Looking for a fun-filled indoor activity, try painting some rocks with crayons. These hot rock art ideas will get everyone thinking of new and more unusual ways to create.
Hot Stone Craft
To make hot rock art, heat the stones then color on them with crayons and watch the color melt on the rock.
Favorite Member – Ray
When it cools you are left with a smooth and colorful rock to use as a paperweight or just for decoration or a lovely gift to any family friend or relative.
Happy Kid
Hot Stone Craft | Melted Crayons On Rock | Fun activity for Kids
Find rocks that were smooth and large enough that they could be used as a paperweight.
Give the rocks a quick wash and lay them on a kitchen towel for 5 minutes.
Now lay clean rocks on a baking tray for 15 minutes at 200 C (line the tray with foil to prevent scratching).
While rocks are baking, spread all crayons on a big tray and peel the paper wrappers from each crayon.
Carefully remove the baked rocks using an oven mitt and place onto cardboard to protect your work surface. Once the rocks were hot, transferred them one or two at a time, leaving the rest in the oven. Take wooden skewers to hold hot rock while working.
Now gather broken or old crayons and color on the rocks. Pressing down will melt the wax and it will drip down the sides.
Continue layering and mixing crayon colors until your rock is covered. Let it cool until the crayon has hardened leaving a smooth shiny finish, this can take a couple of hours.
Family
My son loved making these, and so did I. Feeling the crayon melt on a hot rock is so satisfying. This is a project you will want to add to your craft list.
This creamy avocado banana smoothie is one of the best ideas for a busy morning. Just need four ingredients and within five minutes creamy smoothie is ready. It has a very unique creaminess that comes from the avocado without that strong avocado flavor. It is full of nutrients and is so so filling.
Creamy Avocado Banana Smoothie
I love avocados so much I will eat them with anything – salad, chutney or any smoothie, sandwich. Avocados provide a uniquely silky texture to smoothies without an overbearing taste. They are like a magic ingredient that will completely transform your smoothie game.
Avocado and Healthy recipes with Avocado
Greek yogurt is one of my favorite healthy ingredients. Adding Greek yogurt to smoothies, or substituting it in the place of milk, ice cream and even regular yogurt creates a rich and creamy consistency that satisfies without the extra sugar, saturated fat, and additives.
Greek Yoghurt
Creamy Avocado Banana Smoothie | Yogurt Based Smoothie | Breakfast Smoothie | Four Ingredients Smoothie
The bananas add a ton of flavor, it’s a great fruit to include in your diet. They contain a ton of nutrients such as vitamin B, vitamin C, magnesium, and much more. I used a frozen banana in this smoothie. Adding frozen bananas to smoothies rather than room temperature bananas makes them richer and creamier.
Yogurt Based Smoothie
Putting nuts in smoothies is a delicious way to add fiber, protein, and healthy fats. A handful of pistachios contains much of the daily recommended vitamins and nutrients, like vitamin E, and those energy-rich B vitamins.
Breakfast Smoothie
Ingredients: Frozen banana (the riper the sweeter) – 2 Avocado – 2 Greek Yogurt – 1 cup Chopped pistachios – 2 tbsp
Nuts and seeds are good sources of protein, healthy fats, fibers, vitamins, and minerals. Nuts and seeds regulate body weight as their fats are not fully absorbed, they regulate food intake and help burn energy.
Simple way to add nuts and seeds to every meal of the day
Nuts and seeds such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and peanuts all contain a host of healthful nutrients. Just a handful packs a powerful punch of vitamins, minerals, and fats, all of which work together to affect your heart, your brain, and your waistline as well.
Savoury and Sweet Mixture
Adding nuts and seeds to your diet is simple: Sprinkle a few into salads, pancakes, yogurt, smoothies, and baking as well. Nuts and seeds can be consumed whole, chopped, flaked, or ground. There are so many different ways to add nuts and seeds to your meals and snacks.
