L.O.V.E. Wraps

 

I know you think that my blog has sort of turned into a baking blog with a savory recipe seldom thrown here and there which again involves some sort of baking! (Humph.. Do I make sense?) So after throwing so many sugar-laden desserts week after week, I thought a savory recipe for brunch or breakfast (which does not involve baking) would be a great way to redeem my past actions. And when the recipe is so healthy, no-carb and wholesome, I’m sure many of you’ll be ecstatic.

With this recipe, turn your regular scrambled egg breakfast into a fancy brunch dish. With summer upon us, we require as many quick-fixes as possible. I mean, who wants to turn on the oven or spend time in the kitchen slogging over the heat! Low-fat and clean eating becomes a necessity when days are so hot and humid. This recipe absolutely fits the bill as an all-rounder meal suitable for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner.

This dish is so colorful because of zucchini, carrots and broccoli. As for the recipe, these are the measurements I followed but this dish does not require following a recipe to the T so feel free to make any adjustments. Use whatever vegetables you have at hand. Go vegetable crazy! Bell peppers and beans would be quite awesome too.

So eat light & have a happy happy weekend!
xo

 

 

L.O.V.E. Wraps

Serves: 2 | Prep time: 10 minutes | Cook time: 10 minutes | Total: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp Olive oil
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 small head broccoli, cut into florets
• 1 small carrot, cut into julienne
• 1 small zucchini, cut into julienne
• 1/8 tsp red chili flakes
• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning (or any seasoning of your choice)
• 1/2 Tbsp butter
• 2-3 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp milk
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 4-6 lettuce leaves, washed and dried (any lettuce of your choice is fine)

Directions:

1. In a skillet, heat 1 Tbsp oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onion to the skillet and saute till golden brown for about 2-3 minutes.
   Add broccoli and carrots and saute for another minute.
   Add zucchini and cook until just warm. We want the vegetables to have crunch and not be mushy. Mix in red chili flakes, Italian seasoning (or seasoning of your choice) and season with salt and pepper. Place this mixture in a small bowl.
2. Wipe the skillet (used to saute vegetables) with paper towel and heat 1 Tbsp butter in it over medium heat. In a mixing bowl, crack 2-3 eggs and whisk them together with milk until well-beaten. Add pinch of salt and plenty of pepper.
   Tilt the skillet to ensure the entire pan is coated in the melted butter and pour in the eggs. Keep the heat on medium low. When the eggs just start to set, use a flat spatula to slowly scrape sections of eggs, creating folds. Scrape occasionally until the eggs form soft folds; turn off the heat just before they are fully hardened.
3. To serve, place the scrambled eggs on a lettuce and top with onion and vegetable mixture.

Skinny Chocolate Avocado Banana Pudding & Pops – Raw! ~ For Two

 

 

Okay, so I”m ashamed to EVEN call this a recipe but in actuality it is! However simple it might be. Sometimes simple is all we need. Simple is beautiful. We are experiencing summer at full force and I want to spend minimum time in kitchen that too away from stove and oven. Of course, still wanting extraordinary food to appear magically on my plate so I’m all about quick recipes nowadays. Cold salads, iced coffees/teas, cold cereal, smoothies and frozen fruit treats are what my days are made of.

A raw pudding. And pops. Same ordinary ingredients with just a bit of tweaking gets transformed into two incredibly delicious desserts. Desserts which are healthy and skinny at the same time. All you need is a high-speed blender. And some chocolate, cocoa powder to be specific. And avocado and banana. Avocado-haters, do not fret. You can not taste avocado. Promise! My husband truly hates avocado from the bottom of his heart, if used in anything other than guacamole and he couldn’t tell! Yes, I didn’t tell him beforehand and he couldn’t make out. Win! Also, you can totally have these for breakfast! 😉

 

 

Each recipe serves two but you can easily double, triple or quadruple the recipe to serve more people or have bigger portions. Stay cool this summer with these cool recipes up your sleeves!

Happy Monday you all!

Raw Chocolate Avocado Banana Pudding:

Serves: 2 | Prep time: 2 minutes | Chill time: 3-4 hours

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp instant coffee powder
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 ripe (large) avocado
• 1/2 ripe (large) banana (fresh or frozen)
• 3 Tbsp honey/maple syrup/date syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 10-12 dices of fresh, ripe mango, for garnish

Directions:

Place all the ingredients in a blender (place dry ingredients in the bottom so they don’t stick to the sides of the blender) and whip till you get completely smooth consistency. Divide the pudding between two ramekins/bowls and refrigerate covered for at least 3-4 hours. Serve, topped with mango dices.

