WW2

Tags

boards, funny, wordless wednesday

Disclaimer : Pic from a forwarded mail and is not clicked by me

Goa Calling

Tags

goa, vacation

I know I know its my second post of the day inspite of being so busy but I had to do this… annouce as if u guys dont know about it already 🙂 I am off to Goa on my all girls trip…

Can any vacation be better than the ones  no kids, no husbands, no work, no kitchen… can’t wait for it to begun

So I will see u around the break and I promise promise I will be back with loads of snaps and will come back and reply to alllllllllllll the pending comments…. dont go away guys 😉

Wordless Wednesday

Tags

chickoo, picture, sapota, wordless wednesday

Meal in a box

Tags

cheese, Friday Feast, kiddie delight, kids eats, main course, pasta, recipe, veggies

Ojas is a very picky eater, very choosy about what he eats and even if he likes something he eats it very less… but one thing that works mostly with him is Pasta (a big kala tikka and touchwood here)

So I try and make pasta very often and also try and make it as healthy as possible… this one is one of my own creations that comes out very very yummy and is highly nutritious

Ingredients

For the sauce

Part 1 ingredients

• 1/2 cup yellow moong dal
• 10 ripe and red tomatoes
• 1/2 capsicum chopped
• 1 carrot chopped
• 1 bunch spinach

Part 2 ingredients

• 1 large onion chopped finely
• 1/2 capsicum chopped finely
• 1/4 cup peas
• 1/4 corn
• 1 carrot chopped
• 1/2 – 1 cup grated cheese
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp pepper powder
• 1 tsp oregano or any other dried spice
• Salt to taste

• 200 gm whole wheat boiled pasta (any shape but ojas loves fusilli or penne… I use Fab India pasta and its really fab)

Method

• Wash and boil the moong dal in a cooker well. Mash it a bit
• Blanch the tomatoes for 2-3 minutes in boiling water
• Remove the skin and keep aside
• Par-boil rest of the Part 1 vegetables and then grind all the part 1 ingredients to make a smooth paste
• Heat the olive oil in a heavy bottom pan and then add onions to it
• Fry for 4-5 minutes till they start changing color
• Add the carrots, capsicum, peas and corn and stir fry for 5 minutes or so (U can also choose to parboil these veggies)
• Add salt, pepper and oregano (U can also add some chilli flakes if u want it spicy)
• Add the sauce prepared above and let it cook in medium flame for about 10 mins
• Add the shredded cheese and boiled pasta to it…. Mix well and serve hot

Yet Again

Tags

ankle, blogadda, broken, contest, judge, me me me, sprain

I have managed to sprain my ankle yet again 😦

Yeah I did it again… slipped from the stairs twisted my ankle and all done 😦 and this was the ankle on which I got fracture some years back so currently I am all bandaged restricted to my bed and laptop 😉

I have really lost the track of number of times I have had sprains, twisted ankles etc etc… I think my mom is right I need to learn how to walk 🙂

Apart from that life has been busy, because of Ojas’s school we have decided to move houses and take one near his school and God must like me because I have found one some 600m from his school after a week of mad running…. the house is good, just as I wanted in a complex with security and basic amenities and is a duplex house so I still have my privacy which was a major point as I have in laws living with me

And now starts the mammoth task of putting my own house on rent… and even bigger task of moving itself, the packing and the unpacking and the setting, my BP is so high with tension that you can’t even imagine right now and I think I am driving everyone around me mad too 😉 but whats gotta be done gotta be done… Owing to all this I might not be able to reply comments and blog hop as much as I would want to, please bear with me for a couple of weeks and I will be back in action full force… will try and login now and then and keep updating whats happening at my end and I do have some posts scheduled too, so u guys wont miss me much atleast as far as posts are concerned 😉

Apart from that I think most of you know that I am judging the blogadda contest the madness one and I tell u when Harish sent me a mail asking whether I would be a judge, it felt so nice… 😀 😀 😀 but what a task it, never imagined it would be so tough…. The results have to out tmrw and I am still confused 😉 hopefully should be able to decide very soon

Zombie

Tags

Abc Wednesday, Abc Wednesday Round 6, animals, picture, zombie

Doesnt the word suit them most of all… they don’t even close their mouths for hours 😉

And zombie is also my state, I need sleep… gosh

And with that this round of ABC Wednesday is over, this was my 3rd round and I am still thinking whether to start the 4th or take a break for a while…

For more Z’s go to the ABC Wednesday homepage

Julie And Julia

Tags

book, book review, julie and julia, movie, review

Book by Julie Powell

Rating (3.5/5)

