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!

That time of the Year!

I love having guests at home. And when they are here, we make sure they feel extremely comfortable and feel at home. This holiday season we had a few friends and relatives who visited us and here is how we prepared ahead of time:

Since the guests this time was close family, it was very informal. In any case, we chalked out a rough plan.
Basics:
we got a pair of tooth brushes (incase they forget to bring, this will come in handy)
made sure we had enough fresh towels
enough number of tissue rolls
Tampons
Body wash/shampoo (Mine just got over when they arrived :-/ , learnt it this time
(quite embarrassing)!

Bedding was not a problem.  All of us  just crashed on a comforter in the living room for a couple of days and then my ever so popular neck/back pain kicked in and I had to sleep on the bed so that I can stay active the next day. But again there was absolutely no awkward situation because they were family.

Giving a token gift:
This is really optional. But I like to surprise ppl with small gifts. Since my cousins came during thanksgiving. I gave her a pretty trinket from swarovski and she loved it, She got me a surprise gift too :) She gave me a nice Tan leather  wallet from nine west and I Love it!!

Food:
Since they come from a place where they do not get good Indian food, we decided to go out for dinners to try different Indian restaurants in our city. For lunch, I cooked their favorite dishes. I planned and stocked the vegetables and had a rough menu for each day. We all enjoyed elaborate lunch at home! :)

Things to do:
My husband is a planner and he loves doing out door stuff. So obviously when we have guests we just keep the days packed. But unfortunately, this time there was heavy rains and the weather was not really favorable for outdoor stuff.. Nevertheless, we went to a few spots like the Mt Bonell for sunset.

A drive to Fredricksburg - This place is so lively and if you love shopping or even just window shopping you will certainly love this place. There are some shops that sell Fudges and they are so good! I loved the Hot fudge Sunday ice cream even on a relatively cold day. It had this lip smacking hot chocolate poured on nice and creamy icecream.. It was Yumm :)
We also went to a place called +OutOfTheBox  and we loved it. It was probably the best thing we could do during winter/rains. We solved puzzles and got our way out of the puzzle room. We even got few clicks with the props and actors in the puzzle room. Thumbs up to this entertainment room in Austin. This one is a must try!

Why I cut down on Milk!

Let me start by saying we used to buy 2 gallons of milk each week. We use milk on an average for drinking in the morning and  cereal.
I was out of milk on a particular day  I landed from India. I wanted something hot in the morning to feel fresh. I found some Pomegranate tea bags from +Trader Joe's . I poured some boiling water in a mug with a tea bag, let it steep for about 3 minutes and when I drank it, I felt very refreshed. Also that day I made oats in water with a dash of honey. I felt the oats that day had a smoother texture and seemed like it had absorbed a lot of water(which is good!).  And yes, did I tell you I felt so much more light on my stomach.   So the next day  again I  followed the same routine. I pushed buying milk for a few days and it worked. Now I happily have either Lipton green tea ,Trader Joe's pomegranate or ginger-pear tea in the morning and add milk occasionally to oats or use it on days I have cereal for breakfast. From buying 2 times a week. Now we buy once in two weeks. Am happy to be saving some money there and also I like how it feels to have a big mug full of hot refreshing  tea in the morning.
There are multiple flavors of white tea available in  +Trader Joe's  and I love most of them. I shall review some of the flavors in a separate post.

Pointers for your grocery shopping

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Grocery shopping is one activity my husband hates spending time on. So I almost have to do my shopping in a jiffy (really!) I don't like to stock up too many things and not use  them at all. So I always plan the grocery list well ahead of time. Growing up in a typical Indian household has gotten me used to a typical breakfast/lunch/Evening/ dinner routine. Being a vegetarian, we definitely include a minimum of 1 vegetable a day. Initially, when I started cooking and planning my own menu, I often used to buy more than what was required by the two of us for a week and ended up throwing away  rotten spinach and tomatoes after few weeks of not using them. Here are some ideas that I follow to cut down on wastage and spend for what is required:

1. Plan ahead : For example, I consider Tomatoes, onions and potatoes as staple so I pick up these 3 anyway. Other than this, I have (based on preference and ease of cooking/chopping etc) a select set of veggies that I alternate every week. Here is a table that I mostly follow:

So I choose 5 veggies from the weekday list for lunch and  2 veggies for dinner along with tofu/mushroom/paneer(I alternate this every week). Mostly for dinner we have light Indian Tiffin or pasta so I would not need more than a couple of veggies because I often use tomatoes and onions to make dip for dinner.

Break fast meal is also quite planned : 4 options- bread/egg/cereal in milk/oats. I alternate these week.

This kind of table makes it simple to pick and choose a variety of veggies and saves time in planning a weekly menu. Of course, This is just a guideline we will often end up throwing in a bunch of spinach  and  bell peppers  because I love them! But with this kind of a plan you will most likely not  buy too much in excess or too little for the week.

 Fruits:

We almost always buy banana and apples other than this I alternate between oranges,kiwi , watermelon,oranges, cantaloupe  based on season and what we feel like buying at that  point. I limit my self to not more than 3 varieties of fruits for one week(because they get spoilt real quick)

2. Stock Check:

I have a small note pad in the kitchen and when I notice any of the storage canisters half full I immediately note it down so that I can stock them back. This really helps and saves time for my weekend grocery shopping.

3. Add some pep :

Milk, buttermilk, water - My husband goes  around to pick these 3 up (heavy lifting, right!) :)

Its fun and faster when you divide the grocery list with family and see who gets to the checkout counter first!(i do this all the time):)