Hot Soup on a Cold Rainy Day

Till I remember, we had just got a few days of sunshine and soon there was thunder, lightning and hailstones all together today.

I made hot pot of vegetable soup, perfect for a cold day supper and also especially as my throat is a bit sore.

Enjoyed the hot soup with 2 slice of toasted bread and a beautiful view of the rains out from my window.  

Also I have been planting for some time now. I was waiting for the flowers to bloom to share some snaps with you all.

I am growing a couple of fresh herbs...will share about them soon in the next post.

I have to also tell you what else I have been up to this week.....I made a trip to the library and have picked up interesting books, the one that I am reading now is How to be an Everyday Kitchen Magician- Fabulous Food For almost Free by Richard Fox.

This book is particularly interesting as it is something I do very often, substitute ingredients in the recipe for the ones that I have at home....because after all isn't cooking experimenting and learning from ones mistakes.

I would like to quote Richard Fox's Introduction to his book "This book is so much more than a recipe book. In fact, it's about learning to cook without using recipes at all. Its all about making the most of what you have, reducing your waste dramatically, and learning how to create spontaneous, delicious dishes in minutes."

I have also got a few 'Mills & Boon' (romantic novel) that I have my daily read at night...a pure addiction from when I was a teen.

P.S 1000 page views! Thank you for reading and being a part of me.

Masala Rice from leftovers

It is not that I have forgotten about my challenge of trying one new recipe every week. But I have been on a roller coaster ride this week, busy from all sides and also been consciously eating vegetarian food (no  particular reason, I normally go through phases like these ;-))

So now when I actually sit to write down I am pausing and thinking what I ate this week for dinner:

Monday: Mixed vegetable curry with whole wheat flat bread (topped with dollops of yogurt) 

Tuesday:  Salad with boiled chick peas (a quick dinner as had a lot of laundry to do)

Wednesday: Boiled red lentil dhal with rice (along with onion and tomato salad)

Just noticed that I have had some source of protein(lentils, yogurt, peas) even though on vegetables (sometimes the dietitian inside unconsciously rules)

Today is already Thursday and now the urge to try something new sets in again (need a change of palate). But I had leftover white rice which I had to use up so the search begins for something quick but tasty......

I came across Masala Rice (have eaten this a number of times from my Friend's tiffin, now time to try it)

Masala rice is a perfect one dish meal to use the left over rice as well as add vegetables that one has.

So masala rice it is. I read a number of recipes and then tried a mixed version that I thought will suit my fussy husbands palate. I have to say that this was really quick and very tasty for the effort put in.

Ingredients

Serves 3

1 teaspoon cooking oil

1 medium potato, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste

2 cups of boiled rice (leftover in my case)

 1 green chilly, chopped

1 teaspoons whole cumin

A generous handful of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped

1  teaspoon of red chilly powder

1/2  teaspoon turmeric powder

About 1 teaspoon salt

 

Cooking Method

Heat the oil in a wide pot over a medium flame. When hot, add whole cumin, ginger garlic paste and green chillies.

Add the spices (chilly powder, turmeric powder, salt) 

 Then add onions and cook for 5-7 minutes or so until they’re starting to turn brown. Don’t worry about under or over cooking them too much.

Fry the potatoes next. Add a little water and cover the pan to cook the potatoes thoroughly.

Add chopped tomatoes and fry for a couple of minutes with some juiciness left.

Now add the rice. Simmer for 5 minutes as the rice are already cooked before, breaking up any lumps as you go. Don’t stir it too much as it may break the rice grains.

 Garnish with fresh coriander and that is you done!

It has been a lovely and long day.  But I had to write this post tonight to share with you'll.... as many of you must be having a busy week but must have taken time to read this blog so many times. This is for all those who have leftover rice, want to eat something flavourful or just love reading my kitchen endeavours. 

Good Night for now   Have a nice day tomorrow!



Noodles making you loose or gain oodles!

A friend of mine last week was stirring some great tasting noodles at work and that reminded me of Maggie - the 2 minute instant noodles!

Most of you all reading this must have gone through a phase of instant noodles or cup noodles.

The craving was so strong that I had to go searching at 5 places to get my hands on the 2 brands I was looking at: Maggie (my old love) and Batchelors super low fat noodles (my latest fascination).

 Finally when I found both, the craving to eat dissappeared as I got distracted by their nutrition display.

The Batchelor's Super Low Fat Noodles seemed attractive and healthy being Low Fat; but the catch was that even though they are low fat noodles - they still contain calories.

The suggested serving size was 1/2 the pack which was 154 Kcal, but how many of us would eat the suggested serving size of 43 g (a small portion)?

 If you landed up ignoring this bit of the most important information and ate the whole pack of 85 g of the noodles then you would consume 308 kal, even though low in fat  (1.6 g).

