Watermelon Punch

Watermelon is a nutritious and delicious fruit packed with lots of vitamins and minerals. Iam from chennai ,where summer is really sultry and hot.U can see loads of watermelons on roadsides of Chennai to beat the summer heat. Its really fun to eat the ripe,red and juicy flesh of the melon.

picture courtesy- chennailist.com

Check out the health benefits of watermelon here.

This is a simple recipe which I learnt from my friend's mom during my college days. The ginger and lemon juices comined with melon turns out to be an excellent summer drink.

This is my contribution to the AFAM this month hosted by Bee of Jugalbandhi.

Ingredients

Watermelon chunks- 4 cups (deseeded)

lemon juice-2 tsp

ginger juice- 1 tsp

sugar-1tbsp

Method

Remove the seeds and the rind from the watermelon and cut them into cubes. With all the other ingredients blend until smooth in a blender . No need to strain the juice and no need to add water. Serve chilled or pour into ice trays ,insert a tooth pick and serve like a fruit pop.

Check out this interesting watermelon art .

Carrot Kheer

This is one of my favourite recipes. It is a easy and quick to make recipe.. a rich and healthy one too. The kheer turns out to a wonderful yellow colour, that u can make believe anyone it is badam kheer. I have made this for parties and all my friends love it. I hope u will love this too.



Ingredients

Carrot- 1 large cut into thin rounds
Cashews- 8 to 10
Almond essence- ¼ tsp
Almonds or cashews chopped into tiny bits- 3 tsp
Milk-3 cups
Sugar- ½ cup or according to taste.

Method

Pressure cook the carrots and cashews upto 3 whistles.
When cool grind to a fine paste.


Add sugar to milk and stir it well till it dissolves(u don’t need to heat it up ,can just add to cold milk itself ). Now add the ground paste too. Mix well and add the chopped nuts and essence.
Serve chilled.

Tips

U can add saffron soaked in milk.
U can add cardomom powder instead of almond essence
U can add milk more or less according to the thickness u want.

Blueberry Peach Smoothie

We took our 4 year old daughter Vidhya to the farm last week.
The farm had a blueberry & peach picking tour and a hay ride. A wagon filled with hay, tours the farm to pick the crops and brings us to the Animal barnyard. We had a good time picking blueberries and peaches while Vidhya enjoyed the animals in the barnyard.
We picked a lot of berries and peaches and so I thought of making a smoothie with it…



Ingredients

Ripe, juicy peaches-2
Blueberries- a handful
Banana- ½ (optional)
Honey- 1tsp
Rose syrup-1 tsp( which we use to make rose milk)
Sugar- 2 tsp or acc to taste
Milk-1 cup
Ice cubes- 5 cubes

Method

Wash , peel and cut the peaches. Combine all the ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. Serve chilled.

Note: It is optional to use banana , but banana gives a nice thick, creamy texture to the smoothie.