Love and Calories!!

WISHING YOU ALL A MERRY XMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR!! This is my last post for this year....See ya all next year with more amazing world class recipes. This is my 100th post of my blog which I started almost a year ago. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I tried to cook up a three course set menu for this Christmas. The Menu is completely vegetarian (for a change, let the turkeys jot down some wishes to their bucket list)!! Starter - Vegetarian Strudel Main - Christmas Veggie Wellington Dessert - Baked Chocolate Puddings with Rich Chocolate Sauce I just wanted to cook up something good and delicious for the lovely vegetarians so they too can enjoy a good Christmas meal. So I opted for "Veggie Wellington", a recipe of Simon Rimmer from BBC food. The recipe looked delicious, wholesome & perfectly suited for a Christmas meal. Preparation time 40 minutes Cooking time 30 minutes Serves 4-6 Ingredients For the filling - 60g/2oz basmati rice - pinch of turmeric - 1 lemon, ze...

Vegetable Strudel can be a perfect Christmas dinner first course or starter where you can slice up the veggie log and serve with some healthy greens. A Strudel is a German word meaning "Whirlpool", where the rolled layers of pastry dough is made to form a shape of a spiral. Stuffing can be made from sweet to savoury. thought of making a vegetable strudel to cater both vegetarian & non-vegetarian friends. Enjoy making this one as your Starter and I will be back very soon with my Main Course! Merry Christmas! Preparation time 30 minutes Total Cooking Time 35 minutes Serves 4-6 Ingredients: - 10-12 spinach leaves - 2 tbsp olive oil - 1 onion, finely chopped - 1 red capsicum (bell pepper), seeded & cut into strips - 1 green capsicum (bell pepper), seeded & cut into strips - 2 zucchinis (courgette), sliced - 2 eggplants (or 1 aubergine), sliced - 6 sheets of filo pastry - 40 g butter, melted - 20 g basil, finely sliced - 60 g grated ch...

Ho! Ho! Ho! Christmas is around the corner & every one is in a festive mood. Hustle bustle on the streets, malls full of people ticking their Xmas shopping list, Santas giving free goodies to kiddoes, lights & decor galore in shops & homes & FOOD of different varieties are kept to fill in your little tummy. Well, you can almost find me near the Xmas special food aisle, By Default. You must be wondering about the Title of this post by now. The word "Christmas" is fine (she must be putting something special in her blog as it is the most important time of the year) but what is "Centennial" ? Well, I just recently noticed that I have posted almost 97 dishes in my blog since February & 3 more dishes will make my 100th post. So I merged my happiness, festivity & my 100th dish into one big post & thought of publishing it in three different parts. So I came with an idea of creating a simple but grand Christmas 3 course Set Menu which will ...

Another spicy chicken dish comes your way & this time its from South India. Karaikudi, is a big town in Tamilnadu situated in the region of Chettinad. It is also the unofficial capital of Chettinad region. As I have already introduced the Chettinad flavours in my Urulai Chettinad recipe, this time am here with a non-vegetarian dish. It will be very peppery, very coconutty and very very tasty. "Karaikudi Chicken Curry" will remain a special dish for me as this was the first dish which I cooked and served after my wedding at my in-laws place. My in laws were bowled over my cooking and declared that I am a Super-Cook.....So every time I make this dish at home, I remember my initial marriage days & thank the recipe every time. It saved my reputation in the kitchen in front of all. Ha! Ingredients: 1 kg chicken (cut into bite size chunks) 2 big onions (finely chopped) 2 big tomatoes (finely chopped) 1/2 tsp turmeric powder + 1/2 tsp for marination 1/2 tsp red chilli powde...