Ahaa.. finally its here – the Summer Holidays, time we all look forward to year after year! Trip to home town, loads of  ‘me time’ to relax and also to complete all the pending tasks I have been procrastinating the whole year wearing the shield of ‘no time’

My euphoria is but short lived, the very next day of the holiday and the mom is busier than ever. Library, cricket coaching, dance classes, piano lessons…and repeat. Well, as a good mother I also need to keep my children engaged and make their holiday more productive. Till then..’me time’ can wait.

If marriages are made in heaven so are prized friendships! This post of mine reinforced my belief in the said statement, with some cherished friends in my booty Want to know more…well this is how it happened. A good blogger friend Nelly is getting married across the country and I wish I could organize a virtual party for her.

Conceptualizing the Virtual Party; I do organize real time parties quite often for large gatherings but an on-line party…well, have never done anything like this before. I was a bit apprehensive organizing a virtual party with fellow food bloggers within a short period of time. DM’s to a few Tweeples were sent and I was overwhelmed to see all of them responding positively to this idea. We made a small group and started exchanging mails sharing our views about the whole concept.

“No Pancakes, no Parathas, no Upma and no Sandwiches please…we want something different for breakfast tomorrow” my son made a demand last night. “We are ready to wait for a little extra time mom, so no excuses” my daughter informed with a blink. First half of the night was spent turning from one side of bed to other, thinking about that ‘something different’. Why not take one ingredient each from all the breakfast recipes and …Yes I got it, now sleep tight Zzzzz…

Wholewheat from parathas, semolina from Upma, yogurt from pancakes and veggies from sandwiches and here I am with this healthy yet ‘something different‘ on a lazy Sunday morning breakfast table…Tada! Big smile on their faces and I know that the effort of baking this delightful savory cake is really worth taking

“What does a Cheesecake remind you?” To me it conjures the feeling of digging into soft snowy mountain, a refreshing dessert you really don’t want anyone to tell you about how much cream cheese, ricotta and quark has gone into making it. Just dig..eat..and repeat.
I am not much of a cream fan and try to replace the same in all my cooking & baking for good and also avoid gelatin in my recipes if the food is for the consumption of my family. Somehow Gelatin makes me feel unnatural, but …

Proud mom of two lovely kids and a lover of piping hot dark espresso roast capped with perfect crema, this gorgeous food blogger Marla Meridith from Southern California is our AFBHLS guest today. From healthy, gluten free, vegan, to almost sugar free recipes on her blog she can also win you over with some of her exotic creations for pure indulgence in great food. Each recipe emanates freshness of the ingredients she uses to create that perfect meal which is further enhanced by her skillful photography and wonderful food styling.

The last few months in a year are my favorite, for the festivity it brings along with and for giving a reason to indulge in good food. The only grudge it leaves is the piles of sweet boxes from friends, work place & relatives, most of which are over sweet, artificially colored, and are loaded with Transfat.

Last week hubby got a huge box of colorful exotic Indian sweets from his work place. After disposing off most of the goodies to my maid I was left with half a kilo of this fresh creamy and scrumptious milk sweet (sweet Khoya in Hindi or Paal gova in Tamil) which my children liked and could not stop licking spoonfuls of it. But soon they got bored and the sweet was left struggling for space in my refrigerator. This is when I thought of baking a bread out of it, as baking requires very less fat and is a more healthier option, and am glad that I did it. I liked the very distinct taste of caramelized and slightly burnt milk in this recipe , and felt a sense of achievement when I turned a sinful Indian sweet into a healthy treat

‘Count your blessings’ …Oh yes, have been doing the same quite often since I started my blog. One such blessing is the countless foodie friends I get to connect through Lite Bite and other social medias on line. We have a good time sharing our passion for food, exchange recipes, discuss personal developments, point out mistakes, rectify them and grow together. The generous support that most of the bloggers shower for each other is commendable.

Hello friends, its time to bring in another awesome food blogger for AFBHLS series on Lite Bite. And this time it is multi talented & friendly Simone from Jungle Frog Cooking , a photographer by profession and a food blogger by choice. If her simple yet engaging posts will force you to read the whole recipe word by word then her tempting food pictures will literally make you eat your screen “But why this unusual name for a food blog” the curious me asked. “There is no hidden secrets behind it, just that I like frogs and started my company Jungle Frog Images much before my food blog and since then Jungle Frog Cooking it is” she replied as a matter of fact.

On any normal day my freezer stock more overripe and blackened bananas than ice cubes, more so because I like baking with bananas and love banana smoothies as a filling breakfast treat and always end up buying extra for the same. This Eggless Banana & Oatmeal Wholewheat Bread was yet another extremely moist and delightful bake for our Sunday breakfast. Since I did not get time to de frost the banana in the morning, I grated the banana and was happy to see a fluffy and evenly baked bread. Grated frozen banana did the magic here!

Mango fever is catching up slowly, what with the markets adorned with these plump and juicy yellow fruits filling up spaces in most of the fruit shops. Though the exotic ones are yet to appear on the shelves, the local mango varieties which are not as flavorful and sweet as the former, are happily bridging up the gap. Bought my first crop of sweet and juicy mangoes of this season yesterday. After devouring the king of fruits to the heart’ ful, wanted to bake something with the rest. Moist and extremely flavorful, this Mango and banana loaf is very soft & supple with a yellow tint and subtle taste of mangoes in it.