These are a few of my favorite things (Part 2)

As I was peering into the fridge...I realized that there were a few things that were an integral part of my pantry for summer...so I figured I will give you a peek into a few of my summer time favorites...

(A) A lunch box favorite is the grapes from the Farmer's Market...I give K2 a bag of grapes in his lunchbox and this is one thing that always comes back empty, along with the snack bag of cherry tomatoes.

(B) This wonderful wonderful drink that I discovered quite by accident - Sambazon...it is tart and yet sweet and the version I drink has Yerba Mate which has a caffeine boost for those days when all you want to do is stay in bed.

(C) Cabot Spreadable Cheddar ( Habanero)...it really adds a va-va-voom to our lunch box Sandwich's. If you don't like spicy stay away from this one...

(D) Oikos - Organic Fat Free Yogurt (plain) -- try this with a teaspoon of local honey and you have an incredible dessert...(ok...so I fudged it a little...more like 2 teaspoons)

(E) Sunspire Peppermint Patty : An ooey gooey dark chocolate patty which is all natural with the peppermint in the middle...my love affair with chocolate covered peppermint started almost 25 years back with my first bite of an "After Eight"...this feels like a "grown up" version of that addiction.

(F) Think-Thin Bars : I was skeptical till I took my first bite of a dark chocolate bar...hard to believe that it has very little sugar and about 20gms of protien...especially great for after a work-out. I especially love the Think-Thin Crunch bars ( Blueberry)...these are K1's vice of choice.

(G) Trader Joe's Wasabi Roasted Seaweed Snack : The fishy smell followed by the crisp crunch of the seaweed...and then the intense whack in the head from the Wasabi is intoxicating...I have at least 4 bags of these at home and eat them during a snack break at work...it's 60 calories takes some time to eat because of the wasabi kick and fills me up.

(H) Madhava Honey Stix....for a healthy yummy wholesome dessert on the go....

These are a few of the favorites around our place....what are some of your favorite summer food finds?

Monkey See, Monkey Do

No No...I am not talking about Eminem's rap...something strange happened last week that made me pause for  a minute and think. Most of you that know me, know about my need to keep the house spic and span ( yeah yeah...understatement I know)...so last Monday due to busy schedules as I was cooking dinner, I asked K1 to take the garbage out as it was garbage day...K1 did it in due course that evening (did I tell you he is a really awesome husband...most days)...afterwards he comes back in with a sheepish grin and says -- Garbage day is Wednesday, I am not taking that stuff back in...Next morning as we were leaving for work, we saw that 6 out of our 7 neighbors had left their garbage cans out...we felt kinda sorta guilty about it (for about a minute)...it brought home the point of how hard we try to conform, follow the pack and not stand out...Monkey See Monkey Do

Thinking back about my obsession with "health and food" it started with a "diet pill" in 2000 called Metabolite which had way too much caffeine and gave me an unnecessary buzz...followed by a "grapefruit diet"...which left me hungry all the time... then it was the "Hollywood Detox Diet"...no food just the juice for a couple days and in the following days, you see all the weight come right back. I followed this by the Weight-watcher's...God knows what else till in 2006, I found out K2 was on his way - all diets flew out of the window -- I focused on  balanced, healthy whole foods (think yogurt and banana for breakfast, a spinach salad with shrimp for lunch and moong dal khichidi for dinner with some healthy snacks thrown in), I walked 3 miles everyday and gained only 21 pounds during the pregnancy. Once K2 was born, I think we maintained a healthy diet. However, in 2009 with my dad's illness I became totally irrational about food - I took the family off dairy and meat for a while and this resulted in Vitamin D deficiencies for K1 and B12 deficiencies for me... I no longer follow diet fads...I exercise when I feel like it, we eat reasonably healthy foods and it is no longer about Monkey See, Monkey Do...

