (from Costco)
• Goat cheese 
• Italian seasoning - as required - optional
• salt - as required
• Pasta sauce - I used one full bottle and I think it was mushroom based sauce
• Lasagna sheets - no bake sheets from Walmart (Great value brand)
• water - 1.5 to 2 cups
• Shredded cheese (Mozeralla,  Parmesan - experiment cheese here as per your choice)

Preparation:
Spinach-cheese mixture:
In a wide pan, add 2 tbsp butter. Once it melts, add garlic finely chopped. Saute it for few seconds, and then add spinach (I used one full box) and continue saute. Add salt as required and sprinkle as much as Italian seasoning as you want to it. Once spinach is cooked, add goat cheese and mix it well with spinach. Goat cheese should become more like a white sauce and get well mixed with spinach. At this point, switch off your stove and move the pan off from heat.

Pasta sauce:
Mix Pasta sauce with 1.5 cups of water (I used one full bottle of Pasta sauce).

In a baking pan, spread good amount of pasta sauce mixture. Remember, we are using the no bake Lasagna sheets. So we need to maintain the lil too much watery consistency with the pasta sauce to allow the sheets to get cooked well. Now layer the lasagna sheets above the pasta sauce. Top it with the spinach cheese mix. Sprinkle some Parmesan-Mozeralla shredded cheese (or the 4 cheese mixture). Now again goes the pasta sauce, lasagna sheets, spinach mixture and cheese sprinkles. Keep repeating this as much as you want your layers to be. Top with shredded cheese finally. Double wrap the baking pan with some foil sheets. Make sure it is tightly sealed.

Preheat over to 425 degrees. Once the oven sets in the right temperature, bake the lasagna for a good 60 minutes or till it passes the clean fork test. Let it sit for 10 minutes before serving. Yummy yummm easy spinach Lasagna is all ready for tasting :)

Whole Wheat Bread Pudding

Thanks to Lavanya, for sharing the image and recipe. 

Recipe for bread:

• 3 cups of whole wheat flour ( I used Annaporna atta)
• 2 1/2 tsp of active yeast
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Salt
• 2 cup warm water

Add all the dry ingredients and slowly start adding warm water. Mix and form the dough. Do not knead at this stage. The dough should be more like a poori dough. Knead it to activate the yeast.
Keep aside for about 20-30 mins till the dough double its size.
Knead the dough until its soft  in a gentle way . Place on the baking pan and bake at 230C for about 30mins.

Recipe for pudding :

• Bread
• 2 cups of milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4  of sugar
• 1 tsp of Apple spice mix
• 1/4 cup of ghee (clarified butter)
• hand full of raisins

In a small cake pan place the bread in such a way there is no gap. I  used half of the bread I baked for this pudding. Drizzle 1/8th of the sugar on the bread and some raisins. Generously brush the ghee all over the bread. Now mix the milk, eggs and apple spice mix well and pour over the the bread mix. Add the remaining raisins and sugar over the pan . Preheat the oven @  200 for  5mins. Now place the pan and bake @200C for 30mins. The top of the pudding should form a golden crust and inside of the pudding should not be soggy. Cool the pudding for 5mins before serving.

Royal icing

This recipe along with photos was shared by Lavanya.

• 2 large eggs (egg white only)
• 2 tsp lemon juice.

For flooding consistency, (carrot pic)

• 3 cups of confectioner sugar.

Now to you beater/ processor, at low speed beat the egg white add the sugar in batches. The right consistency for flooding when we drop it from a spoon, the batter should flow in thick batches (something similar to string consistency in jaggery).

For pipping consistency icing add more sugar until it has a consistency similar to that of mayonnaise.  (rabbit pic) In more appropriate terms,

• 1 large egg (egg white only)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• about 2 cups of confectioner sugar.

remember not to keep the frosting open. This forms a solid layer on the top of the icing. Always cover with usual plastic food wrapper. Else we have the scrap out the solid layer first before using the frosting.  Also, when you pipping, make sure you always place it on a damp cloth/paper. I used my coffee cup. Covered the bottom of the cup with damp paper towel and when ever I had to keep my pipping down, i placed in into the cup containing the damp towel. This prevented the icing from forming a thick solid layer.



Though the process is little time taking, the output is always enjoyable. Specially for the kids, I bet they will for sure love the icing on their sugar cookies and cakes

Vanilla cake with chocolate frosting

Thanks to Lavanya for sharing this recipe along with photos..

