Dry Fruits & Nuts Laddoo (Dry Fruit & Nut Balls without any sweeteners)

Category: Kids Special
Preparation Time: 10 mins  
Cooking Time: 5 mins (for toasting)
Servings: yields around 18 laddoos

Healthy Treats!!!

Dry Fruits and Nuts Laddoo is a healthy sugar-free, and nutrient dense snack for kids. Its not only healthy, its tasty and very easy to make.

Dry Fruits & Nuts Laddoo

If we are having unsalted roasted nuts in hand, we can make this within 10-15 mins. These are perfect for the mid-morning snacks for the kids an also can go well in their lunch box.

We can add any of our favourite nuts into it and its sure a way to make kids eat these healthy foods. We can alter the ingredients according to our taste, but dates /  figs are the must for getting the right consistency. We can use either roasted nuts or the unroasted ones. 

Ingredients:

• Figs - 1 cup (I used around 9-10 dried whole Organic, unsulphured figs)
• Dates - 1 cup (I used around 20 Organic dates)
• Raisins - 2 Tbsp
• Almonds - 1/4 cup
• Cashews - 1/4 cup
• Pistachios - 1/4 cup

Eggless Whole Wheat Banana Walnut Muffins (No white sugar)

Category: Baking
Preparation Time: 12 mins  
Cooking Time: 18 mins
Servings: 6 muffins

Its very hard to resist a good muffin! Kids will love muffins for school snacks, breakfast and sometimes even for dinner:). 

                                  

But the store bought muffins are loaded with many unwanted ingredients and preservatives. As Moms, we always looking for healthy snacks for our kids. And also we can do anything to make them eat healthy:) 

                                  

I already had few muffin recipes in my blog and this one adds to my list. This is my always go-to recipe whenever I have ripe bananas.

                                 

In my cooking, I am not using refined, bleached white flour and now am trying to limit refined sugar and oil too. So here comes the healthy muffin loaded with all goodness of yummy bananas, whole grain flour, Organic unrefined virgin coconut oil, Organic coconut sugar and walnuts. This is also an eggless muffin.

                                          

 

Ingredients: 

Dry Ingredients:

• Whole Wheat flour/Atta - 3/4 cup (I used white whole wheat flour)
• Baking soda -1/2 tsp
• Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
• Cinnamon powder- 1/8 tsp
• Salt - a pinch
• Walnuts, chopped- 2-3 Tbsp

Chocolate Chip-Nuts Cookies - Crispier Version (Whole Wheat)

Category: Baking
Preparation Time: 20 mins  
Cooking Time: 10 -13 mins
Servings: Yields around 3 dozen cookies

Chocolate Chip-Nuts Cookies

Already I have posted a recipe for Chocolate Chip cookies here and this one is a more crispier version and also with more nuts included:)

Ingredients:

• Whole Wheat flour - 2 cups

  

  So Crispy!!!

• Egg - 1 no (at room temperature)
• Butter - 3/4 cup (Cold butter sticks)
• Light Brown Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Granulated White Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Walnuts, finely chopped - 1/2 cup
• Almonds, finely chopped - 1/2 cup
• Semi sweet mini Chocolate chips - 1/2 cup (can increase as per likeness)
• Baking soda - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. In a bowl, add the wheat flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon powder; mix well and keep it aside
   
3. Finely chop the nuts and keep them ready
   
4. Mix in the chocolate chips with the chopped nuts
   
   
   
   
5. In a wide bowl take both the sugars and cold butter cubes; beat well(If using electric beater, we can beat in high speed) for 4-5 mins until it becomes creamy
   
   
   
   
6. Add in the egg and vanilla extract, beat well for another 1-2 mins until they get combined well
   
   
   
   
7. Now add the flour mix into the wet mixture and mix well until it gets mixed
   
8. Then gently fold in the chocolate chip-nut mixture, mix gently for uniform distribution
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Make small uniform balls (I used 1 tbsp & 1/2 tbsp spoons as scoops to get uniform size), flatten it slightly and place it in cookie tray
   
   
   
   
10. Ensure it is not crowded and leave at least 3/4-1 inch  space between the cookies since it may spread while baking
    
11. We can also place them without flattening if we want a bit thicker cookie. Both of them were very crispy:
    
12. Keep the tray in the pre heated oven and allow it to bake for 10-11 mins
13. After 10 mins, remove the tray and allow it to cool for 5 mins before taking out into cooling rack 

