Moong Sprout Salad

When you are back from a very happy vacation, don't you go into a state of intense lethargy which can be most aptly defined as an inertia of rest.

I start living straight out of those slow motion movies when my day begins battling with my mobile phone alarm and wake only when I eerily realise that I just have 15 minutes left for my official reporting time.

Despite that, I take close to half an hour to dress up and end up reaching office a good hour after I am officially supposed to.Slowly,the lethargy seeps into my entire life and I disown any healthy habits that I have painstakingly adopted in months.

My weighing scale hates me the most on these days. The lethargy and weight gain go into a vicious cycle.

Finally one day when I hear sufficient comments on my weight , I decide to work on it and the recipe below is one of my quick fix diet foods that never go wrong.

Moong Sprouts Salad


How to Make Sprouts:

I usually pick them up from the Super Market. However a very easy way is to soak the whole green gram dal in the water for 5-6 hours. Drain the water and tie the soaked pulses in a muslin cloth or keep them in a casserole overnight . Next morning,your sprouts will be ready. Do not forget to drain the pulse after 5-6 hours .


Ingredients

Moong Sprouts-250 gms
Onion- 1 medium chopped
Tomato- 1 medium chopped or half cup Cherry Tomatoes halved
Cucumber-1 medium chopped
Pomegranate seeds- half cup
Salt,Pepper- To Taste
Chaat Masala- 2 tsps

Recipe

Mix the above ingredients in a salad bowl. Add salt, pepper and Chaat Masala. Your tasty Moong Sprout Salad is ready.

Quick Taste Tips: Crumble some Lays Tomato Crispies into the Salad and serve fresh. The crunchiness really adds to the taste.

Quick Health Tips: Just perfect! That's my supper of the day.Perhaps I didnt mention earlier that I am a vegetarian and we do not get ample protein from regular food sources. Sprouts are a very good source of protein and dietary fiber.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2333/2

Methi Theplas and Cabbage Koshimbir

Due to my weight issue, I am constantly on the lookout for some healthy eating. 

Not sure if its only me who complains about severe hunger cramps every evening at 7.00 pm when all I want to do is eat. That's when a whole day of healthy eating goes for a toss and out comes the fried crisps, cream biscuits and maggi noodles inventory meticulously saved for a rainy day when my lovely friends come unannounced.

I think that I become some kind of a carbo magnet and all kinds of carbohydrates start attracting themselves towards me.

The recipe below is a quick win for some of those days when you don't want your hard earned health day fast to meet a carby end in a packet of Lays.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes       Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:(Methi Theplas)

Whole Wheat Flour(Atta): 1 cup
Chickpea Flour(Besan): 1/4 cup. This improves the protein content of the flour
Fenugreek leaves-Chopped or dried methi leaves(Kasuri methi)- 1/2 cup 
Curd or Buttermilk: To knead the flour
Ginger Garlic paste: 1.5 tsp
Cumin powder-1 tsp
Coriander powder- 1 tsp
Garam Masala/Kitchen King-1 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tbsp to cook theplas


Cooking Method:

Combine all the ingredients and knead the flour using curd/butter milk. I used a food processor but hand kneaded is perfectly ok. Mix in a little bit of oil if required. Roll out theplas and lightly fry them on the griddle(tawa).

Ingredients(Cabbage Koshimbeer)

Purple Cabbage: Lightly shredded or grated
Peanuts:Roasted and grinded coarsely
Salt/Sugar-To taste
Green Chilli-1 finely chopped

Coriander leaves- handful finely chopped
Lemon Juice - as per taste
Mustard seeds/cumin seeds/asafoedita/1 tsp oil- to mix in the koshimbeer or tadka
curd- 1tbsp- optional

Cooking Method:

Mix in the cabbage, coriander and chilly. Add lemon juice, salt and sugar to taste. A little bit of curd works well (doesn't suit my taste though). Set aside

Heat 1 tbsp oil, add asafoedita, mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Wait until they crackle and pour over the cabbage mix.

Your koshimbeer is ready to eat with Methi Theplas

Health Tips:

Methi Theplas and Koshimbeer using purple cabbage is already very healthy. However one can go easy on the oil and peanuts to reduce fat. The tadka can be avoided as well on the koshimbeer though it does compromise the taste

Taste Tips: 

Cucumber instead of purple cabbage makes a very tasty koshimbeer...