What did we do this weekend?K2 was not well and is still complaining of an ear ache - so it was a quiet weekend, we watched a Shakespeare's play in the park (Henry Vth )

Attended a friend's 50th birthday party where I binged on Ragda Pattice and Ras Malai...not ready yet for a work day but I am sure I will get there. For now I am admiring a near-perfect rose in our front yard and a vibrant little humming bird which is buzzing away busily near it...

The Dirty "C" Word...

"Sticks and stones may break your bones but words can help you to feel good about yourself and those you share them with"

Yes...I wish I could use words to make myself feel better but as I sit more than 8000 miles away from my father...as he moves from treatment to treatment...the latest one being a blood transfusion due to incredibly low platelet count...all I feel is a sense of helplessness and anger. Helplessness because I am here and he is there and there is not much I can do from here...anger because I don't understand why he can't be that minority that miraculously gets better...why not him? Every treatment brings with it a new surge of hope...a hope that what is broken will be fixed yet the reality is that with every surge there is a following ebb and it is that  ebb that is intolerable...I go through my day almost like a robot...emotions, feelings...even sensations wrung out ( I realized at 3 PM that I hadn't eaten in 12 hours and I wasn't even hungry!)...Cancer is a four lettered word in my dictionary - A hardened inflexible nemesis which has found one of my two Achilles points...how is one to stay positive. If I feel so lost 8000 miles away, I shudder to think of what my parents go through day in day out...fighting, hoping, fighting some more and trying to stay positive? Yes in my life Cancer is a dirty word...it has made me in a not-so-positive way :

1.  rethink my priorities
2. taken me into the deep abyss of depression...and I am mostly an optimistic sort of a person
3.  question the purpose of life ( we die anyway...so why is living so important)
4. makes me irrationally over-correct 

And honestly, the hype about people who become strong in the face of adversity is passe...I am one of those people who crumbles under extreme pressure (and the reality is those moments of extreme pressure have been few and far between)...however these days  I feel like I am hitting that break point quite often (giving myself countless pep talks...I believe the support system needs to be internal)...I pull myself from the brink...go on with some semblance of  normalcy...but what exactly is "normal" in such circumstances???

I listen to Mariah Carey's "Hero Within"  again and again and in some ways it is my coping mechanism for today and for now I will take what I can get -

"There's a hero
If you look inside your heart
You don't have to be afraid
Of what you are
There's an answer
If you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know
Will melt away

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you'll finally see the truth-
That a hero lies in you"

Watch it here -



And I hope it helps you someday,as it helped me today...

Anger Management and Enlightenment on a Plate

I work out 4-5 times a week yet the weighing scale is slowly sliding upwards this month - I blame it on water retention, then stress and then lack of sleep...but in my heart of hearts I know it is my love of all things sweet and carbs ( read : rice)...this week saw me buying dessert by the truck load : Rubicon Carrot Cake , Beckmann's Bearclaw and the famous Beckmann's Cinnamon Roll ...the siren call of sugar the last two weeks has been irresistible. So, even though tomorrow I plan to start being firmer in saying  "No to dessert" for the month... I have with me a "goodbye for now" slice of carrot cake to tide me over...omigod...the frosting on the cake should be outlawed...it is that good !!!

Some things have put me on short fuse this week - boxed perceptions, implicit put-downs, etc. etc...I remind myself a million times that I shouldn't get angry, but when the emotion comes it comes. I understand anger is a manifestation of all things negative, a distortion of my true nature - yes I know the consequences are most harmful to but one person - me. Most of my anger is on past actions/events...reality is does it really help to waste emotions on something which cannot be altered...I tell myself to Be in the Present Moment (not lament past decisions). About 8 years back I had attended a seminar on Art of Living. One of the things taught was - For every rhythm in the mind, there is a corresponding rhythm in the breath and for every rhythm in the breath there is a corresponding emotion. So, when you cannot handle your mind directly, you can handle it through breath...I am conscious about breathing my mind calm. I wish I  could say I am 100% there but the truth is this is  work in progess.

