I am at a loss of words to describe the taste of this dish, it’s yumtastdelicious!!!

Ginger chicken is yet another favorite of mine and my hubby’s, well not just us even my sister loves this. I had made this for my sister last year when I had visited her, she loved it so much that she makes this quite often. She had told me quite a few times to post this recipe and it just slipped out of my mind.

I adopted this recipe from one of my favorite chefs: Vahchef. During my initial cooking stages, his cooking videos have helped me a lot in learning the basics of Indian cooking, I’ve tried many of his recipes and all of them have turned out to be delicious. I admire his simple and easy to follow videos.

In the original recipe, marinated chicken is fried in the oil. Well, I made a healthy twist to the recipe and baked the chicken instead. The baked chicken was then stir fried in little oil so that it would get a fried taste. Combined with the green sauce till the chicken turned browned and the sauce got stuck to the chicken. The browned chicken along with the sauce tastes remarkable that you will become a slave for this dish.

Baked Ginger Chicken

Ingredients

For marinating chicken:

• Chicken legs or any bone-in chicken pieces- 6 legs or 8 medium pieces
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 1 tbsp
• Soy Sauce, low sodium- 2 tbsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- very little

For making sauce:

• Onion, chopped- 1
• Green chillies- 3 no’s
• Curry leaves- 3 sprigs (must add)
• Cilantro, chopped- 1/2 cup (must add)

While cooking:

• Vegetable oil- 2 tbsp
• Ginger, chopped- 3 to 4 inch slice
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Lemon juice- 1 tbsp
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

1. You could use bone-in or boneless chicken, however this dish tastes fantastic when bone-in chicken is used.
2. Combine the chicken legs with the above mentioned ingredients “for marinating chicken”, keep aside for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 375 F.
4. Line the baking sheet with aluminum foil, spray non-stick cooking spray over it.
5. Place the marinated chicken legs over it.
6. Bake for 25 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and keep aside.
8. In a blender, puree the ingredients for making the sauce to a smooth paste, keep aside.
9. Place a wok over medium heat, add oil.
10. Add ginger to the oil and saute for a couple of minutes, let it turn light golden in color.
11. Add the baked chicken legs and gently stir fry for a few minutes.
12. Pour the pureed sauce over the chicken, rinse the blender with little water and pour over the chicken, combine well.
13. Turn the heat to medium high, let the sauce thicken and starts to stick to the chicken.
14. Gently combine the chicken legs.
15. Sprinkle ground pepper and salt over it.
16. Drizzle lemon juice and combine with the chicken.
17. Let the chicken and the sauce turn light brown.
18. Taste and add more salt/ ground pepper if needed.
19. Remove from the heat and serve hot with rice, roti or salad.

Tips:

• You could even fry the marinated chicken in oil till it turns golden in color, remove excess oil from the pan and follow the rest of the preparation steps.
• Adding curry leaves while making the sauce enhances the taste of this dish, so don’t skip it.
• The key for making delicious ginger chicken is to brown the chicken along with sauce.
• Adjust salt and ground pepper accordingly.

I got bored of cooking with chicken breasts, I cannot deny the fact that boneless chicken breast is healthy and rich in protein. So I still wanted to use chicken breasts but in a different way. I seldom had to think hard before about what to cook with chicken, but this time I had to ponder a bit to come up with something new and exciting. Some of the recipes that call for chicken and vegetables ran through my mind. I even stood still with the open refrigerator to pick the right veggie for this dish. And I picked spinach as it has been my favorite green which has a very subtle and delicate flavor.

I love cooking with spinach and I have already made a few dishes with spinach: tuna spinach cakes, chick pea-spinach sandwich, spinach soup and lately I even tried making spinach chutney. This time I combined ground chicken breasts and sauteed spinach together. Made it into balls and baked it. After baking it, stir fried it along with aromatic herbs and seasonings till it got browned. It does resemble to sausage balls, but this chicken spinach balls are rather healthy and is free of red meat. It’s baked, stir fried, has greens in it and is flavorful.

