Refreshing Whole Wheat CousCous Salad

Refreshing Whole Wheat CousCous Salad

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Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Cous Cous- 1 cup

Cayenne Pepper- 1 teaspoon

Chopped Green Beans- 1/4 cup

ChoppedYellow Squash- 1/2 cup

Green Peas- 1/4cup

Chopped Carrots- 1/4 cup

Onion- 1

Tomato- 1

Jalapeno- 1(optional for heat)

Fresh garlic- 3 cloves

Salt to taste

Garlic powder- 1 teaspoon

Cumin seeds- 1 teaspoon

Curry powder- 1/2 teaspoon

Preparation

This recipe takes less than 10 minutes if you have all the vegetables chopped and ready. So if you are pressed for time or want to make a quick dinner all you need is to chop the veggies ahead of time or you can buy the chopped frozen vegetables from the supermarket. You can thrown in pretty much any veggie and improvise this recipe.

Firstly chop onion, tomato, jalapeno, green beans, carrots about 1/2 an inch and try to chop them evenly so they cook evenly.

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Take a non stick saute pan and keep it on low flame. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and then add cumin seeds. Wait for the cumin seeds to get toasted and splutter. Now add the chopped onion, tomato, jalapeno and vegetables along with salt to taste, garlic powder and curry powder. Mix well and saute for about 2 -3 minutes.

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Now add 1 cup of whole wheat CousCous and 1 1/2 cups of water.

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Mix well and keep covered for about 5 more minutes till couscous absorbs all the water. Fluff cooked CouCous with a fork and serve with Tzatziki on the side.

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I also make a chilled Raita with onions, cucumbers and green chillies to be served along with this salad.

Enjoy!

Cooking with 10 year old Anaya on her Birthday

Cooking with 10 year old Anaya on her Birthday

I have been postponing this post now for a long time simply because I wanted to sit down and write about this wonderful cooking experience with a 10 year old girl, Anaya.

anaya

Anaya is such a sweet, brilliant, creative 10 year old who loves to cook. On her 10 th birthday, her mom Shruti decided to host a birthday party where Cooking was the theme. Anaya was thrilled with her mom s idea and decided that she wanted to throw a party by cooking a meal for a bunch of her close friends at her home.


Shruti had found me on Facebook through one of our common friends and decided to call me to help Anaya prepare this wonderful meal for her friends. I was super excited, immediately got working on what Anaya and her friends liked to eat and what they didn’t care too much for and so forth.
I exchanged a couple of emails with Shruti, Anaya s mom who in turn checked with her daughter to see if all of us were in agreement:)
So here goes the menu:

For Appetizers, we decided to make
Paneer or Indian Cottage Cheese Quesadillas.

For the dip, we made fresh Guacamole with Onions and tomatoes and a hint of lemon juice!yum!

For Main course,

Penne pasta with broccoli and peppers in a Pink sauce.

Shruti also mentioned that Anaya loved mangoes so I decided to whip up a

Mango Smoothie with a wedge of strawberry!

We took about 2 hours to prepare everything. Anaya wore her apron and chef hat and looked like a Junior Master Chef:) in the kitchen. She loved to chop and sauté and mix and did such a wonderful job.

I am pretty sure she will be a great food critic when she grows up as she aspires to be one:)

What can I say? Anaya was thrilled to serve her friends with all the food that we cooked together and the kids simply loved it and were so appreciative.

I must certainly commend her mom of being so supportive and giving me and Anaya an opportunity as wonderful as this that I will treasure lifelong:)))

Thanks Shruti and Anaya for a great cooking experience in your wonderful home.

Cooking with 10 year old Anaya on her Birthday

Cooking with 10 year old Anaya on her Birthday

I have been postponing this post now for a long time simply because I wanted to sit down and write about this wonderful cooking experience with a 10 year old girl, Anaya.

anaya

Anaya is such a sweet, brilliant, creative 10 year old who loves to cook. On her 10 th birthday, her mom Shruti decided to host a birthday party where Cooking was the theme. Anaya was thrilled with her mom s idea and decided that she wanted to throw a party by cooking a meal for a bunch of her close friends at her home.


Shruti had found me on Facebook through one of our common friends and decided to call me to help Anaya prepare this wonderful meal for her friends. I was super excited, immediately got working on what Anaya and her friends liked to eat and what they didn’t care too much for and so forth.
I exchanged a couple of emails with Shruti, Anaya s mom who in turn checked with her daughter to see if all of us were in agreement:)
So here goes the menu:

For Appetizers, we decided to make
Paneer or Indian Cottage Cheese Quesadillas.

For the dip, we made fresh Guacamole with Onions and tomatoes and a hint of lemon juice!yum!

For Main course,

Penne pasta with broccoli and peppers in a Pink sauce.

Shruti also mentioned that Anaya loved mangoes so I decided to whip up a

Mango Smoothie with a wedge of strawberry!

We took about 2 hours to prepare everything. Anaya wore her apron and chef hat and looked like a Junior Master Chef:) in the kitchen. She loved to chop and sauté and mix and did such a wonderful job.

I am pretty sure she will be a great food critic when she grows up as she aspires to be one:)

What can I say? Anaya was thrilled to serve her friends with all the food that we cooked together and the kids simply loved it and were so appreciative.

I must certainly commend her mom of being so supportive and giving me and Anaya an opportunity as wonderful as this that I will treasure lifelong:)))

Thanks Shruti and Anaya for a great cooking experience in your wonderful home.