Category: News and Updates

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Mother’s Day. For this month’s contest, all you have to do is share something special about your mother. You can share what makes your mother so special to you. And/or something valuable that she has taught you over the years. Feel free to share anything else about your mother.

All you have to do is post your Mother’s Day story to the discussion forum on the Mother’s Day topic that I have created.

The winners will be selected randomly from all the forum post entries.

Below is my checklist:

• You will not have email me anything this time. You can simply leave a posting on the Mother’s day forum topic.
• If you are creating a new account for the forum, please enter your email address so that I can contact you after the contest is over. Don’t worry, your email address will not be public (only I will be able to see it).
• The deadline is May 31th.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

All of the mother’s day stories were very touching. I enjoyed reading through all of them very much. Thank you for sharing them with me and others what makes your mother so special to you. Here are the two winners that I selected at random from the posts. Congratulations to both of you.

1st Place: rahull

2nd Place: tanyachad

Thank you to everyone else that also participated in the contest.

I love spring time, so this month’s contest is to make a fresh and colorful spring salad with fruit.  The specific rules are the following:

• It has to be a colorful salad
• It has to contain some kind of fruit
• You must also create a homemade salad dressing (make sure to provide recipe for this too)
• It must be vegetarian and also egg-less.
• Please submit only ONE recipe.

In general I will only consider recipes that I feel are complete in regards to ingredients, measurement, and instruction. From there I am looking for creativity and a recipe that my viewers would enjoy to prepare on their own. I will be judging on overall recipe and presentation also.

Below is my checklist:

• Be Creative!
• Ingredients should be listed with measurements.
• Method must be explained clearly, so it’s easy to follow.
• Please include your name along with the recipe (as you would like it to appear).
• Search the web for ideas. There are many resources available.
• Please send me a detailed recipe to contest@manjulaskitchen.com
• You must also send original picture(s) of the recipe – do not simply grab a photo from the web. Otherwise your recipe will not be considered for entry.
• The deadline is April 27th.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage with the new recipe and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

There are two religious holidays this month – Easter and Holi (festival of colors). Contest this month is to make a dessert for the holidays. It can be any type of dessert, but there should be an emphasis on creativity and presentation. The specific rules are the following:

• It can be any type of dessert (hot or cold)
• I will be judging on creativity and presentation
• It must be vegetarian and also egg-less.
• Please submit only ONE recipe.

In general I will only consider recipes that I feel are complete in regards to ingredients, measurement, and instruction. From there I am looking for creativity and a recipe that my viewers would enjoy to prepare on their own. I will be judging on overall recipe and presentation also.

Below is my checklist:

• Be Creative!
• Ingredients should be listed with measurements.
• Method must be explained clearly, so it’s easy to follow.
• Please include your name along with the recipe (as you would like it to appear).
• Search the web for ideas. There are many resources available.
• Please send me a detailed recipe to contest@manjulaskitchen.com
• You must also send original picture(s) of the recipe – do not simply grab a photo from the web. Otherwise your recipe will not be considered for entry.
• The deadline is March 24th.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage with the new recipe and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

I enjoyed going through all of the entries for March contest. There were many good entries and as usual it was tough to decide on the winners. I would like to congratulate the winners and the top five participants:

Congratulations to both of you!!

• Adelina Srinivasan
• Prachi Deshpande Punecon
• Siminder
• Shruti
• Kamala
• Shamshun Nisa
• Nay Sidhu
• Lori McLain
• Dipti Joshi
• Gomathi Palanimuthu
• Anamika Sachdeva
• Jeeja Jaison
• Maureen D’souza
• Vandana
• Archana Arvapally
• Anu Rasoi
• Deepa Krishnan
• Crystal Schlueter
• Raksha
• Renee
• Vidyapraseedh
• Mubeena
• Vandana Bhide
• Dimple Mota
• Monica Raina
• Ankita Agarwal
• Whitney
• Deepti
• Rakhi Mehrotra
• Raabiaa Mojelele

• Vidhya Lakshmi
• Varsha jain
• M Neha
• Preethi Vijay
• Vaishali Leuva
• Sowmya
• Kim Charlton
• Sneha Toshniwal
• Hidemi Walsh
• Aditi Shah
• Prachi Mishra
• Payel Mukherjee
• Priya Suresh
• Madelon Martinez
• Renee Lynn
• Mamta Rathi
• Reshma Patel
• Mussy M
• Deep
• Keerthana Boloor
• Adam123
• Keeithana holoor
• Rashija
• Veena Jain
• Vani
• Santoshgbangar
• Rakhi Bajaj
• Poonam
• Zita Fox
• Sneha loshi

This month’s contest is the same as previous years. All you have to do is post your Valentine’s Day story to the discussion forum on the Valentine’s Day topic that I have created.

You needn’t send any photos for the contest. I just want to hear your valentine’s story – what did you do for your husband, wife, girl/boyfriend, or other loved one? If you cooked something, please describe the menu that you prepared. Did you surprise your loved one? The more details, the better!

