Peach & Mango Juice

Peach and Mango are two beautiful orangish-yellow fruits when peeled. This summer I experimented lots of smoothies and juices with a punch of summer fruits. One such juice is a yummy combination of peach, mango and orange juice.

Peach - 1
Mango - 1
Orange Juice - 1 cup

Remove the skin off peach and mango. Cube the fruits and blend everything including orange juice in a blender.
Now here's a yummy refreshing drink.

Brown Rice Pasta Pudding ~ A twist to traditional paal kozhukattai

Months back, I was following the diet plan from whole living's website. One of the rule in that plan is to have a gluten-free but whole-grain meal. Since I was not fond of eating cooked brown rice, I searched for the alternatives until I found this rice based pasta. I was so excited to try it out and I immediately made my favorite pasta salad with brown rice pasta but my taste buds were reminding me something else when I ate that. That's when my little one pointed out that it tasted like a "kozhukattai" - an India based traditional steamed rice dumplings. Voila, a new idea clicked in my mind when I no longer want to eat a salad version of that pasta. Thats how this sweet tingling recipe was born.

Brown rice pasta - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Jaggery/Sugar - 1 cup
Cardamom - 6
Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Sliced Almonds/Pistachios/Cashews - 2 tbsp
Salt

Add pasta to boiling water and add salt. Since it is a rice pasta, stir occasionally to avoid pasta from sticking in the bottom. Cook for 15 minutes and then add milk to the pasta ( Don't drain pasta water). Continue cooking for 5 minutes. Meanwhile make the jaggery/sugar syrup by boiling jaggery/sugar with cardamom (pounded) and 1/4 cup of water for 5 minutes. Filter the jaggery syrup and add it along with grated coconut to the pasta mixture and simmer it for another 4 - 5 minutes. Switch off and serve it warm in a bowl with sliced nuts on top.

Brown Rice Pudding

I hope you love this healthier version as I do.

Note: I used organic version of Tinkyada pasta.

India-Inspired Peach Smoothie

Peach, peach.... I want to indulge in your smoothness and sweetness. That's how I look at a peach, my favorite summer fruit. This vibrant fruit is a good source of fiber and potassium.
An unique blend of peach and almonds for a smoothie came from the idea of street side almond milk I had drunken in India. This nutty and sweet smoothie with a nice cardamom aroma is a quick energy booster and easy breakfast when you are in a hurry.

Peach - 1
Almond milk - 1/2 cup
Cardamom pods - 2
Raw almonds - 12
Brown Sugar - 1 tsp
Water

Remove the pit in peach and cut it into cubes ( include skin). Blend together cubed peaches, almond milk, cardamom seeds, raw almonds and brown sugar until smooth. You need to leave little crunchiness in almond to have that nutty taste while drinking. Water it down to adjust consistency according to your taste.




You will neither regret drinking this smoothie nor will you leave a drop of that smoothie in the cup. It is that tasty....

Pearl-Millet Drink

In our family, our grandparents and parents were raised in the country side and they used to eat whatever they get in their farms. One of such staple food from South-Indian country side is millet drink. This drink is consumed either as breakfast or lunch along with spicy roasted veggies. A heart-warming and definitely a heart-healthy food. Millet is found to be gluten free and is good for regular consumption. In one of the diet plan I'm following these days, it suggests to consume millet in the place of wheat/rice. With all these things going around and searching the internet for cooking millet, eventually I turn to my lovely mom for a recipe. The recipe I have given here is the country way of cooking millet.

Ingredients:

Millet - 1/2 cup
Water - 700 ml
Salt
Buttermilk - 1 1/2 cups

Preparation:

Millet drink

Wash and soak millet in enough water overnight. In the morning, grind millet coarsely with some water and salt (absolutely necessary to use salt at this time). Heat water in a big pot and once the water is warm enough, add ground millet into the water. Now keep mixing it until thoroughly blended. Leave it in stove until the millet is thickened and check whether it is cooked. It should probably take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes. Now ferment the cooked millet for around 10 to 12 hours. When you are ready to prepare it, mix buttermilk with the millet to make it as a drink in the consistency of smoothie. Have it with spicy roasted veggies as side.