Tomorrow is Poornima and I will remake this wonderful "Good Karma Porridge" for the Fam. Here is how it looks

To make it you need :

• 1/2 Cup Organic Quinoa (wash a couple times in cold water and keep aside)
• 1 large Organic sweet potato  
• 1 Cup Trader Joe's Vanilla Coconut Milk
• Organic Sweetened Coconut Cream (to thicken)
• Raw Sugar ( to taste) 

Boil the sweet potato ( 3-5 minutes). In parallel cook the quinoa in the vanilla coconut milk (10-12 minutes)

 Mash the sweet potato into the cooked quinoa. Now add 2-3 tablespoons of Organic sweetened coconut cream (adjust based on how sweet and creamy you want your pudding). Add sugar if desired.

Eat hot or cold - but remember to sprinkle liberally - toasted walnuts and cranberries. Enjoy for breakfast or as a healthy guilt free dessert. It is your good karma that you discovered this ancient Incan grain...savor

I am posting this recipe for my father...who saw the picture and asked me at least 5 times for the recipe (picture is taken on my camera phone)

So how is the week  treating you thus far? 

Unseemly Taste & a Tiring day...

A long long day...brown bag lunch for K2 for a field trip, a car to be serviced, a spreadsheet to rebuild, a sweaty Zumba class...and I was looking forward to relaxing to a Farro Salad at Pasta Pomodaro...but my precocious son threw me a curve ball...Ma, how about we eat at home? The kid who probably single-handedly kept Pasta Pomodaro afloat was saying No to eating there...

We went to Whole Foods - I grabbed yet  another dozen of the Think Thin Bars, a clamshell of Organic Spinach when I felt an insistent tug...my son was pulling me toward the cheese section (Paul - the awesome cheese dude) - this is where he gets to take a tour of the world of cheese...his favorite kind Blue Cheese. P gave him the stinkiest of them all - roaring forties...not only did K2 finish a big chunk, he charmed P into "gifting" him a chunk of cheese - need I say I was impressed.

The past three days have been filled with sleepless nights and busy days...so most of the time my mind just wants to go blank....so what better way to decompress than a mindless romance novel...so my self-education for the past 2 nights has been this racy book - Love is Murder...want to judge me go ahead...but it has been so fabulous reading a book without thinking about it...

 

My Ma's first question to me was - what did you eat? For K2 and me, I made today a 10 minute stew with Soofoo (it has barley, black lentils, green lentils, brown lentils, Buckwheat, Brown Rice, Oats, Rye Berries, Wheat Berries), Opo Squash laced with ginger and shallots -- cooked in a tomato base. K2 seems to love this weird one pot dish which is awesome.

What else is moving and shaking in my world? I constantly get haunted by the verse from Frost's poem -

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep...

Yet for tonight I will settle for but one night of deep, worry-free sleep.

Another year...life and such things.

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good people do nothing – you must be the change that you want to see in the world

For me to quote Gandhi is an irony - I respected him but was never a pacifist, I abhorred any form of injustice and could never keep my big mouth shut...be it slapping someone  double my size who was eve-teasing a timid classmate on the bus to refusing to bribe a police man who had wrongfully confiscated our kinetic honda....there are "n" number of incidents in my life where my choices decided my place in life and it is a place I am happy in...of course there are moments where I have the "what if" questions in my head but I am happy with the majority of the choices I have made in my life...I am ok with not grazing with the herd...and standing out, if  I believe I am walking the right path...

