Day 22 – Baked Cumin Tilapia and Pan Roasted Kohlrabi
These days weekends are much busier than weekdays. I was way too busy this weekend and was eating super unhealthy. I wanted to end this weekend in a healthy way, went to the gym and worked out for an hour, came home and baked tilapia. I also pan roasted kohlrabi.
Recipe
Day 20 – Fried Orotti
I made this fried orotti for the first time on last summer and loved it. I got the craving to have this today and so made it for dinner.
Recipe
Day 13 – Chick Peas Curry and Red Rice Puttu
It was such a beautiful snowy day. It’s been so long since I had puttu and Kadala curry, one of the specialities of Kerala and I had a sudden craving for it. So for dinner made chick pea or chana curry totally my way and red rice puttu. The curry tasted so delicious that any hard core non-vegetarian would fall for it.
Puttu Recipe : I used red rice flour instead of white rice flour.
Day 12 – Lentil Carrot Soup and Corn Flour Crepes (Gluten Free)
Pheww, had a long day. Finally, done with my seminar and it went quite well. For dinner, made lentil carrot soup and served with crepes made with corn flour. My hubby was not quite impressed with this dinner, he was digging in the soup for meat, poor him!
Lentil Carrot Soup Recipe
Ingredients:
- Red lentil, washed- 1 1/2 cups
- Carrot, diced- 1, large
- Spinach- 2 cups
- Haleem Masala- 3 tbsp or according to your spice level
- Water- 2 1/2 cups + more to thin down the soup
Preparation:
- In a pressure cooker, combine lentils, carrot, spinach and haleem masala.
- Add 2 1/2 cups of water to it and cook till 1 whistle.
- Let the pressure subside and open the cooker.
- If the soup has too thick constituency, add some more water to thin it down and cook for a few minutes.
- Taste and add more of haleem masala if needed.
- Serve warm along with crackers, I served with corn flour crepes.
Corn flour Crepes Recipe (Gluten Free)
Ingredients
- Masa harina or corn flour- 1 1/2 cups
- Salt- little
- Water- enough to make a thick batter
Preparation:
- In a blender,combine corn flour, salt with enough water and blend make a thick batter.
- Heat a non-stick pan, grease with oil.
- Pour the batter and spread it into round shape, cook.
- Flip it over and cook the other side till golden spots appear on it.
Tips:
- Don’t pour the batter on a very hot pan, batter wouldn’t spread evenly.
- After you cook one crepe, remove the pan from the heat and let stand for a few seconds and then pur the batter.
Day 10 – Tuna Cakes and Baked Tuna Stuffed Eggplant
Had a crazy day and it’s going to be crazy this entire week. For dinner, made tuna cakes and also baked eggplant stuffed with tuna.
Tuna Cakes Recipe : I didn’t add spinach, coated with gluten free flour instead of bread crumbs and pan fried it.
Day 9 – Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Chicken Salad
I learned a valuable lesson today! I had been always intimidated by the thought of cooking brussel sprouts though I admire the tiny cabbage look of them. I tried cooking it a couple of times, it turned out to be bitter and ended up in the trash. So for dinner, roasted brussel sprouts after seasoning it, sprinkled cheese and almonds towards the end of roasting. It tasted so good that I couldn’t stop eating them. I wasn’t up for any major cooking, so baked chicken and served over salad.
Day 8 – Baked Chicken Legs and Salad
When hubby makes dinner this is what I get to eat, baked chicken legs along with salad.
Recipe
Ingredients:
- Chicken legs
- Honey-Garlic barbeque sauce
- Ground pepper- 1 tsp
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Marinate the chicken legs with the sauce and sprinkle ground pepper on it, keep aside for 30 minutes.
- Line the baking sheet with aluminum foil, spray with non-stick cooking spray.
- Place the chicken legs and bake for 45 minutes.
- After 20 minutes of baking, flip the chicken legs and bake for another 25 minutes.
