Rajma

For a punjabi his heart lies in his rajma (my husband's lie in it for sure). When we were dating he told me not to learn cooking because he wanted me to learn the Punjabi way to cook the rajma. It took me sometime to get the dish right but till the time I did not get it right, he used to mightly crib.

Imagine the poor guy's horror when I decided to cook it in 2 tsp oil but he could never make the difference out nor will you.

This is one dish that can be made in less oil and you won't even feel the pinch of a difference. It tastes mouthwateringly delicious.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups rajma - I use more of Kashmiri rajma which are small in size. They give the creamy texture to the dihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsh. So in 2 cups rajma, I use 1 and half cup kashmiri variety and half cup long variety. If you cannot get the kashmiri rajma then forget it proceed with the ones you have.

2. 2 medium Size Tomatoes.

3. 5 medium size onions.

4. 1 whole pod garlic.

5. 1 inch ginger.

6. green chili as per your taste.

7. 2 tsp roasted cumin powder.

8. 2 tsp homemade garam masala

9. 1 tsp cumin seeds.

10. 2 tsp crushed kasturi methi (optional)

11. Salt to taste.

12. 1 tea cup (medium size) milk with 2 tsp curd mixed.

13. 2 tsp oil.



Check the recipe of homemade grama masala here

Daal Makhni


Procedure

1. Wash the Rajma thoroughly and soak overnight. Do not drain the water.

2. Now in a pressure cooker pour the rajma and the water they were soaked in. If this water is less then you will need to add more water. Usually the water should be double the quantity as we will be pressure cooking the rajma for longer period of time.

3. Add some salt and pressure cook on medium heat for 10 whistles. After this when the pressure cools off check if the rajma beans are well cooked. If not then you will have to again pressure cook.


4. Grind onions and garlic together and keep aside.

5. Grind ginger, tomatoes and chilli together and keep aside.



6. In a pan put the oil, add cumin seeds when they splutter, add onion paste. Add a pinch of salt and cook till all the water evaporates from the onions.

7. Add the tomato paste and cook till it turn dark brown in color and all water evaporates. If the color does not turn red and the water evaporates then add half cup water and cook till the gravy is thick and red in color.



8. Add the above cooked paste to the rajma, add the cumin powder and garam masala and salt. Pressure cook for 2 whistles. Make sure that the water is enough. Everything is cooked, we are pressure cooking so that the masala seeps in the beans.

9. When the pressure cools off and with the gas switched off, add the milk. Do not pour the milk immediately it will curdle. Add little quantity and mix well then again add little quantity and mix well, do this till you finish the whole cup.


10. Switch on the gas and let it come to a boil, add kasturi methi and switch off after 5 minutes.


Serve hot with paratha or rice.





Enjoy!!!

The Law of Exciting Exercise.

The mathematics behind weight loss is fairly simple.

Weight Loss = Eat a little less + Exercise a little more.

Similarly so is the mathematics behind weight gain

Weight gain= Eat more than you require + No Exercise at all.

The formulas above always prove to be true.

One most essential part of weight loss which also ironically is the most dreaded part is Exercising. The moment we think of exercising the first thought that comes to mind is "I hate it" or "its boring" or "I cannot join a gym for losing weight".

I have already discussed the rules of eating in Fantastic Food Law, here I am gonna write about my experience with exercising.

1. Exercise Tools (my journey from 85 kgs to 69 kgs) - I always believed that a gym is a must for weight loss. No gym no weight loss. In college I had an opportunity to join a gym and I lost some weight and so my belief was strengthen. When I started working and going to a gym was not possible I gained weight because "I had no time for gymming".

So whenever weight loss was mentioned I always thought I was at loss because I could not join a gym.

I was pushed to challenge this belief when I landed in a extremely hot country with a broken back and where the nearest gym was very expensive and very far.

