Quick-fix Quesadillas with Guacamole and Tomatillo Salsa

Tired of eating leftovers?? Well if you have any left over meat and or vegetables well then spice up your dinner by making some quesadillas! But quesadillas without Guacamole and salsa is sinful! ENJOY this perfect meal tonight!

Quick-fix Quesadillas

Ingredients:

4-6 6" flour tortillas
Any cooked meat, shredded or small cubes
Any vegetables you desire
1 cup of Monterrey Jack Cheese or Cheddar cheese, you can use both of .5 cup each
.25 cup sour cream
jalapeno peppers, sliced (optional)
Salt if needed, though very little as the cheese is already salty

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine your meats and or vegetables
2. On a flat surface, spread a little bit of sour cream on half of the tortilla bread.
3. On that same half, add a little bit of the meat and or vegetables, the peppers (optional) and cheese
4. Fold the tortilla in half and gently press. Place on a skillet and turn on heat to medium heat.
5. Cook at medium heat for about 3-4 mins on one side until the cheese starts to melt and quesadilla starts to brown. Turn over and cook for an additional minute. Cut the quesadilla into 4 wedges and repeat procedure for the other tortillas

Serve hot with Sour Cream and the fix-ins down below!
Tip: You can make this quesadilla without meat and it will become a vegetarian dish!


Tomatillo Salsa

Ingredients

1lb of Tomatillos
5 -8 fresh jalapenos, finely chopped and depending on desired heat
.25 cup of fresh cilantro, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic
salt, to taste
1 squeeze of lime (optional)

Directions:

1.Peel tomatillo husks and rinse in water
2. Grill or roast the tomatillos and jalapenos until the skin appears burnt. Do not peel the skin.
3. In a mixer/food processor/blender, mix the garlic, tomatillos, jalapenos, and process until semi-smooth
4. Sprinkle salt to taste and add the cilantro and blend for another 7-10 seconds.


Guacamole

Ingredients:

3 avacados, ripe
1 lime
1 or 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 medium tomato, chopped and seeded
1/2 a small onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, remove seeds and ribs if you want it mild--leave them in if you like it hotter
chopped cilantro
coarse salt

Directions:

1. Get your avocados ready--cut them in half carefully, from top to bottom, whack the pit with your knife, carefully! and twist it out. Take a knife and carefully cut lines vertically and horizontally while the halves are still in the peel. Then run a spoon under and around the flesh and scoop it out. Put the chunks in a medium bowl.

2.Cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice from one half over the avocado.

3. Add the garlic to the bowl and mash it all up some more with a fork

4. Add the tomato and onion and some salt, then cilantro and jalapeno.

5. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to let the flavors mingle amongst themselves. About 1/2 an hour or so.

Serve with chips, burritos or quesadillas above
ps. if you want a figure-friendly guacamole, try this one from Weight-watchers.

Photo Credits:

Quesadilla: Santafeburrito.com
Tomatillo Salsa: Photobucket user Domesticpursuits
Guacamole: GroupRecipes.com

Haleem

Haleem is a delectable wholesome thick soup-like dish, that is made with both wheat, lentils and meat. This dish can be made with any meat though it usually made with either beef or mutton. It is primarily eaten during Ramadan or in the winter times to keep warm. It is cooked over 7 to 8 hours

Ingredients:

1 lb of wheat grains, crushed and soaked for 2 hrs
3lbs of mutton or beef
1 cup of gram lentils, soaked and boiled
3 Onions, medium sized and thinly sliced
2 tbsp of ginger and garlic past
1 tsp, ground garam masala
2 tbsp of red chilli powder
4 tbsp of corriander powder
1 tsp of turmeric powder
Salt to taste
1.5 cups of oil


Garnish
Fresh corriander leaves, finely chopped
Green chillies, finely chopped
Fried onions, finely chopped
1 tsp of ground garam masala,
lemon, quartered
Ginger, thinly sliced


Procedure:

1. In a pot, combine, meat, oil, garlic, garam masala, red chilli powder, corriander powder, turmeric, salt and cook on medium heat.

2. In a seperate pot, boil, wheat grains with alot of water and salt until the grains become tender and mushy.

3. Mix the wheat grains with meat and continue to cook, stirring continuously until it is well incorporated.

4. Grind the lentils in a food processor made into a thick paste by adding water.

5. Pour the lentil paste in the meat and wheat mixture and continue to stir until it is well mixed. cook on low heat for atleast another 30 -40 mins until meat is tender

6. Fry the sliced onions and sprinkle on top of Haleem when it is done and ready to serve. Garnish with Corriander and garam masala. Serve with the garnishes and hot!

Piyaju vs Beguni

There has always been a debate at our house on which is better? The Piyaju or the Beguni. Deep down, I'm sure we think it's both because no Ramadan day is complete without iftar that doesn't include these both. Beguni is deep fried battered eggplant and Piyaju is sort of the Bengali pakora made with Lentils and onions. They are both friend and are extra crunchy...And ofcourse by no means are they healthy...But come on! We all know that anything unhealthy is very tasty! So here we are sharing these recipes of two iftar delicacies. Of course there are more to come!!

