crispy egg sambal

I was bored with the usual egg curry, i used to make every fortnight and decided to do something different with egg. So this is what I ended up with and I am planning on trying the following with different gravies until I am bored... If you have tried something similar, please share your recipes too!

Ingredients -

Eggs - 4

Onion - 1 big cut length-wise ( i think small onions will suit this gravy best. I didnt have any at home!)

Tomato - 2 medium cut fine

Red chilly - fresh or dry (a good cupful, this is the only spice, so be generous)

cilantro - a bunch

pepper corns - 5 to 6

garlic - 1 pod

Procedure -

1. Make a thick, sufficiently crispy omelet with the eggs ( I used just the egg whites to keep it healthy). Add a tbsp of milk while beating the eggs to make the omelet fluffy. Dribble some pepper powder and salt in the omelet mix. Cut the omelet into 1 inch cuboids.

2. Saute the onions until golden brown.

3. Add the tomatoes and keep it in low flame.

4. In the meanwhile beat the garlic, red chilly, peppercorns and cilantro into a semi-fine paste.

5. Once the tomatoes are cooked, add this red chilly paste.

6. Add salt and enough water to form a gravy and let it simmer for at least 15 minutes.

7. Once the gravy thickens, add omelet pieces to it.

8. Mix the omelet with the gravy and take care not to break it. ( the thicker the omelet, the easier to mix )

9. Let it simmer for not more than 5 minutes.

Serve it hot with Phulkas or Sambol or rice. Tastes best when eaten immediately!

For those who dont eat egg, I think the gravy should go well with tofu! :)

Note: Sambal and Sambol were names I picked from a Srilankan book.

Sambal is any gravy made from red chilly.

Sambol is a easy rice dish that is had with spicy curries.

* Beat 5 to 6 small red onions, 2 to 3 garlic pods, couple of red chilles and few green chillies into a crunchy paste.

* Fry this mixture with little oil until the raw smell leaves it.

* Add a handful of coconut to this sauteed mix and fry till its golden brown.

* Add salt and mix it with a cup of cooked rice.

In the original version, along with coconut, dry fish is also added.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! Dont forget to mail me the miles...

Every mile counts!! :)

Nature's bounty

I have never been a vegetable hater, but neither have i ever enjoyed them as much as i do these days. I love them fresh most of the time or just blanched/boiled, but not overcooked. Al Dente' works great on veggies as it does on pasta! Each day, I skirt the salad bar at work for a satisfying side, and I love the falafel guy a few blocks from work thanks to the zillion veggies he adds to my sandwich. Here's a list of my ten comparatively new veggie and leafy loves, tell me if you share these!

1. Arugula : This peppery little leaf adds a burst of flavor to your salad, just drizzle olive oil & you have a fab side!

2. Asparagus: I save the tops for the last as they are soo yum!

3. Beets & more beets: They are so sweet that they make a great dessert!

4. Sweet potatoes/Yams: Love these starches over the blander potato anytime!

5. Pumpkin: I like it as a soup or in my vathal kozambu but the boiled version isn't too bad!

6. Avocado: Nature's butter is as great for the face & hair as a pack as it is for your salad.

7. Zucchini: Amazing how this humble veggie transforms when grilled with olive oil!

8. Broccoli: Crisp & yum, need i say more, i know you guys heart too!

9. Sugar snap peas: great in Salads, Asian food & by themselves!

10. Edamame: The best bean, period.

Spinach soup

This is a twist on the traditional Palak panner that packs a punch & is just as if not more yum! Sudan & I licked our bowls clean when I made this last time, so here goes:

For two servings you will need:

1. two green chillies
2. one ripe tomato
3. Half a red onion
4. a few peppercorns
5. two pods of Garlic
6. A cup of spinach
7. a few cloves & cinnamon
8. A tablespoon of cream (optional, but it does make it more yum!)
7. Salt to taste
8. Oil

Add a tablespoon of oil & saute the spinach until it is cooked. Blend to a lush green paste.
Puree tomatoes to a fine paste
Chop the garlic, onions & green chillies finely & saute in oil with cloves & cinnamon.
Add the pureed tomatoes & salt to the mix & cook to a boil.
Powder the peppercorn & add to the mix.
Finally add the spinach & the cream & heat for 5 minutes. You should not overcook the spinach.

Enjoy with dippable bread sticks!

The soup that made itself!

The day was a perfect soup day, except for my mind-numbing drive back from work in the heavy snow! The snow is not so magical when you are behind the wheel and worse when all you have is AR Rahman for company! :(

But I managed to reach home safe and sound and make the soup that made a hearty dinner!
Let me call it the medley soup, for I used whatever I could find in the refrigerator, the snow having thwarted my grocery shopping plans!
So here goes...

