The past few days have been crazy busy but lots of fun nonetheless. I do miss not being able to write on my blog, but I am glad that its been taken care of by some really superb blogger friends of mine: Ameena, Jane, Sawsan and today Leigh from Luv’n Spoonfuls.
Leigh not only has great recipes with beautiful photographs on her blog, but all her recipes have a wonderful balance between flavor and nutrition. I don’t remember now how I stumbled upon Leigh’s blog, but am so glad I did because there is so much to learn about healthy food that tastes great too. You should read her soapbox section on how and why she insists on 100% organic ingredients.
Today, Leigh shares awonderful Gingerbread cake recipe that not only looks delicious but is packed with stuff that screams good-for-you!
Thank you Leigh for taking time out for my blog and sharing the perfect recipe for the coming holiday season!
Today was coffee at my house. Its always fun having these coffee meets. Get to talk and learn so much from the diverse group of friends I have. We had a new girl join us. I remember, how, about 8 months back I was new to this group. And now the group feels like family- people I can count on when I need someone here. Its always fun to cook for them- they are all so generous with their compliments! Also, it gives me a platform to not only experiment by baking extravaganzas, but to introduce my friends to Indian food. They now all know about Samosas, kathi rolls, mint chutney and I feel happy to have made them taste that part of the world. Today, though, I did not go Indian. I kept it simple with buttered garlic on a home-made Spinach bread and carrots served with tzatziki dip. For the sweet tooth there was fruitcake and I also kept some olive-cheese-pineapple on a stick appetizers. Surprisingly the latter were quite a hit with the children!
The idea for Spinach bread had been haunting me for a while. I had a bunch of spinach in my fridge and thought it would be an interesting way to use it up. Found a recipe here.I wanted to add some feta cheese but did not have any in the fridge. And cheese had to go in the bread! So instead I added some parmesan cheese. I also added roasted garlic to the dough. The bread came out very flavorful. I served the bread baked with some garlic-herb smothered butter and everyone devoured them!
Next time I will replace some of the all-purpose with whole-wheat flour – you know, make it all healthy and all ;). Would also add some powdered flax seeds! Oohh, the sound of it makes me want to run to the store and grab a bunch or two of spinach. (What would you know, we finished both the loaves at the coffee today- yes! it was that good!)
UPDATE:
I have tried this recipe with whole wheat flour substitution and while the taste isn’t as good as white flour bread the recipe works fine with it. Instead of substituting the entire amount of bread flour with whole wheat flour, I have started substituting only 1 cup with whole wheat flour and add about 2-3 tbsp flax seeds, 1-2 tbsp wheat germ and sometimes hemp seeds as well.