Baked Chicken balls with Spinach:

Ingredients:

• Ground chicken breast- 1 pound (or grind 4 chicken breasts in a blender)
• Chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Salt- little

For sauteeing spinach:

• Oil- 1 tbsp
• Spinach- 1/2 bunch
• Fennel seeds- 1 tsp
• Onion, chopped small- 1
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 2 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp

For stir frying:

• Oil- 1 tbsp
• Ginger, chopped thin and long- 2 inch slice
• Garlic chopped, thin- 4 cloves
• Green onions, chopped- 3 stalks
• Ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Mint leaves, chopped- 1/4 cup
• Soy sauce- 2 tbsp

Preparation:

• You could use ground chicken breasts bought from the store or grind washed chicken breasts- 4 no’s to smooth constituency without adding any water.
• Combine the ground chicken with chilly powder and salt, add little salt as we will be using soy sauce while stir frying which has salt too.
• Heat a non-stick pan, add oil, when it turns hot add fennel seeds.
• Add onion and saute till translucent, add ginger-garlic paste, saute for a minute.
• Add spinach and ground pepper to it, let the spinach cook for a few minutes.
• After the spinach has cooked, add the spinach mixture to the ground chicken mixture, combine well.
• Make small balls out of it, keep aside.
• Pre heat oven to 350F.
• Place the chicken balls on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
• Bake for 30 minutes.
• Remove from the oven.
• Heat a wok or skillet, add oil, add chopped ginger and garlic to it, stir fry for a second.
• Add green onions and stir fry for a second.
• Don’t fry the ginger-garlic and green onions till it turns brown.
• Now, add baked chicken balls and stir fry till it starts to turn golden brown in color.
• Sprinkle the chopped mint leaves over the chicken balls and stir fry it.
• Add ground pepper and pour soy sauce over the chicken balls.
• If you want it more spicy add more of the ground pepper.
• Cook for a minute and remove from the heat.
• Serve hot as an appetizer or you could even insert a tooth pick on the balls and serve as finger food.
• Mint leaves imparts a mesmerizing and refreshing fragrance to the chicken.

Tips:

• If you don’t have mint you could use cilantro, but I highly recommend mint leaves.

If you are looking for a dish that’s easy to whip up and can be saved for the next day without compromising on taste and flavor, then here is it. Go ahead and make a huge batch of this baked pasta with chicken and mushrooms, refrigerate the leftovers and it will taste mighty delicious the next day. I adore the combination of pasta and mushrooms, if it has chicken and if it’s baked and is made in a creamy white sauce, then don’t ask me how much I love this. I lack words to express it, I can definitely show you by finishing up the whole platter.

Baked Pasta with Chicken and mushrooms:

Ingredients:

• Pasta, fusilli or penne- 1/2 lb or 1/2 packet
• Chicken breasts, boneless- 3 breasts
• All purpose flour or gluten free flour- 1/2 cup
• Garlic, minced- 3 cloves
• Milk, skim or whole- 4 cups
• White Mushrooms, sliced- 1 packet
• Parmesan cheese- 1 1/2 cups + 1/2 cup for topping
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp/chicken breast and more to add to the mixture
• Dried Oregano(optional)- 1 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Butter- 2 tbsp
• Olive oil- 3 tbsp to cook chicken

Preparation:

• Cook pasta in boiling water along with little salt till it turns tender.
• Drain the water and keep aside.
• Heat a non-stick cooking pan over low medium flame, add olive oil.
• Place chicken breasts on the oil, sprinkle with ground pepper and salt.
• Cook uncovered till the chicken has almost cooked and outside turns light golden in color.
• Slice the cooked chicken breasts into long strips and keep aside.
• Preheat the oven to 400 F.
• Place a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter in it.
• Add the flour and garlic, whisk constantly breaking the lumps till the flour turns light golden in color.
• Now, slowly add the milk and whisk it constantly, let the flour dissolve in the milk.
• Add the dried oregano to the milk and simmer for a few minutes.
• Now, add the sliced mushrooms to the milk, cook for a couple of minutes.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the parmesan cheese to it.
• Add the cooked chicken and pasta to the mixture.
• Sprinkle some ground pepper and salt over it.
• Combine the pasta and chicken well.
• Grease a large glass baking dish with butter or you could use two medium sized dishes.
• Pour the mixture onto the baking dish.
• Sprinkle 1/2 cup parmesan cheese on the top and bake it uncovered for 25 minutes.
• The cheese will turn golden in color and the mixture will be bubbling.
• Remove from the oven and let stand for a few mintes.
• Serve warm on a plate.
• Refrigerate the leftovers and it will taste delicious the next day.

Tips:

• For making it gluten free: Use gluten free flour instead of all purpose flour.
• You could adjust the amount of cheese accordingly.

It’s high time I introduce my new obsession. I lack words when it comes to describing these drummettes. I would rather prefer finishing up the plate in just one sitting to show you how insanely delicious they are. No Kidding! Besides the taste a couple other things that make me love them even more are that they got the barbecue flavor and are “BAKED”.

