Creamy Mushroom Soup

My husband likes mushrooms. I am not so fond of it but can eat it in small quantity. I tried to cook mushrooms in several ways but not perfect. I also have made mushroom soup several times, but not so tasty like yesterday. My husband and father-in-law, both liked it very much and asked for more.

I wasn't sure about nutritional value of the mushrooms so I did research on the internet about white button mushrooms I used in the soup. I got following 2 links and was relaxed that this was healthy for the persons who are not allergic to mushrooms.

Mushroom benefits and Nutrition with mushroom

Creamy Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

2 cup finely cut White Button Mushrooms

1 Red finely cut Onion
10-12 cut Cherry Tomatoes
1/4 cup Coconut Milk
Water as required
Salt & pepper according to taste
1 tsp Oil

Method:

1. Heat the oil in the pan and saute the onion in the oil till it is softened. 
2. Add tomatoes into it and saute it for 3 minutes. 
3. Add mushrooms and saute it for least 10 minutes until the mushrooms are cooked thoroughly. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool down. 
4. Put the mixture & some water in the blender and blend it till it gets smooth consistency and a thin paste. 
5. Pour the blended mixture into the cooking pot and add water. You can put water accordingly as you want soup thicker or thinner. Boil it for 10 minutes at least. 
6. Add coconut milk into it. Also add salt and black pepper according to taste. Boil it for another 5 minutes. 
7. Serve it hot.

I used tomatoes freshly grown by my father-in-law in his garden.

Corn & Tofu Fry

Sometimes, I don't get much time to cook, so I keep snacks ready for the kids. And also try to get the recipes so that I can get snacks ready within 5 minutes. Corn & tofu fry is very simple recipe, but Tanishk likes it very much. And I also like the combination of corn & tofu.

Corn & Tofu Fry

Ingredients:
1 cup Whole kernel sweet corn
1 cup tofu in very small cubes
1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
1/2 tsp Chaat Masala
1/8 tsp Black Pepper (Optional)
1/8 tsp Red Chilli Powder (Optional)
Salt as per taste

1/2 tbsp Oil / Casein Free Butter

Method:

1. Put the pan on heat and put oil in it. Heat the oil and put the cumin seeds. Once cumin sizzles, put in the corn and fry it for 3 minutes. 
2. Put in tofu pieces and mix it nicely. FRy it till corn & tofu both are cooked fully.
3. Put in all the spices and salt, mix it. It's ready to serve.

We like it. I hope you people will also like it.

Cooked Daal Pancake

Since I have used greens in my Green Pancake, I became very comfortable and started to hide greens in most of the food. I try to use veggies everywhere - khichdi, parantha, dosa, pancake, bread, muffins, pasta. I make very little pieces, sometimes I puree them and use in the recipe. Last weekend, I made Zucchini Bread (Still I have to be perfect). Then I put veggies in khichdi.

Yesterday, I made moong Paalak Daal (Spinach in mung bean). Tanay ate it happily. But, Tanishk didn't eat much. He doesn't eat vegetables because of the texture. He didn't like spinach leaf stuck on his teeth.

Next day, I mean today, it is leftover. I thought that Tanishk should eat it. I got an idea. I made Green Pancake once again, but with the leftover daal. Believe me, it was very very tasty. I hope Tanishk will like it. 

Moong Daal Palak Cheela (Cooked Daal Pancake)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour

1/4 cup Moong Daal Palak Puree (Blend Daal in the blender)

1/4 cup Milk (Any dairy free milk)

Salt to adjust as daal has already salt & spices

1/2 tsp Oil

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients except oil till smooth batter. Add some water if needed.
2. Heat the tawa and place 1 spoon batter on tawa & spread it like dosa. Use oil to cook it.
3. Cook it until both sides are brown.
4. Serve warm with any jam, jelly or syrup. Makes 4 pancakes.

Cheese Omelette

I know that Tanishk likes cheese very much. After making Cheese Parantha, I was comfortable using Dairy free Daiya Cheese and Tanishk also liked it. But he is not good at eating omelette. I thought I should try something different. I made egg and cheese combination.

I don't eat omelette, so I don't know the taste. But Tanishk liked it very much. I saw him to take a big bite even it was hot. And he ate all very fast. Tanay also liked it very much.

Ingredients:
1/8 cup Daiya Cheese
1 egg
1 tbsp Oil
Salt & Black Pepper for taste

Method:

1. Beat the egg with the beater and mix salt & black pepper in it.
2. Heat the non-stick pan and pour the batter in the pan.
3. Spread all the cheese on egg and let it melt. Put some oil both sides.
4. Cook it until both sides are light brown.
5. Serve hot with GFCF toast, kids will like it.

