Recipe: Broccoli Pizza

If you've decided on a vegetarian diet , you want to try the diet of negative calories or just want to try a delicious pizza that is also nutritious , this is the recipe for you.

Note that while you can include more fresh ingredients in the recipe (and less canned or preserved) be much better, plus you'll be ensuring that you retain all the nutrients (or most of them). For example, instead of using canned tomato puree, you can choose to make your own puree with fresh tomatoes. A good tip is to roast the tomatoes and simmer liquefy and be ready with your favorite spices.

Also remember that although our option presented here has broccoli as a main ingredient you can include as many vegetables you want (and if you are in this list , the better).

Ingredients to make the dough (500 gr):

• 250g flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 10gr of yeast
• 5g fine salt
• 10gr sugar
• 185 cl. water

Ingredients for coverage:

• 1/4 of broccoli
• 300 grams of cheese
• 200 grams of mozzarella
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 cup tomato puree
• 1 clove of garlic
• parsley
• oregano
• olive oil

Preparation of the dough : Dissolve the salt and sugar in half the water. Mix flour and brewer's yeast desmigándolo finely in a saucepan (sounds funny but has a reason) and mix with the rest of the water, then mix with the salt water and sugar (brewer's yeast does not support too much contact with the salt). Knead vigorously for 5 minutes. Gradually stir the oil, mixing continues for another 3 minutes until the dough comes away easily from the pan. Flour dough into a little ball. Put in slightly floured pan and recúbrelo with a plastic sheet.

To lift the dough : In summer, let the dough rise at room temperature, in winter, place the pan in a water bath for Humid 25 ° C. Do not leave it up to excess (the dough should double in volume).

Breaking and leave the dough : flour a little dough by folding on itself numerous times. With a thin plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for 1h 30m

Tips. Prepares Eve mass, will be better. To store it in a refrigerator that does not ferment

Preparation of pizza:

After preparing the pizza dough and having pre-cooked in the oven, cut the garlic finely and add it to the tomato puree along with parsley.

In another pot cook the broccoli, cut them and put them on the base. Then, place the mozzarella slices on top and then cover with cheese.

Slightly beat the egg yolks and sprinkle the pizza with them. We put it in the oven for about 10 minutes or so until golden brown.

 Served and ready to enjoy.

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Banana berry smoothie

Plain nonfat yogurt helps to boost the protein in this fruit-flavored easy to make drink.

Serves: 4

Ingredients
2 cups plain nonfat yogurt
1 medium size ripe banana, peeled, sliced
1/2 cup Equal® Spoonful or Granulated*
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cups frozen unsweetened whole strawberries
1 cup frozen unsweetened red raspberries

*May substitute 12 packets Equal® sweetener

Preparation
Combine yogurt, banana, Equal® and lemon juice in blender or food processor; cover. Blend until smooth.

Add half of frozen fruit. Blend until smooth. Repeat with remaining frozen fruit.

erve immediately in tall glasses.

Nutrition Information
Calories: 147
Total Fat: 0 g
  Saturated Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 3 mg
Sodium: 121 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 31 g
Protein: 9 g

Food Exchanges: 1 milk, 1 1/2 fruit

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Maple glazed orange carrots

A flavorful side dish for any meal.

Number of Servings: 5

Prep time: 4 minutes

Cook Time: 6-8 minutes

Ingredients:
1-1/2 lbs. (4 cups) baby carrots
5 Tbsp Cary’s® Sugar Free Syrup
2 Tbsp orange juice
1 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 Tbsp orange zest

Preparation:
Toss all ingredients together in microwave bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Toss and cover. Microwave on high for an additional 1-3 minutes. Carrots should be fork tender with a hint of crispness. Toss and serve immediately.

Variation:
This vegetable dish is a tangy, colorful, healthy and flavorful side dish for any poultry, meat or fish. Substitute lemon juice and lemon zest for the orange. Grapefruit juice and orange peel make a great combination with the carrots.

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 74
Total Carbohydrates: 11 g
   Dietary Fiber: 2 g
Total Fat: 2 g
   Saturated Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 13.35 mg
Sodium: 103 mg
Protein: 1 g

Exchanges: 1 vegetable, 1/2 carbohydrate

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Kesar Rice

Ingredients 

• 1 cup basmati rice 
• 1 cup sugar 
• few strands saffron crushed 
• 1 tsp. chopped pistas & almonds 
• 1/2 tsp cardamon powder 
• 1 small piece cinnamon 
• 4 cloves, 1 tbsp small raisins 
• 1/2 cup pure ghee 
• a little saffron colour dissolved in 2 tsp water. 