Instant Paneer Bhurji

Today was one of those days when I was at the behest of Murphy's law! Nothing seemed to work as planned.Came home tired..and no this wasn't the first . I was struggling this whole week.

Result- Order food everyday! But today, while rushing to catch the last bus home, I resolved to cook.

And then I remembered my mommy's quick paneer bhurji, one of my favorite lunchtime recipes as a kid





Here goes the recipe:

Preparation Time: Practically NIL                          
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Serves :2 


Ingredients: 

Onion: 1 Medium Chopped fine
Tomato:1 Medium Chopped fine
Cottage Cheese cubes: 200 gms
Coriander leaves: to garnish
Salt: to taste
Gingergarlic paste(optional): 1 teaspoon
Green Chilli-Chopped fine -1 
Oil: 1tbsp

Cooking Method

Heat oil in pan, add cumin seeds(jeera). When they splutter, add ginger garlic paste and chopped chilli. Saute for a bit and add onions. When onions are cooked , add tomatoes. Add turmeric, red chilli powder and salt to taste and stir. Cook for a few minutes till the tomatoes start leaving oil.

In the meanwhile, heat paneer cubes in the microwave for 3 minutes on HIGH. Once done,crumble them using your hands.

Add paneer to the cooked onions and tomato and stir in till the paneer gets fully coated.

Stir for 2 minutes and voila its done!

Garnish with coriander leaves and lemon(optional)

************************************************************************

Tastes good with : Chapatis, Small plain parathas

Quick Health tips: 

Replace paneer with tofu

Quick Taste tips: 

You could add peas (frozen) after tomatoes and cook till they become soft. You could also make paneer at home.Refer Cooking Easy for the recipe.

You can also stir fry some capsicum and kasuri methi(dried fenugreek leaves) for added flavours.

My Life

My life..

So that now we have found familiar grounds..I can be your friend.

We can start bitching..lets put it mildly, we can start gossiping. We can start sharing soulful moments that only women will understand..lets start laughing over silly jokes that only make us laugh and leave others, especially men wondering what was so funny!

But you need to know a bit more about your friend right...

I am a busy  woman struggling to find time for basically everything in life.. Notwithstanding the fact that I overdo it at times resulting in chaos. I love reading, writing, dancing, singing, cooking, travelling, talking, making friends in no particular order.

I love cooking for my hubby...I love to take care of my health and exercise whenever possible.. I love to work on challenging projects and be successful at them..I love to take care of myself and look pretty...The only problem is I don't have time for all of this.

And when I thought about this, I gained motivation from all you lovely friends of mine who succeed in all of these..Let me stop for a moment and salute you!

Well for me, I am still struggling..

Occasionally I find time for cooking. I am overweight by tens of pounds and therefore spend half my time thinking or talking about how I will lose it. Faintly I even realise that even a fraction of that time spent in exercise will lead to more fruitful results. Never mind..

Struggling to complete even the basic tasks on time...remember those days when I didn't have a bad hair day... But what the hell I love myself!

That when I decided to write this blog and make you a part of the struggle! Through this blog, I hope to share instant cooking recipes, health tips and relationship management advice that has improved my life ..hope it helps you too...

Girls have a innate power to accomplish everything by talking about it or sharing with friends. I hope to find that friend in each one of you. Talk to me, write to me and even feel free to leave a suggestion. This blog is all about a better tomorrow..

Love and Regards
K

Why this blog?

Who am I? You know me really well. Lets guess! I could be the woman sitting next to you on the London Tube..Or I could be standing on the NY Waterway enroute to New Jersey..or I could be busy cutting vegetables on a Mumbai local.. I could be anyone.. But there's something common I share with you..

I am an Indian woman..a married Indian woman living in some part of the world trying to take wholeheartedly what life has to offer. I am someone who works 10 hours making my way up the corporate path and yet tries to find time to manage my family.

Whether its healthy cooking or taking care of my kid's homework, whether its exercising to be in good shape or catching up with friends for a cuppa coffee,whether its struggling hard to earn a living or struggling hard to look pretty on that special occassion, I am the woman who wants it all, who does it all..

Familiar? Then read on...