Kid-friendly Chicken Nuggets

Baby fingers crawling towards the nuggets-can't wait for mommy to photograph it first!

These chicken nuggets are currently my son's hot favorite-and they are a hit with my parents too, so calling it only "kid-friendly" might be a misnomer! Although frozen chicken nuggets are easily available and all the brands proudly claim to be preservative and other-chemical free, for my own peace of mind, I make them at home. I do this on weekends and freeze a batch that lasts for a week. You don't have to thaw them out when it's time to fry them-just take them straight out of the freezer and either deep fry or shallow fry them on low heat. 

Toddler Lunchbox Series-Menu #2-Sandwich Fest or Canape Carnival! (Creamy Egg Diamonds, Spicy Chicken and Peppery Liver)

For today's post, I'm going to give you 3 different recipes for sandwich fillings, which you can use as a topping for canapes too. You could also use them for stuffing tortillas, dosas, rotis, etc. I am thankful to Vrinda chechi (in Chennai) for the egg and chicken recipes. We made the egg sandwich today and it was delicious. She says these are great to make in large quantities, freeze and store in small tubs, and just microwave and spread on the bread slices when it's time to use them. I guess it's better than buying the readymade bottled sandwich fillings-at least you know what's inside when you make them yourself! The third recipe is one I came up with myself, modified a little from a snippet I read in a magazine sometime ago. It's better to use brown bread (wheat) or multigrain bread whenever possible, even if you like the taste of white bread better :-). For my son, who is not yet 2, I found that presenting the food in attractive shapes and colors enhances the appeal, so when I make sandwiches, I cut out the shapes using cookie cutters. Hence the two ways of presentation in the photograph. With a little improvisation, these are things you could easily serve up as starters too!

Banana Butterscotch Muffins, Awards, and a Tag!

Those of you who have been long-term friends of my blog will recall that I'd once started a Kiddie Party Menu Series, which I had to abandon after one recipe because I'd misplaced my recipe files and books. Well, I've got them back so I'm posting the second recipe on that menu here-Banana Butterscotch Muffins. This banana muffin has been a hot favorite of my toddler and his best friends. But don't jump to conclusions and think it's only for toddlers-oh no! It's much loved by grownups too! Whenever I bake a batch of these, they get over in no time, and it's great to pack as a snack for both school and office lunchboxes....or have them for breakfast. They freeze well and all you have to do is thaw and microwave them when you're in a hurry-a healthy wholesome breakfast in a jiffy!

Before I go into that, let me mention, with a lot of pride AND humility (if that combo is ever possible!) that this past week, I've received a load of blogger awards from my fellow blogistas. Emreen, who blogs about all things beautiful at Liven Things Up, presented me with the "Stylish Blogger Award" and Biny, who blogs about all things delicious at Biny's Recipes, presented me with the "Best Blogger" and "Kreative Blogger" awards. Thank you so much, Em and Biny....An important part of both the awards is that I have been "tagged" to reveal 7 facts about myself. Now I have to admit that whenever I used to see this tag plus award combo in the blogosphere, I used to wish for the award but fear the tag! Now I've got both and can't escape, so here goes the random 7 things about me which you may or may not know about....But first, here's the recipe for the muffins - you can read the "7 facts about me" tag at the end of the post, if you're so inclined!

Scrambled Paratha or "Kothu Parotta"

I love this recipe for a variety of reasons. It does not require any curry or side dish and can be had on its own. It’s versatile as a snack or a mini-meal any time of the day. It’s perfect to recycle any leftover parottas, veggies, or chicken. It can be made in a jiffy and everyone will love it. It’s a great way to combine bread, eggs, meat, and vegetables, all in one dish! Vegetarians can easily modify this-see the Tips section below to know how! If porottas aren't accessible for you, then maybe you could use tortillas instead or any other type of flat breads!

Bread Baskets

This is a celebratory post-on many counts. On the occasion of my completing 50 posts (my last in the paratha series being the 50th one) in 55 days, I thought it'd be a good idea to do a small roundup of the data I got from my site analytics widgets of visitors. So please bear with me for a moment here before I plunge into this month's recipe!

