Vazhaipoo ( Banana Flower ) Paruppu Usili

          Vazhaipoo, Banana Flower, as kids, most of us would have not liked this vegetable, because of it's slightly bitter taste, and now even my daughter never wants to have it. I usually add it while making adai ( vazhaipoo adai ), it tastes good in the adai. Very rarely I make a poriyal with it, I made this paruppu usili after a very long time. Again in this dish, since we are adding dal/ lentils along with the banana flower, it tastes really good. I have already posted a couple of usili recipes in my blog, Green Beans Paruppu Usili and Long Beans Masala Usili, there is a slight difference in the ingredients and also I had used the microwave in those recipes. For the vazhaipoo usili, I have done it in a pan on stove top, I feel this is the best way for this vegetable. A healthy and tasty side dish to go with rice and vatha kuzhambu, moru kuzhambu or poondu kuzhambu..

Corn Flakes Crusted Bananas

          Whenever I read a post talking about ' Blogging Marathon ', I am always in awe, how can someone cook, click and post dishes every single day, and these dishes were most of the time very innovative too and also something with a rare combination of ingredients. As for the lazy me, I take part in just two events, one is the ' Eggless Baking ' and the other one, that I have joined recently is the ' Shhhhh Cooking Secretly ' event. The former needs no explanation, the event name tells everything, coming to the second one, since it's a fairly new event, this is how it works, we're paired with a fellow participating blogger each month, each of us give the other a pair of secret ingredients, which we have to use ( either one or both ) and come up with a dish. The fun part is, we share the pictures in the face book group, a couple of days before the reveal date, giving a chance for the other group members to guess the secret ingredients. This month, I was paired with Padmajha Sureshbabu of Seduce Your Tastebuds, more popularly known as PJ among bloggers, she needs no introduction. My secret ingredients for this month were corn flakes and bananas. Since I had to do something with a fruit, I was thinking about some kind of a dessert. When I started doing this, since I had no clue about the taste, I did it with just one banana. But then, I was more than satisfied with the result, it was absolutely delicious, and the best part is, it's so easy to put together..

Khandvi, Healthy Gujarati Snack

          Khandvi, another healthy and tasty Gujarati snack, I had tasted this only a couple of times, once at my friend's, when I was in the US, and the second time at a restaurant in Chennai. Both my daughter and I love this, and I had this on my 'do list ' for a long time. Finally, I made it last month, on my daughter's birthday, just a small batch, it turned out really good. The ingredients are very simple, the procedure is not very complicated, but we have to be very swift only at the end, when we have to spread the batter, before it cools and lumps up. It's a healthy and delicious snack, rich in protein and low in fat, I would definitely be making it again and again..

Beetroot Podi Curry, Beetroot Curry With Peanut Powder

         Last time when I bought some beets, I wanted to try something other than the regular poriyal and kootu. I like podi curries, the ones we do with eggplants and potatoes, they are very flavorful as we add fresh spice powder, so I decided to do a podi curry with beets also. I used a little peanuts with coriander seeds and dried red chillies, the curry had a nice crunch and went well with both rice and rotis..