Chick pea Salad

Hot Summer days call for something cold and soothing.We had gone for the baby’s 6 month shots and we had to wait a long time for our turn.We came back home-hot,thirsty and hungry. I just made a big bowl of this salad and Ms.Aadya finished her portion happily,telling me,”Mumma this is the best salad ever.You are the best chef!” What can I say happy Mumma,happy baby-girl!

For this salad,I used:

4-5 lettuce leaves-washed and torn
1 tomato-diced
1 cucumber-diced
1 can chick pea- drained and rinsed
1 avocado-pitted and chopped.
juice of half a lime
7-8 mint leaves,chopped
chopped cilantro
salt to taste.

Put everything in a big salad bowl;toss and serve immediately.
Note: if you want to make it earlier,just chop everything n store in individual boxes.
Happy Chomping!

Jan Birthday presents

Now that the Jan Birthday girls have opened their presents..I can share them here..


I found plain wooden pen holders from Spotlight and then transformed them into these gorgeous things,using decoupage technique,scrapbooking paper,crafting glue,buttons,stickers,ribbons! It was my first time doing decoupage..and I am thinking..why did I wait so long to try it. I am so glad,my friends liked their gifts!

Crafts,cooking..etc..

Hi everyone,
I hope 2012 is treating you well. Yet again,I promise to blog more often and keep this site fresh and active..2012 is making a new woman out of me..and I am hoping,I will keep this up.
So,some of my new year resolutions are..
The first one -eating healthy and home cooked.. avoiding processed food as much as possible.Last year,because of the pregnancy,my being sick and pregnant,new baby..everything just led to more and more eat-out.So,weekly menu plans are back-they have been in place from the very first day of the year..I hope we can stick to it,for the rest of the year!

The second one is-crafting more .. Last year was pretty dull craft-wise as well. This year,I want to craft more.I intend to try out a few new techniques,a few new crafts..pick up some new hobbies.

Logo credits-Josie
The extra crafting will come in handy,considering I signed up for an year-long birthday exchange on Ravelry!Yup,you read it right!
There are 22 of us and we’ll be sending gifts to every person on her birthday.The last time I got so many presents was on my 23rd birthday-when my sister gave me 23 presents Anyway,I mailed out the puffies for the January birthday girls and I can’t wait to share here what I made for them..more importantly can’t wait for the Birthday girls to get their presents!
I will share pics here,as soon as they receive the parcels..
Hope you are having a good year!!

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 8,000 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Quick Banana Cake

My daughter has an excursion tomorrow..her first actually.They are taking her kinder class to the zoo. After going back and forth,we I decided to let her go.S is still not convinced.But anyway,bottom line is she is going.And when I asked her what snack she wanted,she asked for Banana Bread.
S loves it too.. but my only problem with Banana Bread is,how it gets hard and dense on cooling.I wanted it to be soft.So,I started out baking this cake.But as always,I was multi-tasking-making calls,chatting,mixing the batter! The baby cried too..so,I put her back to sleep..Anyway,to cut the long story short,I forgot to add the milk!
And then I waited for the cake to get baked..Can I just tell you,its the softest banana cake I have eaten?And when you have a recipe quite by chance, you should write it down.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cup flour
3 ripe bananas(mashed)
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence.

Method:
1.Mix oil and sugar and whisk.
2.Add an egg to this and whisk more.Add the essence.
3.Add the mashed bananas and mix well.
4.Add the flour in 3 parts,mixing well.

Bake at 180 deg C(160 fan-forced) for 45 minutes,till the knife comes out clean.
Cut into pieces and store in an air-tight container(if it lasts that long!)

Happy Baking!

Pretty little things..

….called Buttons I absolutely heart buttons- of assorted colors,shapes and sizes. I hit gold when I found a pack of 100 assorted buttons in bright colors and cute shapes.
I used them here and here they instantly upped the Cuteness factor
Then,I made this card for a friend’s 5 year old.

And how can I forget these gift bags that I made for Aadya’s 4th birthday.

These were super-easy to make and such a delight to see a box full of hand-made goody bags:)

Just made dots on the brown paper-bags- using acrylic colors and ear-buds.Wrote the names of the recievers using a felt tip pen. And then,the birthday girl ‘helped’ me stick the buttons on
Linking this post to Artsy-Craftsy November 2011

Some baby knits:)

I had plans of making a nice winter wardrobe for the baby.. but two things offset my plan..
1) We didn’t know the sex of the baby..till the very end..
2) I had severe carpel tunnel..
Here are some things I worked on,when I was pregnant..
Aren’t these cute?? The little cutie kept them on for all of 5 minutes!!!

Pattern: Test Pattern on Ravelry
I hope these stay on longer!

Pattern: another pattern I tested .
And this is where I turned into my MOTHER!! yes,I made matching garments for my kids and now,I,finally, understand what made her do it:)Here‘s the one that I knit for the big sister-

Pattern: Pebble on Ravelry
Ok, now you can say-Awwww..:)

Mung-Zucchini Cutlets

This post has been long over-due! Thanks for being so patient,Ami!
We went through a phase in our house,where we were tired of eating the same vegetables-cabbage,cauliflower,beans,carrot,capsicums..and I wanted to bring new vegetables to the dinner table.
When I mentioned Zuchini,the husband wasn’t too enthused ..the daughter couldn’t care less..So,I had to make it fun.What is more fun than a cutlet. So,here’s what I came up with.

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cup Green Mung
1 zucchini,grated
1 small onion,finely chopped.
1-2 green chilies
fresh corriander leaves.
Salt,cummin powder,black pepper.( if you want an Indian flavor- add some red chili powder and garam masala)
Bread crumbs for coating
oil/oil spray for frying.
Preparation:
Soak Mung in warm water for 1 hour. Then cook the moong with sufficient water in an open pan,till the Mung become tender and the water dries up.If there is excess water,drain it.Mash it to a pulp and let it cool.
Heat oil in a pan and fry onions in it,till they start to brown.Add the grated zucchini and fry for a minute or two.
Add the fried onion-zucchini mix, the spices and chopped green chilies and chopped corriander leaves to this mix. knead well.
Divide the mixture into balls of equal size.
Flatten the balls and coat with bread crumbs and pan fry on medium heat,till crispy.
All done!
I served these as it is with tea and then, as Pita wraps for dinner.

For making the wraps,you need:
Pita bread-2
salad-sliced onion,tomato,lettuce,cucumber.
Green chutney or any sauce of your choice-hummus,tahini,garlic sauce..whichever you like.

Cut the pita from the middle,so that you have two pita-pockets. Stuff the pocket with salad,cutlets,generous helping of sauce-Wrap it up..Dig in!!!