Cheese Parantha

When Tanishk was toddler and was not on GFCF diet, I used to make stuffed paranthas with various things - veggies, paneer, cooked beans, cooked lentils, tofu and cheese. He was good at eating at that time. Everyday, I tried to give him different type of parantha. Sometimes, I used to make masala parantha (stuffed with spices). Now, when he is on GFCF diet, I have to struggle daily mentally and physically both. 

Mentally struggle is to find the way to cook food with variety and having nutrition too. And also for minimizing the chances of rejection as Tanishk doesn't easily put the new food in the mouth. Physically struggle is for to prompt him to taste the new food and then prompt him to eat it. If he didn't like it, he won't eat it at all. If he liked it, he will eat it but still I have to prompt him.

Still, I make stuffed paanthas but with only gluten free flour. Till few days back, I normally used Sorghum Flour (Jowaar Atta) for Paranthas. But recently I found a recipe on internet for gluten free flour mix for rotis and paranthas. I tried that mix for my paranthas, and it was perfect. Gluten Free Flour Mix 

I didn't have Amaranth Flour (Rajgira Atta) and Cornstarch, so I replaced them with Ragi flour and Potato Starch respectively. It worked. I make the mix in advance to use it later.

So, today I made Cheese Parantha. Cheese means Dairy free Cheese and I used Daiya Cheese.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Gluten Free Flour Mix

1/2 cup Daiya Cheese

1 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Dry Mango Powder

2 tsp Dhaniya Powder

Water to knead the dough

Oil for cooking

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients in the mixing bowl. If dough is dry, add some more water (1 tsp at a time). Make soft dough.
2. Cover the dough with damp towel for 10 minutes.
3. Take a straight plastic and put some oil on it. Make one small ball from dough and roll it on the plastic. Oil will prevent it to stick on the plastic. Roll it like chapatti.
4. Heat the non-stick pan and put it on the pan.
5. After 1 min. turn it and put some oil on both sides. Cook it until both sides are light brown.
6. Serve hot with chutney, dip, curry, curd, pickle or you can eat it without anything.

Gajar Ka Halwa

I like Gajar Ka Halwa very much and I was very sad that my son can't have it as it has lots of milk. I remember when my mother used to make it as it takes so much effort. 

One of our servants used to grate the carrots. My father was a very knowledgeable man. He was on the government job and had good knowledge in every field. He was used to give new ideas to my mother. In the night, when all the servants are gone to their homes, my parents start to cook the carrots in milk on low / medium flame. When carrots absorb milk, they pour more milk and continue to cook. It happened 2-3 hours. Next night again, same thing happens. This process goes on till carrots become very soft and tender.

After that, they mix the sugar, cashews and pistachios in the cooked carrots and cook for some more time to mix sugar evenly. I remember that taste until now.

Some people make it by boiling the carrots and mix sugar in it. I don't like that. I never forget the taste of Gajar Ka Halwa made by my parents and I didn't get the better taste any where else. I never tried that myself so I don't know exact recipe. 

I thought that I should try Gajar Ka Halwa with coconut milk as it has lots of cream. I tried it in a very small quantity. I don't know if someone has tried it but its my original recipe.

Ingredients:

2.5 cup grated carrots
1 can (13 oz) Creamy Coconut Milk
1/2 cup sugar
Cashews and Pistachios for garnishing

Method:

1. Mix sugar and grated carrots and cook on low flame till all the water burns.
2. Put 1/4 milk in and cook it. Let the carrots absorb all the milk and then again put in some more milk and cook. Continue doing so till the carrot become very soft and tender. It will take almost 1 -1.5 hours.
3. Serve in the bowl garnished with cashews and pistachios. 

I & my husband both liked it very much. But, Tanishk, as usual he didn't try to taste it. But I know he will like it definitely.

Maakhan Chor

What is Maakhan Chor? Maakhan is hindi word and Maakhan is called as Butter. Chor is thief who steals the things. Lord Krishna was being called as Maakhan Chor (Butter Thief) in his childhood, as shown in the following video. Maakhan Chor Krishna Kanhaiya

But that butter was made from cow's milk and it was not GFCF. Our kids are on the special diet - GFCF diet. We don't give any dairy products to them. Our elders haven't seen this kind of diet. 