I was overjoyed today when I noticed that I've just crossed 1000 unique visitors-1210 exactly, from 40 different countries! The top 10 countries I get readers from are India, the US, the UAE, Canada, UK, Australia, Greece, Singapore, Qatar and Bahrain. Also, I've touched 100 "fans" of my blog on Facebook....out of the 100, I have to say that only 30 are from my own friends list. All the others have found me either through their friends who happen to be mine too or by just searching for the keywords "cooking" or "baking" on Facebook. "Followers" on Google Friend Connect is now 20, my subscriber list for daily email updates is up to 36 and the monthly newsletter subscribers are 13.

Of Quesadillas and other things Mexicana!

When I started this blog, I had decided to first post recipes of the dishes which I've already photographed (and put together on the banner). Then I got sidetracked in the last couple of posts, writing about the ones I've cooked recently. Yesterday, I had a conversation with Vrinda chechi (of the No-Cook Fish Molee fame!) and the topic of Mexican food came up. That's when I remembered this lipsmacking quesadilla that I'd made and photographed a couple of months ago, inspired by a Nigella Lawson recipe on TLC. So that's what this post is about!

Basically, a quesadilla is a tortilla folded over with some stuffing inside, with cheese, and grilled. A tortilla can be called the Mexican version of our very own chapathi-only its made with refined flour, baking powder, and any vegetable shortening. If you roll up a couple of tortillas, filling them with cheese, sauce, and bake them with sauce on top, it becomes an enchilada.

My tryst with Mexican cuisine has so far been restricted to nachos, salsa dips, guacamole, and quesadillas. For nachos, I arrange them on a baking tray, grate cheese on top, and grill them for 5 minutes. Perfect hasty snack! As for guacamole, whenever avocados are in season (and they are available aplenty in Bangalore then), I make this dip by just combining it with lime juice, green chillies, coriander leaves, spring onions, sweet chilli sauce, and salt (again, by Nigella Lawson)-but you can add any other salad ingredients too, like onions, tomatoes, cheese, etc...use your imagination!

For this recipe, I had modified the original Nigella Lawson one by substituting and omitting certain things. You obviously can use any stuffing you like-just remember to use lots of cheese and grill it in the end to make it a quesadilla-I grilled it on a skillet/tava. Also, the original recipe used readymade tortilla, which I did not have, so I made them fresh. Here's how (after extensive web browsing, found the recipe here)

1. White flour             2 cups (or use 1 cup wheat flour + 1 cup maida, for a healthier version)
2. Baking powder        1-1/2 teaspoons
3. Vegetable oil           2 teaspoon
4. Water or milk          3/4th cup (lukewarm)
5. Salt                        To taste

• Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another.
• Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and combine everything until it becomes a smooth dough.
• Leave to rest for 20 minutes, covered with a bowl or a damp muslin cloth.
• Divide into balls and roll out into a circle which is as thin as you want it to be.
• Now heat a skillet and place the tortilla on it.
• Turn sides every 30 seconds so that bubbles rise and it gets brown spots all over.
• Cook each one and keep warm by covering with a towel or storing in a warmer.

For the stuffing (for one person):

1. Cured ham/bacon/salami            Enough to cover one tortilla
2. Green chillies                            To taste, finely sliced
3. Spring onions/scallions               1, finely sliced
4. Coriander leaves (cilantro)          1 tablespoon, chopped fine
5. Grated cheese                            As much as you like!

To assemble the quesadilla:

• Place one tortilla on a plate, place the ham/bacon/salami on top, covering the tortilla surface.
• On one-half portion of the tortilla, arrange the green chillies, spring onions, cilantro, and sprinkle the cheese.
• Now fold one-half of the tortilla over the half with all the stuffing.
• Brush oil on all sides of the tortilla.
• Place on a hot tava and cook both sides until the cheese melts a little.
• Transfer to a plate, cut into two parts, and enjoy!
• This is a very, very filling snack that can double up as a quick dinner :-)