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Archives for January 2019

Stove top Mac and cheese with vegetable

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Mac n Cheese with Veggies

Mac n Cheese with Veggies

Mac and Cheese is one of the top ten food choices for kids in USA. My kids are no exception. They love Mac n cheese. This dish is a good source of carb, protein and calcium, but it is missing the fiber part. So whenever I serve Mac n cheese to my kids I feel guilty of not serving the vegetables. So I came up with this recipe of Mac and Cheese with vegetable. My kids love this dish and I also feel good about serving veggies as part of their favorite Mac and cheese meal.

Macaroni and Cheese, also known as Mac and Cheese or Mac n Cheese in USA or Canada, is a dish of English origin, consisting of cooked macaroni pasta in a cheese sauce, most commonly made out of Cheddar cheese.

Fun Facts About Mac n Cheese

  • In 1993, Crayola named one of their crayon colors “macaroni and cheese.”
  • Today, Kraft sells more than one million boxes of its macaroni and cheese every day.
  • The recommended wine to serve with macaroni and cheese is Burgundy wine.

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Shorshe Ilish

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Shorshe Ilish

Bengali delicacy – Shorshe Ilish – Hilsa fish cooked with mustard

Ilish or Hilsa fish is a delicacy in Bangladesh, and in the eastern part of India – in states like West Bengal. Assam, Orissa, and Tripura.  Ilish is a mouthwatering delicacy of Bengal, often cooked with Shorshe (Bengali for mustard). Shorshe illish is usually a part of any Bengali family feast.

Ilish, also known as Hilsa, is a Herring family fish, which  is considered as one of the tastiest fish because of its soft oily texture and mouth watering flavor. It is called the “king of fish” in Southeast Asia.

Fun Facts about Ilish

  • The unique taste of Ilish has often been attributed to the presence of certain fatty acids like steareic acid, oleic acid and many poly unsaturated fatty acids. Recent experiments have shown its beneficial effects in decreasing cholesterol and insulin level in rats.
  • Ilish is more tastier in the pre-spawning stage than in the mature stage
  • Female Ilish tastes better than male Ilish.
  • Ilish is a salt water fish, which travels to sweet river water for breeding. It is available in Padma river in Bangladesh, Ganga (Hoogly) river delta in West Bengal, Chilika Lake in Orissa, Indus River Delta in Sindh, Pakistan, Tigris, Euphrates river in Iraq, Iran.
  • Ilish is the national fish of Bangladesh and the industry around it provides livelihood of around 5 million people.
  • Ilish is not available in North America. Bengalis in North East part of North America often substitute it is other Shad fish, which is a sub family of the Herring family where Ilish belongs to.

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5 Challenges as a new food blogger

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I started blogging in October 2018. Here I am after 3 months of blogging reflecting on the five challenges that I am facing as a new blogger.

One day during lunch one of my colleagues showed me a food blog of her friend who had quit her job and became a full-time blogger. That evening I spent an hour reading through her blog and I was really impressed by the content, aesthetics and strategic thinking that went into her blog. Here is the blog that I really admired. www.pipingpotcurries.com

It made me think that I have been cooking for the last 19 years. I love food, I love to cook and above all, I like to cook for friends and family. So, why not document my cooking in a blog? I understand that it is extremely difficult to make money out of a food blog, but at least I can document my recipes and my family’s recipes in the blog. So I started my journey on a Saturday in October 2018. While I have made notable progress in the last 3 months, I am facing many challenges as a new blogger. Let’s review what I achieved so far and the challenges that I have to address this year.

WHAT I ACHIEVED IN 3 MONTHS

I have to mention that I have a grueling day job that takes out at least 12 hrs of my day. So, I can only work over the weekend or during the holidays for my hobby. Luckily this year I did not have any long trip plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday this year. So I could accomplish the following steps during the holidays.

1. HAVING THE WEBSITE UP AND RUNNING

Having been a developer in the past, overcoming the technical challenge of setting up the website was a day’s effort for me. There are plenty of online resources available for it. However, I have to mention a couple of them that I followed.

