An excited Comeback Post

 

 

I feel excited today writing this comeback post after almost 19 months. Looking back, time really flew but it still managed to cover several memorable events and experiences. Yet I could not help feeling guilty and sad neglecting this blog which truly had become a dear friend for more than a year and I did miss it all the while.

 

I visited it several times and wondered as to when I would get back to writing my heart out on the empty and inviting pages that it offers. I did not expect to take a break nor did I ever dream that I would neglect it this way. But life in the last few months had really taken me on a roller coaster ride and somehow the desire to write was left behind.

 

 

The indefinite break mostly got started because of a sequence of events ranging from changing jobs, to unexpected travels and finally the transformation of myself to becoming a Mum. Yes, a lot has happened and a lot has been learned and witnessed during this phase. Today with both my hands full, I bravely have tried to make this comeback and now it is quite interesting to see how far I will be able to make a  triumphant stride in carrying on with this beautiful blog.

 

As I write on this space, I feel quite nostalgic and my mind races back to the good old days when I used this as a daily haven to park my learnings and memories. Life today is so different since then and I find myself surrounded with new friends and people who I befriended only a year back. In fact, life has changed so much now with the entry of my little one and I cannot help but feel overwhelmed at the thought of the sequence of events that have brought me to this stage.

 

I excitedly look forward to make this blog regain its old shine and fill it up with my thoughts and practices. May be I will focus on my skills and of course not to forget, the recipes will surely make their way regularly on this space.

 

 

Pics pasted here are some of the orchids collection made by my dad at our home garden.

April Showers & the Guest Post(Omani Halwa)

Last week was eccentric in terms of weather.In the midst of rising mercury,we witnessed an overcast sky all week,with a pleasant climate and some glorious april showers in the weekend. With the rain pouring for a few hours, the surroundings transformed into an alluring scene cheering us to the core and reviving the blissful memories of our past. How often can we get to see this bewitching climate when the sun's heat is tormenting us in these days usually?

The effects of this soothing and heavenly weather have partially continued this week too. I am glad that we are almost at the end of april yet to experience the wretched summer's heat even though it is inevitable and I am already dreading it.

The frenzy of elation in the last week has been noteworthy. My first guest post was published on this inspiring space called Healthyforbetter. Shruthi, the charming author has been captivating with her lens and allows the viewers to have a peek in her world of healthy living describing her journey towards leading a healthy life. She has been my classmate and a close friend of mine since my University days and we graduated together in the year 2006.

The imagery that she creates & shares on her blog have been captivating and she has constantly been mastering the art of snapping top notch pictures with her DSLR. You must visit her pinterest account and marvel at her fine clicks. She has also been using the instagram to share her clicks these days.

I had been extremely delighted when Shruthi asked me to write a post for her beautiful blog. Since she cherishes traditonal cultures, I opted to try the Omani Halwa and share it on her space.

If you are someone who also loves to delight in tradional tastes, then you should tour this utterly splendid space and enjoy reading - Healthyforbetter - Omani Halwa.

Revitalising Resolutions

Its been a bright & a lovely March morning here with the soothing weather gradually getting inclined towards more muggy days. The glass patio near my desk depicts a gorgeous scene outdoors - Sun-drenched gardens lined with tall palm tress & blooming bushes with the balmy breeze attempting to play with the fresh green leaves. Not to forget the chiming tweets of the sparrows & the tinkling chirps of the mynas adding to the blissful morning. But with the mercury levels rising with each passing day and the beautiful spring kissing its goodbye to us, it seems that the summer here has begun to envelope us steadily.

I had quite an enlightening and inspirational week. I spent most of my time idly surfing the web, stopping by some wonderful blogs, dragging them on my radar and idolising the amazing skills of the people working on them. I am in awe of such versatile curators and realise that they are blessed with multi-talents who can cook fabulously,write passionately & click pictures marvellously. With some pretty awesome stuff waiting in line for this blog, this exercise has been worth it.

