A Peek into my Life

I am back after what looks like a summer vacation. The schools have reopened for the new academic year after the much-needed summer break. For us, it was a very refreshing and revitalizing break because we spent a month at my parent's place. The distance and the change in routine allow us to look at our regular routine with a new pair of eyes and see what can be changed to make it better. The daughter used to eat oatmeal cooked in milk with some cinnamon and sugar before leaving for school every day. She thought something to drink is more appropriate in the early morning and much quicker to finish in the rush to catch the school bus. I feel just drinking milk does not have the staying power to pull her through till the 9:30 am breakfast break in school. One day she, me and my mom had a casual discussion and came up with this smoothie which she is happy to drink before leaving for school. Banana and dates add sweetness, fiber and good nutrition. Oats up the fiber content and add...

The last weekend ended with pav bhaji. That was also the starting point of this week. Monday, 07/01 The daughter took pav-bhaji sandwiches for lunch while we had it for breakfast. sheera, pav-bhaji sandwich, salad, and nuts for school pav-bhaji sandwich For lunch, I made masoor amti with rotis. I boil the whole masoor which was soaked overnight in a pressure cooker. I use a good amount of garlic in the tadka with other regular tadka ingredients like mustard seeds, jeera, hing, and turmeric. Add it to the cooked dal, along with kokam, tiny bit of jaggery, salt and goda masala. Finally, coriander and coconut to garnish. Masoor amti with roti Tuesday, 08/01 The daughter had a roti spread with the last of the homemade nutella for her breakfast box and cheese stuffed dosa with salad for lunch box. For us, it was red amaranth (laal bhaji) made with lots of garlic and onion, finished with fresh coconut. roti roll with homemade nutella, cheese stuffed dosa...

Pizza sauce is another sauce where I like to load up on vegetables without compromising on taste. Like the cheesy vegetable sauce , I store this pizza sauce in the freezer too. I obviously use it to make pizzas in no time, but more often, I use it to make multigrain pizza roti for the daughter's lunchbox. Healthy pizza sauce pizza on a homemade base multigrain roti pizza Ingredients: 1 onion 5 cloves garlic half of a small beetroot 1 carrot 10 french beans quarter of a bottlegourd/lauki 7 tomatoes 1 small capsicum/bellpepper 1 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp mixed herbs 1 tbsp olive oil Method Heat the olive oil in a pressure cooker. Add the chopped vegetables in order (onion, garlic,beetroot,carrot, french beans, bottlegourd, and tomatoes), sauteeing briefly after each vegetable. Once all the vegetables are well sauteed on medium-high heat, add enough water to barely cover the vegetables and cook for 3-...

The week started on 31st December. The husband was on leave that day and did a very important job of moving our potted plants from their original pots into these tray like pots. We wanted to free up the floor space in our tiny balcony and make it look tidier. So we got these metal shelves made and installed on the wall the previous week. We also ordered these rectangular pots that would fit inside those shelves from Amazon. The balcony looks much tidier and there is space for more plants now. There is one more empty shelf on top of this. New plant arrangement Monday, 31st December I made tomato chilla (tomato omelet as it is known in Mumbai) for breakfast. I grind an onion, a couple of tomatoes, 2-3 cloves of garlic, a small piece of ginger into a paste, which I use to make a batter. I use a mix of besan and my homemade mix atta (consisting of jowar, ragi, rajgira, flax flours) for the batter. I add ajwain and chopped coriander leaves to the batter. We ate it with kasundi (Benga...

I have been thinking of doing a weekly food recap post for a very long time now. It would serve as an idea library for the eternal question "What should I cook for lunch today?". I also love to see these weekly recap posts on other blogs and it would also keep me accountable to post at least once a week. The daughter leaves for school at 7:15 am. She carries breakfast and lunch boxes with her to school. The husband usually carries lunch to the office. So I cook it in the morning. Dinner is mostly leftovers from lunch. The husband usually comes home late so he doesn't eat dinner most of the time. He just has a snack in office in the evening. This week I didn't click the daughter's tiffin. I hope to start in January when her school reopens. Here's the recap of week 17-23 December. On Monday the fridge was quite empty. So I had to improvise with whatever was in the fridge and freezer to come up with a meal. I made paneer and vegetable bhurji with parathas a...