Carrot Cake Chocolatey Multi Grain Oats

Breakfast is the best meal of the day. When I wake up I'm extremely hungry and I don't trust people who say that they can't eat in the mornings! Specially if it's a breakfast like this, it tastes like carrot cake and has dark chocolate in it which will make you forget what day it is.

Quick cooking oats are absolutely the best invention because they take like 2 minutes to cook and can be made in so many different ways, sweet or savory!

This is a special recipe that I came up with inspired from the fresh carrot juice that I drink in winters. This is perfect for valentines breakfast because of the carrot cakeness and the chocolatey awesomeness in it. You can skip the chocolate if you want to taste only the sweetness of the carrots, and if you're like me you'll love this recipe the way it is!

I don't have a boyfriend but that doesn't stop me from making delicious goodies for myself, my cats, my friends and my family. This is a valentine's day recipe and I dedicated it to my calico cat, Pixie. She's my first love and will always be, love you babe!

Cook it for your beau on valentines day and surprise him/her or just make it anytime because it just takes 10 minutes and is absolutely delicious, the carrotness works beautifully with the Lindt chocolate.

Carrot Cake Chocolatey Multi Grain Oats

PREP TIME	COOK TIME	TOTAL TIME
10 mins	2 mins	12 mins

Perfect breakfast for your darling on Valentines Day!

Category: Breakfast, Vegan, Snacks, High Fiber

Serves: 2

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Ingredients

• 1 cup Carrot Juice
• 1 Cup Almond Milk
• 1 Cup Multi Grain Quick Cooking Oats
• 1 tablespoon Unrefined Cane Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon dried Rose
• 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt
• 1 Pomegranate
• 2 Kiwis
• 12-14 Slivered Almonds
• 200 gms Dark Chocolate

Instructions

1. Put carrot juice, milk, oats, sugar and spices in a pot and cook for 2-3 minutes
2. Garnish with fruits, nuts and chocolate.
3. Mix it all up and the chocolate will melt and become unbelievably luscious.
4. Eat the awesomeness!

Broccoli in Lemon Fennel Sauce

 

A simple sauté of broccoli, red capsicum and spring onions in sesame oil flavored with fennel, ginger, chili, lemon and honey. Delicious, spicy, tangy and sweet with fennel taking it one notch higher.

Broccoli has always been my favorite veggie! When most kids were gagging looking at broccoli, I was admiring it's tree like appearance.

It should actually be given the award for being the best vegetable ever. It has lots of protein and tons of nutrients. By receiving proteins from broccoli you get more fiber and vitamins, with no fat and less calories.

Fennel has this aromatic anise flavor which I absolutely love, and it has lots of health benefits as well! Its seeds has anti-oxidants which help in fighting free radicals in the body. Production of red blood cells is enhanced as fennel contains copper, which is required by the body for it's production. It is a great detox when you drink it as tea.

 This is a simple yet delicious recipe with brightly colored veggies!

Broccoli and Spring Onions with Lemon Fennel Sauce

PREP TIME	COOK TIME	TOTAL TIME
10 mins	5 mins	15 mins

Sautéed Broccoli, red capsicum and Spring Onions with a delicious lemon fennel sauce that is sweet and tangy!

Category: Low Carb, Plant Based, Snacks, sauté, Vegan

Serves: 4

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Ingredients

• 2 heads Broccoli
• 3 Spring Onions
• 1 Red Capsicum
• 1 inch Ginger
• 2 Green Chilies
• 2 tbsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tbsp Lemon
• 1 tbsp Fennel seeds
• 1 tbsp Honey
• Bunch Fennel Leaves
• Himalayan Pink Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Mix the lemon, honey and fennel seeds, keep aside for 5 minutes
2. Chop up the veggies,  ginger and chilies.
3. Heat the oil in a pan on high flame, let it heat, then low down to medium. Put the ginger, garlic and whites of the spring onions and stir for 1 minute.
4. Add the broccoli and chilies and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously till the broccoli becomes bright green.
5. Add the capsicum, onion greens and fennel leaves, stir around for half a minute. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Add the already prepared sauce to the veggies and stir around until liquid is absorbed, around 1 minute .
7. Transfer to bowl, garnish with fennel leaves and serve hot.

