Banana nut bread

Ingredients:
1/2 cup honey (or little less than 1/2 cup sugar)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (can substitute with 1/2 cup butter)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2.5 bananas)

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, etc)

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 325 degree F
Beat the honey and oil to mix in a big bowl. To this add eggs and beat together.
Add the vanilla essence, and mashed bananas and mix well.
Stir in flour and salt to the wet ingredients.
In a small cup heat the water, add baking soda to this, stir immediately and add to the batter.
Stir in chopped nuts to the batter.

Pour into a greased 9x5 pan.
Bake for about 55-60 minutes. Cool completely before slicing.

Mujadara recipe

Courtesy: Sheeth

Ingredients:

1 cup washed rice

1 cup lentils

3 spoons Olive oil

5 cloves garlic, sliced

1 spoon pav bhaji masala (or cumin powder + black pepper powder)

2 big onions (thinly sliced)

1.5 spoons sugar

salt

Procedure:

Heat 1.5 spoons olive oil in a non-stick pan (low flame). Add 1/2 of the sliced onions and 1 spoon sugar and saute for a minute. Then, let it be there on a low flame with sauteing every once in 5 minutes, until it caramelizes.

Heat lentils in water until water. Turn off the stove when water starts boiling and let the lentils be in it for a while (5 min or so)

Heat 1.5 spoons olive oil in a rice cooker (on the stove in medium flame). Fry garlic and onions in it until they turn light brown.

Add the half-cooked lentils, salt, sugar (1/2 spoon), pav bhaji masala, 2.5 cups water and remove from flame.

Cook this mixture in a rice cooker.

Add the caramelized onions to the rice mixture as soon as it gets cooked.

As tempting as it would be to get lazy and not make the caramalized onions, please do. It offsets the taste of the rice beautifully, and is a no-can-do-without!