After learning a lot of new stuff, I thought to start implementing them soon. Now it's a time to reflect on the changes I always wanted to make and resolve to follow through on those changes. Yes, the focus is now on Resolutions.

So while we are on the subject of Resolutions to strengthen my blog vision, this is how I put forth them.

Resolution # 1:

TO BLOG BETTER

When I started out on this blog blast year, I aimed to leave no stone unturned. I wanted the blog to look perfect in everything. But gradually I realised I wrote less even though I posted regularly.
I was so set on this plan, that I have let the important things get a little dusty. I was afraid that I may allow my blog to go astray & tread funk waters if I do not post regularly.

My reason for doing this blog is mostly for me, to make it like a journal and share. My hope is that someone will read something that may help them with something or the other.I am trying to come up with more writing content for most of my posts. Time is the only hurdle. Hopefully, I plan to concentrate on making this blog better.

Resolution # 2:

TO SEIZE THE BAKING BUG

Baking has somehow taken a setback in my kitchen, thanks to my baking disasters. I never attempted to bake anything once I encountered disasters. A couple of weeks ago while searching the internet for something completely different, I found several intriguing blogs with amazing baked stuff. I have been in awe of such people and I dream of baking confidently some day. To realise my dream, my efforts need to start soon.

Resolution # 3:

PERK UP THE PICTURE ART

Photography hasn't been breathtaking in my blog. I admit that I am still a learner and I somehow lack creativity in this art. I always miss the joy radiated in my pictures and  I envisage to strengthen this art very soon.

These are a few resolutions that I make as I chose the path of reinforcing this blog. So in this spirit of spring cleaning I am dusting off my other priorities, taking all other things with margin, and praying that I will achieve my goals towards betterment. Sure there are things that don't fit in my little dream life box - but I'm not sure that life is ever exactly what we want.

So, this is my re-commitment to my top three resolutions. Everything else can take a number - I'll get to them when I can.

The pictures posted are of a recent visit of mine to a mall here in Muscat.

Rocking 100th - A Milestone achieved

You just cant imagine how thrilled I am to put down this post - what I can call as a miraculous milepost. I know its been a long way to reach my 100th post for this blog, but I feel proud to state that this journey has been truly inspirational, heartening,enlightening & sprinkled with lots of wonderful memories all over. And somewhere along the track I found plenty of oppurtunities to shake hands with the illuminating insight of the blogging world.


Yes, Its time to celebrate now ..... and its time to look forward for more milestones & to conserve the momentum with the sky being the ultimate limit.

Being a part of a large community in the blogosphere it is quite interesting to find lots of other bloggers who are always friendly, inviting, creative, engaging, and interesting - who have directly or indirectly enlivened me to a large extent & have filled that void for me. Infact by no stretch of  imagination had I ever realised about the infinite bounties that the blog world would offer. From being the curator of a blog to developing a virtual community of readership on a social platform, blogging has empowered me to hone my skills & has bestowed upon me a genuine camaraderie & the privilege to reach out to audience across the world. I still haven’t quite got the hang of reaching this milestone.

The Experience:

This blog grew out of a search for direction. Food was obviously the Buzzword, Betterment my mantra. With a lot of happenings around, I realised that a blog could be the best way to relieve oneself from burdening the mind. Blogging helped me a lot in soothing my jammimg mind.

 It has taken me a long time to really settle into my writing and figure out what kind of blogger I want to be. When I started out, I thought I’d only write about food. But I gradually began to expand my posts to more diversifying topics. My major intention was to refrain from leaving my blog with long periods of drought where I am just not sure on what to write and to deviate away from my theme.


If I’ve learned anything after a year of blogging it is to write your heart out. Also, I’ve abandoned the notion of just sticking to food related topics always in my topics in favor of allowing my blog to be an expressive space where I can talk about anything,any time. If you are passionate about your topics, you will surely find your way.

After taking a quick tour of my blog, I observed that almost 30% of my posts have been a mashup of lore, opinion, and my lifestyle, all of which take me little time to draft and publish them. Neverthless, I loved every minute of writing them & today whatever this space has bestwoed upon me is priceless & alluring.