Nowadays, when I come across drummettes at the meat section, I can barely resist them. Even without my knowledge I will have a few packs of them jumping into my shopping cart. Lately, I have been getting frequent requests from my husband to make this. And I never turn him down for this particular request as I will be craving for these more than him

I cannot adore enough about the simplicity of the ingredients this recipe calls for. With just three main simple ingredients, you get to taste a myriad of flavor in your mouth. Ain’t that amazing?

In winter, I always look forward to summer just to throw drummettes, corn and almost everything on the Barbecue grill. After making this, now I know how to get the feel of summer barbecue fun in this freezing weather.

So guys, make sure to pile up drummettes on your shopping cart and let the barbecue fun begin.

Baked Barbecued Chicken Drummettes

Ingredients:

• Chicken Drummettes, skinned or skin on- 10 no’s

For making the sauce:

• Tomato Ketchup- 1 cup
• Brown sugar- 1/2 cup
• Worcestershire Sauce or Soy Sauce ( low sodium)- 2 tbsp
• White Vinegar- 1tbsp
• Ground Pepper- 1 tsp
• Rosemary- 2 sprigs
• Salt- very little, as tomato ketchup has salt in it

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 450 F or 232 C.
• Combine the above mentioned for making the sauce ingredients in a bowl.

• Wash the drummettes under running water, you could remove the skin or keep it based on your preference.
• Pour 3/4 of the sauce over the drummettes and coat them evenly.
• Line a rectangular baking pan or baking sheet with aluminum foil.
• Grease the aluminum foil with non-stick cooking spray ( olive oil-Pam).
• Place the drummettes over the aluminum foil without crowding them.

• Keep it on the lower rack in the oven and bake for 35 minutes.
• After the initial 15 minutes of baking, carefully take the baking sheet out of the oven and flip the chicken to the other side.

• Bush the drummettes with the rest of the sauce.
• Keep the drummettes back into the oven and continue baking for the final 20 minutes.
• Juicy baked Barbecued chicken drummettes will be ready by now.

• Transfer the drummettes on a serving plate and get ready to tear off the drummettes when it’s still hot.
• Believe me this is going to be your new obsession.

Tips:

If you want a dipping sauce:

• You could make more of the above mentioned sauce and heat half of the e sauce in a pan until it comes to a boil.
• This will make a fantastic dipping sauce for the drummettes.

This stuffed, baked banana peppers was one of the main attractions from my kitchen that happened last weekend. I usually make banana pepper fritters which is a common evening snack in India. While buying banana peppers, I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it besides frying it. And this time I absolutely didn’t want to fry it, wanted to make something different with it.

Stuff the banana peppers was the first thing that hit my mind, and the second thing that came to my mind was bake ‘em. In no time I was seen having fun stuffing and baking the banana peppers. For making the stuffing, I literally threw whatever was found in my refrigerator and pantry into a huge pot and the outcome was unbelievably delish!

I loved the taste of the stuffing so much that I couldn’t resist eating it while stuffing the peppers. Since I had only three peppers to stuff, the leftover stuffing was served as a side dish. The stuffed peppers was then allowed to bake in the oven. I couldn’t wait till the peppers came out charred perfectly out of the oven. As soon as I took the baked peppers out of the oven, just looking at it I had the feeling that it’s going to taste awesome. And the stuffed, baked banana peppers didn’t let me down.

Stuffed Baked Banana Peppers

Ingredients:

• Banana peppers- 3 or more

For making  the stuffing:

• Olive oil- 1 tbsp
• Onion, chopped-1
• Red beans, canned- 1 can
• Yellow Corn- 1/2 can
• Cooked Rice, I used Basmati rice- 2 cups
• Chicken loaf, deli fresh, cooked (optional), chopped- 2-3 slices
• Cumin powder- 1 tsp
• Tomato Ketchup- 4 tbsp
• Green onion, chopped- 3 tbsp
• Cheddar cheese grated- 1 cup
• Salt- if needed (taste and add accordingly)

Preparation:

• Place a wide sauce pan over medium heat, add olive oil.
• Add chopped onions, saute for few minutes.
• Drain the canned red beans and yellow corn and rinse it with water.
• Add the beans and corn to the onions, let it cook for few minutes.
• Now, add the cooked rice and combine everything well.

• Add the chopped deli fresh chicken loaves and cook for few minutes.

• Add the cumin powder, tomato ketchup, green onion and give it a good stir.
• Taste it and add salt if needed.
• Finally spread the grated cheddar cheese over it and remove the pan from the stove.

