Inexpensive Stairway Decor

The apartment we live in has a flight of stairs inside that takes you up to the living room. I was wanting to decorate the stair way walls for quite some time now. But, I didn't want to invest in huge art pieces. The theme for the living room is bronze so I wanted the stair way décor to be in the same color scheme brown/bronze/gold and such.
So here is what I used - I got  several roundish table mats from Walmart in dark brown and  pinned it up randomly on the wall. That kind of gave the wall a classy chic look. This was coordinated with the focal piece which is a wall hanging from Kirkland . On the other side, we decorated the wall with a couple of scenic pictures  from our recent trip to Portland. This kind of adds a very personal touch to the wall.

Video clipping:

Fenugreek-Hibiscus Hair Pack!

I love to try different hair packs. Here is a recipe of a simple hair pack with just 3 ingredients!

You will need
Fenugreen - 2 tbsp.
Organic hibiscus powder - 1 tsp
Coconut oil - 1 tbsp

This measurement is for a shoulder length hair.
So, to make this pack, The fenugreek seeds should be soaked in 1/2 cup of hot water for  three hours or overnight is fine too.
Filter it out and take the water and mix in the hibiscus powder and coconut oil.
Apply this mask and let it dry for a couple of hours before you wash your hair.

This pack used over a period of time reduces dryness, dandruff  and controls hair fall.
It leaves the hair feeling soft and manageable.
Note:
You can also add a table spoon of curd to this mixture.

Eco friendly Non Toxic Products for your home!

Today am going to talk about these eco - friendly products I got introduced to at Marshalls -
Grab Green  Eco friendly products. First of all let me tell you this is not a sponsored post and all opinions here are unbiased and completely from my personal experience. To begin with, I chose to write on these products because I love them!
I tried only a couple of  their products namely - Grab green dish soap & Grab green all purpose cleaner

Am a strong believer  of using all natural products. I do think its as important as going organic in food we consume. Am aware that most people now want to use chemical free, all natural products but its still got the "expensive" tag that comes along with it.  But I guess I didn't think twice to grab these bottles because of the benefits it offers.
Grab green dish soap - I got the red Pear and magnolia 16Oz bottle
Its a viscous , transparent  liquid packaged in a 16Oz plastic bottle.
For starters, The packaging is very attractive, highlighting details like
Non toxic, Phosphate free, bio degradable , no animal testing
The ingredient lists naturally derived ingredients which is very  attractive.

With the actual use of the product. I realized the product is very effective on  scotch burns and tough food particles. It doesnt leave my hands dry. Its gentle to use.  And yes, I dint need to use too much of the product for getting the dishes squeeky clean. A pea size amount of the product was good enough for several dishes. I love it and highly recommend this product.

ALL purpose cleaner
I got the red pear and magnolia fragrance in this as well. This is non toxic,phosphate free, bio degradable,ammonia free, formal dehyde free. There is a clean sweet fragrance to this product. This does a good job in removing grease from my counter tops, I clean  my wooden furniture, stove top, and even bathroom tiles to remove grout and it does its magic. Again, I don't use a lot. A small amount of this product sprayed directly on the surface goes a long way and gets the surface clean.
But the downside according to me is, it doesn't work very well on mirrors, glass surface. As a "all purpose" cleaner I would expect it to work on glass as well. Nevertheless, its a great product for other surfaces and its ideal for homes with small kids since you don't them to be exposed to too many chemical cleaning products that come in contact with the furniture or surfaces the kids have access to.

Price on both - $5 each
I cant wait to try their other products! Chk out their products on their website 
 
                       

Quick Meal - A healthy , delicious choice!

Ven pongal  with Gothsu 
Ven pongal 
I honestly consider this recipe as  probably south Indian cooking 101. This is yummy and  a quick - healthy option for breakfast/lunch or dinner.
This is a perfect combination of  of rice and dhal cooked to a soft  consistency and spiced to add all the rich flavours of south Indian food.
I make this atleast once a week for lunch. Here you go with this simple yet absolutely delicious recipe.

Rice - 1 cup
Moong dhal - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 3 tbsp
Jeera - 2 tbsp
pepper- 2 tbsp
ginger -  1 tbsp grated
curry leaves - fed
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Salt - To taste

Method
Pressure cook the  rice and dhal together with half cup excess water and cook for a couple of extra whistles than you normally cook your rice
mash it well
In a pan, add ghee, add in the jeera,  pepper,ginger, curry leaves, asafoetida and allow it to splutter
Now add in the mashed rice and dhal mixture and blend well, Add it the salt and mix evenly.
Drizzle a few drops of ghee while serving and enjoy!