So to all my blog readers, I whole heartedly thank you one & all who are reading these words for enriching my world and I look forward to your continous support & encouragement always. As my exciting journey is in progress, I whole heartedly & sincerely wish to enhance my skills, streamline my future aspirations & elevate this blog to the core.

Facebook & Farmvillae affair

Last weekend I did something weired. When I logged into FB, I clicked on my applications link to enter my Farmvillae game. I felt as if I had taken a step back into my old,carefree life.

There was a time when I was addicted to this farmvillae on FB. I used to play it endlessly following all its rules religiously. In the real world, I'm not very interested in plants and farms/gardens. But farmvillae seems to have a different effect on me. I donno why. I simply enjoy ploughing the land or rearranging my farm or checking on my animals or shopping in the market that offers endless stuff. How kiddish & simple these sound, but they give so much peace & joy. 

I simply love Facebook. I am so much attracted to it. Finding old friends, reading updates from everyone to following various links, staring at the pictures or playing farmvillae and other games, FB has so much to offer and all are such interesting activities, that I never say no to them. FB not only gives rest to my everthinking mind for a while, but it makes me more home sick & super rewinds my memories to the days when my only worry in life was harvesting my crops before they can wither.

 But I simply dont have enough time to stay all day on FB. Even at work FB is a blocked site. This hasn't been very good to me, but inspite of all this, the love for FB hasn't reduced. You get simply lost in the FB applications world and tell me what else can be the other way to beat stress when the virtual world can entertain you infinitely.

Now I regret for forsaking all this for a while. The tsunami of responsibilities that came my way made me abandon most of my leisures and now I am again grabbing them under my RADAR screen to lighten the footprints that stress leaves in our lives.

Moral :

 

  As goes the saying -" All work & no play makes Jack a dull boy".  Make some free time for yourself everyday and live those moments fully.

 

Its finally all in our mind - "What we are today is the result of our thoughts of yesterday and our thoughts today depend on our life of tomorrow - Our mind builds our lives" . So think simple & live simple.

 

   This was a just a small experience that I thought of sharing with you all.

One year in Office

Wednesday, the first of february had a red circle around it on the calender in my kitchen. A year back this was the day which marked a new learning experience in my life. It was on this day that I joined my first day at work after landing in Oman two months back. It certainly was a new experience for me - my first overseas job. It was also my first oppurtunity to make new friends in this unknown land and to meet people from various nationalities.

Memories of that day stay vivid in my mind. I remember that I woke up extremely early that morning. My office was starting at 8 a.m, but I was up 4 hours earlier (I sometimes laugh when I think about that now). My sleep had somehow evaporated that night as I was anxious and excited. I rushed to prepare our breakfast & lunch, packed tiffin boxes,took a quick shower,got ready in a hurry. My pick-up cab was at my door at 7:30 a.m. I reached office twenty minutes later & was greeted by the other staff. Soon I was escorted around for more introductions followed by a brief lecture by my manager on my job profile & responsibilities before I was finally shown to my work station.

It was a long day. I was hardly given work and hence was drowsy all afternoon. I finally left office at 5:30 p.m. Once home, I hurried with the household chores. Life seemed hectic, but there was one important thing that I learned that day - Time Management. We play around time. If you can manage time, you can achieve many things.

Over the next few days, I tried my best to practice time management which was not always successful for me. I created many task lists, prioritised my tasks, tried to finish them within fixed times etc until I finally got used to this new course of life. I took time, but I knew it was working for me.

Reflecting back over the year that has just passed, what satisfies the most are the new things I learnt in it. Be it a new recipe or a new word, or read a new book or learnt how to interact with new people, learnt blogging,or learnt how to troubleshoot & rectify my own mistakes - It was a year of learning. I learnt many things, but I realise that life is still open to learn everything.

The last one year changed me in many ways ... I realise that I am a different person now !!!