Add nuts and seeds to every meal of the day
Nuts and seeds are incredibly easy to add to your daily diet. Keeping a variety of nuts and seeds on hand makes it easy to toss them into whatever you are preparing. So, I made two types of Nuts Seeds Mixture – One is Savory and another one is Sweet ( No Sugar ). I like to use savory one in my veggies salad, or poha or even in smoothies and sweet mixture in my son’s favorite pancakes, or baking cakes or in oatmeal. I always keep a jar of nuts and seeds mixture on the counter so that it’s easy to add in our daily diet.
Savoury and Sweet Mixture
Tuesday Tip | Simple way to add nuts and seeds to every meal of the day | Savoury and Sweet Mixture
Nuts and seeds like almonds, walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, flaxseeds are packed with free-radical fighting antioxidants. Most nuts like almonds and walnuts are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids that are good for brain and heart. These little powerhouses add nutrients and tons of healthy fats to your diet.
Sweet & Savory Ingredients
Ingredients : Flax seeds – 1/2 cup Sliced Almonds – 1/2 cup Pumpkin and melon seeds – 1/2 cup Sesame seeds – 1/2 cup Coconut Flakes – 1/2 cup Mix of Nuts (Almonds, walnuts, pistachios, pecans, cashews) – 1 cup
For Savory Mixture – Spice Mix of red chilli powder, dried coriander leaves powder, roasted cumin powder, red chilli flakes powder (you can add chaat masala, black salt as well) – 1 tbsp each, little salt to taste
For Sweet Mixture – Dried chopped apricots, golden raisins, black raisins, dried cranberries – 1/4 cup each , little pinch of himalayan pink salt
Method: In a large pan roast all nuts and seeds separately for 2-3 minutes on slow heat while continuously stirring it. Remove it from the pan once crisp and keep them aside. Allow to cool down. Now divide all nuts and seeds into half for savory mixture and half for sweet mixture.
For Savory Mixture : Mix of red chilli powder, dried coriander leaves powder, roasted cumin powder, red chilli flakes powder (you can add chaat masala, black salt as well) – 1 tbsp each, little salt to taste with roasted nuts and seeds. Mix them well and keep mixture in an airtight container.
Savory Ingredients
For Sweet Mixture : Mix dried chopped apricots, golden raisins, black raisins, dried cranberries – 1/4 cup each , little pinch of himalayan pink salt with roasted nuts and seeds. Mix them well and keep mixture in an airtight container.
Father’s Day is an opportunity to tell dad how much you appreciate him. New dads, old dads, granddads, dads-in-law. There must be a million fatherly types out there, and without a doubt, there are at least that many reasons to honor them on Father’s Day. Treat your dad on Father’s Day with this delicious No sugar super healthy treat – Dates Prunes Banana Cake.
My Late Father-in-Law, My Nanuji And My Papa
I think a heartfelt or handmade personalized gift is always special. I love handmade gifts and cards. Reyansh loves lego, so he made Lego Photo Frame and cute Heart with legos, and simple cards always bring a smile on anyone’s face.
Gifts & Happy Father and Son
Recently, on Manu’s birthday, I shared No Sugar Dates Prunes Cake with homemade whole wheat spelled flakes flour and homemade oat flours. Earlier, I also shared chocolate brownies recipe using two types of oats – Steel cuts and Instant cooking oats. Both cakes turned out super tasty and moist.
Father’s Day Cake
For sweetness, I used Dates and Prunes with few Raisins in it which are the healthier sugar substitute. A Raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and maybe eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. I used whole wheat spelled flakes homemade flour.
No Sugar Cake
Whole wheat spelled flakes consists of fully organic spelled granules. The whole grains are cold crushed into flakes and remain free of additives. Thanks to the many proteins, spelled flakes are particularly nutritious and they contain more protein than wheat. Also, they are easy to digest. Making flour with these flakes is so easy just roast them for a few minutes and grind into a fine powder.
Whole wheat spelled flakes homemade flour
Father’s Day Cake | No Sugar Cake | Dates Prunes Banana Cake | Baking With Homemade Whole wheat Spelled Flake Flour
Soft and moist eggless cake is a perfect partner with a hot cup of tea. You will get wonderful flavor when you are using dates and prunes in baking. The darker, softer, and blacker the better. Super-ripe bananas are easier to mash so you can get a nice uniform texture. The banana puree blends in with the other ingredients and bakes a perfect cake.
