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I have been a big-fan of Mason jar salads for multiple reasons. These are great for make-ahead salads. Also, they can be refrigerated for 3-4 days and tastes fresh. No sogginess!  Above all Easy to grab-and-go!  I planned my entire week salads and made 8 salad jars for myself and my husband. It took about 2 hours over the weekend to prep but the whole week lunch was planned and ready!  Here is the array of different salads I made for everyday as I simply cannot eat the same salad for multiple days.  From L-R Mediterranean Salad Thai chopped salad Italian-style salad Southwestern salad Will share each of the recipes as seperate blog posts. 

I fell in love with Italian cuisine by watching Giada De Laurentis   and Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa in FoodNetwork channel.  I sometimes binge-watch their episodes. Italian cuisine is very vibrant has great flavors. The building blocks in Italian cuisine is somewhat similar to Indian too. Pesto sauce is green-colored sauce made with Basil, Pine nuts, Parmesan Cheese and lots of EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil). This has a good shelf-life of about a month in the refrigerator. I think Pesto is similar to Cilantro Thogayal in Tamil Cuisine where we use Cilantro/Coriander in place of Basil, Urad dhall in place of pine nuts! I like to substitute half of basil with blanched/steamed spinach and pine nuts with Almonds. The taste is still great as the Basil Pesto. Recipe Ingredients: Chopped Spinach if baby spinach, otherwise blanched. Basil Garlic Parmesan Cheese Toasted Almonds (Whole) EVOO Salt, Red chili flakes and Pepper pwd as needed. Blend all together ...

We love Brunch menus on weekends, especially Sundays. You just  have to make Brunch and dont have to deal with making Breakfast and Lunch separately. This is one of the indulging menus with fried Poori and Sweet Kesari, so this is saved for special occasions, like birthdays,etc :) Thali Menu: Poori Aloo Masala Sweet Kesari Mango Lassi Planning: Start with pressure cooking 3 potatoes quartered Cut Ginger, G.chili (2), Onion (1 large) Roast broken cashews and raisins in ghee  In the remaining ghee, roast 1 cup of Rava Cooking: Kesari: Keep the roasted Rava in the same pan and add 2.5 cups of boiling water, Wait for 5 mins and add 1.5 cups sugar - I use turbinado sugar (you can use palm sugar/coconut sugar). Wait till sugar dissolves and becomes one mass with the cooked Rava. Add a pinch turmeric (for color), pinch cardamom powder. Add 0,5 cups ghee and let it cook for 10 mins. Then switch off and mix with roasted nuts and raisins. Aloo Ma...

Masala Corn is healthy snack that is very easy and quick to make on a cold winter evening. This is a a famous street food in India. Of course it is very costly there since Corn is not an everyday ingredient there. If you can find frozen corn kernels - buy couple of bags of it and put it in freezer. Once you have this ingredient, it is very easy to make this recipe! Slightly thaw the corn from Freezer for about 1 hour by leaving it outside. In a small pressure pan, Add 6tbsp of water and 2tsp Olive oil. Add the entire bag of corn and add Salt. Close the lid and cook it for 2 whistles. Leave the cooker for 15 mins and once the pressure settles, open it. Saute in the same pan so that any residual water content evaporates. Add any seasoning as below and serve it HOT! Chatpata Masala Corn! Add 2tbsp Butter, 2 tsp red chili, 4tsp Chaat masala Finally squeeze lemon over it while serving.  This is served hot. So, squeeze lemon only while serving.  The same recipe can ...

Iam always on the lookout for eggless baking recipes since I dont like the egg taste in the baked items. Internet almost have plenty of brownie recipes and I was looking for a simpler and healthier version  - I did not have black bean or avocado or beets as these ingredients seem like the latest trend in brownie recipes. Inspired by Chocolate Covered Katie's blog , I made brownies for Christmas and it was a super hit!! It was the best guilt-free, moist and tasty brownies I ever had. This recipe has coconut oil and almond flour. So, the brownies taste like the Almond and mounds of joy chocolate. Highlight of the recipe: No Eggs No White flour No butter/margarine No White sugar Recipe: Brownie: 1 cup  + 2tbsp milk 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp Coconut oil 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 1 cup Almond flour (Costco) + 0.5 cup Whole wheat flour (whole wheat flour is optional) 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 + 1/3 cup unrefined su...