Beguni (Deep fried Eggplant)
Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, thinly sliced
Oil to fry

Batter Recipe:
Besan (aka Gram flour or chickpea flour)
salt to taste
.25 tsp of turmeric powder
.5 tsp of red chilli powder
.5 tsp of cumin powder
.5 tsp of baking powder
salt to taste
water

Procedure:

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Slowly add water to make the batter smooth and semi thick consistency.
3. Dip the eggplant and coat in batter
4. fry in oil over medium heat until light golden brown

Serve hot

Piyaju

Ingredients

.5 cup of Masoor Daal (Lentils), soaked for 3-4 hrs in hot water, you can soak overnight as well
1 Onion, thinly sliced
3-5 green chillies, sliced
.25 tsp of turmeric powder
.5 tsp of red chilli powder
.5 tsp of cumin powder
.25 tsp of ginger powder
.25 cup corriander, thinly sliced (optional)
salt to taste
Oil to fry

Procedure:
1. Blend lentils in a blender to make a paste. You made add a little bit of water to make loose.
2. in a bowl, combine all ingredients and let sit for 5 mins
3. Make small flattened balls and fry in oil over medium heat until golden brown
4. Pat on tissue paper and serve hot.




Photo Credits:
Picture of Piyaju was found on wikipedia.com
Picture of Beguni was found on kichukhonn.blogspot.com

Ramadan Kareem

Wishing all our blog readers Ramadan Kareem! May you, your family and friends are blessed this months and the years ahead...

On a brighter note, we will be posting various iftari food recipes...so stay tuned

Cabbage Pakoras

Ever since it's been raining, I've been craving cabbage pakoras, but have been too lazy to make it. So I decided to share the recipe so someone can make it for me and send it my way...muahaha

Ingredients

2 cups of cabbage, shredded
1-2 green chillies, chopped fine
1 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp cayenne (red chilli) powder
~1 ½ cups of besan (gram flour)
a pinch of baking soda
salt
vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1.Using a little water to make a thick batter with the besan, salt and the spices. Mix well to remove lumps.

2. Add the sesame seeds, the green chillies and the shredded cabbage.

3. Heat oil in a wok. The oil should be very hot for frying pakoras. Test with a drop of batter; it should sizzle.

4. Add the pinch of baking soda and a teaspoon of hot oil from the wok to the batter and mix well.

5. Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil and fry till golden all around.

Serve hot with ketchup or with coriander-mint chutney

Photo Credit: Flickr.com - Mysoorean

Truvia - The Natural Sweetener

The other day when I was parked on the couch in front of the TV watching the Mentalist, I came across an ad about Truvia, the zero-calorie natural sugar substitute. Surely enough, it got me curious. So naturally I googled it and came across their website to learn more about it. Truvia is a product of the Stevia plant that hails from the sunflower family.

The Truvia website says: Truvia™ natural sweetener is refreshingly uncomplicated. Sprinkle it on your grapefruit. Spoon it in your coffee. It won't end up on your conscience or your thighs. One packet of Truvia™ natural sweetener provides the same sweetness as two teaspoons of sugar.Truvia™ natural sweetener is a great alternative for people with diabetes. It is also kosher certified.

Water. Sunshine. Nutrients from the earth. That's what goes into the stevia plant. Then nature works her magic and creates a wonderfully sweet taste. Next, we steep the leaves, much like making tea, that begins the process of capturing rebiana, the best tasting part of the stevia plant. Ultimately, this little leaf gives back a recipe for sweetness that's both delicious and zero-calorie guilt free.

Now this all sounded good, so I decided to dig a little deeper...Let's see what Wikipedia.com says about what this stevia plant is. Well Wikipedia says, "The species Stevia rebaudiana, commonly known as sweetleaf, sweet leaf, sugarleaf, or simply stevia, is widely grown for its sweet leaves. As a sweetener and sugar substitute, stevia's taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar, although some of its extracts may have a bitter or licorice-like aftertaste at high concentrations. Medical research has also shown possible benefits of stevia in treating obesity and high blood pressure. Because stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose, it is attractive as a natural sweetener to people on carbohydrate-controlled diets. However, health and political controversies have limited stevia's availability in many countries; for example, the United States banned it in the early 1990s unless labeled as a supplement. Stevia is widely used as a sweetener in Japan, and it is now available in Canada as a dietary supplement. Rebiana is a trade name for a zero-calorie sweetener containing mainly the steviol glycoside rebaudioside A (Reb-A), which is extracted from stevia."

What I don't seem to understand is that if this plant is soo beneficial, why was it banned back in the early 1990s especially when the US was rapidly becoming the fattest country of the world. Diseases such as diabetes, obesity was soaring like a rocket? Although everything thats been written on it so far has been fine dandy, I know that my cynical mind can not be easily tricked. There is always a good and bad side and I guess We just have to wait until someone does more research on it and I have access to it on the the Internet. Until then, try it and let me know what you think. Anything and Everything is good in moderation!

Enjoy this next picture...