Monday, August 30, 2010

Quick and Zero Oil Soups

These are zero oil veg soups. Its very easy and quick to make. These are my own recipes and are a part of our daily diet, usually for dinner. These can be had with salads or breads.

Veg Clear Soup:

Ingredients:

    * Carrot
    * Spring onion
    * Sweet corn
    * Green Capsicum
    * Cornflour
    * Black Pepper – powder or fresh pepper crushed
    * Salt
    * Lemon juice

Tomato Basil Soup:
Ingredients:
    * Firm red tomatoes
    * Beetroot
    * Potatoes
    * Carrot

    * Sugar
    * Basil
    * Black Pepper – powder or fresh pepper crushed
    * Salt
    * Lemon juice
Method:

Carrot Soup:
Ingredients:
    * Carrot
    * Milk
    * Basil
    * Black Pepper – powder or fresh pepper crushed
    * Salt
Method:

Bottle gourd/Lauki/Kaddu Soup
Ingredients:
    * Bottle goud
    * Garlic
    * Black Pepper – powder or fresh pepper crushed
    * Salt
    * Lemon juice
Method:

Spinach Soup
Ingredients:
    * Spinach
    * Black Pepper – powder or fresh pepper crushed
    * Salt
    * Lemon juice
 Method:




Friday, August 27, 2010

Sprouts

There are many benefits of sprouts, it purifies your blood and  enhances you from skin to hair. One bowl of sprouts should be a part of the daily diet.

Sprouts for breakfast/snack

Soak one fist of each of the below. You can combine these together or soak only one depending on your mood and the availability
  • full green moong dal
  • full mooth
Soak them overnight and next morning tie them in a muslin cloth or if you have a sprout maker put them on the top box. Leave them to sprout in a warm place for 24 hours.

Once the sprouts are ready, you can eat them in a variety of ways.
Sprouts Chaat:
Ingredients
  • 1-2 frim tomatoes
  • 1 onion
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 carrot
  • 1-2 green chillies
  • Red chilli powder
  • Chaat masala
  • Salt
Method
Chop tomatoes, cucumber, carrot and onions as cubes or as finely as you wish to eat. Chop the green chillies.
Place the sprouts in a blow, mix the cut vegetables and add red chilli powder, chaat masala and salt as per your taste. You can make it very spicy or keep it bland depending on your taste.
Your sprouts chaat is ready to eat.

Toppings and variations
Most of the recipes can be made interesting by adding a few toppings.
  • You can chill it for half hour before eating.
  • Add thick curd on top of the sprouts chaat, add green chutney and sweet chutney. Sprinkle little red chilli powder and salt. This becomes a good snack to serve your guest too.
  • Add soaked and boiled black gram  to this chaat

Thursday, August 26, 2010

A Healthy Diet

In the mad and busy routines we live with we often ignore one of the most important part of our lives, 'FOOD'. Many skip one or more meals and if you do end up eating you only 'stuff' to survive. Its very important to eat good and healthy food as this guides your metabolism and  supplies you the energies required by your body to function healthy.
I have always been conscious of eating and cooking healthy food for me and my family. But to follow it as a routine wasn't easy. It called for a new lifestyle which had to be 'healthy'. 
During these attempts to get my family on a healthy diet routine, the most important lesson I learnt was  that a daily healthy diet is the key to healthy life.
My kid is much more energetic and less cranky, she eats and relishes good food. There has been good improvement in the stamina and energy levels of all the family members and my mother in law who is a diabetic dose not struggle to 'know' what food is right for her and how to eat.
I have seen that with just good diet one can loose weight, even if there isn't enough time to exercise everyday.
There are many reasons I have heard from people which prevents them from following a healthy diet.

Most Common Myths:
  1. You gotta starve and let go good food
  2. Its time consuming
  3. It needs a lot of preparations- from shopping to cooking
  4. Very limited variety of food
  5. Stop partying!
I love to eat and cook, this helped me experiment with my daily food, keeping them healthy and easy to cook.