BLUEBERRY AND STRAWBERRY PARFAIT

BLUEBERRY AND STRAWBERRY PARFAIT

3RD BLOG ANNIVERSARY

Three years have passed, time is flying. I am glad that I have reached this milestone, and I am looking forward to sharing and learning more with the help of this blog. When I started this blog, I never thought that blogging is so much fun. For me, the more I share recipes on my blog, the more I enjoy this journey of blogging.

This journey of blogging was really beautiful and I have enjoyed each and every moment of these three years, thoroughly. This joyful journey was not possible without the support of my family members, a big hug and big thanks to all my family members. Here I would like to give special thanks to my son-in-law for his time and patience in taking enormous and awesome photos for my blog. Check his website.

I would also like to thank all my friends, readers, followers and my blogger friends who always visited, checked my recipes and read my stories and commented on it. A big thank you for your continuous support not only on the blog but also on different social medias. Your support is my greatest treasure, which I want to keep with me forever, and looking forward to this enormous support in future too.

These three years have been more enjoyable also because of the three main publishers who have supported, trusted me and gave me the chance to publish about myself and my recipes. I really felt honored and would like to thank them once again.

On 26^th February 2015, my story and two recipes were published in the “Airdrie Life” magazine of Airdrie Alberta. Later I shared those recipes on my blog. In April 2016, six of my recipes and my story were published in Vancouver-based “Darpan” magazine. Later I shared all those recipes on my blog as well. The third one is “Here's the Scoop” a local weekly, Airdrie newspaper of Alberta, who continuously supported me in these three years, where my recipes were published many times under the heading- “Recipe of the week”. Check all those recipes and my story under publications on my blog's main page.

I love all my recipes which I shared so far on my blog, and it is difficult to choose the best three recipes amongst them. But for me, it is more important to know the recipes that my readers liked the most. So here I want to mention my three most viewed recipes so far, which my readers really liked. My first most viewed recipe is “Savoury baked cake”, in which I have used fresh fenugreek leaves, which is a very healthy herb; this recipe seems to have originated amongst the Indians of South Africa. One of my friends in Botswana introduced me to this recipe a long time ago.

My second most viewed recipe is Dry black chickpeas, a side dish and a post on a famous Indian blend of spices called “Garam masala”. This masala is used in many Indian and Asian cuisines in snacks, stews, dry and wet vegetables preparations and curry recipes.

My third most viewed recipe is “Instant Naan”, which is the famous Indian baked flat bread, available throughout the world in almost all Indian restaurants. This is a very popular dish throughout Europe. North America and in many other countries. In my blog, I have shared many types of Indian flat breads but this one is the most popular one.

Coming to the recipe, this is a very simple but elegant recipe for a healthy breakfast, which is mainly just assembling the healthy ingredients together. I only made the compote with strawberries and sugar, which took only 5 minutes.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup granola
• 1 and 1/2 cup greek yoghurt
• 2 tbs chia seeds and 2 tbs milk
• 1/2 cup strawberries
• 2 tbs sugar
• 2 tbs water

METHOD

• Soak Chia seeds in 2 tbs milk.
• Chop strawberries finely.
• Add 2tbs sugar, 2tbs water and heat in a saucepan; when mixed, add strawberries to make compote, cook for five to six minutes and leave it to cool.
• Arrange in tall serving glasses; start with yogurt then strawberry compote followed by chia seeds, few blueberries and two tbs granola.
• Repeat the same order again, this is served cold.

Two tall glasses can be served,

I am sharing this recipe as my blog post entry with Hearth and Soul blog hop and Meatless Monday. and with Cook blog share and I am pinnable party and with Cook once eat Twice and Fiesta Friday hosted by Lindy and Paula and sharing with Simple and in Season

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ORANGE AND DRIED BERRY CUPCAKES (EGGLESS)

ORANGE AND DRIED BERRY CUPCAKES (EGGLESS)

EDITED: This recipe was published in the "Here's The Scoop" newspaper of Airdrie, Alberta on 22nd of June 2017/

EDITED: This recipe was featured at "Cook blog share" blog hop on 23rd may 2017, check here

I love oranges and love using them in my recipes whenever possible. When they are in season, I make these fresh orange juice cupcakes. Fresh juice gives nice flavor and color to these cupcakes.

I make different types of cupcakes so that my grandchildren get to eat fresh and healthy homemade snack during lunch at school. The only problem when I make cupcakes for school is that I can not add any nuts in them because many kids at school are allergic to nuts. I think it is a common problem here in North America. Every year we get instructions from school authorities that even if your children are not allergic to nuts, they should not consume them in the morning before coming to school because it could be dangerous to nut allergic kids as they shake hands and share books etc in school.

After reading a lot of health benefits of avocado oil, I am in love with this oil. Before I was using it only in salads but now I have started using in all baked cakes and savory baked items as well. I bake eggless cakes or cupcakes where butter is already replaced by oil of any kind in many recipes so it is a good idea to use avocado oil instead of sunflower or any other oil.

These are tried and tested cupcakes, one of my friends gave me this recipe a long time ago. I used all-purpose flour before but these days I prefer using brown flour. In these cupcakes, I have used all healthy ingredients like brown flour, avocado oil, greek yogurt, fresh orange juice and brown sugar.

RECIPE
INGREDIENTS

• 150 grams brown bread flour/whole wheat flour
  
• 100 ml avocado oil or sunflower oil ( any oil of your choice)
  
• 100 grams brown sugar or castor sugar
  
• 200 ml fresh orange juice
• 1/4 cup dried berries
  
• 50 ml yogurt (half cup)
  
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
  

METHOD



• Sieve brown flour and baking powder, baking soda in a bowl
• Add sugar and mix well
• Beat the yogurt with egg mixer and add orange juice and oil in a bowl
• Slowly add the wet mixture to a dry mixture and continuously mix in a hand or stand mixture for around 10 minutes, and fold in the dried berries.
• Heat the oven to 180 degrees C or 275 degrees F and grease the muffin tray
• Pour the mixture up to 2/3 level in the cupcake molds
• Bake for 20-25 minutes till the toothpick comes out clean
• Serve hot or at room temperature

15-20 cupcakes can be made depending on the size you make

I am sending this recipe as my blog post entry to Matless Monday and Sweet Inspiration blog party and with Cook Blog share and Hearth and Soul blog hop  and with I am pinnable and bake of the week, and with Simple and in Season and with cook once eat twice