My all-time-favorite-kitchen gadgets!

After putting a lot of thought into my purchases, since I am a sucker for "impulse buys", I believe I have about 5-6 items sitting on my my kitchen counter which I use on a regular basis. My newfound-love for juicing lead me to buy my black and decker juicer - ah! the freshest juice I have ever had, my magic bullet - love it for the delicious smoothies it helps me make plus dry and wet indian masalas, My black and decker toaster oven - such an easy way to quickly toast up everything from garlic bread to hash browns, to reheating pizzas and you name it, my "Rival" electric can opener - what a relief from cutting myself several times while using the hand held ones, and last but not the least my microwave oven. Need I sing the praises of the microwave? Also let me add the george foreman grill to make grilled fish, chicken and all kinds of panini-pressed sandwiches. Now now!!! before I forget - my slow cookers to make awesome soups, daals and goat meat curry, :-).

These few purchases have made my life easier in this country. If you really plan your day ahead of time, you can cook within a short span of time and have a healthy meal at home on a regular basis. Everyone, including me, complaining - " No time to cook", actually feel lazy to put the minimal effort into cooking after a days work. I know its tough, but whoever said life would be easy as pie? Its all about planning your entire week and getting the grocery done. Ones thats taken care of, the cooking isnt that big of a deal. This is tried and tested.

Happy cooking and healthy eating!!

Tasty Italian dinner

yummy! Its a real quick fixer, a 30-minute-cook-time italian vegetarian meal.

The salad :

A veggie salad with cherry tomatoes cut into halves, green grapes cut into halves, mozarella cheese cut into small pieces, lemon, salt and pepper for taste and one table spoon of olive oil. Also sprinkle some cut basil for the authentic aroma. Mix everything in a bowl and let it stand in the fridge for 30 mins.

Main course:

Cook a pasta of your choice based on package direction. Pour a little olive oil in a non-stick cooking pan and add pesto sauce to it and stir in the pasta with it. Add parmesan cheese and then sprinkle some italian parsley for garnish.

Throw in some store bought garlic bread or feel free to make some at home.

There you have it - A tasty vegetarian meal.
Enjoy!

Healing with food

Recovering from a viral fever. Always keen to use food as healer. So when I had a viral infection and since we hardly have any medicine for virus(no antibiotics, that is), it was easier to try to heal with alternative medicines and food. I tried "congaplex" from whole food as a decongestant and a whole food multivitamin. Foodwise I had chicken soup and tried ginger tea bought from whole food too. Had plenty of fluids and ate oranges for vitamin C. Also rested as much as I possibly could. After 3 days I feel a lot better to get back to work and am not contagious either. 

Healthy Veggie Soup

I love soups. There cant be a better diet than a soup diet. Lots of fibers to clean up your intestine, while not counting calories. Your body will thank you. In this cold weather I went ahead and bought myself an instant soup maker. I wanted to make a soup that will last me for at least two days. My suggestion - do not buy an instant soup maker unless its Vitamix. I dumped all the cut veggies in the soup maker while salivating, but the blender blades wouldnt budge. After several attempts I gave up and just dumped all my veggies in a pressure cooker. After a couple of whistles I let it sit, until all the steam was released. Then I blended the veggies for a soupy consistency with a hand blender and wallah, the result was an awesome steaming hot soup, which I devoured with ultimate satisfaction.

Ingredients:

3-4 celery sticks
one bag of steamfresh broccoli florets
1 large tomato
half of a medium onions
1 large green bell pepper
1 large red bell pepper
2-3 garlic pods
1 inch ginger
2 tbsp of sriracha sauce(any red chilli mexican sauce)
1 and half tbsp olive oil
half a bunch of cilantro
1 and half tsp vinegar
1 and half cup of water OR veggie broth
salt and pepper per taste
1 tsp butter in the bowl :-)

Soup lovers please leave a comment about your experiment with this recipe. This is my original recipe.
Enjoy!!!

Eating healthy - What about taste?

<smiling> as I write this post. I just posted a list of food on my FB status which are really satisfying to your taste buds. Healthy? not so much.... but no question about taste - hands down.

Have you ever tried the Mocha Java chiller from Sonic? I tell you - everytime I have it, much like today ;-), my taste buds thank me. Every sip is filled with the utmost delicious mocha flavored cold coffee. This was suggested by a friends son a few years back and i have been hooked ever since. Never feel happy to pay for any other drink from Sonic than my favorite Mocha java chiller. Satisfaction guaranteed!!

But.. I hate this 'but'.. healthwise it aint wise to have it on a regular basis. Course its a fast food joint where organic or healthy food are rarely served. Its almost unthought of. You dont get a strawberry smoothie with real strawberries in a fast food joint. Its usually a mix of substandard milk/heavy or whipping cream and strawberry syrup for the most part. You are left with making the smoothies at home. This is were you can improvise and trick your taste buds to like what you make and yet eat healthy.

My journey with mindful eating began a few years back and I have been experimenting with food. Am happy to say the smoothies I have made so far at home have been liked by kids and they are your toughest food critics when it comes to taste. So I can safely say I excel in smoothie making? :-D. A banana shake  is usually a mix of half a scoop of vanilla ice cream(non-fat/fat-free), any flavored fat free yogurt, orange juice and a banana. Stick a colorful straw in a fancy glass and everyone gulps it down in a few seconds<Slurp>. So the trick to get kids to eat any fruit or even vegetables is to mask the flavor.

Happy experimenting!!

“Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.” - Henry David Thoreau

Introduction

It has been a while since this blog was created. Finally got around to posting. 

Mindful eating is my take on eating to stay healthy. Its my exploration about food alone and what has worked for me. Am in no way claiming that whatever I have tried to follow foodwise, will work for anyone reading this blog. I am not a physician. Just a regular person trying to wrap my head around food and its impact on a persons body and mind.

After years of trying to understand how food affects you I have realized after talking with friends who have knowledge regarding this and also doing some of my own reading, that food has a tremendous impact on your hollistic wellness and healing. I will try to post links whenever I find something interesting.

Food as healer is what I am trying to drive at through this blog. Would be great if my blog readers could post their comments on what has worked for them. 

When diseases like obesity, diabetis, blood pressure, heart diseases, cancers, and the list goes on, is staring stark at your face looking for respite, my focus turns to food that heals.

Heres a thought I would like to leave you with:

What would you prefer, under what circumstances and why?

1) Allopathic treatments and medicines 
2) Alternative medicinal sources

Happy Healthy eating!!