Love and Calories!!

In this fast paced life of ours, how many of us really wished for a good quality time to be spent with  our spouses and family?? Aren't you all not bored of the same routine day in day out? We slog the whole week at work and wait for the weekend to arrive only to go out shopping at some money fleecing mall monsters, get tired, eat a quick meal from there, if time permits go for a movie and come home tired and later go off to sleep. There goes your weekend and the next morning, the same old rat race begins. That special moment with your spouse or children never happened. My friend had asked me once, whether my husband and I talk over coffee when we go out. As a diplomat I am, said to her, we don't make eye contact when there is any kind of food kept in front of us. We give our full attention to it. We laughed it off, but she really wanted to know that, are they the only odd ones out here. No, they are not!!  Last Friday, I decided to be at home (our usual friday dining ou...

I realised that its been a long time since I made any good beverage. The summer is still soaring and will be at its peak for the next 2 more months over here. So I thought why not I make a drink which is chilled, tasty & healthy too at the same time. As am not a big fruit fan, I preferred using almonds for my drink. Badam Milk, was a popular choice at my College Canteen days. The chilled bottle of a Badam Milk made my whole day so good & refreshing. Hence I made this refreshing drink yesterday just to re live my College Canteen days with my friends. And its a "Fit & Fabulous Friday" too, and Almonds/Badam is super rich in vitamins & dietary fiber. The Vitamin E in it helps to improve the skin complexion, which I think all the ladies will be happy to know. In India, Almond drink is served in almost all the regions at different festive occasions because, Milk is considered to be very auspicious & with Almonds in it, makes the simple milk, "droolwo...

Quench your thirst with yet another summer drink which can be made just so easily at home. If you are a lover of tea, this is for you. And even, if you hate tea (like my sister...wonder, why she hates it??), this would be a great alternative. No need to spend bucks & buy those bottled Lipton iced teas anymore. It is this easy to make. Ingredients: 5-6 tea bags (which ever you use for your daily tea) 2 tbsp sugar (if you want more, it is upto you) 7-8 mint leaves juice of 1 big size lemon lots of ice cubes 1 lemon cut into thin round slices Method: Make the tea as usual with 1.5 litres of water & sugar. Switch off the heat when it comes to boil. Add the mint leaves to it and cover the tea. Let the mint leaves & tea bags infuse in the water for 10 minutes & no more. Strain the tea after 10 minutes by removing the mint leaves & tea bags. Let the tea cool in room temperature. At the time of serving, pour the tea into a pitcher with the ice cubes, squeeze the lemon j...

I am not a very fruit loving person and rarely buy any fruit. But lately, due to the fear of me becoming obese, I have started buying fruits and started including in my daily diet. Not quiet loving it but I try to make it taste more exciting rather than eating it raw. So today morning, I wanted to have a light breakfast (after the hangover of yesterday's heavy Sadya) and I decided to have the banana and mango which was kept for the Vishu Kanni. They came handy this morning. So I made a fruit Smoothie, had a large glass of it and went for an hour long walk by the canal. :) A " Smoothie " is a health drink which is made by blending various fresh or frozen fruits or vegetables with some natural ingredients like honey, yoghurt, milk, oats, chocolate, and some crushed ice. It is often mistook as a milk shake and slush but it is not the same. It does not have any syrup or flavours added to it unlike milk shake and slush. So here goes a Healthy Breakfast Smoothie. Just sip a...

"Weather" and "Food" are two such topics without which any conversation is incomplete. So yesterday while talking to my sister on the phone, not surprisingly both the topics came in our chat. She was complaining about the Indian heat and how I was enjoying here abroad. (If only she could experience the awful UK weather!!). Then as soon as we ended our chat, I suddenly thought of making "Lassi" for myself instead of my evening coffee. The Indian summer forced me to make a chilled glass of lassi. :) Lassi is a typical North Indian (Punjabi) yoghurt based shake which after drinking makes you relax and hydrated in those scorching summers. Lassi is quite refreshing, healthy and quite filling. Lassi can be sweet or salty or can be modified by adding fruits to it. Mango Lassi is quite famous in restaurants. Well, today am just going to share you the very basic version of a LASSI. Drink it quick and wipe those white mustache from your lips and say aaaaaahh...

Am a great fan of coffee and my daily diet includes an evening cup of coffee for sure. I like to experiment with my coffee by making it differently to get that "cafe joint" coffee experience.One of my favourite pick at the cafe joints is the Cafe latte. "Latte" in Italian means "Milk". And I love my coffee with milk. So the method to prepare that "Costa equivalent" Cafe Latte goes like this: Serves 1 Ingredients: 2 tsp strong coffee 1/2 cup milk milk whisker / mixer 1 & 1/2 tsp Sugar (its up to you, how much you usually take) Method: Brew the coffee (if you have a coffee maker, nothing like it to make an espresso). Fill less than a half of your large cup with the espresso. (I don' t have one so I dissolve the instant coffee powder in less than half cup of boiling water). Pour half a cup of milk in a bowl and heat it in your microwave or gas. Don't let the milk boil. Whisk the hot milk with a milk whisker or whip it in a mixer u...