Hand me the menu of any restaurant and the first thing I look for is the appetisers. Bite-sized delicacies, crispy, crunchy, sinful and tempting. In fact, I often order a couple of appetisers and skip the main course. Even the desserts menu doesn’t have such a hold over me. I have thought why I do it and the answer is quite simple. It is one course that rarely features in my everyday cooking.

Appetizers in my opinion, are a pain. They take time and patience. They need special skills and culinary expertise I don’t have. It was time to change and #CreateFearlessly. I put together a simple appetiser-inspired summer meal for the family. I don’t know about other places but Chennai is burning up right now. The slight traces of winter have disappeared and given way to heat waves. It is hot, humid and typically Chennai.

And to kick off yet another summer the  Hamilton Beach Panini Press/Indoor Grill and Stainless Steel Hand Blender arrived home. With great fanfare to say the least. Goodbye stovetop cooking. It was quite hard to figure out who was more excited – my daughter or I.

And as the modern social media savvy person I am, I was on Pinterest every spare second trying to figure out some great stovetop-free to create and wow myself. Check out my #CreateFearlessly board here. It has a lot of great recipe ideas which can be created using Hamilton Beach Panini Press/Indoor Grill and Hand Blender.

My perfect appetiser-inspired lazy summer menu included

Virgin Pina Colada

Blend equal parts of pineapple juice, coconut cream and ice in the hand blender.

Roasted Tomato Salsa with Chips

Recipe from here

I grilled tomatoes, onions and garlic in the Hamilton Beach Indoor grill and blended them using the food processor attachment of the Hamilton Beach Hand Blender.

Paneer and Corn Grilled Burritos

No recipe here. I just grilled some corn, onions, and panner (marinaded in oil, cumin, salt, pepper and coriander), threw it on a tortilla, added cheese, salsa and rolled it. It was the perfect main course.

 

Chilli and Lime Grilled Watermelon

Recipe from here

I am also doing #BlenderBreakfasts where I create quick, healthy and simple breakfasts the night before using the Hamilton Beach Hand Blender. Click here to get check out my breakfast & get the recipes.

I will also be posting more photos and a video (featuring kuttyma) soon.

This post is a part of the #CreateFearlessly activity in association with  Hamilton Beach and BlogAdda