Another attempt to "be back"

Wow..

I believe this time took the cake.  I've not updated my little space in almost 2-1/2 years and boy, has a lot happened in those past couple of years.

Another high risk pregnancy, another preemie (this time pink), another year of PPD and a little girl who's not a toddler and an absolute menace.  My O is now 7 (and 1/2) and an absolutely amazing little boy - My S is 2 and boy is she handful.  I wouldn't change it for the world though - they're perfect in my eyes and that's all that matters!

Summer is now around the corner and I thought what better way to document my life than via blog.  It's for me to see anyway since no one follows or reads :)).  Also, writing is a form of meditation for me so hopefully, this will help me survive through the summer and hey, who knows! one day, I'll look back at this blog and it'll help me bring back beautiful memories

Let's see how long I last this time around.  

Kachumber - Easiest Side Salad

Kachumber or raw salad is the easiest salad you will ever make - and it's healthy too.  Ingredients can be added/omitted to your liking as long as it's raw.  I usually like to make my raw salad with tomatoes (deseeded), red onion, cucumber, cilantro for garnish and sometimes jalapeño if I want a kick.  It's best serve chilled and right before serving a quick dressing of salt n pepper, cumin powder, a bit of red chilli powder or paprika and juice of lemon is a must.  It's best to add the dressing at the time of serving so that the vegetables don't get watery.  

Friday Funnies: Summer special

Meal in pictures: Ragda with Sweet Potato Pattis

Our dinner a few nights ago - Ragda with Sweet potato pattis to give it that healthy touch! It was delicious.

Friday Funnies - dedicated to my 'midlife crisis'

I think I need a vacation..a vacation just for me, myself and I - Where I can choose to do whatever it is I damn well please, whenever, wherever - sort of like a Mid-life crisis vacay!!!

Every once in a while, I have to stop and reevaluate my life - If I don't, it becomes this loop of doing the same s*** on different days.  It's easy to get sucked into the loop of routine, and what follows (at least for me) is utter frustration and anger that is usually taken out on someone else.

Over the years, I've gotten a tiny bit better at recognizing the patterns - and the pattern also happens to follow my 'woman's cycle' as well.  My lows are super duper lows and highs are so high that I could fly; it could almost be bipolar personality except the highs and lows don't happen at the same time, simultaneously or even on same days.

I've learned that it is as important for me to connect with myself on daily basis, as it is to connect with my family - If I don't take a 'break' just to hang out with myself, I get extremely frustrated.  If I don't get to socialize, I get angry.  I've also realized that I couldn't care less about anyone else except for the people that really matter to me anymore - Thank god coz it's better late than never. :)

When I do step back, I start appreciating things more instead of constantly bitching about pretty much the same things.  I'm able to enjoy my time and use it more productively.  I am able to plan evenings out with my girlfriends, read a good book, hell even start writing again!! I realize that I am a much much better mom when I choose to do things that I love first and give myself priority first - selfish as it may sound, it is true for me and probably for the most women out there.

Meal in Pictures: French Bread Pizza

This was our lunch a few days ago - It was absolutely finger licking yummy and cannot wait to make it again

Happy Father's day!!

I loathe these special days dedicated to dads, moms, love, etc..It is nothing but marketing ploy in my opinion.

Even still, it is nice to recognize those special people and relationships in life!! so Here's a very Happy Father's day to all the men who chose to change their lives forever by bringing a little soul into this world.

A special mention to my baby daddy: Mr. Z - Thank you for going out of your way to ensure O and I have the best of everything in life - thank you for working tirelessly so that we have the freedom to lazy around if we choose to.  Thank you for making conscious effort to be a little kid yourself once in a while even though it's so not in your personality.   Thank you for choosing to ignore all my bickering and watching over us - We love you more than words can describe and so grateful that God was kind enough to play his part in bringing you into our life!!

Recipe: Healthy Banana Bread

This bread here is completely oil/butter, egg & sugar free! and if preferred, can be Gluten free as well - The best part is, it turned out to be just as moist and delicious as 'regular' Banana Bread if not more.

I love playing with recipes - so it's always great to make it your own.  I added cranberries, dates & almonds in mine - other popular substitutions are: walnuts, chocolate chips, raspberries, apple, etc.

Recipe:

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup sweetener of your choice (Honey, Agave, maple syrup..etc..)
1/3 cup Yogurt (Plain)
1/4 cup chopped dates (or a topping of your choice, walnuts, raspberries, chocolate chips, etc)
2 medium ripe bananas (mashed)
1 small apple (Mashed or apple sauce) - Optional

• Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8x4 load pan - set aside
• Mix flour(s), baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt - set aside
• In another bowl, whisk Yogurt, sweetener, Mashed bananas & Mashed apple (or apple sauce if using) - Whisk together until completely incorporated
• Slowly mix dry and wet ingredients together until no dry flour remains - do not over mix
• Add in your choice of toppings -  I added raspberries and almonds)
• Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake for about 60 minutes or until a toothpick insert comes out clean
• let it stand for 10 minutes or until cool before slicing

*These can be stored in an airtight container in refrigerator for up to a week!

