Soulful Creations

Potatoes, aren't these the best of the veggies? Who does not love these earthy starchy root vegetable. So here is a recipe that befits this very versatile veggie. And I am submitting this as an entry to " No Croutons Required " hosted by Holler I found this recipe here but I have changed a few things. My dish is called Tater Frenzy Ingredients 4 medium potatoes, scrubbed (not peeled); cut into 1" chunks 1 cup baby carrots, chopped 3/4 medium white onion, chopped 2 cloves of garlic, minced 2 cups plain soymilk 4tbs butter 1/2 tbsp sage 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar salt and pepper, to taste 1/2 cup spring onions Directions 1) In a large pot, boil the potatoes with 1 tsp of salt. 2) Add the chopped carrots after about 5 minutes. 3) In a small saucepan on the side, saute the onions until they are soft and slightly browned. Remove from heat, and set aside. 4) Add the garlic (I did not saute the garlic), sauteed onions, soy milk, butter, and sage. Using a hand-held whisk or...

Today my parents left for Chennai. My dad and mom had just the opposite reactions, may be not entirely. But my dad was like a child, so happy indeed to get back home finally after two months, especially to all the sunshine and sweat! My mom was upset for almost a week now and today she caved, she cried. I was upset too and to just take my mind away from it- I decided I would use up the raspberries and blueberries I had bought. I had a muffin mood- so followed this recipe by Emeril, Ingredients Streusel Topping 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons butter, softened 2 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel Muffins: 2 cups all-purpose flour 2/3 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence 2 large eggs 1 stick unsalted butter, melted 1 cup buttermilk 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest 3/4 cup fresh blueberries 3/4 cup fresh raspberries Methods Preheat the oven to 400 deg...

I was extremely pleased to see this beautiful orchid in the wild in Florida. Cleared up a few things for me. One orchids do grow in wild (they are so beautiful that they almost seem unreal to me) and second two I love orchids, now matter how much they die on me (I had one for almost 4 years, gift for my birthday- all my efforts to try and keep it from dying only made the situation worse!). But what was interesting was the fact that there was just this one orchid plant in out vicinity. It is possible that there were others and I just did not notice them because they did not have any flowers. Oh well, am not complaining! This was taken by a bridge near Everglades (Gulf coast side close to Tampa) where we also saw gators Cool haan!!!

Here is another eggless breakfast recipe that I tried out from Easy Vegan cooking blog. It is a lovely french toast recipe. I did not modify it much But here is mine, Ingredients Whole wheat bread slices (there's probably enough batter for 8 to 10 slices) 1 cup vanilla soymilk plus 1 cup whole milk (since I did not have enough soy milk) 3/4 cup raw cashews 1tbsp molasses 1 tsp cinnamon and 1tsp clove powder Method Blend all the ingredients except the bread slices. Soak the bread in the liquid mixture. Spray a pan with some oil and cook the bread slices on medium heat until golden brown. Serve it with a lovely sauce or some jam. I am sending this one off to the MBP event this month, Easy Breezy Breakfast Judgement It tasted so good I did not even miss the eggs in this recipe. I served with over some lingonberry sauce I made from lingonberry preserves that I bought from Ikea.

I mean who does not love Nutella- spread with a nutty, chocolatey flavor. It was originally created by Mr. Pietro Ferrero who founded the Ferrero company. An interesting bit about Nutella is that it was initially made in loaves and packaged in tin foil (you could slice them and use it in sandwiches, like cheese!). The spreadable variation came later when Mr.Ferrero realized that children who ate those yummy sammies threw the bread away and ate just the slices of nutella! If you have not tried it before you should now, I tell ya it tastes heavenly. Anyway so when I saw this dish here , I knew I had to try it out. Ingredients 1/2 c. chickpea (garbanzo) flour 1/2 c. white unbleached flour 1 3/4 c. water 1 tbsp. dark brown sugar 1 tbsp. canola oil salt, a pinch Method Seive the flour mixture then whisk all ingredients together (try not to have any lumps in the batter) Pour 1/3 of a cupful of batter into a hot, seasoned (or nonstick) crepe pan. Spread the batter evenly and fairly thinl...

What happens when your pantry is low on everything, INNOVATION!!!! That is exactly what happened- with my dad's encouragement, I tried my own pasta recipe for the first time ever. It all started when I thought I had some of the usual pasta like farfelle or rigate and therefore picked up a recipe with lentils and stuff. Well, I did not have any of those, but at least had spaghetti. The other ingredients on hand were red pepper, onions, crushed tomatoes, left over pasta sauce (I could not use all of it because my mom did not like the super-garlic taste in that sauce, it is store-bought you see!) and flat-leaf parsley. The only thing consoling about this whole thing was the fact that it was going to be a healthy mixture and probably an ideal candidate for Monthly mingle # 29. But I decided to make it more healthy by adding some split green lentils. Well this experiment reminds me of the Lynne's "Splendid Table" (she actually tries to come up edible recipes from the ingre...

I love the combination of yogurt, fruit and nuts. And there is no other better time for this delight than in the morning- this combination has a wonderful cooling and calming effect. What more it is healthy. I am sure all of us make parfaits in different combinations and here is one of my versions with the ingredients I had at hand. The original idea came from dine and dish blog, but as I was reading the various parfait recipes from bloggers I realized I did not have many of the ingredients they have listed, so I had to sort of come up with my own Here it goes Ingredients 1 cup low-fat yogurt 1-2 ripe bananas 1 tbsp ginger a good swish of honey For the fruits, I had apples, pears and grapes which are in season now I used dried cranberries, prunes, sliced almonds and pistachios Blend the first four ingredients together Then layer the fruits (dried and fresh), nuts and yogurt mixture alternatively. Garnish with some cranberries and almonds. I think I will send this really easy recipe to...