Method 

1. Boil rice in plenty of water. Do not add salt. 
2. When the rice is just about but not yet done, drain and cool. 
3. Add sugar, colour, cardamon and saffron. 
4. Heat ghee in a heavy sauce pan, add cloves, cinnamon raisins and rice. 
5. Gradually cook and store till occasionally without breaking the grain. 
6. When the water dries up add the chopped dry fruits on top. 
7. Serve hot.Take care not to burn the seasoning. 
8. Add curd, milk, coriander. 
9. Mix well and cool in fridge for an hour before serving. 

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The Lentil Challenge

Unlike popular Indian desserts, most Konkani desserts are not dairy-based. While the use ofcoconut, jaggery and cardamom is a given, they are usually combined with fruits, rice or lentils. Madgane is not a dessert in the traditional sense. We don't make it as a last course to a Sunday lunch for instance. It has rather richer associations - weddings, the Hindu New year and for me 'devasthan jewan' (meals eaten in a temple).

During the festival at our temple in Goa, after the puja was done, we would race to the lunch area a little distance away. This was not because we were very hungry (well not always) but because the road was blistering hot under the afternoon sun and we were barefoot. The entire lunch was delicious of course, but in my eyes it was the madgane that truly made the hotfooting (pun totally intended :-)) worthwhile.

Madgane is quite rich because it is made with a lot of coconut milk. I have reduced the amounts keeping in mind that I have indulged my sweet tooth a little too often in the past few weeks! I used a readymade tin of coconut milk; this obviously won't taste the same as freshly extracted milk but it sure cuts down the hassle and time.

MADGANE (Lentil Pudding)
(serves 2-3)
1/3 cup split bengal gram (chana dal)
6-8 cashews, halved
1/2 cup grated jaggery (adjust to taste)
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp cardamom powder

Wash dal in 2-3 changes of water. Drain, then add about a cup of water and soak along with cashews for an hour.

Transfer to a deep bottom pan, add one more cup of water and cook until dal is tender. Do not overcook the dal; it should be soft but able to hold its shape. Add more water in batches if necessary.

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Carrot Cake Recipe

There will be a special place in my baker's heart for the first project I undertook post-baby, and I take it as a fine omen that it is also an exceptionally good cake, one I have already baked again twice since then.
Our son (it still feels surreal typing these words) is now six weeks old, he is thriving, and although the first weeks were challenging in ways I had been told about but couldn't truly penetrate until I experienced them firsthand, our little family is finding its rhythm and every day brings new reasons to feel lucky that we landed this particular charming baby.
We have had friends and family come over to meet Milan, and it is on one of these occasions that, feeling uncannily energetic after a night during which the little guy only woke us up every three hours -- consider our drastically lowered sleep standards -- I decided to bake a cake for our guests.
The recipe is drawn (and marginally adapted*) from a fun new book by Julie Andrieu, a French cook, food writer, and television personality who gathered dessert recipes that use vegetables.
Her carrot cake is among the more classic items in this collection, but it is the one I was drawn to the most: one, because I have to steer clear of dairy for breastfeeding reasons, and this cake uses oil as the source of fat; two, the ingredients list and process were simple enough for my circumstances and I only needed to buy the carrots; and three, I adore carrot cakes but had yet to adopt a particular recipe as a standard in my repertoire.
On the eve of baking day I measured out the ingredients and grated the carrots, and on the day of I assembled the batter and plopped the cake into the oven, all with the baby sleeping against me in his wrap -- an absolute godsend if you're the kind of person who likes to use both of your hands every once in a while.
It was a truly wonderful cake: moist and flavorsome and lightly nubby from the use of cornmeal, with a thin crust on top and the meaty crunch of pecans punctuating every bite, we ate it with an enthusiasm that nearly matched that with which we discussed the important matter of whose eyes and whose nose and whose mouth the baby seems to have taken (the consensus, respectively: mine, Maxence's, as yet undetermined).
* Here are the elements I modified from the original version: I lowered the amount of sugar a bit, and the amount of spices as well (I prefer a gently spiced carrot cake); I doubled the amount of cornmeal and added salt; I skipped the diced candied orange rind; I used pecans in place of walnuts ; I changed the order in which the ingredients are combined to follow the simple rule of wet ingredients vs. dry ingredients.

