Quick Meals

Sheet Pan Bruschetta Chicken and Veggies

August 19, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

The convenience and simplicity of this chicken dinner makes it extra awesome. This sheet pan bruschetta chicken is fast, family-friendly, no-brainer dinner you need to make tonight! The best part, easy clean up. Change up the veggies throughout the year—the balsamic garlic sauce is good on all of them!

I’ts almost school time and I’m always looking for easy dinner options and this bruschetta chicken always wins.

Who doesn’t love bruschetta?!! To die for cherry tomatoes, fresh basil – the most delicious things coming out of our gardens right now. Toss with olive oil and sea salt all atop some olive oil toasted bread, HEAVEN!! And it’s so super flavorful for summer!

Bruschetta Chicken is a classic Italian-American bistro favorite in the spring and summer. My Sheet pan Bruschetta Chicken recipe is fast, fresh, and ridiculously delicious. This is the dinner we can’t stop making. The meal I’ve been serving quite often. The chicken that I make once a week to have on salads, on pasta, alone. This is the business….

Halal Guys Chicken Rice Bowl (Copycat Recipe)

August 13, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

A delicious copycat recipe of the famous NYC Food Cart. This Halal Guys chicken rice bowl is boldly spiced, served with flavorful turmeric rice and spiced yogurt sauce.

Halal Guys is super popular in New York City. As soon as you pass that corner, the aroma becomes so tempting even when you’ve had a big meal. You’ll be in that line, drooling over everyone’s order, and once you finally get your order, you can’t wait to take a bite. The juicy flavorful chicken with a tinge of sourness from the lemon, the perfectly cooked rice, that white sauce that you want to just drink up, and then comes the super spicy harissa kind of hot chili sauce.

The first time we had the chicken rice bowl from Halal Guys was three ago when I visited New York City with my teen. Our main motto for the trip was to eat through the city. We loved it so much that we walked for forty minutes to have it another day of our travel. We generally don’t eat from one place twice during a vacation….

Broccoli Cauliflower Goat Cheese Quinoa Patties with Avocada Cream

August 6, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

These crispy, healthy, gluten-free broccoli cauliflower goat cheese quinoa patties are simple and nutritious. If you want, skip the cheese and use vegan cheese to make it fully vegan. These patties are very versatile. You can make them with different vegetables and your choice of cheese. Your meat lover will love it too.

Happy New Week you guys!!

I find it a little challenging to eat healthily while having all the good flavors, with portion control. When summer hits, it’s especially a little hard to maintain a decent lifestyle in terms of food. With the boys home, there’s a little bit of indulgent food, a lot of comfort food, and in between, I try to squeeze in some healthy food too….

Sweet and spicy Curried Mango chicken salad

July 10, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

This is fun and tasty spin on chicken salad. This spicy curried mango chicken salad has diced grilled chicken, cashews and a creamy curry sauce. It’s addictive and makes for a nice wrap or like lettuce wraps. Perfect for Picnics or light lunch.

Summer comes and mangoes are everywhere. Although we don’t get that many varieties sweet ones,as we get in India, we are lucky to get some sweet ones here.

When mango arrives, everyone’s enjoying them to the core. Smoothies, Popsicles, kulfi, ice-cream, salads, sauces, you name it, people make it. I am not the biggest fan of mango as is, I know I know, weird, but true. In salad form, I could eat the whole bowl….

20 Minute Tomato Garlic Peppery Shrimp with Lemon Pilaf

May 27, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

This juicy, tangy, spicy, and sweet 20 minute tomato garlic peppery shrimp is so easy and delicious. It’s perfect for entertaining, or for a weeknight meal.

Here’s how parties I threw looked like years ago. Plan. Plan for it for weeks. Write a list down, and shop. Make two to three desserts a day ahead, and have an array of dishes. Then came dressing up the room, flowers, and making sure everything is flawless. The morning of: you see your husband put his feet up on the coffee table to relax. You look at him, like “really, please can you help around..?” I turn on the music and start cooking, and start getting excited for the evening. I was on constant edge if I saw the kids mess the countertop, or left their shoes on my polished floors. Two hours before everyone arrives, the home looks like a model home, no smell of cooked meals, everything is neatly stored, flowers are smiling brightly. I light up my candles, put in some drops of orange essential oil in my aromatherapy diffuser, and sit down with a glass of wine, happily….

Cabbage Puttu/Stirfry – Vegetable Dry Sabzi South Indian style

May 20, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

This easy weeknight South Indian style cabbage puttu-stirfry is spicy and gingery, and it’s perfect with some roti or chapathi.

There are people who like to say how exactly they feel about certain foods. They don’t like the taste, it’s too sour or too sweet, or “Why would I ever eat that? It seems too healthy.”

I live with these types of people.. I was one, oh well, I’m still one.

They are firm non-believers of the cabbage family….

Shrimp Scampi in Coconut Rum Sauce with Linguine

April 1, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

This shrimp scampi in coconut rum sauce with linguine is perfect for a thirty-minute meal. A restaurant quality meal, right at home!

HAPPY APRIL!!! Happy Easter!!

My last few months were all in fast forward motion, with one deadline after another, and one project after another… The book release was a huge relief. A sense of a huge responsibility went off my shoulder, replaced by a sense of happiness, contentment, and accomplishment. Masala and Meatballs is doing well, thanks to all of you. Very little things happen overnight, but what’s the fun in that anyway? The excitement is in the anticipation, the work and that time which brings pleasure in ticking off all the boxes. It is the journey that matters, not the destination.

After a beautiful launch party, book signings, and a few other events later, I felt the need to take a breather….

Quick Yellow Thai Curry – 20 Min.

January 24, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

This quick yellow Thai curry will both impress you and leave you craving for more. It’s so easy, and you don’t even need any paste. It’s a weekly staple in our home.

If there’s one thing we would take out quite often, but I was still overwhelmed by, it was Thai food. For some reason, for years I thought making Thai curry with Thai paste was laborious. Well, making a Thai curry paste does require a few ingredients, but it’s actually quite simple as I later learned. However, on the days I run out of my curry paste and have a hankering for Thai Curry, this is my go to….

Curry Chicken Salad Avocado Boats with Cilantro cream

January 22, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

This madras curry chicken salad avocado boats are so healthy and equally delicious, perfect with the cilantro cream. Just the right balance for the non-carb days or any day.

Curry is not a thing in Indian cuisine. Every recipe calls for a mix of spices, each family has their blend. So there’s nothing like curry, every recipe has it’s own name. There are many reasons for the word curry, you can read it HERE. Now, just for the convenience, we call it chicken curry or Andhra curry or Egg curry.…

Quick Chickpea with Spinach Curry – 30 Minute Dish

December 1, 2017 By Asha Shivakumar

This quick golden-hued chickpea spinach curry is simply the perfect cozy meal on a cold evening.

Happy Friday!! Happy December!!!

The cookie and cake season is here, and I bring to you a healthy and delicious meal for those “I don’t want to cook” days, when you are too busy baking up sweet treats….