Stuffing the peppers:

• Cut the top part of the banana peppers.
• Remove the seeds from the peppers and stuff the peppers with the stuffing.

• Push the stuffing inside the peppers with a wooden spoon.
• Level the stuffing at the opening of the pepper.

Baking the stuffed peppers:

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Place the stuffed peppers on a baking sheet or pan lined with aluminum foil which is sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
• Pop it into the oven and let it bake for 20 minutes or until the peppers have become charred.

• Take the baked peppers out of the oven and let it cool down slightly.
• You could serve this as an appetizer or as an entree along with other sides of your choice.
• You could also serve any leftover stuffing along with the baked peppers.

Tips:

• Make sure you don’t over stuff the peppers as some of the stuffing would come out of the peppers while baking.
• Vegans: you could make this without the chicken.

Well, I served this for breakfast. I can explain why. Lately, my husband has been acting little weird oops not little, a little too much weird actually Every morning as soon as the alarm blares out, the first sentence that comes out of his mouth would be “Honey, could you please make me a killer breakfast?”. I am still not clear what he means by killer breakfast. But one thing was crystal clear that he was giving me signals of how tired and bored he was with the usual breakfast I serve. it’s big time I make him something different, or in his words a killer one. Hence, my search for killer breakfast had begun a few days ago.

At first, I ignored his killer breakfast request, but when I started getting this request every morning I couldn’t just ignore it. I took this as a challenge and finally made him a killer breakfast yesterday morning.

Obviously, I don’t want to spend too much time cooking in the morning as I am too lazy to cook in the morning. The main reason why I picked this recipe is that this recipe called for zero cooking time, in fact it’s baked. You just need a pack of puff pastry, whipped cream and strawberry and you could make a killer breakfast or dessert in no time.

If you have more time or if you are in a real mood to make a heavy breakfast, then you should consider making homemade buttermilk pancakes that I make often during weekends and serve this as the dessert.

Strawberry Napoleon

Ingredients:

• Puff pastry sheets, thawed at room temperature- 1
• Whipped topping or heavy cream whipped- 1 cup
• Confectioners sugar- 1/4 cup
• Milk- 1 tsp
• Strawberries sliced- 1 cup
• Semi-sweet chocolate or chips, melted- 1/4 cup

Preparation:

Baking Puff pastry sheets:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• If using frozen puff pastry sheet, thaw it at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• You could even defrost the frozen puff pastry sheets for 1- 2 minutes in a microwave, make sure not to burn the sheets or cook it.
• Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface.

• Cut into 3 equal strips or rectangle shape along the fold marks.
• Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
• Place the cut pastry sheet on the baking sheet.
• Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

• Let it cool down.

Making sugar mixture:

• In a small bowl, stir confectioners sugar and 1 tsp milk, keep aside.

How to whip cream:

• If you are using whipping cream or heavy cream, then you need to whip the cream.
• You could use a hand whisk or electric hand mixer or even stand mixer fitted with a beater attachment to whip cream.
• Use chilled cream, chilled steel or glass bowl and chilled beaters or whisk for better results.
• Place the bowl you are using for whipping the cream and the whisk or beater in the freezer for 15 minutes before using it.
• Place the bowl with the cream in a large “ice-water bowl” so that the cream remains cold while you whip.
• Beat the cream on low speed first, then increase the speed slowly and beat the cream.
• If you are adding sugar or any other flavorings, add them while you whip it.
• Stop whipping the cream when the cream has doubled in volume and forms stiff peaks.
• Make sure not to over whip the cream as it will start to curdle and turn into butter.
• Use the whipped cream immediately, if not cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

How to melt chocolate:

• If you have a double boiler use that to melt the semi-sweet chocolate or chips.
• If you don’t have one, then half fill the saucepan with water and boil the water.
• Take a glass bowl which sits well on the saucepan, put the semi-sweet chocolate chips in it.
• Place the glass bowl with chocolate on the boiling water and keep stirring the chocolate chips.
• The chocolate will start to melt and changes into liquid.
• Remove the bowl from the water and keep aside.

How to assemble:

• Using a sharp knife, cut each of the baked pastry sheets into 2, forming a total of 6 slices.
• Take one of the puff pastry slice.
• Spread confectioners sugar mixture on the puff pastry.
• Spread 1-2 tbsp of whipped topping or cream on the puff pastry.
• Top with 3-4 strawberry slices.

• Repeat this until you make 3 puff pastry layers.

