The idli stuffed with potatoes goes to Deepa’s Cooking for Kids event, originally started by Sharmi.

Like the blueberry milk and strawberry milk recipe this recipe for cherry cola is also from The Sneaky Chef . Cherry cola is made at home by combining equal parts cherry juice and sparkling water. Unlike the store bought sodas which are flavored and colored artificially, this cherry cola is made from homemade cherry juice. Too much consumption of any soda is definitely not good, but this homemade cherry cola is an excellent alternative for sugary sodas. At least we can consume it without the risk of caffeine overdose and sugar rush.

The basic cherry juice can be mixed with chocolate milk and kids won’t even recognize it. The cherry juice gives a very nice color and flavor to the chocolate milk. My son absolutely loves it and he can’t differentiate the taste at all.

Actually this cake is 100% vegan if I had used vegan chocolate chips. I had 2 big zucchinis in my fridge and was wondering what to do with it. Coincidentally I saw a recipe for chocolate zucchini cake in one of the cookbooks I have. I was not surprised because I’ve baked a chocolate chip zucchini bread earlier and I know that you cannot taste the zucchini at all. But I didn’t want to proceed with that zucchini cake recipe because it was a 4 layered birthday cake with frosting and all. I wanted something very simple, like a snack cake. Googled and found a couple of zucchini cake recipes. I decided to go with this chocolate zucchini cake recipe because it was very simple and it also gave me room to make some healthy changes.

I used Ener-G egg replacer powder instead of eggs. This is my 4th attempt with Ener-G. My first experiment was not that good but the remaining 3 came out very well. I will post the other 2 recipes shortly. For this zucchini cake I kept the original measurements same but changed the ingredients to make it as healthy as possible. Like using whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour, oil and applesauce instead of butter, 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips instead of 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips. You can take my word that this cake is absolutely delicious in spite of all these healthy substitutions. My son (most of you know that he is a very picky eater) enjoyed this cake very much, not only on the first day but until it got over. This cake is not light and fluffy but dense and moist. This zucchini cake is also not overly sweet. Unlike the cakes made with all purpose flour and rich frosting which increases your sugar craving and makes you grab another slice of the cake, this cake is very filling and satisfying. We were not able to locate even one strand of the shredded zucchini.

My Notes 1 The key in using Ener-G is processing it with the water in a blender until it’s nice and fluffy. Simply whisking it with a fork does not give desirable results. If you pour this immediately in a liquid measuring cup, you will see that it measures exactly 3/4 th of a cup, which is perfect because we usually replace every egg with 1/4 cup of any egg substitute. But by the time I was ready to add this mixture to the rest of the wet ingredients, I saw that it had reduced to 1/2 a cup. So to replace the 1/4 cup of liquid missing I used unsweetened soy milk. You could use any milk or even some fruit juice which you think would go with the flavors you are baking.

2 You can also use an 8 inch or 9 inch round cake pan instead of a spring form pan. But I think you cannot do the topping because, while inverting the pan to unmould the cake the toppings may fall down.

3 Zucchini can be grated without peeling. After grating I felt that the strands were very big, so I chopped them coarsely.

This goes to the Egg Replacement Event – Egg Replacer Powder hosted by me.

Long time back in one of Rachel Ray’s show I saw her frying canned chickpea on stove top and she was mentioning that its a nice and crispy snack. I always thought that chickpeas and green peas were deep fried in oil to get that crunchiness. I used to love these while growing up. It was my grandmother’s favorite snack too but we never made it at home. We used to get it from Ambica Depot. After seeing the show I also wanted to prepare it but somehow did not get to it until last week. Instead of sauteeing it in a pan, I decided to roast it in the oven. Otherwise you would have to stand nearby and keep stirring it.

I immediately googled to see if somebody has already done that and found a lot of results. Here I thought I was the smart one, with this brilliant idea! So I was going through a lot of those recipes and found that the oven temperatures, time to roast were different in each case and the reviews of the result were also mixed. So I decided to follow my own method and was really surprised that it worked out very well. My son generally likes chickpea by itself, but he liked these roasted chickpeas even more.

The recipe is very simple, actually it’s not a recipe at all. You have to just keep in mind the oven temperature and the time to roast it. The amount of chickpeas you want to roast, the seasonings are truly your call. As mentioned before you can roast it in a frying pan on stove top itself.

This is my entry for
JFI – Chickpeas, hosted by MS. JFI created by Indira.
My Legume Affair hosted by Srivalli. The even originally created by Susan.

My son is in “pasta phase” now. For the past couple of days he has been eating pasta for lunch and dinner. Actually I have to prepare the same pasta dish everyday. So I was thrilled and relieved to see Bharti’s Pink Pasta. She uses roasted and finely chopped beets to make this attractive pasta dish. It’s an amazing beet recipe. It inspired me to create another version of the pink pasta.