Gothsu
This is a simple sambar made with moongdhal and this tastes delicious with the pongal

Onion- 1/2 cup
bell pepper - 1/4cup
Egg plant -  1/4 cup
Tamarind  water - 2 cups
Moong dhal - 3/4 cup
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chilly - 1 no
Sambar powder - 2 tsp
Jaggary - 1 tsp
salt to taste
Oil- 1 tbsp

Pressure cook moong dhal with turmeric powder
In a pan add in the oil, throw in the mustrard seeds, red chilli and allow it to splutter
Now add onions and fry it until turns dark pink
Next, throw  in the eggplant and bell pepper and allow it to cook
Add in the sambar powder , salt and blend well.
Add in the Tamarind water and bring it to a boil
Now add in the cooked -mashed  dhal and mix well
Bring it to a boil
Add in the Jaggary
Gothsu is Ready!

Note:
To adjust the consistency, you may add in rice flour mixed in water and  bring it to a boil

Tips for Travel

Well, it feels good to be writing after a short while. Now that the holiday season is round the corner, I wanted to write on Travel packing. This is something I really enjoy doing the smart way. By "smart" I mean not just remembering things you want to take on a trip but also not taking a whole lot with you on these trips. So here are the things  while planning your vacation

Make a List
Making a list is  quite essential as it sort of clears your head from remembering all those must haves. While going on a vacation, there are usually two kinds of list that I make depending on where we go. Along with a list of things we need to take for the trip, If its a place that offers things exquisite to the place, then of course I make a list of things I need to buy from that place to bring back with me. This also helps me pack accordingly so that I have space in my suitcase for the things I want to bring back home.

Buying Travel size products

I love this, I do this even when I don't travel and want to try a new product. If I find a hair spray or a perfume Travel size, I grab them! So getting back to the topic, I normally buy Travel size empty round containers for cosmetics and small spray bottles for perfumes and body sprays. These are really handy and you can carry them around in your purses.

What to pack
This is the fun part. Apart from clothes which I prefer to carry light as well, am going to share some essential things here. If you have your stay figured, spend a few minutes by looking at the Hotel's website and see what they provide. Most hotels provide shower gels, soaps, shampoos, conditioners, Hair dryers. This saves some space if you don't have to carry these along with you.  For shoes, If am going to a cold place(considering its winter in most part of the country), I wear the boots(to reduce space in the luggage) and carry a walking/jogging shoes and a pair of sandals. I also carry with me 2 Large plastic bags to bring back used clothes , if its a short trip and if we don't have a free laundry facility. I also make sure I carry phone/ipad/lapotop chargers, portable chargers and car chargers. These are essential since on vacation we are mostly outside and invariably using the GPS. These sums up the essential things I take with me.

Miscellaneous
I have found it extremely useful to carry big empty bottles that you can use to refill water and of course some cereal bars. When on a trip, you tend to misjudge the time you need for a certain spot and you run over your lunch/snack times. You don't want to starve and spoil your enthusiasm while on a vacation, do you? So bananas, cereal bars etc comes in handy. And Yes, Aux cables do come in handy if you have long drives ahead of you during your vacation. Its a good idea to carry, a small pouch with  insect balms/bug spray, medication if any, wet tissues.
For accessories, I love to carry my jewellery organizer or I carry the ones I know I need for sure in the complementary small pouches  I get  from my international travels for this :-) (Reusing at its best)

Finding Hotels:
Here is a small tip in finding hotels for your stay. There are several websites like Hotels.com, Priceline, hotwire etc for getting good deals on Hotels . From my experience, I love priceline   as I always find good deals at the last minute. After 3 pm which is normally the check in time for hotels, there are empty rooms and the hotels want to get rid of the rooms so normally after 3pm you do get very good deals . Especially if you are looking for same day accommodation. Its worked for me and I think its worth giving it a shot.

I hope this helps and comes in handy while planning the  next time around! :)

Some Tips for maintaining cooker!

I use Pressure cooker every day at least once and sometimes twice. Here are some things I follow to maintain my pressure cooker

Do Not release pressure manually

I have seen people release pressure manually to reduce waiting time. But this affects the durability of the gasket and it normally expands in size. This will lead to longer cooking time and replacement of gasket. If you want to release pressure, run cool water on the cooker and allow pressure to release quickly

Use a slice of lemon

I slice a lemon into an inch size piece every other day and drop it in the cooker and use the cooker as usual.. This ensures that there is no water/burnt marks that is left behind  in the cooker. It also makes the cooker smell great. (Also see  When Life gives you lemons post)

Washing a cooker
remove the gasket from the cooker. This is important because food gets accumulated under the gasket and its important to remove that wash it before we store it away.