Cake:

• 1 1/2 all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup oil (else 1/2 cup butter= 1 stick butter)
• 3/4 cup milk

Mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately. Now in batches mix the dry ingredients with the wet.Beat until silky.

I used a mini cake pan set and filled my greased mini cake pan with the batter. Bake it at 350F (180 C) for about 20mins or until when picked with a tooth pick, nothing sticks to the pick.


Now cut the top layer of the cake and form a even platform for both the mini cake.Fill the gap with vanilla frosting. and place one over the other. Now cover the cake with chocolate frosting.



Vanilla frosting.:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tsp confectioner sugar.
• 2 tsp vanilla extract.

Chocolate frosting:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tsp confectioner sugar
• 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

For frosting, make sure you use a stainless steel bowl. Before starting the procedure freeze the utensil, blade of the mixer for 10 mins in your freezer. Frosting melts really quick so make sure everything is real cold. Mix the ingredients in low speed first and then increase the beater speed gradually until thick frosting is formed. Make sure the frosting is really thick else, it melts real fast.


Decorate your cake with frosting.

Black Forest Cake

This cake recipe along with photo was shared by Lavanya


Ingredients needed :

• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup strong brewed coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method : 

Mix the wet ingredients separately & dry ingredients separately. Now in batches mix the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Keep mixing until the batter is silky. 

Bake at 350F for about 35-40 mins until completely cooked. Poke a tooth pick or knife to check it does not stick to it. Let the cake cool. Cut the top of the cake and now cut the cake into two halves. Make sure the cake is cool.
 

For frosting, I used ready made frosting :

Be generous with the frosting. First spread the top of lower half of the cake generously with the frosting. If you love arranging with berries, its very creative.
place the upper half of the cake. Now complete the entire cake with frosting. Make sure the frosting is at room temperature. This will help to spread evenly and easily.
 

Finally decorate with fruits or more frosting/icing :

Green seedless grapes tasted yummy with this cake. Fresh berries also play equally good tasty role.
 

Let the cake cool in the refrigerator for a while. Give enough time for the frosting to soak well with the cake. 

For this i made sure, I take out 2-3 times from the refrigerator and brought back to room temperature and then refrigerated again. This helped to bring that mild sogginess to the cake which makes the  black forest cake even more yummier.

Hope everyone enjoys the recipe.

Banana Bread

 

Thanks a lot Lavanya for sharing the recipe along with the photo. 

Ingredients needed : 

• 1/2 cup Vegetable oil (You can also use same measurement of melted butter)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup milk (Sour cream is a next best choice if you love it tangy)
• 2 medium bananas, sliced

Method : 

Mix all the wet ingredients and mash the banana along with the wet ingredients. Slowly in batches add the dry ingredients and mix well. Coat the pan with oil or butter and pour the batter to the pan. Bake it at 350 F for about 30mins or until its golden brown. Cool it and slice it.

Cup Cake

This recipe and Photo was shared by Lavanya .

Ingredients : for 12 muffins :

• 1 3/4 cup of all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp of butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp of baking powder
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk

 
Method :

Mix sugar, butter, egg together and beat until everything is mixed well. Add milk and beat till the liquid portion is all mixed together. Make sure the flour and baking powder are mixed once before adding the liquid part. Beat nicely till the batter is completely silky. Now divide the batter in three parts and add your fav. food colors.

Arrange the muffin pan with the cupcake lining paper and add the batter in whatever combination you like it to be. Bake it for 20-25 mins until cooked. If you love frosting, top your cupcake with frosting.

White Bread ~ Home made

Thanks a lot Lavanya, for sharing the recipe along with the photo..


Ingredients needed :

• 3 cups of All purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoon of active yeast (1 packet )
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 teaspoon of ghee..
• 2 cups of warm water

Method : 


Mix all the dry ingredients and add the water slowly and mix dough to poori dough consistency.

Wrap the dough mix with wet cloth  and set aside for 1 hour or until the dough becomes double the size. Since its winter here, I preferred to keep inside my switched off oven. The already warmth helped my dough to rise quickly.

Now knead the dough until its soft. Finally place it on the bread pan and bake @ 450 F for about 30mins or until golden brown.



Tips:

To make sure the dough doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan, place an aluminium foil or parchment paper cut to the exact size of the bottom of the pan. This makes sure your cleaning of the pan later is made easy.

Spread butter on the top the bread flour during the beginning and at  about 5 mins before finishing the baking.