Ingredients -
All the wonderful veggies you can find. I added -
1. Tomatoes - 5 to 6 small
2. one large onion
3. one yellow beet
4. handful shredded cabbage
5. Carrot - one large
6. Bell peppers - half
7. garlic - 4 to 5 flakes, cut finely
8. ginger - one inch cube, cut finely
9. one small cup - mixed lentils. I used black-eyed peas and kidney beans
10. A bunch of basil and handful cut cilantro
11. Parsley/oregano flakes
12. Red chilly flakes
13. Ground black pepper - 1 tsp
14. butter - 2 cm slice cuboid

Procedure

* Add the butter to the heavy bottom pressure pan.
* add 2 tsp of olive oil.
* once the oil-butter mix sizzles, dribble parsley, organo and red chilly flakes in comfortable quantity. You can feel the flavor from the strength of the aroma.
* to this add the cut garlic and ginger.
* Saute the onions until light golden brown
* Add all the veggies and lentils except tomato and cabbage
* Keep adding parsley or basil as required at this stage.
* Once the veggies are sufficiently smothered with the flakes, place tomatoes cut by four and spread the cabbage on top.
* Now drop the ground black pepper and remaining basil leaves
* Add enough water to just sink all the veggies.
* Add enough salt and pressure cook for 5 to 6 whistles.

Tada... Serve hot with cut cilantro and lightly fried cut bread in olive oil.

The main ingredients are - parsley, basil, oregano and crushed black pepper!They give the aroma and flavor!

Enjoy!!!

The Devil takes over

When you come back home tired from the day's work and by merely thinking how at every step life can push you down and after sweating off all the irritation at the gym, the next thing in any sane person's mind I presume will be FOOD!

I was craving food today after the workout and although I was determined to make soup to contribute to the Soup Month that Divu enlightened me to, I decided to be lazy just for a day and make something that would have less of an aftermath effect (I mean the extensive clean up after cooking). So here comes an easy instant cooking recipe for times and days such as aforementioned!!

Mexican Chicken or whatever you want to call it

1. Chicken breasts - take as many as you want or enough to fill your baking tray
2. Hot/Medium Hot/ Mild Salsa of your choice
3. Mozarella cheese
4. Lime
5. Salt
6. Cloves of garlic

Procedure :

1. Wash the Breasts and place on the baking tray

2. Pour or apply the salsa on top of the chicken - put enough to cover it well

3. My tweaking : Squeeze a lemon on top of the chicken breasts, sprinkle a little salt, chop some garlic cloves (5-6) if you are a Garlic lover

4. Bake at 350F for 20mins

5. Pull it out and grate Mozarella cheese on top

6. Bake for another 15mins

7. Food ready to be served with Rice and Pita chips - If you want you can make the Rice-a-Roni rice that you get at the store since they are flavored.

Warning: Since it involves cheese it might be slightly tilted towards the high calorie side but then its definitely worthwhile when Time and the Lion growling in your tummy are a concern!!

(Chicken) Egg drop Soup

To commemorate the occasion of National Soup month and also being an ardent fan of soups(I even bought a soup recipe book long ago!), I decided to go on a soup dinner tonight despite of a not-so-interested-about-soups husband.. lucky for me, the weather is in my favor :D

While I was going through the recipe book to pick a soup, I was in a fix.. there were about 500 varieties! And the ingredients were from all over the world representing different climates and cultures.. I did not even hear about soups served cold till I came to the USofA. When I was really young and was introduced to the we-dine-out-of-home-for-special-occasions-only culture, the only two soups I used to see on the menu in the restaurants of Tirupati were the Tomato soup and the Veg/Chicken Egg drop soup aka Sweet corn soup. So I decided to make my favorite soup of childhood :)

Ingredients:

• Creamed style sweet corn can (you can find it in the canned food section)
• Chicken breast (cut into small pieces)- one
  
• Corn starch (not cornmeal)- 2tbspn
  
• Egg whites - 2
  
• Salt to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups water
  

Procedure:

• Boil the water in a pan.
• After the water boils, salt it and add the sweet corn from the tin.
• Let it boil again. Now add the chicken breast meat and let it boil till it cooks(for about 3 mins)
• Mix the cornstarch in a separate bowl with a tbspn of water and add this to the soup. You will notice that the soup thickens.. you can always add some more or less cornstarch depending on how you like the consistency of the soup but always remember to keep stirring the soup continuously while adding the thickening agent(cornstarch) so no lumps would form.
• Add the Egg white and whisk it in the bowl so there will be no big chunks of egg. Egg whites cook very quick so this step can also be done with the flame switched off.
• Finally add freshly ground black pepper and Enjoy!