Food Blogger Pro: I followed the following tutorial to set up my blog

Setting Up Your Food Blog | Food Blogger Pro

You have to start somewhere, and that place is here! This course covers the very basics, including picking a domain name, setting up hosting, installing WordPress, and publishing a basic post and page.

You can also refer to Neil Patel’s blog.

2. CREATING FRAMEWORK FOR PUBLISHING CONTENT

I decided that my first task would be to create a framework where I can easily write-up my content and publish. It needs to look professional just like any other recipe sites. I could gather the necessary theme and plug-ins for my website and create a preliminary framework for publishing content. I started to research the free WordPress themes and plug-ins that I can use. I chose the Juliet Theme and Meal Plan Pro recipe plug-in to get started with posting my first blog – Vegan Butternut Squash Soup

3. STARTING TO PUBLISH CONTENT

Now that I had the basic framework for posting a blog with a consistent look and feel, I need to have recipes ready for posting. But I stumbled into following challenges

NEVER COOKED WITH EXACT MEASUREMENTS

I have been cooking for 19 years for friends and family. But I did not cook with exact measurements. So I had to buy a few pieces of equipment for measuring every ingredient that I use and building the habit of cooking with exact measurement and documenting it.

  • Measuring cups
  • Measuring Spoons
  • Food weighing scale

PHOTOGRAPHING THE FOOD

An honest confession – I am a terrible photographer! I never paid attention to photography detail. I do not have any knowledge of photography with an SLR camera. I use my iPhone as the camera. Also, the styling and presentation of the food are completely new to me.

4. GETTING APPROVED BY GOOGLE ADSENSE

Even though Google Adsense is not the preferred Ad network for food bloggers, I had a target of getting Adsense up and running in my site. The reason being, in order to get Adsense approved, the site needs to look professional with 15 to 20 blog posts. So setting this target helped to make sure my website looks professional and has a reasonable number of posts so that it is acceptable to Google.

5. SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Even though I have my presence in popular social media, I do not like to post on social media that often. So I really had to push myself to create the presence of my food blog in a few social sites. I started with Facebook, creating the Facebook page for my blog. I reactivated my Instagram account and started creating recipe board on Pinterest.

CHALLENGES AS A NEW BLOGGER AFTER 3 MONTHS

Now I have my blog hurry up! Mom up and running! I have around 20 posts on the blog! I am sharing my posts on social media and I have shared it with some of my friends already. Most of my friends have expressed a lot of encouragement as well and found the posts pretty helpful, which is extremely gratifying. But I have a few major issues.

1. PAGE VIEW COUNTS – NOBODY READS MY BLOG?

My average page view count lingers around 10 views per day. That means most probably only my friends with whom I shared the blog, are reading it. Nobody else is either not interested in the type of recipes that I choose to post or cannot find my blog on the internet through organic search. But do I really care? So I am asking following two questions to myself

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF MY BLOGGING?

Hmmm…I started to blog to document my recipes. A lot of time my friends and family asked for the recipe of my signature items. It is easier to share if I have it documented at some place. Also, I wanted to document the recipes of my mom, my mother-in-law, and my family. So I should be happy that I have a place to document the recipes now. But why on the internet? Why am I paying for the domain and the hosting service? Don’t I want other people to find my recipe and try it out? YES, I DO. At least I should give it a try so that other people can try my recipe.

WHAT IS MY NICHE?

There are hundreds of food bloggers and there are millions of people looking for recipes. I cannot reach out to everybody on the internet looking for recipes for various cuisines from different parts of the world. But I can plan to make the blog as a go-to place for the certain type of recipes. There are multiple existing blogs for any niche that I think of. So choosing the niche can be a challenge. But it is essential to establish my own brand.

2. AM I EVER GOING TO MAKE ANY MONEY OUT OF MY BLOG?

It is quite clear that I have to put quite a lot of effort into running a high-quality food blog. It will be great if I can make a passive income from the food blog. Currently, I have Adsense in my blog. Since I have very little traffic coming to my site, I am making almost nothing from my blog. I have to come up with strategies for monetizing the blog.