The book has everything that I could fall in love with:…. its about food, its about cooking, its about blogging, its about a female who is lost and trying to sort her life… When I read the summary the inside of me was shouting “ITS ME ITS ME” 😀

Honestly I came to know about the movie first and wanted to see it immediately but than I realised thats its based on a book and as rule I try and read the book first and than see the movie because almost always the book is better

So I started looking for the book frantically and when I found it, I fell in love with it… the book wanted me to go cook everytime I read it… it had me craving for food… I could totally relate to both the women in the book… Julia who has nothing to do and finds solace in cooking and realises she is really good at it and Julie who has a boring routine but good job, she has a good husband everything that one ask for but still finds something missing and fills that void by taking up a cooking challenge and blogging about it 😉 The book had me craving for the French Cooking by Julia child book though I know that probably wont ever cook from me

And then I saw the movie and I was blown away…. this must be one of those rare books which movie is better… Meryl Steep rocked and I dont think anyone could have done better… she rocks the role and I loved every bit of it, even Amy Adams was perfect for the role.

The movie was so well edited, picking up the most important and lovely pieces of the book and putting them together to form a movie…

Loved loved loved it

Movie Rating – 4/5

The book Site

Julie and Julia Project Blog

The movie site

Author’s Blog

Poll This

Tags

dream, names, venture

So finally I have the poll up…. thanks a lot everyone for their suggestions, I love them all and had such a tough time selecting the final  3 and did u see I made it 4 😉

So here are the ones who win a cake

– Sweet Somethings : my sweetest neighbour and a regular reader D…. thank u darling…. ur cake will be delivered soon along with me eating ur head for an hour or so 😉

– The Party Platter – usha this one was from u 🙂 so ur cake is due and because of this may be we will meet soon too 😉

– Slurp & Drool – Deeps now how do I send u a cake there 😉

– Sinnamon Tales – ok this one has me and Prats putting our brains to it together… so who deserves the cake, 50-50 😀

Grilled Arbi

Tags

arbi, Friday Feast, grill, grilled, healthy, indian cooking, indian main course, main course, recipe

I love arbi but used to stay away from it because

1. its full of carbs

2. its good when its made with lots of oil 😦

3. I cant just peeled it without having to itch my hands for the whole day afterwards

But all this atleast the last 2 parts were till sometime back when I discovered that we can grill this vegetable beautifully…. I used to boil it and then grill but then I read at some blog about steaming and grilling which seemed like an even healthier option

So now I have a much healthier version of arbi which satisfies health freak as well as the taste buds…. Iya the fellow arbi fan and Goofy as u had asked for it… this post is for both of u…. enjoy the arbi

Ingredients

• Arbi(Colocasia) 500gms
• Onion 1 medium sliced
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tbsp corrainder powder
• 1 tsp tava fry masala
• 1 tsp aamchor powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder (or to taste as fiery as u want)
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp oil + oil to grease the baking tray

Method

• Wash and roughly scrub the arbi (I have kept a scrotch brite seperately in the house for scrubbing potatoes and arbi etc)
• Steam for about 6-8 minutes till a tender.  I have this microwave steamer at home which is so handy and convienent to steam stuff, its my all time fav cookware. U can use any steaming method u like
• Let it cool and peel of the thick skin using a knife (surprinsgly doesnt itch so much after steaming)
• Chop the bigger ones into 2 pieces and leave the smaller ones as it is.
• Mix all the dry masalas,onions with arbi
• Grease a tray and put the masalsa arbi in it
• Grill at 200C for about 10 minutes or so, stirring once inbetween
• In a small pan take 1 tsp of oil and add mustard seeds and fry till they start spluttering.
• Pour over grilled arbi and mix well.
• Garnish with chopped corainder leaves and serve with hot paranthas or phulkas…

Do You Stand Up?

Tags

book, bullying, childhood, jodi picoult, me me me, memories, nineteen minuutes, Ojas, parenting

PS: I must give the long post ahead warning here…

As I have repeatedly mentioned on this blog I have never ever been a thin person… never been as fat as I am right now too but never ever thin not even in school…. And as far as I remember as long as I can remember I have been called moti… in school, in college, by friends and unknown people alike… ofcourse the friends called it with love and affection and just a little bit of teasing that’s it…. But can I say that for everyone who called me the same…. naah… and then there was my stupid name which by default made people call me “Monika, oh my darling” (oh how I hate that song but that’s a separate post)… All in all I grew up being bullied a lot in school and the people who knew me in school refuse to believe that I am same Monika….in school I was not the girl I am right now… never knew how to stand up for myself… and the life of party which is used for me now that could certainly not be used than….