Note:

• This soup should serve about four people as a meal.
  
• As this belongs to the family of Chinese soups, it can be served with soy sauce, chili vinegar and the likes as enjoyed by you.
• For a vegetarian version, cut carrots and green beans into very small cubes(chewable) and add it to the boiling water after step1 and boil it till they cook.. the rest would be the same in both cases except of-course you skip the chicken and egg in your soup.

Be it a homemade or canned or a takeout, lets keep the soups coming for the last week left in the month!

Till then enjoy your bowl of hearty soup!

This and Thats

It is wonderful to see a salad-soup-all things good explosion on the blog! Lets keep up the good word!

Eating to the yellow beet –

Following mithra’s mention of yellow beets, I fished it from the prolific, heavenly green smelling section of ‘whole foods’! Though it’s a little pricey, this colorful salad tastes awesome and I will consider it a delicacy for I cant find it in the local Market Basket and hits it heavy on the budget! It’s my mid-afternoon snack for the day!

The desi twist to salads –

I have taken it from my mother. Be it the carrot raita mithra mentioned, or a salad or grated roots, a dribble of tadka ( ½ tsp of oil, little mustards, broken red chilly ) over the salad makes it more devouring, especially raitas for biriyani.

Don’t be fooled by ma po tofu at PF Changs –

Yesterday, I ordered ma po tofu at PF changes. It read tofu in garlic, red chilly sauce with steamed broccoli. Though it tasted awesome, but it was deep fried tofu lined with steamed broccoli! For all the goodness of broccoli and side of brown rice, I couldn’t wolf down more than a few tofu pieces, for it filled by food pipe with grease! It was the healthy broccoli for dinner instead, not just from my share, but the veggies kept aside on sandhya’s plate too! Sigh!

Facial fix –

When you are bored of eating all the salads, just squeeze all the good carrot juice and apply it to your face for the orangey glow or crush the tomato like a scrub on your face to eliminate the sunburns!

Iphone app for farmers market –

I am glad, I can find a farmers market nearby from the Iphone now (Locavore 2.0)! Though I am sure, we North-easterners have to wait it out until spring to have any open. Now I know where I will spend most of my summer money! ☺

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why don’t we honor the ‘National soup month’ on our blog?? Let’s aim to make atleast one new soup from the website/cookery book/top of your head anything for the coming week and post the recipe and experience!

Let me know what you think!!

what soup are you?

There is nothing like cuddling next to the fire place with a warm bowl of soup on a cold day.  It is such a feel good meal which keeps you so full and happy after a long winter day. I came across this article and wanted to share it here.. did you know that this month is celebrated as the National Soup Month?

Soup Therapy

To honor this, I decide to have soup for dinner tomorrow. ;)

Happy soup eating! :D

Going Green!

 I used to hate anything and everything which could be categorized as 'good-for-you' when I was a kid but guess I am all grown up now. sigh! Yup. that's my dinner plate... seriously! very proud and showing-off :D

 Recently my husband got determined to go on a 'healthy' diet spree(good for him). That should explain i guess :)

I cribbed when I was also included in the plan but a simple lemon vinaigrette with a huge pile of spring salad mix made me happy. Big fan.(doesn't mean I am going to order a salad if I go out for dinner:D) Combine it with a protein(grilled fish/chicken breast or tofu for a vegetarian option) and a fruit for dessert.. you will feel so proud of yourself after an amazing workout. I did for sure!

Here is how I made my venigrette:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil(E-V-O-O as coined by Racheal Ray)- 2 tbspns
Freshly squeezed Lemon Juice(makes alot of difference)- 1tbspn
Salt- 1tspn(or less depending on you- I never measure)
freshly ground black pepper- 1/2tspn

Just whisk it all in a salad bowl(and the consistency changes immediately). Now toss your prewashed salad leaves until coated and Enjoy! That is it.. No kidding.


Note: Always add the vinaigrette right before you serve so the leaves stay crunchy.
 
You can also add

• Chopped almonds or walnuts or pecans for some crunch.

• Sun dried tomatoes for the chewy texture.

• Boiled egg whites for protein.
  

• Garlic and herb croutons for a bonus ;)
  

I am sure there are many many more variations on the basic salad recipe I posted here.. will keep updating as and when I try them personally :)

Healthy Eating everyone :)

PS: Hey Divs, Refreshing your memory, incase you got carried away, I am not on the PATH but enjoying the light meals and everyday workouts for now :D

The austere life

Almost four years ago in Chennai, I had attended a course at Isha yoga foundation. It had comprised of a one month program of pranayams, meditations, good food habits and all things peaceful. I had totally enjoyed it and even put it into practice for almost six months afterwards. And then MS happened, US happened and like all Masters Students, I began to neglect the body and mind!