Summer special: Sweet, delicious, raw Mangos!

There's nothing better to relish on in the hot summer, than raw, delicious, juicy mangos....as they are.

Happy birthday Mom!

Today, June 7th, is my mom's 58th birthday! She's a woman of a few words but her heart is larger than life.  She's 'wished' away her whole life taking care of others' needs and always putting others first before herself.  First, her struggles growing up, then working her youth away to provide for her family, then kids, then family, and now grandkids.

Rarely has she ever complained unless you really make her talk - She's given her time and self away to everyone selflessly without worrying about her own needs and wants; yet no one, including myself, have ever really appreciated her or everything she does for others.  We have instead always asked her to be something she's not - which is to 'stand up' for herself or speak up instead of just keeping everything bottled up inside.

She's always had people around her to take adventage of her niceness - knowing that, she has bent over backwards because it's just not in her nature to not please or help others.  She maybe a woman of a few words, but when she does say something, it's almost always worth while or to the point.  She has gone through a lot in life yet, still puts on a smile and a brave front.

I wish her the bestest birthday and happiest of times for next 50+ years.  If there's anyone who deserves the best of everything, it's Nita! We love you mom and we may not say it enough, or ever but you really have lived a life of dignity through all the ups and downs.  May you make the next 50 years the best and most self pampering years of your life.

Back after a hiatus...again!

Here I am again, after yet another long hiatus.

Writing is always on my mind; ALWAYS! whatever I maybe doing, I'm always looking to incorporate it into writing one way or the other.  Getting down to business of doing it however, is where the challange is.

A lot has happened since my last blog - I wrote and rewrote all that took place, but never got around to either saving it or posting it so I just let it be.

We've packed up and moved to a different state, we've taken numerous vacations, I've read many books, kiddo has grown up A LOT, I've lost 20 pounds, and we've planned a ton of life altering changes since my last blog; but getting into nitty gritty of it is just pointless this late in the game so I'll just pretend that I'm starting a fresh new blog and start posting all the pending posts.

I feel like I need a direction; both for blogging and in life.. yet, I can't function like that IRL so if I were to choose just one field to blog about, I'd probably never blog again - I think I'll stick to how I've been blogging and hopefully, pick it up more..and more! <Rant over>

Summer is here! So I maybe gone again for another long break because I'm too busy being outdoors and having fun when it's nice out..but oh well! I will do the best I can I guess.

Badam (Almond) Barfi

My family loves their nuts n dry fruits.  We try and incorporate a handful of nuts into our daily diet as often as we possibly can.  I especially like to make sure that my kiddo gets his daily dose since he loves to munch all day anyways - nuts is a good alternative to satisfy that craving of 'oh, I just wanna eat something' without being hungry (instead of chips or something)

Anyway, I was wondering what else I could do with all the almonds we have besides making Badam Sheera.  So I went ahead and made Badam Barfi - It's full of healthy fats because it was Ghee (clarified butter), almonds and just enough sugar to give a nice sweetness but not too much plus it's just the perfect treat for winters.

It's super easy, delicious and a good alternative for those who don't like eating nuts directly but do enjoy a healthy sweet treat.  

Friday funnies: Dedicated to Skylar

Today's Friday's funnies is dedicated to my sweetheart Skylar!  As much as it hurts to, we had to get her 'fixed' this week because it was just getting to be too much managing her with all her doggie tantrums and accidents and constant humpings.

She's been a complete joy since we adopted her in April - sometimes we wanted to kill her for ruining furniture and carpets and hiding socks or herself or puking or running out of the house to play games just when we were running late and many of her crazy quirks, but we wouldn't trade her for the world - following musings totally describe how we feel about her.

Holiday treats: Gluten free berry muffins

Happy new year :) It's seriously scary how fast 2013 flew by - Glad and blessed to add another year to the life and hopefully, many more to come.

I am so behind on these posts, it's not even funny.  During the holiday season, I had made these delicious muffins using rice flour for a friend who was on gluten free diet.  They were super quick to make and so delicious. 

Recipe source

Holidays and overeating!

With holidays just around the corner and now being Winter and all (you know, hibernation, eating Way too much) I thought it'd be a great idea to share some ideas on how to bounce back after eating a bit too much.  I received some of these tips in an email and thought it was practical yet helpful.

