“Follow your dreams, work hard, practice and persevere. Make sure you eat a variety of foods, get plenty of exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle.”
Sasha Cohen
It’s been a few weeks since I joined the GOQii lifestyle campaign, and I have to admit I am enjoying it. It’s worth every step I take, with self motivation in every breath. YES, I still reach out for the GOQii band every morning, quite religiously, even before I grab my cell. Small changes go a long way, and I have to thank the sweet online coach for that. For her patience too.
The days have been BUSY, not a moment to rest. The headless chicken dance has taken over, where most of the day whizzes by in a blur. What keeps me going are the small, simple things that make a huge difference. It’s the advice from Elena, that she touches base everyday, that she gently cajoles, that she offers choices.
She gently reminds me to start each day with lime in water, to make sure I reach for walnuts. Drink more water. Are you staying well hydrated? She walks the talk. Summer’s here, so she’s promised to send me a new summer cooler recipe everyday. Here’s one, and it uses basil seeds.
They are fascinating little magical seeds. They swell up beautifully after 10 minutes of soaking. But she doesn’t just leave you with instructions to use the seeds. She explains why they are good, what their properties are etc. And these are the small things that matter. Madhuli sent me a bag of basil seeds recently. I was so thrilled to finally use them! Again, and again ….Too exhausted to skip or exercise, then eat more fibre says the coach. So here I am … sprouts, lentils, salads, smoothies. Summer is perfect to sprout whole lentils. 1 cup of dal sprouts into a lot. Someone asked me the other day on FB how my sprouts go so long. Seriously, they just happen. If it helps, here’s what I do
[print_this]Recipe: Whole Lentils Sprouted Salad
Summary: A protein and fibre rich salad that is great for summer. It’s filling, and quite nice stirred into a bowl of yogurt too. Plan 2 days in advance for the lentils to sprout. Serves 3-4
Prep Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes {plus soaking and time to sprout} Ingredients:
1 cup whole moong dal {whole green lentils}
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
Fresh herbs {coriander, mint}, finely chopped
1 English cucumber, finely chopped
1-2 green chilies, finely chopped {optional}
Juice of 1 lime
Himalayan pink salt to taste
Method:
Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water.
Drain the next morning, then leave them for a day in a sieve lined with muslin, kept over a glass bowl in a cool dark corner. By now they should be sprouting.
< Rinse and repeat for another 24 hours…that’s it. Then refrigerate. They just grown and grow. Maybe it’s the temperature. We are quite warm at 30C these days.
Toss everything together in a large bowl. Serve immediately, or chill until required.
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
Miguel de Cervantes
‘Upcycled’ Butterscotch Blondie Pudding … and whatta strange name might this be? It’s natural to wonder but you know, things happen. So I was baking YET ANOTHER BATCH {I can bake these in my sleep now} of the kids favourite blondies, and then there was an emergency. Not an emergency emergency, but one that required me to hurriedly nip out of the house to get some work done. I seldom leave while I am baking. The blondies were about done, like 5 minutes to go. I peeped in, and then thought, nah, not done. Should give them an extra 10 minutes!
Well that’s the difference between Wholegrain Butterscotch Blondies and the‘Upcycled’ Butterscotch Blondie Pudding! Just ten minutes. TEN! Got back, they were done, cooled… and I thought, oh dear, slightly over done. The boy readied to sink his teeth into gooey, moist blondies, and was disappointed. “Ummm, NO. What did you do? You messed them up. Same taste, not gooey Mama.” It was a ‘shove the blondies down his throat now‘ sort of a moment, but I desisted.
They sat there in the box for a few days. ‘He‘ didn’t even look at them. The dog did. Often. I was tempted to, but I couldn’t give sweet to the poor pooch. I debated what to do, then eventually ran out of patience, and thought, that’s it. Trash ’em! As luck would have it, just that day Ruchira swung by. We were in the kitchen and the box caught her eye. ‘What’s that?’ ‘Ruined batch of blondies.’ ‘Whatchya gonna do with them?’ ‘Chuck them. Overbaked. Too dry!’
She took a little nibble, eyes shining said, ‘Upcycle them!’ We both dissolved into puddles of giggles as we had spent all morning discussing up-cycling furniture. Oooh whatta good great idea that was. And that is just what I did the next morning. Such fun. Just the very name ‘Upcycled’ Butterscotch Blondie Pudding gave me the energy and soon I had sweet little glasses of up-cycled dessert!
They were a HIT! A simple vanilla pastry cream brought together in the Thermomix in under 10 minutes. Crumbled blondies and butterscotch chips. The pastry cream smothered the dry blondies in it’s love, and the end result was love at every bite!addictive good. The spoon scraping the bottom of the glasses was the sweetest sound ever! Can’t wait for another over baked batch!