Millet drink with beet-carrot curry (Our lunch menu)

Beet-Carrot stir fry

Beet - 1
Carrot - 2
Onion- 1/2
Grated coconut - 1/8 cup
Green/ Red chillies - 2
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tbsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Cilantro - 1/8 cup
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp

Grate beet and carrot. Finely chop the onion. Add oil in the pan and when hot, add chana dal, mustard seeds and urad dal. After the dals turn golden, add onion. Once onion turn translucent, add grated veggies and salt. Allow it to cook for 5-7 minutes. Garnish with coconut and cilantro.

Finger Millet (Ragi) Roti

Ragi is the staple food of south-indian people. Ragi is a whole-grain,gluten-free and nutritious alternative to rice and wheat. Back home, we have been fed with ragi malt in our childhood times. I have been experimenting with this grain for a long time and finally, stuck up with the taste of veggie roti made with ragi flour.

Ingredients:

Ragi Flour - 1 1/2 cup
carrot - 1
onion - 3/4
G.chilli - 1
Cilantro - 2 tbsp
Peas - 1/4 cup
Salt
Water

Preparation:

Grate carrot, chop onion, mince g.chilli, chop cilantro and pulse peas in a food processor. Now, take a wide pan and add the flour, followed by all the veggies and salt. Mix and add warm water just enough to make a more pliable dough than chappathi.

Patted Ragi Roti in a wet cloth

Take a wet cotton/muslin cloth. Lay it out on a plate. Take a golf ball sized dough and begin pat the dough on the wet cloth until it becomes a 7" circle (Refer the picture). Season the griddle with little oil and turn over the muslin cloth on top of the griddle. Roti will slip from the cloth and will lay on the griddle. Cook the roti both sides each for 1 minute.

Serve hot with delicious sambar.

Ragi Roti iwith sambar

Buying Organic

ORGANIC,ORGANIC,ORGANIC...what is this all about? Is this a myth or something we should rely on? Most of us are struggling to decide on buying all organic. It is not the question of buying organic or not buying organic. It is the question of what kind of foods should be organic to avoid running the risk of massive health problems. We all know that most of our foods are treated with pesticides to kill fungi and bacteria. Do you think it is only fungi/bacteria which has been killed. No, they are even killing us little by little. Also, most of the produce is traveling from beyond this country - for approx. 2000 to 5000 miles - before it reach the grocery store. Having this been said, we should consider buying local in farmer's markets.
There are 12 foods that must always be purchased organic and 15 foods that are not required to buy organic.

Find your nearest farmer's market in localharvest.org

Quintessential Quinoa - A miracle grain

Quinoa is a gluten-free whole grain rich in protein. It is recently becoming popular with its origin from South America. When cooked, Quinoa has a nice fluffy and nutty taste. It is a good alternative to whole wheat and brown rice.

Organic Quinoa from Costco

Ingredients:

Quinoa - 1 cup
Garlic - 2 pods
Red/Yellow onion - 1/2
water - 1 1/4 cups
salt

Finely chop the onion and garlic. Quinoa can be cooked in a no-hassle way using pressure cooker.
Take a pressure cooker. Saute onion and garlic in the cooker without adding oil/water for 2 minutes.
Add Quinoa and saute a little. Finally, add water and salt to Quinoa. Close the cooker with whistle-on and wait for the cooker to reach full pressure. Now reduce the flame to medium. Switch off the flame in 5 minutes. Serve with sambar / any curry.

Our Lunch today

(Carrot, bell-pepper and potato fry, Okra fry, Sambhar and Quinoa)

Recipe courtesy: Veggie queen

Stress relieving foods

I have been watching Dr.Oz's show most of the days. FOX is airing this show all weekdays in U.S. He is incredible in mentioning and educating people about simple to complex health problems along with the cure available for that problem. I like the show when he incorporates natural remedies for health problems. As a believer of natural remedies, I have been following many of his advice.

