Quinoa Spread Pizza!

Quinoa Spread Pizza!

by | Mar 2, 2016 | Nandini's Food Court, Recipes

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Tuesdays are always tough since my kids go for ice skating lessons and we end up coming back so late after their class. Tuesday nights – we usually end up making veggie quesadillas or pizzas. Its so much fun as they help me in the cooking process and are so excited to be a part of any small task that I have to offer them.

Yesterday was one such evening and my kids wanted Pizza. Now I knew I had some left over quinoa and some pasta sauce lying in my refrigerator. So I had an idea. I wanted to try a healthy spin and see if my kids would notice a little bit of cheating from my side! to try and get my  kids to eat healthy.

I have a 30 minute pizza dough recipe that works wonders when you are hard pressed for time. But if you want to save that trouble you could certainly buy store bought pizza dough.

I tried to mix the left over cooked quinoa with the pasta sauce and also tried to pack it with flavour using some finely chopped fresh garlic and some dried basil. I smothered the flavor packed quinoa spread on the pizza base and topped it with some cheese and onions. I used one half for the kids and the other half i also topped it with some spicy jalapenos for the adults:)

Anyway all of us loved it. It was a  big hit. The kids asked for more and i was one lucky happy mom! So i thought of sharing this idea with all of you.

I am also attaching a picture that I clicked before we dug in:)

Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buckwheat Banana Bread with Pecan Cream Cheese.

Buckwheat Banana Bread with Pecan Cream Cheese.

by | Feb 18, 2016 | Nandini's Food Court

 

 

 

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Buckwheat Banana Bread topped with dollop of cream cheese with Pecans.

One of our favorite comfort snack food is Banana bread – my kids love it and its a great way to use up those ripe bananas that you are ready to throw away.

We went on a trip recently with a bunch of friends and went to this restaurant that served the best banana bread ever. It was also such a coincidence that once we got back home and I was unpacking and cleaning up, i stumbled upon these dark brown bananas that i had left back home which was so ripe and i was a 100% sure that none of us would consume it:)

Instead of throwing it away, I figured that the best use of it would be if I can use them in banana bread!!! Voila!

But the issue I have with the normal banana bread is that its made of all purpose flour and plenty of sugar:( One recipe (-the one from food network)  calls for 8 tablespoons of unsalted butter and 1 cup of granulated sugar!!!!!). So i decided to try and spin a healthy version and i think I succeeded. I baked some yesterday and it was all gone by last night:)

I have to share this recipe with you and I PROMISE you will not even know that I used Buck wheat flour and Agave in my recipe. My kids kept asking for more last evening and I was one lucky happy mom:)

Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients

2 eggs

3-4 ripe bananas

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/2 cup of Buckwheat flour

1 teaspoon clarified butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons of honey or agave

2 teaspoons of low fat cream cheese

5-6 pecans chopped up

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray the muffin pans or you could use 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

Whisk the Honey/ Agave and clarified butter in a large mixing bowl along with the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time gradually while whisking until light and fluffy.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon.

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mashed bananas with milk and cinnamon

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whisked up bananas, milk and cinnamon

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whisk eggs along with agave and clarified butter

In another bowl, take 1 1/2 cups of buckwheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix all the dry ingredients well.

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Add the banana mixture to the agave-egg whisked creamed mixture and stir thoroughly.
Now slowly add dry ingredients, mixing continuouly until flour disappears. You can use a hand blender if you have one since it helps in mixing uniformly without forming lumps.

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mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients

Pour batter into prepared muffin pan and bake 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.

Top up a dollop of the cream cheese mixed and whipped up with chopped up pecans over a slice of banana bread and its heavenly:):)

Optional: Add chocolate chips or any nuts if your family is allergy free along with the batter prior to baking.

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baking/ rising in the oven

I hope you enjoy this healthy yet yummy snack with your kids and appreciate all your feedback.