Summary: Wholegrain butterscotch blondies are smothered in a luscious vanilla pastry cream to make this dessert. The ‘Upcycled’ Butterscotch Blondie Pudding’ is an addictive pudding to serve for dessert. Make ahead too. Serves 8-12 depending on portions.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 1 hour Ingredients:
Place all ingredients in bowl of Thermomix. Stir for 20 seconds on speed 4 to mix.
Cook for 7 minutes at 90C on speed 4. It should be thick enough now. If not, cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
Strain into a pouring jug.
Note: Use the same proportions to make it the traditional stove way.
Assembling pudding
Crumble up 2-3 squares of blondies. Reserve for topping.
Cut the rest up into cubes. Divide half between 6-8 serving glasses/dessert bowls {or a combination of glasses and one large pudding bowl}.
Pour over half hot/warm pastry cream, and top with remaining cubes. Pour rest of the pastry cream over. Top the pudding with blondie crumbs and butterscotch bits. Chill for at least 2-3 hours to allow the flavours to marry.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
Lao Tzu
Numbers have meant nothing to me. So far I mean. The number game and number crunching was meaningless. From how many blog visits, to blog rank, to page views, for me all unnecessary. Then I hit 10K!! Yes I fell into the number race and how! That 10 thousand refers to the number of steps I hit on Pi Day, the 14th of March!
This 10K is a special 10K and I owe it to GOQii Life.What is GOQii Life you might wonder. It’s a fitness program with a cool GOQii band with a complete 360 degree experience to stimulate your body, mind and soul and helping you make a permanent shift to a happier life through a healthier lifestyle.
For folk like me who want to get to a healthier lifestyle{read including exercise}, this is a GREAT campaign. It’s not about dieting to kill yourself, it’s not about going on a no carbs diet The campaign is about a lifestyle change, a change supported by a company that credits you with karma points. Karma points that you earn while you walk and meet your own set goals. To give back to society, GOQii translates those points into money and donates it to a charity of your choice. A win win situation no matter how you look at it. A GOOD FEEL to it too!
I began timidly as with anything new. Exercise and me are old enemies but my new pair of Sketchers stare at me all day. With renovation on at home, a million other targets to meet, recipes to be developed, grocery, dog, laundry all seem the perfect excuse to shy away from exercise. I know I got to embrace this too…but heck, it’s a tall order!
Actually was a tall order until I ‘met‘ Elena, my sweet online coach. Was it music to my ears when, after a long chat understanding my daily diet, she said “Wow, aren’t you a healthy eater despite being a food blogger! You don’t need changes to your diet. What would you like to achieve, what are your goals?” Ahem … to begin that dreaded walk at least I muttered, ‘those shoes‘ staring me in the eyes! She said, Great, I’ll nudge you once in a while. She did more than that. She motivated me, and on a day that I was dog tired, I reached out for those shoes. I had been on my feet all day, I had hit 7.5K steps …yet 10K called my name. Stepped out, it was raining. Almost turned back, but then I just walked on. And on & on. Then came back and took the dog for a walk. Suddenly there was whirring on my wrist. 10K. YES!! I was so thrilled.
I aim to get there 3 times a week. Today I did 9K, and then thanks to Elena a 10 minute stretching video was duly followed! In addition we touch base every morning, she showers me with tips, small changes that I might incorporate – lime, walnuts, breathing exercises …so much! The thing is that you feel accountable when the app is by your side. Accountable to yourself really!
So if I can do it, so can you! I’m telling you if this bag of lazy exercise bones can reach for the fitness band every morning instead of the smart phone, you can too. Do it. There’s a app with it that helps you go along syncing your daily food intake, steps, calories burnt, water too. Which reminds me. I’m drinking 200% more water than before! Yay!
And some of this beautiful fresh water too. Make it, keep a jugful next to yourself, sip along all day long, then make another batch. it’s just flavoured water. Lime, mint, strawberries, kumquats … anything to get me ready for the summer! Are you in? Make a splash!
I’m running a contest on twitter to give away a band. Join right in. All you need is to send in a healthy recipe to @GOQiiLife on twitter. Here’s the thread or find it on my timeline @vindee
“The people who influence you are the people who believe in you.”
