Teddy bear cookie

Cookies are ever time favorite for kids. Why not make it even more interesting for them? Yeah.. its cookie in the shape of teddy bears with a cool handle to hold. I got a cool idea from Howdini.com.  This will be perfect for birthday parties too.

And the most important thing, we can involve them in decorating. My cookies were decorated by my kid. So please don't bother about the perfection. All I'm happy is they are getting engaged outside the TV box..For the video recipe please check here. I used the instant cookie mix this time, but you can try with your own cookie recipe.

Ingredients

For making Cookie Betty crocker peanut butter cookie mix - 1 packet
Egg - 1
Oil - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup

For Decoration Icing mix
Colored candies
Popsicle sticks


Procedure

Mix all the ingredients for cookie to a dough.

Make a big ball around the size of a golf ball of the cookie dough. Shape it round and keep it on the greased cookie tray. This is for the face of the teddy

Make two small balls for and keep on the top part of the big ball to shape as ears. These 3 balls(1 bug and 2 small) makes 1 teddy.

Make similar balls and keep 8 teddy in one sheet with spacing inbetween.

Next insert the popsicle sticks to the neck part and press down. Gently press the balls to flatten them

Bake them in a preheated oven at 375F for 10_12 mts until slightly brown. Cool them in a cooling rack.

After they cooled down using icing mix for making the parts of face.. eyes,  nose and mouth

Keep a drop of icing mix and press a candy on top of that for making nose. Similar way do for the eyes. Using the icing mix, draw the mouth part. Add some bows to make the teddies really inviting.

Yummy Teddy bear popsicles are ready to crunch.

I'm sending this recipe to Cookie-Mela happening at Cooking 4 All Seasons.

Carrot Halwa

A simple and healthy treat. Great for any occasions. The color of this halwa is the most tempting part. How much I eat this, I will always need somemore extra at the last bite. Try out sure and u'll love it.

There are recipes which use condensed milk instead of milk and sugar. I've never it but this sure is delicious. To speed up the process, u can pressure cook the carrots too. But the grated texture of carrots will get mashed up in that procedure.

Ingredients:

Juicy orange carrots, grated - 3 cups
Water - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1/2 litre
sugar - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Cashews - 1 tbsp
Raisins - 1 tbsp
elaichi powder (cardomon) - 1/2 tsp

Procedure:

Heat Ghee in a pan and roast the cashews and raisins one after another. To this add the grated carrots and saute till the raw smell goes off and add water. Close it and cook for 5 mins on medium flame

Add the milk after five mins and mix well. Once the milk comes to a boil, slghtly reduce the flame and let it keep boiling and get thick well. Keep stirring occasionally.

Once the milk is almost half reduced, add sugar and continue the heating and stirring.

Continue on low heat till the mixture collects in a soft ball and ghee oozes out. Add cardamom powder and mix well and turn off the flame.

Carrot halwa is ready to serve.

Easy Banana Muffin

This is an easy dish with leftover bananas. Quick to make and can be served instantly. I did this on microwave and this can be done in conventional baking method too. I added some cereal to this and it added some extra crunch.

Ingredients:

Ripe Banana - 2
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Oil - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Baking Powder - 2 tsp
Left over cereal - 1/2 cup, crushed
Sugar - 1 cup

Procedure:

Mash the bananas well in a mixer

To this add egg, sugar and oil and mix for 2 minutes

Mix the flour and baking powder and crushed cereal. To this add the egg mixture and mix well with a spoon.

Grease the microwave muffin pan with oil and pour the muffin mix till 3/4th.

Microwave this for 3 minutes on 60% power. Check if its done by picking with a toothpick. If not done, microwave for another minute.

Cool for a while. Yummy Banana muffins are ready to serve.

Muttai(egg) kuzhambu

Egg is always my favorite. And this is my most wanted one of my mom's recipes. As I am fond of puli kuzhambu and eggs, this combination of eggs with puli kulambu is excellent and is a best accompaniment with rice.

Ingredients:

• 4 Eggs (no need to boil)
• 1 Onion
• 1 Tomato(small)
• 6 Garlic Flakes
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 2 tsp Coriander Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder
• 3 tbsp Tamarind Paste
• 1 cup Water
• Oil for cooking
• Mustard seeds
• Jeera / Cumin seeds
• Curry leaves
• Coriander Leaves for garnishing
• Salt to taste

To grind (powder)
Pepper - 2 tsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1 tsp 


How to make Muttai Kulambu:

• Chop the onion, tomato and garlic.  Grind the pepper and cumin to a powder (coarse is okay)
• Heat the oil. Its better to use a wide pan as we need more space for dropping the eggs separately
• Add Mustard seeds and jeera. Allow spluttering. 
• Add the chopped curry leaves, onion, tomatoes and garlic.  Saute till they turn brown and tender. 
• Mix turmeric powder, red chili, coriander powder and salt and fry for few minutes
• Fry the mixture for few minutes. 
• Add tamarind paste and water.  Bring it to boil and keep it covered for 5 mins.
• Add the ground pepper, cumin powder.
• Now reduce the flame to medium and break the eggs directly to the gravy one by one separately. A wide pan will help this to give more room for the eggs.
• Cook it covered over medium flame for 10 minutes.  Once the eggs are cooked properly, adorn the gravy with coriander leaves. 
• Serve it with steamed rice.

I am sending this post for Spotlight: Curries and Gravies happening at Cuisnie Delights

Idly manchurian

I am always a fan of Gobi manchurians. This is an excellent starter and have tried it in all ranges, from street-side shops to restaurants. This week when I had excess idly batter, I made some idlys keeping in mind to try out this mouth-watering Manchurian with fried idly. It came out very good and we all enjoyed a variety snack this evening.
I thought  that idly may absorb lots of oil. But if the batter is perfect, its as good as Gobi Manchurian with less oil in idly.

Ingredients:
Idly - 8
Chopped onions - 1 small size
Chopped capsicum - 2 cups
Red chilli sauce - 1 tsp
Soy sauce - 3 tsp
Tomato ketchup - 2 tbsp
Green chillies - 2 (I skipped for kids)
Finely Chopped Ginger & garlic - 1 tbsp each
Salt
Water - 2 tbsp
Sesame Oil - 2 tsp
Batter for frying idly
Corn flour - 4 tbsp
Rice flour - 1 tsp
Salt - very little as idly has salt already
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
Oil - to fry

Procedure:

First mix the ingredients for the batter with little water. It need not be too watery or too thin. As that tends to absorb more oil. So maintain a slight thick consistency. Cut the idlys into cubes and roll over them in the batter. Fry them in hot oil till golden brown. Drain them and keep aside Heat sesame oil (or any other u use regularly) in a pan and saute the chopped ginger and garlic. To this add green chillies and onions. After sauting for a minute add peppers/Capsicum and saute till it turns tender. add the soy, chilli and tomato sauce one by one and little salt. now if needed add little water and let the gravy get mixed well. To this add the fried Idly and mix well. And turn off flame. Arrange in a plate and sprinkle spring onions and serve hot.