I am so excited to have Selvarani from Happy Women’s Book join us for Day 5! She is bringing us a super adaptable dish that is great for brunch, and well, any time! The best part about this recipe? You can use the ingredients in different ways, for different meals. How great is that!  Read on for her recipe for Money Bags!

Vegetable Pouch/Money Bags is a healthy dish which is loaded with variety of veggies and it is perfect for brunch.When i saw Raina’s post about ‘Brunch Guest Blog Posts’ in Food Bloggers Facebook page,immediately i added my name with a thought of this vegetable pouch.Thank You Raina..!

My Little Prince started schooling, so I have to send brunch recipes for a late morning meal. Its a very big challenge to satisfy kids tastebud because if they see one of the ingredients they dislike, they immediately say “No” to the whole dish without tasting it…Every day i ask him for his favorite dishes,veggies & fruits for salads and prepare it, and have it packed up with a little creativity to attract his taste buds. He is a very naughty prince, and I haven’t seen a kid like him before, but I am excited to watch him learn and grow. Kids always know the tricks to get down mom’s anger with their cute smile. This one makes him smile, and I prepare this recipe often!

You can serve this Veg Pouch for kids breakfast / dinner.

Vegetable Pouch / Money Bag Recipe :

That’s it : Outer dough – Inner stuff – Deep Fry

Cooking Time : 30 mins

Makes : 9 

Ingredients :

For Outer Dough (Pouch)”

*You can use maida for outer layer and

steam/fry it to get Veg Momos.

For Inner Stuff :

*You can also use Sambar powder( ½tsp) instead of soy sauce.

*You can also add chicken pieces, cooked noodles for the stuff.

Procedure :

1.In a bowl,add wheat flour,salt,water and knead it with oil to make soft dough like poori dough.Roll it as thin flat round shape as we do for making chappathi, poori. Chop veggies,spring onions (white.green part) and cut some spring onion’s green strips too.Keep aside.

Cook in High flame to retain crunchiness

2.In a pan,add oil,garlic,green chili,spring onion(white),fry for a min,add onion,veggies,sugar,soy sauce, fry for 3 mins,add salt and mix well.Sprinkle pepper powder,spring onion(green) and switch off the flame.

3.Now in a rolled poori ,add 1 tbsp of stuff and join the edges by taking small fleets back to back for making pouches and tie it with spring onion green strips.(Tieing is optional,You can also just press the gathered edges. It’s for kids sake)

Cook in Medium flame

4.Deep fry the Pouches till browns(light or thick) because stuffing is cooked and we need to outer layer only.

                   Vegetable Pouch/Money Bag is Ready…!

Serve Hot with tomato ketch up,sweet chili sauce,garlic sauce etc.;

Notes :

1.You can use this inner stuff to make fried rice.

2.Use this stuffing as a side dish for chappathi / Roti / Phulka as a spring roll.

3.You can skip soy sauce and use sambar powder to make it as Indian style.

4.You can use this for kids breakfast / dinner too.

5.You can also do this with All purpose flour / Maida and steam or deep fry it to make Veg Momos.

This. Looks. Awesome!

I love how you can make this recipe into so many things!  I am really excited to have had Selvarani on the blog-here’s a little bit about her!

I Am Selvarani Ganesan from southern part of India (Tirunelveli,Tamil Nadu) and residing in the Oman for the past 4 years with my naughty boy(Gautham) and my man Mr.Ganesan. Now the author of ‘Happy Women’s Book’ blog.  The main Pillar behind my HWB blog is my man, my sissy & friends. My Man is a food lover and most of the recipes i came to know from him.

Hi hungry readers!  Can you believe we’re half way through, already!?  Day 4 is as sweet as can be with delicious Hawaiian French Toast with Bananas Foster Topping from Tania at Hash Tag Eat. I am SO excited to try this one. Yum!

Brunch is definitely a favorite.  Here is one of my favorite recipes for French toast.  Hope you enjoy!

Recipe: Hawaiian French Toast with Bananas Foster Topping

INGREDIENTS

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• Loaf of King’s Hawaiian Sweet Round Bread (cut 1 inch slices)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
• 1/4 cup toasted shredded coconut (optional) – set aside
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar – set aside

Topping:

• 3 bananas sliced diagonally
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup of your choice (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon rum extract or 1 tablespoon Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey (optional for

grown-ups)

DIRECTIONS

• Whisk together eggs, milk, whipping cream, vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, nutmeg and melted butter in a medium bowl; then place contents in a shallow dish to be used for dipping.
• Lightly oil or butter pan/skillet in low to medium and lightly oil.
• Take 2 slices of bread (or as many as you can fit in pan/skillet) and lightly dip each side into the batter then place in the heated pan/skillet. Cook until both sides are golden brown. Repeat until done.
• Keep in oven until ready to serve.

Topping

• Melt butter in a skillet on low heat
• Add maple syrup (optional), brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and rum extract or Jack Daniels then mix well
• Add sliced bananas, cook until slightly tender; set aside to cool

Once cool, spoon over and enjoy!