I lived for sometime thinking nothing much can be done, I can hardly walk for few steps.
All the was there for me was my front courtyard. It was the safest place on earth where I could walk and the moment pain started I could come inside to protection of my home and relax.

This is the place where I started my weight loss journey. My small front courtyard. I started with 10 minutes walk and a proper diet. I never expected a change in weight but to my surprise the needle shifted down and my motivation shifted up.

Please excuse the mop, I never knew I would be uploading this pic on my blog one day.



That small courtyard became my exercising tool. I gained my stamina to walk there. From 10 min I graduated to 30 min and then 1 hour.

This experience also made me respect small places. The day it was very hot to walk outside, I would walk from one room to another for an hour. I still do.

I have told you guys before that my weight loss happened when I was in a transition phase totally dependent on others.

I landed at my mom's place when I weighed 78 kgs. I was again faced with a problem of traffic on the road and street dogs (I am damn scared of them). SO I made use of the terrace there and walked to and fro on the terrace for an hour.



The real challenge and the breakthrough came when I went to live with my sister. She lives in this amazing society and this society gave me security and place to walk as much as I wanted to. Do you see the first and the last pillar. I used to walk in circles from the first to last pillar for one hour. It was here in this society and with walking with all my strength I lost most of my weight.



Of course I did join a gym, when it rained I joined a gym for a month. But as I was totally dependent on others to leave me to the gym and pick me from the gym they only agreed to make adjustment for a month. They adjusted because they saw how much I was putting into my weight loss and during rains walking was not an option at all but after that month I came back to walking.

You should not be dependent on an exercising place, the place should be dependent on you. If you can join a gym fine if you cannot then get your walking shoes out and start walking, its free and it gives results.

Look around you, believe me you have the power to transform any place into a exercising ground all you have to do is break from your age old beliefs.

Until and unless you challenge your believes you will never explore new horizons and new grounds. I was pushed to challenge my believes.

2. Boring Exercise - Yes exercise can be boring. Our mind needs to be occupied always. Its not necessary for the body to be in motion but mind needs to be in motion always. Doing the same thing over and over again is boring.

When I started walking, in those 10 minutes I used to hear music and I used to see myself dancing on a high beats OR running OR working out in a gym with a fab body, all of this was told to me will never be possible in my lifetime (because of my back condition).

So one day I questioned myself, why am I not living in reality, why should I think something which even I know is never possible. SO I went to walk that day and 10 minutes seemed as 10 hours. I gave up walking after few minutes, my leg started hurting and I was damn bored.

It was then I realized that there are thoughts that make me happy and keep me involved for the whole period while I walk. I decided hell with NOT thinking things which are not possible. I will think anything on this earth which will make me walk and will keep me entrained for the time I exercise.

I never questioned my thoughts ever again. Anything is welcome in my mind while I am exercising, the only condition is it should keep me occupied.

One year down the line its another story that I dance on music, I workout in the gym and I run on the treadmill at 7.5km/hr.

I asked my aunt who is an avid walker how she doesn't get bored. She goes for early morning walks and she loves planning her day to minute details while she walks. Its her way to keep herself from getting bored.

All you have to do is figure out a way to keep yourself occupied for those 45 minutes once you figure that out, you won't get bored. No one is peeping in your mind to see what you are thinking so feel free to think whatever excites you. Don't analyze your thoughts. All thoughts which keeps you occupied while exercising are good thoughts (even if it means that you are kicking your neighbor in your thoughts every single day).

For me music works, some people like to think about their work or life, some like listening radio. There are so many options you just need to figure out which works for you the best.

3. Exercise Timing - The avid walker aunt of mine, gets up at 4:30 am and goes for a walk at 5:00 am. She walks almost 5 kms daily. She told me how beautiful it was to walk early morning, see the sunrise and hear the birds. It was heaven on earth in early morning. I was just bowled by her description and I wanted to join her.