Pecan Carrot Cake
- 175 grams (1 cup minus 2 tablespoons) unrefined cane sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) olive oil or other oil
- 500 grams (1 lb 2 oz) carrots, peeled and grated
- 130 grams (1 cup) all-purpose flour (I used the French T65)
- 40 grams (1/3 cup) cornstarch
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 40 grams (1/4 cup) cornmeal
- 1 teaspoon warm spice mix (such as quatre-épices or pumpkin pie mix, containing cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger)
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 125 grams (1 1/4 cups) pecans or walnuts, toasted if possible, coarsely chopped
Grease a 9 x 5-inch / 23 x 12-cm loaf pan with oil and preheat the oven to 160°C / 320°F.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs for a minute. Whisk in the olive oil, and fold in the carrots.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, cornmeal, spices, salt, and pecans until combined. Fold into the wet ingredients, taking care not to overwork the batter.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. Let rest on a rack for 30 minutes before turning out, and let cool completely before serving.

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Nankatai

I was asked a couple of days back by my son's teacher if I would like to come to school to celebrate Diwali Day. They were celebrating it a little after Diwali as the school had it's half term break exactly during the Diwali break. I was asked whether I would be interested in doing some cooking so that the children could have a taste of some Indian food. I was definitely interested and it really got me thinking as to what I could make. It had to be something that children found attractive , didn't take too much time to cook and had an Indian touch to it. Making Diwali snacks was totally out of question as we all know that most of the snacks that we prepare for Diwali are very very time consuming and also require concentration.

So I asked Google for advice and I also did some blog hopping but finally the idea came completely on it's own accord . " Nankatai": The delicious Indian cookie. I knew it was a great idea as it is quick to make does not require too many ingredients and as the school has a oven baking was no problem. I had also seen it being made on UKTV Food by a very talented Indian Celebrity chef and I thought if he can make such a simple dish on national television I could definitely present it in my son's school. But before I finalised it I had to take a trial at home . The quantity of each ingredient had to be determined and how many cookies would I make in one batch. And so I did. I followed a recipe from here with a few changes here and there of my own.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup maida (plain flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup ghee (clarified butter)
• 1/2 cup castor sugar
• 2 tsps chopped almonds
• 1 tsp cardamom powder
• 1/4 tsp saffron soak in 1 tbsp hot water

Method:
Seive flour and baking powder together. Mix ghee and sugar till creamy. Add the flour mixture,the saffron and cardomom . Knead well and make into small balls. Flatten and place on lined tray. Dip a fingertip in water and dab on the centre of each ball of dough. Bake in oven till cooked for about 20-25 mins at 375 deg.

Now what actually happened is that after I made these ,tasted them and passed a satisfactory verdict on them I spoke to a friend about them . She was of the opinion that although Nankatai was a great recipe to make as such , all said and done it was a biscuit; a biscuit that tasted very similar to Scottish Shortbread which most children in UK have eaten thousands of times. So would it not be better to do something else a bit more Indian.

She suggested Instant Dhokla and I came up with the idea of Amrakhand. And these are to the 2 dishes that finally made it to the school Diwali celebrations. I hung 1 kilo of Greek Style yoghurt overnight . In the morning I mixed in sugar and cardammom in it. After putting it in a plastic container it was ready to carry to the school. Along with I took along a can of Alphonso mango pulp so that the children could mix the pulp and the yoghurt themselves and make their own Amrakhand

I also took a pack of Gits Dhokla mix and my idli stand to the school. Within minutes of arriving at the cooking area I had the first batch of idli shaped Dhoklas ready . I offered the children the choice of topping their Dhoklas with fresh coriander and coconut and a tempering of mustard but most of them were happy just munching on the plain Dhoklas. A few even asked for seconds and I was so thrilled.

The Amrakhand idea was also a complete hit. The kids loved mixing mango with yogurt and polished off all the Amrakhand from their little cups before asking for seconds and also thirds. You can imagine how nice it felt . The teachers were also very happy with the way things went and they too got a sampling of the Dhokla which they loved.

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