A realization I had late in life in my 8th week of pregnancy was that my baby was what I eat...so I started my treks to the sunday farmer's market...slowly as my pregnancy progressed I made new friends in the market, people I knew by name - who sold me the freshest eggs, the sweetest strawberries, the strangest looking sunchokes, sumptuous pies, locally sourced honey, and many other things...I learnt that Zucchini flowers could replace pumpkin flowers in the fritters I made that reminded me of home...for the past 6 years I have been mind fully moving a lot of our eating habits to organic foods...watching Aamir Khan's "Satyameva Jayate" 

made me feel good about my decision. To A my brother who tells me I have a tendency to over-correct...whatdya say now? This week has been mind-opening  food wise with a constant deluge of movies like : Food Fight, Ingredients and Toast

Why do we revisit our life as we know it at least twice ( for sure) in our lives :

1. On New Year's Eve
2. On our Birthday's

The years are galloping by - don't know when I left the teenage and hit adulthood and have been officially middle-aged for a while now...any regrets, of course a number but my perspective now is to look at the glass half full vs. half empty. Does that mean I have become Ms. Sunshine & Sweetness....not really --- I still terrorize K2 to write a journal, take a nap, eat healthy stuff....and nag K1 to take the garbage out, listen to me (yeah like that's happening),  cut the veggies etc....but I do believe this year I learnt to prioritize what matters most and I think what matters most is My Family -- I love them and I know that they define me and my existence. I have prioritized happiness - I know life is not always fair and maybe I don't get what I want or deserve, yet when I take a step back and get a handle on where my life is, I feel grateful...I feel blessed and I choose happiness. I have prioritized inner peace - I choose to kick out that ANT  that was trying to make a place in my mind...making me question the purpose of living, futility of existence etc. etc...I have prioritized health be it my weekly treks to the Farmer's Market, my foodie adventures in my local market, cooking grains with weird names ( quinoa, farro, amaranth...) or my energizing Zumba classes, relaxing Yoga classes and nature walks with the 2 K's...

Breakfast yesterday was a blast from the past...something Ma used to make time and again for  me and I am keeping the cycle going -  the little guy loves all things eggs. I am sure y'all have your own version of good old scrambled eggs and toast.

For akoori (parsi scrambled eggs) and Toast

• 2 Organic Jumbo Brown Eggs ( Olivera Egg Ranch)
•  4 Egg Whites
• 2 Thai Chili Peppers (Teng Lee Farm) - finely chopped
• 1 vine ripened Tomato (Rensendiz Farm) - finely chopped
• 1 Purple Spring Onion (large) (Rodriguez Farm) - finely chopped
• Fresh Cilantro (Rodriguez Farm) - finely chopped
• EVOO
• Organic Turmeric Powder, Roasted Cumin Powder
• Beckmann's Oat Bran Bread

Add 1 tbspoon of EVOO to wok. When the oil heats -- add the turmeric and cumin powder - it hisses and sizzles. Then add the chopped onions and the chillies (no chillies for K2). Once it has browned ( go with your gut, its all about the smell and the look). add in chopped tomatoes and cook. While the tomatoes are cooking I break the eggs in a bowl and lightly whisk with some salt ( I used some pink australian sea salt that I had, that I needed to use). Add the eggs to the mixture. Stir till the eggs reach the consistency you like ( I like it really well-done, not soft and runny). Add some organic TJ's Ketchup (maybe a spoonful, don't ask me why, I just like it this way).  Sprinkle the cilantro on top.

In parallel make your toast -I usually enjoy my toast with my akoori...one bite of toast and one bite of the egg --- some kind of heaven that is. K2 likes his toast with Nutella or Chocolate Peanut Butter and K1 with regular peanut butter :-)

For me the meal takes me back to childhood but I am conscious that every bite of this meal is locally sourced/pesticide free/organic . This is one of the fool-proof meals that K2 will eat without a single complaint. I usually pair it with a bowl of cut peaches or strawberries to make it a breakfast-dinner kind of a meal for him (when I am unusually tired or usually lazy :-) ). Sending this over a topic close to my heart : Let's Cook: Kids Special  being hosted by Tickling Palates

How do I plan to spend my birthday - work, hug my son, work some more, talk to Bapa, work some more, hug K1, work some more....have a really lovely meal ( I am really craving Ethiopian....why is it that the Peninsula has no good Ethiopian?)...So Another year goes by and life goes on too...