Homemade Tortilla Chips with Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus

Homemade sun-dried tomato hummus with multi-grain tortilla chips from scratch. Crispy and crunchy with that perfect kick of paprika.

This hummus tastes much better than the store bought stuff and is very simple to make. It's as simple as adding a bunch of ingredients in the blender and blending it up! I even made tahini at home but if you want you can use a packaged version.

I love to make stuff from scratch because then I know what went inside my food and it's free of preservatives that disrupt the human body. The fact that I can add my love to the food that I make is what encourages me to make food at home using whole foods.

Creating delicacies in the kitchen is a big stress buster for me and I feel like a little scientist working in the kitchen. Cooking is just like chemistry, the adding of just a few drops of anything can make or break a dish and the temperatures being used need to be perfect.

These tortilla chips were inspired from a YouTube video that I watched ages ago in which the chef used store bought white-flour tortillas and baked them. I took it a step further and made it super healthy. I didn't just bake the tortillas, I made them from scratch. I put multi-grain flour in it which contains soy flour, millet, wheat flour, oats and lentil flour. You can just use whole wheat flour or be a scientist like me and experiment with the flours you have at hand.

The recipe for the hummus was taken from here. But I even made tahini from scratch because, well, I love changing the state of whole food materials and creating stuff. So I made tahini, added the sun dried tomatoes and blended everything up, and the result was fabulous.

Hummus is basically the best kind of food item available to us and there can be so many variations of it. Add avocado and make a beautiful green hummus, add red hot chili peppers and make a chili hummus. I added sun dried tomatoes because I love the sweetness and the subtle tomato flavor in them.

Homemade Tortilla Chips with Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus

PREP TIME	COOK TIME	TOTAL TIME
20 mins	35 mins	55 mins

Homemade Tortilla Chips with Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus. Tortilla chips made from scratch with multi-grain flour and cornmeal with sun-dried tomato hummus made from scratch which tastes much better than the store bought stuff.

Category: Condiments, Snacks, Vegan, Plant Based, High Fiber

Serves: 4

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Ingredients

For Chips
• 1 Cup Multi-grain Flour
• 3/4 Cup Cornmeal
• 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1/2 tsp Salt
  For Seasoning
  • 2 tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1/2 Lemon
  • 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Ginger Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Cumin
  • 1/2 tsp Paprika
  • 1/2 tsp Dry Mango Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Black Salt
  • 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
For Hummus
• 1/3 cup Sesame Seeds
• 1 tsp Sesame Oil
• 1/2 cup Sun Dried Tomatoes
• 3 tbsp water
• 3 large Cloves Garlic
• 2 cups Cooked Chickpeas
• 1 Lemon
• 4 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• Garlic Chives (to garnish)

Instructions

1. Knead a dough with the first set of ingredients.
2. Make into 10 equal balls and roll out the tortillas(rotis).
3. Half cook on pan and keep aside.
4. Make a mixture with olive oil and lemon and put on tortillas with a brush.
5. Cut each tortilla into 8 equal triangular pieces.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 176°C (347°F) for 30-35 minutes till crisp (don't let them brown too much).
7. For the hummus, toast the sesame seeds in a pan for 4-5 minutes stirring continously till golden and aromatic.
8. Blend the sesame seeds until thick paste forms, 6-7 minutes and add the 1 tsp sesame oil and blend till smooth. Your tahini is ready!
9. In another blender add the sun dried tomatoes with water and blend till a paste forms.
10. Add all the other ingredients and blend until smooth.
11. Top with olive oil and garlic chives and serve with tortilla chips or crisp veggies!

Kashmiri Kidney Beans and Apricot Salad with Coriander Vinaigrette

I present to you a healthy kidney beans salad with an Indian touch! The sweetness of the apricots works perfectly with the spicy tanginess of the vinaigrette and compliments the taste and texture of the beans,vegetables and walnuts in this salad.

I'm always looking for easy to make delicious recipes that are delicious and plant based. This is something that I came up with using random things already in my house and it turned out to be totally delightful.

In this salad I used Kashmiri Kidney Beans also called Pahari Rajma. They contain more proteins and fiber than regular kidney beans and are found in the northern states of India. If you can't find these, use the simple ones.