First day I was all excited and I went for my walk. Not bad I enjoyed the experience. Second day I was a little less excited. 3rd day I felt my head will burst from aching and blood will come out of my nose. The morning felt horrible and there was no beauty to it. 4th day I told her I am sorry I will not accompany her for walks. 5th day I didn't even got up to say sorry I kept sleeping.

My Aunt always said that I am missing out on life if I cannot enjoy nature and I always felt that blood will drop from every part of my body specially from my head if I wake up early. So, if I missed on morning walks I missed on a whole days exercise.

This time I had no fixed timing. I am not a morning person, I never was and I never will be, period. When I started walking in my courtyard, I would walk in evening. Then I used to walk after dinner and would also walks in shade after my breakfast. It was just small walks but I would go for it.

People in that society above has seen me walking at 11:00 pm at night. Sometimes if I have missed out on my exercise and I am not able to do away with the guilt I do my cross trainer at home at 1:00 am at night. I go to gym now and I usually go there at 8:30 pm.

In short exercise is an exercise I do not follow a timetable. I only see that I have to exercise for 1 hour daily without fail at what time I do this exercise is my choice.

3.Workout and Friends - One of my friend joined a gym. She would go to the gym at 9:00 am after sending her kids to school and husband to work. Then she will be back by 12:00 pm, cook lunch by the time kids are also back. When I saw her few month of joining the gym she had lost only 2 kgs.
3 hours workout 5 days a week and only 2 kg weight loss. I asked her what all she does in the gym. She said there is a whole group of ladies that meet at the gym and they have fun and they gossip. Its like a picnic everyday. No wonder the weight loss was less.

I have seen it so many times, people talking on mobile or a group of girls chit chatting, laughing and doing everything but exrecising.

My sister always looked for a walking partner. I told her 'are you gonna walk or are you gonna talk'.

Socializing, talking while exercising is good. If you have friends at the gym then do your serious workout and then have fun.

You are not doing your best if you are able to talk while exercising. Its very difficult to do so. Believe me.

So dedicate a time for your dedicated workout and then go and mingle with your friends

4. The Lazy Workout - There are people who walk everyday and still they see no change in their weight, similarly, there are people who workout everyday but see no change.

Walking is powerful but it is as powerful as you can make it. If you gonna stroll it will be just a stroll which will make no dent to your body. When you walk you should walk like a walker.

I walk with my hands swinging to and fro. I feel the pressure between my shoulder plates and I take big strides.

When I was only walking I used to change my speed every few days. Usually I would see the time I take from the first pillar to the last pillar and then I would try covering the same distance in less time. I would feel pressure in my legs, my legs would ache for 2 days when I increased my speed but then body adapts to the new speed. The result after 1 hour of walking was same always, I was always drenched with sweat.

Normally I don't sweat much but you make me exercise and I will sweat like a pig. One reason that I sweat while walking was that I used challenge my body.

If you are a walker, walk like a pro. With your head straight and arms swinging to and fro and taking long strides.

You will see ladies chit chatting and walking slowly and you will also see that there will not be any profound change in their weight.

Never fall into the trap of lazy workout. You are doing the workout for a reason, its just for 1 hour so make it worth while, make it sweat you. Put in your everything in your workout.

5. Exercise Habit - If you make your enemy your friend then there will be no fight.

You will see few people who will always be regular with their walks/exercise. They will come day after day without fail. No one knows what drives them but I do know what drives me.

For me it started with the guilt. So if I missed exercise I would feel guilty about not losing weight. The guilt soon transformed into fear, if I don't exercise I will put on the weight back. Now for sometime it has changed into restlessness. The day I don't exercise I feel restless. Exercising has become a habit now. Its not necessary for me to go to the gym, if I am not able to exercise, I take mp3 and just walk. But I need to do a continuous movement of walking for 1 hour.

So instead of doing exercise temporary do it permanently. Forget the weight loss, tell yourself its a habit that is for keeps and you will always do it.

I did not make it a habit in one day, it became my habit eventually. So give yourself time to make exercising a habit. In all probability if you are regular with any exercise it will become your habit soon.