3. WHAT IS THE CORRECT MEDIUM OF CONTENT IN 2019? IS IT BLOGGING OR SOMETHING ELSE?

Blogging was started almost 15 years back. So it is definitely questionable if a written blog is the best medium for sharing recipes. Nowadays, many of the food bloggers are creating beautiful videos. So I need to explore what is the best medium for blogging in 2019 and onwards.

4. PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography is a very important part of blogging. Nobody would like to read a recipe blog without seeing an enticing photo of the food. I had submitted my recipe thrice in the food porn site foodgawker.com  and it got rejected all the time as the photo did not meet their standards. So at this point, I am struggling with taking high-quality photo of the food and I need to learn food photography.       

5. PROPER USAGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

At this point, I have a presence in the main social media platforms. But I am not able to use those platforms to attract readers/ visitors. So I need to learn to use social media tools and best practices to increase the followers.

A PLAN FOR CORRECTIVE ACTION FOR OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES IN 2019

1. FIND THE NICHE

I need to find my niche. When I am trying to find my niche, I am not sure if I should stick to my roots or lifestyle or any kitchen gadget or any specific diet. Another important factor can be what kind of recipes people are looking for on the internet.

2. GETTING MYSELF EDUCATED BY EXPERIENCED BLOGGERS

There are hundreds of food bloggers and there are millions of things to learn from them. I am sure most of them have gone through the learning phase that I am going through. So I need to make a network with the fellow food bloggers and learn from them. I am also planning to take membership of Food blogger Pro and learn from their resource.

3. LEARN BASICS OF FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY AND GET THE CORRECT PROPS

Food photography is a special genre of photography. I need to learn the tricks and tips of food photography. There are many online resources for learning food photography. I have started following some of them and I am trying to learn from them. It is also important to have the correct pieces of equipment and props for capturing the food. So I am planning to get those spending a minimum amount of money. Here are a couple of good resources for food photography.

The BiteShot

Two loves studio

4. LEARN BASICS OF SEO AND FIX SEO FOR THE SITE AND FOR THE POSTS

SEO (Search engine optimization) is a big part of building traffic for a blog. I need to learn how SEO works, what are things that I need to implement in my blog so that my blog appears in the first page of Google search result. I also need to implement a suitable plug-in for SEO. At this point, I am exploring the Yoast SEO plug-in

5. LEARN TO USE AT LEAST ONE SOCIAL MEDIA PROPERLY FOR PROMOTING THE BLOG

I am planning to spend time on at least one social media platform to learn and use it effectively. Social Media platforms are probably the best marketing tools for bloggers. I would like to use at least one for spreading the words about my blog.

While I am happy that I have successfully started my blog, I am struggling with many challenges and I target to overcome these challenges with learning and implementing the learnings in my blog. Please wish me success in my journey.

Vegetarian Keto Recipe – Sarson ka saag (Mustard Leaf) with spinach

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Keto-Recipe-Sarson-ka-Saag

Keto-Recipe-Indian-Vegetarian-Sarson-ka-Saag

Ketogenic diet has become so popular that it drew my attention recently. Just like Atkins diet, it is a low carb diet, but a unique thing about the Keto diet is the fact that it is a high fat, moderate protein diet. If Keto diet is followed, fat turns into Ketones and body gets energy from Ketones, instead of Glucose. The body gets into a state called Ketosis where it burns fat and helps to lose weight rapidly.

Anything that gives the end result “weight loss” sounds good to a foodie like me! But honestly, I could never follow any particular diet. I can reduce and manage portion, I can exercise moderately, but following any strict regime is difficult for me. Additionally eating high fat? All my cooking life, I have tried to cook with less oil/ ghee/ butter and I always avoided food with high fat content. So I may not be able to digest high fat! I have all these fears and doubts about starting with Keto diet. But I cannot ignore the enticing end result – “rapid weight loss”. So I want to give it a try and the motivating factor for me would be coming up with yummy Keto recipes.

