Thursday Tip: know your produce!!

Although they seem like a nuisance, the stickers or labels attached to fruit and some vegetables have more of a function than helping scan the price at the checkout stand. The PLU code, or price lookup number printed on the sticker, also tells you how the fruit was grown. By reading the PLU code, you can tell if the fruit was genetically modified, organically grown or produced with chemical fertilizers, fungicides, or herbicides.

Here are the basics of what you should know:

1. If there are only four numbers in the PLU, this means that the produce was grown conventionally or “traditionally” with the use of pesticides. The last four letters of the PLU code are simply what kind of vegetable or fruit. An example is that all bananas are labeled with the code of 4011.
2. If there are five numbers in the PLU code, and the number starts with “8″, this tells you that the item is a genetically modified fruit or vegetable. Genetically modified fruits and vegetables trump being organic. So, it is impossible to eat organic produce that are grown from genetically modified seeds. A genetically engineered (GE or GMO) banana would be: 84011
3. If there are five numbers in the PLU code, and the number starts with “9″, this tells you that the produce was grown organically and is not genetically modified. An organic banana would be: 94011

Source

Side dish: Cucumber & Tomato raita

Now that warm weather is here, we're looking forward to having dishes that cool our tummy, heart, mind and soul ;) Yogurt being one of those things, we try and have Raita with our meals as often as we can.  

Raita is basically yogurt mixed in with a couple of ingredients and seasoned to perfection with s&p and sometimes Cayenne peppers.  In this case, we used baby cucumbers & tomatoes.    

Lunch ideas: Veggie wrap

The other day, kiddo was at school and Hubby and I were home chilling - We had decided to go out for lunch but changed our minds at the last minute, so I put together this Veggie wrap with whatever I had available on hand - It was delicious of course since you can never go wrong with a wrap ;)

Happy birthday to me!

I've been feeling all sorts of weird lately!! a lot of feelings & thoughts that are very much unwanted and absolutely unnecessary keep popping up in my head making me feeling super frustrated.

Anyway, Today is my birthday :o) and I'm considering today is a new day and new beginning to more positive ME!!

A good friend once told me that in order go not be too harsh(hard) on  yourself, only look at your own progress from your current 'self' to 'you' last year (along with not ever comparing yourself to anyone) Unfortunately, I feel I haven't improved myself much lately so things certainly need to change!!

Thankfully, it's never too late so I'm making some resolutions on my blog, on the Internet, and for the world to see so that I can stick by them.

1.  Spend no more than 2 hours a day online - check any of the social media sites, either once or day or DEACTIVATE.

2.  Wake up happy - especially with a thought that I will have a good day today or that I will do something good today.

3.  Do at least 1 good deed a week (though it should be per day, but I'm starting off slowly here).

4.  Be more appreciative of all that I have because clearly, I'm very blessed!

5.  Be more optimistic about life and enjoy it more.

6.  Start rigorous workout again.  (I think this is the missing piece to the puzzle - I was super happy and active when I worked out regularly and felt good about myself)

7.  Make an effort to be more kind, gentle, sensitive towards others (especially my husband)

8. LIVE!

9.  Meditate daily - wether I like it or NOT!

10.  Fall in love all over again with myself, my family, my life!

Friday musings

These random musings had me giggling like a little school girl so thought I would share :)

Thursday Tip: Water..water..water

With summer just around the corner, everyone obviously gets into the mode of fitness, being outdoors more often and just enjoying the weather.  What a lot of us forget however, is to keep our body hydrated.  Someone told me long time ago that by the time you feel thirsty, your body is already very dehydrated.  

This chart explains it all so I will not get into the nitty gritty of why 1 needs to drink lots and lots of water, not just during summer but throughout your life..all day..errday ;)

How time flies..

We've been busy attending several birthday parties lately; most of them for kiddos who are turning 1 - It's been so much fun as most of these kids  were just tiny li'l babies not long ago and now they're toddlers, just like my monkey.