• After layering, drizzle melted chocolate on top of the puff pastry.

• With 1 puff pastry sheet you could make 2 strawberry napoleon.
• Use more of the puff pastry sheets to make more.

Beware; these beef balls will make you go insane…

Basketball, Volleyball, golf ball and beef balls are lined up in front of you, which one will you pick??? I can hear the unanimous screaming from all of you “Beef balls, beef balls, beef ballsss…

When the beef balls came out of the oven well done and browned, my husband who was calm and humble until that time, transformed into a selfish and greedy being. For the first time, he couldn’t wait till the beef balls got a neat presentation and did few posing in front of the camera. He begged me and bugged me like crazy for these beef balls. Can’t blame him, it’s the beef balls that made him insane. Finally, I was forced to throw few beef balls into his mouth just to make him shut. In just seconds he finished it and sneaked into the kitchen to gobble up other beef balls too. Gosh, what’s the matter with this man? I screamed. And I had to wind up the photo session real fast.

This recipe is adapted from Rachael Ray. These are the same meat balls, which are used for making the popular “Spaghetti and meat balls”. I ignored the spaghetti and just made the meatballs. This could be served as a finger food or as an appetizer, either way there will be a high demand for this and will vanish from the platter in just a matter of seconds.

Beef Balls

Ingredients:

• Groung beef- 1 pound
• Minced garlic- 1tsp
• Worcestershire sauce- 2tsp
• Egg, beaten-1
• Bread crumbs- 1/4 cup
• Grated parmesan- 2 handfuls
• Italian seasoning- 1 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Non-stick cooking spray- to grease the baking sheet

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 425 F
• In a large bowl, combine ground beef, minced garlic, worcestershire sauce, egg, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, ground pepper and salt.

• Make medium sized balls out of it.

• Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray and place the balls on it.
• Bake the balls for initial 15 minutes.
• After 15 minutes of baking, turn the balls to the other side and bake for another 10 more minutes.

• Take the balls out of the oven, insert a tooth pick into each balls and serve hot with ketchup or any other sauce.

Tips:

• You could even make patties out of this seasoned ground beef and bake it.

• Baked beef patties can be used for making burgers, place the patty between the hamburger buns and top it with grilled onions, pickled cucumbers, sliced tomatoes, lettuce and smear the buns with mayonnaise.

It was 5 years ago when I had made my first cake with this batter, this time tried butter cupcakes with the same batter…

My mom is an awesome cook, but she never did any major baking. This was the only cake she used to make when I was young. She used to make this cake not in an oven but in a pressure cooker and surprisingly it came out pretty delicious. So when it was my turn to make cake, I didn’t go behind any new recipe but followed my own mom’s recipe. Today, just by a click many cake recipes would line up right in front of me. But I have always found a special attachment towards this cake and hence always ended up making this.

It’s been a while since I’ve baked this cake, so today I tried making cupcakes with the same butter cake batter. Just like the cake, cupcakes turned out pretty darn incredible too. This butter cupcake is super easy to make and would be perfect for any tea party.

Butter cupcake

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour – 1 1/2 cups
• Powdered sugar or granulated sugar- 1 1/2 cups
• Butter(unsalted) – 100 gm or 1/2 cup
• Eggs(white and yolk separated) at room temperature- 3 nos
• Baking powder – 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla extract- 1tsp

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar together using a hand mixer.

• Separate egg white from the egg yolk and place in separate bowls.
• Beat the egg whites and egg yolks separately with hand mixer.

• First, add the beaten egg white to the butter-sugar mixture and combine with a whisk.
• Now add the egg yolks and combine well.

• Add vanilla extract to the above mixture.

• In a bowl, mix all purpose flour and baking powder.
• Add all purpose flour/baking powder mix little by little to the wet mixture and fold it using a whisk.

• Don’t over mix the batter, fold it gently until just smooth.

• Place paper cups on the cup cake pan.
• Fill the paper cups no more than three-quaters full with the batter.

• Bake it in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a fork comes out smooth when inserted into the middle of the cupcakes.
• After the cupcakes are done, remove from the oven and let cool down.
• For a fancy look, I decorated the cupcakes with semi-sweet chocolate morsels, which will slightly melt from the heat of the cakes.

As always I was quite satisfied with the taste of these cupcakes; but I was disappointed when I saw my cupcakes come out slightly sunken on top. Seeing this, I immediately google searched for the reasons that caused this. Here is what I found:

Three main reasons for sunken cupcakes or cakes:

• Over-mixed batter.
• Too much baking powder or soda.
• Overfilled cups.

