Quick Meals

20 TASTY Quick Healthy Recipes Ideas

January 1, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

Here are my top 20 tasty quick healthy recipes to get you back on track for the new year, or to give you some ideas to change up your menu to keep eating healthy, interesting, and exciting.

Here we are in 2020, and many of your New Year’s resolutions may surround health or fitness. To have a sustainable healthy lifestyle, you cannot cut one group of food completely. In fact, doing that might just make you crave that particular section more. Unless you are allergic to certain foods, I would not recommend cutting out anything. I personally believe in eating everything as long as you’re conscious. If you like desserts, try making healthier desserts with coconut sugar or maple syrup and have just a small portion of it to satisfy your sweet cravings. Eating is important! Fueling your body with good food is good for your body and mind….

Caribbean style vegetable stew

November 25, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Caribbean food, essentially, is a kaleidoscope of delicious flavors that met to become something new and amazing. If you’ve never immersed yourself in the wonders of this region, you have to start with this recipe. This Caribbean style vegetable stew is AHMAZZING! I’d say its got the touch of Southern Indian and Bengali touch from the mustard, and the locals bring in the fried plantain element to this with toasted coconut. It’s a riot of flavors. Get cooking!

Caribbean food has global influences, combined with indigenous ingredients and techniques. It’s played a paramount role in defining the evolution of the modern Caribbean cuisine we know and love today. From soups and stews to desserts, many of the region’s signature staples surprisingly trace their beginnings back to the European and Asian countries where they originated. These global influences, combined with indigenous Caribbean ingredients and techniques, have played a paramount role in defining the evolution of the modern Caribbean cuisine we know and love today. …

Dill Edamame Fried Rice

August 25, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

This South Indian style Dill Edamame fried rice recipe is the absolute BEST. It’s quick and easy to make, customizable with any of your favorite mix-ins, and so irresistibly delicious.

Me and rice go way back.

I’m digging back into my mom’s classic recipe today to share one of my all-time favorite recipes with you again. And I really do mean all-time.

Because fried rice and I go wayyyy back. 😍

Like specifically, back to my picky-eating days that lasted — oh — until college, when I was totally “that girl” who refused to even look at anything which was not a little fancy. Guys, I was crazy about the different kind of fried rice. Mom would make a variety of rice for lunch with some fryums and I would gobble it up without complaining. I mean, back then, I just assumed that all fried rice was perfectly stir-fried and full of big flavors and irresistibly delicious! Little did I know about the painfully bland, boring, and tasteless stuff that I would encounter at places, once I ventured out of the nest. This dill fried rice is bomb, go try it out….

OPA SQUASH DUMPLINGS IN SPICY CURRY-Kofta Curry

February 6, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Vegetable Kofta Curry is a very popular dish in India. This is my easy take on a classic which comes together in one pot. This opa squash and chickpea dumplings is simmered in a smooth sauce to make a delicious and delectable curry. Weeknight meal made easier.

Weeknight meals can be interesting, but not the most appealing looking at times. But, it was real. More often than not, the meals we get to share with family and friends do not take on the convivial, alluring nature we see promoted across blogs and boutique media. It’s easy to set a beautifully-styled farm table and encourage meaningful, open-hearted dialogue and then CONVENIENTLY disregard that meaningful, open-hearted dialogue is, by nature of our human-ness, a mess most of the time. The mess doesn’t sell.

It happens in a rush. Everyone’s got lots to do and you feel the need for extra couple of hours in a day….then comes the spicy yummy meal craving. One pot meals at his time does come in handy.

Here’s one I absolutely love….

Crusty Cauliflower Pasta Bake with Peppery Almonds Manchego Crust -GF

October 11, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

With just four ingredients, you have the best cauliflower pasta bake ever. The sauteed cauliflower feels decadent with spicy almonds in this crunchy baked pasta. You can cook this over the stove top, or bake it. Be careful not to overcook your pasta, as it will continue to cook in the oven.