With this post I want to tell you that a small place does not mean that it will not give you a proper workout, if nothing more it will get you started. There is no fixed timing for exercising, do it whenever you are comfortable. And if you hate exercising then make it your habit. I use to hate brushing my teeth when I was a child but now its a habit.

Exercising is a must and you cannot escape it. The smartest way to deal with it is to make it exciting.

So get up and choose your ground and choose your battle. It doesn't matter if you win or you loose what matter is that you fight and make the battle worth while.

Low Cal Chinese Veg Machurian

I love Chinese food and I have such lovely memories attach to it. When I was in mumbai I used to love going to Chinese retros and watch rain fall through the glass window while I sip away my hot sweet corn soup followed by steaming hot noodles, Manchurian and what not.

I love rains and I love having hot Chinese food watching the rain outside my window. Its gives me that cosy lovely feeling.

Manchurian is my husband's favorite dish. I love it too but after weight loss the whole dish seems nothing but a sure short way to weight gain. Its a bowl thickened with cornflour and added to it are fried vegetables balls ouch!!!!.

Once I saw a cook making it, he grinded the veggies added cornflour and fried the vegetable balls. Again cornflour went to thicken the gravy

Just because I eat low calorie food and I want to lose weight it does not mean that weekends will be sad for me. Oh no they won't.

Ever since childhood I used to love sundays because it meant something special will be made that day, ever since I grew up and got married I have followed the tradition. The only difference now is that my husband looks forward to weekends because he knows that he is gonna get some tasty food to eat
for a change.

This Manchurian is far healthy than the one we get outside and guess what its damn tasty too. Little cornflour cannot be avoided. I made it as an experiment, my husband was preparing himself to eat a disastrous meal and to both our surprise the dish came out really tasty and matched the outside dish. This is now a regular weekend meal for us and a hot favorite with my DH.

Here is what we need for the recipe

Ingredients for the Manchurian Balls

1.3/4 cabbage.

2. 1 big capsicum.

3. 1 carrot.

4. 9-10 garlic pieces

5. 1 inch Ginger

6. 2 tsp of corn flour.

7. Salt to taste

8. 2 tsp oil.



Procedure For Manchurian Balls

1. In a grinder, grind all vegetables, ginger and garlic.

2. Add Salt and cornflour to the grinded vegetables.



3. In a pan heat the oil and cook the mixture. You need to cook it till it become sticky like dough. Keep stiring it in between so that it does not stick to the bottom. The moment you feel that it has become like a dough where in all the veggies have gone soft and are cooked, switch off the gas.



4. Its best to keep the ball mixture in a fridge for 2 -3 hours. I know its a pain but that the best I could do. I prepare the ball mixture at night and keep it in fridge and use it the next day. We need the mixture to be cold else the balls won't hold themselves.

5. Now once cold mixture is ready, make the balls and keep aside, do it after heating the pan. Don't go on the pic, I discovered the size trick after taking the pic.



6. Heat 1 or 2 tsp oil and grill the balls. Everything is cooked we just want to make the balls crispy.



PS: Keep few balls aside without frying them on the pan, you can crumble them and add to gravy for enhancing the taste.

Ingredients for Gravy:

This is very easy, just takes max 10 minutes to prepare.

1. Green onions chopped.

2. Capsicum, carrots chopped. You can add other veggies but I had just these at that time.

3. 1 whole pod garlic fresh paste.

4. 1 inch ginger fresh paste

5. 2 tbsp oats powder. Just take Quaker white oats and grind them in a powder.

6. Soya sauce 2 tsp or according to taste.

7. Vegetarian oyster sauce 1 tsp (optional, I had it so I used it).

8. 2 tsp oil.

9 Salt to taste.

10. 1 or 2 cup water.



