Sweet & Spicy Methi Salad
Methi (fenugreek) is highly nutritional and its health benefits are out standing. It is very helpful in lowering cholesterol and blood sugar. And if you want to lose weight, include fenugreek in your diet. You must be thinking, that it tastes bitter. Yes it does taste bitter, so I’ve tried to reduce the bitterness in this recipe, by making it a little sweet and spicy. I usually hate to eat fenugreek because it’s bitter, but I liked this salad. It goes well with a cup of tea. Give it a try, you will like it too.
Ingredients: Methi (fenugreek) sprouted – ¼ cup, 1 Apple – chopped, 1green chili – chopped finely, coriander (cilantro) leaves – chopped finely, mint leaves- chopped finely, salt to taste, lime juice – ½ tsp
Method: Mix all the ingredients together, keep for 5minutes and serve.

Baked Chicken & Asparagus
Everytime I go to the vegetable store, I look at Asparagus; but I never wanted to buy it, because I heard that it doesn’t taste good. Then recently I read about the endless health benefits of this amazing vegetable, I decided to give it a try, and it was really good. Now if you take a look at the health benefits of Asparagus, you will know that it really is an amazing vegetable.
Asparagus is high in folate and vitamin K, so it is great for pregnant women. It is very good for our heart. Asparagus helps treat infertility and it is considered best for arthritis and asthma rheumatism. It can detoxify our body and it lowers LDL cholesterol. Asparagus has anti- oxidants which prevent aging and it also contains antifungal and antiviral qualities. It’s known as a body cleanser, and prevents kidney stone and urinary infections. It contains anti-cancer agents, and it also helps fight high blood pressure, prevents hair loss, helps treat tooth ache, etc, etc... This list doesn’t end here.
So here is a simple recipe of Asparagus baked with Chicken drum sticks, this along with one or two chapattis (wheat bread) make a healthy dinner.
Recipe(2 servings): Asparagus – 10, Chicken drum sticks- 2, red chili powder- 1tsp, coriander powder- 1tsp, black pepper powder- ½ tsp, salt, ¼ tsp, vinegar or lime juice- ¼ tsp, turmeric powder- a small pinch.
Method: Clean the chicken and asparagus, draw few lines on the chicken with a knife; marinate them with all the other ingredients. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degree F, bake the chicken for 15minutes, take out and turn it over and add the asparagus and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes. Serve with chapatti or rice.

Fish Biriyani
(With 2tsp Oil)
When we think about Biriyani, the picture we get in mind is of a rich food with no compromise in fat. When we exercise our diet, we can not afford to have the oily/buttery Biriyani. I like Biriyani a lot; my favorite is fish Biriyani. I am not ready to give up my favorite dish in order to maintain a healthy weight, and vise versa, so I found a solution for this predicament, a low fat alternative for Fish Biriyani with out compromising in taste. Now this can add a bit cal if you eat a good serving, but I would say not to worry; satisfy your taste buds, and balance the calorie with rest of the meals on that day. It looks so lengthy for a recipe, but is really not that difficult, and doesn’t take more than an hour to make 2 – 4 servings.
So here goes the Recipe (2servings):

For the Fish Masala:-
Fish fillets (Tilapia/Salmon or any fish which can be made fillets) – 2 cut into small pieces, Onion–1 finely sliced, Tomato – 1 big , sliced, Green chilies – 1 sliced, Garlic & Ginger paste - 2tsp, Almond paste – 2tsp, Rasin paste – 2tsp, Coriander powder- ½ tsp, Red chili powder – 1 tsp, Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp, Coriander (Cilantro) leaves chopped – ½ cup, Salt – 1 tsp, Oil – 1tsp
Method: Clean the fish pieces, and marinate them with ½ tsp salt, turmeric powder, and ½ tsp red chili powder. Heat a non stick pan, add ¼ tsp oil and shallow fry the fish on both sides, and keep aside. Add the other ½ tsp oil to the pan and add onion, green chilies and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic & ginger paste and sauté for 2 minutes. Then add the tomato and fry for another 2minutes. Add coriander powder and ½ tsp red chili powder, salt and fry for a minute. Now add the fish and almond paste and mix well (be careful not to break the fish pieces). Add the rasin paste and mix, and keep for another minute. Add the coriander leaves on top and remove from fire.

For Rice:- Basmati rice – 1 cup, Cardamom – 4, Cloves – 6, Cinnamon – 2 sticks, Oil – 1tsp, Salt – ½ tsp, Hot water – 1 ½ cup
Method: Soak the rice in water with a pinch of salt for 5minutes, wash and drain and spread it on a paper towel or dry cloth to get rid of the water. Heat a deep pan, and add 1tsp oil, Add cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. When they start popping add the rice and fry for 2 – 3 minutes without burning it. Add 1 ½ cups of hot water and ½ tsp salt. Mix well, when it boils simmer the heat and cook until the all the water is absorbed (about 5 minutes).

Baking:- Pre- heat the oven to 300 degree F. In a baking dish layer the rice and fish masala in the order, Rice- fish masala – rice. Cover with an aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes.
Serve hot with spicy Pickle.

Steamed Carrot Cake
(Carrot Puttu)
Carrot is a vegetable used by people all over the world. It’s known for the high amount of carotenes found in it. We all know that carrot is very good for our health. I like eating raw carrots, the sweeter version. This is different from the normal carrot preparations; and this can be a low cal high fiber healthy dinner.
Recipe (2 servings): Carrots grated-1cup, Rice flour-1cup, grated coconut- 2 tsp, salt to taste.
Method: Mix the grated carrot, rice flour and salt together; make a thin layer of grated coconut at the bottom of your steaming dish using 1tsp grated coconut, then put the carrot rice mixture and top it with the rest of the grated coconut, and steam cook for 10minutes. [If you have the puttu making dish, you can make it just like normal puttu]. Serve hot.

Chick Peas Snack
Most of us like to have a snack in the evening. I was thinking of a healthy alternative for my usual crackers; then my friend told me that, chick peas (garbanzo beans) cooked with salt make a good snack. I added a few other ingredients to make it more inviting; and this tastes really good. You can have it as a snack or a complete meal.
Chick Peas is rich in protein and dietary fiber. It is very low in sodium and saturated fat. And it has a great amount of folate in it. Now, we all know that folate is very important for pregnant women, because it’s needed for the production and growth of new cells in new born babies. But most of us don’t understand that we all need folate in our daily diet because folate help prevent the changes in DNA which can cause certain types of cancers; folate helps make our blood, hemoglobin rich. And some of the new studies show that folate in our diet can even prevent heart attack and stroke.
Here goes the recipe(2 servings): Chick Peas (garbanzo beans) – ½ cup soak in water for 5 to 6 hours and pressure cook with salt , tomato -1small chopped finely, spring onion 1 chopped finely, coriander(cilantro) leaves chopped finely, juice from a ¼ of a lime, salt, red chili powder. Mix all the above ingredients; and its ready to go.