One Day At A Time!

No one likes to spend too much time cooking in this hot weather. Generally, salads are my go to meal. But then, whole wheat vegetable hummus sandwich tastes so much better. So, a little bit of cooking for a wholesome sandwich with pinto beans, veggies and cheese is not bad. Does that sound good to you? Pinto Bean Hummus: Dry Pinto Beans - 1/2 cup White Sesame Seeds/Til or Tahini Paste - 1 tbsp Garlic - 1 big clove Lemon/Lime Juice - 1/4 cup Olive Oil - 2 tbsp Paprika - 1/4 tsp Black Pepper Powder - 1/2 tsp Salt Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich: Bread Slices Romaine Lettuce Leaves Red Onion Cucumber Tomato Feta Cheese How to make Pinto Bean Hummus Veggie Sandwich: Traditionally, Mediterranean hummus is made with chickpeas, also called as garbanzo beans or kabuli chana. Canned beans work just fine. But, dry beans are better if you are looking for a low sodium option. Soak dry pinto beans or any other beans in plenty of water overnight. Wash the beans well. Cook th...

My new favorite ingredient is feta cheese. There are so many cheeses in the market, but some you like and some you don't. Goat cheese is not my kind of cheese. Well, you all have read about cream cheese and ricotta cheese recipes. Now is the time for a refreshing summer salad with olives and feta cheese.

Hindu holy month of Shraavan marks the beginning of festivities. As a child, I used to see my Mom perform a special Choodi Pooja on Fridays and Sundays of Shraavan. Even now, I call Mom asking how this is done, how do I do that and stuff. Such family traditions and rituals make me feel myself closer to my roots. For such saatvik celebrations, I cook my Mom's Upavas recipes. Hope you guys will like them too. 

My friends used to tell me, life changes after having kids. Yeah, it does. For us, our outing venues have changed. Instead of restaurants and movies, we go to places like zoos and parks with our baby. That gives me a chance to cook something special myself. Of course, I love cooking for my family. Butter Naan and a creamy restaurant style curry is one of our weekend indulgences these days.

Lentils, known as Dal are a staple in an Indian diet, especially vegetarian. For me, dal is comfort food. 5 different dal varieties - Toor, Moong, Chana, Masoor and Urad are commonly used in Indian sweet and savory delicacies. You can cook dal with just one kind or a mix of two or more. I generally cook dal with 1:1 Toor and Moong dals. But then, we like Panchmel or Panchratna Dal too, which is made of all five. Most dal recipes have Toor dal as the primary ingredient. It is also known as Toovar or Arhar dal or Split Pigeon Peas . Some of our family favorite dal recipes are Dalitoy (Konkani Dal)  Tadka Dal Among all lentils, moong dal and masoor dal take lesser time to cook. Moong dal is also known as Split Green Gram or Split Mung Bean . Moong dal is also used in making sweet dishes like Mung Dal Kheer  Mung Dal Puranpoli Chana dal is also known as Split Bengal Gram or Split Chickpeas . Chana Dal takes a little more time to cook as compared to toor dal....

Most days I cook a vegetarian meal for us. Beans or lentils are definitely a part of it. Today, I made a North Indian style Dal with phulka for our lunch. The most popular Indian dal recipe, known as Dal Makhani or Maa ki Dal .

Everybody loves Italian food. Give me pasta and I am a happy girl. My husband loves pizza. Friday is Pizza night at our place. But, I make pasta too. Fixing a pasta dinner is no big deal if your pantry and refrigerator have all the ingredients. Here are our family favorite Italian recipes.