Oats Carrot and Raisin Cookies

Summer vacations have started here and with that daunting task of keeping busy my DD have also started. Outdoor activity is essential for the over-all development so is some in-door activities.
Yesterday we were out in park. She kept throwing her boomerang and also towards me mischievously , although it was always changing it's path.Sometimes ending where it started. Well at this age I can’t be like her, can I? , jumping and catching at the same time, going ecstatic about a boomerang- but that didn’t stop me from picking it up from the ground and then throwing it back, even if that means I have to run couple of steps or jump high/bent down  to get hold of it.

This summer term- she started her tennis class. Now she is pestering me to play tennis with her, I can’t recall when the last time I picked up tennis racket, was perhaps while staying in US as we had a community tennis court in our apartment complex and a swimming club also... Oh! And have I said that I was very bad at sports at school level. DH on the other hand is quite active; he still plays tennis.I wouldn't say I am a couch potato now, but it is something to do with the sedentary lifestyle we have now. There is car to take care of our mobility and then there is home-delivery for grocery. I have chucked out these two from my list- so every time I go out; I walk and carry grocery to bring it back home. I rarely get into bus unless we have to travel to central part of city or carry heavy grocery. Something which I like to do .Given a choice to run over a treadmill in a closed gym, I would prefer any day walking out even if it is raining. But this makes me tired, and when I get tired I can sleep well. For a good and sound night sleep, physical tiredness is required. And if you are emotionally tired then that’s the difficult part. As emotional tiredness can drain out all the positive energy from you. Anyways there are better means to take care of your emotional fatigue and physical fatigue, find out what are those means and try to stick to those means. It’s always better to work on these means rather to swallow tablets or pills for that matter.

This is what she has been making this weekend. Her origami crafts are improving that I would like to say. Last time when I visited our local library, I picked up a random book about origami- crafts. It has clear stepwise instructions with great visuals/pictures. Now if a book has great visuals then it becomes appealing to kids and if it’s about crafts then its much better.DD is excited to try other animals. Well we have making it in  -- past also
If you want to make this easy craft – then there are many other websites where instructions are free and can be easily downloaded.

After all this banter now to real stuff of the recipe. Whole meal flour or Atta has many health benefits and I don’t need to re-iterate that. Since I am currently guest-hosting - " Cooking with whole grains" -  I thought it would be nice to share a cookie recipe with you all. I have made them many eons back, and this was lying dormant in my drafts, finally this is its day today.

Oats gave some additional nutrients and raisin and carrot added more volume to this recipe. If you want chewy textured cookies then leave it little thick and if you need a crisper cookie then roll out thin.A thumb rule I like to follow while baking cookies.


Oats Carrot and Raisin Cookies
Recipe requirements
3 cups of whole meal flour/Atta
1 cup of oats
3 medium size carrots grated
½ tsp of baking soda
½ tsp of baking powder
1 egg
½ cup of sugar
¼ cup of butter
½ cup of California raisin

Method
Clean the carrots and shave the skins off with potato peeler. Then grate them with the help of mandolin.
Mix whole meal flour and oats well in a big mixing bowl.
Now in a separate bowl, mix in butter and sugar well. It would be great if butter is taken out from fridge at least half an hour before mixing with sugar. This way it’s easy to work with them.
Now add in 1 egg to it. Mix well butter sugar and egg.
Preheat the oven at 170 deg C.
Now add baking soda and baking powder to the whole meal flour and oats mixture.
Mix the butter +sugar+egg mixture with the whole meal flour and oats mixture. Add in raisin and grated carrots.
Keep mixing it with the help of your hands. This will form semi-soft dough.
At this point if you wish you may refrigerate the dough for couple of hours.
Take out and divide the dough in equal proportions. Now roll out a large disc from it and with the help of cookie cutter cut out cookies.
Transfer the cut out disc to cookie baking sheets. Bake it for 8-10 mints.
Take out and let it cool a little bit.
If you ant crisp cookie, roll out the dough little bit thin so that the cookies turn out crisp. Anyways whole meal cookies turn out crisper than the usual flour cookies.
I had some left-over , so put it out to freeze, this came out nice and more crisper ,even I made them after 2-3 days again.

Note-
I have used a drinking glass to cut out the cookie shape. For a large round, you can even use a steel katori/bowl to cut out the cookie shape.

This cookie resembles quite like digestive cookies as it’s made with whole meal flour and oats. And I have tried to make it low –calorie as per using sugar and butter. Cooking oil can be used in place of butter for making these cookies. If you are looking for sugar cookie type of thing or texture then this is perhaps not the right kind of recipe for you.

Linking this post to the event I am currently guest-hosting - " Cooking with whole grains" - and also to Priya's Page.

