Eggless Baking : Chocolate Applesauce Muffin for breakfast on a very Crucial Day

Importance of today's Cricket Match(march/30/2011) : it's a crucial match, SEMI-FINAL for WORLD CUP & played between two Cricket Crazy Nations India and Pakistan, lots of emotions and politics goes in this. Lots of pressure on both the team all important leaders including Prime Ministers of both countries are watching it.

Last Match Day(March/24/2011) : scene from my house explained here in my previous post.

Today (March/25/2011) : my day started at little before 6 A.M.....he's again missing from the bed, I can hear some voices coming from the other part of the house, but this time I'm lazily staying in the bed for a while & finally decided to come out & here goes our conversation....

me : what's the score

he : 77 for ?? balls(he did told me exact balls but i don't remember it now when I'm typing it after 45 minutes), run rate is very good 7.??(again I forgot)

me : kaun khel raha hai???(which team is playing)....do u want chai(tea)???

he : India, aab chup ho ja yaar bara sahi match chal raha hai.....(Please be quite now honey, it's very good match going on, (remember in the last post he called me honey...well in hindi the way we talk, yaar would come in the category of honey only)

after sometime....

me : in Delhi roads must be quite right now...my brother told me in many neighbourhoods large T.V screens have been installed & it's kind of a holiday.

he(no talking) : picked up the phone, called his Dad.....sharing some cricket talk

me(no talking) : started working on my post.....I tried to open multiple pages &

he : kya yaar(honey) what r u doing it's slowing down my match here(we r watching it on Internet)....can't U work on one page only.....

after some time he went to do his brush & OMG!! Pakistan took 3rd Indian wicket(Kohli)....run rate is also 5.57 & another sad news Yuvraj got out on his first ball :-((.....I ran towards him almost screaming, came back quickly........now comes Dhoni & that reminds me of a movie I saw last month "HATRICK" it's a bollywood movie(it's interesting movie to see, if you haven't seen) showing how cricket plays an important role in different peoples life and commentator is also talking if it's gonna be a HATRICK ball....means 3 players out in 3 continuous balls...but thank god...NO it's not....

he was out of the room when 2 above players got out.....

he : kya yaar I just went out aur do wickets chale gaye(I was out for a minute & 2 players out what??)

me : U sit here & U r not moving out of this area.....Oh Yes! we Indians do have lot of superstitions when it comes to CRICKET.

After few minutes he went to the kitchen to make tea for himself.....& I hear Pakistani team cheering....No..No...NO, not because my husband is making tea for himself....but because....

me: OMG!!!! sachin gaya

he : are nahi yaar(no), catch miss ho gayi....sachin is saved 3rd time....

me : U come back, right now....sit on this chair, don't go anywhere(remember superstitions).....I'll make tea, U want it with ginger...

SCORE : 185/4 (time : 7:37 A.M EST U.S.A)

Just in case if U guys are thinking that don't they have anything else to do...so for the records, I'm usually not this crazy or in fact not crazy at all for sports but it's India Vs Pakistan....U can't miss this.....this time hubby dear is lucky as he had some odd hour(midnight) official stuff going on with his companies international offices and again some meetings lined up in the morning so he's working from home & it was all set on Monday only so no guessing work for me.....I told Kiddo to buy lunch from school, for snack she's taking home made applesauce.

For breakfast I made some Eggless, Low fat, whole wheat applesauce cupcakes/muffins yesterday only, and yes  chocolate flavour.....they are good at their own, use of applesauce & vinegar make them soft from inside but I suggest having them with some tea/coffee or milk as they are low in fat and also half of the flour is whole wheat, which makes them little dry. It's a healthy & tasty treat, perfect for breakfast.

What I used :

Dry Ingredients :

• 3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup atta(wholewheat flour)
• 4 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon powder
• pinch of salt

Wet Ingredients :

• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce(recipe here but now I pressure cook, one whistle on low)
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup regular sugar
• 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoon of milk

 Other Ingredients

• 1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar(regular kind can be used)
• 1 tsp. vanilla

quick Info : India done with their turn.....target set for other team :261 runs, fingers crossed as this is not a very high target for the opposite team......time for break....hubby dear is lucky today as India's turn got over just 5 minutes before his meeting start....

What I did for muffins :

1. Sift together all the dry ingredients.
2. In another bowl mix all the wet ingredients
3. Add dry ingredients to wet in 3-4 parts, mixing thoroughly making sure no lumps are there, I prefer to use whisk her(manual to electronic mixer).
4. Add vinegar & vanilla.Mix.
5. Fill in the prepared pans. Bake at 350 degree.
6. This batter should yield U 12 regular size muffins, but I could not decide which pan to bake them in as I wanted mini muffins but batter was more then I needed for them, so here's what I baked from this batter:  12 mini muffins, baked for 14 minutes . 6 regular size muffins, baked for 17 minutes. 1 small 4 inch round cake, baked for 24 minutes.
7. Once they were cool I brushed them with melted butter & decked up with come sprinkles.

Note : If U are new to baking I really suggest sticking with one kind of pan at a time in the oven as different pans mean different timings & that mean opening the oven again & again, which is not a good thing, but luckily all the muffins/cake came out good.

Who decides the Fate of a Lunch Box/Tiffin

Thursday march 24th 2011, 5:45 A.M : he's missing from the bed, looks like lights are on in the living room, quick check he's siting in front of computer table with PC open (that project is going on since past weekend as he's trying to fix it b'coz it's working very slow...one reason for me missing from the blog world) and Laptop is also on.....quick & small conversation & he says "Honey go sleep".

