Homemade Roti bread

I made another batch of this over the weekend. Roti bread is a traditional bread originating in India or Pakistan normally eaten with curries or cooked vegetables.

The recipe couldn’t be easier!

You will need:

250 grams of whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour works too)
1TB. oil or ghee (ghee is a clarified butter used in Indian cooking)
1 tsp. salt (optional)
water to knead the dough
More flour for rolling out the dough so it doesn’t stick

In my kitchen aid mixer, I added the flour (I actually used all purpose flour because I didn’t have any whole wheat flour). 250 grams is about 2 1/4 cups of flour.

Add the salt and oil to the flour. I used the dough hook on my mixer and just started adding water until all the flour was absorbed and it looked like pizza dough.Let it rest in a covered bowl about 30 minutes.

Take a small amount of dough and roll it into a smooth ball between your palms. Place the dough on a flat surface dusted with flour and roll out into a thin circle. I used a griddle lightly coated with Pam cooking spray. I did brush some olive oil on either side of the bread.

It only takes a few minutes to cook. Cook for about 30 seconds on each side, flipping so it doesn’t get overcooked. As in the picture, once the bread gets browned a little on each side its done.

You can eat these plain, add cheese, use it as bread for a sandwich, serve it with stir fry, or with taco meat, or whatever you want!

If you make 10 roti bread out of this dough, each one would be 115 calories, 1.7 fat, .8 fiber and 21 grams of carbs.

Jenn's homemade crackers!

With all the rain we had this weekend, I was able to spend time in the kitchen!! Yeah!!

I made these only once before last year, but was thinking about them again, so it’s worth posting again.

Here is the recipe!!!

The other day (last year!)while reading blogs, I came across www.ceramiccanvas.com blog. He had made home made crackers that he had read about from a book called Turquoise by Greg and Lucy Malouf.

I said to myself, I’ve made home made bread, home made english muffins, I think I will try these crackers! And it was so easy to make!

Here’s what you will need:

1 cup flour
1 tsp. kosher salt (I used sea salt)
1 tsp. sugar
2.5 TB unsalted butter
1/2 cup milk, plus 1 TB. for later
1 large egg

Mix of dill, sesame and poppy seed (I didn’t have any dill, so I omitted that)

I’ve actually had sesame and poppy seed for the longest time, I store them in my freezer, so I can use them whenever I want and it keeps them fresh.

I combined the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. I added the butter and using my hands, just kind of broke up the butter into the flour. Add the 1 cup of milk. His suggestion was to knead by hand for 5 minutes. I used the dough hook on my kitchen aid and mixed it for 5 minutes.

Cover it with wax paper and leave it for an hour.

After the hour, take the dough ball out and divide it into 4 equal parts. Take one piece and put it on a flat surface dusted with flour. The other 3 pieces, place back in the bowl and cover until ready.

Roll out the dough as flat as you can and transfer to a cookie sheet covered with foil.

Using a pizza cutter, I just cut the dough into strips, then again to make squares.

In a small dish, beat 1 egg and the remaining 1 TB. of milk. Using a pastry brush, lightly coat the dough with the egg mixture. Sprinkle with the poppy and sesame seeds and bake at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes.

I was so excited about how good they turned out. Very light and crispy! Once they are fully cooled, you can store them in an airtight container. Serve with your favorite dip or tompenade!

Come back tomorrow, when I will have a video from Rouxbe cooking school to share!

So, on to plan B. I’ll just make my sauce, and layer that with some mozzarella cheese and bake it, so that’s what I did.

I started out with Italian chicken sausage that I bought from Super Target. Each link is only 90 calories, and I used 3 for my sauce. They don’t come in the casing, so I just chopped them up.

Here it is chopped up in my skillet:

Next, I added 2 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper and that’s about it!

So in a big casserole dish, I just added a layer of the penne pasta, some mozzarella cheese, some sauce and then another layer, followed by cheese, the rest of the sauce and then a little more cheese on top!

Here’s how it looked before going into the oven:

And…..after!

Meanwhile, I made dinner rolls from a recipe Heidi from 101 Cookbooks posted. The only difference is I made it with wheat bran instead of oat bran, and ground flax meal instead of regular flax seed. One tip is after it is baked, slice it in half, and toast it like an English muffin and add some butter. These were very dense and delicious!!

Here’s the recipe on Heidi’s page for the rolls.

Don’t forget Season Finale of The Biggest Loser tonight!!!

I’m going to call it… I think KOLI is going to win the whole thing, what do you think??

Strawberry Sour Cream Bread

I have to thank Christina for making this recipe that she got from Natalie who won the BSI (Blogger Secret Ingredient) that Christina hosted where the ingredient was sour cream.

Now, I hate sour cream by itself, but I don’t mind it in things. I’ll add it to my awesome baked potato soup, or I’ll eat it in dip, so when I saw that sour cream was one of the ingredients to this bread, I didn’t hesitate. Christina and Natalie’s picture of their bread looked fantastic and I knew I had to try it. The batter literally took 5 minutes to put together and then all you have to do is wait for it to bake!

Ingredients:
Yield: 1 9×5 loaf pan

1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter
3/4 cup Sugar* ( I used a no calorie sweetener instead and it turned out fine!)
3 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 cups AP Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Sour Cream
2 cups Strawberries, quartered

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Directions from Natalie’s bread which was adapted from the Joy of Cooking: