A Peek into my Life

Last week I tried a couple of new recipes, so I thought this is a good week for a weekly recap to showcase them. I had ordered an energy bar from bigbasket since there was an offer on it. Otherwise, those things are expensive! The daughter loved the bar, so I saved the wrapper for reference to create my version of it. It contained seeds like sesame and pumpkin along with figs. The daughter is not excited about eating seeds on their own and she kind of hates the look and texture of dates. So I looked at it as an opportunity to feed her superfood seeds and dates. I based it on my dates ladoo recipe. Super Seeds Energy Bar (nobake) Seed and fruit energy bar Ingredients: 1 cup mix of raisins, dates, and figs* 1 tbsp ghee 1 tbsp honey 1/4 tsp rock salt 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder 3/4 cup oats 1 cup nuts and seeds* Method Dry roast oats in a small iron kadhai till crisp; about 4 minutes. You can dry roast the seeds and nuts if they are no...

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...

Summer is about to start here but I am still not ready to say good-bye to my favourite season of the year - winter. For me, the best part of winter is the abundance of beautiful vegetables. Sweet, red winter carrots are one such gem of a vegetable. We have been eating it raw every day for the whole season. I also made our favourite winter dessert - gajar ka halwa on a few occasions. I tried a few tricks and have streamlined the long process of making the halwa into a less time-consuming and less labor-intensive one. Gajar ka Halwa gajar ka halwa Ingredients: 1 kg carrots 1 ltr milk* 1 tbsp cashew pieces 1 tsp cardamom powder 1/2 cup sugar Method Heat the milk in a large vessel till it comes to a boil. Let it reduce on low flame stirring once in a while. Meanwhile, grate the carrots to a medium thickness. I outsource this to my husband who does it in 10 minutes. Add the grated carrots and a cup of the milk which was reducing to a pressure cooker and cook for 3 whis...

I am not really a religious person. So Shivratri was another reason to try out new recipes; fasting recipes specifically. Shivratri is one of the major fasting days in Hinduism that is followed by a large number of people. My thought process was that it is healthy and tasty to take a break from everyday grains like rice and wheat for a day. Instead of doing it on Monday as per the calendar, we did it on Sunday so that the husband would not miss out on the food. Here's what I made for the day: For breakfast, it was sabudana khichadi. It was certainly not a new recipe. It is our usual Sunday breakfast because the daughter loves it. The trick to perfect sabudana khichadi lies in the soaking technique of sabudana. I learnt this trick from my mom. After washing the sabudana a couple of times, soak it in enough water to cover it by an inch. Leave it for about 20 minutes. The sabudana would have soaked up some of the water by now. Drain the excess water leaving just a couple of table...

Yesterday was our 13th wedding anniversary. Being on a weekday, we decided to celebrate on the weekend by going on a bike trip for old times sake. We used to go on regular bike trips when we were in Bangalore during the initial years of our marriage. Revdanda beach, Alibaug We decided on Revdanda beach which is around 120 kms from Thane. We planned to start early on Sunday morning. The grandparents came to pick up the daughter on Saturday night. She stayed at their place for 24 hours until they dropped her off again on Sunday night. We are lucky to have such helpful grandparents who live close by. bike parked at revdanda beach We left home around 6:30 am. After we crossed Panvel and were out on the highway, it got so cold. We were freezing on the bike due to the bike induced wind chill factor. We stopped around 8:30 am for breakfast at Amantran hotel about 15 kms after Karnala bird sanctuary. 'Roti Shoti Chai Nashta' just before Karnala bird sanctuary is also a good ...

I used to buy bottles of ketchup and nutella but then I observed that the daughter was consuming large quantities of both of these condiments :). I switched to Heinz ketchup because they claim to be preservative-free but then I thought that it is so easy to make ketchup at home. Why am I not doing it myself? That's how I started on my DIY condiment making routine. Once ketchup was handled, I started making nutella. I am always worried about giving the kid any packaged products. Since she is not into eating our regular Indian food so much, these condiments are a way to get her to eat something healthy, like a vegetable paratha. Homemade Tomato Ketchup This is a very easy recipe with a handful of ingredients. Ingredients: 1 kg red,juicy tomatoes 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar* 1/2 tsp ginger powder 1/2 tsp pepper powder 1 to 1.5 tsp rock salt* Method Chop the tomatoes into large pieces and pressure cook them without water for 3 whistles on medium flame.* ...

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...