    

    Slightly flattened Cookie dough - After Baking

    
    

    

    Cookie dough without flattening - After Baking

14. While taking out, the cookies will be little soft and upon cooling it becomes crisp
    
15. Then store it in air tight container
    

Dates-Walnut Chocolate Muffins (Whole Wheat & Eggless)

Category: Baking
Preparation Time: 15 mins  
Cooking Time: 25-30 mins
Servings: yields around 12-15 muffins 

Dates-Walnut Chocolate Muffins

Mini Muffins:)

 Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:

• Wheat flour / Atta - 1 cup
• Cocoa Powder - 1/4 cup
• Baking soda - 1 tsp
• Salt - a pinch

Wet Ingredients:

• Black Dates, deseeded - 1 cup (around 20-25 nos) 
• Milk - 2 cups, divided
• Brown Sugar - 1/3 cup (I used Dark Brown Sugar; Jaggery can also be used)
• Cold Butter - 1/2 cup
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Other Ingredients:

• Walnuts, chopped - 1 cup
• Wheat flour - 2 tsp

Method:

1. Soak the deseeded dates in 1 cup of warm milk for 2-3 hrs
   
   
   
   
2. Pre heat oven to 350°F
3. Grease the muffin pans / line with muffin liners
4. In a sieve add the dry ingredients (Wheat flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder) and sieve them into a bowl and keep it ready
   
5. In a blender, add the soaked dates along with milk and grind to a smooth puree and keep aside
   
6. Finely chop the walnuts and mix it up with 2 tsp of wheat flour to avoid sinking during baking process
   
7. In a mixing bowl, add the cold butter and brown sugar and beat it well till the sugar gets dissolved and become creamy texture
   
8. To this add the remaining 1 cup of milk, Vanilla extract and dates puree; blend well
   
9. Now add the sifted flour into the wet ingredients and gently mix it up to form a batter
   
10. Fold in the toasted nuts, mix gently
    
11. Spoon the batter into muffin tins 
    
12. Bake for around 20-30 minutes (depend on the size of the muffins), or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean 
    
13. Cool for about 10 minutes in the pan and then remove from pan to cooling rack
    
14. Serve warm with a glass of milk!

Banana-Nut Bread (Whole Wheat)

Category: Baking
Preparation Time: 15 mins 
Cooking Time: 50-60 mins
Servings: yields 1 loaf

Banana Nut Bread

Ingredients:
Dry Ingredients:

• Whole Wheat flour (Atta) - 1 1/2 cups
• Baking soda - 1 tsp
• Cocoa powder - 1 tbsp
• Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp

Wet Ingredients:

• Ripe Bananas-  4 nos (Long yellow variety)*
• Eggs - 2 nos
• Sugar - 3/4 cup **
• Cooking Oil - 1/2 cup (I used Olive Oil)
• Curd / Yogurt- 1/4 cup
• Vanilla extract -1 tsp

Other Ingredients: 

• Walnuts, chopped - 1 cup

*Bananas should be very well ripen for Banana Breads

**Since we are using over ripe bananas, the sweetness was more so I used just 3/4 cup of sugar, if we want on sweeter side, we can increase it to 1 cup

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees and grease / line the loaf pan; keep it ready. Here I used 9x5 inches Loaf pan
2. In a sieve, add the wheat flour, Baking soda, Cinnamon powder, Cardamom powder, Cocoa powder and salt
   
3. Sieve the dry ingredients into a wide plate/bowl
   
4. In another bowl, mash the bananas well and keep it aside
   
5. In a mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar, beat well for around 4-5 mins until it become light and fluffy
   
   
   
   
6. Slowly drizzle the oil into the egg mixture and continue to beat until all the oil is added and gets well combined
7. Add the curd and vanilla extract, beat until mixed
   
8. Add the dry four mixture into it and gently mix so that it gets combined
   
9. Add in the mashed banana and gently mix
   
10. Now fold in the chopped walnuts and give a gentle mix
    
11. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan
    
12. Bake the bread for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
    
13. Remove the bread from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out of the pan onto a rack to cool completely
    
14. Once it gets warm, slice it and serve!
    
15. We can also prepare muffins with this recipe:)