Procedure

1. Heat oil in a pan and add ginger garlic paste. Saute for few seconds.

2. Add all the veggies and cook on high flame for 5 minutes. The vegetables should be crisp and almost cooked. The way they have in Chinese food. I like adding few paneer pieces too, they taste yum with this gravy. So if you like paneer go on throw it in.



3. In half cup cold water add the oats powder and mix well.

4. Pour on the veggies. Stir well.
Now adjust water quantity i.e if you want more water add slowly.

5. Add in the sauces and salt. Also crumble the balls that you have kept aside (non grilled ones) and add to the gravy. Boil till the gravy thickens.



6. Add the Manchurian balls. Give a final boil and serve hot.



I even froze this dish. It tasted awesome after reheating the only thing is that the balls will collapse when reheating but its fine, it gives such a nice thick taste.

Bon Appetite!!!

The Fantastic Food Law

People usually comment about me being so disciplined about my lifestyle and that is why I am so successful in my weight loss. This is the biggest irony of life, I have never been disciplined in my life. My sleeping and getting up hours have always been erratic and so are the other things in my life.

But having said that I did manage to lose weight and that too a considerable amount, so I guess I must have done something correct to get this result.

So here are the disciplines that I observe for weight loss.

Weight loss is based on 3 disciplines, if you make them your habit weight issues will be the last thing on your mind. Covering all disciplines in one post is not possible.

The three disciplines of weight loss.

1. Food discipline - The Fantastic Food Law

2. Exercise discipline.

3. Psychological discipline.

Today I will talk about food discipline rest will follow shortly.

1. Be a smart eater : When you are at the dinner table and you see a piping hot aloo paratha loaded with butter, saying an absolute NO to the paratha is not food discipline. With all your might you will say no to it for couple of times but can you say No to it for life. No you cannot.

So here is what I did when faced with such situation. My rule was simple, have a bowl of soup and salad along with the paratha.

When I was visiting my in laws I was 76 kgs at that time. Weight loss was constantly on my head. As we were home after a long break my MIL prepared all delicious dishes. But 3 thing were a constant feature on the dinning table, my lentil soup, salad and papaya. I would take a little amount of any such temptations but will make sure to have my 3 things first. Now to me this is discipline.

Till date when I make any thing high cal for DH and of course I would like to have it too, I make sure to have it with my soup, salad and fruit. What it does is it automatically reduces the amount of high cal intake. Initially I had to force myself to eat the soup first, but the deal was finish the soup and salad and papya and then I can have the tempting stuff (in moderate quantity).

Whenever its possible do it. When I am in some function, I do it with salad. Where else did I get the trick of loading the rice with lots of salad and then top it with little gravies.

During weight loss try saying No but if it is too tempting then have your low cal food first and then go for the temptation.

2. Microbiotic Eater - Fancy term and with this I mean small amount eater. If you can master the trick believe me nothing like it.

I was never a small eater. For me the plate should be loaded and then the second serving was a must, even the spoons should be large. But then I did train myself to eat small. It helps in long run.

In past I would finish off 3 big aloo paratha made with lots of ghee and of course lots of potatoes. The classic way to eat them was with lots of butter, yum. I can hardly eat past 1 paratha now. SO you see, I am happy eating the stuff I like to eat but because I am a microbiotic eater I am happy and satisfied with the small amount. Weight loss should be for life and so should be your habits.

If you eat super size you will be super size.

The choice is always in your hand. To eat the food you like through out your life but in small quantity OR being told off by doctors to completely ban food as it is not good for your health.


3. Be a slow eater - Never in my life could I eat slow. I would finish my meal in max 5 minutes and would go for the second run. I ate really fast.

Even during weight loss I ate fast and to stop myself from taking more food I used to drink water. But then I read about this and I told myself let me give it a try. I got the desert spoon out and I started eating with it. Now I eat slow and I am much more satisfied with the first serving.

One more trick to eat slow is to count the times you chew. Chew 20 times and then swallow, your eating speed will get slow.