Henry Drummond
Wholewheat Apple Walnut Cheddar Thyme Hand Pies … pies for a day like today that honours the humble pie. Handiwork of a genius foodie who equated Pi Day to Pie day ….and the rest as they say is history. In taste terms these turned out to be quite delicious. I think they are a fab fit for Pie day which incidentally falls today on the 14th of March. {Read 3.14}
There was a time a couple of years ago when I never missed doing a pie for Pie Day. The whole concept had me enchanted. With a deep dislike {read hatred} for math in school, the very concept of 22/7=3.14 being applied to mathematical problems flew over the top of my head. My poor father would break his head trying to drill some math intelligence into me. Never happened.
Then came food blogging, the Daring Bakers, and a LOT of new foodie friends. We had loads in common. We would wake up and hop into twitter from right across the globe, and break into a twitter chat! It was an obsession, and a load of good was born out of it too. It was in March one year when, much to our amazement, someone started a chain asking to make pies for Pi Day? Most of us crawled out from under the rock … it was a huge YES!
Pi Day is an American annual celebration commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (or 3/14 in the month/day date format), 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π in decimal form. In 2009, the United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day.
I’ve had some great pie baking on my blog. I credit a lot of what I’ve learnt to the Daring Bakers. Without them I wouldn’t have been half the baker I currently am. Some pies were FUN all the way like this Pie Bird & A Strawberry Pie I made after watching the film Life of Pi. I loved it!Some pie baking memories are poignant like the time there was a call for International Pie Day in honour of Jennifer Perillo. Jenifer’s Mikey loved Peanut Butter Cream Pie and she kept postponing making it for him. Then suddenly one day it was too late. I couldn’t make peanut butter cream pie as I had no peanut butter or cream cheese at home, but I made a no-bake Upside Down Mango Quark Cheesecake Pie. So was talking to the Ruchira yesterday and she said she was making a yummy Cheese & Bacon Pie … and the first thing that came to my mind was Pie Day. She was like huh? There’s something like Pie Day? So the mathematical equation was duly explained. Was she excited or what. She loved the very idea, and that in turn got me going. I would do pie too, hand pies!
What a memorable day today was. Just the motivation I needed! No time to do grocery so I had to work with what I had on hand. Apples & thyme. Walnuts and cheddar are pantry staples, so I knew just what to make. Not one for an APF pastry, I decided to challenge myself. Would do a wholewheat version … and surprise, surprise, it worked beautifully. Crisp and light. You wouldn’t miss the normal pastry at all!
Shortcrust pastry needs delicate handling; don’t overwork it. Make sure the cut in butter is pea sized. Add just enough liquid so that it comes together comfortably, little more than just staying together than pinched. Pull it together in a ball, don’t knead the dough. The pastry gets tough. Cling wrap it into a flat disk and chill for a couple of hours. Who doesn’t like a good rest? The pastry does too. Mine got an overnight rest so I had little work for this morning. I did the filling last night too so basically I was just down to rolling and pinching today!
I got the eggs out for a glaze. Then decided to keep it a 100% vegetarian. Someone on FB posted a honey glaze ages ago. Unfortunately I cant remember her name, but I remember honey! I love the the goldenish brown hue it gave my pastry. It’s a great choice if you want to keep a bake a 100% egg free. I used to do a single cream wash in the past. Honey is my new wash to go!
The flavours are beautiful too. Apples and walnuts are good old friends, cinnamon ties them together. Thyme and cheddar stirred in some magic. What a pleasing bite these had. Sweet little hand pies, just perfect for Pie Day. Despite being tired to bits with renovation on at home, a little nudge from a friends is all it took. It’s difficult to be optimistic all day, every day; and sometimes we need a little nudge to get on track! That is the power of being #together!
So I manged to bake pie to mark the day. Something else good also happened today. I walked 10,000 steps with the GOQii fitness band. What’s that you might ask? More about that on my next post!
[print_this]Recipe: Wholewheat Apple Walnut Cheddar Thyme Hand Pies
Summary: Wholewheat Apple Walnut Cheddar Thyme Hand Pies … these pies carry a tale of their own. In taste terms as well. They turned out to be quite delicious, a fab fit for Pie day which incidentally falls today on the 14th of March. Makes 8-10 small hand pies.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 1 hour Ingredients:
Wholewheat Short Crust Pastry
150g whole wheat flour
25g all purpose flour
85g unsalted butter, diced and chilled
pinch salt
15g brown sugar
75g yogurt
1tsp lime juice
Filling
300g apples {2 medium}
1 tsp lime juice
7g {1tsp} corn flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
30g walnuts, finely chopped
30g brown sugar
Few sprigs thyme
50g mature cheddar, crumbled
Honey wash
15ml honey
1/2 tsp water
Method:
Wholewheat Short Crust Pastry
Place both flours, salt and sugar in bowl of food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add chilled butter cubes and pulse for a few seconds until broken up but bigger than pea sized bits.
