Eid Al Adha 2011

Eid Mubarak Balloons for kids
















Eid Mubarak to all !

As our kids grow, we (me and few of my friends who try to meet up on every eid) are thinking of ways of making Eid fun and memorable for them.

This time around, the snow storm and the power failure (for daaays) took away a lot of my precious "planning n prepping for eid" time, but we were determined :)

Because we had less time we kept it fairly simple, the menu included air popped potato fries with salsa, veggie pizza with roasted garlic tomato sauce, fruit salad, kababs(made by my friend) and Chai in the appetiser round and I could not a picture of any single thing.

goodie bags with healthy munchies were part of the eid gift bags for the kids

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For the main course we had Mutton Biryani, Haleem (made by one more friend), raita and kababs and kaddu ka halwa as a dessert. 

Mutton Biryani and Kaddu ka halwa made by me




Haleem and Kababs (in background) made by my friends



Alhumdulillah, it was a fun night filled with good friends, good food, good times and of course good gifts ;) 

Veggie Pesto Pizza n Homemade Strawberry Mint Pops

Pizza is my go to recipe for quick fix dinners. Its even quicker and less messier if you have the store bought pizza crust waiting to be baked in your refrigerator. What I like about a pizza is, just like biryani, you can never go wrong ! Atleast thats how kind it has been to me :) I have yet to come across a well made pizza that I did not like. 

If you know someone who just wont eat their veggies, this is the way to go, hide it all under a layer of cheese :) 

What I did to make this pizza is drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on a store bought pizza dough, spread some home made pesto (for recipe click here and scroll down) layered it with sliced tomatoes, red onions, baby spinach lots of mozarella and Monterey Jack, some salt n pepper and some dried oregano. Baked it using manufacturers instructions and Voila ! Dinner is served.

Its best if you make your own Pizza dough or buy some from your local pizzeria. A packet of this in your fridge will always come handy to rescue dinner.

Its been a mix of crazy hot and crazy pleasant days here, and to beat one such crazy hot day heat I made these...Strawberry and Mint pops. Super easy and super delicious. Just blend some strawberries (fresh or frozen) with a bunch of mint leaves , add sugar if and as much needed to suit your taste, a dash of lemon juice just to brighten things up and freeze them in ice pop moulds. Enjoy it on a hot summer day, you will never go back to store bought ice pops ever again !

Update:

These quick and easy recipes have been sent off to Ayeshas Anyone Can Cook Event

Magnum Ice Cream



Image Source- Magnum Website


















As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program, this time, I got to try out Magnum Ice Cream. I liked it sooo much that I actually want to thank Foodbuzz for introducing me to Magnum. I get a box of these everytime I do the groceries and it does not take us long to empty it (hopefully tht explains why I did not post my own pic of the icecream bar :) n had to turn to their website). The quality of chocolate used and the ice cream itself is outstanding, way too good for a supermarket find. 

If you like your ice cream on a stick, this is made Just For You !

I personally like the Magnum Almond, I like my chocolate with nuts, but I am on the lookout for the Magnum White, which by the way looks pretty good.

Since I tried Magnum, I have turned my back to what used to top my list for store bought ice creams, n if you have not tried Magnum yet, you should !!! 

Have a  happy weekend !

What do you think ?

Hi y'all !

Thought of spring cleaning my blog :)

So, What do you think ?

I am eager to know .....how does this new template look ? Did I miss something ? Is there anything I should be doing differently ? I am all ears.... do let me know .... its still a work in progress.

One more thing ....how do you organize your recipes, any ideas or suggestions for creating recipe index ...is thr any template or widget out thr ?...I know ...I am that naive :D

Have a beautiful day !

CSN Giveaway Winner !

A big "Thank you" to all those who did participate in the giveaway and made it fun and exciting. Now...drum roll please....

The winner of the $40 CSN Giftcard is ...... Nostalgia!!!

Have fun Sunitha and Happy shopping :D whts ur email ?

Of Alexia, flowers and a small Giveaway!