Dates Prunes Banana Cake
Ingredients: Whole wheat spelled flake flour – 3/4 cup Quick cooking oats flour– 1/4 cup Milk – 3/4 cup Oil – 1/8 cup Baking powder – 1/2 tsp Baking soda – 1/4 tsp Ripe banana – 1 Dates (deseed)- 10 Prunes – 5 Raisins – 1/8 cup A pinch of salt
For Topping : Roasted almonds, flax seeds, pecans, pistachios, raisins, dried red cranberries, roasted sunflower seeds, dried apricots, sesame seeds (Any other nuts and seeds of your choice)
Baking With Homemade Whole wheat Spelled Flake Flour
Method :
Soak dates, prunes with raisins in 3/4 cup of warm milk for 1 hour.
Now in a grinder add soaked dates, prunes, raisin, banana with milk (Use the same milk in which dates are soaked), oil. Grind the mixture until smooth.
Now mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients well.
Put prepared batter into a greased square pan. Sprinkle topping over batter and with help of spatula press nuts gently.
Tab the pan on a countertop to release any large air bubbles.
Put the pan into the preheated pressure cooker and bake it for 1 hour.
Dense & Moist cake
Tips :
Don’t demould quickly allow it to cool down completely.
Cover cake with kitchen towel for half an hour before slicing.
Baking time may vary.
If prepared batter looks dry, add 2- 4 tbsp of milk.
If baking in Oven: Bake in the preheated oven at 180 deg Celsius or around 360 Fahrenheit for about 1 hour. The baking time may vary. So keep checking after 40 to 45 minutes.
Healthy cake
Pressure Cooker Method: Grease the baking tin with oil and dust it by sprinkling whole wheat flour over greased surface evenly. Pour the mixture into the greased baking tin.
Important Notes:
Use the baking tin of 6 inches in diameter, so that it can easily get into the pressure cooker.
Use a 5-liter pressure cooker. It should be big enough to hold the baking pan.
Baking Tin should be made of Aluminium.
If baking tin comes into direct contact with the base of the pressure cooker, it can burn ( overbake ) the cake. So use pressure cooker container which has big holes in it or any aluminum small stand.
No gasket and whistle are needed. Remove them before baking.
Don’t add water to the pressure cooker.
No Sugar Treat
How to Bake In A Pressure Cooker?
Heat the pressure cooker on high heat for 2 minutes. Use sea salt or sand as a layer inside a cooker. Put a steel stand on a layer of salt or sand.
Now put the cake tin containing the cake batter ( Do not put water inside the pressure cooker).
Close the pressure cooker lid and do not put the whistle on the lid. Remove the gasket (rubber ring) from the lid.
Lower the flame after 2 minutes. Let it bake for 50 -60 minutes on low flame. After 60 minutes check cake with a knife, if the mixture does not stick, it means the cake is done.
If batter still sticks to knife then again bake for another 10 minutes. Do not open the lid immediately.
It is a weight loss roti as being high in dietary fiber will fill you up faster, keep you full longer & prevent hunger pangs. It is a healthy roti as well as it is low in saturated fat, sodium, cholesterol, and calories. Oats reduce cholesterol, regulate blood sugar, prevent constipation, and are good for the heart.
100% Oats Roti
Chapati is a classic Indian bread served with a variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes for a hearty meal. Generally made with refined or whole wheat flour, chapatis are a must in every North Indian household for a satisfying meal. Oats Chapati is a wonderfully unique twist to this great accompaniment, which utilizes the goodness of oats to make this staple food item healthy.
Healthy Oatmeal Flatbread
Earlier I shared how to make homemade oats flour with quick-cooking oats. I used oat flour in baking, dosa, in making sabzi or curry as well. Then why not Chapati or Roti? Yes, you can make super healthy chapati or even paratha with oats flour.
