*DATE OATMEAL BARS*

Date Oatmeal Bars are a wonderful treat anytime of the day.  Sweet and soft dates are sandwiched between not so buttery oat and flour mixture. They are easy to make, everyone will love them.

Since most of us eat way too much sugar in our diet, I try to use less sugar and more nutritious ingredients such as fruits, nuts and oat. My date bar recipe has these characteristics.  It  is a very nice alternative to have an easy  breakfast or snack instead of going into a fast food restaurant.

This dessert encourages us to prepare a simple meals from basic ingredients instead of expensive and less nutritious processed foods .I have tweaked the recipe as per my preference by omitting sugar in the filling and reduced the amount of butter used.  Really surprised to see that these bars were a great hit with my family.

I hope you will get to try these bars and enjoy them over and over again,

*PUMPKIN BANANA BREAD*

Easy to make Pumpkin Banana Bread gets an extra flavor and beautiful color with addition of the pumpkin. The pumpkin not only adds flavor but also it adds fiber and allowing the bread to call for less oil while still maintaining the perfect, most texture.

I had used homemade pumpkin puree but canned pumpkin should work too. This bread turned out great. For best result, slice when it is completely cooled or  refrigerated the bread overnight wraps in plastic wrap.

It was delicious on its own but with frosting it creates a beautiful treat!

*SABUDANA VADA/SAGO CUTLET*

This crispy savory snack recipe is made with soaked sago pearls and mashed potato. Sabudana Vada is one of  popular Indian food served during fasting. There are various combination to prepare it. In this case, mine was  prepared without peanut but using semolina instead.

After combining all the ingredients, it was shaped into small  round cutlet. It can be shallow or deep fried but I prefer shallow frying since it uses least oil.

FRYING TIPS
Choose a healthy oil with higher smoke point such as canola, safflower or peanut oil.

Make sure the oil was fully heated before adding any food. To check whether it is ready, drop a small piece of  bread, it should be golden brown in 60 seconds.

Do not crowd the pan. Work in small batches. The temperature of the oil decreases as soon as you add food to it.

Heavy bottomed  cookware is best for frying. It allows to keep the temperature of the oil steady. A thicker bottom guarantees the heat will slowly warm up the oil.

Discard  your used oil if it smells rancid, strong  discoloration or excessive foaming around the frying food. Be sure to cool your used oil completely before disposing

*EGG FREE CHOCOLATE BROWNIES*

The easiest brownies ever. Makes up in a 7 x 11 in tin. Egg Free Chocolate  Brownies are soft like a cake with crunchy almond. These are wonderful and exactly what I was trying to create, in my opinion they have  the perfect texture and  used much lesser sugar than regular brownies.

There are many ways you can enjoy this favorite by replacing almond with cashew, pecan or walnut, Omit the nuts to include dried cranberries, apricot or cherries. You can even add white chocolate or dark chocolate pieces in the batter.

*DRY FRUIT SCONES*

Dry Fruit Scones are far from plain, they are lightly sweetened,  thick but soft and delicious.  Made with plain flour, butter, milk  with baking powder as a leavening agent, it is pretty quick to prepare.

Had dry fruit mix in my pantry so I  incorporated them in this recipe. These tender, buttery scones are nicely moist. It is almost the same method as preparing the pie crust. You can add pretty much anything to this basic recipe. Savory, sweet, fruity or rich, you name it, it would probably work in scones.

The key to a perfect scone is to make sure you don't overwork the dough, otherwise the result will be a hard doughy scone. They're good enough to eat on their own!