Look what I ate for lunch today …..



Reshmi Chicken Tikka..

Thank you, thank you dear Tehs!

(One more brilliant recipe from Tehsin, tried it today, and yes they taste as good as they look in the picture! :D )



Chipotle Burrito – Homemade



Tehsin, You are the best, in case you didn’t know it already!

Chipotle is not too expensive, but homemade rocks any day right? You have control over the salt, oil, butter etc.

Also, especially if you have a large family or a group of friends over for dinner, its an awesome idea for build your own burrito, huh, that’s what is my next theme for a dinner party.

Till then, how about I break down Tehsin’s recipe for Make-your-own-burrito.

Ingredients:

For Tomato salsa: fresh tomatoes, salt, pepper, lemon juice, cilantro, green hot peppers (optional grated garlic)
For Corn salsa: Frozen Corn (microwaved and ready to use), salt, pepper, lemon juice, cilantro
Black Kidney Beans (Use a ready to use can and heat it, or follow my recipe for making ‘raajma’, use black beans instead of red ones)
Chicken cut in cubes (Preferable grilled chicken, but if you dont have grill, no problem, follow my chicken Tandoori recipe)
Green Bell peppers and Red Onions, cut length wise
Sour cream or I like just plain whole fat Yogurt (‘dahi’)
Mozzarella cheese shredded (I just use the one from Kraft, which is already shredded)
For rice: Cooked white rice, cilantro, lemon juice, salt and a little bit oil
Tortilla (store-bought, or homemade using all purpose flour (‘maida’) – Optional

Method:

1) Mix all the ingredients to make the tomato salsa (If using the garlic, I would recommend following my salsa recipe, where you would just mix the ingredients and boil for a few minutes)
2) For the corn salsa, mix all the ingredients and keep in a bowl.
3) Please follow the recipe if you like to make your own beans too.
4) Chicken, keep it hot after its cooked.
5) First stir fry the onions then the green bell peppers. They should not lose their crunch, so do this on a high heat.
6) Mozzarella and Sour cream or Yogurt are ready to use
7) For the rice, make rice, and then quickly toss the chopped cilantro, lemon juice, salt and a little oil. (Oil prevents the rice from becoming sticky)

Just create an assembly line (like in a factory). We like to make burrito bowl, instead of rolling up in a tortilla, trust me, looks pretty too, see the picture.

Enjoy!



Look what I ate for lunch today!



Tandoori chicken burger with salsa (and leftover beans and rice from Chipotle on the side)

Looks good huh?

Well it tasted even better than it looks. And guess what I whipped it up in a couple minutes.

Yesterday I had marinated a couple chicken breasts in Shan’s Tandoori masala (but you can use any brand you have). And cooked in after about 4 hours of marination at room temperature (If its too hot where you live, you may want to refrigerate the marinade). This is Tehsins idea. She said you have to cook the entire breast in the pan for about 4-5 minutes on each side. And just to be extra sure its cooked, I let the chicken hang out at the end in the pan with the lid on for about 3-5 minutes.

Once the chicken is cool enough, you can make cubes of it or use half of it, as I did today, on my chicken burger.

So there you go:

Bun, a layer of mayonnaise, lettuce leaves, tomato slice (I didn’t have any today, hence I had to improvise, and I ended up using salsa, which turned out to be Fabulous-O!), a cheese slice, of course the chicken, and some salt and pepper. Ta-da!

Enjoy, and think of me, when you are devouring this sandwich!



Harrisburg, Hershey Town, Baltimore… fun fun…




…last weekend. Or maybe that was a couple weekends back. But, it was a blast!

Chocolate Factory
Okay why is it important for us? Because we had lots of good food, met good ol’ friends, had a good time! Isn’t that what we are all about: Good food, Good friends, and a Good life!

So, let me recap what all happened, and then I will follow up with the new recipes. I am sooooo excited!

First stop: Harrisburg, PA. Let me say one thing, wow, for a small little place, it is power packed! Has lots of good stores for shopping, good deals, lots of good grocery stores, lots of Indian grocery stores.

We lived with Maira jaan and her parents. Maira is so gorgeous! Maira’s mom, Sadia, is such an awesome cook. She is a great artist too. I will post some of her recipes.

They took us to Hershey town. While I have been to the Chocolate Factory long back, its always been in the winter. But it is Maira loves it, and Sadia says its much more fun in the summer with the rides and stuff.

From Harrisburg we went to Baltimore, to dear friend Tehsins. She has a new house! Its so lovely. Its purrrfect!
And the food she cooked; Oh, oh! Thai Curry with chicken, Chicken manchurian, super simple fried rice (ofcourse, its all Indian-ized!).

In Baltimore, Tehsin treated us to the Aquarium located in the downtown, right at the Inner Bay (I think that’s what it is called). It was so much fun! The highlight was definitely the Dolphin show and the 3-D movie theater which was playing our sons favorite movie ‘Diego’!

Did lots of grocery shopping, again awesome Indian and Chinese grocery stores!

So, I know even though its winter up here in Northeast Ohio; its still possible to have fun. Just take the effort and drive to a little bit warmer place. This way you get to meet your friends, spend some time with them, (of course remember to invite them to your place too), enjoy good food (also help them however you can, so its less taxing to the host), and have a good time!

Gotta go, I have to cook lunch now (planning to cook the Thai curry with chicken now, and then use the Shan Chicken Ginger masala).

I will come back and post the super awesome recipes, and promise they are super simple too.

Till then, take care!