Whole Wheat Zucchini Carrot Bars

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How are you all ? How is the holiday preparations coming along? Are you planning to travel during holidays ? Are you planning to bake a fruit cake or something special for this Christmas ?

Our Christmas decorations are ready. My dried fruits and nuts bathed in rum, are waiting to be mixed in the batter for fruit cake. We have a Christmas tree for the first time. Till last year we were not sure whether the lil monkey in the house would let it stay, so we waited till we were sure that he wouldn't do any harm to the tree or himself and he very much enjoyed decorating with us.Now he is super excited that he eats and plays right beneath it ! Hope he wouldn't sleep there as well !

I am really slow in updating here but I am glad that I am still doing it.Thanks for all the messages and mails asking about it, you guys make me keep me going ! When the real life gets hold of you, one hardly gets any time for the virtual world, don't you agree ? This week is no different, it's my daughter's band concert in school and my son's holiday concert in a nearby church. In spite of being super busy, I really enjoy this holiday season and the spirit in air !

This post has been lying in my draft for quite a while now. When I say these zucchinis are from my garden, you could imagine. Better late than never. If you happen to have some zucchini and carrots, and wondering about a healthy after school snack, don't hesitate. My picky eaters loved it, so did we. Hope you will enjoy these super delicious bars as much as my family did !

Preparation Time: 30 min
Baking time:20-25 min
Yields: 36 small bars
Adapted from : Here

Ingredients:

Eggs- 2, slightly beaten
Brown sugar- 3/4 cup
Vegetable Oil- 1/2 cup
Honey- 1/4 cup
Pure Vanilla Extract- 1 tsp
Grated carrot- 1 1/2 cup
Grated Zucchini- 1 cup
Chopped Pecans/ Walnuts- 3/4 cup
Whole Wheat Flour- 1 cup
All purpose flour- 1/2 cup
Baking Powder- 1 tsp
Baking Soda- 1/4 tsp
Salt- a pinch
Nutmeg powder- 1/8 tsp
Cloves- 1/4 tsp
Cinnamon- 1/2 tsp

Cream Cheese frosting: (optional)

Low fat cream cheese, at room temperature- 8 oz
Powdered Sugar- 1 cup
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Method:

1.Preheat the oven at 350 degree F. Grease a 13 by 9 inch rectangular dish and keep aside.
2.In a mixing bowl whisk together the eggs, brown sugar,vegetable oil, honey and vanilla.
3.Fold in carrot, zucchini and nuts.
4.In another bowl whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
5.Mix with the wet mixture until just combined.
6.Spoon into the prepared dish and bake for about 25 min or until a tester inserted comes out clean.
7.cool on a wire rack.
8.Prepare the frosting by mixing the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Spread and serve.Refrigerate any leftovers.

Whole Wheat Focaccia

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I am trying out a lot of whole wheat baking for my little family. I did not get around to take pictures of most of it, but from now onward I promise you that I will try to keep a record of recipe and pictures to share with you all. I really enjoyed baking this bread and sharing with my family.They even commented that this tastes better than this classic Focaccia I often bake.The lil guy was keeping on coming back to kitchen to snack on this. I must tell you that he is such a picky eater when it comes to cakes and bakes !

Whole Wheat Flaxmeal Banana Bread

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Whenever I have some over ripe bananas,I bake banana bread or if I cannot make the bread immediately, I store them in ziploc bags in my freezer,until they are pulled out and squished into a banana bread batter. Sometimes, I wait patiently for bananas to go over ripe,so that I can make banana bread. Now you got it, I love baking and eating banana bread !

I have tried several different variations of the classic banana bread. But I haven't posted them all here, except this strawberry-banana-nut bread.I share only the best with you, because you deserve only the best ! This bread recipe is a keeper and I recommend you all try this. And for the health nuts,there is no better way to bake a moist banana bread as healthy and tasty as this.Flax-meal makes this bread super moist even when it has only half the quantity butter in it,compared to the original.

Everyone in my family,including my lil monster loves banana and banana bread.

Berry-Banana-Oats Breakfast Smoothie & 301 posts !

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This is our 301^st post, and I can’t believe it myself! Neither Sunitha or I realized we had covered 300 posts with the last one. We feel a great sense of achievement, and are thankful to all our readers for your love and support through the last one and a half years. One exciting day after the other is making me quite delighted as I write this post. I mean exciting Father’s day yesterday.

How was it for you? I spoke to my Dad, who was clueless about Father’s day, but I spoke to him and enjoyed our visit. It was definitely more exciting for my daughter. She has been planning the day for weeks and wanted to do something special for her dad. It all worked out well through the course of the day. We went hiking in the foot hills of Rocky Mountain which is a great pass time of this family. On the walk, my daughter got to do something different for her dad from the usual self painted Father’s day card she has been giving him for years. She carefully picked up wild flowers through her walk and gave it to her Dad. She was very pleased and so was he. These moments of simple pride and happiness are so priceless.