I had taken away a lot of good things from the course; to love yoga being one of them and I have since attended many yoga lessons at gym and the ‘backbay yoga studio’ lessons in Boston during my internship there. And I also make an honest effort to begin the day with yoga.

Now that I am trying to bring a much needed balance into my diet and exercise regime, I tried to evoke the flavors of the natural foods; I had a chance of eating during the course. The food was all vegetarian and made with natural ingredients and nothing processed. I am sure, I can’t adopt such eating habits for life until sans teeth and coddling grandchildren, but I sure did make it a point to supplement my dinner or lunch with some of these interesting recipes. Here are a few recipes, I recall from the top of my head. They make great salad recipes –

          • Grated beets(yes! I have become a fan!), lemon juice, green chillies, shredded pudina and cilantro,   salt, dry roasted peanuts.

          • Grated carrots, green gram sprouts, grated ginger, lemon, basil leaves, salt

         • Finely cut cucumber, finely cut tomato, neem leaves, fresh pepper corns, moosambi juice, salt 
          •  peeled oranges, fresh grated cabbage, walnuts, methi leaves, grated coconut, cut red chillies

They are all mostly a blend of – one or more fresh veggies + something sour or bitter + something spicy + something citrus + something with a strong flavor.

So mix and match them up, all those veggies and lentils you see around, lying in your kitchen shelf! If you do fix up a great combo, do share them!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a happy note, I have come to know that Sush and her better half are on a salad drive and on the path to achieving the 20LBs-less before march challenge!  And I am hoping its because of that, Sush hasnt posted any new yummy recipes! 

I have been on a sinusoidal curve --
Skipped 3 days workout due to winter indoor allergy, though I snow shoveled :)
Avoided eating rice. substituted dosa with wheat dosas.
Killed it all by having an all KFC dinner (it was wedding day and N used it to advantage for the unhealthy fix)
Trying to get back with salad addendum to dinners!

Hope everyone else is keeping up their goals too! :)

Happy eating and don’t forget to mail me your miles for the week!

Desi cookies!

This weekend the chef in me was inspired by my exceedingly sweet tooth. I craved one of Amma's perfectly baked biscuits, reminiscing their wonderful baked smell and the golden color. So off I went to the local grocer in my aim to recreate the recipe. It turned out pretty cool, as its all gone now, I am happy with the result.

So here's the recipe (Proportions matter here):

A cup of all purpose flour

1/3 cup of confectioners sugar (you can powder regular sugar in a blender as well)

1/3 cup of butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda (this is the egg substitute to make the cookie crumbly)

2% milk added as suitable when you knead.

Knead all ingredients together such that there are no lumps. You want a chapati doughy consistency.

Roll out the dough into a thick circle and cut out cookies with a cutter or a tumbler rim. (alternately you can make small balls & press down with a flat cup into cookie rounds for a more homemade look)

Preheat oven to 350F. Bake for 15 minutes until brown on top.

Enjoy!

The Snow Shoveler

A weird adaptation of 'the solitary reaper' 
;) :p

She loves the snow

And the peace it brings

Crystal white flakes

And the mellow it feigns

For it might last a fortnight

And never cease

Or tumble overnight

And dump a few feet

She loves it even the day after

With yellow sun and cold blue skies

Making the world a prickly bright

Roads lined a goo-ish brown

And walking makes a pulpy sound!

For she is but, well armed

With thermals, jackets and god knows what;

Bearing a shovel she completes her ascent,

Into the path of milky pleasant

Oh she digs, she digs!

Layers and layers of stubborn white sand

Sometimes wet, sometimes light

Almost heavy but yields midflight

  

Over the shoulder she throws

Powdery mass of water in guise

Until the dark tar is unearthed

Shiny, shimmery

And white washed

Under layers of warmers and more

She perspires a melancholy sore

Burning easy calories she does

Rowing, curling, crunching and all

Workout is what shoveling is

Care must be met when stepping on ice

For the back must be never arched

Bend only the knees

And keep working the arms

For many snow storms

She wait, she waits

To burn the unexpected calorie

And let the muscle tone

Snow is a lot of fun

She says

Love it, burn it, end up all fresh

The white world isn’t all gloom and squelch

And if you still hate the pallid spread

Fear not and head to my dwell

Give a helping hand

And shed a few pounds

Shoveling, panting, warming and all


-By Divya Durgadas

Hyderabadi Dum biriyani!

