Chocolate Mini-Muffins - No butter, No sugar!

Greetings People!

Its been a busy and tough year so far. Well, that doesn't stop me from cooking or baking.  One thing that motivates me is that I am looking at the last year  as a graduate student, hopefully! It's all bitter-sweet. Alright, let's get to business. This is an easy recipe (as most of the muffins and you will love the cute little muffins!). Being a grad student and a mom, I look for maximum return with minimum effort. As much as I love cooking when I am stressed, it can easily annoy you. So, I am all about that easy-breezy recipes.

You'll need:

Wet:
Maple syrup - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons
Greek yogurt - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons
Egg -  1
Coffee - 1.5 tablespoons
Vanilla - 1.5 teaspoons

Dry:
Cocoa - 1/2 cup
Whole wheat Flour - 1.5 cups
Baking powder - 1/2 tablespoons
Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
Semi-sweet chocolate chips - 3/ muffins 😊

This recipe makes around 12 mini muffins. Feel free to double it to make 12 regular sized muffins.

Preheat the oven for 350 F.
For all muffins, my go to formula is mix dry ingredients first and keep aside, then whisk in all wet ingredients in a bowl and mix both wet and dry until just combined. Not more than that.
However, I sifted the cocoa powder into the flour, since it has a tendency to clump up when not sifted. Scoop into greased muffin pans, place the choco chips on the muffins and bake it for 15 - 18 mins (depending on the oven). Start checking at 12 mins are so. Mine was done around 15 mins! Once they are ready, gobble up!!

Make and enjoy, they are so good!


Cheers,
Anjana

P.S. If you need a little more sweeter version, add 1/3 cup of brown sugar or honey.

Caramelized Plantains

This is a super simple, easy to prepare yet so tasty recipe. I love to eat ripe plantains, in all  different ways - steam them, make them fritters and roast them like this. There are even more complicated recipes with ripe plantains. For those who grew up eating plantains (especially from Kerala),you know the place of plantain in our hearts! Back in my home state in India, plantains are roasted in ghee with sugar and served as a snack for kids. Back then, I didn't know it had a fancy name like this, "caramelized plantains."

This recipe is for ripe plantain, with yellow skin and squishy, as shown in the picture.

Ingredients:
Preparation time: 10 minutes

Plantains - 2 Nos , medium, peeled and sliced into half inch thickness

Oil/ghee (clarified butter) - 2 tablespoons (ghee gives more fragrant output!)

Brown sugar/granular sugar - 1-2 teaspoon 

Heat oil or ghee in a pan. Mix sugar and plantain slices together. Turn the heat to medium and add the plantains to fry on one side for 4-5 minutes. Repeat the same for other side. Do not let them smoke, or they would taste bitter. That is it!

 These are great for snacking, or for breakfast and keep you full for a long time and it is guilt free! Every time I eat them, I realize how much I love to eat these.

xo,
Anjana

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes with Banana and Coconut filling

This is an easy snack which can be made with ingredients always available in the kitchen. So here goes the ingredients :

To make this you will need :

For the pancakes (makes 3 medium)
Wheat flour -  1/2 cup
Water - 3/4 cup
Banana -  1/2 of one banana
salt -  to taste

For the filling
Banana -  1/2 (chopped into smaller pieces)
Coconut (desiccated or freshly grated)- 2-3 tablespoon
Jaggery/molasses - 1 tablespoon
Cardamom powder -  a pinch (optional)

Mash the banana and add into the flour. Add water and salt, mix well and  keep it aside for 10 minutes, you will end up with nice and soft pancakes. Melt the jaggery (if adding molasses, just mix everything together) and add the banana along with the coconut. If cardamom powder is available, add and mix. Heat a griddle and pour slightly over 1/4 cup of batter. My batter was enough to make 3 pancakes. Add the filling and serve hot/warm.

 If you like it to be sweeter, serve with pancake syrup !

Enjoy,
Anjana