Old Fashioned Oats Flour and Quick Cooking Oats Flour
I used two types of oats – Old Fashioned Oats and Quick Cooking Oats. Old fashioned oats have a coarser, chewier texture and nuttier flavor than rolled or quick oats. They also take longer to prepare, with average cooking times varying 15–30 minutes. Whereas, Quick oats or quick-cooking oats are rolled oats that go through further processing to decrease cooking time. They’re partially cooked by steaming and then rolled even thinner than old-fashioned oats. They cook within a few minutes, have a mild flavor and soft, mushy texture.
Flours
Only the thing is, you have to mix oat flour with hot water to make a smooth & non-sticky dough. Once the dough is prepared, rest this for 5 mins and then rolled out into a thin roti. Since oats are gluten-free, so it is a bit difficult to make a perfectly round shape. So to get a perfect shape roti, just press a lid or any round sharp edge container over the rolled rotis & remove the extra dough. Then roast on both sides and enjoy delicious roti.
Oat flour is a nutritious, unrefined flour made from just one whole ingredient – Rolled Oats. It’s a great baking flour for gluten-free and vegan recipes. It has a fairly neutral taste and absorbs flavors well.
Wholesome Chapati
Ingredients : Quick-cooking oats flour – 1/2 cup
Old fashioned oats flour – 1/2 cup
Water – 1 cup
Oil – 1/2 tsp
A pinch of salt
Method :
Heat 1 cup of water in a pan with oil and salt. Once the water starts boiling switch off the flame. Combine the oat flour and water. Mix thoroughly with a spoon. Transfer dough in a bowl. Let it rest for 15 minutes (covered).
After 15 minutes knead the dough for 2- 3 minutes. Heat the nonstick pan/skillet on medium-high flame.
Make a small lemon size ball and dust some oats flour over a rolling board.
Place the oats dough and roll out to a thin roti as possible.
Now place a lid over the rolled roti to make a perfect shape and remove the extra dough ( I used pressure cooker stand).
This is because oats are gluten-free and it is difficult to get a perfect shape.
Place the roti on a hot pan, cook both sides till done. Serve super healthy roti with your favorite sabzi.
Cakes are a delight of all times. Nothing beats the flavor that cakes add to the celebration. They have and would always be one of the most sought after desserts that make a perfect statement of sweetness.
Healthy Birthday Cake
For all the sweet tooth, it’s undeniably a pleasurable treat. But what about you, health. Anything sweet is a sin. You refrain from changing for another bite lest you should gain weight, your strict regime has almost everything delicious struck out of your dictionary.
No Sugar Cake
This simple homemade cake is moist, light, tasty, and super healthy. It’s made from simple whole food ingredients like dry fruit, milk, homemade whole wheat spelled flakes flour and homemade oat flours. Earlier, I shared chocolate brownies recipe with oats in which I used two types of oats – steel cuts and instant cooking oats. It turned out super tasty and moist.
Fitness Freak Hubby Birthday Cake
My husband doesn’t like sugar at all but today is his birthday. So “Cake toh banta hai,” and guess it’s NO SUGAR cake. Instead of sugar, I used Dates and Prunes with few Raisins in it which are the healthier sugar substitute. A Raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing.
Dates & Prunes
Dates are a good source of various vitamins and minerals. It’s also a good source of energy, sugar, and fiber. Essential minerals such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and zinc can be found in dates. Dates give perfect sweetness in this cake.
Healthy Slice
Prunes are dried plums that are typically known to help regulate digestion. Prunes are a powerhouse of nutrients and adding them to your daily diet can provide you with a plethora of health benefits. Prunes are a great source of vitamin A, a vitamin that is essential for healthy vision.
No Oven Cake
While baking I always tried to add more nuts and seeds. There a wide variety of seeds that you can eat and they add valuable minerals and protein to your diet. They blend easily into your smoothies, without changing the flavor or texture too much. While there are many seeds you could add to your smoothie, but these four are my favorite –flax seeds, sesame seeds, roasted pumpkin seeds, roasted melon seeds. I always buy them in a bulk and then slightly roast flax and sesame seeds. Then mix them together in a jar (1/2 cup each seed). Just add 1 tbsp of mixed seeds in your smoothie or sprinkle on salad. They give a nice even flavor and added texture.
