Thursday 26 December 2013

Simple Ground Beef Recipe: Chili Crowned Potatoes

There are many recipes of ground beef and there are plenty of ways of making this meat. Starting from warm chili to sloppy Joes, to the most famous meatloaf recipe. There are plenty of ground beef recipes available on online cooking sites and as well as in cooking books.

Recently, I was surfing internet for some work and an email came across containing this amazing recipe. The concept just hits me at the very first place. Chili topped potato, a perfect combination of baked potatoes and hearty chili recipe. This recipe is surely satisfying and super scrumptious. One more worthy thing about this recipe is that you can store this recipe and the leftovers, they just need to be reheated before serving. 

Although I have made quite a lot alternations as per the spices. The original recipe potato takes away the spices. This recipe itself is a completely meal as instead of mashed potato you served baked potato and chili recipe over these potatoes. This recipe can be made even in a busy weeknight.


ground beef recipe

Anyways without wasting any time let’s start cooking this amazing recipe – 

Pork Chops with Sautéed Apples


People those who suffer from diabetes are the one who are mostly confused on what to eat and what not to eat. In today’s post I am sharing a recipe for the people who are suffering from diabetes. Well, it doesn't mean if you are not suffering from this symptom you can’t eat it. In short, this recipe is healthy – it just have 297kcal of calories per serving, and fat just about 12g and carbohydrates is about 9g per serving. This simple recipe is healthy, yummy and absolutely delightful. You can in fact make this recipe even for parties and get together if you want.

The most amazing thing is it’s a pork recipe, still its fit for weight watchers and dieters. So now you don’t have to dissatisfy your taste buds. Explore the flavors and richness in food and still be fit and healthy!

If I talk about the diabetes, approximately 90% (in type I and type II diabetes) of people are suffering from type II diabetes. In this, person has high blood glucose (blood sugar) due to inadequate insulin or when body cells do not respond to this insulin properly. Overweight and obese people have a much higher risk of developing type II diabetes compared to those with a healthy body weight.

From a research done by medical association, 8.5% of the US population have diabetes - 25.8 million children and adults and 18.8 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes. :O. I don’t want to scare you all here, but just want to acknowledge that a healthy lifestyle is key to a healthy body. Avoid junk foods and fast foods instead go for home cooked meals. Nevertheless, let’s start cooking our healthy recipe for all.

Tuesday 24 December 2013

Almost Merry Christmas – My Christmas Dinner Menu!

Christmas is here and we all are damn excited about the fact. In California Christmas is not about snow and sledge. It’s about Santa and Sea. Soaking in the sun and enjoying the pleasantly cold weather. And if you feel like surfing on the surf board and sing carols. LOL :D



Anyways California is famous for its amazing weather for 12 days of Christmas holidays. If I talk about my family then my relatives come all the way from different places to California to enjoy this weather, soak in the sun and definitely to spend some memorable moments with each other.

For us Christmas dinner and lunches are like having a picnic. Everyone in the family make something this day so I am mostly out of the kitchen and rest members contribute. My husband also wears the chef cap although I have to arrange everything so that they don’t make my kitchen a mess. *ahh I can’t stand in a messy kitchen*

So, what we do is plan the menu beforehand, I ask everyone what all they can cook or want to cook. There is brainstorming, suggestions and ideas in short a complete ciaos even in planning our dinner menu and even for lunch ideas. I mostly jot down the ideas in paper and later make a final menu what all we are making for day.

MY CHRISTMAS MENU FOR 2013 is –

Wednesday 18 December 2013

Soup Recipes – The goodness for 12 Months



Soups are best delight you can have for all around the year. Soups are healthy, nourishing and if you make low-fat versions of soup recipes then it also helps in losing those extra pounds quickly. You can have vegetarian and as well as non-vegetarian soups as per your need. Soups are ideally served in first-course of dinner but you can also have one bowl soup which can be served as a main dish. Such soups are filling and satisfying and don’t make you feel hungry certainly.

For me soups are ideal for fall and winters. It helps you to keep warm and cozy. It’s been said, if you drink a bowl of chicken soup it help you to get rid of common flu and cold. In today’s post, I am sharing few soup recipes that you can try in this fall and even for the Christmas dinner –

Monday 16 December 2013

Kids Learn Something New this Season!


Simple DIY tips for Crafts and Recipes that your kid can try this festive season. I am sharing 5 simple recipes especially for Christmas celebrations and  craft ideas that you can try with your kids.


Keep looking this space for further details and methods to try this out!! 

You can find the details over here -  http://www.blogher.com/kids-learn-something-new-season


Love
Sylvia

Thursday 12 December 2013

Sweet Potato Halwa – Vegan Indian Pudding

I always talk about simple sweet potato recipes and its goodness that how they are healthy to have, how they are good for your body etc. This time I am sharing an Indian delicacy that one of my Indian friend sent me via email. This recipe is for the people who have craving for eating something sweet after every meal. Today I am making “sweet potato halwa” (Indian name to an eggless pudding). *This could be great dessert recipe for Christmas dinner too, healthy and nourishing dessert*


This recipe is not just healthy but she has sent me a recipe which is less in fats and calories too. So what else you want; it fall under perfect healthy recipes. The spices and ingredient used are Indian but they are easily available in any shop. It’s a best and sweetest example of mashed sweet potato recipe. I have tried this recipe and believe me it was super yummy and scrumptious.