I was curious and compared it to Masala Maggie (regular instant noodles) and found that the suggested serving (a block of noodles) 80 g was 322 Kcal but acknowledging the fact that it had much higher amount of fat (11.5 g).


So 85 g of Low fat noodles for 308 Kcal v/s 80 g of normal instant noodles for 322 Kcal.



One needs to be careful not only of what one eats but also how much one eats!

 Batchelors noodles are a good option if you can stick to 1/2 pack and add a bit of veggies to fill. But if you ate the whole pack then you could have bargained a complete meal for the same calories or even a regular instant noodles in the same calories but at higher level of fat.

So make right choices.....and Eat healthy!

P.S: I have to say that the Batchelor's super low fat noodles were equally yummy ;-))

Celebrating Julia Child's 100th Birthday today.....(15th August)

What a coincidence!  It's not been long ( I should say 3 days) that my friend had introduced me to Julia Child and Julie Powell and after a whole day gone by I just noticed that Google is celebrating Julia Child's 100th Birthday anniversary with a doddle featuring her.

It features the famous chef in the place she most liked to be: the kitchen with her beautiful trademark pearls. It’s an image that seems to sum up her love of cooking.

To celebrate Julia’s birthday and the indelible mark she left on the culinary world, PBS is showing never-before-seen episodes of her shows as well as episodes of “Cooking With Master Chefs”, which saw Child travel to the kitchens of 16 different world-class chefs. I have to definitely catch these episodes.

One thing that inspires me and will continue to....... 

“I don’t think about whether people will remember me or not. I’ve been an okay person. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve taught people a thing or two. That’s what’s important.” – Julia Child

Citrus Infusing Water Bottle

I came across a pin from Moorea Seal on Pinterest from fab.com, had to share with you all.

It was about the Citrus Infusing Water Bottle....
It has a built-in citrus press that infuses your water with a twist of all-natural citrus flavors, including lemon, lime, and clementine.

The double base allows for easy pressing...

While the sport cap aids hydration on the go!

 On reading this I felt like Revisiting my post on 'Refreshing Drink' ....We could make this flavoured, vitamin water on the go by using this innovative bottle. 

Different ways but one purpose: To avoid the fizzy drinks....and get a great dose of vitamin C ! :-)).

Food my passion!

It was a hurried weekend with a lots to do and thus a lot to share with you all.

It was a total unplanned weekend and with the sun out on Saturday, it meant a quick tidy up and a  rush out of the house to catch some sunshine. I used to take the sunshine for granted back home at it was almost 365 days of sunshine.

I must say the sunshine brings out a different side in me. We went to the park and I was happily swinging with the soft touch of the mild breeze. Then off to some shopping and walking down the aisle to see what is new on the shelves (believe me one of my favourite ways to spend my time and my husband's worst nightmare walking down the aisle seeing my eyes fixed on something or the other).

This whole play and shop session with only a sandwich from morning sent my stomach growling and tempted me to munch on all the wrong things. So thought not to spend too much time making something fancy as otherwise I would have eaten a mini dinner munching on crisps before I actually sat down for one.

I had a quick look through the pantry and found whole wheat noodles and stir fry in the refrigerator so made stir fried noodles. Just a spray of oil, ginger garlic paste browned in it, stir fried the vegetables in it, added salt, pepper and the boiled whole wheat noodles (they taste just like the normal refined flour noodle aka maida). Gave a quick stir like a professional who know what he was doing with his wok....even though I was merely trying.

And in hardly some time I had prepared a hot and yummy dish that had the crunchiness of the vegetables and sprouts and the temptress of the noodles.

Here are a few photos of the quick and simple effort. I was so hungry people that dint even have the patience to present my dish. As I always say, It was just simple and plain healthy dish straight from my kitchen to you!

 After a scrumptious dinner I was all set for a movie that my friend had lend me 'Julie and Julia'. She gave me a sneak peek to the story and aroused my curiosity.She felt it would be something that I would be interested (how right was she) in as it is about an amateur chef 'Julie' who decides to cook every recipe in a cook book from an acclaimed celebrity chef 'Julia Child' and blogs about it. It is a true story of two people and it is adapted from an autobiographical book by Julie Powell's. It is a challenge that she undertakes to try 524 recipes in 365 days! OMG was my first reaction. I have always been this child that would catch up with the cooking shows just with a mere fascination of how the chefs handle their 'instruments' - the vessels with sheer finesse.

There is one cooking show 'Cooking with Kylie Kwong' that my Dad used to specially keep a track of as I would adore the chef Kylie Kwong. Seeing her I truly believed 'Cooking is an art and food an artistic presentation'. Ohhh...how much I hope to meet her one day!

