It’s already 2^nd of December yeah! That’s right, days just fly off like I said yesterday.  I can’t write something like my mother used to bake bread or how I loved my sandwiches in my Lunch Box.  Very rarely I used to take bread sandwich, actually I can’t even rememberJ.  The only thing I can remember of Bread is 2 things one is Jam / sugar sandwiched bread toasts and just bread toasts with my milk / coffee when I used to fall sick.  The Milk breads which we used to get in Bangalore were really tasty.  Have you ever tried my Milk bread you should give it a go.

When my kids started going to school, I used to give them sandwiches sometimes, they always loved it with Butter and Jam (Toast with butter and Sandwich with Jam)!  As they used to take Indian food in their lunch Box which they loved.   But they were all bygone days, soon as they started refusing to take Indian food in their lunch box.  The most they were ready to take was Indian flat breads (Chapatis /parathas).  They said they wanted something to hold in their hand and eat as they had no proper place to sit and eat or they would say they had no time to have a relaxed lunch break, well as they grow up they start giving me  reasons as they want their way.  In the beginning, I was worried then started looking for healthy breads to make sandwiches and started exploring new ingredients to sandwich between them.  Not just that until they finished their schooling every week I used to bake my own bread at least twice, they loved home baked breads as well.

This filling has always been one of our favourite, Each and every time when I send this bread toast I get texts from my hubby and children after their lunch break that it was awesome.  A filling which hearty healthy and a wholesome either as your breakfast or for your lunch box.

Avocado and Spring Onion Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Author: Jayasri
Recipe type: Breakfast / Lunch Box
Cuisine: International

Ingredients:
2 Avocado
1 Bunch Spring Onion
1 medium sized red onion/ Bombay onions
1 Large Green Capsicum
1 or 2 Green chillies finely chopped (optional)
½ tbsp. of Chilli flakes
1 and ½ tsp salt (as required)
1 or 2 tbsp of Lemon Juice
Any herbs of your choice
(Coriander leaves, parsley, chives, Basil anything you like)

Method:
Remove the skin from the Avocadoes and chop them into pieces, wash spring onions and chop into fine pieces, the same goes to capsicum and onions chop it finely as well.  Chop green chilies if using or use chili flakes and required salt, squeeze a tbsp of lemon juice.

Mash them a little bit mix them all together, just they all combine well together to this add finely chopped herb of your choice (I used coriander leaves). Combine them all well together and keep it aside for few minutes.

Take Bread of your choice butter it put the filling and some cheese on it and grill the sandwich for a wonderful aromatic Grilled sandwich.

You can make it VEGAN by not using Cheese.

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Avocado and Spring Onion Grilled Cheese Sandwich

A wholesome hearty and healthy meal in itself for a good start of the day or for a filling and tasty Lunch Box

Course Breakfast / Lunch Box

Cuisine International

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Author Jayasri

Ingredients

• 2 Avocado
• 1 Bunch Spring Onion
• 1 medium sized red onion/ Bombay onions
• 1 Large Green Capsicum
• 1 or 2 Green chillies finely chopped optional
• ½ tbsp. of Chilli flakes
• 1 and ½ tsp salt as required
• 1 or 2 tbsp of Lemon Juice
• Any herbs of your choice
• Coriander leaves, parsley, chives, Basil anything you like

Instructions

• Remove the skin from the Avocadoes and chop them into pieces, wash spring onions and chop into fine pieces, the same goes to capsicum and onions chop it finely as well. Chop green chilies if using or use chili flakes required amount of salt and squeeze tbsp. of lemon juice.
• Mash them a little bit mix them all together, just they all combine well together to this add finely chopped herb of your choice (I used coriander leaves). Combine them all well together and keep it aside for few minutes.
• Take Bread of your choice butter it put the filling and some cheese on it and grill the sandwich for a wonderful aromatic Grilled sandwich.

Notes

You can use this to sandwich around 1 pound of bread

The post Avocado and Spring Onion Grilled Cheese Sandwich appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Last few days Sun had been scorching hot, temperatures soared up so much I couldn't stand and cook in my kitchen as it becomes too warm there and I feel like running away to find some place cooler.  Any amount of water and juices wouldn't quench your thirst down, I feel like drinking something cold all the time.  I made some ice creams, kulfis, popsicles, juices and smoothies.  This smoothie is my favourite which  I make now and then when I get hold fresh Mangoes fortunately which are in season now otherwise when I crave for it I sometimes use tinned mangoes.  I have been eating lots of mangoes as well :), from markets here, they do not taste like the ones I get back home but, they are quite delicious.  When I think of mangoes I think of my hometown, as this is the  season you get loads of mangoes.  My sister has a Mango tree and she used to bring us boxes of mangoes every year, I have a photo of her Mango tree somewhere I should dig it out to share it with you all.

This smoothie was something I whipped once long back when I ended up with lots of Avocado when compared with these two fruits, Mangoes are more appealing to me, which one do you prefer?  Then off course I love the visual appearance of Avocado rather than eating it when compared with Mango.  I use Avocado in many ways it is such a versatile fruit just like a mango, it can be used either as sweet or savoury version, it adapts to anything very easily.

Avocado is definitely a super food, it is said to have a plethora of health and beauty benefits.  There are loads of research done upholding the facts about Avocados.  They are said to have good fat that is the Oleic acid found in Avocados can reduce LDL Cholesterol and Increase HDL Cholesterol.