Storing cooker

At the end of the day, drain water from the cooker, wash and let  all the parts  dry (cooker,lid and gasket) before assembling and storing it.

When life gives you Lemons!

                                 

When life gives you Lemons you do do a whole lot with them! :)

I love lemons for so many reasons like  their color, smell, health and functional benefits!

I always have 2-3 lemons at home!

We all know lemon juice is the most refreshing drink and my favorite is cucmber-lemon - mint juice, try it if you haven't. Its the real thirst quencher and loads u with enough vitamins.

Today am going to talk about the other things we can use lemon for other than   food.

For the Skin 

1. Mix 1 spoonful of  white/Brown sugar with 1 spoonful of lemon and 1 spoon- honey and use this as a scrub on your face, hands, feet atleast once a week to remove dead skin. This makes the skin well nourished and soft. The nibbling feeling is normal when lemon touches any part of the skin. But like always just do a patch test to make sure its not allergic to your skin.

2. cut a wedge from a lemon and after a warm shower slightly squeeze and rub it in the underarm area, this lightens the skin color and also works as a natural deodorant. Again,the nibbling feeling is normal when lemon touches any part of the skin. But like always just do a patch test to make sure its not allergic to your skin.

For Deodorizing

1. I do this every other day. I cut a  slice of a lemon and  drop it in the sink and run hot water while I have the garbage disposal on. This takes of any odour that comes from the sink.

2. If  you get an unpleasant odor from your refrigerator, Take a small plate squeeze out some lemon juice and leave a fairly big piece of the lemon with the juice inside the fridge and the odor will be reduced considerably.

For vessels/surfaces

1. If you have hard water marks or any scotch marks on the inside of your vessel. Then, fill the vessel with water, squeeze a piece of  lemon and drop the piece in the water and let it boil well. This will help remove stain/grease(from pans) easily.
2. Squeeze and rub a cut lemon on stainless steel sink/taps to remove white deposits. Wash and wipe dry with a paper towel. They really shine!

Beetroot is my favorite lip-tint!

Am a minimalist when it comes to makeup. I normally use  a light weight moisturizer, eye liner and a lip balm for every day wear and when I want to look a little more dressy, I use foundation , blush and lipstick for a pop of color.  I always have a feeling that am eating lipstick when I ever I eat or sip on a drink after wearing lipstick. When I was looking for organic alternatives, I came across several you tube videos of DIY lipsticks and this one is my favorite. Remember how the hands turn pink when you cook beets? It works the same way on your lips too!  Its so simple and gives your lips a glamorous pop of color.

All you need
An Inch size of Beetroot , I cut it into a flat disc just for the convenience of holding.

Method:
using the cut piece of beetroot just go along your lips just as you would do with your lipstick and viola! You have a beautiful pink lip tint.

You  could use  moisturize your lips with your regular lipbalm/chapstick or any organic oil to have a nourished glossy effect. This can be used as eye shadow and a blush too! Let me know what you guys think and share your pictures if you try it out!

Challenge to Self

Introspection is the best quality in man, we introspect either by default or consciously. Any which ways I feel introspecting is that aspect that helps you improve or do better. I subconsciously introspect but its never a conscious scheduled event and I don't have to sit in a quiet place for this. Introspection happens even as am engaged in a certain activity or mostly its just in the back of the head and I never put it down in as many words. If I feel I need to improve I just try to work on that but the real problem with that is there is no tangible measurement to  see if I have really improved. Also its like a loose rope, you can twist and twirl it the way you want. But there are certain things I wanted to change recently and I thought I can use the blogging platform to firm up my thoughts and  also use it as a tool to motivate and  make myself accountable .  So here I go with the challenges to self:

I have always had this problem of not being able to eat on time ever since I started cooking. Either its the waiting game with S (my husband) or its just because am held up with work and food always takes the back seat, For the past few weeks I have been trying to have lunch by 12:30 and have been able to achieve that so far. I now also want to add that I should have Breakfast between 7:00 am -  7:30am (its usually 8:30am when I have my breakfast and tea) and dinner by 8:30 am. I also intend to eat  at least one fruit in between. I also want to get into the habit of drinking detoxifying juice every night before bed. 

Not eating on time in a weird way  is connected to sleeping on time. You are hungry and then u eat a lot at night and then u struggle to sleep or you just want to eat a small sized meal at night and starve because you are up late into the night. Uff this is a vicious cycle. So I want to sleep by 11:30 and this applies to weekends too. I wake up by 7 so I guess that's good enough!