So here is the first recipe that I tried. “Sarson ka saag” is a delicacy from the province of Punjab in India and Pakistan. It is served with “Makki di Roti”, flat breads made out of corn flour. Sarson (Mustard) ka Saag (Leaves) is made with the combination of three leaves – Mustard leaf, Spinach and Bathua leaf. However, I could manage to find only the Mustard leaf and spinach leaf from the nearby grocery stores. So this recipe is a little bit modification of the authentic “Sarson ka saag”.

Sarson ka saag is made best with lots of ghee and whipping cream that will help me meet the fat requirement for my Keto diet. So here is the recipe for a flavorful and delicious “Sarson ka saag” which helped me to start my Keto journey. I hope that this enticing vegetarian Keto recipe helps you to embark on a Ketogenic journey!

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Ingredients

  • 300 gm Mustard leaf (Sarson a saag)
  • 100 gm spinach
  • 125 gm onion finely chopped
  • 6 cloves of garlic
  • 25 gm tomato (1/2 tomato)
  • 1/2 tablespoon of ginger paste
  • 1/4 teaspoon of red chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of coriander powder
  • 3 tablespoon of ghee
  • 1 tablespoon of heavy cream
  • 1/4 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds
  • 2 dried red chili (Shimla mirchi) (optional)
  • Salt and Sugar to taste

Instructions

  1. Cut the mustard leaf and spinach in small pieces
  2. Heat a pan and add the leaves. Cook the leaves for 4 to 5 minutes until it shrinks and becomes soft.
  3. In a grinder, make a paste of the leaves
  4. In the pan, heat 2 tablespoons of ghee and add the fenugreek seed and dried red chili
  5. Add onion, ginger, garlic and cook it for 3 to 4 min
  6. Add tomato, red chili powder, coriander powder and cook it for 3 more minutes
  7. Add the paste of the leaves and mix it with the spices.
  8. Cook it until the water comes out and the spices mix together
  9. Add Salt and Sugar to taste
  10. Add 1/2 tablespoon of heavy cream and mix it
  11. At the end add 1 tablespoon of ghee and serve the saag

Notes

Bathua saag, radish leaves, fenugreek leaves can be added with mustard and spinach leaf.

Nutrition

Calories

385 cal

Fat

17 g

Carbs

91 g

Protein

11 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2
21

https://hurryupmom.com/vegetarian-keto-recipe-sarson-ka-saag/

Similar Recipes

Air Fryer Stuffed Eggplant

Aloo Gobi

Air Fryer Stuffed Eggplant

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Air Fryer Stuffed Baby Eggplant

Air Fryer Stuffed Baby Eggplant

Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables and I love to try eggplant recipes from different parts of the world. This vegetable is known with different names at different parts of the world and it is cooked in so many different ways in every continent. It is known as Brinjal in South Asia and South Africa, Aubergine in UK. 

My mother-in-law is visiting us from India. So it is time for lot of Indian food. Here is a spicy, aromatic baby eggplant air fryer recipe. This delicious eggplant cooked in air fryer is perfect for eating with roti or nun.

 

Yields 8 Baby Eggplants

Serves 2 Eggplants

Air Fryer Stuffed Eggplant

Air fryer recipe for delicious baby eggplant cooked with Indian spices. This is a quick dinner recipe that can be enjoyed with roti or nun.

10 minPrep Time

30 minCook Time

40 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

    For the Stuffing
  • 50 gm onion grated
  • 50 gm tomato diced (1/2 tomato)
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic
  • 1/8 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon chili powder (optional)
  • 3/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon oil
    • For the eggplant
  • 8 baby eggplants
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 tablespoon oil

Instructions

    Stuffing
  1. In a pan heat oil and add the cumin seed
  2. Add onion, ginger garlic and fry it for one minute
  3. Add tomatoes and fry it for one minute
  4. Add cumin, turmeric, chili powder. Sauté it until oil comes out
  5. Add salt and sugar
    6. Eggplant
  6. Make two slits to each of the eggplants with knife
  7. Add stuffing inside the slits with spoon
  8. Drizzle the eggplant with oil and salt
  9. Set the Air Fryer at 275 degree F and 12 to 15 min setting. The timing is an approximation as the time may vary based on the type of the egg plant. Start checking the egg plant after cooking it for 10 minutes in the air fryer.

