For love of rotis

My love for rotis, different types and sizes, is my only trait thats not evidently south-indian :) I can practically go without rice for months without temptation. It caught on from my mother, who had in quest for a healthier family meal, learnt the art of making perfect bubbled phulkas during her years in Pune. She can fix the rotis from almost anytype of flour. Later she moved to carrot parathas, cabbage teplas, kulchas, aaloo parathas, rumali rotis and more.

Her phulkas still remained a master piece with every roti practically round and bubbling like a dream on the gas flame. And when smothered with a spoonful of ghee, I would gobble down way more than the stomach's capacity. I took a while to get my rotis in shape and another pregnant pause to get them to "phul" completely and the gas flame is a huge weakness for the phulka lover in me!For the same reason, gujju and marwadi food! :)

Considering N is a cringer for rotis and it is with utmost pain he manages to eat them for lunch every weekday, I ensure I give him the complete benefit of hogging rice on weekends. That also means my experiments with rotis are eaten by me alone; while N sticks to the traditional phulka and doesnt venture further. I have tried jowar and besan -di- roti and loved both. I have also ventured a lot into kakdi/beetroot/methi/pudina parathas.

So this time it was Bajra ki roti on the menu. I had it many years before at a rajasthani place in hyd. I hadnt realised it was an art to make it. Since the flour doesnt have enough gluten to hold it, it cannot be spread with the roti roller. It has to be done by hand. Nevertheless, I struggled quiet a bit, youtubed for help and finally managed it just fine in the end. It was totally yum with punjabi rajma with dahi on the side :)

Are you a roti fan too? Have you tried making anyhing new? How did it turn out?

Healthy eating everyone! Hope to see more posts.

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In case you are interested -

That's the way the cookie crumbles :) !

I already made it pretty clear that I am a big time chocoholic.. Anything that has chocolate in it, it becomes my instant favourite :) Infact I have turned my husband into a choco-addict as well.. Muuuhahaha (u know.. the devilish laugh).  He literally begs me to make chocolate treats/desserts now.. Life is bliss :D. Today while I was drinking green tea, I had this craving for a cookie with warm melting chocolate inside.,the next thing I know, I was on a search for some recipe with the ingredients from my baking shelf and preferrably a heathier version  and I found this.. It boasts of 21% fewer calories, 42% less saturated fat and 14% less fat than the original recipe but I personally felt there was nothing major under the healthy category except for the whole wheat flour and the amount of butter used.. that's good enough for me.. all the mind game I say! It also fits in  the bake-a-thon month thingie we have going here (I am under the impression that month = till there are enough contributions or till somebody comes up with a different concept :D). Also following suggestions of Divya and inspirations of other blog sites, I decided to venture into a new hobby.. photographing food! This is my debut, using Sandeep's SLR.. I am pretty excited about the whole deal.. So please comment/suggest on any pictures and recipes..will be happy and humble to accept them. I guess I have listed all my excuses and buried my guilt for indulging in chocolate pleasures so lets get started with the recipe..

Ingredients

3/4    cup granulated sugar

3/4    cup packed brown sugar

1/2    cup butter, softened

1/2    cup canola oil

1       teaspoon vanilla

1       egg

2       cups whole wheat flour

1       teaspoon baking soda

1/4    teaspoon salt

3/4    cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Procedure

1.    Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, beat sugars, butter, oil, vanilla and egg with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Beat in flour, baking soda and salt until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

2.    On ungreased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, drop dough by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart.

3.    Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until very light golden brown (centers will be soft). Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

This recipe yields 3 1/2 dozen cookies.

Source:Eat Better America

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Looks like someone has been patient enough to teach novices about food photography. Thought I should share the link. It looked really useful.

http://www.cookingandme.com/2006/07/food-photography-for-food-bloggers.html

What kind of hungry are you?

Yesterday I spent  hours "working-from-home" by the window, expecting a snow-white scene to unfold and a blizzard to envelope my brownish yellow grass. But, as the day unwound, I watched the warning on weather.com turn from red to orange to nothing and was left with 8 mm of snow instead of the predicted 8 inches! Like someone said.."they just messed up the metrics"! 