A little bit about Tania:

Hi! I’m Tania.

 Born and raised on the island of Guam, and living in the Pacific Northwest. A self-taught photographer, food fanatic, avid food photographer, and blogger of HashTagEat.com.

 When I’m not busy working, you will find me hanging out with family and my furbaby Koa (chocolate Labrador), thinking about what I should cook for dinner and most likely planning my next food adventure in Seattle.

 You can find me on instagram @ohsnaps documenting my food adventures with my trusty iPhone and then some.  Blog: www.hashtageat.com || Portfolio: www.taniarceo.com

Day 3 is an amazing recipe from Sara over at www.missmenagerie.com. Who doesn’t love a something easy to put together, but has the look of prepping for hours?  Melting cheese and spinach, all put together lovingly? Count me in!

I love entertaining, but I’m one of those people who can’t carry on a conversation (or even feign listening to a one-sided conversation) while preparing anything from a recipe. I also love having house  ​guests, but usually don’t love getting out of bed much before they do. You know what else I love? People thinking I’m fancy. Now, I want you to imagine a Venn diagram of those things. Smack dab in the middle is this beautiful make-ahead spinach and Gruyere strata.

Beyond being delicious–whether you go whole hog with the full amount of cheese, or dial down the indulgence–this baby makes the morning easier. If you’ve visited us in Seattle, chances are good that I served you this. The night before, I spend half an hour in the kitchen, chopping and layering ingredients, and the next morning I pop this in the oven while the house wakes up. You come to the kitchen for coffee and laugh at my unnatural leopard pajama pants, but you back off when you catch the smell wafting from the oven, and because my mom gave me those pants.

It starts just by layering sautéed spinach and onions with bread and cheese.

This part is a lot of fun: Mix up a custard with eggs, milk, and a little mustard. Pour it over the strata, soaking each chunky bread cube.

Wrap your beautiful strata up in a Saran Wrap blanket, tell it goodnight, and tuck it in…(in the fridge).

One note about the size of this recipe: It’s HUGE. I usually make only half the recipe (using five eggs) unless we have a house full of hungry people.

Spinach and Cheese Strata
Adapted from Gourmet | Serves 6 to 8

10 ounces spinach, roughly chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt (this will be halved and added in two separate steps)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper (likewise)
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
8 cups cubed French or Italian bread in 1-inch cubes (1/2 lb), preferably a day old, or dried in the oven
6 ounces coarsely grated Gruyere (2 cups) or Fontina
2 ounces finely grated Parmesan (1 cup)
2 3/4 cups milk
9 large eggs
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

In a large, heavy skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and all of the nutmeg and continue cooking for one minute. Stir in spinach and cook until thoroughly wilted. (You may have to gradually add the spinach as what’s in the pan cooks down to fit it all in.) Remove from the heat and set aside.

Spread one third of the bread cubes in a well-buttered 3-quart ceramic or glass baking dish. Top the bread with one-third of spinach mixture, and one-third of each cheese. Repeat layering twice with remaining bread, spinach and cheese. (You don’t have to be very neat with the layering. It won’t be evenly spread, but the laws of randomness benefit you here: Just sprinkle the ingredients about and every bite should get a proportionate amount of each of the ingredients.)

Whisk the eggs, milk, mustard, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper together in a large bowl (one that has a spout is especially handy here) and pour evenly over the strata. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing down gently, and chill strata for at least 8 hours or up to a day.

After chilling, let it stand at room temperature for 30 minutes or so while the oven preheats to 350°F. Bake the strata, uncovered, in middle of oven until puffed, golden brown, and cooked through, 45 to 55 minutes. If you have an instant-read thermometer (shout-out to my Thermapen!), make sure the inside of the strata is 160°F. Let stand 5 minutes before serving, then sit back in your leopard pants and enjoy your day.​

A little note on Sara:

A transplanted Appalachian girl who loves pretty things, sugar, and most anything with goat cheese. I blog mostly about Southern cakes and vegetarian food.

I love playing tourist in Seattle, even though I have lived here for over a decade. One of my favorite places to play is at Pike Place Market. Each time I go I find something new, meet a new vendor, or spot a new treat I have to pick up!

Recently I had the opportunity to check out Eat Seattle Tours and get a chef’s inside view of the market. While this is a sponsored post, I loved the tour and enjoyed meeting the team so much, I would recommend the tour no matter what. It’s THAT fun.

Eat Seattle Tours is a new comer to the food tour group, offering a walking tour of the market with amazing (large) samples, and great knowledge of the farm to table movement. The tour, led by Chef Cris, is an intimate glimpse into the backbone of the market-the vendors.  It’s like walking around the market with a friend, who happens to know darn near everyone in the market. It’s your backstage pass, to delicious and sustainable food. The groups are kept purposely small, so you can really enjoy the experience and ask questions. It’s such a great time.