1. Start the day with hot water and lemon: helps to boost immunity system, balance pH and to eliminate toxins from your body.

2. Hydrate all day long: Water..Water..Water

3. Give your digestive system a break: with a juice cleanse or a day of nothing but soups

4. Move your body: Exercise!! long walks, a jog, or even Yoga can do wonder.

5. Forgive yourself. It’s all good. Really: because we're human :)

Cold Coffee

Happy Monday!

I, like many many millions of people am addicted to Starbucks.  I loveee their seasonal coffees and their cold coffees and frappuccinos (Java chip, yummm)

Anyway, It can put a dent in your pocket so I decided to go ahead and make the Cold Coffee at home and boy, was I glad that I did.  It tastes just as yummy AND I get to control the ingredients I put in to my liking AND I don't have to fork out $5 to $6.  

I never realized how easy it is to make your own Cold Coffee at home - It just takes few very basic ingredients which are easily available in most households.

I took 1 cup of milk with 1 scoop of Vanilla ice cream, 2 tbsp of Cane sugar, ground coffee (approximate) and 1 tbsp Coco powder.  I blended all the ingredients and topped it with a bit of Whipped cream - YUMMMMMMMM! 

The bad thing about this discovery is that now I'll spoil myself to a cup everyday ;)

Friday favorites!

I haven't had the chance to share my favorite musings in a long time - so here I take the opportunity to share some oldies but goodies!!

Enjoy the beautiful weekend :) - The fun and snow filled holiday season is finally here.

Holiday treats: Christmas Sugar Cookies

Having a li'l kid in the house is so much fun - they definitely know how to live in the present moment AND ensure that you do too - It also means that all holidays/festivals come way sooner than  expected and we have no choice but to join in on the fun.

We must've celebrated Diwali for the whole month this year; same for Halloween and now Christmas.  Our Xmas celebrations started in early November, tree was up by the 2nd week of November and treats are being prepared already :)

Our first treat for tis' season was Christmas sugar cookies - they turned out delicious and crispy, just the way we enjoy them! There are a million recipes out there on the net and we just picked 1 random one which was eggless.

It was Yummy to say the least!!

10 questions Tag

1. Your first childhood celebrity crush? 

Hmm.  Don't quite remember but I remember writing a letter to Amir khan which my mom found and got really upset about..lol

2. Favorite ice cream flavor? 

Cookies n' cream without a doubt - I could eat a tub in 1 sitting

3. The best gift you’ve ever received? 

The love of my life, my O!

4. If you could learn any new skill, what would it be? 

Singing  - I feel super envious of those who can sing.

5. Your favorite holiday destination? 

Thailand

6. The nicest compliment someone’s given you? 

That I am always living in the moment without worrying about future or thinking about past

7. You win the lottery. What’s the first thing you spend on? 

Woww!! What WOULDN'T I spend it on - depending on the amount, I would honestly make a huge donation first to Care for Children

8. The high point of this past weekend? 

Diwali party for sure!

9. Cat person/Dog person? 

Dog since we have one - cats are sneaky and just not trustworthy lol

10. What do you order at Starbucks?

Java chip frap for the most part but Pumpkin spiced Latte during fall

Long hiatus

It has been super long since I've checked in - I figured now that things have settled, It's about time I get back to doing what I love - which is writing and blogging.

Wow - I don't even know where to begin - a LOT has happened since my last blog post which I believe was sometime in July; since then, we've made major changes and biggest being that we wrapped up our life in one state, packed everything up and moved to a new one.  It was overwhelming to say the least.  While it was exciting on some level, it was bittersweet for the most part.  Mostly because we've had to move away from our closest friends who'd become more like a family to us.  Our family which was a few hours drive away is even further so not as easy to just make a 'weekend trip' anymore.

Anyway, all said and done, change is constant and obviously a part of life and I believe for once in my life, I embraced it with open arms and loved every minute of it.  The biggest joy has been to see my kiddo make the smoothest transition of all.  While he misses his best friend back home, he has made new friends super easily and has adjusted to his new school and environment with utmost ease.  He's a born traveler so we're super proud of how well he's adjusted to new everything.  Doggy has not been so happy because she doesn't have the rabbits to chase anymore or even a huge yard to play in but she's coming around and hopefully, will settle in sooner than later.

Festivities began in October so it's been even more fun and exciting - we got to enjoy our first Navratri in this state and it was great fun.  We were lucky enough to go visit our friends for Diwali so that was a super blast.  Kiddo just celebrated his 4th birthday and now Thanksgiving and of course Christmas is around the corner.

Looking forward to lots more excitements ahead - Loving every moment of this life and so grateful for everything that the god has blessed us with!