This is a very simple salad and can be made in 10 minutes if you're using pre-cooked kidney beans. But it's more flavorful when you use the herbs in the cooking water.

And, when you get your protein from kidney beans, you also get the blood sugar stabilizing and heart health benefits of the soluble fiber provided by these versatile legumes. A cup of kidney beans provides over 43 grams of protein and 46 grams dietary fiber, pretty impressive right? They also contain amazing nutrients like iron, copper, manganese and potassium!

Make this sweet and sour salad any time of the day or night. It can also be eaten with some brown rice or as a sandwich center. It is very filling, nutritious  and full of plant based proteins.

Kashmiri Kidney Beans and Apricot Salad with Coriander Vinaigrette

PREP TIME	COOK TIME	TOTAL TIME
10 mins	15 mins	25 mins

Kashmiri Kidney Beans and Apricot Salad with Coriander Vinaigrette. A versatile, simple, sweet and tangy salad full of plant based protein.

Category: Gluten Free, Breakfast, Salad, Vegan, Snacks, High Fiber

Serves: 2

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Ingredients

For Salad:

• 1 cup Uncooked Kashmiri Kidney Beans/1 can Kidney Beans
• 12-15 Dried Apricots, Pitted
• 1 Yellow Bell Pepper
• 2 Cucumbers
• 1 cup Walnuts
• 1/2 tsp Thyme
• 1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds
• 2 Cardamom Pods

For Dressing:

• Bunch Coriander/Parsley
• 1 Chili
• 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp Ginger Powder
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Soak the kidney beans overnight (or in hot water for an hour). Cook them in a cooker with five cups water, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, 2 cardamom pods and some salt for 20 minutes. (Skip this step if you're using canned beans)
2. Soak the apricots in hot water for 10 minutes or until soft.
3. Add the ingredients for the dressing in a blender and blend.
4. Cut the veggies and apricots finely.
5. Drain the kidney beans and let them cool.
6. Put everything together and garnish with walnuts and coriander flowers.

Cacao Fudge Cake with Chocolate Coconut Icing

 The flavors of the coconut and the rich cacao blend together and have a party in your mouth, while the fudge-y texture of the cake melts away with gooey tones.

Once you have a taste of this cake, you  will want to have it over and over again!
I absolutely love baking cakes for peoples' birthdays, I'm given the responsibility of the baking for every party!

This one was made for Alpana, my lactose intolerant best friend. Love you babe!

Made with whole wheat flour and brown sugar, this cake is egg free, dairy free and you can'e even tell. It tastes like the chocolate 'Bounty'. If you're into coconuts like me (I live on coconut oil, it's good for everything and smells like heaven!) then you will go crazy about this one.

Just mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and bake, as simple as that!

Can be eaten as it is as a brownie or with the luscious chocolate coconut frosting for double the awesomeness.

Cacao Fudge Cake with Chocolate Coconut Icing

PREP TIME	COOK TIME	TOTAL TIME
10 min	50 mins	60 mins

A fudge-y chocolate cacao cake with a luscious and smooth chocolate coconut icing. Mmmmmm...

Category: Desserts, Vegan, Cakes

Serves: 1 and 1/2 pound Cake

 

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Ingredients

For Cake
• 1 and 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 cup and 3 tbsp Brown Sugar, powdered
• 1/4 cup Cacao/Cocoa Powder
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Himalayan Pink Salt
• 1/3 cup Canola Oil
• 1 tsp Vinegar
• 1 Flax Egg, 1 tbsp Flax Powder + 3 tbsp Water
• 1 cup Water, Warm

For Frosting

• 30 gm Dark Chocolate X 3
• 1/3 cup Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 cup Almond Milk

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven for 15 minutes at 176 degree celcius.
2. For the cake, sift the flour and add all the dry ingredients to it..
3. In a blender mix all the wet ingredients together.
4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a spatula so that no lumps are formed.
5. Put the mixture in an oiled cake tray and keep in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes till the toothpick comes out clean.
6. For the icing melt the chocolate in a boiling water bath, don't heat directly.
7. Add the coconut oil, vanilla and milk. Mix until nicely combine.
8. Let it cool for a while until thick.
9. Put the icing on the cake when the cake and icing have cooled down.
10. The icing will become solid in the fridge so if that's the case, let it be at room temperature for 10-15 minutes until a thick, liquid consistency has been reached.