- Serve along with salad.
Day 7 – Biryani in a Hurry
The caption says it all, I was in a hurry yet I was craving for homemade biryani. So, made Biryani in a hurry. Even though it was made in a hurry which obviously called for less preparation time, it tasted unbelievably yummy and flavorful.
Day 3 – Spinach pakora and Sour Cream Pasta
I had a craving for pakoras and so made spinach pakoras along with a spicy yogurt sauce. For dinner, made sour cream veggie pasta. My new addiction is sour cream, I can have it with almost everything especially with pasta.
Sour Cream Veggie Pasta Recipe
Ingredients
- Pasta, fusilli – 1/2 packet
- Broccoli florets- 1 1/2 cups
- Mushroom, sliced- 1 1/2 cups
- Spinach- 1 1/2 cups
- Celery, cut long thin- 2 stalks
- Oregano, dried- 3 tsp
- Sour cream- 1 1/2 cups
- Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
- Salt- to taste
Preparation
- Cook pasta in boiling water seasoned with little salt, drain and keep aside.
- Cook the veggies in a pan till tender, don’t over cook them.
- Season with oregano, ground pepper and salt.
- Pour sour cream and combine well, let cook for a few minutes.
- Add pasta and combine well.
- If the pasta is too dry, add some more sour cream and cook it.
- Remove from the heat and serve hot.
Day 2 – Green Beans and Chicken Casserole
Holidays came to an end and getting back to reality, boo hoo 
This evening we were hit by a surprise blizzard, we were outside and I had some fun in the blizzard, it was beautiful! For dinner, made green beans and chicken casserole.
Here is the recipe
Day 1- Pepper Green Curry Chicken
Hope everyone welcomed 2012 wholeheartedly. It was quite a good start for me as hubby volunteered to make dinner. While he was busy in the kitchen, I asked him very sweetly “How about you continue with the Dinner 365 project and let’s call it as Dinner365 by hubby?” He replied extra sweetly “Hell No!!!”, sighhh. Well, I got used to taking the pictures of my dinners and I really enjoyed doing it as this project motivated me to cook different and fresh dinners everyday, so I am going to continue this project. Here is the 1st dinner of this year, specially made by my hubby. I am planning to post the recipe for all the dinners as well. Major recipes I’ll post on Cooking with Thas with step-by-step instructions with pictures and others I’ll post it here.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
- Chicken, cubed- 2 boneless chicken breasts
- Green pepper, cubed-1
- Yellow pepper, cubed-1
- Carrot, diced- 1, large
- Onion, diced- 1, large
- Thai Green curry paste (Thai kitchen brand)- 2 to 3 tbsp
- Coconut milk- 1 cup
- Salt- to taste
- Olive oil or vegetable oil- 2 tbsp
Preparation:
- Cook the cubed chicken in a large pan covered with its lid till the chicken has cooked well, keep aside.
- Place a large pan over medium heat, add the veggies and cook covered, let it turn tender.
- Add green curry paste to the veggies, combine well and cook for 5 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let the veggies cool down a bit.
- Puree the veggies in a blender adding little water to a smooth constituency.
- Return the puree into the pot, heat it.
- Add coconut milk to it and cook for a few minutes.
- Taste and add more salt if needed or more green curry paste if you need it to be spicy.
- If the gravy is too thick add water to thin it down, cook for a couple more minutes and remove from the heat.
- Serve warm with basmati rice, jasmine rice or plain rice.
Day 346 – Shepherd’s Pie
It was such a beautiful day today, it’s almost mid of December and we didn’t have much snow showers yet still enjoying nice weather. Hubby is having potluck lunch at his workplace tomorrow and his choice was Shepherd’s Pie. Beef and mashed potatoes are two of his favorites so am not surprised by his pick. This evening, I was busy making shepherd’s pie. I made two pans of it, we couldn’t resist having it for tonight’s dinner as well. It did taste delicious. This was the dish I had taken for St Patrick’s day potluck organized by the foodie meetup in Omaha.