They say, how will he grow without milk? How will he get strength without butter and cheese? He has become so weak. Give him milk and he will be OK. When all others are eating ice-cream, chocolate, cakes, cookies - give him a little bit, it won't harm him.

Anyways, I was talking about butter thief (maakhan chor). Our kids also drink milk and eat butter, cheese, yoghurt but all GFCF. I use Smart Balance butter for Toast. Tanishk likes the butter very much. That's why I call him as maakhan chor. I can explain it in the detail.

If there is butter in food, he will eat it definitely. He eats toast with butter, roti with butter, dosa with butter, waffles with butter etc. and he eats only butter too. He eats jam, jelly, peanut butter too but not so much. He can refuse these things, but butter - no way. He asks for more butter when it's finished in his plate. He says - "I want more butter" and gives stress on "more".

Dosa is only the thing he can eat without any thing. When I give him roti with vegetables, he refuses because of the texture. But I put butter with vegetables, he eats it with easily. When he eats himself, he doesn't eat roti with butter, he eats butter with roti. He uses roti as a spoon and takes a big slab of butter and puts in the mouth. :) If I put the box of butter in front of him, he dips his roti or toast like a spoon and takes out butter himself. He will keep eating if I don't remove the box.

That's why, I call him maakhan chor. He is my GFCF Maakhan Chor. :)

Yeast Free Bread

When I start GFCF diet for Tanishk, first question was in my mind, what will he eat in his breakfast? As he loved his non-GFCF toast very much, I was having a tough time to give him breakfast. I started to give him GFCF Cereals and boiled egg. I make cheelas or pancakes for him. But whenever he sees anybody eating toast, he asked for the toast. Then I thought, we should try GFCF bread.

We tried different types of bread - brown rice flour bread, white rice flour bread, tapioca flour bread etc. but all breads were having yeast. Tanishk wasn't having any allergies so I kept giving him the breads. In all breads - we found "Food For Life" brown rice flour bread best for toast and after that I didn't try any other bread.

I tried to find out Yeast Free GFCF Bread, but couldn't. If I got, it was so much expensive to buy. I thought I should bake it for myself. That was also a tough task for me. I didn't bake any bread before, so I didn't know the basics. I was totally new to GFCF and baking the GFCF bread & cakes for me was start of new study.

Yeast Free Brown Rice Flour Bread

I searched on internet, and got several recipes. I got few books from the library and read them. I tried few recipes but failed. Some were very moist, very tasteless, some were very hard, some were sticky and some were very soft & crumbly.

Then I got a book written by Lisa Lewis - Special Diets For Special People from the library. I tried the yeast free bread recipe from the book. The bread was very much moist but it was OK for taste. Tanishk ate it but I wasn't sure whether he likes it or not. I kept trying other recipes too, but Tanishk wasn't comfortable with other breads. Then, again I used the same recipe and tried to make it edible & less moistened. I tried to increase / decrease ingredients to make it perfect. Finally, I got it perfect. It was a major achievement for me. :)

jowaar Aloo Parantha

Spicy Jowaar Aloo Parantha

Ingredients:

1.5 cup Sorghum flour
2 medium size Boiled Potatoes, grated
1 small of piece Ginger grated
1 clove Garlic grated
few chopped Coriander Leaves
1 tsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Dry Mango Powder
1 tsp Chili Powder
1 tsp Parsley Flakes
1 pinch Asafoetida Powder
Salt according to taste
Olive oil for cooking

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients in the mixing bowl. If dough is dry, add some more olive oil. Don’t add water.
2. Cover the dough with damp towel for ½ an hour.
3. Take a straight plastic and put some oil on it. Make one small ball from dough and roll it on the plastic. Oil will prevent it to stick on the plastic. Roll it like chapatti.
4. Heat the non-stick pan and put it on the pan.
5. After 1 min. turn it and put some oil on both sides. Cook it until both sides are light brown.
6. Serve hot with chutney, dip, curry, curd, pickle or you can eat it without anything.

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup Brown Rice Flour
1 cup Buckwheat Flour
¼ cup Tapioca Flour
1½ tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 cup Canola Oil
¾ cup granulated Sugar
¾ cup Brown Sugar (packed)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
½ tsp Water
2 Eggs
12 oz package (2 cups) Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup of Chopped Nuts

Method:

1. Sift together (or stir very well) all the flours, baking powder, and salt: set aside.
2. Combine the oil, sugars, vanilla and water and beat until creamy. Add the eggs into the creamed mixture; beat until well blended.
3. Gradually add the dry ingredients, mixing well. Stir in semi-sweet chocolate chips and any optional chopped nuts.
4. You can mix with an electric mixer or by hand. Dough will be thick. Roll between hands forming roughly 1-inch balls, or drop by spoonfuls, onto a greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes. May be done in 10 minutes or less depending on oven and type of cookie sheet. Cookies will be light brown on bottom and top. Loosen with spatula when warm out of the oven (cookies will be soft).
6. Cookies become more hard and crunchy once they cool. Keep well in a covered container. Can also be frozen.