This movie bought all my memories alive and was an inspiration to continue writing my blogs. Especially when you don't even know who is reading your blog and whether people are liking it. It captures all the emotions that go along writing a new blog.....and rightfully puts it as a void that one feels at first, writing for people when you don't even know there is someone out there...only the figures (for me a good 800 page views) showing some ray of hope. But it shows that when one writes with a passion and commitment ......it gives a deep sense of satisfaction and a good way for me to share my passion and enjoy what I like doing most ...cooking healthy!

I am so inspired with the movie that I feel I want to take up the challenge of replicating healthy recipes that I come across everyday...Though ambitious but not over ambitious to say 1 or more  per day, So for me  I think an achievable goal will be at least 1 per week of a new recipe that I haven't tried before and sharing with you all.

What do you all think should I take up this challenge for myself .....difficult one for me as the time for me flies by at work and after work catching up on daily chores.

Hopefully I will continue to be inspired to keep writing. Will see if I have what it really takes to be passionate with food! 

‘The Multigrain Trap’

I had been to the supermarket and came across Pringles MULTIGRAIN on the shelf. I was super excited to have my hands on them, as the first impression would be that multigrain means healthier than the Normal Pringles which are made from potatoes. A rethink warned me that Multigrain does not have to be healthy!

So before I could get my hand down the Pringles tube, I had a look at the nutritional label and what I see “They aren’t significantly healthier than regular Pringles”.

Multigrain Pringles has a serving size suggestion of 30 gms as against 25 gms of regular Pringles. I compared weight against weight and found that 25 gm of both is almost the same in every aspect. Pringles Mutligrain contains 5 calories less, 0.5 gram less fat and 0.2 gram more fibre per 25 grams.

I know what you must be thinking, that even though calorie wise equal, but the source of calorie is healthy. But think again.   

Here’s the catch: Multigrain and whole grain are not exchangeable terms.

Whole grains include all parts of the grain kernel (the bran, germ and endosperm) and are high in fiber.

Multigrain, on the other hand, simply means that a food contains more than one type of grain.

In this case the Multigrain Pringles contain rice flour, corn flour, malted barley flour, wheat bran. The list continues as it also contains dehydrated potatoes, malto dextrin, wheat starch, modified rice starch, sugar, emulsifiers, vegetable oil and salt.

They taste like a combination of tortilla chips and Pringles and for some reason I enjoyed the Pringles Multigrain Classic crisps, limiting myself to a few.

So How do the Multigrain fare in comparison to original Pringles?

Multigrain Pringles are nutritionally just like regular Pringles. It is just camouflaged as a healthy pick and does not provide whole grains.....it is multigrain!

Disney Channels ban unhealthy food ads !

Remember the Saturday morning sitting in pyjamas on a day off from school watching Disney channel. Everyone around the world will relate to the famous Disney characters like Tom and Jerry, Popeye, Donald Duck, Flintstones and the list goes on. There are a few of my favourites that I continue to catch glimpses of even now.

Disney characters and stories always leave an impression on young minds. The commercial ads that feature on this TV station  have always created a buzz and demand among children.

So an initiative worth a huge applaud comes from Disney banning ads of unhealthy foods.

Disney's new guidelines include these maximum allowable limits for foods per serving:

• Breakfast cereal (1 ounce by weight): 130 calories, 10 grams of sugar, 200 milligrams of sodium.


• Snacks (1 ounce or 30 grams): 150 calories, 6.25 grams of sugar per 100 calories, 220 milligrams of sodium.


• Juice (8 ounces): 140 calories, no added sugar, no added sodium.


• Yogurt (4 ounces): 120 calories, 15 grams of sugar.


• Complete meal: 600 calories, 2.5 grams of sugar per 100 calories, 740 milligrams of sodium.

So there won't be any more candy, sugary cereal or fast food on TV with the morning cartoons.

This initiative is in lines with Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move' campaign which aims at raising awareness on childhood obesity. She will also star in Disney's Healthy Living ad campaign along with Disney stars to spread the message that eating well and exercises can be fun!




I think this will very clearly send the message to kids that nutritious foods can be fun and tasty.


Walt Disney has also introduced a symbol called Mickey Check.This symbol will appear on healthy licenced food which will catch the attention of children, encouraging them to eat right and have fun too.

So popeye was right all along ....encoraging many kids to eat spinach!

Refreshing Drink

Made vitamin water at home... (tasted like a virgin mojito) with a little twist....lots of mint leaves, lemon juice, lemon wedges and also there were satsumas lying at home....so added wedges of these too...crushed them a little and added lots of ice, pinch of salt.....made a really refreshing drink....good way to avoid the fizzy drinks....and great dose of vitamin C ! :-)).