Walnut-Cranberry Muffins

i recently discovered the route to feed Nakshat healthy breakfast without fuss, and it came in the form of MUFFINS!

every morning we would fight over almonds and walnuts and then during the day i would insist that he eat some flax seeds and yoghurt...to no avail obviously :-(
yesterday i thought why not i put all these things together in one package and finish the chik-chik jhik-jhik once in for all. so i combined a cup of whole wheat flour, 2 tbsp of wheat bran, 2 tbsps flax seeds powder, half a cup of roasted and chopped almonds and walnuts, half a cup of cranberries, half a cup of demererra sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, a pinch of salt, 1/2 cup yoghurt, 2 tbsp butter and 1 tsp of vanilla essence all together (ofcourse, first i mixed the dry ingredients and nuts and then poured in the wet ones) and mixed it well till it was uniform.

poured it into the individual cups in the muffin tray (brushed with olive oil) and baked at 180degree celsius in the oven for 20 minutes. 12 delicious muffins were ready and Nakshat gobbled two up with hot chocolate for the breakfast this morning without me having to raise an eyebrow :-)

 next time i am going to add some oats too!

Cooking in a Solar Cooker

it is awesome waking up in the morning amidst greenery, chirping of birds and pure oxygen to breathe at Tapovan. and of course the best part is fresh vegetables everyday. to add to this truly beautiful routine, my mom brought me a solar cooker!

yes, it means cooking in a vessel which operates through sun light. not only do i save on gas and electricity, the food is so very simple to make and tastes delicious. i have been boiling my dals, potatoes and barley in the solar cooker ever since mom got it. we also tried making aloo-gobhi in the solar cooker and it came out pretty decent. but the best thing to make is the kheer. no more waiting for hours on the slow burner for the kheer to cook. just add milk and rice and put it in the solar cooker and forget, creamy delicious kheer is ready by the evening. and mom also made 'gud wale chawal' (rice made with jaggery) in the solar cooker. what was so cumbersome on the gas has become a treat with solar cooking.

Here is how to make gud wale chawal in the solar cooker:

you need one cup rice, one cup grated gud, 2 cups of water, 1 tbsp coarsely grounded saunf and 2 tbsp pure desi ghee. wash rice, mix all the ingredients, transfer to the solar cooking vessel and forget it! if you do it around 930am when the sun is shining brightly, it would take approximately 2 hrs. depending on the season, in summers it takes less time and during winters more, it should take anything from 2 to 4 hrs to cook to perfection. take out the vessel from the solar cooker and enjoy hot gur wale chawal with extra dollops of ghee, curd or spicy potato curry. if serving as a sweet dish, garnish with fried/roasted nuts/dry fruits.