• Recipes

    recipe; crunchy chocolate chip cookies

    I’ve realised in the past year that I try a lot more savoury recipes than sweet. Or when I do bake, or make sweet dishes, I reuse the ones I am comfortable with. Maybe because I make these desserts for other people, and I know which cookies and brownies they like, so I go with the tried and tested ones. Or I forget to take photos. But that is a whole other thing I need to work on. If you’ve been following my blog, you’d know that I became a vegetarian when I was a teenager. I was a lacto-ovo vegetarian for a number of year, but when I got…

  • Recipes

    recipe; tofu krapao

    I have wanted to make krapao for YEARS. It is my absolute favourite Thai dish, and I could eat it almost every day and not get sick of it. But making a good krapao, getting it just right? I used to think if my mother couldn’t do it, I couldn’t either, right? Wrong! (Not that my mother’s krapao is bad or anything, it’s just not to my taste. Sorry, Mama!) Krapao, or bai krapao, for the confused, is a Thai basil stir-fry. In this case, it is a Thai basil stir-fry with tofu and veggies. Which veggies? Whichever you have on hand! I got this recipe almost three years ago…

  • Recipes

    recipe; snickerdoodles

    I just realised, despite having made these so many times over the past six years, I’ve not posted this recipe anywhere. I have barely adapted this recipe, because like the author of the original recipe claims, this is The Best Snickerdoodle Cookie Recipe. (Not that I’ve had many snickerdoodles, but I love this, so.) The husband is not so fond of the cookies, so I don’t make them often anymore – we’re all trying to cut down on desserts, honestly, and this can be quite sweet. But when I want some soft and chewy cookies, these tend to be my go to. Snickerdoodles Ingredients 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened…

  • Food,  Recipes

    recipe; paneer & black bean “meat”balls

    What do you do when you want a specific thing but can’t find a recipe for it anywhere? Why, you make up your own by mashing up a few others! The husband didn’t want TheFitFoodieMama’s Mushroom and Black Bean Meatless Meatballs we’d tried sometime last year but he did want some meatless meatballs, and he suggested using paneer to make them. Kofta recipes (which we searched) were very Indian and deep-fried, so I took TheFitFoodieMama’s recipe and adapted it slightly to make my very own meatless meatballs. I’ve only made them once so far, and genius that I am, I screwed up slightly which is why they look undercooked, but…

  • Recipes

    recipe; easiest nutella brownies

    My sister and I found this recipe years ago, when our brother came home from a trip and at 10 something at night, asks us to make him something with Nutella. Nutella sandwiches were not allowed. So we browsed the ‘Net and stumbled across this recipe. It was easy, it was quick, and best of all? We had all the ingredients on hand so we didn’t need to go hunting for them! As always, we don’t use eggs in anything, so we substituted it out, and the three ingredient brownies became a four ingredient brownies, and it tastes lovely and fudgey and honestly, now I want to make a batch.…

  • Recipes

    recipe; portobello mushroom burger

    I was never a huge fan of mushroom burgers. Or maybe I just never found one I enjoyed. And then while we were in Auckland, the husband and I had a hankering for burgers and I found this recipe. At the time, I couldn’t find everything in that recipe at the shops, so I adapted. As I do. And it was yum. I’ve used this marinade a couple of times for mushrooms without the bread, and it’s just as yum. I’ve made this with both white and apple cider vinegar, and there’s a very small difference in taste. We tend to use a lot of apple cider vinegar at home…

  • Recipes

    recipe; chocolate chip oatmeal cookies

    Oatmeal cookies, even with chocolate chips, are considered somewhat healthier than normal cookies. Right? I like to believe that anyway. These cookies are yum. I’ve made them multiple times to take for prayers and every time, I get rave reviews. This time? I had a cousin come up to me and tell me if I went to visit my parents without these cookies, she was sending me back home to make her some. Definitely taking that as a compliment. The original recipe calls them the ‘perfect’ chocolate chip oatmeal cookie. I made amendments because a) my family does not consume eggs, and b) most instant pudding mixes (which are apparently…

  • Food,  Recipes

    recipe; lighter tomato cream pasta

    Pasta was my go-to meal of choice when the husband and I were living in New Zealand. We were both students, and it was just easy to make after a long day. It never hurt that pasta is always yummy. So there was always at least two cans of tomatos in the apartment and a packet of fusili and gnocchi. I adapted this recipe from Texanerin, and after realising I could make pink sauce with cream cheese instead of cream and cheese, I have not looked back. I’ve even adapted my cousin’s three cheese sauce into a cream cheese type sauce! This can be made with any pasta ever. I’ve…

  • Recipes

    recipe; vanilla cupcakes

    The first time I made these cupcakes was about four years ago for my youngest sister’s 11th birthday. She was having a purple zebra themed party, and I wanted to make something, so I attempted a simple recipe, but I coloured half the batter purple and tried layering it. The layering wasn’t done brilliantly, but the cupcakes were a hit. Which is a surprise in our family where everybody always asks for half a cupcake because nobody wants to finish the whole thing. Except this time, our cousins were asking for seconds. (There were not enough cupcakes for seconds.) Since then, these cupcakes have been my go-to when I want…

  • Recipes

    recipe; eggless spinach & mushroom quiche

    The first time I tried to make an eggless quiche, it was a vegan recipe I added lots of cheese to. I liked it. I did! My husband? Not so much. So I made it very rarely. Maybe twice in total. But then. But then. My husband’s gripe with the quiche was a lack of flavour. We’re Indian, we need things full of flavour, so I understood. But I also really wanted quiche. So I went looking for a way to mash up the vegan quiche recipe with a normal spinach and mushroom quiche recipe, and wound up making something my entire family would not mind having again. Thankfully, I…