Spinach Salad with Mandarin Oranges

Spinach mandarine salad

This simple salad is full of flavors from fresh spinach, soaked almonds, crunchy cucumber, diced tomatoes combined with the sweetness of juicy mandarins. I used the canned mandarines from costco that come with juice and are very sweet, you can use fresh mandarins if you want and add a little honey in the dressing.

Dressing is a mixture of lemon juice, honey, salt and pepper.

This salad is surely going to leave you feeling healthier and happier :)
enjoy


Ingredients

For the salad

• Fresh spinach leaves- about 5 ounces
• Mandarins- 1/2th cup
• Cucumber - 1/3th cup diced
• Tomatoes diced- 1/4th cup
• Almonds soaked peeled and sliced- 10- 12

For the dressing

• Fresh lemon juice- 1 1/2 tablespoon
• Honey- 1 teaspoon (optional)
• Salt - to taste
• Pepper- to taste

Method-

• Wash and dry spinach leaves
• Toss all the ingredients for the salad in a bowl.
• In a separate small bowl mix  lemon juice, honey(if using) salt and pepper
• Before serving drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss lightly

enjoy

Easy homemade Baklava recipe

I know I have not been doing justice to my blog  but I got really busy and was not making many new dishes lately. Well,  here i am again and the credit goes to our potluck lunch that we(a group of friends) have once in a while.  So I had to make dessert this time and I made Baklava  which apparently turned out great. Since everyone liked it and it was damn easy to make, thought my blog deserves a post on this too!

Inspired by Sandra lee's Baklava Roll-ups, I made these rolls with some variations of my own. Hope you will like it too.

Ingredients

• Phyllo sheets -  14 (thawed as per the directions on the packet)
• Melted unsalted Butter - 1 cup (or you can use butter spray)
• Pistachio - to garnish.

For the filling

• Walnuts-  finely chopped - 1/2 cup
• Almonds- 1/2 cup finely chopped
• Sesame seeds- 1/3 cup (roasted and chopped) -  optional
• Sugar- 1 tablespoon
• Cardamom powder- 1/2 teaspoon                                                                                       

            (You can use food processor to chop the nuts and sesame seeds)

For the Syrup

• Water- 1 cup
• Sugar - 1 Cup
• Honey- 1 tablespoon
• Vanilla extract- 1 teaspoon

Method

For the Syrup

• Boil water and sugar in a pan for about 10 minutes
• Add honey and boil for 5 more minutes
• Add vanilla extract and let it cool.

For the Baklava

• Mix all the ingredients for the filling and keep aside
• Take two phyllo sheets at a time and lay on a flat surface one on top of the other, make sure to cover the rest of the sheets with damp cloth to prevent drying as they dry out very fast.
• Brush or spray the butter on the entire surface of the top sheet
• Spread the filling all over the surface and start rolling from one side.
• Make sure to keep brushing the butter as much as you can while rolling
• Grease the baking pan lightly with butter and put the rolls in the pan
• 14 sheets will make around 7 such roll
• Bake these for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Don't forget to preheat the oven!
• Keep checking after abt 30 minutes to make sure they are brown and don't burn
• Take them out and cut into pieces (you may also consider cutting before baking, i did after baking but I will try cutting it before baking next time)
• Spread the syrup all over the hot baklava specially into the cuts so that it is absorbed nicely.
• Garnish with chopped pistachio.

TIPS

• Serve at room temperature and keep  uncovered, they get soggy if kept covered.
• Make sure to make sugar syrup before they are baked because you need to put warm or room temperature syrup over hot Baklava.
• You can use any nuts of your choice for the filling.

Enjoy!

Roasted Vegetable Crispy Tacos With Quick Salsa

Its amazing how leftovers can be used to prepare totally different, wholesome meals without much effort. I use leftover vegetable(sabzi) to make stuffed paranthas, pulaos, soups, tikkis etc all the time and I am sure many of you do that. I did the same with my leftover roasted veggies  that I made on saturday and came up with these satisfying tasty tacos the next day. Obviously if you don't have leftovers, you can roast them fresh just for these tacos because they are worth it!

Ingredients -

• Store bought Tacos------------------ I used Old El Paso
• Roasted vegetables-------------------One cup (Click here for the recipe)
• Shredded cheddar cheese------------2 tablespoon(I used low fat cheese)

For the quick salsa:-

• Tomato-----------------------------1 small chopped
• Onion------------------------------1 small chopped
• Fresh Lemon juice------------------ 2 -3 tablespoons
• Green chili--------------------------1 chopped finely
• salt to taste

Method:-

For the quick salsa-

• Just add all the ingredients of the salsa and mix well

For the tacos-

• Heat the tacos as per the directions on the packet(I heated them in the microwave for 40 minutes)
• Let them cool so that they get crispy
• Fill the tacos with the roasted vegetable filling
• Sprinkle some cheese on top of each taco
• Serve with quick salsa, sour cream and Jalapenos!