In one such show, he explained some of the food that reduces stress.The foods that he mentioned are vitamin c rich foods, dark tea like black tea (without milk/sugar) and pistachios. Apart from relieving stress, those foods has other medicinal properties too. Vitamin C rich foods like oranges and tea, are high in flavonoids - most commonly known as antioxidants - which help reduce the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Heart-warming lentil curry (A south-indian relish sambar)

Sanbar is a south-Indian lentil curry made up of yellow lentils and combination of vegetables. You can make a sambar with drumstick, eggplant, okra, squash, carrot, radish, even bitter melon or a sambar with a combination of all veggies.
There were days when my mom keeps a delicious sambar ready at home for her hungry kids coming back from school. No matter what you offer, - either a cheesy pizza or spicy chicken curry - if I had a choice to select sambar, I will go for it. I know there are people who agree with me in this aspect one hundred percent. My mom's sambar is so unique to me that I never tasted anything like her preparation-a combination of whole shallots, country vegetables, toor/moong dal with tangy tomatoes- that I long for always.

Ingredients:

Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
Moong Dal - 1/4 cup
Red Onion - 1 (small) / shallots - 10
Tomato - 2 (Large)
Drumstick - 10 pieces
Egg plant - 2
Squash - 1/2
Green Chilli - 1
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Sambar Powder - 2 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Curry Leaves - 5
Coriander Leaves - 1 tbsp
Asafoetida - 1/8 tsp
Salt
Oil

Preparation:

Sambar Vegetables

Rinse dals and pressure cook the dals along with asafoetida for 5 to 6 whistles. Meanwhile , cut the shallots into halves and dice the tomatoes. Cube the squash and eggplant into bite sized pieces. Add a tsp of oil to wok. Saute onion and g.chilli once the oil is hot followed by veggies, tomatoes and powders. Wait until tomatoes are mashed up and then add water for the veggies to cook. Let the veggies cook for around 20 minutes and then add the mashed pressure-cooked dal in the wok. Let the flame in medium for 5 more minutes and adjust the salt.
Now, do the seasoning in a separate pan with oil, mustard, cumin and curry leaves. Pour the seasoning on curry and add chopped coriander leaves. Serve the curry with rice/idli/dosa/roti.

Lentil Curry (Sambar)

Earth Day!!!!

April 22nd is the earth day's 40th anniversary even though we are aware of it only few years back. Incorporating little changes in our everyday activities may help create a bigger impact on this earth. According to me, the most important and easiest changes that we can make are

1. Using reusable bags in the place of plastic bags
2. Using microfiber kitchen towels instead of paper towels

I'm going to help you find some great ideas to make a reusable bag on your own or buy an inexpensive bag.
Even collecting bag one at a time would get you the feeling of fulfillment that you are somehow contributing to this earth.

1. Buy one of this bag from getmyeco.com
2. Make your own reusable bag looking at Martha Stewart's tutorial here
3. Make your bag from an unused T-shirt using the tutorial here
4. Check out your local Safeway store to get a free reusable bag when you buy $40 in groceries
5. Check your local Ross stores where you can buy a really good size reusable bag for anywhere from $2 to $3.

Third one in the above list is the really cool idea to have a reusable bag.

I hope you will make your first step towards going green-if you haven't yet-using the information in this post.

Thanks for reading!!!

Welcome to Shami's thoughts!!! My first post

Ever since we started using internet, it has been a source of all information. Shami's thoughts is gonna be a myriad combination of everyday knowledge, healthy lifestyle, heart-warming recipes, decor ideas, money saving tips, green world and so on. And how do I know these stuffs? I have been an avid reader of healthy blogs and magazines for last two years. I'm eager to learn more and I'm excited to share my insights on it.

As we all know, everyday we are surrounded by mundane activities and most of the time, we have to go in the flow of our workforce.  Like almost every person I know, I live life in a terrific hurry. As I have read in the housekeeping magazine, there are two types of time in greek words, chronos and kairos. Chronos is the everyday life we are living counting the hours and minutes while kairos is the moments that stand out in our mind like memorable events. When we think back, how many times a day - or even a week - that we experience kairos, is even nothing or a mere negligible amount. Just think, what is this life is for? To spoil our mind thinking of work we haven't finished in our office or to look at your child or spouse or parent a minute to fulfill your mind thinking of how wonderful your life is. To be clear, work is part of life and life is not the part of work. Lets all take a new resolution to lead a life with lots of kairos.

Thanks for reading my first post!! I hope you will enjoy reading interesting and useful information here in Shami's thoughts.