Nuts & Seeds
The maida or all-purpose flour has been substituted with homemade oats and whole wheat spelled flakes flour along with dates, and other dry fruits in this cake recipe is a delicious option for a wholesome birthday cake for fitness lover like my husband.
Super Moist Cake Slice
Type of flours I used in this cake: In this, I used three types of flour – Whole wheat spelled flake flour, Old fashioned oats flour, and Quick-cooking oats flour. I roasted Whole wheat spelled flakes, Old fashioned oats, Quick-cooking oats separately, and grain them into fine flour.
Three Flours
Whole wheat spelled flakes: These spelled flakes consist of fully organic spelled granules. The whole grains are cold crushed into flakes and remain free of additives. Thanks to the many proteins, spelled flakes are particularly nutritious. In fact, they contain more protein than wheat. In addition, they are easy to digest. You can eat these steamed flakes.
Whole wheat spelled flakes
Old fashioned oats : These like flat, irregularly round, slightly textured discs. When processed, the whole grains of oats are first steamed to make them soft and pliable, then pressed to flatten them. Rolled oats cook faster than steel-cut oats, absorb more liquid, and hold their shape relatively well during cooking. In addition, to be heated for a warm breakfast bowl, rolled oats are commonly used in granola bars, cookies, muffins, and other baked goods.
Old fashioned oats
Quick-cooking oats : Quick oats or quick-cooking oats are rolled oats that go through further processing to decrease cooking time. They’re partially cooked by steaming and then rolled even thinner than old-fashioned oats. They cook within a few minutes, have a mild flavor and soft, mushy texture.
Quick-cooking oats
This protein-rich nut and seed cake are packed with nutrients. It is a no all-purpose flour, no sugar, no butter, and egg-free cake with the goodness of oats. This nut and seed cake is a super healthy and delicious cake that can be had as a breakfast or a perfect tea partner.
This no-sugar cake is high in protein, fiber, and contains healthy fats. It is loaded with crunchy nuts, seeds mix with healthy flours, sweetened with dates and prunes. The best part about this recipe is that you can mix and match most of the ingredients. You can adapt this recipe according to whatever nuts, seeds, and grains available in your pantry.
Healthy No Sugar Cake
Ingredients: Whole wheat spelled flake flour – 1 cup Quick cooking oats flour– 1/4 cup Old fashioned oats flour – 1/4 cup Milk – 1 & 1/4 cups Oil – 1/4 cup Baking powder – 1 tsp Baking soda – 1/2 tsp Dates (deseed)- 16 Prunes – 10 Raisins – 1/4 cup A pinch of salt
Mix dry fruits & seeds – Roasted almonds, pecans, pistachios, raisins, dried red cranberries, roasted sunflower seeds, dried apricots, sesame seeds (Any other nuts and seeds of your choice)
For topping : Coconut flakes and sesame seeds – 3 tbsp each
Method :
Soak dates, prunes with raisins in 1 & 1/4 cups of warm milk for 1 hour.
Toss 2 tsp of oat flour with mix dry fruits and nuts. Keep it aside.
Dry Ingredients: Mix all three flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt with tossed dry fruits and nuts. Keep it aside.
Now in a grinder add soaked dates and prunes with milk (Use the same milk in which dates are soaked), oil. Grind the mixture until smooth.
Now mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients well.
Put prepared batter into a greased square pan. Sprinkle topping over batter and with help of spatula press nuts gently.
Tab the pan on a countertop to release any large air bubbles.
Put the pan into the preheated pressure cooker and bake it for 1 hour.
No Egg, No Butter Birthday Cake
Tips :
Don’t demould quickly allow it to cool down completely.
Cover cake with kitchen towel for half an hour before slicing.
Baking time may vary.
If prepared batter looks dry, add 2- 4 tbsp of milk.
If baking in Oven: Bake in the preheated oven at 180 deg Celsius or around 360 Fahrenheit for about 1 hour. The baking time may vary. So keep checking after 40 to 45 minutes.
Super moist slice
Pressure Cooker Method: Grease the baking tin with oil and dust it by sprinkling whole wheat flour over greased surface evenly. Pour the mixture into the greased baking tin.