Tags

Diet
vegetarian
vegan
lacto vegetarian
ovo vegetarian
Allergy
dairy free
egg free
seafood free
sesame free
mustard free
7.8.1.2
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https://hurryupmom.com/air-fryer-stuffed-eggplant/

 

Methi Chicken (Chicken with Fenugreek)

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Methi Chicken

Methi Chicken

Tonight I made a quick but very yummy chicken perfect for a weeknight quick chicken recipe. It is known as Methi Chicken in India and it is cooked with Kasuri Methi, which is the dried methi (Fenugreek) leaves with beautiful flavor. In my recipe I also use the Methi or Fenugreek seeds.

Fenugreek is an herb original to Mediterranean region, which is used for cooking, medicine. This seed is very good for preventing diabetes, cholesterols and it add nice flavor to the food.

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Ingredients

  • 1 lb boneless chicken. I used used boneless thigh pieces, cut into small pieces
  • 1 cup of onion chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 tablespoon of ginger paste (freshly grated)
  • 1/2 tomato
  • 3/4 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of Kasuri Methi
  • 4 tablespoon of oil

Instructions

  1. Heat oil and add fenugreek seeds
  2. As the seeds sputter into the oil, add chopped garlic
  3. As the garlic turns slightly brown, add onion
  4. Add tomato and fry it for 3 minutes
  5. Add Turmeric, chili powder.
  6. Add chicken and mix everything together,
  7. Now close the lid and let it cook for approximately 10 minutes.
  8. Now add salt and sugar and let it cook for another 3 minutes
  9. Add the Kasuri methi at the end
  10. Serve it with Rice, Nun, roti or paratha.

Tags

Allergy
gluten free
dairy free
egg free
wheat free
seafood free
sesame free
mustard free

7.8.1.2
19

https://hurryupmom.com/methi-chicken-chicken-with-fenugreek/

Chow Mein Paratha

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Chow Mein Paratha

Chow Mein Paratha

As the name suggests Chow Mein Paratha is the perfect blend of Indian and Chinese cuisine. This Fusion-Indian dish originated from my mother-in-law’s kitchen. I had it for the first time after my marriage when my husband made it for me.  Very quickly I adopted to this dish and started to make it for snack or lunch for the kids very often. I can package the serving of carb, veggies and protein with this one dish to the kids very easily.  Hope you love the recipe.

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Ingredients

  • 150 gm hakka noodles
  • 3/4 cup of carrot and peas mix (frozen or fresh)
  • 3/4 cup of onion chopped
  • 1/4 cup of cilantro chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ginger paste (fresh ginger)
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 Thai green chili (optional)

Instructions

  1. Boil water in a pan. Add the noodle in the boiled water and cook it for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, drain the excess water. This instruction works for most of the hakka noodles. Please use the instruction in the packet for boiling the noodle and make sure it does not get overboiled.
  2. In a big bowl mix the veggies, onion, ginger, cilantro.
  3. Beat the eggs to the veggies
  4. Add salt
  5. Add Thai green chili if you want to make it spicy. (Optional)
  6. By now, the noodles had cooled down. Add little bit of oil the the noodle and separate out each of the strands.
  7. Add the noodles to the egg and veggie mixture
  8. In a small non-stick pan, heat 1 table spoon of oil and add a portion of the noodle, veggie, egg mixture (1/5 of the whole mixture). Fry both the sides until the noodles turn little brown.
  9. Before serving sprinkle salt as needed and add ground black pepper. Serve it with ketchup.

Tags

Cuisines
Fusion Indian
Courses
Appetizer, Snack, Lunch
Allergy
dairy free
soy free
seafood free
treenut free
sulfite free
sesame free
mustard free

Nutrition

Calories

246 cal

Fat

14 g

Carbs

24 g

Protein

6 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2
18

https://hurryupmom.com/chow-mein-paratha/