Apple Mango Smoothie

This is not the mango season but I had some frozen mango pieces with me and since they were frozen; I didn't feel like eating them just like that. So thought of making a milkshake or a smoothie. That's when the thought stuck me that I had signed in for apple based desserts. I put on my innovative hat and made a smoothie with both apple and mango. I used milk to get the creamy texture; but probably this can be replaced with yogurt also. Serve this as a healthy breakfast drink.

My last post had beautiful pics but for this post I didn't get time to click pics in my usual setup and have to adjust with clicks from my mobile.

Ingredients:

Apple - 1

Ripe Mango Chunks - 1 cip

Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 tbsp

Honey - 1 tbsp

Ice cubes - 2

Method:

• Cut the apple, remove the core and dice into pieces. If you like, you can peel the apple before cutting.
• Add apple, mango, milk, ice cubes and sugar in a blender jar. Blend until smooth puree.
• Pour prepared smoothie of mango and apple into serving glasses and serve.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#81

Apple Badam Dates Milkshake

This month I am starting the normal blogging marathon routine this week. As usual I have picked up 2 weeks of blogging marathon and this week the theme is Apple desserts.

I got this recipe from last month's mega marathon in ann's space. I was fascinated with a milkshake with dates and the ingredients were really rich in nutrition like badam, apple. The recipe was damn easy. I made a very small change to the recipe. I added a tablespoon of honey to the milkshake.

We all loved it at home so much that I made a second and a third batch. We refrigerated the milk shake and each time the refrigerator was opened we use to take a gulp. This is a sure shot at our home whenever apple arrives.

I loved the clicks that I Took this time for the apple milkshake. So I am posting many pics. Ofcourse; I know this can't be compared to Nalini - my fellow marathoner; but still I feel these are one among the best clicks from my food blog.

Ingredients:

Apple - 1
Milk - 1 cup
Almonds - 6
Dates - 6
Honey - 1 tbsp
Pista - to garnish

Method:

• Soak the almonds for about 34 hours and peel the skin.
• De-seed the dates - I used seedless dates.
• Blend milk, apple, dates, badam to a smooth consistency.
• Crush the pista pieces.
• Finally add the honey and the crushed pista pieces.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#81

Thandai | Cool drink

Sivarathiri and Holi re 2 festivals which are celebrated very grandly in North India. I have selected a recipe which is commonly made during these festivals in North India.  Thandai is a milk based drink with lot of dry fruits in it. Thandai is new to me. I am introduced to this drink through blogging world. Even when I recided in Maharashtra I didn't hear of this drink!!

I tasted thandai only after I made it. So I am not sure if that is the actual taste. It might not be since I replaced rose petals with kesar. However it tasted wonderful. I made with 1 litre milk and H took almost 75% of it. He loved it. It was a soothing drink for this summer and also made our stomachs full. So here comes the recipe of thandai the way I made it.

Ingredients:

Milk - 1 litre

Khus khus (Kasakasaa)  - 2 tsp

Almonds (Badam) – 15

Black Pepper – 12

Jeera (Cumin seeds) – 1/2 tsp

Elachi (cardamom) - 5

Sugar – 200 grams

Method:

• Soak all the ingredients (except milk and sugar) in water for 2 hours. Boil milk with sugar, cool down and keep refrigerated.
• After 2 hours, peel the almond skin and grind everything together with little water.
• Squeeze it through a strainer. Repeat one or two times with little more water to extract all the juice from it.
• Add this extract to cold milk and mix well. Refrigerate and consume after 2 hours.
• Garnish with rose petals or kesar.

Thandai is ready!!

Notes:

• You can also add cashew nuts for extra richness.
• I am not sure if this drink can be refrigerated for a long time. We finished it within 3-4 hours.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#74

Pomegranate Litchi Lemon Juice | Summer Coolers

For the third summer cooler I am posting another refreshing juice which can be easily made at home.

Pomegranate is a very healthy fruit. Ofcourse it might be tiresome to some people to remove the delicious pearls and eat it. I love this fruit and will clean the pomegranate, and eat it along the way without sharing with anyone else. 

 In Malayalam poets compare lips of females with pomegranate, may be because of its color. Pomegranate has a lot of health benefits.  It is the most powerful anti-oxidant of all fruits, has potent anti-cancer and immune supporting effects; it can help to reduce heart attacks, strokes and embolic disease. It can also help in lowering cholesterol and reduce other cardiac risk factors, lower blood pressure and it is also shown to promote reversal of atherosclerotic plaque in human studies. It also helps or relives depression and osteoporosis.