Important Notes:
Use the baking tin of 6 inches in diameter, so that it can easily get into the pressure cooker.
Use a 5-liter pressure cooker. It should be big enough to hold the baking pan.
Baking Tin should be made of Aluminium.
If baking tin comes into direct contact with the base of the pressure cooker, it can burn ( overbake ) the cake. So use pressure cooker container which has big holes in it or any aluminum small stand.
No gasket and whistle are needed. Remove them before baking.
Don’t add water to the pressure cooker.
Pressure Cooker Cake
How to Bake In A Pressure Cooker?
Heat the pressure cooker on high heat for 2 minutes. Use sea salt or sand as a layer inside a cooker. Put a steel stand on a layer of salt or sand.
Now put the cake tin containing the cake batter ( Do not put water inside the pressure cooker).
Close the pressure cooker lid and do not put the whistle on the lid. Remove the gasket (rubber ring) from the lid.
Lower the flame after 2 minutes. Let it bake for 50 -60 minutes on low flame. After 60 minutes check cake with a knife, if the mixture does not stick, it means the cake is done.
If batter still sticks to knife then again bake for another 10 minutes. Do not open the lid immediately.
In Indian dishes, frying whole cumin seeds (referred to in Indian cuisine as the tadka, the tempering of spices before preparing a dish) allows the flavor of cumin to infuse the cooking oil.
Cumin Seeds | Roasted Cumin Powder
Cumin seeds are traditionally used in tempering and as a flavor-enhancing spice base for curries. Roasted cumin powder or bhuna jeera powder is added to dishes while cooking and also can be sprinkled over cooked dishes, raita, or over chaat before serving.
Cumin Seeds
Nothing can beat homemade masalas, especially the flavors they impart when they are freshly blended. The homemade masalas have much more fragrant than the store-bought packets. I still remember that most of the time my Nanji and my Mom used to make masalas like garam masala, coriander powder, chai ka masala, even turmeric powder, and many more at home. Sprinkling a pinch of homemade masalas is enough for curries to give its characteristic flavor.
Bhuna Jeera Powder
How to make Roasted Cumin Powder at home ? | Bhuna Jeera Powder
Adding homemade cumin powder to your dishes would surely boost the flavors. It gives a nice intense aromatic flavor and taste to the food. To make cumin seeds to roasted ground cumin powder is a very easy one. It requires is a few simple steps and homemade cumin powder is ready for use. You can dry-roast cumin seeds by two methods – Pan roast or Microwave.
Homemade Cumin Powder is ready for use
How to store Roasted Cumin Powder? You can make powder in one big batch to use in a month and store it. Best to store ground cumin in an airtight container in a cool dry place or in a refrigerator or in a freezer.
Jeera Or Cumin Seeds
For grounded cumin powder to stay afresh, it has to be stored in a tightly sealed container. It will stay for about six months, while the seeds remain fresh for almost a year when keeping in a refrigerator. I always keep whole spices and grounded spices in the freezer section and sometimes in the refrigerator (non-freezer section). They always stay fresh.
Grounded Cumin Powder
How to make Roasted Cumin Powder ?Two Method – Pan and Microwave Method
Dry Roast – Pan Method : Heat the pan nicely and add cumin seeds, no need to roast for a long time. Toast 1 cup of cumin seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat for 2 or 4 minutes. Stir frequently and avoid burning as it can give a very off taste.
Then allow roasted cumin seeds to cool down completely then transfer to a dry grinder.
Make a fine powder. Store in an airtight container in a dry and cool place.
Dry Roast – Microwave Method
Yes, really – It’s a trick. Just in 5 minutes and it’s done. Add cumin seeds (1 cup) in a baking tray or microsafe plate.
Keep it in the middle rack of oven for 5 minutes.
Fresh Homemade Jeera Powder
Microwave them on high powder for 5 minutes. Check them every 60 seconds to make sure that they don’t get burned. Then allow roasted cumin seeds to cool down completely then transfer to a dry grinder. Make a fine powder. Store in an airtight container in a dry and cool place.
Mad About Cooking 