Cakes / Muffins / Pizza / Jams -- Recipe Index

Cakes / Muffins:

• 100th post : Eggless Date Muffins
• 150th post ::: Golden Butter Cake
• 200th post : Choco Chip Muffin
• 250th post : Vanilla Cornmeal Cake
• Colorful Cup Cake 
• Black forest Cake
• Vanilla cake with chocolate frosting  
• Royal Icing

Breads:

• Home Made ~ White bread 
• Banana Bread

Pizza:

•  300th post : Homemade Veggie Pizza

Jams:

• Apple Jam

Homemade Veggie Pizza ~~ 300th Post & Happy Birthday Gayu !!!

Buddies,

Knw wat...there's something special abt tis post...if u hadn't noticed...hurraayyyyy...itz a milestone...yeah, we have reached the 300th post...n itz my best friend's birthday...Happy birthday Gayathri...May u b blessed always with the best dear and I pray that all ur dreams come true now and forever da...

Would love to celebrate tis with a special dish...but since I'm busy packing up things for moving to a new house this week, I cannot hit my kitchen with some experiments now...so I went into my list of dishes, which I have prepared already in the past, taken a picture but failed to post a recipe :( I knw, I'm a lazygoose...bt this has come in handy at a situtation like tis :) The list of dishes for which the recipes where pending were sure looooooooonnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggg....hmm...bt i had no second thought in picking up my fav...It was my "HOMEMADE PIZZA"....this pizza turned out so gud, tat hubby dear, who is not a huge fan of pizza's, also liked it...so how much did i like it??? I always find even a paper with pizza written over it yummy....sooo....guess wat...all i wud say is,..It was mouthwatering :) n never knew tat making pizza was so easy...Gayathri, this pizza is exclusively for ur bday da...grab it wen it is still hot ;) !!!

Coming to the recipe...It was not my own recipe...I went for a mixing here ;) yeah, browsed through two videos of pizza preparation, took portions of the best from both(according to me) and then made my pizza...Also find below a separate link for the pizza sauce recipe from vah chef Sanjay...I used this recipe for the sauce...You can always go for a store bought pizza sauce if u want to...I've tried both, bt loved the homemade version...Juz incase u guys prefer a clear written recipe than the videos, lemme knw,,,i will post it too...bt knw wat, i think the video will be more helpful in this case...

Links for videos on pizza preparation:

1. Sangeeth's video link : http://letusallcook.blogspot.com/2008/11/home-made-pizza-basedough-cooking-video.html

2. Vahchef Sanjay's video link for pizza base : http://www.vahrehvah.com/popvideo.php?recipe_id=289

3. Sanjay's video link for pizza sauce : http://www.vahrehvah.com/popvideo.php?recipe_id=2019

Please give a try and let me know how ur pizza turned out...

Last bt nt least, thanks a ton for all the support u all render...It u who keep me going...Happy cooking and blogging...a special thanks once again to my best pal Gays who fills my space so well wenever I take a break and contributes her best all the time...

Smiles :)

Kavitha Kishore

Mango Pachadi

This Mango Pachadi was done on account of Tamil New year's day . So I have added Vepampoo (Neem flower) . It is optional ingredient .

To know more about Tamil New Year Day , check out these blogs :

http://hindutradition.blogspot.com/2009/04/puthandu-tamil-new-year.html

Ingredients Needed :

• Raw Mango - 1
• Jaggery 1 - 1 1/2 cup
• Dried Red chillies - 1
• Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
• Urid dhal - 1/4 tsp.
• Veppampoo (Neem flower ) - little
• Salt - a pinch
• Oil - 1 tsp.
• Ghee - little

Method :

Chop mangoes it to pieces . you can peel the skin of mangoes if needed. In a kadai add ghee and fry the vempampoo well and keep it aside then add 1 tsp oil and temper it with mustard seeds + urid dhal + dried red chilli now add the mango pieces + a pinch of salt and add little water and allow it to boil , till done then add the jaggery add allow it dissolve well , if needed add little water. Once it gets thicker switch off the flame and add vepampoo finally.

Note :

        Jaggery may contains impurities so dissolve it separately in a kadai and strain it and then add it to the mangoes at the final stage , you can also add little rice flour mixed with water , to get the pachadi into thicker consistency.

