A Peek into my Life

This week was a leftovers kind of week. There was undhiyo and the rest of the items leftover from the family dinner on Sunday. My MIL had also brought over her signature aloo-gobhi, chole, boondi raita and gajar ka halwa for us. We had all of these for 3 days. roti, rice, dhokla, kadhi, undhiyo, jalebi roti, rice, jalebi, boondi raita, chole, aloo gobhi methi roti, rice, kadhi, boondi raita, aloo gobhi The daughter took methi paratha one day, potato sabji the next day, and pizza roti, featuring multi-grain roti and homemade pizza sauce after that. sandwich, nuts,jalebi, ketchup, methi paratha, salad bread and egg, til gul ladoo, roti, potato bhaji, nuts and salad multigrain pizza roti, salad, sandwich, nuts 15th January was Makar Sankranti. I had made tilgul vadis a few days ago. But the daughter wanted til gul ladoos. I find it impossible to eat store-bought til ladoos if they are hard. Our local store had run out of these ladoos by evening. So I ma...

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...

Last Saturday, we planned a trip to the Nehru planetarium and science center in Worli and Lower Parel. It was the last weekend of the Christmas vacation. I had pre-booked a planetarium show at 12 in the afternoon. It is also recommended on their website to pre-book at least a day in advance. If you want an English show specifically, it is better to book 2 days in advance, especially during holidays and vacations. We went with the Hindi show since the English one was almost fully booked when I checked. It is very easy to book on their website and the ticket can be shown on the phone. Anyway, we left home after breakfast around 9:10 am. We got a bus to reach Thane station before 9:30 am. We reached Thane station a little after 10 am and booked tickets for CST local. Many local trains have Thane and CST as start and end stations so it is easier to get in and out. Since it was a weekend, the rush was a little less. We boarded the train at 10:20 am and got down at Byculla station at 1...