Cooking&more

Most parents would love to feed their kids nothing but the healthiest food.  But many times being  a little preoccupied with other stuff, like a new baby or a life changing event or a busy career we may have sadly not paid as much attention to our family's diet as we should have.  The birth of my daughter, a bereavement and an international move all in the space of two years has left its toll on my own family's diet However with a few simple steps we can greatly improve the quality of what we intake The first step would be to reduce the amount of junk or fast food available at home in the form of cookies, chips etc and replace them with fresh fruits. Next would be to incorporate at least one serving of fresh vegetables and one serving of fruits each day. Next would be to ensure three wholesome meals each day , at least one of which should be home cooked. Starting with these baby steps I am confident that you and I  can get our family's diet back on track.

Normally, I make it a point to post a dish as soon as I make it. I prefer it that way,as all that led up to the making of it , is fresh in my mind. Somehow or the other, I missed posting this one, although I made it quite a while ago and even took photographs, fully intending to post it. It all started with my son, clamoring for something sweet, and there being a surfeit of oranges in the refrigerator. The obvious choice for me to make an orange cake. In the mood for experimenting, I decided to steam the cake instead of baking it, and concerned about the effect all that maida (all purpose flour) would have on  my little one’s tummy I substituted all purpose with half of whole wheat and half of multigrain flour. The cake came out moist and sweet, with just the right tang of oranges. 3 oranges peeled and deseeded 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 cup multigrain flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 cup sugar  powdered (Depending on sweetness of oranges) 1 pinch powdered cinnamon 1 cup beaten yo

I tried my hand at baking cookies with fenugreek leaves for sankranthi. With both DH and me getting to be so health conscious, I decided to break away from the traditional deep fried crunchies or ghee filled sweets. I googled for methi biscuits and found this recipe on foodinthemain . I tweaked it a bit and added multigrain flour to make it more healthier. The biscuits didn't turn out to be as crunchy as I expected, but were soft and chewy like oatmeal cookies or little hot cakes. They were very flavorful with just the right hint of fenugreek Baked fenugreek Cookies 2 cups multigrain flour 2 bunches fresh fenugreek leaves 1/2 tsp carom seeds 2tbsp oil salt and chilli powder to taste. enough water for kneading In a frying pan, dry roast fenugreek leaves till they emit a nice odor. Take care not to burn them, to this add the flour,spices and enough water to make a stiff dough. shape into rounds and press gently between your palms to shape it like a cookie. grease a baking t

Vegetable market in Jaipur: source-Internet Going vegetable shopping is an experience in itself, especially in India, where vegetable buying involves a lot of bargaining and hunting for the freshest produce.  A seasoned vegetable buyer would not only, know where she would get the best bargain,but also, the time at which the vegetables are likely to be  at their freshest. I have childhood memories of my mom, winding up her morning work, getting dressed and leaving for the vegetable market at around 11:00 am, so as to be in time for the fresh produce, which were invariably being offloaded from gigantic trucks as we entered the market She always carried with her a small purse with a pocket for notes and another for coins, and another bag folded neatly to fit in the purse, for the groceries. (recycling years before it became fashionable). She had her own favorites among the vendors, and they in turn recognized her and gave her a special discount over the vegetables. later years my Da

One of the best things about being married, is that after a point of time, when the dust over cultural and behavioral differences settles down, and you finally work out the non zero sum game of ‘who gets the remote, when’ and ‘who does what, when’, that’s the time, when you start imbibing the best of each other’s qualities, As my husband, always very modestly acknowledges that he  learnt the art of spending from me, In passing, let me mention that me and DH are a great team, He is excellent at finding ways to earn money, and I pride myself on being an excellent spender One thing I have imbibed from DH, who is an absolute health food freak, is the art of cooking healthy. So much so, that most recipes are tampered and tinkered with, till they are far more nutritious than the original. So here is one more such recipe. The original recipe asked for carrot slices to be deep fried and then tossed in a cream sauce made of all purpose flour, butter, milk and lots of cheese. Very tempting

I am someone who absolutely loves crunchy munchy stuff. I can have it with breakfast, lunch and dinner, and of course with tea. Of late, since coming back to India, and not having my trusty range at my disposal here, my experiments with cooking have come down drastically. I have a teeny weeny tabletop OTG here, which is nowhere close to the real thing. Moreover temps are in Celsius and most recipes give temps in Fahrenheit. What’s the problem you say? Why can’t I just convert to Celsius and continue? But how can you be sure you are using the right temperature, when the recipe asks for 400 degrees Fahrenheit, which converts to 204.44 degrees Celsius, and your oven has temps marked as 100-180-200 and so on. So generally speaking, I'm not as cook-happy nowadays. But today I just craved for something crunchy, something flaky, something fresh baked and something that would be a perfect accompaniment to my cup of tea – Homemade khari biscuits. I took the recipe mainly from Tarla dal

  Like most mothers of preschoolers, it’s a daunting task to get my child to have his apples, spinach and beans, when he would rather have pizza, cake and candy. But  of late I am beginning to learn that with a little planning and preparation I can coax  him away from unhealthy eating habits. I guess these tips could be of use to any mom hassled with a fussy preschooler. So this is my new found knowledge shared with the World at large Most kids have three basic food cravings craving for something sweet craving for something crunchy craving for something starchy Craving for sweet leads kids to demand chocolates, cakes, pastries etc. craving for something crunchy leads to demands for potato wafers and craving for starchy foods leads to demand for burgers and pizza.  Some simple steps outlined below can help tackle each of these basic cravings 1. Always have fruits stocked in the refrigerator. chopped mix of fruits, arranged in a colorful bowl with a dash of honey, a dollop of yog