Whenever we head to NJ, we have made it a point not to miss 'paradise biriyani'. It is by far the best dum biriyani I have had! Spicy and chatak! :)


Considering we Bostonions or should I say Tyngsborough-nions ( now thats a mouthful!) do not have the good luck of indian restaurants in the Mass area, I had taken on the project to bring good indian food home!
In one such mission, I had tried my friend Annie's dum biriyani recipe. Over the many times i made it, I have made addendums and improvised it... So here's the recipe, inspired by Ann's --

Ingredients

chicken - leg pieces - 5 or 6 OR 2 thighs cut in cubes


If its leg pieces, go for the smaller size of chicklets. otherwise chicken thighs should work fine(Sush had given a tip about thighs being better than breasts! ... I am sure that argument doesn't hold ground for anything other than chicken (it was a non-veg joke! sigh!)


Pudina/mint - 7 to 8 sprigs.
dhania/coriander - one handful bunch
Green chillies - around 8
thick curds - 2 cups
garlic pods - 5 to 6
egg - 1
ginger -3/4 inch cube
Garam masala
Chilly powder
Basmati rice - 3 cups
Onions - 2 big
coconut milk - 2 Tbsp

Procedure

( I )Preparing the marinade
1. Beat the curd smooth. Plop the egg into it and wisk it well. The egg makes the chicken softer.
2. Grind garlic, ginger, coriander, pudina, green chilles into a thick coarse chutney like consistency. Do not add water. 

(careful not to add more than 1 or 2 pudina sprigs at this stage, else the biriyani will be very minty)

3. Add this green paste to the beaten curd-egg mixture.
4. Add 2 tsps of chilly powder and 2 tablespoons of garam masala powder and required salt to the mixture.
5. Now add the chicken to this marinade and let it sit for atleast 2 hours!


( II ) In the mean time -
1. Cut one and half onions finely criss cross. Cut the remaining half length-wise.
2. Cut a few strands of coriander and 3 to 4 sprigs of pudina.
3. Soak the 3 cups of Basmati rice.


(III) Once the marinade has sat for almost 2 hours -
1. Add little oil to a low bottom vessel.
2. Add jeera and sompf to the oil. Once they sizzle, add the finely cut onions.
3. Once the onions are fried to golden brown, add the chicken marinade.
4. Let it sit on the stove for atleast 15 to 20 minutes, while you intermittently mix it.


(IV) While the chicken marinade cooks -
1. In a heavy bottom vessel, add a little ghee.
2. Fry lightly--3 to 4 cardamom pods, black cardamom, half inch cinnamon stick, 1 or 2 cloves, star anise and 3 or 4 pudina leaves
3. To this add sufficient water, may be 2 to 3 cups, depending on the size of your vessel.
4. Add 2 Tbsps of coconut milk to this.
5. Add necessary salt. Don't forget the salt at this stage, otherwise, you can never mix the rice with salt later on.
5. Drain the soaked Basmati rice and reserve.
6. Once the water boils, add the basmati rice to it.
7. Keep checking to see how much the rice has cooked. Once it is half cooked, take it off the gas stove and drain immediately. Usually this takes 5 minutes from the time the water boils.
8. Fork the drained basmati with a dallop of ghee.
9. Preheat the oven to 350.


(V) Once the chicken marinade is 3/4th cooked and the curd gravy sufficiently reduced -
1. In a long flat baking dish, smear the bottom surface with a thin layer of ghee.
2. Pour the 3/4th cooked chicken marinade to the dish.
3. Spread the coriander and punida cut in step II on top of the marinade.
4. Evenly spread the drained and forked half cooked Basmati on top of this chicken gravy.
6. Now fry the onions cut length wise in step II, until they are deep brown and semi-crispy. Spread them on top of the spread basmati.
7. Dribble a little color powder on top of the rice (optional).
8. The oven should have attained the 350 mark by now. Cover the layered biriyani with aluminum foil and let it bake in the oven for 20 to 25 min.
9. Once you take it out of the oven, take a pic to post on facebook (optional) ;)
10. Mix the cooked rice and marinade layers nicely, but careful not to break the rice too much.


Serve hot with mirchi ka salan and raita :)


Other options --

1. Boil eggs and insert them into the biriyani layers before placing in the oven.
2. Add ghee fried cashews and curry leaves to top the biriyani, if you are cooking it for a guest! You don't want the empty calories :)
3. My MIL adds all the left over uncuttable whole chicken bits into the marinade. It simply adds to the flavor, but cannot be eaten. I for one, hate bones, so avoid it!