Another habit that I want to change is constantly being dragged to social media websites. Ofcourse some of them are used productively but most of the times its just used for browsing. I want to check and see if am able to bring my browsing time to 45 mins a day. I will split this through the day. This will include all browsing websites and not just social media. 

 Lastly, I also want to challenge my self is to spend 20 mins whether its a weekday or not in cleaning the house. It could be just dusting or scrubbing the kitchen counter. Doing daily chores is common. But I think the cleaning work just piles for weekends and I just carry it on my head and I hate to have incomplete task in hand. So here I go with the 20 min cleaning challenge. 

That sums up the challenges I have made to self! I hope to be able to  these and  give a pat on my back! :P :)

Eggplant yogurt curry

This is a quick meal I got done with in less than 30 minutes. Today I just felt having Rasam (South Indan Spice broth) for lunch. I had an Eggplant and some left over kovakkai from last week so  I made this quick yogurt curry to go with rasam and This was absolutely Yummy!


Eggplant - 1
Kovakkai/ Tindora - 5-6 Nos
Tomato - 1
Onion - 1
Urad dhal - 1 tbsp.
Green chillis - 1 or 2 chopped 
Garlic - 3-4 cloves chopped
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Oil - for seasoning
Gingelly oil - !tsp
Corriander/Cilantro - Handful
Salt to taste

Method :

• Wash the eggplant and prick holes all around it with a fork and smear a tsp of gingelly oil around it and cook it in Microwave for 5 minutes or till the eggplant gets its skin slightly shrunken and u can feel the eggplant is mushy.
• Take it out and remove the skin. I usually dissect the eggplant and scoop out the flesh.
• Take oil in a pan and add mustard seeds and urad dal. Allow it to splutter
• Now add chopped onion and fry until they turn brown. Add salt to hasten cooking.
•  Add garlic, tomatoes and kovakai
• Add chilli powder, turmeric powder and cook covered until well cooked
• In a Blender, add in the de skinned eggplant along with the cooked mixture
• Add  Plain Yogurt/curd and grind coarsely so that you retain the texture.
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves

I had this yummy curry with Garlic Ginger Rasam

Night Repair Serum - am loving it!

I have been loving some natural products lately, and am constantly on the lookout for organic natural products for the body.  Of course, it is quite difficult to be completely chemical free but I certainly would love to substitute natural products as much as possible.  Especially for someone like me, who has extremely sensitive skin, natural products for the skin is a blessing.

So let’s talk about the product,  Stouder house is a local Texas company and I spotted them in one of the local farmer's market. They apparently ship products across United States. This night repair serum is made using 100% food grade oils infused with 100% pure therapeutic grade essential oils. 

Though this is called a night serum, this can be used both during the day and at night. Essentially, oils absorb better in to your skin during night time but during the day this can be used as a moisturizer as it glides smoothly into the skin and gets absorbed completely.

To use this product, first prep your skin by washing it using a gently soap and patting in dry with a clean dry towel and then when your face is still slightly damp, go ahead and take 3-4 drops of the oil and spread it on your face. The dampness helps the oil to spread easily and hence a little bit of the product would be sufficient for the face and neck. Try to massage your face and neck in the upward direction (make sure to massage in to your neck as well). Once you massage leave it on for a few minutes before you go ahead and apply your moisturizer for the day if you determine its necessary. Personally, I use just the serum during the day. For night, I would suggest using the serum at least 30 minutes prior to bed time since you want all your oils to be well absorbed into your skin and you don't want your pillows turning greasy. The added advantage of using this as a night serum is the pleasant fragrance from the product which is herbal and so relaxing. I love this product! :)

Company website - http://www.stouderhouse.com/

Ah! That smells good!

Bad breath and unclean teeth is  unhygienic and certainly a big turn off!
 I love to use products at home  as against the commercially available ones which are loaded with chemicals. Of course our tooth paste is no exception. But at least, we can  keep it to a bare minimum. Here is a quick and simple tip to maintain good dental hygiene:


Cloves: This herb does wonders. You just need to chew on one or two cloves after every meal. Its  proven to protect your gums, Aids in digestion and also helps in preventing bad breath.  It can be consumed as a whole.This has got a hot flavor and is extremely strong but that works! What I really like about using it is when you are in a hurry you can just take it off the jar throw it in your mouth and move on instead of spending that time rinsing your mouth multiple times with a colored liquid.
I always carry a few of them with me in my purse and it does come in handy after a meal out side or just when I feel like I need some fresh breath or before important meetings. Its most definitely a quick fix to boost up my confidence before meeting someone.
Along with this I also make sure to  drink enough  water and that helps too!