“Try the dual flavor vanilla & chocolate cereal or this new variety of cereal in the shape of Planet & stars…and this one….” Phew..shopping for children’ food could be  so distracting than compelling due to endless choices in the same. These myriad choices do make life easy for busy moms with almost no cooking, quick & fuss free breakfast options in the market. But in the bargain I feel we loose on the natural and healthier foods and food products which were available a few years back.

Cereal was certainly not our bowl of breakfast in the growing years during late 60s and early 70’s. And then when plain cornflakes was first introduced in India it became a fashion statement and was welcomed with open hearts in many homes.

A slice of rich & dark Brownie is a delight for any chocolate lover, be it a gooey, chewy, fudgy or cakey brownie you just cannot stop with one. I like sticky and gooey brownies with loads of nuts in it, more better if it has some fruit or veggie hidden in it. Brownie is probably the easiest to make as against baking a cake, bread or any other goody. No waiting time needed for that intimidating yeast to work and flexing muscles for kneading the elastic dough, just mix it and bake it and you are in for a sinful treat. The treat is to celebrate Lite Bite being featured on Yummly today.

A lot has been going around with school working in full swing for children and the AFBHLS series on Lite Bite. My drafts which are already brimming with recipes and pictures is what I count on when there is less time to bake. Cookies are the most easiest of goodies which could be baked with very few ingredients in a shortest possible time.

I baked these Peanut butter wholewheat cookies at my mom’s place on her demand, to impress her neighbors who were eager to meet her food blogger daughter! She watched me baking these cookies and called her friends for evening tea. I could not get chocolate chips there and replaced the same with a handy Fruit & Nut Vochelle chocolate bar. And needless to say these peanut butter cookies made me a star of her colony

I like to add plenty of fresh fruits in my baking which could be very intimidating at times, as the extra juices from the fruits could easily ruin the texture of the baked goodies. And if it is a cookie in baking quest it becomes all the more difficult to get a perfect crisp and crumbly finish with fresh fruits in it. Muffin Top cookies is the perfect answer to it! A cross between a muffin and a cookie these baked goodies are soft & chewy due to high liquid content of fruit mix in them.

The unexpected guests who were allergic to cream, condensed milk & eggs, made me bake these mini pears pie, and I am delighted I did the same! Else dessert is normally a frosted cake or fresh fruits with cream. And this time I thought of making a pie with pears instead of the ubiquitous Apples and bake them in individual mini tarts. Quite easy to assemble, these Mini Pears Pie also give more crust to bite upon than the single crust pies.

The uneven look of the pie crust is due to the hard dough which almost crumbled when I lined the moulds. But then the result is a very delightful pie with a crisp base and a soft filling of red pear. Cinnamon and palm sugar combo give the extra flavors and healthy touch to this delicious pie .

Baking is a great way to enjoy certain food ingredients which otherwise never make to our dinning table too often. Most of the days the meal is either veggies with lentils & chapattis or rice recipes with accompaniments. Some of these wonder foods hardly get included into my menu, unless I shun my laziness and make or bake something out of them Ragi or finger millet is one such food ingredients, I love to bring it to my table often. And this time this humble grain Ragi got transformed into these crisp and scrumptious cookies with an extra dose of chocolate chips. These cookies added as a quick dessert last night with a generous spoon of Nutella spread over them.

As soon as I saw the Daring Baker’ challenge I knew that I may not be able to take it this time, reason being the meringue which is the main ingredient for baking this lovely cake. Since I do not use eggs in my baking and meringue calls for the same I left the challenge feeling sad not being able to complete it. But after seeing the lovely posts on the DB with these baked goodies I could not resist myself and baked the same cake using chocolate and cream mix.

Cinnamon rolls are a very common breakfast feast in many European counties. A soft and flavorful yeast bun/roll I would love to munch upon any time of the day. Though the lazy & the busy will find it a bit tough nut to crack, which includes me too As the resting hours are really intimidating and test your patience levels to the full! But the end results are sure to make you ecstatic.

To make these cinnamon rolls loaded with nutrients I added Palm sugar instead of the regular white sugar. Honey, walnuts, cinnamon and wholewheat are the other contestants fighting for their place in the health chart of these cinnamon rolls. Palm sugar gave a very caramelized and lovely flavors to the rolls.

Stollen is a bread like fruit cake baked with yeast, flour and dried fruits and nuts in it. This is a wonderful Tea time snack and a great breakfast treat which is quite easy to make. It stays good for many days and is extremely flavorful with loads of citrus zests, candid peels and spices in it.

It just struck to me that I have not posted any bread recipes using the yeast till date. The first time I baked a bread was way back in 1984 during my 10th board exams. I wanted to divert myself to something more exciting and appealing than the boring and lifeless formulas and equations of chemistry And bread making was one such area.

I did bake a bread and my mom took it to her office and asked (or forced, should I say) everyone to taste and pass on the comments to me. I came to know much later that while I passed in good colors in my board exams, my bread sank

Still whenever I bake a bread I have butterflies in my stomach. More often I opt for baking my breads with leavening agents (baking soda) which is much easier and quicker, rather than baking with yeast.