Not so much fun for my lil imp because he got excited and grabbed the bouquet from his Dad spoiling the bouquet and upsetting his sister. But on our walk back, the whole family picked flowers and brought home a fantastic wildflower bouquet. It’s sitting pretty on the windowsill. I wish I could take a close up picture to show you but it's a dreary day and hardly any light.

Coming to the recipe of the day - everyone hereabouts must be enjoying the berry bounty of summer. We are no exception. The farmer's market is brimming with greens not so much berries, but I got some from Costco. I think it is fitting to have some berry shake or preserve in summer. I stock a lot of fruits/berries in this season and right now if you open my refrigerator you will see Blueberries and Strawberries aplenty. The days are getting hotter and when you wake up to a warm sultry morning you cannot resist a cool breakfast smoothie. Anyways, some people here don’t like a lot of berries so a refreshing smoothie is always good. It gets the berries from spoiling and at least some respite from the heat.

I have plans of baking these berries and making preserves too. In fact, I already made a small batch of Strawberry jam. This year as I experriment with various flavors and combinations I hope you will be tuned into this space.

After my long winded post, here is a simple yet rich breakfast smoothie. The measurements are only a guideline, add or subtract as you go along but make delicious smoothies. Some things to keep in mind are the ingredients - obviously, it not only affects the flavor but also the color. When you need a softer, brighter color step up on strawberries. It always renders an exciting color :-)

Ingredients:

Blueberries- 1 cup
Strawberries- 10-12
Banana- 1 really ripe Banana
Cooked Oats- 1/2 cup
Honey- To taste
Milk/Yogurt/Soy milk- 1 cup
Ice cubes- a few

Method:

1.Cook the oats in water/milk and cool.
2.Mix everything well using a blender and serve immediately.

Notes:

1.If you want it super thick, leave the ice cubes and blend.
2.You could use any nut milk(for eg: almond milk) instead of milk, which will be great,since that makes this smoothie protein rich.
3,.This serves 2.

Oatmeal Banana Muffins

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  After a roll this week with sinful desserts and pork, let's talk healthy today.  These muffins with oats and whole wheat flour is super soft and delicious.   Great in your tummy and yet gentle on your love handles.

   Don't mistake healthy to be dry flakes falling off the muffin.  No, far from it.  My little guy enjoyed it so much he finished a big huge muffin (huge- used relative to my 2 year olds size). And on a lighter note here is a snippet of dialogue we shared while I was making this recipe:

LM:     Muffin menam ( I want muffin) The words are distorted like when babies first start talking.  Like 'twain' for train etc.

I (Playing along in his child talk): eppo tharame..(Wait a second)

LM(Pouting his lips and giving me a wide eyed doll look): Veleelu vachittu matiye (Only after you have kept it outside)

I: Open jawed, hands on hips making a face at him.

  Did you get it?  He is teasing me! Yeah, the little one is growing up quickly in the teasing department.

  He says 'only after keeping it outside' because I cook and then run outside with it to the patio to photograph.  I do this little hip hop between stove - dish - patio - table thingy.   Therefore now, I am the butt of the joke even for my 2 year old!   Gosh! What do a being do when they have to blog and photograph and feed kids and not have them tease you!!%@%$#



Ingredients:

Brown Sugar- 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup
Oats- 1 cup
Whole wheat flour- 3/4 cup
Baking Powder- 2 tsp
Baking soda- 1/2 tsp
Salt- 1/4 tsp
Eggs- 2
Mashed bananas- 1 cup (3 med)
Vegetable oil/Any oil of your preference- 1/4 cup
Cinnamon powder(optional)- 1/2 tsp
Walnuts chopped- 1/2 cup
Low fat milk/Buttermilk- 1/4 cup



Method:

1.Preheat the oven at 350 degree F.Prepare a muffin pan by either greasing or lining with paper liners.
2.Crush the oats in a blender and mix it with the whole wheat flour,salt,baking powder and baking soda.
3.Beat the eggs and sugar to mix them well.Add oil and mix once more.
4.Spoon in the mashed bananas and cinnamon if you are adding into this and mix well.
5.Finally add the milk/buttermilk and mix again.
6.Pour this wet mixture into the dry mixture and fold in using a wooden/plastic spatula.Also mix in the walnuts in this.
7.Spoon into the prepared muffin pans and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until they are done.



Notes:

1.This recipe gives you 12 standard size muffins.
2.You could add 1 tsp of pure vanilla extract if you prefer.
3.You could add more nuts if you wish.

Sending this to Champa's Bake off event

Recipe courtesy: Various Internet sites
Contributor: Namitha