One more thing, the recipe she shared with me was altered for diabetic people and she used artificial sweetener instead of sugar. I am using normal sugar here, because I have read somewhere artificial sweeteners are not good for kids and babies. Well I will share both things so you can try this quick and easy recipe anyway you want.

This recipe is simple and quick to make which that can be prepared in just 10 minutes. Moreover, this can be served warm or cold any which way you want. Its rich in fiber, potassium, calcium and other vital nutrients minus the extra added calories and fats. So, let’s quickly go through the preparations and method –

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Crunchy Baked Green Bean Fries

I made this recipe before and it’s like my favorite recipe, it’s crispy, delicious and moreover it’s healthy. This recipe is such a hit that I am planning to serve this in Christmas dinner as a side dish with Chicken. This recipe is even approved by the picky eaters like my husband. Today’s recipe is simple and really easy to make.
I am going to use whole green beans. Green beans are very low in calories; I guess it’s about 31 kcal per 100 g of raw beans and contain no saturated fat (good for weight watchers). Nonetheless, this lean vegetable is a very good source of vitamins, minerals, and plant derived micronutrients. It’s an excellent source of Vitamin-A, Vitamin-B6, thiamin, poly phenolic antioxidants and Vitamin-C etc.

So, if you are looking for a healthy and tasty appetizer this could be one solution. This recipe is damn simple and you can serve this as an appetizer or side dish for lunch or dinner recipe. You just need 3 basic ingredients (excluding salt and pepper) and you are ready to go for this recipe.

Friday 6 December 2013

Healthy BBQ Pulled Pork with Tangy Coleslaw


Who don’t like bacon or pork recipes? But although we all love bacon and egg it’s important to consider health too. Today in market you find leaner pork meat available, opting this meat option is always healthy and nutritious. Anyways one fine day I was eating pulled pork with burger and potato wedges and at that moment I realized how can I transformed this recipe into a healthier option.

Making pork in a BBQ style with some healthy options (i.e. without adding fats and other calorie stuffed dishes can indeed make this recipe healthy and nutritious. I guess best way to make a juicy pork recipe is with using slow cooker. A crockpot cooks the meat slowly which makes it really tender and juicy and it maintains its juices and flavors too. Traditionally, in southern part of America the pork is cooked in barbecue set outside your house. But today BBQ has no geographical boundaries; you have plenty of electric BBQ appliances available in the market. These devices are really great for your kitchen as some of them are even smoke-free. *it’s a god sent appliance, I swear!*

This recipe is delicious protein packed low carb recipe and instead of potato wedges I served it with low-fat tangy coleslaw. If I talk about calories than its 1 servings provides up to 250 cal/serving and protein of 34g. So, let’s start cooking –

Warm Slow cooker Crab Dip

One of the best winter delight is warm slow cooker crab dip. This dip recipe got the perfect blend of delicate flavors of crab meat, cream cheese and bit of sour cream and light mayonnaise. My friend has sent me this recipe quite a long back although the recipe she has sent me was little sinful filled with loads of sour cream and cheese so I tried to made this recipe little healthier by opting healthier options to make this recipe. I made home-made cream cheese for this recipe which is healthy and fat-free too. The best thing about this recipe is that it is a slow cooker recipe means a no-worry dish.

I also used light sour cream and light mayonnaise to keep the healthy content on top however I make sure that I won’t affect its flavor and taste at all. So that you can have the scrumptious creamy dip without having a doubt. Note – munch dips like dips and not like main course it helps in not maintaining that lean waistline. 

slow cooker recipes - cream cheese dip

Let’s make the cream cheese first and later the wonderful warm dip –

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Healthy Fettuccini Chicken Alfredo with Broccoli

December is here, Christmas is just around the corner and we all are busy organizing everything at home. Everyone is busy in shopping and buying presents for everyone. Mostly we spend our time in buying new stuffs, deciding menus, making list of important things that need to be finished off before Christmas etc. However, by the dinner time we get so tired that we hardly like to cook anything. So, what we mostly do is order some pizza for family. But eating pizza all day long doesn't make any sense. So, what can be an alternative, try some quick and easy recipes instead. 


Chicken Alfredo with Broccoli could be an option. We all have tried many varieties of this recipe in fact I have made this recipe like millions of time. And in all these attempts I really liked this recipe which I am going to share today. This recipe is simple and can be made in less time. For the Alfredo sauce, I am using a prepackaged pasta sides from Knorr as it is simple to make and the flavors are just perfect for this recipe. Add some grilled veggies and you are good to go.

I tried to make this recipe healthy. So, I used skimmed milk instead of whole and I completely omitted parmesan cheese from this recipe. For more flavors I used homemade chicken broth for this recipe. This recipe can be made in less than 30 minutes including the preparation time. Let’s not waste more time and start with cooking –