Sweet and Sour Chicken

When we go out to eat Chinese food Sweet and Sour Chicken isn't a dish we normally order.  We usually order something spicy.  I saw this recipe on Rasa Malaysia.  I had already tried General Tso's Chicken (with a few modifications) and it turned out really good.  It has become a family favorite.  So I thought I would give another recipe a try and settled on this recipe.  I made a few changes.  I don't like to deep fry, so I used the same method in General Tso's Chicken for frying the chicken and made some changes to the marinade.  It turned out really well.  It didn't have the strong sweet and sour taste which I was expecting but we all enjoyed it.

Soft Chocolate Cookies with Lentils (Eggless) - SRC

It's time for Secret Recipe Club again.  This is my second month participating and I am loving it.  First there is the excitement of getting the blog you are assigned and picking out the recipe you are going to make.  Then on reveal day the excitement of seeing who got your blog and what they made.

This month I was assigned a fantastic blog, Healthy Delicious.  I love the name of this blog because it is exactly what I try to do...make food that tastes great and is still healthy.  Healthy Delicious is written by Lauren who has been cooking since she was only 10 years old (opposite of me who started when I was on the verge of getting married).  I love her philosophy of eating great tasting food in smaller portions rather than large portions of food that doesn't taste so great...everything in moderation!  Please do visit Lauren's blog Healthy Delicious and check out some amazing recipes and photographs.

Pasta with Spinach Pesto, Roasted Red Peppers and Sundried Tomatoes

I bought some spinach recently without even thinking about what I was going to do with it.  I have been wanting to make pesto for awhile but in the winter you just can't find good basil and when you do it's already going bad in the store.  Plus it's pretty expensive to buy enough to make pesto.  I'm looking forward to the summer when I will have fresh basil in the backyard and plenty of it too!

Masoor Ki Daal

This daal is a favorite in our home.  I make it at least once a week.  It is Hasan's favorite and he calls it "Yellow Daal".  My husband actually taught me to make this daal and I made a few tweeks to the quantity of the ingredients. It's a very simple and easy recipe.  I hope you give it a try.

We usually have this like a soup but you can have it with roti or rice and as an accompaniment for some kebobs.  I usually soak the daal prior to cooking to speed up the cooking time. 

Barley Risotto with Peas and Asparagus

We all loved the Spring Green Risotto I had made awhile ago.  What I didn't like was that there was not a lot of fibre in the dish.  I had read about making risotto using barley.  It sounded interesting and I always have barley around for making Haleem.  So I gave it a try and it turned out great!  I changed the method for this using a bouillon cube instead of stock.  I found this method at Aurora Importing.  Also, I didn't have all the ingredients so made some substitutions.  Either way it will turn out well.