Though I agree, its a makeshift for dum..Since there is no dum except for a convention oven, the taste doesn't disappoint at all ! :)


For the vegetarian version -
1. No marination required.
2. Start at step II
3. Fry the onions, followed by 2 tomatoes finely cut. Add the garam masala and chilly powder and the green paste made in step I. Add the veggies. Add the curd. Let the gravy be only half or 1/4th cooked before pouring it into the baking dish!
4. Remaining steps are the same!


The recipe serves 4 ravenous adults or 6 adults mildly hungry! :)


This is one of the easiest recipes, if you haven't ventured into non-veg cooking, or you wish to cook it for your better half, like I did! Since, I am not a fan of the chicken in the biriyani, though I love the rest of the biryani, I get N to cut and marinate the chicken for me! The rest is easy work!!


Hope the recipe helps.! Let me know if you tried it!
And I definitely dare the vegetarians to resist the urge to try this awesome dish! :)


Happy eating! :)

Pep up the pepper rasam

Not only is a snow storm brewing for tonight in Mass, I am brewing lots of pepper rasam as well. I have been feeling under the weather since morning and I have already downed a few galleons of hot water and pepper rasam!

To top it, N made some awesome pepper chicken as well from the wahrewah recipe! So I am all pepper-ed up right now.

Well! the purpose of the post isn't pepper rasam alone, but a secret ingredient, which complements pepper rasam for an instant cold/fever relief. I had been offered that a few years ago and it worked wonders.

So the next time you are under the weather with sore throat, cold and the likes, add a shot of brandy or scotch or rum to a full mug of pepper rasam. Microwave/boil it till its pipping hot. savor it down!

Though an instant reliever, I keep it as my last resort before popping tylenol for a night's sleep!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. And dont forget to sign up for the miles...!

---------------------------------------
Before I forget, we have a new member to the blog... my cousin Veena. She is an ardent workout freak, who is also a great foodie. She believes in eat well and play harder and is totally against dieting! Hope to see more posts from her. Until then checkout her blog on frizbee leagues here.

Workout in disguise

Ever played Ultimate (Frisbee)??? If not and if you have enjoyed playing Frisbee in India then ultimate is worth a try. I was introduced to Frisbee by my friend who mentioned about his game and was wondering if I cared about playing considering that I am this sports/adventure freak! My image about Frisbee when he used the word F R I S B E E was very close to Fetch since that’s the only version of Frisbee that we are exposed to in India. Least did I know what ultimate meant here and the moment I set foot on the ground, my first reaction – “S*** I am F***ed”! With time I learnt the ins and outs of the game and now I am addicted!! Here goes the game and some tips:

1.Pretty close to American football just that the receiver cannot run once the Frisbee comes into their possession! Alas….or else I could have sprinted!! Jus kidding. ;)

2.Each game lasts for 1.5hours – a total of 13-15 points to be achieved depending on the league you play in (Spring league- 15, Summer league – 13, Fall league – 13)

3.If you love the game and wish to win then you will end up running so much that you would realize it only when every part of your body hurts after the game – Neck to feet! AAAH….The sweet pain of a FUN filled workout.

4.7 players on the field at each time

5.Ideal situation: 4 men and 3 women. However, for ages women have been pretty lame about playing and hence many times you end up with either 5 men and 2 women or 6 men and 1 woman. Sucks, but having 7 players on the field is Mandatory (unless it is one of the nasty Chicago weather days and 50% of the players don’t show up)

6.While on Offense :
a. Disc has to keep moving and cannot stay with one player for more than 10 seconds
b. If a player is unable to throw it to his teammates then game is turned – disc given to the opposition team- I hate it when that happens.
c. Forehand throws are more preferred than backhand throws since the defense team tends to force forehand to screw you up.
d. Once you pass on the disc to your peers…..run ahead towards the goal , make a cut and help your peer to throw it to you…don’t worry someone else will make the second cut to help you out. And the vicious circle continues until the disc reaches the end zone.
e. It’s a B**** when there is a turnover at the end zone and believe me it happens 90% of the times.
f. If you are person in the end zone make sure you catch the disc or else hell is let loose on you – not really ….Its more like you let hell loose on yourself if you wanted to be the STAR!
g. Enjoy every moment of the game coz if you don’t enjoy you will never play it well.
7. While on defense:
a. One suggestion – Keep your eyes on the person you are guarding and on the disc – sometimes I wonder if having Looking London Talking Tokyo kinda eyes help???
b. Run like a watchdog that has been let loose. That’s what I do to intimidate my opponent…..ARRRRGGGHHHH!!
c. Try your best to be in the path between the disc and your opponent –You have done your job then.
d. Try and guard an opponent who doesn’t believe in running much for that lets you save up your energy for offense!! See my point???