Add the lime juice and 3/4 of the yogurt and pulse briefly on low speed until it begins to clump. See if it forms a doogh, else add a little more yogurt.
Bring together into a flat disk, cling wrap and rest for an hour, or overnight.
Filling
Core, peel and dice the apple into tiny bits.
Toss in a bowl with remaining ingredients. Leave to rest for about 30 minutes for the flavours to marry, or in the fridge overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Divide the dough into 8 or 10. {You will get approx 10 X 3″ circles of dough. Fewer if you do 4″ circles.}
Roll out dough on a floured surface to 1/8″ thickness. Cut out circles about 3″ in diameter and lightly brush the edges with a finger dipped in water.
Put a heaping tablespoon of apple mixture on center of dough circle and fold over, brush the edges with water, pinching ends shut or crimping with a fork.
Place on prepared baking sheet, brush with honey wash, top with a sprig of thyme if you like, gently pressing it into place.
“But since soup mainly involves tossing everything in a pot and waiting, it’s one of my better dishes.”
Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
Quick Tomato Coconut Soup … really QUICK! This is one of my fastest soups to make, and it became insanely quicker and fuss free thanks to the Philips SoupMaker. I am not an all and out fussy soup maker. Give me a quick way home, and yes I’d love me a quick soup. This soup recipe was a happy accident while developing recipes for Saffola Fit Foodie. It became an even happier one once I got the SoupMaker which is a dream machine. Have made this soups several times over in this gadget. And happily enough, I just throw everything in and 22 minutes later piping soup is served.
Fuss free yes. Fat free? Yes that too. With no added fat to the recipe, this tomato soup is earthy thanks to the robust flavours the humble winter turnip lends it. The silkiness comes with coconut milk. Coconut anything is now my friend ever since I used it in a coconut rice pudding, coconut flecked Butterscotch Blondies…and what not.
Here in this soup, coconut milk balances the tart edginess of tomatoes, balancing this simple yet flavourful soup in perfect harmony. Ask me which my favourite soup is, and chances are that this is the one. With the ease of the SoupMaker, you never know which experiment might uncrown it though. It takes the work out of soup making. With summer approaching, the SoupMaker is all set to churn up smoothies and compotes. It does that too!!
The mustard vinaigrette that topped the Baby Mustard Greens Soup is also now a firm and very versatile favourite. This quick tomato soup takes a leap to another level with a drizzle of this beautiful vinaigrette. Mustard or kasundi in the vinaigrette brings it together quite beautifully with the earthy turnip undertones. Whats not to love about flavours? This one is a hands down winner!
So much soup talk, and it’s time to announce the winner of the Philips Rice Cooker giveaway that Philips was sweet enough to sponsor for a reader of this blog. Congratulations Meena Kumar @ Elephants & The Coconut Trees , you are the winner of the rice cooker. I hope you enjoy it.
[print_this]Recipe: Quick Tomato Coconut Soup
Summary: Quick Tomato Coconut Soup. Rich, smooth and creamy, this soup gets delightful flavour with coconut milk. It’s easy to make and has a robust tomato flavour with pleasing undertones of coconut milk. Serve drizzled with a mustard vinaigrette or whole grain bread croutons. better still, with both! Serves 3-4
Prep Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 25 minutes Ingredients:
Tomato Coconut Soup
1 small onion, quartered
4-5 cloves garlic
500gms ripe red tomatoes, quartered
1 turnip, quartered
200ml light coconut milk
Salt to taste
Dash of Tabasco
Mustard vinaigrette
2tsp extra virgin olive oil
1tsp mustard {kasundi}
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp finely chopped garlic greens
To top
Wholegrain croutons if desired
Method:
Tomato Coconut Soup
Place all ingredients {except Tabasco} in the steel jug of the soup maker and give it a good stir.
Shut the lid, switch on the soup maker and select the smooth soup option from the menu.
In 20 minutes soup is ready. Season with Tabasco.
Top with mustard vinaigrette and croutons if desired.
Mustard vinaigrette
Place all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk with a fork.
“BE OPEN TO new thoughts, to new people, to new principles, to new ideas, to new experiences. “NEW” MAKES US GROW”
Rossana Condoleo
With the Chenin Blanc chilled just right and a good wine from Fratelli at that, recommended by Ruchira, it was a nice beginning to the LumiaApptasting event held recently. With the promise of sumptuous food, refreshing drinks and a garnishing of apps , it was an evening of fun brought to us by Microsoft in collaboration with Women on Wanderlust {WOW}.