They are rich in Vitamin E, it is rich in Omega-9 fats that repair damaged skin by reducing redness and irritation caused by Acne, you can use it as a face mask and use its skin as an exfoliator, Did you know it is said that the oil is good for your hair as well, it helps in regulating hair growth and prevent hair loss,  I use Avocado as a hair mask, apply mashed Avocado on to your hair leave it for sometime and wash it with a good shampoo. It is rich in potassium, Mono- saturated fatty acids, high in fibre, it is useful for people who suffer from the symptoms of Arthritis.

Did you know something about how to peel an Avocado and why is it so important? well, read further as there is an interesting fact to know about it. why peeling an Avocado properly is useful for healthy eating.  This information is from Whole foods (www.whfoods.org) Avocado and health benefits page.  To know more about this click on the link

The method you use to peel an avocado might make a difference to your health. Research on avocado shows that the greatest phytonutrient concentrations occur in portions of the food that we do not typically eat, namely, the peel and the seed (or "pit.") The pulp of the avocado is actually much lower in phytonutrients than these other portions of the food. However, while lower in their overall phytonutrient richness, all portions of the pulp are not identical in their phytonutrient concentrations and the areas of the pulp that are closest to the peel are higher in certain phytonutrients than more interior portions of the pulp. For this reason, you don't want to slice into that outermost, dark green portion of the pulp any more than necessary when you are peeling an avocado. Accordingly, the best method is what the California Avocado Commission has called the "nick and peel" method. In this method, you actually end up peeling the avocado with your hands in the same way that you would peel a banana. The first step in the nick-and-peel method is to cut into the avocado lengthwise, producing two long avocado halves that are still connected in the middle by the seed. Next you take hold of both halves and twist them in opposite directions until they naturally separate. At this point, remove the seed and cut each of the halves lengthwise to produce long quartered sections of the avocado. You can use your thumb and index finger to grip the edge of the skin on each quarter and peel it off, just as you would do with a banana skin. The final result is a peeled avocado that contains most of that dark green outermost flesh, which provides you with the best possible phytonutrient richness from the pulp portion of the avocado.

Coming back to the Recipe, This tropical fruit  blended with something incredibly healthy secret Ingredient which your kids wouldn't notice or I can say for fussy eaters who will never know what is in it, it's so yummy, creamy and thick.

VEGAN AVOCADO AND MANGO SMOOTHIE

INGREDIENTS:
1 Cup Pureed Mango Pulp*
3 Ripe Avocadoes
1 Cup Orange Juice
3 to 4 tbsp of fair trade Brown sugar*

METHOD
First of all blend y our Avocadoes which are cut into pieces use some orange juice if it is a bit difficult to blend into a lovely smooth consistency, once Avocadoes are smooth add the Mango puree and the remaining Orange juice and blend hem well with the sugar to a smooth consistency.
Increase adding extra orange juice or water if it becomes too thick.

For a variation:
You can add cream of coconut and some bits of Pineapple  to make it a complete tropical smoothie, you can even add Soya/almond/oats milk to make it more delicious.

* I used 2 mangoes cut them into chunks and blended it into a smooth consistency, you can even use tinned Mango pulp if fresh mangoes are not available.

If you liked it try it out and leave me a comment below  and also tell me how do you use Avocado in your  diet? Have you tried Avocadoes in any other way in your beauty techniques, Check out this blog for some baking recipes as well using Avocadoes

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Vegan Avocado-Mango Smoothie

Healthy and delicious, Tropical fruit blended with Avocado

Course Drinks

Cuisine International

Servings 5 Glasses

Author Jayasri

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Pureed Mango Pulp*
• 3 Ripe Avocadoes
• 1 Cup Orange Juice
• 3 to 4 tbsp of fair trade Brown sugar*

Instructions

• First of all blend y our Avocadoes which are cut into pieces use some orange juice if it is a bit difficult to blend into a lovely smooth consistency, once Avocadoes are smooth add the Mango puree and the remaining Orange juice and blend hem well with the sugar to a smooth consistency.
• Increase adding extra orange juice or water if it becomes too thick.

Notes

You can add cream of coconut and some bits of Pineapple to make it a complete tropical smoothie, you can even add Soya/almond/oats milk to make it more delicious.

* I used 2 mangoes cut them into chunks and blended it into a smooth consistency, you can even use tinned Mango pulp if fresh mangoes are not available.

The post Vegan Avocado-Mango Smoothie appeared first on My Veg Fare.

I bought 2 avocados, thinking I will make Glucomole, As my daughter was pestring me to do so.., and cut it in half, but, it was too hard still, she just got upset and left it their, and then my hubby suddenly planned to take the kids to London, The one which was cut got ripened the next day, which I made into Avocado pulkas, the other one was also ripe and I was wondering what I am going to do with it!!, Flash !! came an Idea of baking a muffin, then I remembered Madhu's Quinoa event and Lo!!, here I made them into small cakes with my new tins!!, My friends who visited during the day, had a cake each and said it was absolutely gorgeous!!.
The best thing was even though the cake was heavy when I cut opened it, it was so tender, soft and beautifully textured, I was so amazed (only thing I did not like was the smell of Avocado baking!!!). I sure want to tell you guys you must try it definitely.
UPDATED : I had a friend telling she tried these but they were sticking on to the tin, so I tried them again, and I have updated the recipe... with more pictures hope it is helpful, I inserted the cherries inside the cakes to show that I have tried them again and has turned out perfectly well, This time I had no Quinoa flour so I slightly toasted the Quinoa in a pan and powdered it in my Indian Mixie and made a fine powder/flour out of it and that is what I have used it.

EGGLESS AVOCADO-QUINOA CAKES

The post Eggless Avocado-quinoa Small cakes appeared first on My Veg Fare.