I can't even believe it's been 3-1/2 years since my little chunky monkey was born.  He was born a preemie so was the tiniest thing ever, but caught up faster than ever and was consistantly chunky with cute chubby cheeks until he started walking of course..now he's tall and lanky and FULL of energy - I have yet to figure out where his energy comes from because he's certainly not eating enough to keep up :-)

Anywho, attending these parties made me wanna go back and take a look at my kiddo's moments from when he turned one!! I remember him being super sick from an ear infection on his 1st birthday so we had to cancel his party because we were also flying out to India the very next day and I wanted him to feel his bestest for the travel.  We did end up having a very small and intimate celebration with just friends and family as it was also Diwali which was just PERFECT!!

Thursday Tip - How to clean berries and make them last longer!

I bet we've all had this happen.  We bring delicious strawberries at home and after having a couple, we let them sit on counter or in the fridge.  And within a day or 2, they are shriveled and turn moldy..YUCKK!!

Well here's a tip to make them last much longer.  Take your strawberries, put them in large bowl and fill it with cold water. For every 2 cups of water, stir in 1/4 cup of distilled white vinegar.  Let them sit for 5 minutes or so, drain the water out and put strawberries on a towel or paper towel to dry.  Once dry, store them in an open container in the fridge :)

21 "get to know me" questions TAG!!

1. Are you named after anyone? Nope. 

2. When was the last time you cried?  Been a while, thankfully!!

4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself? hmmm...yes & no!! I'm a great person to hang out with but can be opinionated & outspoken 

5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Unfortunately yes!! ALL the time!!

6. Will you ever bungee-jump? Yes - Skydiving was thrilling so Bungee jumping is def. on my bucket list

7. What’s your favorite cereal? Honey bunches of Oats!!

8. What’s the first thing you notice about people? Their smile!!!

9. What is your eye colour? Light brown

10. Scary movie or happy endings? I don't do scary movies, so def. happy endings!!

11. Favorite smells? My hubby's cologne and my kiddo!!

12. Summer or winter? SUMMER!!

13. Computer or television? Computer

14. What’s the furthest you’ve ever been from home? India

15. Do you have any special talents? Probably raise my eyebrows one at a time??

16. Where were you born? India

17. What are your hobbies? Tons..reading, writing, cooking, chilling, facebooking, hanging out with my kiddo is probably my favorite though

18. have any pets? Yes, a puppy named Skylar!! 

19. Favorite movie? Not a huge movie buff but Dirty dancing, The English Patient, Life is beautiful tops my list; Hindi would be 3 Idiots

20. Do you have any siblings? Yes…  An older sister and a younger brother 

21. What do you want to be when you grow up? umm..a li'l late for this question as I'm pretty 'grown up' lol..but I would love to learn another language sometime in the near future!!

Side dish: Mushroom & Peas curry

Hubby is a huge fan of mushrooms..Me, not so much! Anywho, to make him happy, I made this Mushrooms & Peas curry sort of side dish a while back - It turned out absolutely delicious as I couldn't even taste the mushrooms ;) so it's a win win!!

A mini trip & Skylar

Over the weekend, we decided to take a trip to Newport, KY to check out the Aquarium.  We'd been wanting to take kiddo and his best friend on a road trip for a while, so thought this might be a great opportunity and it was.  We had a great time as a family and hanging out with our friends was an added bonus.  

The Newport aquarium is very interesting and well worth the time and money. It is very reasonably priced and if your kids like Sea life, they will definitely like this aquarium. If you take your time you can spend about three hours walking through this aquarium. There are also lots of interactive activities for kids to do.This is very kid oriented. It has some nice views of the river as well.  It was educational, Peaceful and didn't take long to walk through, I also loved that it sat on the Levee, which just gave us even more things to do. We loved it.

On a separate note, Meet Skylar.  She's our new puppy that we adopted couple of days ago - she's a yorkie and so so cute!! She's only 11 weeks old so I was a bit stressed and apprehensive about having her join us but, her wonderful personality just won us over. She's still adjusting to us and seems pretty docile; gets along great with the kiddo and gets nervous pretty easily, but that's expected of a puppy, especially in a new environment.  We look forward to spending lots of fun moments with her :)