Meal menu planning & money saving tips

Planning things in advance & making all efforts to stick to my plans has always been me. I totally love this activity as it makes me more confident with my work & time. Food & Money is no exception and since food management is my assignment under my roof, I extend my planning technique towards meal planning & food budgets.

Actually its been a year since I landed in Oman and took over the reins of Home management. I started badly and was quite sloppy with budget spending on various stuff. I ended up with heavy bills as I had an unplanned startegy.

Gradually I learnt the way out of experience about deciding on what actually is required & in what quantities and how to purchase healthy stuff within a planned & a reasonable budget. I studied the various brands available and what can suit us best. I took some time to streamline this whole planned food & budgeting task. Now I am glad to state that my groceries are purchased well within the budget allocated to it with little wastage but including all needed for a perfect & whole meal and that is the reason I decided to share this with you all.

 HOW I DID IT?

        Organising meal plans & grocery lists helps me to keep track at the stores and I get what I need as opposed to a bunch of stuff I don’t. I make a weekly menu and shop from my list every fortnight.I do the occasional impulse buy, but I try to plan ahead. With interests & appetites that seem to grow faster than our food budget, I’ve had to develop a few strategies that save me not only money, but time as well. And who doesn’t need more of both?!

So here a few great tips to make the food budget stretch and get a bang for your buck.

 1. Plan – I know its not always easy, but heading to the store with a weekly plan saves time and money. By limiting my trips to the store, I’m preventing that extra spending that seems to always push me over budget. When I plan perfectly, I know that I dont have to visit the store more than 2-3 times a month.

2. Healthy but relatively low cost diet  - The cheapest and best sources of nutrients in the grocery store are undoubtedly the veggies, eggs & other low fat diary products and they’re certainly not just limited for breakfast. They certainly are very affordable and there are so many things you can do with them.They are usually high-energy-yielding food products and a rich source of protiens.They supply all essential amino acids for humans,and provide several vitamins and minerals essential for body building.

3. Veggie days – Meat and produce are the two big budget busters. A simple alternative is to serve more vegetarian dishes for atleast 3 days a week. Going meatless for a couple of days in a week is surely the healthiest way to stretch your buck.The best way is to save the weekend for special & favourite foods that can include meat/fish & grilled foods. Cabbage, leafy veggies, cucumbers(zucchini),carrots are rich in nutrients & fibre, so I love investing on them.

Example: Fix a seperate menu for weekdays & weekends. Save most of your salads for the weekdays recipe as they are easy to make & this helps you maintain a light & healthy diet.

4. Justice to the Leftovers - Leftovers are a pain as they take up space in your refrigerator and dont really appeal to you the next day.Find ways to take leftovers and repurpose them into a new dish that nobody but you will know is really leftover. I love using up everything in the fridge whenever possible. Becoming more devious in the kitchen in order to utilise them is fantastic. This also reduces wastage and proves that you can do enough justice for what you spend/earn.

One good example can be to convert a leftover gravy into a spicy sauce that can be used in your pastas or for other gravies.
        

5.  Advanced Menu ideas - Listing down on a piece of paper/making mental notes on what to cook in the next few days and what recipes can be tried at your leisure is one of the super ways to list down all the ingredients that you can purchase in your monthly grocery list. This will help you grab them from your shelf whenever you intend to make something instead of rushing to the store and buying them in a hurry or without planning.
Also it helps you to avoid missing out on some stuff which forms an essential part of your meal.

Example :  You can buy a couple of condensed milk/dreamwhip packs & save them on your pantry so that you can tackle your unplanned urges for something you wish. This startegy works best for dry/canned items only.

6. Deliciuos meals at a low prices - You may be wondering how you can lay a grand table everyday when you spend low. Purchasing low priced ingredients which can be brought together for a great dish(but keep it healthy) is one of the best ways.

Example : Using Wheat Pasta/Noodles, Semolina  are a great way to make a warm & comforting meal for your family, using low fat cheese/milk/cream will double your intake of nutrients & are worth the buys,  herbs & leaves with some veggies can make a great salad, frozen corn/peas etc can save up in your fridge for many days, whole wheat breads formed into healthy sandwiches/used in desserts are comfort foods as well as money savers, consuming fresh fruit juices instead of spending on readymade juices - many options are available & you simply can’t beat them as they are tasty & filling also.

