Garlic Mini twisted rolls with Pillsbury Biscuit dough - Semi HomeMade!

 Though I love to bake and eat sweets, I am not completely and sweet person. If I get a chance, I would probably go for spicy dishes first, then to the sweet. But I am won't omit sugar completely! :)

I love sugar, tho I can't eat it now a days...it tempts me so! I try to keep myself away from it basically for health reasons. Especially this season, when we look for comfort food and when we are surrounded by chocolates. I do love me some sugar! But ya, for us who are trying to go healthy and all....I keep it to the minimum. This has been a trial using Pillsbury Biscuit dough, but I would surely try to go for whole wheat if possible. To eliminate the use of any extra butter, I used coconut oil. Now a days this ingredients has been given rave reviews as one of the healthiest ingredient around. I am going to try to incorporate it into regular dishes too, other than only baking, which I have been doing till now!

So with Valentine's day around the corner, and with so many 'sweets' around, I thought how about going for something spicy instead. Something easy, garlicky and spicy too. These Mini Garlic Twisted rolls are made of Pillsbury biscuit dough which comes in a cardboard can. Isn't that easy. All you need is this dough, chopped garlic, chopped coriander and few other stuff which may already be in your pantry. I like to have this as a side dish with a salad or soup. It takes under 20 minutes from start to finish. Just a simple way to whats already available and making use of it!

Time: Less than 20 minutes 

Makes 10 rolls

Ingredients:

2 rolls of Pillsbury biscuits dough

10 cloves of garlic, chopped tiny

small bunch of coriander leaves, chopped

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp red chili flakes (optional) (can use chopped green chili instead)

dry Italian seasoning (optional)

1/2 tbsp coconut oil (can use olive oil instead)

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F.

Lightly grease a baking sheet and keep aside.

Melt the coconut oil and keep aside.

Open a can of Pillsbury biscuits dough.

Lightly flour your surface and attach to dough pieces. Roll them out to make it long or oblong.

Brush on some melted coconut oil. Put some garlic, coriander and red chili flakes on the dough.

Now roll the dough into a log.

Cut in the center of the log to make two sides for twisting.

Twist both the pieces and make a circle out of it.

Brush again lightly coconut oil of the top. Sprinkle garlic powder and Italian seasoning on the top.

Lay them on the baking sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes.

Serve them hot just plain or with some chutney!

Enjoy and Happy Valentine's Day!!!

The first one is plain for my little kiddo, second and third are experiments - with 3 rolls and with 1 roll.

I think using one roll makes it too small and using three makes it too big. Two rolls were a perfect size, but surely you can do what you like.

I just went crazy on the pictures - Sorry for that! But this is my first time trying to edit using my Mac and I am kinda lost. I am still learning and I hope to learn soon! It really get frustrating when you try to switch from one operating system to the other.

Coming to my Handiwork -  I made these cute Valentine's Day bookmarks for my kid's classes.
They are made using Paint chips on one side and scarpbook paper on the other. Small hearts punched out on the side and tied up with a ribbon. Arn't they cute!!

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Spicy Corn Fritters / Corn Pakoras or Pakodas

 Its going to be raining here for the next few days...Rain = winter in CA = kinda cold and chilly too... not pleasant at all...well better than winters in East coast, but East coast is having spring like weather right now!...Grass is always greener on the other side isn't it!

Whats better than to have spicy and crunchy pakodas during the rains...brings back memories of the childhoods days, wen we used to get the yummy pakoras or spicy mirchi bajjis whenever it rains. The days when we were in college, we used get settled by the canteen and have hot hot bajjis and enjoy! Oh I wish those days can come back again!

Well who says we cannot enjoy the yummy pakodis even now...I am always up for some of these yummy fritters anytime. This was sitting in my drafts for quite sometime now. I thought this was a perfect time to post this as I hear the rain drumming on the windows. All I need now is some soft music, bollywood style and I am all set.

Well I wish I had that kind of time to sit now. I will have to make do with the radio in the car as I drive my younger kid to his swimming class!
But you guys enjoy these yummy ones and make sure to parcel me some! :)

Ingredients:

1 cup Sweet corn kernels / Frozen or fresh (I used frozen)
1/2 cup besan / Chick pea flour / Chenagapindi
1/4 cup rice flour
1 small onion, chopped

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste




pinch of baking soda
1 tsp chili powder or masala karam

2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
little water as needed

Oil for deep fry

Method:

Thaw the frozen corn in some water and drain the water.
Take half of the corn and grind it into a coarse paste.
Mix the ungrounded corn and the ground corn with rest of the ingredients along with some water. It should not be runny, but should be thick enough to make small balls.
Heat oil in a kadai for deep frying.
Drop small balls of the mixture into the heated oil.
Fry them till they are golden brown. Remove on a paper napkin to drain off excess oil.
Serve hot with some spicy ketchup.
Enjoy!!!

