Home-made Bread

First of all, this recipe is not too easy and it takes quite some time to prepare. After wasting a lot of raw ingredients and trying many recipes, I narrowed it down to this one.

So, if you want to bake breads regularly, you can try with a small one for the first time. If you feel confident enough, then you can go for the bigger ones.

Nutritional Information  (Approx)
(per serving)
Energy	128		Calories
Fat	4		%
Carbohydrate	8		%
Dietary Fiber	11		%
Sodium	7		%
Vitamin A	0		%
Vitamin C	0		%
Calcium	2		%
Iron	8		%
Protein	3.9		Grams
Sugar	1.8		Grams

Ingredients
Wheat flour	2 Cups
Maida	1/2 cup (optional)
Dry active yeast	2 tsps
Salt	A pinch
Sugar	1 tsp
Water
Oil	1 tbsp

Dissolve sugar in 1/4 cup of warm water and add yeast. Keep it aside for 10 to 15 minutes for the yeast to become active.

In a bowl, add wheat flour, maida, salt, active yeast mixture and mix with water to make it a dough. Add oil and knead the dough for few minutes.

Leave the dough in a dry warm place for 2 hours to rise. After 2 hours, knead the dough again and place it in the oven container (oiled inside) in which you wish to bake the bread.

Leave the dough again for an hour in a dry warm place. The dough will rise and fit in the container.

Preheat your oven for 10 minutes at 150 degrees. Place the container with dough in the oven and bake it for 40-45 minutes at 180 degrees.

Every oven is different so you need to check if the bread is baked after 30 minutes by sticking a fork or a toothpick. If the fork or toothpick comes out clean, then the bread is baked.

Remove the container, allow it to cool and enjoy your handmade bread with your family and friends!

You can also comment here to let me know how it come out for you :)

Quick Pasta

Sometimes, when am too tired or lazy to cook, the one thing that comes to my rescue is Pasta. You may have heard that Pastas are not good for health when eaten regularly. That is not 100% true if you know how to choose Pasta.

Make sure you buy Pasta by checking the Ingredients. It should be either "Whole wheat flour" or "whole Durum wheat Semolina" and not "Refined Durum wheat Semolina".

Both "Whole wheat flour" and "whole Durum wheat Semolina" are high in protein. So, Pasta is healthy and this recipe is easy to cook and tasty too.

I have kept it simple and basic but you can add Mushrooms, carrots, peas , green beans and any Veggies you want. Now, for this dish, we are not adding any cheese so that it can be low in calories, easy to digest and satisfy our Indian taste buds too. Bon appétit !!! :)

Nutritional Information (Approx)
Energy	290		Calories
Fat	11		%
Carbohydrate	40		Grams
Dietary Fiber	3		Grams
Sodium	432		Mg
Vitamin A	7		%
Vitamin C	4		%
Calcium	13		%
Iron	26		%
Protein	11		Grams
Sugar	5		Grams

Ingredients
Pasta (Any)	2 Cups
Onion sliced	1 Small
Cauliflower/Broccoli florets	1/2cup
Capsicum	1/2 cup
Tomatoes sliced	1/4 cup (Optional)
Pepper powder	1/2 tsp
Garlic grated	5 cloves
Cumin	1/2 tsp
Yogurt	2 tbsp
Salt	to taste
Water	1/4 cup
Oil	1 tbsp

Boil a large pot of water with little salt. Add Pasta to the boiling water. Cook the pasta until tender and drain hot water and keep it aside. Make sure the pasta is not overcooked cos nothing is as bad as an overcooked pasta.

In a large pan, heat oil and add cumin seeds, onlion, garlic and fry. Once the onion is cooked, add Capsicum, Cauliflower/Broccoli and tomatoes and Mix. Cook for 2 minutes with closed lid.

Add Yogurt, Pepper powder, salt and water and Mix well. Once the mixture starts boiling, Add pasta and stir to cover the pasta with the mixture and Serve hot.