Cold Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
Colorful rotini or bow tie pasta-1/2 pack.
Yellow,green,red bell peppers-Sliced,1/2 of each
Red onions-washed well to remove the spice and sliced really thin-1/2 big or 1 small
Parsley-optional
Cucumber-1/2 cubed into small pieces
Cherry tomatoes-optional
Fat free italian salad dressing mix-1/2 bottle
Shredded cheese-1/2 pack

Procedure:
1.Boil the pasta with a little bit of olive oil and salt really well and let cool.
2.Mix the vegetables,shredded cheese,italian salad dressing mix and refrigerate overnight and serve cold.

Berry Trifle

Ingredients:
Strawberries-cut into small chunks-1 pack
Blueberries-1 pack
Blackberries-optional
Oranges-peeled-optional
Pound cake-1 packet ready-made
Whipped cream-Fat free 1 box in frozen section
Vanilla pudding or white chocolate pudding mix-1 pack
Orange juice-2 or 3 tbsp

Procedure:
1.Make the vanilla or white chocolate pudding as per instructions in the box.
2.Fold the pudding with the whipped cream in a separate bowl.
3.Cut the pound cake into small cubes.
4.Take a big trifle bowl(if you have one) or take small individual plastic transparent cups and arrange pound cake cubes,fruits,drizzle the orange juice and the pudding-whipped cream mix in layers. The last layer should be fruits.
5.Cover tight with a food wrap and refrigerate for at least a night and serve cold.

Optional:
1.You can use any flavor of pudding mix you want.
2.You can change the white pound cake to chocolate brownies or chocolate cake.
3.You can add nuts or oats.
4.You can use any flavored jello instead of pudding.

5.I do not prefer apples and bananas as they tend to brown after a while.

Bruschetta

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
Basil Leaves-cut fine
Tomatoes-cubed
Balsamic Vinegar
Mozzarella Slices
French bread or Baguette-sliced
Salt and pepper-Add to taste

Procedure:
1. In a separate bowl,mix olive oil,balsamic vinegar,cubed tomatoes,salt and pepper.
2.Arrange the mozzarella slices on the sliced bread and put the above mixture and serve.

Optional:
You can add minced garlic and/or diced onions.
You can toast the bread but I prefer not toasting the bread,as it gets hard after a while.

Nivi's version of Bread Halwa

Ingredients:
Stale Croissants or Bread without the crust-cut into small pieces
Milk
Cashew nuts, pistachio-nuts, almonds, elaichi ground dry
Ghee

Garnish:
Cashewnuts and Raisins fried in ghee separately.

Procedure:

1. In a spoon of ghee,fry croissants and the dry nuts and elaichi that are ground till golden brown.
2. Add milk and stir till soft.
3. Add sugar to your taste and mix.
4. Garnish with cashewnuts and raisins fried in ghee.
5. Serve warm.

Tips:
You can also add crushed pineapple or banana with the pudding for a different flavor.

Links to other recipes

Whole Wheat Bread

Notes:

The recipe says add 4 cups wheat flours  (thats 6 cups total), but i think because its so dry here, if you add anything more than maybe 5.2 total..your bread will becomes too dense.

so, just knead till the dough stops being sticky. its ok if you add less than what the recipe calls for.,or rather, add flour till the dough stops sticking.

Another thing to keep in mind when baking bread at high altitude is .. keep the oven temperature lower (I kept it 10 deg lower) than the recipe calls for. But bake for as long as the recipe calls for.