Mango Strawberry Carrot Smoothie

I have been making smoothies everyday for the last couple of years. Anushka and I, have a smoothie daily for our  mid morning snack and it's the only thing she will have without a fuss.

Smoothies are the perfect way to include a good serving of fruits and vegetables in your daily diet, especially for kids. They are healthy, refreshing and so filling. Use ripe, sweet fruits and fresh vegetables and mix and match them to get various flavors, colors and textures. Makes a wonderful healthy dessert too.

I always try to add vegetables to my smoothies, about a third of the amount of fruits. I have tried a lot of combinations and this is one of my favorites. Use tender sweet carrots and sweet mangoes and strawberries and you'll have a great tasting drink.

Mango Strawberry Carrot Smoothie

Ingredients:
pulp of two mangoes
8 strawberries, hulled and chopped
1 big carrot, washed and peeled and chopped
1/2 cup plain yogurt
sugar/honey/ any other sweetener as needed (I usually avoid this)
cold water as needed

Method:
Take all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add sugar if needed and add enough water to get the required consistency and blend again. Serve immediately.

Gajar/ Carrot Burfi

I'm sure everyone is busy preparing for Diwali. I soo miss India during this time. Cleaning our homes, making all kinds of sweets and distributing them to friends, getting all dressed up and the sound of fireworks throughout the day. This weekend was all about getting our home ready, putting up the lights and making some sweets.

Our Diwali celebrations began yesterday at our local library. The family story time session was focused on Diwali which included a short video showing the celebrations in India and a story that was narrated in Hindi. We were all given a sticker in the shape of a footprint, 'Goddess Lakshmi's footprint', and there were all kinds of stuff to decorate it. It was fun and another chance to dress up my doll :)

Manoj has been asking me to make gajar ka halwa for a while now. When I showed him how simple the recipe actually was he offered to make it himself. That's not an offer I receive very often, so of course I accepted. We just decided to make it into a Burfi so we could control the portions we ate, much better than having bowlfuls of halwa.

This recipe is almost the same as halwa, just added more milk and cooked it for a while longer to help it set.

Gajar/ Carrot Burfi
Ingredients:
2 tbs ghee
3 cups of grated carrot
3 cups whole milk
1/3 cup to 1/2 cup sugar, depending on taste
1/4 cup almonds, finely chopped
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
any nuts, raisins for garnish

Method:

Heat 1 tbs ghee in a heavy bottom or nonstick pan and saute the carrots till it changes color and looses some moisture. Add the milk and cook over medium heat, till the milk is completely absorbed.

Add the sugar and cook till the mixture is thick and comes together in the middle of the pan. Add the remaining ghee, cardamom powder and chopped almonds and mix well.

Remove from heat and spread onto a greased dish. Cut into pieces when cold and store in the refrigerator.

Sending this to
Only Sweets & Desserts guest hosted by Gayathri, event by Pari 
Denny and Krithi's Serve It - Festival Potluck
Anu's Diwali Event
Khushi's My Diwali My Way