Almond and Cranberry 'Ice Cream' Protein Bars

Too delectable, amazingly ice-creamy, absolutely vegan and pretty simple to make. These will make you go nuts and become your favorite breakfast or snack.

Perfect as a pre-workout or post-workout meal as they have a high amount of protein and fiber in them.

As simple as putting a few ingredients together and stirring them together. I used to spend a lot on protein bars as they were are an amazing way to avoid catabolism in your body.

After making these beauties with whole, natural ingredients I never went back to the store bought bars. The packaged ones don't taste like almond and cranberry ice-cream so why would I go back, right?

Almond and Cranberry 'Ice-Cream' Protein Bars

PREP TIME	COOK TIME	TOTAL TIME
10 min	0 mins	10 mins

Easy to make 10 minute protein bars that are with no refined sugar or oil.

Category: Desserts, High Fiber, Breakfasts, High-Protein, Snacks, Vegan

Serves: 12-14 Protein Bars

 

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Ingredients

• 4 tbsp Almond Butter, Unsweetened, No Added Oil
• 4 tbsp Honey
• 1 Cup Muesli/Granola
• 1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries/Sultanas
• 1/2 Cup Almonds
• 1 and 1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder
• 1 tsp Cardamom Powder
• 1/2 tsp Himalayan Pink Salt

Instructions

1. Add the almond butter, honey, salt and spices in a bowl and stir until combined.
2. Blend the almonds and cranberries till roughly broken (optional).
3. Add the muesli/Granola, the nuts and the dry-fruits in the bowl and mix well.
4. Put it on a parchment paper and level out with a spatula to 1/2 inch thickness.
5. Freeze for 1 hour and cut into pieces.
6. Freze for another 1-2 hours and enjoy your delicious ice-cream protein bars.
7. Store in the freezer separated by parchment paper.

Chili Garlic Tomato Chutney

This chutney is the first thing I remember from my childhood, I loved it so much that I would put it on everything that I would eat. My dadi still calls me mirchi (chili) because of my love for the spice!

This is my dad's recipe and is insanely easy to make. I'm always getting the next batch ready as this lasts for only about a month in my house. This is so much better than the store bought chili sauce as this has absolutely no sugar and still tastes delicious. I used olive oil in this so there are lots of antioxidants and benefits for your hair and skin as well.

All that heat you feel after eating hot chili peppers takes up energy and calories. Even sweet red peppers have been found to contain substances that significantly increase thermogenesis (heat production) and oxygen consumption for more than 20 minutes after they are eaten. They increase your metabolism and help you lose weight rapidly.

Chilies contain a health benefiting and alkaloid compound in them, capsaicin, which gives them their strong, spicy and pungent character. Laboratory studies suggest that capsaicin has anti-bacterial, anti-carcinogenic, analgesic and anti-diabetic properties. 

Put it in your stir-fries, salads or just on a simple toast with cheese. You can have this with absolutely anything and it makes everything taste amazing, just like Sriracha sauce.

Chili Garlic Tomato Chutney

PREP TIME	COOK TIME	TOTAL TIME
10 min	35 mins	45 mins

My dad's recipe of a tomato based chili and garlic chutney, which can be had with anything.

Category: Condiments

Serves: 1 pint Mason Jar

 

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Ingredients

• 3 pods garlic
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 9 medium size tomatoes
• 75 gram whole dried Chili
• 1/3 Cup vinegar
• 1 and 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 and 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• Himalayan Pink Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Roughly crush the chilies and soak in hot water until the seeds sink at the bottom and the chilies have soaked some water.
2. Blend the chilies and tomatoes separately and keep aside.
3. Mince or roughly blend the garlic and get your deep pan going at medium heat.
4. Add the oil and wait for it to warm up.
5. Add the garlic and cook until golden.
6. Add the blended tomatoes and cook until the oil separates, around 15-20 minutes.
7. Add the spices, vinegar and chili at this point and cook while covered for another 4-5 minutes.
8. Eat it with anything and everything!