1&1/2 hours Later, 7:15 A.M to be exact : I jump out of the bed & complaint to him why didn't U woke me up....I get the answer back "relax honey". I start my fast action mode, quickly took some veggies out of the fridge, put water to boil, pasta came out, not very juicy tomatoes in the fridge so out came jar of pasta sauce. Breakfast is also getting ready in the mean time, thank god I steamed the dhoklas yesterday night so only have to season(tadka) them. With all the multitasking going on I sneak out of the kitchen to freshen up quickly & Kiddo#1 is also getting ready for school.

40 minutes Later, 7:55 A.M to be exact : Dear daughter enter the kitchen, looking at the school lunch menu on the fridge......

      She : What's for Lunch?????

      me : Veggie Pasta.

      She : Can I buy today???

      me : rolling my eyes, grinding my teeth's, making sure no body sees....O.K.(it's been 2 months into new school & this is only second time she liked anything on the menu so I didn't wanted to say no & upset her)......So my menu planner mind quickly adjusted the today's menu.....after school snack  Pasta and not baked potato.

25 minutes Later, 8:20 A.M to be exact : On & off he's still mainly in front of computer. I serve breakfast to kiddo & talk between Dad & Daughter starts. He's trying to explain her few things pointing at computer showing her things on the screen & she's trying to explain him back what ever equal level stuff she knows about the NOT SO SAME but SIMILAR topic.

10 minutes Later, 8:30 A.M to be exact :

      me to him : Honey should I pack your Lunch or not.....

      he to me : U tell me what do I do.....I go or work from home....

      me to him : totally your decision

11 minutes Later, 8:41 to be exact :

     me : stop discussing anything, only 4 minutes are left for kiddo to move out of the house & at least 1/4 of the breakfast is still there in the plate, she still need to put her shoes & jacket. He quickly sneaked out of the dining area.

5 minutes Later, 8:46 to be exact : we rushed out of the house but thank god today bus is also late by at least 5 minutes or so.

Time is not important any more for the rest of the day as Kiddo catched her bus. I came back from the bus stop he's like O.K & turning the laptop off....went in to get ready....I pack his lunch, quick clean up of the kitchen, serve him breakfast, some dhoklas & little bit of pasta for my breakfast......lil'one is about to wake up.....and after few minutes he's turning Laptop again but this time it's office one & not the personnel......now I'm guessing is he gonna mail that he'll be late for the morning meeting or is working from home.....no questions asked......another 5 minute he did the mail, came out in T-shirt & announced everybody is working from home......it's not raining today yesterday it was....it did snow a little bit in the dark hours of morning but no accumulation, car sure gonna need 2 minutes of clean up at the most but that's not a very strong reason for everyone to work from home.....Can U guys guess...when I say all his co-workers that basically means the ones who grew up in India, are working from home.....some of them actually played safe as on Wednesday only they announced that tomorrow that is Thursday they will be working from home, rest of them thought they will be strong enough to come to the office but I guess it's difficult the fate of all these was decided by the coin which was tossed and Australian Captain decided to go for batting first which means India will be playing during the office hours here in USA....so that's when people decided to work from home.

Yes!!! it's the cricket fever.....no more suspense, no talking is going on inside the house lil'one is enjoying her tea time with Dad, Dad has turned dining table to his office with his office laptop on it and with INDIA Vs AUSTRALIA match playing live on his personnel laptop. Mommy is writing this post on Kiddo's notebook, our PC is still going under surgery. And yes all this time he was watching match and when Kiddo was doing her breakfast regardless of she might miss her bus he was in total mood of explaining her all about the cricket sport.....that's how much INDIANS LOVE CRICKET.....it's like a religion, people can do anything for it.....today's match is special not only because it's being played in India, also because Pakistan has already won another quarter final, and  I don't want to touch that topic.

This is first time he has done something like this....I guess when U have option of working from home and INDIA is playing for WORLD CUP then why not. So, no matter what U do everything have it's own fate.....Kiddo decided that she wanted to buy lunch so her share of pasta stayed in the pot....he decided to work from home so his packed lunchbox/tiffin is still sitting on the kitchen counter top and as for me with all these changed plans I see a shopping trip in my very near future....to be exact today's afternoon whenever the lil'one goes for a nap, it's easy to baby sit a sleeping baby for an hour or two.

Thanks to U guys for spending your precious time on a food blog for reading not so foodie story and there is no recipe even in today's post. But if anyone is interested in checking our breakfast today, U can click on dhoklas here & for the pasta who's fate was to be eaten from the plate and not from the lunch box click here.

I'm posting after a month, reason being my computer running very slow, my lil'one thinks mommy on the computer means it's her T.V time, so I have to stay away from computer in the day time and when she sleeps I'm trying to complete few unfinished craft projects and to top everything we have some unwanted guests who looks like gonna stay here forever.....my house is invaded by ants. That's a complaint now but atleast thank god they are the black ones & not the red ones who bites U. One more reason was blogging block and for that I have to thanks CRICKET if it wasn't for that I wouldn't have been writing this post. I guess this is first time I have written such a quick post. I'm sure those who don't know about cricket mainly my readers from North America (as rest of the world plays this sport) now knows how powerful this sport is.

quick info : Australian team has set the target of 261 runs for India to win and as I'm about to post this post looks like India is about to win, they need 16 more runs in 5 more overs, 5 wickets down....it's win...wohhoooo..................