The winners will be selected randomly from all the forum post entries.

Below is my checklist:

• You will not have email me anything this time. You can simply leave a posting on the Valentine’s day forum topic.
• If you are creating a new account for the forum, please enter your email address so that I can contact you after the contest is over. Don’t worry, your email address will not be public (only I will be able to see it).
• The deadline is Februrary 24th.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

I really enjoyed reading everyone’s Valentine’s Day stories. Thank you for sharing them with me. Here are the two winners that I selected at random from the posts. Congratulations to both of you.

1st Place: spike

2nd Place: aparna17

Thank you to everyone else that also participated in the contest.

I enjoyed going through all of the entries for January contest. Everyone did a great job coming up with health conscious recipes. I would like to congratulate the winners and the top five participants:

Congratulations to both of you!!

• Jamie Claire Wilson
• Helyn Dunn
• Daksha
• Ravi Danda
• Rashmi
• Vanita
• Lakshmi Priya
• Melanie Booth
• Deepalakshmi
• Viji
• Anup Thakurwar
• Kusum Joshi
• Rehana Khambaty
• Marisa Raponi
• Payel Mukherjee
• Nadia
• Vaishali Leuva
• Rangadevi dasi
• Priya Elias
• Hegde, Poomima
• Sapna Mulchandani
• Rajalakshmi
• Akhila Bhatt
• Hidemi Walsh
• Meena
• Renu Guruprasad
• Nayna Kanabar
• Ilene Courland
• Susan Pack
• Danijela Jokic -Vaislay
• Pooja Jain
• Sowmya Josyula
• Jaya Tirtha Charan Dasan
• Rama Sekharan
• Deepti Dongare
• Vindhya Desai
• Marija Kovalova

• Swagatika Priyadarshini
• Mir Afroze Ali
• Soly Borromeo
• Deepa Krishnan
• Pooja Juneja
• Keerthana
• Purva Agrawal
• Sasi Kumar
• Sumedha
• Jhanvi Khatri (2)
• Mohsen
• Jake Hills
• Kayal
• KaMaKsHi
• Vidya Kolachure
• Amrita
• Dion Lucero
• Jayanthi Karthikeyan
• Luca
• Sakhi Saheli
• Priya
• Ayesha Al-Yousuf
• Pat Vachani
• Stephen Davidson
• Rajeswary Prathyush
• Aliya Banu
• Shweta Verma
• Shantel Vachani
• Dipti Joshi
• Divya Pradhan
• Manisha Parekh
• Gauri Karmali
• Gina Sitta
• Meenakshi
• Shubha Satish

If your New Years resolution is to eat right and stay fit, then this contest is for you. For this month, I am looking for recipes that are health conscious and use fresh ingredients. The specific rules are the following:

• Recipe must be healthy – low in sugar and fats.
• It must use fresh ingredients (nothing processed) and all natural ingredients.
• It must be vegetarian and also egg-less.
• Please submit only ONE recipe.

In general I will only consider recipes that I feel are complete in regards to ingredients, measurement, and instruction. From there I am looking for creativity and a recipe that my viewers would enjoy to prepare on their own. I will be judging on overall recipe and presentation also.

Below is my checklist:

• Be Creative!
• Ingredients should be listed with measurements.
• Method must be explained clearly, so it’s easy to follow.
• Please include your name along with the recipe (as you would like it to appear).
• Search the web for ideas. There are many resources available.
• Please send me a detailed recipe to contest@manjulaskitchen.com
• You must also send original picture(s) of the recipe – do not simply grab a photo from the web. Otherwise your recipe will not be considered for entry.
• The deadline is January 27th.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage with the new recipe and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

Christmas has once again come and gone! These days I feel time is going by far too quickly. I had a lovely Christmas with my two sons and their families, including my four grandchildren. We decided to have a casual dinner with homemade pizza. Each person got to make their own personal pizzas with their choice of toppings including tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, green peppers, red peppers, and olives. I also had the toppings for my take on spicy cabbage pizza (see recipe for this delicious pizza on this site). After dinner, we enjoyed fresh chocolate cupcakes and apple crumb pie (recipe for this dish is also on this site!). After dinner, we sat around and talked while the children had a blast playing with their Christmas presents. We ended the night with a nice cup of hot tea and more conversation. What a great way to spend a holiday!

This week I plan to continue working on new and creative recipes for you all. I can’t believe there are only a few days left of 2012. This year has had its ups and downs, but overall I have to say 2012 was a great year. This year also marked the six year anniversary of my You Tube videos which in turn, launched Manjulaskitchen.com. This website is a dream come true. It has allowed me to further my passion for cooking and inspiring others to cook as well. I look forward to what 2013 has to offer!

Until then!

I hope everyone is having a great New Year so far. December’s contest had over 60 entries so it was lot of recipes to go through. I was happy to see many good recipes, and as always it was a challenge to narrow down the selection. Congratulations to the winners and the top five participants:

Congratulations to both of you!!