The tour started out at Café Vita for a warm cup of sustainably grown coffee and a lesson about what makes Café Vita so great; that they follow their coffee from farm to cup. They know where the beans are grown, and the care that goes into them. They pay above fair trade pricing, which means a livable wage for the farmers. All of this means coffee that you can feel good about drinking!  If that wasn’t enough, the cafe is lovely, warm, encouraging you to sit and stay. They even promote local artists on their walls.

Next, we ventured down to Beechers Cheese to learn a little bit about the history of the building, what Beecher’s does to be a little more green, and how they leverage the gravity of the hill to pump milk into the building. These guys keep as much of the energy in the making of the cheese as possible. We had three amazing samples, starting with a large block of Flagship. We then had their wonderful cheese curds, followed by their amazingly creamy mac and cheese. The cheese is made from milk straight from Duvall here in Washington, and made right in front of you via a large window. It doesn’t get much better than this!

We crossed the street to learn a little more about the history of the market while snacking on one of Chef Cris’ creations; a leek, morel and cauliflower tart. It was simple, yet full of the amazing flavors that the Pacific Northwest has to offer, all gathered from Frank’s Produce (one of my favorite vendors!).

Moving our way over to the main entrance, our history lesson continued, as we learned about how the dynamic of the market changed with the internment of many Japanese farmers. Did youknow that once the interments were over, many of the farmers didn’t return to the market? In some cases, some never came back to Seattle, understandably so. We also learned that the market has it’s way of caring for its own, with great financial aid programs, a Senior Center, daycare, and amazing support of the vendors. Maybe you’ve seen Rachel, the Pike Market Pig? She’s one way that the market continues to support itself and others. You can read more about Rachel, here.  This again is what makes this tour great; You linger with each sample, and hear about the heart of the market-you get so much out of it!

We made our way to the Pike Place P-Patch-you didn’t know it was there? That’s ok, I didn’t either!  The Senior Center has their produce out there, as does Eat Seattle Tours, and the view can’t be beat. We had chai tea creme puffs, made by Chef Cris with Chai tea from Market Spice Tea. The creme puffs were delicate and perfectly spiced; I am definitely putting those on my list of things to make!  Elizabeth, our host, followed that up with a lesson about the P-Patch, and treated us to carbonated grapes. You read that right! Grapes that had been pumped full of carbonated juice, so when you bit into them, they burst in your mouth in a fizzy, juicy way that was so satisfying. Man, I love science and food.

Next up was BB Ranch meats, for some yummy cured meats and a chat about their dry curing process. I was even able to take a picture in their meat locker! If you haven’t stopped by, please do. In addition to having some top-notch bacon, the guys will do their level best to find you what you need, even a goose super close to Christmas. Not that I would know anything about procrastinating (ahem)…

On the way to our next stop, we passed by Uli’s Sausage while they were closed, I want to call out that you NEED to come here. The bratwursts are amazing for any BBQ, and their andouille is outstanding for gumbo. They have so many different varieties, you can’t go wrong with anything you pick up.

We continued on to Pure Food Fish Market, where we met the staff and had some amazing alder smoked King salmon that just melted in your mouth; so good! Elizabeth and the crew at Pure Food talked to us about their fish, and sustainability practices. You can really tell that folks at the market and with Eat Seattle Tours, don’t just care about how the food tastes (they do), but they also care about how the food is grown and its’ impact on the environment.

We wrapped up our tour on a sweet note, at Indi Chocolates. Oh man…you walk into Indi Chocolates and you’re instantly surrounded by chocolaty goodness. The beans are sourced direct from the farmers at…wait for it. A LIVING WAGE. The cacao beans are roasted on site as well as close by, and all of the products are made locally too. We tried beans fresh out of the roaster, chocolate lip balm and finally rich, dark chocolate.  It. Was. Awesome.

After two hours of talking, laughing, and eating, we were done, leaving happy and full and with a renewed passion for the market.

Are YOU ready to get hungry and check out Eat Seattle Tours?  Go to their website here and enjoy! Come back and tell me your favorite part!

Yours in food,
Raina

Today is St Patrick’s Day, and I LOVE THIS DAY!

My tradition is to get together with friends, make corned beef and cabbage, have guinness and eventually get talked into an Irish Car Bomb drink. If you’ve never had one, it’s a pint of Guinness with a shot of Irish cream mixed with whiskey which is dropped into the glass and slammed down. If you don’t do it quickly, you end up with a curdled mess in your mouth. Inevitably we all dribble this concoction on ourselves too. I’ve never been skilled at slamming drinks, so I end up chewing the last  part of my drink.
Yuck.
So when I saw a recipe for Irish, wild colored Jell-O Shots, I thought, ‘Hey, I can do that with a car bomb!’. I get to revisit my college years, and escape the gross curdled mess from not being a skilled beer-slammer.  Win and win, plus my friends get to escape dribbling dark beer on themselves. Since I would have Guinness on hand, I also decided to make Guinness cupcakes.  Who doesn’t like a little dessert after all the delicious corned beef?

Irish Car Bomb Jell-O Shot