Similarly litchi also has a lot of health benefits. I shall research and post it another post.Instead of using the litchi fruit, I used the litchi juice here. Lemon is a very good thirst-reliever. I actually found this recipe a perfect accompaniment for grilled entree.

Ingredients:

Pomegranate - 1/2 cup
Litchi juice - 1 glass
Lemon - 2
Water - 2 glass
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Ice cubes - as needed

Method:

• Extract juice out of the 2 lemons.
• In a blender add pomegranate pearls, sugar, little water and blend together to form a smooth consistency and strain through the strainer and set aside.
• Mix the strained liquid with litchi juice, lemon juice and remaining water. 
• Mix well and serve with ice cubes.

Enjoy this healthy drink!!!

Notes:

• We can use pomegranate juice also instead of the fruit.
• Adding ginger to this will make it an excellent detox drink.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#65

Mint Lemonade

I took a month's break from blogging after the month-long mega marathon. I hadn't planned to but the situation at home turned tensed with close-ones falling sick. So this break was quite refreshing for me and helped me get back with my normal routine.

This month's blogging marathon I am starting off with some summer coolers. Staying in the southern part of India, I have experienced very hot summers. And there are a lot of grandma recipes for summer coolers or cool drinks that I haven't yet blogged about. So when Valli announced "summer coolers" as one of the topics for this month's BM, I immediately chose this category.

The first post I am posting is a recipe that has been traditionally followed and made quite often in our households. It is the mint lemonade. This used to be made very frequently - I should say almost everyday since both mint and lemon was easily available. This is a very easy summer drink and quite healthy too.

Ingredients:

Lemon - 1

Mint leaves - handful

Sugar - 4 tsp

Salt - a pinch

Water - 2 cups

Ice cubes - few

Method:

• Squeeze the juice out of the lemon.
• In a juicer, add the lemon juice, mint leaves, salt, sugar and 1 glass of water.
• Pulse for 5-10 seconds.
• Strain the juice and remove the mint leaves. 
• Add another glass of water and mix well.
• Serve with ice cubes.

Notes:

• We can also add soda instead of water.
• Adding ginger to this drink will make it an excellent detox drink.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#65

Sharjah Shake | Milk shake with bananas and nuts

As I said earlier in this mega marathon I am trying to cover all types of recipes. So here's  a summer special - super cool drink. Presenting sharjah shake which is very famous in the malabar area and is available in every other fruit juice shops or ice-cream parlours.

I tried to find out why this juice is called sharjah shake but the the answers I got were 3 words - "I don't know". Well as far as I understood there is no connection between this juice and sharjah or UAE. Probably somebody from gulf tried this juice for the first time in Kerala and to make it an instant hit named it sharjah shake. We Indians always have a liking for foreign products right!!

Whatever be the story behind it - This is mind-blowing cool drink which can be easily made at home and kids will definitely enjoy this.

Ingredients:

Milk (frozen) - 1/2 litre

Sugar - 4 tbsp

Banana - 2 (big)

Bournvita - 2 tbsp

Cashew nuts - 5

Vanilla ice cream - 1 scoop

Method:

• Take the frozen milk packet, without opening it, crush the frozen milk well with a chapathi roller. 
• Put in in a mixer. Add two bananas ,sugar, bournvita and  3 pieces of cashew nut.
• Mix it well in the mixer. Add one table spoon of vanilla icecream and mix for 5 seconds. 
• Turn off the mixer once the milkshake is thick enough.
• Pour it into a glass, add the remaining cashew nuts and top it up with bournvita..

Sharjah shake is ready!!!

Notes:

• Instead of bournvita you can also add boost or chocolate horlicks.
• Instead of mixing vanilla ice cream you can top up the milkshake with vanilla ice cream
• Frozen milk works best. This can probably be tried with chilled milk also.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63

An InLinkz Link-up

Banana Choco Milk Shake

Have plenty of bananas at home. So here comes another quick recipe.

Ingredients:

Bananas – 200 grams

Milk – 300 grams

Sugar – 50 grams

Cocoa powder – 25 grams

Method:

Grind the bananas with a little milk in a juicer/mixer.

Once the bananas are grinded to a paste, add the sugar, cocoa powder, remaining milk and whip once again

Add ice or refrigerate for about 2 hours and serve.

We can also add some roasted groundnuts to make it interesting.

A lovely dessert is ready.