Weeks ago, as part of the Foodbuzz tastemaker program, I opted in to try out products from Alexia Foods. Very soon I received a beautiful package with a chic apron and a coupon to try any one product from their  variety of all-natural appetizers or side dishes. Unfortunately for me, it was not as easy to find the product I liked, so finally I bought what I could the Alexia brand Classic french rolls. The first thing that came to my mind was a very yummy tomato basil soup to go with the rolls, but what I am posting here is a very traditional n super hit combination of bread with akhni.

Akhni -- a preparation of meat on which the rice is layered in dum biryani, or you could just say its the base of any biryani dish, is fondly eaten with bread in many Muslim households in India. So when I was making biryani one Friday I thought , freshly baked, warm n crusty bread would be just the perfect thing to have with akhni. So in came the Alexia French Rolls, from the packet to a baking tray into the oven and out came nice n brown n warm rolls which we could not wait to dig into. The rolls were crusty on outside n very light and airy on the inside. 8 of them, I mean the rolls, just vanished within seconds between the two of us (me and my husband)

So its official, I "heart" Alexia, would recommend it to anybody n have my eyes on their new , soon to be in market, Parmesan Lemon Russet Potato Fries... sounds yummy... to you too?


Last weekend was a very pretty one here in Boston, decent weather and a flower show at the Seaport World Trade Center. The flower show was going on for the whole last week but we went there on Saturday with one of our friends, who is a regular visitor there. It was a very fun, learning and beautiful experience and we look forward to going to the next show and the next and the next...

Here are just a few glimpses of the exhibits and flower arrangements

Coming to the giveaway...this is a very first giveaway to my dear readers, thanks to CSN who is willing to give a $40 gift card to any one reader of Lazzat (from USA and Canada only) CSN is an online superstore boasting over 2 million products, from adjustable bar stools to luggage and bedding ....they have it all.All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and consider yourself enrolled. I would love to know if you have tried your luck or won on other sites for the same. What can $40 get you at CSN ? ...chk this out ... or this ...n this n this n....well, there is a lot ! So hope for the best and good luck

The winner will be announced on weekend of April 9th.

Murgh Malai Kabab Bites

A very Happy and Healthy New Year to all my readers and fellow bloggers !

Haah ! Its so good to see you ...

The new year has begun and I am glad I checked out one of my resolutions already :) posting here, before the first month ends that is.

A lot happened since we last met in Oct 2010. All of it involved a lot of cooking, some hits and some misses, and a lot of eating out too !

Lets see....we bought our first house, then came the moving , then it was eid-ul-adha (bakri eid), then we were settling down, we had friends visiting us, then the house warming, then of course we were travelling and shopping. Throw in few snowstorms and there you go, 3 months of madness in less than three sentences  :)

Now, as we are still settling ...(yeah...thts right... slowly but surely...) I am kinda trying to get back into the blogging mode, catching up, see all the deliciousness I have missed, welcome new friends, which reminds me , I wanna thank all of you who emailed me, left their comments, sent their wishes, Thank You very much , I am trying to reply all the comments / questions/ suggestions ASAP.

Coming to the recipe, when I say bites its not exactly an amuse-bouche, the kababs are may be 2 or 3 biters, but they are super delicious ...try any size ... I marinated the chicken overnight but half hour should also suffice.

Ingredients :

2 C Chicken breasts, cubed

1 tsp.ginger paste, 

1 tsp. garlic paste,

1/2 tsp. chili pdr or to taste,

1/4 tsp. turmeric

1/2 C cream,

salt, to taste

1.5 tsp. dhania pdr

1/2 C panko (optional)

olive oil, for shallow frying.

Method:

Combine all the ingredients except panko and oil and let it marinate at room temperature for at least half an hour, or overnight in the refrigerator. Heat oil in a pan , dip the chicken pieces in the panko/bread crumbs and shallow fry on medium heat until both sides are golden brown. Drain on a paper towel/ tissue. Serve hot / warm.

I am sending this to the Ramadan Friendly Recipes event at "the halal foodie" blog

Enjoy!