My son doesn’t like to bite into pieces of veggies, with an exception to few vegetables. So instead of simply adding chopped beets and garlic to make the pink sauce, I pureed everything together including the ricotta cheese in my Magic Bullet blender. That’s the reason I chose to use garlic powder instead of whole garlic as well. Bharti has used heavy cream and I didn’t have it at home, so I went with the part skim ricotta cheese which was sitting in my fridge after using little for these breakfast cookies. The pink sauce tasted very good.

I was having my doubts whether he would eat it or not, because so far he has been eating pasta in white color. So I got him all excited as soon as got home from school. I told that I gave it to his friend R also and she liked it so much. To my surprise he ate it without any fuss and also told me he liked it very much. I really have to thank Bharti for inspiring me to create this beet recipe.

Yes, you read it right. I’m going to share my recipe for fortified poori. What does fortify mean? It means to add one or more ingredients to (a food) to increase its nutritional content. Those who have been following my posts for the past few days would know by this time that I have become a fan of The Sneaky Chef (which by the way is on sale on Amazon and I have ordered my copy yesterday). I’m finding ways to sneak healthy ingredients in my son’s diet.

I have been preparing beans and lentil chapathis for long time now. But until recently it did not occur to me to follow the same method with puri also. Actually the reason is, in the past 5 years I had made pooris only once because my husband is a diet freak and I’m addicted to puris. He doesn’t eat more than half a poori and I cannot limit my intake. Recently only I introduced poori to my son and guess whose gene he has inherited? Unfortunately mine! The book talks about adding white bean puree and chickpeas puree in some recipes. So I thought why not follow this in our poori recipe also.

Since I have decided to feed my son something deep fried in oil, I might as well make it a little more healthy by adding some protein and fiber rich beans. First I tried it with chickpeas and then with white beans (cannellini). Both came out very well and the pooris did not taste any different. The key here is the color of the beans. They both blend with the color of the whole wheat flour, so there is no change in the color of the pooris also, unlike the spinach pooris and tomato pooris. But I’m guessing here that kids might be interested in colorful pooris also. Usually my son finds out any different taste, but he couldn’t get it this time, he was as usual eating one poori after the other, asking for more.

I also make it a point to prepare pooris only twice a month and I make it only for him. I have a very very small frying pan, which my mother got from India. It holds very little oil, so I cannot make big pooris. I roll out the dough into one big circle and cut shapes using cookie cutters. If I use a big frying pan, I’ll be tempted to fry pooris for myself. It will also need more oil, than I would be frying some papads and vadams too, which I would end up eating all by myself. So this small pan is a
real savior.

The cupcake recipe which I’m going to share with you today is such a brilliant idea to include greens and fruits in your child’s diet. This is yet another sneaky recipe from The Sneaky Chef. I’m hooked to this book guys! It’s really amazing what you can make your children to eat, following the simple methods given in the book. I have renewed this book for the second time in the library and I have to return it very soon, so I’m trying out as many recipes as possible. In our library here I cannot renew it for the third time. I will have to return it and maybe get it sometime later.

Like all baking recipes mentioned in the book the chef uses the Flour blend (mixture of whole wheat flour and wheat germ) to start with. She then suggests mixing a puree of spinach/collard greens and blueberries. Didn’t I say it is brilliant? The beauty of this cupcake recipe is you don’t taste any of these healthy ingredients in the cupcakes. It tastes very normal, if not better than the usual chocolate cupcakes. To make it eggless I substituted the egg in the recipe with prune puree (applesauce should also be fine). Since pureed fruits make the baked good denser I added baking soda to lighten up the cupcakes. I was crossing my fingers, because I don’t play with baking soda/powder ratio in a baking recipe. I simply follow the recipe. But to my relief they came out very well, nice and fluffy. Actually it was very fluffy, so I was thinking maybe I should have reduced the quantity of baking soda, but the next day it was alright. Everything was perfect, the cupcakes had the right texture. Another important thing, my son liked these cupcakes even on the second and third day. So something is definitely right in this cupcake recipe.

This cupcake recipe goes to “Egg Replacement – Pureed Fruit” event hosted by me.

I’m back with another healthy breakfast recipe from The Sneaky Chef. Kids love cookies and won’t they be thrilled if we serve it for breakfast? Then bake these breakfast cookies, made with fiber one cereal, a brilliant flour blend, dried cranberries and walnuts. Sometimes healthy stuff is not tasty, like whole wheat bread, bagel or pita for example. Even though these cookies are made of whole wheat pastry flour and wheat germ, they tasted very good to my surprise.

