Paneer Stuffed Bell Peppers

Hey everyone..! Today's post is about bright and colourful Paneer Stuffed Bell Peppers! I read about these Stuffed Bell Peppers on Aparna's blog Apy Cooking. Aparna is a fairly new food-blogger, but she's no novice at cooking! She has several impressive recipes on her blog. Quite coincidentally, she and I started our blogs on the same day! So we have common blog-birthdates! :)

Fig. 1. Stuffed Bell Peppers

The interesting thing about this recipe is that Aparna has baked the dish and ever-so-casually combined tofu in the conventional Indian stuffing. :) Now I have never made anything with tofu (barely ever eaten it either). So tofu would be somewhat a leap of faith for me. I did, however, keep her recipe in mind for using with Paneer.

Have been on the lookout for paneer based recipes lately. In the past I have always eaten the typical Besan Stuffed Peppers, usually at parties. Aparna's idea of adding protein to the stuffing lingered in my mind. And when I saw a batch of fresh and vibrant bell peppers in the store, the image of Aparna's dish immediately flashed before my eyes. Here was a chance to make a fancy side-dish!

Lasooni Dal

Hi everyone! Browsing through blogs is a fun pass-time for me when I am free. Sailu's Kitchen is a great blog I found.. simply amazing pictures and spicy dishes! :) One such tantalizing dish I found there is Lasooni dal. It reminded me of a spicy garlic dal I had eaten at a Punjabi restaurant some years back. Actually there are plenty of really good Andhra and South-Indian style recipes too at Sailu's website. This dish just happens to be North Indian and is the first one I have tried from there.

Fig. 1 Lasooni Dal

This Lasooni Dal recipe is really very "Hotel" or "Dhaba" type. And still, requires very basic and minimal ingredients. So it's good to serve when casual friends have suddenly dropped-by on a Sunday morning and you don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen, but wouldn't want to serve plain dal-roti either.

I really liked how good the garlic garnish looks in Sailu's picture!! The dish tastes great too. Be sure to garnish the dal! Even for yourself, when you have no guests and are not taking pictures! :) I didn't have chopped fresh coriander, but that would be nice for additional garnish too.

I have made a few changes in the original recipe to match whatever ingredients I had. No spinach or onions for instance. So here goes..

Turtle crossing and other stuff

I have to go to the gym today. Hate going to the gym. Running on the treadmill is terribly boring. It's one single speed. At best I can vary the incline, vary the speed a little. And ultimately, fact remains that I am going nowhere!!! :( The TV has to be on some "neutral" channel like the news - to accommodate all varieties of co-gymmers. And news is really not the most motivating channel, is it! :( So I use my favorite ploy, act like I am running outdoors! Think about it, dream about it.. plan for my next run outdoors!

Running outdoors is very different. I guess when I am outside, the sights and sounds and smells of the outdoors keep me fully occupied. Firstly, I keep an eye out for "strangers". Always, safety first! No matter where you are running. But there are also plenty of other beautiful things out. There are birds twittering about, fragrant flowers on the bloom, all kinds of insects buzzing around them (make sure my mouth is closed!), skunks and badgers skulking around the trash and squirrels that actually stare you down! Geese that refuse to move out of the way, threateningly rustling their feathers, lest you expect them to move! Get out of the way, Runners! We ain't moving!  :)

I also keep an eye out for doggies who are happy-to-chase-any-moving-body. When the sun gets up, so do dogs. And when they gotta go, they gotta go. So groggy dog-walkers bring out their dogs for their morning walks. And even the business doesn't distract a dog from spotting a running human. So I make sure to keep a respectful pace and distance when I see a huge dog. :)

Once, while out on a running trail, I saw a turtle!!!!!!! How cute! It was on one side of the trail, and looked like it wanted to cross to the other side. But then it saw me and acted all nonchalant and aloof-like, as if this was its casual hang-out, at the side of a trail. I slowed down and sauntered around, doing my best take on a "take-it-easy-kid" attitude, (actually waiting to see it cross the path and check out where it goes). But eventually my impatience got the better of me and I figured I would make my loop and check on this guy on the way back. When I got back, the turtle was still right there!!! Hadn't moved an inch! Slow and steady winning the race certainly is a tall story. :) I made another loop and returned and finally the chap had gone. Can't be sure whether it just got sick of me interrupting its trail-crossing-ventures and returned the way it had come or maybe it did cross over to the other side and carried on with its journey to Middle Earth! I like to think that it did the latter! ;)

There's plenty to see when you are out running! And I love it all. :)

But, today we have to run on the treadmill! (I use "we" when pushing myself to do the unpleasant. Makes me feel like I have plenty of company). So, we shall just deal with the treadmill today, use that time to dream about the outdoors! Run outside tomorrow, right? Yes, tomorrow is another day! ;)

PS: I wish had taken a picture of the turtle then! I'll be sure to do so if this happens again in future! Now I have a blog!!

Palak Paneer / Aloo Palak

Hey everyone..! Today I am making Palak Paneer (Spinach with Cottage Cheese)... a quick and easy dish.

 Fig.1 Palak Paneer

Usually I make  Aloo Palak (Spinach with Potatoes). It is supposedly easier to absorb the iron from Spinach if you consume it with something which contains Vitamin C. Since potatoes have plenty of Vitamin C, I try to make Aloo Palak more often than Palak Paneer. It is the same recipe. In any case I like to add some lemon juice at the end. I hope that kicks in a tiny bit of Vit-C too. --OR-- I just force everyone to drink orange juice with the meal! ;)

Today it's the Palak Paneer version. Who doesn't like Paneer! This recipe is originally from Sanjeev Kapoor's book. Here I am making this by memory, since I don't have the book handy. I will update the post later if I find there are any changes in the original recipe.

Sunshine Award!

Hey everyone.. Mallika (MD) from the Veg Bowl! was sweet enough to share the "Sunshine Award" with my obscure little blog! :)

Thanks, Mallika, for the award and for visiting here!

My sincere appreciation also to everyone who visits and reads my posts!

And for my part of sharing the award, I would like to share it with all the food-bloggers whose blogs encourage people out there hunting the internet for recipe ideas! :)