4. Comfortable diet food - Always remember that the diet that worked for others might not work for you. So if lentil soup worked for Shiva and Shiva likes drinking it, its a wrong assumption that you will like it too.

You can force yourself to drink it for few days but not for life. Best way is to search and mark your own low cal diet food that you can accompany in your meal plan. The food that will help you to feel full and will reduce your food intake as a whole.

5. Change the age old eating habit - If you do not suffer from any medical condition then in all probability you are eating more food than you require that is why you are over weight.

My eating habits were simple. I would have a breakfast of sandwich, lunch of roti and rice, evening snack, dinner of again rice and roti, 2 -3 times in a week I ate out. Simple.

But I was overweight. I was working and I used to feel so tired at night, I needed that much of food. I can never be so wrong in my thinking.

Give your body a chance. Eat a little less and see how it helps in your lifestyle. You really do not need all that roti and rice and dosa, small amount will go a long way too. So always evaluate your meals.

As a child I was given a proper break fast, lunch would be 2 roties followed with rice. Evening we would get snacks and night again the same portion as lunch. I was never an active child, was never into sports.

With age my activity level only decreased but my diet habit remained the same. You do not require the same amount of food that you required while growing up.

The real change happened when I broke from the age old rule of eating what I was supposed to eat since childhood.

The problem starts when we stop thinking what goes in our stomach and eat only based on our habits and tastes.

6. Being hungry never helps - If you are depriving yourself you are bound to break sooner or later. Best way is to fill your stomach. We all have a certain signs to feel full. Some people will associate a burp to feeling full, I associate a stuff feeling in my stomach. Try achieving that with low cal food.

7. Calorie Adjustment - For me weekend used to start from friday nights. It meant a heavy outside dinner. Weekend would start with heavy breakfast of either parathas or poha loaded with sev, fried bread rolls etc. Dinner again will only be outside.

The best part was I got up hungry in the morning and would go on to eat large quantity of food. SO you see on weekends I was eating real high calories and on weekdays I was having normal food (which again was high calories). So where did the calories went, any guess to my body where else.

When I started weight loss if I ate heavy meals I used to go light the next day out of guilt. I felt as if my weight will come back if I do not adjust the amount I ate the previous day.

Now if I have a heavy meal specially dinner next day I am not able to eat heavy. It has now become my habit to go light. Had I been like this since the beginning I would have never put on a kg more.

It always works for me. So if you do eat out and have stuffed yourself with heavy food then just relax the other day. You need to eat the normal home made food but a little less quantity and with more salads and soup. That is all it takes to balance.

8. Dieting - There is no such thing. I have met amazing people who lost 14 kgs in 5 months and got all the weight back. Recently I met the woman who started me with weight loss. I have told this story before, this lady was really overweight and I saw her lose weight.

She has alternated her diet with fruits and soups. So one day she ate proper food and next day only fruits and soup. Sadly this time when I met her she was no longer thin. She told me how difficult it is to diet.

If you are eating boiled veggies and are on a diet of fruits and soup through out, always ask yourself if you are happy about it. If you cannot do it for life then there is no point in doing it for few days, the weight is bound to come back once you leave the diet.

In my desperation to lose weight I was tempted to follow the alternate diet plan but I knew it is not me who will like eating that way. I devised something that suited my lifestyle and which became my habit. I do not diet, this is how I eat. This is not temporary this is permanent.

The summery of this big post is that until you make changes for life the changes won't be permanent. Temporary changes are guess what temporary.

The Fantastic Food Law states that - If you are a microbiotic slow eater who follows the food discipline then you can eat anything and still lose weight.

Lentil Soup - My Hero

Hands down I accept that this soup has played the major role in my weight loss. I had a ravishing love affair with this guy and it regularly featured on my lunch dinner table.

I stuck to this soup because it is filling and I like the taste. Moreover I was always the daal rice person. SO, when I made this soup I would add 2 -3 spoon of rice and whatever sabji that was made at home. It used to give me the satisfaction of having the whole meal.