12 things women do better than men

Truth be told I avoid Cosmopolitan like plague - I am probably the last person who wants to - wow him  or look 15 at 50 or dress to kill or lose 20 lbs in 6 weeks (or maybe I am just a realist ;))...however when Yahoo homepage had a highlighted article with the title - 12 things women do better than men...but of course I had to click on it...if you would rather read the real deal rather than my take on it click here

The article made me smile...for all the tips I don't want from Cosmopolitan, this one mostly hit spot on (and it was unusually backed by tons of studies ) -- As they said it - Hello, ego boost! Now read on :

1. We're cleaner. Our house looks like someone just moved in (yes I am not too modest am I)...Cleanliness is almost an obsession with me...and it is not seamlessly easy...nope...it is hard work and I am pretty much at it 100%...from sweeping, mopping, dusting, organizing, donating, throwing, craiglisting, cataloging....if I left this to K1 and K2....ahem! me thinks that is definitely something that will give me nightmares...

2. We interview better. I think women handle stress better and generally prepare more.

3. We evolve hotter. Apparently women are getting better looking through evolution; meanwhile, men are staying the same...I guess my beautiful mother did not read that rule  book and I ended up looking like my dad :)

4. We survive car accidents more often. This is sad but true: Men are 77 percent more likely to die in a car accident than women, according to a study done by Carnegie Mellon University. If I could get a dime for every time I have told K1 and K2 to wear their seatbelts, I could probably retire and buy an island in Indonesia...with lush coconut trees, endless yoga retreats, amazing nasi gorengs, massages thrown in....ok ok...I digress

5. We're better at seeking comfort. A Mind survey of 2,000 people revealed that women are far more likely than men to talk through their problems. Fifty-three percent of women talk to their friends about what's stressing them out, as opposed to 29 percent of men -- thanks to that friend of mine who spent an hour out of his busy life today talking to me...I owe you one!

6. We're more recession-proof. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 80 percent of those who have lost their jobs since December 2007 have been men. Ouch. This could be because male-dominated fields have been hit the hardest, like manufacturing and finance. That really sucks...but hey, maybe it's time more men became nurses and educators (I have nothing more to add I think Cosmo says it all too well...)

7. We graduate college more often. I think women are in general more tenacious than men and like to see things through

8. We eat healthier. A survey of more than 14,000 people, conducted by the University of Minnesota, showed that women choose far healthier foods than men. The ask around our house is - let's go out, can I get Pasta, Pizza...but I do believe I am teaching K2 to make healthier food choices, appreciate the importance of eating local and seasonal and more importantly identify his produce...I have learnt a lot along the way too - my discovery in the past couple weeks - Lemon Cucumber

9. We have stronger immune systems. No one gave me this manual...doesn't ring true in our house...I am the one who is a "baby with the sniffles"...K1 and K2 are resilient.

10. We live longer. Among the world's population of those who are over 100 years old, 85 percent are women, according to the New England Centenarian Study. In general, women continue to live five to 10 years longer than men as well (no embellishments from your's truly here...what possibly could I add)

11. We're better managers, especially in this economy. This one is a little controversial, but a slew of experts are confident that women make greater bosses because they are better listeners, mentors, problem solvers, and multitaskers than their male counterparts. In a recent Daily News article, management expert Jay Forte said, "It's a very service-oriented economy, so you need employees to be motivated. Women are better connectors than men and more astute about knowing how to activate passion in their employees...(no embellishments from yours truly, seriously I don't think I could have put this better)

12. We invest better. A study of 100,000 portfolios showed that women's investment returns outperform men's, 18 percent to 11 percent. This could be because women are typically more cautious with their investment decisions and think longer term.

10/12 is not a bad score -- finally Cosmopolitan hit a chord which only Senge, Covey, Dan Pink, Karl Marx, Freud, Maslow and Cooley had hit...Love it !!!