I was skeptical about using wheat flour because I have baked with it earlier and sometimes the baked goodies does not smell/taste right. This is the first time I have had success using whole wheat pastry flour. I did not get the raw smell of wheat. I did not miss white flour at all in the cookies. You can
take my word on that. The cereal gave a nice crunch to the otherwise chewy cookies. I would suggest adding dried cranberries and walnuts (this was not mentioned in the original recipe) because it enhances the taste, gives a very good texture to the cookies, also it has nutritional benefits. We adults can also munch on these healthy cookies without any guilt.

My son ate the first cookie so fast, telling me that it was very nice, etc, but then as usual he stopped liking it from the next day. Try your luck with your kids! But touch wood, the blueberry milk, strawberry milk and cherry chocolate milk are still his favorites.

These breakfast cookies go to Egg Replacement Event – Pureed Fruit hosted by me.

A couple of months back I googled flavored milk and the results I got was stirring Kool Aid (similar to Rasna in India) in milk or making a syrup out of the Kool Aid and lot of sugar and adding the syrup to the milk. I wanted something with natural ingredients, something made of fresh fruits. Fortunately months later I have found the book The Sneaky Chef. I think I have written enough about this book in my previous post about Blueberry flavored milk.

I have been trying out recipes from the book and I’m so glad that my son is eating at least some fruits without any fuss. I tried the blueberry juice and cherry juice earlier, which was a huge success. At first my son did not like the blueberry milk, but now he keeps asking for it. He doesn’t even know that his chocolate milk has cherry juice in it. He is happily drinking it. So I got some strawberries (two 16 oz packs) last weekend and tried the same technique. Will you believe me if I tell that he drank it completely in the last 3 days? I could have never made him eat so much strawberries just like that. I can’t wait to try other recipes from that book. Not only that, it also makes it interesting for me because, now I’m thinking what else can I sneak in his food, it’s sort of challenging your creativity.

The Strawberry Milk is surely very tasty enough to entice any picky eater.

My son is 3 years and 3 months old and like many kids of his age he is also a picky/fussy eater. Meal time is definitely a battle time. The problem with him is, he doesn’t have a favorite food. If he had a favorite food, I would simply prepare it for him everyday until he is bored. Earlier broccoli, cauliflower and pasta were his favorite. But not anymore. I think I’m never going to understand his mind in this matter.

I have a very good desi neighbor, whose daughter R is also my son’s age. She also stocks up a lot of fruits and when my son goes there she offers him a fruit and he eats it very quickly without hesitating. So what I do, the very same evening I ask my husband to pick up that fruit on his way home and I give it to my son for breakfast the next day, and he disappoints me by not even taking it to his mouth. Last week I bought cherries for the first time, to try a cake recipe. I was sure that he is not even going to taste it. I was removing the pit in the cherries and I gave him one and he ate it and asked for some more to my surprise. This continued for sometime, I was pitting and he was asking for more. So what do I do, I don’t proceed with the cake. I simply put it back in the fridge and offer it again the next day and you know what, he didn’t even eat one piece. Kids, definitely have their own thought process and they want to show us that they are in control.

Now here comes the rescue in form of a book called “The Sneaky Chef” by Missy Chase Lapine. She discusses about various simple strategies for hiding healthy foods in kids’ favorite meals. She masks spinach and blueberries in brownies, cauliflower in Mac and Cheese, cherry juice in chocolate milk, white bean puree in chocolate chip cookies, etc just to mention a few. This book has definitely made me think outside the box.

I started with the cherry chocolate milk recipe first because he drinks chocolate milk daily in the afternoon after his nap and we had cherries at home. I’ll post this one shortly. Just as it was mentioned in the book, neither of us were able to taste the cherry juice in the chocolate milk. Both the flavors blended so well. So I decided to try the blueberry flavored milk next.

The blueberry juice when mixed with the milk gave a nice violet color. But it was not sweet enough, so I mixed in some maple syrup. I liked it very much. Of course, you will get a mild blueberry smell. I was really excited to see a purple colored milk, more than he was and I asked him if he wanted to drink purple color milk. He too agreed without fussing, but once he tasted he said that it’s not nice. So I had to get him all excited about the color, but no, he wouldn’t drink. Then I got this idea, I told him that his friend R’s mother brought it while he was sleeping and she told that R loves this milk and she drinks it very quickly. And that did the trick, he gulped it down very fast, telling that it was very good. Can you believe this? I’m not sure if this is right or wrong, or how long this trick will work, but I think we have to take baby steps when it comes to kids and their nutrition. We have to pick our battles and should also let them win sometimes. Now coming to the recipe:

This is my entry for Sunshinemom’s FIC – Purple and Black.