Day 334 – Quesapita
I am juggling between way too many things these days. So, I tend to make quick fix dinners rather than spending too much time in the kitchen. For dinner, made quesadilla, since I used pita bread instead of tortilla I had to rename this dish to quesapita.
Recipe: For making 1 quesapita
Ingredients:
- Cooked chicken breast- 1
- Taco sauce- 4 tbsp
- Pickled Jalapeno- few slices
- Cheddar cheese
- Pita bread- 1 large
Preparation:
- Season chicken breast with ground pepper and salt, pan fry in 1 tbsp olive oil till it has cooked well.
- Dice the cooked chicken to small.
- Add 2 tbsp of taco sauce to the cooked diced chicken and stir fry till light golden in color.
- Place a non-stick pan over low heat.
- Place pita bread on the pan, spread 2 tbsp taco sauce over the pita, top with cooked diced chicken, pickled jalapenos and generously sprinkle cheese over it.
- As the pita warms up the cheese will melt.
- When the cheese starts to melt, fold the pita into semi circle shape.
- Heat for some more time till the pita has glued together.
- Don’t over heat the pita as it will turn crispy.
- Remove from the heat, cut the pita into halves and serve with your favorite salad.
- Increase the amount of ingredients and make more.
Day 300 – Orange Chicken Salad
Here is my 300th dinner. I cannot believe there are only 65 more days to go, that’s unbelievably fast! Made a flavorful orange chicken and served with salad.
Day 282 – Chicken Mushroom Stir Fry Salad
What an amazing day it was! It’s october and the temperature was 27 degrees C. We went apple picking and picked 10 lbs of apple, I am getting ready to slip into an apple coma. For dinner, made Chicken Mushroom Stir fry and served it on lettuce.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
- Oil- 1 tbsp
- Chicken, boneless cubed- 1 lb
- Onion, chopped- 1
- Mushroom, sliced- 1 packet
- Green Pepper, diced- 1
- Sambal Oelek- 1 tsp
- Soy Sauce- 3 tbsp
- Green onions, chopped- 2 stalks
- Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful
- Salt- very little
Preparation:
- Heat a wok, add oil, add onion and little salt, saute for 2 minutes.
- Add chicken, cover and cook till chicken is almost done.
- Add, green pepper and mushrooms to it, cook till veggies are done.
- Add soy sauce and sambal oelek, combine and stir fry.
- Finally, add green onions and cilantro, stir fry for a minute.
- Remove from heat and serve on lettuce or any greens.
Day 231 – Quinoa Stuffed Eggplant and Zucchini
Friday night called for some fun cooking. I wanted to finish the eggplants in my refrigerator and make something with Quinoa. So why not combine them together? I first cooked the quinoa, stuffed them into the eggplants and zucchinis and baked them. I am so glad to have tried this, it turned out amazing and tasted incredible.
Recipe:
Day 228 – Erachipola or Chicken Egg cake and Milk Fruit shake
It was an amazing day, I am talking about the weather. It was so pleasant and crisp. For dinner I finally made erachipola or Chicken-egg cake, this is a Malabar speciality. I also made a milk-fruit shake garnished with basil seeds.
Recipe:
Day 227 – Parippu Vada, Veggie Rice soup, Ground beef stir fry and Apple dates shake
I was in a great mood and made all these for tonight’s dinner or iftar. Apple dates shake, parippu vada or Fried lentil, Veggie Rice soup and ground beef stir fry made by my hubby.