Sending this Post to Srivalli's Mithai mela :

Vannila Cornmeal Cake ~~ 250th Post

Well, time sure runs fast these days...or is it my posts than the days which are running in a more faster pace with all due help and support from my lovely contributors...Lotz have happened, both gud ones and bad ones from my journey starting from 200th to 250th post...To be frank, I was juz nt in a mood for all this chitchats..but finally somehow found tat tis was the best way i cud get out with all tat was troubling me...Now don't get confused...This post is sure a special one n ur sure to get the cornmeal cake recipe :) I've got 2 gud and sweet reasons for the cake but one not so gud one in queue too...Tatz life nways...filled with both joy n sorrow..the first sweet reason, the reason for this cake being baked...It was baked on april 14th 2009...On our personal Valentines Day....yeah, u heard it rite..ourz was a love marriage n hubby dear proposed me on April 14th 2006 :) so Mr.K alwayz makes it a point tat the valentine's celeb is never on Feb 14th for us...rather itz on our very own special April 14th...well, since all i wanted was a celebration, the date juz does nt seem to matter a lot..itz more personal n happy wen u hav ur own day for love...rite guys :) So this was the reason for the vannila cornmeal cake...Having said the happy news first, i want to go ahead with the hard part of the post nw...yeah, the bitter one...Don't worry, i've got another happy news to end the note...

Bitter part of the post...A kid who I know personally has been diagonsed with blood cancer...n the kid is juz 11 months old...god, if he exists, sure must have been crazy to have given the lil one such a pain...the only gud thing abt it is tat he was dignosed at the beginning stage and so things are believed to come back to normal with the lil one soon...It has taken me days to digest this news and I'm yet to come out of it fully...It was one big reason which has holded me back from my daily routines and blog work...our prayers will be there for you always da thangam...waiting to c ur innocent smile soon...

Final part of the blog...as I already mentioned tat it was goin to end up with a gud news...we hav bought a new car...it has been our dream for the past one year...after so many hinderances finally here v r, with our dream car....Havin said all tat I had, time to move on with the recipe...I knw I've been totally off track with this post, but who else do I have to share all this, if not u guys...thanx for making my heart feel more lighter and once again Thanx sooooo much for all ur support guys...Keep visiting, contributing and commenting on my blog....Take care n C ya :)

Ingredients:

• Eggs - 4
• Sugar - 2 cups
• Oil - 1/2 cup (canola or similar)
• Cornmeal - 1 cup
• Milk - 1cup
• All purpose flour or cake flour - 1 cup
• baking powder - 1 tbsp
• Vannila Essence - 1 tbsp

Preparation:

Preheat oven at 350degreesF. Butter a non-stick 30cm cake pan well and set aside.

Whisk together Eggs, sugar and oil. Make sure you beat the ingredients well to a mix. Then mix cornmeal with warm milk in another separate bowl. Mix the two beaten ingredients (eggs mixture and the cornmeal mixture) together now. Sift the all purpose flour and baking powder and add it to the batter at this stage. Whisk well. To this add some vannila essence and mix well with the cake batter. Pour this to the already butter spread cake pan. Make sure you fill only 2/3 rds of the pan. Bake it for 15 minutes. After 30 minutes, check if the cake is done by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, then the cake is ready. Else bake the cake till it passes the toothpick test. Once the cake is ready, take it out from the oven and cool it at room temperature for 10 minutes. Then remove the cake from the pan and serve it topping it with some fresh cream.

Also a special Thanks to Sanghi for sharing the "Lovely Blog award"...You made me feel special da...

This award comes with the following rules:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs (Only if you like).
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blog.

I'm passing this to the blogs which i love and to some of my new and always evergreen friends...

1. Gayathri's http://hindutradition.blogspot.com/

2. Padma's http://www.padmasrecipes.blogspot.com/

3. DV's http://divya-dilse.blogspot.com/

4. Anu's http://www.myscrawls.com/

5. Veda's http://iyengarskitchen.blogspot.com/

6. Pooja's http://saikitchen.blogspot.com/

7. http://simpleindianfood.blogspot.com/

Apple Jam

Ingredients Needed :

• Apple - 3 (Medium sized)
• Sugar - 1 cups
• Jaggery - Little

Method :

Cut Apple into small cubes. In a pan, add apple cubes + water and cook till it gets soft . Remove from heat and allow this to cool for 5 to 10 minutes.Drain the excess water and grind the cooked apple cubes in a blender nicely add Sugar + jaggery and little water and dissolve sugar and jaggery well , Keep the stove in medium heat. Stir this mix frequently , till it becomes thick. This may take 20 to 25 minutes. Then remove from heat and let it cool completely. Then store the jam in jars and refrigerate.