The evening was introduced by the sweet and vivacious Poonam Kaul, Director, Communications, Nokia India, and then handed over to the hilarious duo who are quite trademark of LumiaApptasting – Michelin Star Chef Vikas Khanna and Tech Guru Rajiv Makhni, the boys or rather men from Amritsar. Both in perfect sync with each other, with a ‘dress code pink’ ladies only event in place, they soon had all the women literally eating out of their hands!
Promising a hell of a journey, it took off pretty soon. Blind tasting, blind guessing, songs, dance, drama … the LumiaApptasting had it all. Woven through the evening were the perfect apps to tackle all your pre-holiday tasks, track your belongings and getting acquainted with fellow travelers. Plenty of ice breakers thrown in! Interestingly, the event wove it’s way across the entire group, and at different times you could here applause, sighs, gasps as the spoken word touched various nerves at different times. LumiaApptasting is a unique concept that take mobile apps out of the tech space and brings them right to consumers in a relevant sort of a way. It’s a fun, innovative way that brings technology and lifestyle together in more ways that one would ever imagine, possibly in any and every sphere of life. We were a motley group of women … wanderers and bloggers. Bloggers I believe from different fields – food, lifestyle, maybe technology too. From an app to help discover the unknown treasures of your holiday destination, to immortalising your favourite holiday moments with awesome imagine apps, the line up of apps were creative. They included Face Swap, Wise Quotes, Wacky facts, & the Self Defense App. The latter two my favourites! Did I mention that the trailer of Fifty Shades of Grey was played? Yes that happened too!The evening ended with the launch of Vikas Khanna‘s new book World Feast. In a departure from Indian cuisine prominent in his last few books, his latest book offers a treasury of multicultured flavours, taking our taste-buds for a journey across the world. A beautifully photographed book that captures the very essence of New York, and knocks your breath away at times. Being generous to a fault, the chef made sure each lady left with a copy of his book in the goodie bag that evening! That was a real WOW moment for all of us, a book with a 120 recipes so imaginatively created.
Through simple, wholesome and staple recipes to complex combinations of textures and flavors, the book offers it all. Chef Vikas Khanna has brought in inspiration from some of the worlds iconic cooks, cafes and home kitchens, and allows you to add your own imagination and experience as you turn pages.
And that is what I did. The boy has been on my case for stained glass cookies. They were a norm during his growing up years every Christmas, the fascination of candy melting to transparent magic while baking. Turning the pages, I stopped at the thumbprint cookies. Those were ‘growing up’ cookies too, so before I knew it I was in the kitchen.
I took the liberty of playing with the recipe Ojasvi’s Raspberry Thumbprint Cookie to give it my own wholegrain twist. It worked. Beautifully. The boy was thrilled, and said they were the best ever. Mr PAB took one look and said they were like the ones he used to beg his mother to buy each time he visited his ‘nani‘ or maternal grandmother when he was a kid. Now I was thrilled too! True old fashioned cookies!!
Things I changed. All purpose flour for a combination of wholewheat and almond meal, some baking soda to help them stay light, brown sugar and instead of white, and a wild lingonberry preserve from Ikea to fill. The Slyt Blaber is the son’s favourite preserve. He got hooked on to it several years ago when we first visited Sydney. Thankfully Hong Kong has a great Ikea, so the Swedish preserve supply continues!
The cookies turned out really nice. They flattened out slightly more than those in the book. Perhaps I should have chilled the dough, perhaps added a spoon or two more of flour. Next batch. Nevertheless they were crisp beautiful and delicious! I made this a Fit Foodie recipe.
[print_this]
Recipe: Lingonberry Thumbprint Cookies
Summary: Rich, old fashioned buttery cookies that would delight the cookie monster at home. Make sure you use good quality butter and vanilla extract. These Lingonberry Thumbprint Cookies are adapted from World Feast by Vikas Khanna, pg 341. Makes 20-24 cookies.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:
Filling
1/2tsp honey
1/4 cup lingonberry preserves {or your favourite jam}
Cookies
1 1/8 cup wholewheat flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
Place preserves and honey in a small bowl and mix well. Reserve.
Sift together flour and almond meal
Place butter and sugar in a large bowl and blend with a electric hand blender until light and cream.
Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Fold in the dry mix well. Knead to a smooth dough.
Divide into half, then divide into ten to twelve 2.5cm/1″ balls each.
Place an inch apart each on the baking tray, using a floured thumb to create indentations in the centre of each ball. ill each indentation with 1 tsp of jam-honey mixture.
Bake until golden brown for approx 25 minutes.
Remove to tray, cool completely. Dust with icing sugar. Store in an airtight container.