Happy Cooking Friends

Zucchini Onion Fritters- a hybrid of Ghiya/lauki ke pakorey

Hope you all have a splendid time on Janamashtami-Belated Janamashtami wishes to all of you.May God Krishna give his blessings to each and every one of us.
It’s been quite a while now I have updated here. Be prepared for my ramblings in this post friends.And if you are still interested then read on.
Schools have open up after a long summer holiday. Kids are off to school now. And suddenly there is numbness in my apartment during daytime.This has become so calm that sometimes I want my daughter, to be back with me from her school, screaming and playing all over the house just as she would do in her holidays. You know the irony is few days ago, I was complaining to my DH that she is making a mess of the house all this summer vacation with all her crafts work scattered –too much work for a child like her , paper clippings, paper cuttings and paper sheets, craft feathers, masks and Origami Crafts scattered here and there. And with her cartoons running most of the times on Telly-Humf, Mickey Mouse clubhouse and Timothy goes to school; I started wondering when my daughter will start her new session in school. Now that it’s all over, I mean summer vacation, I want her to be with me again. I am even more complaining now isn't, writing it in my blog here openly.

There was this special day when our little angel turned six recently.We both as parents are really blessed to have a sweet daughter like her. May God Bless Her with all the happiness in the world.

This is her birthday cake with six fondant flowers all hand made without any cutters or rollers or accessories. Made two cakes in 13*9 inch baking sheets and layered it with double cream+cherry+strawberry flavored gelatin. Recipe for black forest cake is Click Here.

Now to our travel update.Since this was a long weekend with an additional holiday on Monday, we thought perhaps it would be a nice idea to spend it outdoor traveling by train.

We were also utilizing this long weekend holiday, visiting new places in around London. From Sunday onwards weather was sunny .And when sun is shining mostly everyday which is quite a rare happening in this part of the world, who wants to remain indoor or logged on to internet for net surfing, at least I don’t like to.
And when we have good network of trains here .There are possibly hundreds of places to visit. This is our savior when we are just nagging about how to spend our time here particularly on long weekend holidays. Just board any train and enjoy the serenity of nature’s beauty. A perfect way to spend a good relaxing time with family. And I don’t need to mention grown-ups and children both enjoy train journeys even if they are meant for about an hour.

Henley-on-Thames has a small town charm. People have a relaxing mood here. Thames River looks so sparkling clean here. We sat near the bank of the river for sometimes, to soak up the tranquility of that place inside us and breathe fresh air.

People here do come for boating.One of Britain’s favorite way of spending  a relaxed weekend.

And to some other hobby-knitting updates.

Another hobby which has been keeping me occupied during these days- is knitting.Whatever time I am getting  after traveling and attending to my family, I like to utilize this time pursuing my new hobby.

I have made a small bag for my little daughter. Just cast on some 30-40 stitches and knit for two rows, then knit in Stockinette stitching for rest of the rows till the desired length is obtained.

Fold in half to check the breadth and length for the bag. Bind off when desired length is obtained. For the handle of the bag –cast on some 100-110 stitches and then bind off next rows.You can increase or decrease the stitch for a longer or shorter handle.

With the help of a sewing needle or blunt end needle, sew the sides for the bag and then handles. If you wish you may decorate the bag with some beads or some plastic flowers for the extra girlie effect.You can choose other type of yarns also,I choosed this white fuzzy yarn as per my daughter's wish.You may like to visit here for detailed instructions then -Click Here for the free pattern.

 Now finally it's time for cooking , which I do take earnestly.

Now to the recipe for Zucchini Fritters

I have always felt there are many vegetables which are still under-used in Indian cooking like zucchini. I have used zucchini in a normal stir/fry way and also made zucchini with posto or poppy seed paste, a recipe inspired from Ahaar by Mandira.
I have been trying out many recipes from Julie Sahni’s cookbook recently(last made murg shahi korma(Click here for the recipe)
This recipe of zucchini fritters is inspired by her zucchini fritters. In eastern UP, ghiya or lauki ke pakore is very famous. I do think zucchini has striking resemblance to lauki/ghiya/bottle gourd because of its water content. Grate zucchini as you would have grated ghiya/lauki and mix in with chopped coriander, onion and all the seasonings, fry it in hot oil and you are ready with zucchini bhajiyas/pakoda.A little different recipe for pakoda with vegetables but worth trying it.

Zucchini onion fritters/Zucchini onion pakoda

Recipe requirements
1 medium size zucchini
1 onion
3-4 green chilies
½ cup of chopped coriander leaves
¾ cup of yogurt
1 cup of besan/chick pea flour
2 tsp of red pepper powder
2 tsp of coriander powder
1 tsp of cumin powder
Salt as per taste
Method
Grate zucchinis and chop onion as finely as you can.
In a mixing bowl, add all the above-besan, yogurt, grated zucchini, chopped onion, green chilies, coriander and the seasonings-cumin-coriander powder, red pepper powder and salt.
Heat up a deep bottom pan/kadhai; add cooking oil up to half.
Heat up well, and drop one tablespoon of the batter to the hot oil and fry all the pakodas.
Drain over paper towel. Serve with a cup of tea and tomato ketchup.
Note-
You may use ghiya/lauki/bottle gourd in place of zucchinis.But it’s better to take the seeds out of the lauki from the middle and then grate.

Thanks for visiting Spice and Curry