This pasta bake is just the kind of thing for these dark and dreary days. It’s warm, crusty, and soul-satisfying. Yet it’s full of healthy ingredients. Chickpea pasta, crushed cauliflower, and a good peppery almond crust.

The pasta is a vessel that holds the cauliflower and with every bite, you get a bit of the creamy from the cauliflower and crunch from the almonds….

Gluten Free Millet Roti – Softest and Easy Rotis

October 8, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

Two ingredients, one important step, and you have the easiest and softest gluten free roti there is. This gluten free roti stays soft for two days if wrapped well.

The minute I posted my quick naan recipe, I started getting requests for a fail-proof roti. I somehow missed sharing wheat rotis. I’ve been on a gluten-free journey the last couple of months and have been experimenting with different grains. We make rice roti which is gluten-free. However, it is a bit thick and heavy and hence doesn’t really go well with sabzis. So, when I started sharing my experiments on social media with whole grain rotis, I have had a sea of requests for a foolproof gluten free roti that stays soft for a long time….

Indian inspired Spicy Carrot Soup with Walnut Crumble & Monday Musings

October 7, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

This is super healthy soup that gives you all the fresh, warm fall flavors. The spicy carrot soup is easy on the ingredients and boast big flavors. Loaded with ginger and garlic, lime juice for punch, with some sesame seeds. It is tangy, nutty, very creamy and intensely flavored, Made with few ingredients and 30 minutes, this is an incredible easy and delicious meal any time of the year.

The endless cascade of nutritional information—about localism, vegetarianism, veganism, organic food, the environmental impact of eating meat, poultry, or fish, and more—makes the simple goal of a healthy, sustainable diet seem hopelessly complex.

Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” That’s what the French lawyer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, who happened to have a deep love of gastronomy, wrote in 1825. A century later, a diet-hawking American nutritionist named Victor Lindlahr rendered it as: “You are what you eat.” I propose revising it further: Tell me what you eat and I will tell you how you impact the planet.

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Spicy Tandoori Potatoes/Aloo

October 2, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

These crispy spicy and delicious tandoori potatoes makes for a great starter for the vegetarians or it’s a great side with naan and some sour cream-yogurt dip.

If you’ve never tried tandoori potatoes before, then you’ve got to try them! It’s a guarantee they’ll be making a regular appearance at house. Especially THESE, they are spicy and full of flavor. Smash them them and you have great smashed tandoori potatoes….

Shortcut Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup

September 18, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

This flavorful shortcut chicken tortilla soup is loaded with beans, corn, tomatoes, and chicken, and it comes together in under thirty minutes. To serve, garnish with your favorite tortilla chips or toasted corn tortillas cut into strips, along with avocado, cilantro, cheese, and onions.

A year ago when my teen expressed that he wants to pursue his studies in New York , it was bittersweet. I made up my mind that I’ll be giving him a small diary filled with 15-30 minute easy recipes. After a quick survey on Instagram, I had so many requests for easy healthy recipes, weeknight dinners, and bachelor recipes… Voila, it’s better to also blog those recipes, right?!…

Broccoli Fried Rice topped with crispy garlic and onion

August 30, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

A quick and tasty side dish, or can be served as a meal. This Broccoli Fried Rice with crispy garlic and onion will blow you away. No one will never know it’s healthy. You can modify this recipe to include any veggies you choose.

I was one of those fussy kids growing up, mom snuck in veggies in everything, coconut peas rice, cauliflower tomato rice, tawa pulao with more vegetables than rice, and I had no clue of her hidden intentions. Now, it’s more a habit, more than me wanting to sneak in vegetables in my kids.

I love the idea of an all-broccoli version of this, but I know not to test my luck too far, so for us, an equal amount of chopped broccoli to brown or white rice is the perfect compromise for the whole family. Just like cauliflower rice, you place the broccoli florets in the food processor and pulse until they resemble a rice-like texture. Be sure to watch is carefully because, if you process too far, then you’re on your way to pesto, but if you process it too little, then those indistinguishable grains of broccoli become chunks of green in your rice….