Having said that I think I have covered all the tips that I followed in the 4 leagues I played in. With time and more experience I will fill you guys with more inside news and tips. Until Spring league I let you get mentally prepared to play an ultimate game wherever you are and inspire others too!! Trust me…Its lots of FUN and a workout in disguise.

Run Baby Run

Lets aim a modest 95 miles before the end of 2010!! Who all are game?

To sign up simply leave a comment. You can email me the miles you have covered at the end of each week, on fridays. I will update it on the sidebar of this blog!

Rules:

* Count the miles you run/walk on treadmill or outside/marathons/5K

* All other activities ( wii active, eliptical, cycling, yoga, aerobics ) count 15 min of workout towards 1 mile.

* household work, long walks during shopping and the like cannot be  counted!

* Only activities aimed at workout can be counted!

So pull up your sock... Kindle the heat... Run a mile... Let it be displayed....Be motivated!

I have a surprise gift for the first person to complete more than 95 miles!

Hope you all join!

Shocking pink, green and orange!

How often do we go overboard with buying  the mesmerizingly stacked veggies, which you can't cook within a week or two and toss it in the garbage with a heavy heart?

I used to do that often, until I learnt to buy in sufficient quantities, though even now, I somehow find one or two veggies in excess at the end of the week.

Here are a few plausible plans i have come up with ; Will be great if all of you can add your tips to it as well!

* A pack of 4 beets from Market Basket - toss the beets into veggie kurma, make stir fried beets for side to rasam rice; When more are left over ( which was my case..) - Use the extractor to beat beets and carrot into an awesome sugarless fresh juice which i have been having before morning work outs! The remaining smooth pulp, add it to chapati dough for shocking pink phulkas! :)

* I have been so happy with the juice idea, that I am planning on implementing it with green veggies as well.. And in prospection, I think its a great way to make kids eat veggies... Imagine presenting them with pink,green,orange chapatis! :)

* Raw mango which i often buy for avial. Since i don't use the whole of it, the remainder is great for -

sev puri toppings

Add it to dal tadka instead of tomato

Make mango pulihora (its a andhra dish)

* Excessive tomatoes - make tomato chutney for dosas; same with excessive onions.

For the patient ones soups.

* Cabbage - the giant that never seems to be done! I haven't found a great solution, but here is what i do -

cabbage/beans/carrot dry sabji for sambhar rice

cut it long for noodles

Cabbage + dal + coconut gravy for rice

.... and there is still cabbage left over! sigh!

Do post suggestions.. Will be great to know some new ways to eat different veggies and not be intimidated to pick them at the market!

Happy Healthy eating!!

More healthy stuff and a popcorn shocker

NYtimes has become my source of inspiration for all things healthy, and i came across this article yesterday which totally changed my idea about movie theater popcorn:

Movie popcorn shocker

So it will be a small only, no butter please, and only at AMC. What do you guys think?

Speaking of health habits, these days i am loving a handful of walnuts in my special K cereal in the morning, topped with Blueberries, just the way Divya recommends in the last post. I have to balance myself to eat well at lunch to go to the gym in the evening before hunger pangs strike. Strangely enough, cardio at the gym takes away hunger, while weights leave me hungry all the time..

The Choices you make...

The nutri-grain ad starts with the tag line - "one good decision can lead to another"

It shows two days of poor eating habits like donuts-chinese-too much coffee-pint of icecream for dinner. And one day begins with nutri-grain, moves to salad and so forth, winds up with brushing teeth.

I cannot but agree more to the tag line, which was catchy and apt. I have often noticed this in my daily routine, when i begin it on a healthy note.

Recently mithra mentioned the NYtimes article on the time of the day for exercise. I can easily switch from morning to night person or vice-versa; but personally i prefer being a morning person and practice being one. Hence my exercise routine has stuck to wee hours (between 6 and 8) of morning, whether it is suryanamskarams or wii active or jogging outdoors. If I miss the golden hour, I miss my exercise for the day!

And whenever I begin my day burning modest calories, my decisions for the day stay healthy and gay as well! The inbetween-meals hunger attacks are always satiated with fruits alone. the evening-coffee-craving is automatically absent. Drinking lots of water and green tea after lunch comes naturally!

In the famous book "French women don't get fat" the author advocates one tiny dietary change each day, like choosing a smaller latte and then build the change gradually. 

Go ahead ....

* Pop a fruit in your morning cornflakes

* Replace your oil spoon with a smaller size

* Add another cup of water to your daily intake

So what choice did you make today to get the momentum going! ??