The point of the post wasn't the snow or the lack of it really... but the hunger pangs that seemed to gnaw harder while I was at home! Almost four years back, when I had gained a lousy fifteen pounds in three months (blame it on the overdose of dating one does strictly pre-marriage times, sadly with the same guy..) anyways.. I am still trying to lose the left overs from that era and striving hard to fit into my skinny jeans again!

My first intitiative to lose the pounds was to barely run 1.25 miles, pant like a dog, drink an iota of milk in the name of breakfast, let the stomach rumble until it hurt, eat a meagre lunch, feel proud of it and then 3 pm would strike; the hunger devil (as coined by my cousin villus) would cause me to burn and crash. I would give in to a heavy dinner and feel guilty. The cycle would continue. No surprises - I gained more in the bargain.

Over time, I have finally come into consensus with my body and learnt to manage the food-health-fitness cycle. Although, I am still hit with between-meals hunger accompanied by a pity-emanating-stomach-rumbling noise that can be heard two cubes away! I have tamed the beast to fat free fruit yogurt or a bowl of fresh veggies or a fruit or handful of nuts for the past sixteen months or so.

But yesterday, being home and having a shelf of haldirams displayed for the benefit of the weak-hearted, I was tempted to take more between-meal breaks and pop a spoon of snacks down my throat. When one spoon gave way to one too many, I had decided that WFH wasn't good for the heart (figuratively and literally). I finally tied the growling beast and many crunchy carrots were eaten instead and ran the risk of being called a "cow" by N (technically it should have been rabbit.. but whatever!) .

So here is what I figured about hunger in general yesterday -

1. Hungry every two hours - eat meager meals every two hours.

2. Ravenous during meal times - eat like no tomorrow each of these times

3. Balance hunger - crazy-I-will-die during breakfast, I-will-eat--to-survive at lunch, I-will-eat-because-its-dinner-time during dinner.

4. Snacker - eat whenever i please even if I am not hungry. My heart wants it.

5. Un-foodie - never know when it is meal-time. Who needs food, I say?
6. Skipper - I am too busy to be wasting time eating.. I will skip now and hog later when famished

7. the in-between - Big hungry during meal times. Small hungry between meal times.
8. superman err... super-human hungry (for fear of sounding politically incorrect!) - interleaved, cyclic, biological clock keeping, scrupulous, always fit hunger! phew!

So what kind of hungry are you?? How do you deal with hunger pangs? How do you deal with cravings that have nothing to do with hunger pangs?

Share your thoughts and let it be a help and inspiration for better or worse! =)

Mail/chat/facebook me the miles for the week tomorrow!

The team factor

Apart from the zillion calories I lip-smacked at shecwang, guzzled down as empty margarita shots on saturday night and yummed to a heavenly tiramisu that Saiz and Sandhya had surprised us with...my weekend was err.. healthy?! 

Sometimes, it okay to indulge in the guilty side of life don't you think? Its the guilt and the imperfectness that comes with it, that keeps us motivated to stay fit. Well.. thats how I convinced myself and hence thats the truth :p

While we are hovering on the motivation bit, N has joined me in the wii active goal-keeping-endeavor. And working as a team seems to be a lot more fun, atleast until now ;)  And talking of team, I am wondering if we can close in on a group 5K run? 

Friends, Romans and err.. fellow-bloggers,

What about locking June 6th for the 5K along the Charles in Boston?? Here is the link to the details. Hope we can all join for this date. may be even get a couple of t-shirts with 'green tea brownies' printed across and take up the 5K challenge ( I was kidding about the t-shirt. sigh! ). Let me know. Will be a good kick-start to a future date for a marathon!

And as we move to the running topic, Vikram has joined the mile-meter and in his effortless ability to come up with instant quips about anything, he has the following to say about the event - "A mile a day, smile a day!" So whether it is the miles making you run, or running to make the miles, I am happy the event is taking us where we want to!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

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.

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!!