But why am I telling you all this today, because I read a book that made me remember it all… I recently finished reading Nineteen Minutes by Judi Picoult (this is not a review though it does discuss the book to some extent, if you want to read a review of this book go here to Bond With Books where it has been done very well by Titaxy) Its a book about a child named Peter who shoots down 10 of his school mates because he really couldn’t tolerate the bullying he had been subjected to all his life. The book as all Judi books is very well written but is deeply disturbing, at times it made me so depressed that I actually had to keep down the book for a while and do something else to distract my mind… I cried a lot in the book… I could almost feel for Peter so many times… a elder brother who is a school hero… does everything right, excellent in sports and he a weak small boy who can hardly about manage things and the thing he is good at (how predictably computers) no one wants to bother about…. How will it feel to be like Peter to be bullied every single day for 17 years of your life and that made me repeatedly go back to my school time… the bullying ofcourse was not so bad, I had some nice friends too and I guess I was a little sane to dealt with it too and hence I didnt end up killing people 😉 but think of a person who is not strong enough, who doesn’t have support…

Somewhere in the book there is a statement made by a psychologist

Did you know that a single incident of bullying in childhood can be as traumatic to a person, over time, as a single incident of sexual abuse

Shocking? It was to me too… may be the statement is a little exaggerated yes but it does hold some truth, the childhood memories do have the deepest effect on us…. It goes ahead to state

Ask ten people, and half of them won’t be able to remember something concrete from high school – they’ve blocked it out. The other half will recall an incredibly painful or embarrassing moment… They stick like glue

Most of us grow up and realize that in the grand scheme of life, these incidents are a tiny part of the puzzle….

And the ones who don’t?

They turn out like Peter

How very depressing and this made me think of this situation from a mothers perspective… What would I do if my child is bullied in school or anywhere for that matter, how would I deal with it? In what way would I stand by my child, how will I teach him that bullying happens, how will I teach him how to face and not let it eat him….

The more I thought about it the more it made me uneasy of the current circumstances around me… Now the people who know Ojas, know that he is extremely soft guy… I have never seen him shout on anyone (apart from me that is 😉 )… if there are guests coming over at home and they have kids, he lets the kids play with his toys even if they don’t let him play with his own. I have never ever seen him snatching a toy from anyone’s hand and I am not saying because he is my child… I am saying this because its the truth… He takes his sand toys to park every evening and I see kids coming and snatching it from his hands and he coming up to me and saying mumma I want my toys… at times I tell him go ask and at times when the child is too big I ask them to handover it back to him… A part of me wants him to learn to deal with this on his own, in his own way and a part of me shouts “Are u mad, he is your child stand up for him”

Even this is fine as I am sure somewhere he will learn to deal with this… but than there are aggressive kids, kids who are naturally aggressive… there have been atleast 3-4 times I can recall when a child has tried to hit him without him doing anything or may be just wanting something… and he doesn’t say anything back to them just comes back to me. What has surprised me in these situations is the reaction of the parents, none of them said anything to their child when this happened and that shocked me. One of them was very sweet and called me back later saying that she didn’t want to say anything in front of others as she would have throwed a tantrum…. though I was glad that she atleast noticed but does it help my child…not really……. There was this one time when the mother saw that kid has hit Ojas… acknowledged “oh maar diya” and then went on with her usual tasks….

As a rule I never say anything to anyone else’s kid… but if situation like this arise what choice do we have as parents here?

I am not complaining about the parents here, they might be giving a good lecture or explaining to their kids later that this is not good… They have their own parenting methods that work for them…. but does it help my child? Does it help him seeing that when he is being hit we are all just standing and doing nothing? What does it really teach him that this kind of behaviour is ok to tolerate? that bullying should be taken silently Or may be slowly learn to hit too because no seems to mind it?

But what do I teach him here, to hit back? That’s not right too?

What do you do in situations like this? Do you stand up for yourself when you are getting bullied (there is a diff in mild teasing and bullying and yes I understand that)…. Do you stand up for ypour child? How do you teach your child to stand up for himself….The more I think of it the more confused I become… I hope somewhere I am able to find a solution that will make him realise that yes he has to stand up for himself without really losing his own self.

PS: friends if you are reading this post and thinking that you have been talked about as parents… please be assured that I have no shikayat from you… this is not a post to crib about you and your child… I love him as much as I love Ojas and I do understand that they are just different… this post is just to find answers for me… For a long long time I had deliberated posting this or not and had the drafts even ready for the longest time ever but than reading that book made me realise that  I HAVE TO DO IT… hope you would understand