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

Semi Home Made Event Round Up

The Semi Home Made Indian Recipes event is officially over and I am pleased to present to you the creative, smart and delicious round up. I am so glad I hosted this event coz this way I gotto know lots of new blogs and made new friends.

I would personally like to give a big hug and thank every one who did send in their contributions, who said they would try and even the ones who emailed me saying why they couldnt :)

One thing I would like to mention before going to the round up is that I am trying to include all the readers who comment (even if its only once) in my fellow bloggers list, if you have sent in your entry / commented and dont see your blog in the fellow bloggers list, please let me know.

Following are the entries in order I recieved them :


Yasmeen -- Salmon Burgers with Butternut Squash Fries

Ambika --- Egg Curry

Tazaika -- Egg Sandwich

Nithu -- Chilli Paratha

Priya -- Chilli Chicken 65

Priya -- Prawn Tikka Pizza

Asha -- Cinnamon - Brown Sugar Rolls

Asha -- Pickle Masala Dal



Kalai -- Fantastic Croissants

Swathi -- Vegetable Puffs

Ruchika -- Paneer Calzone

Divya-- Tomato Sevai

Priyanka -- Spiced Vegetable Couscous

SE-- Almond and Chocolate Rugelach

Preethi -- Chicken Tikka

Tazaika -- Curd Raita

Cham -- Vegetable Samosa

Cham -- Rasmalai

Jyoti -- Vegetable Stew

Cool Lassi(e)-- Tandoori Chicken

Cool Lassi(e) -- Chicken 65

Cool Lassi(e) --Ice cream lollipops

Cool Lassi(e) -- Sugarplum balls

Cool Lassi(e) -- Bread Pudding

Cool Lassi(e) -- Baked Mini Samosas

Cool Lassi(e) -- Malai Kofta

Nithu-- Pav Bhaji

Following are my contributions to the event

Grilled Indian Pizza

Raita

Vegeatble Korma

Gulab Jamuns

To choose a winner was the toughest, so we went for the lucky draw method and every entry was listed. If you sent more than one entry your name was included for every entry individually, and so the badge of honor goes to .....drum roll .... Cool Lassi(e) !!!

Congratulations, this is yours to keep :)

Have a great week y'all , hope to see you soon :D

Grilled Indian Pizza

Come Thanksgiving and you see a lot of material on what to do with the Leftover turkey. Whether we cook one or not everyone has some or the other leftover after a party night or even after a night out in the restaurant when you think you could eat everything you ordered but it finally ends up in a box instead.

So what do you do with leftovers ? I simply make a pizza ... its the semi home made way !

I "heart" Pizza and I think you can showcase your creativity and come up with tons of different flavors and toppings. Like this one, I had some reshmi kababs, so decided to make an Indian Pizza.

Sure the home made pizza dough tastes much better and healthier, but having a packet of frozen dough really helps you fix a quick meal. To make it even quicker I use the store bought pita bread or roghini naan as my base and cook it on the griddle, yes this is a tawa top pizza :)

Though everything is store bought, I am splitting the list of ingredients to show how I made it the Semi Home Made way , as this is my first post for the ongoing event.

Ingredients:

Store bought / ready to use:

Whole wheat pita bread / Roghani naan,
Plain or flavored hummus,

Reshmi kabab / any kabab/ rotisserie chicken, chopped or shredded,

Bombay Sandwich spread (I used Swad brand, any chutney is fine)

ketchup,

chili powder,

pudina / mint leaves,

Colby cheese (use any cheeses you have handy),

cheddar cheese,

chaat masala.

Ghee. (optional)

Method:
Spread some hummus on the pita bread, then some ketchup, sprinkle the chicken , chili powder, cheeses, top with some sandwich chutney and fresh mint leaves. Heat a pan/ griddle/grill , put a little bit of ghee/ butter and put the pita bread with all layers , let it cook covered on low just until the cheese melts, sprinkle with chaat masala. Serve with chips and fruit juice.



