This week’s Thursday Challenge : LOVE (Affection, Hug, Smile, Kiss, Pets, Babys,…)
Edited to add: This was supposed to be published on Thursday.. guess I’m in a bit of a confused state.
Hugs
Colours of red
The Thursday Challenge: RED (Fruits, Vegetables, Flowers, Clothing, Fire, Signs, Vehicles, Furniture,…) this week was exactly what I’ve had on my mind all of last week. It had to be a red red soup….
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| Red, Russet, Scarlet, Salmon… call them what you will |
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| … they all come together in a healthy ‘bowlful’ |
Random ramblings
This is progress — from being an obsessivemom to a ‘versatile blogger’… Thanks Aparna for nominating me, you pretty much made my day. I still feel the award is a bit of an euphemism for a “confused blogger”. But who cares.. I like awards.
The rules are:
1. Nominate 15 fellow Bloggers. That’s a tough one. I’ve sat so long on this that almost everyone I know has been tagged. However, if you’re reading this and haven’t been nominated consider yourself a nominee.
2. Inform the Bloggers of their nomination. Well.. consider yourself informed.
3. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your Blog Post – Done.
4. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
This I like. Here goes..
1. Though generally not a superstitious person I can’t resist doing “one for sorrow, two for joy” when I see mynahs (at least I think that brown bird with yellow legs and beak is a mynah).
2. I hate eating alone. If there’s no one around to talk to I’ll either switch on the television (completely suicidal for my fitness routine) or grab a book.
3. I have a thing for round numbers. If I’m exercising I need to do 15 minutes or 100 calories or 3 kms. If my time ends at say..2.7kms.. the 0.3 will torment me till I get back on the treadmill and finish it even if it takes just two minutes, making people wonder what I was doing getting on and off.
4. I could spend my life in sneakers. A corollary to that one : I’m partial to informal dos where I can go in sneakers. I’m so not good at formal dressing up even though I love to see others all dressed up.
5. I’m a sucker for happy endings and if it’s not happy, like the great SRK said, I like to believe, that “picture abhi baki hai mere dost.”
6. I love reading, writing, exercising, watching films, gardening, crafting, cooking, scrapbooking among a host of other things, which is why I’m constantly running short of time.
7. I’m a ‘schedule’ person and a planner to boot. Unplanned things get to me… unannounced guests, unplanned delays, upset schedules, irregular mealtimes, odd sleeping hours, late baths. Gosh! I sound stuck up, isn’t it? All I can say is that I’ve improved since the twins came along. I plan all I want they do what they want. I’m definitely planning on getting more spontaneous.
That’s it. Take it up people… would love to know more about all of you who drop by.
Just another day
I have a problem. All you blogger pals have so much so interesting to say that each time I come to the comp my head bursting with my new post I end up getting hooked onto you guys and the post just dies. It’s a bit like when you meet friends after a long time, everyone talks together and it’s tough to get in a word because you want to talk as well as listen. And when you come away you realise you have a host of things that you forgot to tell everyone. Hmmm.. it’s fun, actually. And on second thoughts… not a problem problem.
I went to the gym after two days.. Sunday being a self declared holiday and Monday — sick leave.. not me.. Hrit decided to remind me of my OM status by falling ill. His old demon, wheezing, struck with a vengeance. It’s comes in a flash and goes ever so slowly. I was caught unawares as he’d been doing very well since we moved to Pune almost two years back. I’d given away our nebuliser to a friend with a sick child. So there I was running around to borrow one and trying all kinds of syrups, I’d actually forgotten which ones worked best. God knows I tried everything including a host of home remedies which normally did wonders for him but Sunday night nothing worked. He slept fitfully, coughed continuously and kept saying, “Mama I can’t breathe”.
I’ve never felt so helpless.
He’s much better now, though the cough will take some time to go.
At the gym we had a lady-trainer who took a dance-aerobics session. Like I’ve said many times over dance is my Waterloo. However, I was NOT going to let anything get in the way of my pizza this time. So while the other girls/women danced I kept to the beat and did my own version — more aerobics than dance but who cares as long as the kgs are dropping.
Today’s weight: 70.2kgs. I’m happy.
And now I’m off to search the web for fancy dress ideas. Hrit is an astronaut and Naisha is planet Venus this Monday. Help will be much appreciated. Crafty, creative people.. MM .. if you’re reading this help!
Breakfast like a king
Friends bear with me this month. I am going to sound like an obsessive fat fighter rather than an obsessivemom.. just for these four weeks. I need those two kgs off.
Exercise has always been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Whenever I’ve stopped I’ve faced bad bad consequences like oodles of weight gain or high cholesterol. So since exercising is a given, it’s the food I’m focusing on. While dinner is mostly soups.. check out today’s yummy low fat breakfast.
Exercise has always been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Whenever I’ve stopped I’ve faced bad bad consequences like oodles of weight gain or high cholesterol. So since exercising is a given, it’s the food I’m focusing on. While dinner is mostly soups.. check out today’s yummy low fat breakfast.
1. Whole masoor dal cutlets with coriander and mint chutney (which turned out hot enough to blow your brains away).
2. A slice of brown bread
3. Carrot, cucumber and beetroot slices on the side.
All made by moi.
Now for the recipes.
Caution: If you’re not the cooking type you might find this mind-numbingly boring.
The cutlets are a hand-me-down recipe from my mum, who has struggled harder than me to keep me slim. Here it is for those who are interested. Do remember I’m NOT a good cook and bear with my hit and trial ways.
1. Soak whole masoor dal overnight.
2. Crush to a powder whole garam masala – Green cardamoms, large cardamoms, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon.
3. Boil the dal with the crushed spices and salt. You can add in a bay leaf too. The water should be just enough to cook the dal. Don’t add too little or you’ll burn it, which I’ve done often enough. If you add too much, simply let it boil away. You can also add bread crumbs to dry it up. Mash the dal to get a dough-like consistency. Mum used to grind it in the mixer but I’m too lazy to do that. Mashing it in the pressure pan works well enough.
4. Add chopped onions, green coriander, green chillies and you have a nice batter for your cutlets. Make balls and fry. It can also be used as a sandwich filling… any day healthier than those potatoes. FYI: It’s totally awesome if fried properly in oil.. but if you’re on a weightloss trip a tiny bit of oil is not bad either.
The chutney is another staple these days. It replaces sweet ketchup at breakfast and oily pickles at lunch. You can even add it to curd to give it flavour. I put in coriander leaves, mint leaves, a bit of garlic and loads of chillies. Then I realised I’d forgotten the sour factor.. so added some amchur (dry mango powder), tasted it, then squeezed in half a lemon too. It ended up fine.
That was the breakfast.
Before I forget…
Weight as on 3.2.12 – 70.6 kgs.. Down 500 gms. Yay! Yay! The weekend’s here and I’m in a state of high alert. I don’t want the weighing scales tipping the wrong way on Monday.