Choco Chips Muffins ~~ 200th Post

First i wud love to thank all of you for the support you render both to me n my blog..never thought I wud end up with so many recipes in such a short span of time...there had been times wen i hav taken a break n chilled out, chances r tat i wud hav remained so, if nt for some special people like u who kept questioning abt my absence..tatz wat made me feel tat i was atleast to some extent noticed, in a level more than i wud have ever expected....Thanx once again to everybody, who take time to read my blog, drop in some comments for my improvisation, share ur recipes in the blog so tat others cud benefit out of it....thanx to one n all :)

This being my 200th post, itz gonna be a celebration with some muffins...hmm...did i miss something...yeah, "CHOCO CHIP" Muffins...juz the word choco makes the post so special...rite :) well, i did want to add more specials to it....planned to put in a video of hw i did the muffins...i took the video too..bt then faced pbms in uploading it :( it took soooooo much time tat i went crazy n dropped the plan of video finally....wil sure try to add it to the post later...

As of nw, letz step forward with our muffins prepartion....if ur expecting me to say the preparation from the scratch, then i apologize, cos i'm goin with the easy semi-cooking method...yeah, using the muffin mix this time...there mixes cost less than a dollar n tastes so yummy....all these factors have made me lazy enough to stop doing them from the scratch by myself....

Ingredients:

• Chocolate Chip Muffin Mix Packet - 1 ( I used Martha White brand)
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Some butter/oil to grease the muffin cups

Preparation:

Heat oven to 425F. Lightly spray 6 medium muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray. You can also use paper baking cups. Combine the muffin mix and milk in a small bowl. Stir until itz moistened. Fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full. Bake at 425F for 14 to 17 mins or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 2 to 3 mins in pan.

Your yummy Choco Chip muffins are ready to taste.

Pillsbury Golden Butter Cake :) ~~ 150th post

Hey everybody...I know I have been pretty lazy while moving up from my 100th to 150th post...but still don't want to miss the special moment...well, which place cud be more better than here for conveying my  heartful thanx to my dearest friend gays for her wonderful support in my blog when I busy moving from one state to another...n ...hmm...of course when i was lazying around...trust me, friends sure brighten up ur life and make u do things much better...incidentally, my 150th post has fallen around the most special day for all those who are in love around the world....yeah...itz VALENTINE'S DAY....I baked a cake for hubby dear and also prepared some yummy dishes for him...being a homamaker, that was the least i cud do... Thou the cake was made for him, it was me who gobbled up the cake in no time...the cake was sooooo gud, and had never turned out to be so scrumptious...ok guys time for the recipe...well, before that a quick stop to wish....."HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY"...

Ingredients:

• Pillsbury Moist Supreme premium cake mix (Golden butter flavour) - 1 (itz less than a dollar, so plz grab one and start baking a cake rite now)
• Water - 1 cup
• Softened Butter - 1/3 cup
• Eggs - 3

Preparation:

Preheat the oevn to 350Degree F. Grease the baking pan with butter or non-stick spray. Well, I used butter. Blend cake mix, water, softened butter and eggs in a large bowl until moistened. Whisk the mix for atleast 5 mins such that he mix becomes real fluffy. pour the mix on to the baking pan. Top the mix with some broken nuts. Bake the cake in oven at 350 for 40 mins. Check if the cake is done by inserting a toothpick in the center. If it comes out clean, then your cake is ready. Allow the cake to cool for 15 mins and then remove it from the pan.

Your special valentine's day cake is ready to be served.

Eggless Date Muffins ~~ 100th Post

::: My Blog Hitting Century Celeb Special :

Ingredients:

    Pitted Dates - 1 cup
    Milk (I used whole milk) - 1 + 1/4 cups
    Baking Soda - 1 tsp
    Sugar - 1 cup
    All Purpose Flour - 2 cups
    Butter (Melted) - 1 cup
    Vegetable Oil - 1/2 Cup

Preparation:
 
Sieve all the dry ingredients twice. Preheat the oven for 350 degree.Soak dates in the above milk for about 2 hours. Grind the dates with the milk in the food processor or blender.To this add in all the rest of the ingredients and mix it again in the food processor or mix it well for 5 minutes using a spatula. Add the above to the lined muffin pan( or non stick cake pan)and bake at 350 degree for around 45 min. or until done.Your Muffins are done. 

On the safer side, you can check if they are done, by inserting a fork into the muffin. If it comes out clean, then your safe to switch off the oven.