*Consume the pudding within 1 day of making it.
*Instead of mango, you may use strawberries/raspberries.

Raw Chocolate Avocado Banana Pops:

Serves: 2 | Prep time: 2 minutes | Chill time: 8 hours/overnight

Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp instant coffee powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 ripe (large) avocado
• 1/2 ripe (large) banana (fresh or frozen)
• 1/4 cup honey/maple syrup/date syrup
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

Place all the ingredients in a blender (place dry ingredients in the bottom so they don’t stick to the sides of the blender) and whip till you get completely smooth consistency. Divide between two Popsicle moulds. If you do not have Popsicle moulds then divide between two paper cups like I did and cover with tin foil, poke the center of the foil with the Popsicle stick. Chill in freezer for at least 8 hours/overnight, demould and serve immediately.

P.S. Want to make these Pops even more chocolaty? Cover them with the chocolate magic shell just like a professional by following this easy-peesy tutorial.
P.P.S. Use white chocolate for these Pops! 😉

 

Frozen Sweet Lime~Pomegranate Cheesecake

You know how much I love cheesecake… It is my go-to comfort food more often than I would like to admit. Happy days and stressed days equally call out for cheesecake around here! I’m very finicky about my cheesecakes. Till now my most favorite has been a blueberry cheesecake from a particular cafe. It is heavenly and just how I like my cheesecake to be. And I would never dare to make one in my house as long as that cafe exists!

After trying and making so many different varieties of cheesecakes, I decided to whip up this no-bake, gelatin-free, creamy, cheesy, frozen dessert. Let me simplify this for you. This dessert is nothing but a cheesecake ice-cream which is layered over a salty, buttery, chocolaty crust.

My refrigerator was bursting with sweet and juicy pomegranates. It was a flavor I had never tried before in a cheesecake. I thought it would make a delicate and lovely pairing with cream cheese. To make things tangy, I used up zest and juice from a sweet lime. The result was such a gorgeous baby pink color cheesecake! I just fell in love with it 🙂

I went sweet and salty route this time. The crust for this cheesecake is made with chocolate Oreos, butter and just a pinch of salt. This salty kick enhances the cheesecake flavor to another level. If you’re not a fan of sweet-n-salt, feel free to skip the salt as it will still taste divine! But I highly recommend salt as it is not too over-powering. So promise me you’ll add it to know what I’m REALLY talking about… You’ll thank me! 😉

I made a big batch as I was having company but you can easily halve the recipe and make it in 4-inch spring-form pan. The frozen cheesecake tastes best when eaten within 12-15 hours of being made. It becomes harder and icier the more it stays in the freezer. In case of leftovers, let it thaw for 15 minutes before serving.

Frozen Sweet Lime~Pomegranate Cheesecake with Salted Oreo Crust

Makes: 10-12 slices | Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 0 minute | Chilling time: 4-5 hours

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 15 chocolate Oreos or any chocolate sandwiched biscuits
• 3 Tbsp melted butter
• 1/4 tsp salt

Cheesecake Filling:

• 3 pomegranates
• Zest and juice from 1 sweet lime
• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp icing sugar
• 2 8 oz. package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 cups medium-fat fresh cream (40% fat), chilled

Direction:

1. Line 9-inch round spring-form pan with parchment paper. Grind Oreos in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. Add melted butter and salt. Spoon the crust and press down firmly over the base using flat base of a glass. Chill in refrigerator while you make the filling.
2. Remove morsels from pomegranates, save morsels from half pomegranate and juice rest of the morsels with lime juice. Strain the juice into a bowl, add icing sugar and whisk to dissolve.
3. In a large bowl, take cream cheese and whisk until smooth. Use electric hand mixer/stand mixer for this. Add juice and sweet lime zest to cream cheese and whip till combined.
4. In a separate bowl, whip the fresh cream till soft peaks form. Gently fold it with cream cheese mixture to achieve a lump-free consistency.
5. Remove spring-form pan from the refrigerator and spoon the cheesecake filling over the crust. Let it chill in freezer covered in cling film. After 1 hour, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and return to chill in freezer for another 3-4 hours. Once set, release from spring-form pan, slice and serve. Run the knife under hot water before slicing.

Note: Can be consumed as a sweet lime~pomegranate cheesecake ice-cream if frozen without the Oreo crust.

Strawberry Fool & DIY Chocolate Cups

I hope to write a small post! Is that even possible? Humph.. Let’s try and see..