• Luca Boccia
• Amrita Datta
• Geeta Rao
• Shubha Satish
• Noopur Srivastava
• Padmaja Thommandra
• Sumedha
• Anika Jindal
• Jamie Claire
• Lakshmi Prasanna
• Stephen Davidson
• Bhargav
• Melody Crain
• Poornima Noubad
• Mohena Ahluwalia
• Shweta Garg
• Chitra Shukla
• Poorva Sawant
• Rajee Ramaswamy
• Kamlesh
• Kritika Singhal
• Simi Ummer
• Patricia Pangelinan
• Vaishali
• Prajna Prabhu
• Nishi Manglik
• Kumud Shukla
• Gayathri Sathyanarayanan
• Hem Srivastava

• Purva Agrawal
• Abhilasha Kothari
• Swati Shah
• Melanie Booth
• Christine
• Sujina
• Akhila
• Raji Muthu
• Sudeshna Banerjee
• Hidemi Walsh
• Bhakti
• Rehana Khambaty
• Samantha S
• Seetha
• Alisha
• Aru Vinu
• Nithya Balaji
• Marlene Steinberg
• Lakshmi Swetha
• Sowmya
• Suman Agarwal
• Divya
• Eklas Odish
• Samahita Kabra
• Pranati
• Rama Sekharan
• Cadry Nelson
• Sasi Kumar

To celebrate the holidays, this month’s contest is to make your favorite holiday dessert. It can be any type of dessert, hot or cold. The only rules for December are the following:

• It must be vegetarian and also egg-less.
• Please submit only ONE recipe.

In general I will only consider recipes that I feel are complete in regards to ingredients, measurement, and instruction. From there I am looking for creativity and a recipe that my viewers would enjoy to prepare on their own. I will be judging on overall recipe and presentation also.

Below is my checklist:

• Be Creative!
• Ingredients should be listed with measurements.
• Method must be explained clearly, so it’s easy to follow.
• Please include your name along with the recipe (as you would like it to appear).
• Search the web for ideas. There are many resources available.
• Please send me a detailed recipe to contest@manjulaskitchen.com
• You must also send original picture(s) of the recipe – do not simply grab a photo from the web. Otherwise your recipe will not be considered for entry.
• The deadline is December 28th.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage with the new recipe and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

I was really impressed with the November recipes using Squash. There were some very unique recipes. Congratulations to the winners and the top five participants:

Congratulations to both of you!!

• Poornima Noubad
• Shilpa Rajput
• Aarti Dedakiya
• Nibedita Das
• Hema Shankar
• Shubha Sridhara
• Priya
• Anne McCunney
• Poulami Biswas
• Manjula Bharath
• spicytofu
• Anu Saxena
• Chetna Mistry
• Shubha Sridhara
• Priya Suresh
• Lalitha Sundararajan
• Gina Sitta
• Viji
• Sherri Williams
• Dipti V. Joshi

• Payel Mukherjee
• Hem Srivastava
• Anamika Sachdeva
• Faiza M.
• Rehana Khambaty
• Gia
• Anushmita Dash
• Ipsita Ray
• Hidemi Walsh
• Sujina
• Yamini
• ManjuBalaji
• Sushma
• Subhash from Noida
• Nishi Rani
• Ilene Courland
• JOSHUA MCKENEE
• Samantha Skelly
• Akhila Bhatt
• Anand Prakash
• Sasi Kumar

I enjoyed last year’s contest for Thanksgiving, so it will be the same this year. This month’s contest is make any recipe using squash as the main ingredient. It can be any type of squash (ex. Pumpkin is in the squash family). You may make any type of recipe such as an appetizer, main dish, or dessert.  I look forward to seeing something new this time. The rules for November are the following:

• Any recipe that uses Squash as main ingredient.
• It must be vegetarian and also egg-less
• Please submit only ONE recipe.

In general I will only consider recipes that I feel are complete in regards to ingredients, measurement, and instruction. From there I am looking for creativity and a recipe that my viewers would enjoy to prepare on their own. I will be judging on overall recipe and presentation also.

Be sure to check out Manjula’s spicy squash recipe as an example. Good Luck!

Below is my checklist:

• Be Creative!
• Ingredients should be listed with measurements.
• Method must be explained clearly, so it’s easy to follow.
• Please include your name along with the recipe (as you would like it to appear).
• Search the web for ideas. There are many resources available.
• Please send me a detailed recipe to contest@manjulaskitchen.com
• You must also send original picture(s) of the recipe – do not simply grab a photo from the web. Otherwise your recipe will not be considered for entry.
• The deadline is November 27th.
• The winner will be featured on the homepage with the new recipe and a link to their website (if available).

1st Prize: $100 gift certificate from Amazon.com
2nd Prize: $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com

**Anyone can join this contest**

I enjoyed reading all of your vegetarian dining experiences. I look forward to trying some of the restaurants mentioned when I am in your area. Thank you.  I selected two winners randomly. Here they are:

1st Place: Rakhib

2nd Place: Anju

Congratulations to both of you.

Thank you to everyone else that also participated in the contest.