Recipe:
Day 222 – Chicken Spinach Balls, Mushroom Beans Stir Fry and Mint Watermelon Juice
Finally, I overcame my antipathy towards mint. All these years I’ve never added mint in any of my dishes nor have I bought mint. Lately, I got the feeling that I need to change my atitude towards mint and and I forced myself to buy mint during my last grocery shopping. Finally, today I made a few dishes using mint. I made chicken spinach balls and added mint to it while sautéing, also made mint watermelon juice. I loved the taste of mint in both of these. I harvested beans from my garden and made mushroom-bean stir fry. I’ll be soon posting the recipes of these in my cooking website, so stay tuned.
Recipe:
Day 221 – Cauliflower Bread Cutlet, Dried Ginger Rice Soup and Cauli Patties
It was a long day with a lot of research work during the day and cooking in the evening. This evening I made cauliflower bread cutlet, rice soup flavored with dried ginger and for my hubby gluten free cauliflower patties.
Recipe:
Day 220 – Chicken Stir Fry Salad
Monday turned out to be just fine. For dinner, I had some leftovers, also I made an easy chicken stir fry salad.
Recipe:
Chicken Stir Fry Salad:
Ingredients:
- Chicken breasts, cut small- 2 no’s
- Onion, chopped small- 1
- Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
- Green chilly, chopped- 1
- Tomatoes chopped- 2
- Curry leaves- 1 sprig
- Soy sauce- 2 tbsp
- Chilli paste- 1 tsp
- Green onions, chopped- 2 stalks
- Oil- 2 tbsp
- Salt- to taste
Preparation:
- Heat a wok or pan, add oil let it turn hot.
- Add chopped onions, salt and saute.
- Add ginger garlic paste and saute for 2 minutes.
- Now, add curry leaves and tomatoes to it.
- Let the tomatoes get mashed up.
- Add chicken and cook covered till chicken turns tender.
- Open the lid and stir fry the chicken till all the water dries off.
- Add soy sauce, chilli paste and stir fry for a few seconds.
- Add green onions and stir fry for a minute.
- Serve over lettuce or your favorite greens.
Day 219 – Chicken Dumpling and Chicken Kanji
It was such an unpleasant day. This was my dinner: Chicken dumpling and chicken kanji.
Recipe:
Day 218 – Veggie Crepes and Apple Crumble Cake
My day was going good till I saw some of the cucumbers were missing from my garden, the damn squirrel has been driving me crazy for so long. I don’t think I can enjoy any of the cucumbers from my garden, before it grows the squirrel would have enjoyed it, sigh. For dinner, I made veggie crepes and gluten free apple crumble cake.
Recipe:
Veggie Crepes recipe:
For making crepes:
Ingredients:
- All purpose flour- 1 cup
- Egg- 1
- Milk- 1/2 cup
- Water- 3/4 cup
- Salt- to taste
For filling:
- Oil- 1 tbsp
- Mixed veggies, chopped small- 2 cups
- Garlic, minced- 1 tsp
- Soy sauce- 2 tbsp
- Chili paste- 1/2 tsp
- Tomato sauce- 1/3 cup
- Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
- Salt- to taste
Other ingredients:
- Cheese, grated- 1 1/2 cups
Preparation:
- Place a pan over medium heat, add oil, add the veggies and garlic, saute till the veggies turn tender.
- Add soy sauce, chilli paste, ground pepper and salt, combine well.
- Add tomato sauce and cook for 2 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and keep aside.
For making crepes:
- In a blender, combine all the ingredients for making the crepes to a thick batter.
- If the batter is too thick add water to thin it down.
- Heat a cast iron skillet or non-stick cooking pan, grease it with little oil.
- Pour a ladle of batter on the pan, using the back of the spoon spread the batter to a round shape.
- When the bottom side turns light golden in color, flip over and cook the other side to golden color too.
- Remove from the pan.
- Place one spoonful of the prepared veggies on the center of the crepe, fold both the ends.
- Repeat this with other crepes too.
- Place the stuffed crepes on a glass baking dish and sprinkle the cheese over it.
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Bake the crepes for 10 minutes, till the cheese turns golden in color.
- Remove from the oven and serve.