I’m writing about this easiest dessert ever today… It is an English classic! I’m talking about Strawberry Fool.. The name says it all! It is so simple that any fool should be able to make it! No kidding 😀

The fool ~ this dessert is nothing but sweetened fruit folded into stiffly peaked and slightly sweetened whipped cream. THAT IS IT! Berries work perfectly for this dessert, especially strawberries. Kiwi and rhubarb would be a nice twist too.

For serving my fool, I made heart-shaped chocolate cups! Do you remember my post “Brownie Bombs“? I had mentioned in that post that even after coating all the cake pops generously I still had some left-over melted chocolate. I had to think on my feet… How to turn this left-over melted chocolate into something amazing and this impromptu idea came to my mind. Very easy to make. All you need is silicone cupcake liners.

Chocolate cups are so easy to make that once you’ve started, it is difficult to stop. You’ll find yourself stuffing them with all sorta yumminess out there! Imagine your favorite peanut butter, ice-creams, mousse and cheesecake served in these edible chocolate cups. Now no need to lick the plate!

DIY chocolate cup seated on my DIY cupcake stand!

Don’t overfill the cups with fool like I did! 😛

Chocolate and strawberries are match made in heaven. So serving strawberry fool in a chocolate cup makes for a perfect and elegant party-dessert. Chocolate cups can be made ahead and stored in refrigerator for months and strawberry fool is a no-cook, no-nonsense dessert. Perfect for last-minute dessert-fix or midnight-cravings!

P.S. I’m sorry but I do not have step-by-step photos for chocolate cups. As you can imagine my kitchen and hands were covered in chocolate. 😛 But do not worry. These are easy-peesy to make and you will not require my horrible photographic skills to show you that.

DIY Chocolate Cups:

Yields: 4 cups

Ingredients:

• 50 gm dark chocolate*, melted
• 4 silicone cupcake liners, frozen for 5 minutes
• small sheet of grease-proof baking paper

Directions:

For detailed information on how to melt chocolate: Refer to this post

Method-1:

Dip the outer surface of the silicone liner into the melted chocolate. Remove the excess chocolate by giving the liner a slight shake. Ensure that the chocolate coats the liner evenly. Upturn the liner and place it on grease-proof baking paper. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Dip the liner again in the melted chocolate to get a thicker layer of chocolate and refrigerate again. Repeat these steps to make 3 more cups.
Once cool, separate the chocolate cups from silicone liners slowly and carefully. Refrigerate till the time of use.
Method-2: For this method a small paint brush will be required.

Paint a thin layer of chocolate onto the inside of each cupcake liner. Refrigerate them for 10 minutes.
Paint a second thin layer of chocolate on top of the first layer and refrigerate for another 10 minutes.
Carefully pop the chocolate cups out of the liners. Refrigerate till the time of use.

* Feel free to use white chocolate or mix of dark and white chocolate.

Strawberry Fool:

Yields: 4 servings | Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 6 large frozen strawberries, hulled and thawed
• 3 Tbsp caster sugar
• 1 cup fresh cream (medium fat 40%), chilled
• For garnish: 2-3 strawberries, sliced or any cookie of your choice, crumbled

Directions:

1. Chill mixing bowl and beater in freezer for 5 minutes.
2. In a food processor, blend strawberries to a smooth puree. Mix 2 Tbsp sugar in the puree and set aside.
3. Remove mixing bowl and beater from freezer. Add fresh cream to the mixing bowl and whisk. Gradually add 1 Tbsp sugar to the cream and whip till you get stiff peaks.
4. Fold the strawberry puree in to a whipped cream until nearly incorporated, leaving a few streaks of whipped cream and strawberry puree. Divide the mixture among 4-chocolate cups. Serve immediately garnished with strawberry slices/cookie crumble or refrigerate for up to 2-3 hours.

P.S. Writing a short post requires a skill I don’t seem to possess! Have a happy weekend! 🙂

No-Bake Kiwi Cheesecake with Oreo Crust

Yesterday was a National Cheesecake Day and this is my 50th post on the blog! So let’s combine this two very important occasions of my life and celebrate! With cheesecake!! Now you’re talking! 😉

I have a confession to make! I made this cheesecake more than a month ago and totally forgot to blog about them.. Yesterday when National Cheesecake Day tweet was doing rounds, this is the cheesecake which came to my mind instantly… and this too! Sincere apologies for forgetting such an important thing.

Now that this is off my chest let’s move on..

So let’s talk about cheesecake! Cheesecake!! You want it! Really really crave it and then you think of all the extra calories eating one slice or half slice of it entail and then you either eat it anyway and feel guilty or don’t eat it and deprive yourself from this decadence.