Hidden Greens

Tanishk doesn't eat vegetables so I have to hide them in his food. So, I usually puree all the vegetables and mix them in dough / batter / cakes etc. In this recipe, I have pureed collard greens and carrots, and used it to make pancakes. They were very yummy and he couldn't guess that there are vegetables hidden inside.

Hara Meetha Cheela (Green Pancake)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Brown Rice Flour

1/4 cup Moong Daal Flour

1/4 cup Green Veg Puree

1/4 cup Milk (Any dairy free milk)

1-1/2 tbsp Sugar

1 large Egg

1/2 tsp Vanilla

1/2 tsp Oil

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients except oil till smooth batter. Add some water if needed.
2. Heat the tawa and place 1 spoon batter on tawa & spread it like dosa. Use oil to cook it.
3. Cook it until both sides are brown.
4. Serve warm with any jam, jelly or syrup. Makes 4 pancakes.

Note: You can use any green vegetables - collared greens, kale, cabbage, spinach, etc.

Collard Greens are packed with nutrition. It has anti-cancer properties. They offer an excellent source of vitamins B6 and C, carotenes, chlorophyll, and manganese. One cup of collard greens provides more than 70 percent of the RDA for Vitamin C. Collard Greens are also a very good source of fiber, and several minerals, including iron, copper, and calcium. They also offer a good source of vitamins B1, B2, and E.

Beans Parantha

Today,  I am going to start sharing my recipes. These recipes are developed by me. Everyday, I have a fight with my son Tanishk for food and I just try different ways to get him to eat food with nutrition. Here is the beans parantha (indian flat bread stuffed with beans). It was so yummy that Tanishk couldn't resist.

Beans Parantha

Ingredients:

1 cup Sorghum Flour

3/4 cup Cooked Beans

1 tbsp Garlic-Ginger-Onion paste

1 tsp dry Mango Powder

Salt for taste

1 tsp oil for cooking

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients except oil. Knead the dough until it is smooth. Add some water if needed.
2. Divide the dough into 4 balls.
3. Take one ball and place the ball into 2 plastic sheets. Roll it by rolling pin like chapati.
4. Heat the tawa and cook it until both sides are brown.
5. Serve warm with any curry, pickle or curd.

Note: You can use any dry beans (chickpea, kidney beans, black beans, etc...), I used black eyed peas (Lobia). To cook, first you need to soak the beans for about 8 hours. Then cook the beans in the cooker or pan as you cook normally. For saving the nutrients, use the same water you have soaked the beans in. After cooking, strain the extra water and use beans for making dough. You can mash the beans or blend them in the blender. If needed, you can use same water for adding in dough.

Black-eyed peas (Lobia) are an excellent source of calcium (211 mg in a 1 cup serving), folate (209mcg), and vitamin A (1,305 IU), among other nutrients.

My Special Rasoi

When Tanishk was diagnosed on ASD spectrum, we met the parents of other kids on spectrum. They told us that most of them are following a special diet - GFCF diet. I was wondering what is the GFCF diet and how it can help in autism. Tanishk was not having any kind of allergy. He was good in eating but was constipated. We thought that we don't need any special diet for him.

After few months, I learned that GFCF diet is not only for allergic people, it affects the behavior also. My husband told me that we should try it once. If it is too difficult and there is no change in the behavior, we won't continue. After GFCF diet, Tanishk's constipation problem was solved. And also he became calmer and we saw few behavior changes. I won't say that we saw very drastic changes. But these small changes made him learn more easily, so we continued his GFCF diet.

Yes, it was difficult for me as I wasn't good in the regular cooking. It took so much time to understand the ingredients what we shouldn't use and how to use new ingredients which we have never used or tasted. Still I am in learning process.

I did a lot of research on GFCF food. I read so many books, and I also searched on internet. I became a part of several Yahoo and Facebook groups. I also became a fan of several Facebook pages related to GFCF diet. Still I am not perfect.

I preferably cook Indian food and there was very less guidance on Indian GFCF food. But I want to share my experiences on this journey.