Sweet Beginnings :)

Thanks for the intro Div, yea I vowed to co-author and now I vow to be alive unlike my other blog(if you noticed :D). I always wanted to blog because if you know me, I always love to talk. But I realized I am a lot lazier than I thought I was. If only I had the device like Stephen Hawking to convert my thoughts to words and to sentences and to articles.. okay now I am wandering away. The point is I never had a commitment or the motivation. Its always nice to have somebody around to keep you going, especially if you are like me :)

The blog has been aptly titled for me for I am the kind of girl who never categorizes chocolate as 'junk' or 'unhealthy' and drinks green tea every single day to detox my body :D

For my first blog here I want to share my mom's cake recipe which is liked by everybody till date. This recipe was my debut to the culinary world.. my first cooking class from mom :)

Ingredients:

Maida aka all-purpose flour - 1 cup
                             Sugar  - 1 cup
         Vegetable/canola oil - 1 cup
                              Eggs  - 4 large
                 Baking powder  - 1 tsp
                Vanilla essence  - 1/2 tsp

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 330 degrees F

Beat the eggs and sugar with the vanilla essence in a large bowl (my mom used to do this in a mixer jar)

In another bowl mix together the flour and baking powder

Add oil to the dry ingredients and mix well

Now add the eggs n sugar mixture to the batter and mix well

Pour it in a greased and floured 9" baking dish and bake for 55-60 minutes until the toothpick comes out clean

Note:

Adding 4tbspns of unsweetened coco powder along with the dry ingredients will give you a chocolate cake

You can add your choice of nuts to add a little crunch to the cake

Definitely give it a try and let me know how you like it.. Its a foolproof recipe and trust me you can not go wrong with it!

Happy Baking :)

Sush

Carrot Raita!

Taking cue from Divya, who suggests adding shredded carrots to Chapati, here I present a really easy to make dish that is so wonderfully sweet & makes a great accompaniment to chapatis or pulao. It is pretty intuitive, but we manage to wolf it down every single time!

Prep time - 10 mins

1. Shred three carrots finely ( use the smallest holes on your grater)
2. Add to a cup of beaten yogurt
3. temper mustard seeds with green chillies & asafotida & add to yogurt
4. Add salt to taste
5. Mix well. At this point the yogurt must be orange.
6. For the coconut lovers, add a tablespoon of shredded coconut to the mix
enjoy!

The good and ugly

So the holidays do "wonders" to your sleep and eat cycle. This week I have been struggling and juggling to fall asleep at 10 pm and wake up at wee hours of 6 am. And adding to this misery is sweet fancies after dinner; no surprises - I have been treating myself to a handsome scoop of vanilla icecream and dribbling it with qurbani ka meetha, which I scraped to the last drop last night.

On better news, chapatis are back on the lunch menu, after almost a week of rice. The dough has been complemented with flax-seed powder. For the non-sea-food eating junta out there, its a wonderful supplement of omega-3 fatty acids. You can read its benefits right here. And before you cringe about the healthy taste, it adds no flavor at all!

Another easy trick to ensure you get your daily dose of veggies, is to add grated carrots/beets/radish to the chapati dough.

Happy eating and exercising ! :)

Interesting read on ny times

Link here to a very interesting post on NY times which may dictate your workout time :)

NYTimes health nutrition

I personally agree with this article, i find my heart rates change as noted..

Fresh beginnings

During my ten day winter break when I did a series of sweet nothings, which included making of a snowman, I had been secretly inspired by Julie and Julia. More than the culinary twist in the movie, I had loved the spirit; the wonderful thing called motivation that keeps one inspired to diet, eat, run a mile, read, learn, cook, blog and live!

So in the endeavor to get there (wherever it is you want to) I am taking with me a group of lovely ladies, who have vowed to co-author this blog and keep it alive. Be it your new wii active (yes! I am a proud owner and a show off!) , banana bread recipe (courtesy sush), a new travel tip (mithra), fashion statement stories (sandy), dum biriyani and new detox diet (Ann), bollywood dance steps (Sappu)… Be it anything, share it, blog it, flaunt it – like no tomorrow!

Looking forward to many posts… I am ending mine with my New Year resolutions –

DD guarantees, swears in blood and sweat –

• To give up chips cravings (a difficult task with a husband who eats chips even with Dosas!) (Sandhya! Are you listening??)

• To lose at least 5Lbs by the end of 2010.

• To learn to read tamil as fluently as possible.

• To learn to make satisfactory conversation in telugu (Ann I am assigning you as the guru)

• To make one new recipe every week! (suggestions will be greatly appreciated)

• To run a half – marathon (sush name the time, date and place)

I will be tracking the progress in my future posts. Until next time…