Eggless Banana Oat Cookies - A sugar free munchy

I cant be quite wrong if I call myself oven-obsessed right now. Caseroles, lasagne, calzones, pizzas, buns, breads, muffins, cookies, anything that needs baking, I love to serve. This obsession coupled with a need to not use up tons of butter and sugar has led to a few experimentations in the kitchen. Not always perfect, but always satisfying my creative meanderings of the chef in me. T has come to accept my penchant to cook up stuff which is unheard of in our menu régulier. While V sniffs out and refuses anything she would not like to eat, my husband is not given much choice in the matter!
It has been a stressful week and the mood screamed for munches that would aid in winding down into the weekend. Throw in a healthy thought and out popped Oats. I also had on hand a couple of overtly over ripe bananas. There is something with us and bananas these days. They just dont sell. So I decided to use those and oats and make some cookies. While these cookies are not the regular comforting chocolate chip types, they help us completely avoid the twang of guilt when wolfing them down. They are chewier and make you feel fuller sooner.
Go ahead enjoy baking and eating these lovelies with no sugar, butter or flour added!

Eggless Banana Oat cookies with no sugar and no butter

Servings: Makes about 20 cookies (1.5 in diameter)
Prep Time: 15 minutes   Cook time : 15-30 minutes

Ingredients 

2 Bananas preferably over ripe
1 tsp Vanilla essence
4 tsp Vegetable Oil (I used Canola)
1.5 cups Oats (I used organic old fashioned)
1/3 cup Almonds
1/3 cup Raisins
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Shredded Coconut (I used unsweetened organic but sweetened should give it a nice sweet flavour)
1 tsp Baking powder (I don't think this made much of a difference)
1/3 cup Coconut milk

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Keep a cookie tray ready lined with parchment paper. 
3. In a bowl mash the bananas using a fork to a nice mushy pulp. Add the vanilla essence and oil to it and whisk. 
4. Grind the oats to a coarse powder (this could be finer if you need a smoother texture for the cookies)
5. Gring the almonds to a coarse powder
6. In a second bowl mix the powdered oats, powdered almonds, cinnamon, shredded coconut, salt and raisins. 
7. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk well.
8. Take a dollop of the dough and drop it onto the cookie sheet and pat on it to flatten a bit. 
9. Place the cookies an inch apart on the sheet. 
10. Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes or till the bottom of the cookies start to brown. Here I must say mine took nearly 30 mins and it would definitely differ between ovens. So keep a watch out after 15 minutes. 

Sweet Potato Wedges

So it was that the guilt conscience pushed me to the edge and warned me sternly not to consume unhealthy junk food. That day paved way for the most delicious healthy finger foods! All we wanted to eat was french fries that day so I replaced potato with the sweet potato and frying with baking and voila an instant crowd pleaser was born.

What you need to make Sweet Potato Wedges (To make for 2)

• 6 sweet potatoes (size of an egg)
• Jeera / Cumin seeds / Jeerige - 2 generous tsps
• Red Chillies - 3 (or as much as required to make it spicy for you)
• Oil - 2 tsps

Preparation to make Sweet Potato Wedges  (Time : 5 min)

• Peel and cut the sweet potatoes french fries style.
• Grind cumin seeds and red chillies to a coarse powder

Method to make  Sweet Potato Wedges  (Time : 20 mins)

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• In a bowl of sweet potato pieces, add in oil and the ground spice and give it a mix.
• Place spiced sweet potato pieces into a baking tray. Ensure they are in a single layer.
• Bake for around 20 mins till the sweet potato is cooked through.
• Serve hot!

My fundas

• Somehow coffee was a better companion to this than tea.
• Sweet potato could be substittued with potato if you could deal with the related excesses. 
• Make the spice as you like it, no set recipe.

Brussels Sprouts Indian Curry

This has been a week of discovery. The Indian vegetable scene is so deeply engraved in my DNA that I had no need or desire to open the door to a whole host of alien veggies. Till now that is. I am no longer able to procure fresh Indian vegetables beyond the humble beans, cavorting carrots, little peas, rotund potatoes and their cousins, the tomatoes. After endless weeks of producing magic with the same baseline, I stood in front of the veggies section at the grocery store this weekend. I looked at  row upon row of unknown vegetables for whose names I had to refer to the name tags stuck on the racks. Thats when I made a decision to start trying out the local produce. When in Rome and all blah blah. With panic and a deep sense of adventure I picked out among other things brussels sprouts, asparagus and celery.
The week was innaugurated by the cute looking brussels sprouts. Not knowing what to make with it and how they would cook, I decided to try it in the trademark Indian curry. The result was amazing with my dotzy also loving it!

Here is the recipe
What you need to make Brussels Sprouts Curry (To make for 2)

• Brussels sprouts - 15
• Onion - 1 (medium size)
• Tomato - 1 (small size)
• Kadlebele / Chana dal - 1 tsp
• Uddin bele / Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Turmeric  / Haldi - 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds / Sasuve - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds / Jeerige  / Jeera - 1 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds / Menthya / Methi seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Green Chillies - 3
• Curry leaves - 6 (optional, but tastes great with)
• Coriander leaves - a bunch
• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Salt

Preparation to make  Brussels Sprouts Curry  (Time : 10 min)

• Remove the outer layer of Brussels Sprout and wash thoroughly under running water.
• Cut each sprout in half or quarter depending on the size. 
• Cut onions and tomatoes into small pieces
• Slit green chillies in half
• Chop coriander leaves

Method to make  Brussels Sprouts Curry  (Time : 30 mins)

• Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan / kadhai
• Add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter
• Add fenugreek seeds and fry for a couple of seconds
• Add green chillies, curry leaves, channa dal, urad dal, cumin seeds and turmeric and fry for half a minute
• Next comes onion which is fried till transluscent and then tomato is fried till it becomes dry.
• Add in the cut sprouts and cook on medium flame till the sprouts are tender
• Add salt to taste.

My fundas

• It looks like cabbage but tastes a little sour so the onion, tomato combination offsets this.