Sending this off to Indian Food Palooza, hosted by, Prerna of Indian Simmer, Kathy of The Colors of Indian Cooking and Barbara of Creative Culinary.

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Vegetarian Tostada with Papaya Orange Pico de gallo

 Wishing all the women in my life, and all the people I have come across in this blogging journey a very happy "International Women's Day".
And also to my Mom who has been my inspiration who has been supportive in all ways through this Journey.
My MIL, who has given me some good and interesting recipes and is supportive too.
And my Sister, who has been a person who I can lean on to when I need any kind of help and also been supportively useful in all ways! :) Don't we all like to take advantage of little sisters! :)

Today is also Holi - a colorful festival, celebration in India. It falls on the full moon day towards the end of winter season. It celebrates the start of farming season for good harvests and good fertile lands. There is also a religious aspect to it, which is the end of cold and darkness and bringing in the purity in the form of light and brightness.

Holi is the start of spring season which brings in different colors, this shown by playing with colors, colorful water among young and old.
Brings back memories of when we were in India, and used to watch kids play with colors. Yes watch, I never played much Holi, but did enjoy watching kids. But loved to eat all the different sweets made on that day.

So technically, I should be making sweets, but I thought why not combine Women's day and Holi and make something which is colorful and healthy for both occasions.
Isn't celebrating being a woman, mean eat healthy and as a celebration for good harvest and fertile land, also mean lots and lots of vegetables and fruit! :)

 
So for this occasion, I came up with a Vegetarian Tostada with Papaya Orange Pica de Gallo. A very easy dish which tastes just as wonderful. Lots of fruit and veggies on the top making it healthy and guilt free.
So as the story goes, I brought all the ingredients for making this and also brought canned black beans...only didn't see that I picked up the wrong can. It turned out to be refried black beans.

My first idea was to spread fresh salsa on the corn tortillas and then pile it with the pico de gallo, which was going to contain the whole black beans.
But since it was refried, I made it this way - spread the refried on the bottom and piled it with the pico de gallo.
the fun part of this dish is that you can modify it the way you like it. Add as many ingredients as you wish and make it as yummy as you like!! :))

This can be eaten as a appetizer or as a side item on a lunch menu. The crispy corn tortillas and the toppings should be kept separate, so that it allows each person to put what toppings they like.

Ingredients:

Papaya Orange Pico De Gallo:

1/4 piece of Papaya, chopped small
half of an orange, fiber taken out and chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/4 cup corn, frozen or cooked fresh
1/2 onion, chopped
1-2 green chili or 1 jalapeno, thinly chopped
few cilantro or coriander leaves
1/2 to 1 Tbsp of Lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together. Adjust salt, pepper and lemon juice according to taste.

Ingredients for making the Tostada:

6 corn tortillas, 6 inch
(2 corn tortillas per tostada)
1 avocado, chopped
1/2 cup refried black beans
(you can also use whole cooked / canned black beans instead)
Shredded cabbage
1/4 cup mix of Mexican cheese
(you can use fresh variety of Mexican cheese instead)



Method for assembling the tostada:

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Spray the corn tortillas, on both side of each one, with olive oil.
It take about 10-15 minutes for the tortillas to crisp up, when placed two, one on top of each other. So you have 3 sets. You can also crisp them, placing them individually too.

Remove avocado from its skin. Add some lemon juice, salt and pepper. Keep aside.

You can heat the refried black beans to warm, if you want...or if you like it cold you can use it just like that.

After the tortilla crisp up, spread the refried beans on top of it.
Place some shredded cabbage on it.
On top of that, add the Pico de gallo and avocado.
Sprinkle some cheese on the top.

Serve immediately or the tortillas will start to get wet from the pico de gallo and soften it.
Enjoy!!!


Variations:

Whole beans instead of refried beans.
Lettuce instead of cabbage.
Spread salsa instead of refried beans.
Use chicken to make it more interesting!

There can be more variations, just be creative :).

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