Now I know what went wrong on my side. I did two mistakes, over mixed the batter and also overfilled the cups. Next time I will fix this for sure.

Tips:

• You could use the same batter to make butter cake, pour the batter on a greased cake pan and bake it for 20-25 minutes.
• My mom makes this cake in the pressure cooker:

Pressure cooker Butter Cake

• Make the batter following the above mentioned method.
• Pour the batter on a greased cake pan.
• Place the cake pan on a cooking rack that comes with the pressure cooker or any rack or flat steel plate and keep it inside the cooker.
• Close the pressure cooker with its lid, without the sealing ring and the whistle and don’t add water into the cooker (this is not steam cooking).
• In low heat, cook the cake for about 30 minutes or until its cooked.

It’s creamy, it has shrimp, it has cheese and it’s on a jalapeno, oooo it’s spicyyy and oh wait, it’s baked too…

My obsession with jalapeno has started not so long ago, it’s only been an year now. When there is a hint of jalapeno in my dishes I will devour it happily, of course with few glasses of ice cold water. My favorite pizza topping is jalapeno. My favorite burger is the one loaded with pickled jalapeno. My favorite Thai food is garnished with jalapenos. My favorite bread is jalapeno cornbread. By now it must be crystal clear to you that I am a genuine jalapeno lover This doesn’t mean that I will ever dare to eat jalapeno as it is, I am not in for such challenges. I would rather hide

I’ve had stuffed jalapenos in many Mexican restaurants, since then I’ve been wanting to make this in my kitchen. Finally, I did make it. I bought a few pounds of jalapeno during my last grocery shopping. I wanted to make a different stuffing for the jalapenos. That day I had shrimp in my freezer. So, I made a stuffing with shrimp, cream cheese and parmesan cheese.

Be careful while seeding the jalapenos, if you want you could have the hand gloves on. Avoid the screaming part by accidentally rubbing your eyes with your jalapeno hands. If this happens for some reason, wash your eyes with cold water several times and if this doesn’t seem to work “Call 911″ immediately (just kidding).

I loved the bite of the shrimp from it, the creaminess and the mild spiciness from the jalapeno. While baking this, your house will smell as if you have jalapeno candles lighted on. Your eyes will have a slight burning sensation, but when you have a bite of this baked stuffed jalapeno you’ll forget about everything and your taste buds will melt into this.

Creamy Shrimp Stuffed Jalapeno

Ingredients:

• Jalapeno, halved and seeded, large- 7 no’s

• Shrimp, deveined, cooked frozen, minced- 6 no’s
• Cream cheese- 5 tbsp
• Parmesan cheese- 3 tbsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Dried Parsley- 1 tsp

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 425 F.
• Rinse the jalapenos, pat dry and cut them into halves vertically.

• If you want you could wear a hand glove while removing the seeds from the jalapenos and keep aside.
• Mince the deveined, cooked shrimp and keep aside.

• In a large bowl, combine the shrimp, cream cheese, parmesan cheese, ground pepper and dried parsley.

• Place 1 tsp of this stuffing on to each jalapeno.

• Bake the stuffed jalapenos for 25 minutes or until the top of the stuffing starts to turn golden.

• Let cool down for few minutes and serve immediately to kick off your smashing party.

Tips:

For Vegans: You could substitute shrimp with other veggies like green pepper or potatoes.

Make this Valentine’s day more personal, give a touch of love to everything, make it delightful and romantic…

This V-day skip making a reservation to a restaurant, instead whip up a delightful  dinner in your kitchen in under 30 minutes. Oh ya, you heard me, Valentine’s day dinner in under 30 minutes which includes appetizer, main course, salad and dessert. If you think that you can’t make restaurant style fancy dinner at home, then you are totally wrong. If I can make it, you can make it too.

Here are a few special dishes I whipped up in under 30 minutes which could be made for V-day dinner. It’s not about just cooking food, give your special touch to everything you make, get creative and you will see the magic. Everything will turn out as perfect as you want.

Also, while serving food for special occasions, do spend little time on plating and arranging the table. Make it simple and it will look elegant!

Appetizer:

• Onion Rings: Click for recipe

• Scallion Tempura: Click for recipe

Main Course:

• Baked Succulent Salmon: click for recipe

Salad:

• Romaine Sweet Hearts: click for recipe

Dessert:

• Chocolate Pistachio covered Strawberries: click for recipe

Fruits:

• Strawberry and Raspberry

Sharbat:

• Rooh Afza