Sharing Plate – Your Cooking Coach |

My daughter was complaining to me the other day about missing chicken nuggets. She claimed not to remember the last time she had them. In my mind- that is a good thing. I explained to her chicken nuggets are for younger kids and especially for those who are a bit picky and don’t like to eat anything else. It didn’t make her feel better and asked me to buy some.

I convinced her to let me make her some instead and she agreed.

I have made chicken cutlets in the past that she has enjoyed. I almost always use panko bread crumbs to add the crunch- plus I always bake them and never fry.

For these- I decided to add an Indian spin to them. I marinated the chicken tenders in garlic, lemon juice, salt and olive oil. All these ingredients gave the chicken super flavor- I was already to a good start.

Next I prepared the breading. I added mustard seeds and curry leaves to the panko breadcrumbs to add great flavor.  I added turmeric, salt and coriander powder to the flour. All in all it was a lot of deliciousness going on with all the spices.

My daughter was watching me as I was putting the cutlets together and was not happy with the way they looked- especially the green curry leaves. As usual, I convinced her to try them and she was thrilled- she loved them. She claimed the chicken reminded her of popcorn! I served the chicken with the tomato rice and it was a delicious meal…
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This is my version of a South Indian rice dish my husband has all the time at restaurants. I have never made it before and thought it would be nice to try it at home. It is essentially cooked rice sauteed with a lot of spices, lentils and curry leaves. I decided to take it to another level and make a one pot meal out of it. How much do we love one pot meals?

In order to make this dish balanced I added frozen peas and shredded paneer which is an Indian style cheese. So now I had vegetables and protein in the rice dish. I guess if you wanted to be even more healthy, you can use brown rice instead of the white.

The rice dish was super flavorful with the mustard seeds, curry leaves, and a blend of spices. The crushed tomatoes and peanuts made this dish fabulous. My daughter is not into nuts- so all I did was take them out for her. She was very skeptical trying the rice- but once she had a bite, she was sold…
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This is a great summer side dish. Perfect with the burgers or any other grilled protein. I come up with these concoctions after I have gone crazy at the farmers market.

In this case, I purchased a lot of gorgeous looking zucchini and yellow squash. After thinking about it for a while, I came up with this quick and delicious dish.

I wanted to use very few ingredients and not lose the fresh squash taste. I sliced an onion and grated some ginger- somehow I wasn’t in the mood for garlic. I wanted  the taste to be clean and simple and so that is all I did. I sauteed everything lightly and finished the dish off with some lemon juice- it tends to wake up all the flavors in a dish.

This concoction will be perfect with pasta as well. Add some al dente penne and you have a complete meal. You could add some fresh herbs to make it even yummier- either way, you can’t go wrong with this simple dish…
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Here we go again- this is yet another version of cauliflower. I should go back and look on this blog and count how many different cauliflower recipes I have. It is my husbands favorite thing to eat so I try to make it as much as I can- the problem is, coming up with different versions of the same vegetable- yes you are right- I am patting myself on the back for coming up with a new recipe.

Well, it is really not new. I remember eating this kind of a dish at wedding parties in India. It was not the most healthy way of cooking it.. they would fry the cauliflower florets and potatoes first and then cook it with lots of onions, ginger, garlic and tomatoes. It tasted really good but I certainly didn’t want to make it the same way. So- I decided to roast the vegetables in a large cookie sheet to attain similar results. I roasted them till they were soft and golden brown. I then started a saucepan with oil, cumin seeds, onion, ginger and garlic. I later added the crushed tomatoes and other spices.

Overall, it is a fairly simple dish with a few extra steps- but it is worth the work. The dish is delicious…
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As I sit here and write about this favorite snack in our house- I am hiding my laptop from my daughter who is sitting right next to me reading her book. You wonder why? Well, she has been asking me to bake some duffins for her for a while now and I just haven’t done it. If she notices the huge picture- I will be in big trouble…

She asked for them again yesterday and I told her we can make them today. So, once I am done with my writing for the day and after I finish cooking dinner- we will be baking some duffins- at least that is what I plan.

These ones are a bit different- I took advantage of all the delicious fruit in the farmers market and stuffed the duffins with chopped nectarines. I placed the delicious fruit in a small bowl and topped it with some vanilla sugar. I let it sit for a while and get juicy.

I then proceeded to use the same recipe for duffins and added the delicious nectarines in the middle. I was a bit hesitant to serve them to my daughter and her friends. Well, actually, my daughter is used to having all kinds of fruit. A lot of her friends are not so keen. To my surprise, everyone loved them…

So, here is another version of duffins- try the nectarine ones- they are delicious…
Click here for the recipe… »