I say you can not be making such appalling sacrifices. It’s against the law, you see! So being a smart one here always presenting you guys with skinny treats, I have a solution. Simple… Make mini-cheesecake!!! I’m on a mini-dessert frenzy nowadays… I simply adore them. One thing they are too cute and another is the amazing portion-control you get without making yourself or others feeling culpable for the indulgence.

So here I present you today kiwi cheesecake with Oreo crust… I have tried and kept the sugar as less as possible. The cream used here is not full-fat whipping cream instead I have used medium fat cream. So I have done my best to bring you a slightly low-cal version.

Hubby & I got to eat cheesecake for 3 days in a row. So we were a happy bunch! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

No-Bake Kiwi Cheesecake with Oreo Crust

Yields: 6 mini cheesecakes

Ingredients:

For Oreo crust:

• 6-7 Chocolate Oreos
• 1 Tbsp melted unsalted butter

For the cheesecake:

• 1/3 cup fresh cream (medium fat 40%), chilled
• 1/2 cup cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 kiwi, peeled and diced

For kiwi jelly:

• 1 Tbsp agar agar
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 1 kiwi, peeled and smoothly pureed
• 1 Tbsp caster sugar

For garnishing: Sliced or diced fresh Kiwi fruit

Directions:

1. Blend Oreos and melted butter in a food processor till fine crumbs form. Place 1 Tbsp of crumb at the base of the each shot glasses and press down firmly. Place glasses in refrigerator till you prepare cheesecake filling.
2. Whip cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract till soft peaks form. Whip the cream in  a separate bowl till the soft peaks form. Fold in together gently.
3. Remove shot glasses from the refrigerator. Equally divide cheesecake filling in all the glasses throwing in 2-3 pieces of diced kiwi in between the layers. Refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours.
4. In a microwave safe bowl, heat the water for 30 seconds and add agar agar to it. Mix thoroughly till agar agar dissolves completely. Add sugar and kiwi puree. Whisk till a thick paste forms. Top the shot glasses with approximately 1 Tbsp of jelly mixture and chill again for 2-3 hours or till jelly has set completely.
5. Serve chilled, each glass garnished with sliced or 2-3 diced cubes of fresh kiwi.

 

Mini Mango No-Bake Cheese Cake

Mother’s day is just round the corner (May 12th) so I guess its high time we talk about it. MOTHER is the most celebrated person in everyone’s life!

My mom is the best thing that has ever happened to me… Ever! She has been an inspiration, a best friend, a constant supporter and a role model. She has taught me many things and one of the best thing has been ‘to care’.

So let’s pamper her on at least this one day dedicated completely to mothers. She deserves brunch that she doesn’t have to prepare and to be showered with gifts she did not have to wrap. One day in a year is not too much to ask for when our mothers have stuck with us throughout during our various temper-tantrums. It’s waaay too little in fact!

So here is an inspiration dessert to make your Mother’s day celebration even more memorable! Your mumma will be proud of you! And don’t you think that this cheese cake going to be difficult to make. In fact its so easy that it will be ready even before you know it. Such an easy, no-bake treat and can be prepared in advance! 🙂

I have used the recipe featured in Masterchef Australia by Matt Moran (he is sooo cute!).

Servings: Makes 8 individual mini mango cheese cakes, Requires: 8 silicone molds (I used heart shaped)

Ingredients:

For cheesecake base:

• 8 digestive biscuits, coarsely crumbled
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted

For cheesecake filling:

• 250 gm mango puree (I pureed mango Alphonso)
• 250 gm cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup caster sugar (or more if your mangoes are not so sweet.. mine were)
• 1 Tbsp unflavored gelatin
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 2 tsp lemon/lime juice
• 1/4 cup mango, diced into small cubes
• Mint leaves, to garnish

Directions:

1. Mix crumbled digestive biscuits and butter in a small bowl. Take 1 Tbsp of crumble mixture and press at the base of the silicone mold with a flat based glass. Repeat the procedure for rest of the molds and put them in refrigerator until you prepare the cheesecake filling.
2. In the blender, process mango puree, cream cheese and caster sugar till smooth.
3. Sprinkle the gelatin over cold water in a small bowl and let it rest for 2 minutes to soften. Place the bowl in a microwave for 30 seconds on High, until the gelatin dissolves.
4. With the motor of the blender running, add the melted gelatin slowly to the cheesecake filling mixture and process until smooth then add lemon/lime juice.
5. Divide the filling among the molds, place into the fridge to set for 2-3 hours.
6. Un-mold the cheesecake carefully from the silicone mold by passing the knife around the edges. Serve it topped with mango cubes and a mint leave.

*You can substitute agar agar or chinagrass for gelatin to make it completely vegetarian.