There are 3 versions of this soup. I usually stick to version 1 because I am lazy and I just like this simple version, its light, lemony and always tastes awesome.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup yellow mung daal.

2. 1 pod garlic.

3. bottle gourd finely chopped. I put as much as possible.



The basic mix

In a pressure cooker, add all the above, salt and a pinch of turmeric. Do not add lots of water. For 1 cup daal 2 and half cup water is more than enough. Pressure cook for 3 - 4 whistles. The ingredients cook fast.

For better results you can soak the daal for 1 hour. I usually make it as it is, who will wait for an hour.

Once you pressure cook it, you will get a thick mixture even if there is water don't worry. This is your basic base.



Version 1 :

Damn easy. To the basic mix add water to adjust the consistency of soup, also adjust the salt. Squeeze lemon. Your version 1 is ready. I like to eat the bottle gourd pieces along with this soup.

Usually I take a bowl, add some rice and the sabji. You can see Bowl 1 has bhendi sabji, rice and soup and Bowl 2 has french beans sabji, rice and soup. The trick is to have very less rice and lots of vegetable and soup.




Version 2 :

No one has stopped you to make a proper daal out of it. This base is always there in my fridge. So in some emergency, I take little oil, add cumin seeds, onions. tomato and make a tadka daal. You can also cut lots of veggies and then add this daal and the add the sambhar powder to give it a twist. 1 big bowl of this daal always guarantees satisfaction.

Version 3 :

Now this requires some work and of course it tastes the best.

Ingredients

1. Finely chopped french beans.

2. Finely chopped carrot.

3. Finely chopped capsicum.

There is no quantity restriction. More the veggies the better.



Procedure.

1. Blend the basic daal mix (the one that we pressure cooked and prepared) into a fine paste.

2. In a pan take little oil and stir fry veggies on high heat. We don't want the veggies to cook. We want them to be crisp. So cook them on high flame for 4 - 5 minutes.



3. Add the blended purred daal and adjust the consistency by adding water.



4. Adjust salt.

5. You can sprinkle black pepper and lemon on top.



This is the actual lentil soup.

The basic mix also serves one more purpose. I usually make the basic base and keep it in fridge and as per the mood I make the version that I want to eat. Sometime I knead the dough with this mixture. No water is required. Take wheat flour and knead it with the daal mixture and make roti. You can use little oil to gril the roties, they taste awesome.

Didn't I tell you that this soup is a hero. It server multiple purposes and also knocks off the weight. Now can you beat that.

Have fun with it.

Vegetable Stir Fry with Tofu

I love Chinese, specially the crisp saute vegetables.

This is one fun dish. It makes use of lots of veggies and ginger and garlic. I am not a very big fan of tofu but I add it to this dish. The simpler version is to just stir fry the veggies with ginger and garlic and enjoy.

Ingredients :

1. 2 pods garlic - either chop them fine or make a paste.

2. French beans, cut side wise.

3. Carrots, cut in fine long strips

4. Handful sweet corns.

5. Capsicum, cut in fine long strips.

6. Tofu.

7. 1 packet mushroom.

8. 1 tsp fresh ginger paste. I grate the ginger.

9. 2 tsp oil.




Procedure.

1. There is no limit of the veggies you can add. Feel free to use your imagination.

2. First I put the mushroom in a pan without any oil. I let them cook till all the water is evaporated.



3. The tofu is marinated in soya sauce and half the garlic paste. Just rub it in the tofu and leave it aside for an hour.



4. Transfer the tofu on the pan and grill it thoroughly. Scramble and keep aside.



5. Now put the the pan. Add the ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute. Then add the veggies and saute at high flame for 3 -4 minutes.



6. Once they are crisp and done add the tofu and mushrooms.



7. Add salt in the end. You can also sprinkle black pepper.

8. Serve hot.




PS: Anamika this one is for you. I will upload other versions as well.