This is my entry to the following events:

Sunday Snacks - Cheese hosted by Mirch Masala and

Semi Home Made Indian Recipes hosted by myself.

Nature's Pride

I recently got a chance to taste the Nature's Pride breads through the Tastemaker program offered by Foodbuzz. Once I opted in for the offer, I received these two loaves- 100% whole wheat and 12 Grain.

Years ago, I did try to switch to multi grain and whole wheat breads, but was discouraged by what I ate....I dint like them at all....in fact I found them hard to swallow ... yes, and I did get back to my favourite brand of "not so natural" white bread.

So when I received the very same varieties of Nature's Pride breads my first taste test or challenge was going to be how the bread tastes by itself. I treated each slice differently to find out what would be the best way to eat it ,so the bread got toasted, grilled , dipped, sandwiched, I also tried a slice of each of the breads by itself , and I just loved it, every time. It passed all the tests in flying colors. Of course I could not click all the images but the one you see is that of a grilled cheese sandwich, in here I used the whole wheat bread with some Manchego cheese.

There is no doubt in my mind that Nature's Pride is the next best thing to home baked breads as suggested by the blog 'my kitchen addiction '. For me this one is a keeper, healthy and tasty, and guess what ? its less expensive than some of the other brands. So next time you wanna buy a loaf , give Nature's Pride bread a try , it wont disappoint you.

Check out their website for nutritional information.

Easy Milk Burfi / Peda

If you live in cities like Chicago, New Jersey, New York , Dallas (to name a few) or places where there are a lot of Indians or Pakistanis residing like the Bay area etc. finding freshly made mithai is no big deal. Mithai, by the way, is a milk based sweet treat loaded with sugar and khoya and nuts /dry fruits. Back in India mithais are made on daily basis and are found everyday in every local mithai shops. My childhood memories bring back the aromas of freshly fried Jalebis and still warm, melt in your mouth besan laddoos, mysore paak ....yum... I remember when we had huge celebrations at home, my father would call a mithaiwala (person who makes/sells mithai ) home and get mothichoor laddoos etc. done as we kids watched over . It was fun !

In Boston, where I live (in the suburbs), we usually have to settle for the mithais we get in the frozen section of the desi store. Milk burfi also known as kalakand is one of my favourites. This recipe would be more of a burfi than a kalakand due to its texture as kalakand generally is very granular.

Its a wonderful recipe, fit for parties/crowds. It can be made ahead of time with very little effort, few ingredients, no added sugar as we use sweetened condensed milk and gives very delicious results.

Ingredients :

1 can (14 0z.) condensed milk,
15 oz. ricotta cheese,
1 C pistachios coarsely chopped,
1.5 tsp. elaichi powder, or to taste ,
ghee for greasing .

Method :

In a heavy botttom pan combine condensed milk and ricotta cheese. Cook on medium heat until the mixture thickens slightly. Remove from stove top and stir in the elaichi /cardamom powder. Grease a dish with ghee. (I used a 8" square baking dish, but you could also use a pie plate or any other size plate depending on how thick you want the slices to be.) Let the mixture cool slightly, then pour it on the greased plate sprinkle pistachios on the top and press lightly with your hands , just so the nuts stick to the mixture. Let it cool. Refrigerate for 2- 3 hours/ overnight. Cut into squares and serve.

If you want to make pedas then follow the same instructions until you pour the mixture to set. Let it set in fridge for a few hours. Using a tablespoon measure scoop out the mix and roll between palms to make pedas , roll the pedas in ground pistachios and refrigerate again for some time.

To share with this sweet treat are a lot of awards kindly passed on by a very sweet friend Sri Lekha . Thanks Sri for remembering me :)

I would further pass on these awards to 5 Star Foodie, A2Z Vegetarian, Anjum, Asha, Humaira, Jeena, Lubna, Lubna, Mansi, Mona, Pravs, Shaista and Yasmeen for inspiring many like me and being good friends, Thank you !