These are some great ideas! whenever you need to stretch a buck. Cooking easy and affordable meals with variety and new ideas will never bore you with your meals & you can come out with scrumptious dishes. You are always getting a bang for your buck as well as stretching things as you see can fit.

Try adopting them and you will surely realise that there is no looking back.

Weekends

It been a while since I wrote and I know that I've been remiss in updating my diary as much as I should, and really it's not for lack of things to post, but just that I am generally loaded with lots of work in the weekdays.
But what about my weekends?

I have noticed that I have hardly written about my weekends. So I decided to put something about them on my blog.

Because its during the weekend that the workload is high, but then there is no time limit to finish it. So Weekends are generally more relaxing and there is enough time to attend to yourself & set things right on these days.

My weekends are often much the same. I try to finish our week’s laundry, to tidy the house again, and to cook up different meals, trying out desserts & many dishes, plan for our lunches/breakfasts during the week. And the spare moments are filled with facebook, twitter,with books/magazines or with family.

I am glad for this time to get ready for the week, and to try good meals so that we are less tempted to grab random foods instead of eating a good, balanced lunch each day. This exercise also helps me to  plan assorted menus for parties and I am also confident enough with the end results due to practice.

I’m glad for a day to get my laundry done and ironed & folded, even if it doesn’t always get put away until the next day or two.

I am glad for a day to read. After a week of rushing, it feels like a chance to rest & recharge a little.

I am glad for time to make good progress on my grocery list planning - which I use once a month so that I can include my new plans in it.

I am glad that, even though life is crazy and I get so tired of being away so much, I still have some times when things are the same, when I know what is expected and what I need to do and how much time I have to do it.

I’m glad that most of my weekends repeat themselves.

I generally do not attend to blogging on my weekends .On weekends, I visit my blog page like a visitor. I never write. I dont know why. I reflected a bit on when I have decided to write my favorite posts and I realised that I need a slight amount of privacy for this. But I do make a lot of mental notes on my posts for the coming days.

I have decreased outings on weekends as most of the time I never like sparing enough time for it. I prefer using the free time relaxing on my couch than going out for a walk. But outings have a place for me only when needed.

The days seem to be getting warmer as January has arrived. It is so strange that this part of the world experiences such short winters. In fact we again had our last rainfall almost 2 months back. There was not a single day I needed to get into my winter wear. Looks like as if the Spring has already arrived. These pictures say it all.



Welcome 2012

So here is a Chilling January day, a day which signals the end of all the hangovers of the New year. Once again, we are back to square one of our life. What lies ahead of us is a new empty book - A long year . Each day that passes by takes a page in it. So its another beginning - new hopes, strong visions, promising possibilities & enlivened dreams.

The past few days have been great with lots of stuff to share with you all. Life has been super good but simple. I did not have big achivements. But there have been a few small joys that have the potential to become the building blocks of perfection. Yes, I am talking about the various recipes I have been posting on this blog. These certainly are the happenings in my kitchen in the last few weeks. I have been browsing a lot, making attempts on a lot of stuff, cooking varieties and sharing them with you all.

You may have noticed that most of the recipes I have posted are very simple to make and are ready in less than an hour's effort. I have also that noticed almost all my outcomes have improved as compared to the past and I am able to cook food easily and quickly. Yes, it has been a long journey with lots of failures. But we all move on in life keeping our failures behind and looking forward to a bright future. I do not call myself as PERFECT or a good cook. But I am sure I have left behind my days when I knew how to cook something, but I lacked confidence due to a miserable attempt I had made previously. 

But now I feel that the journey could have been simple . As the saying goes - "Practice makes everyone perfect". That's exactly what has started working up for me.

Life otherwise has been stress free. Thanks to our latest timings at work. I find these timings very comfortable and I am able to accomodate more things in life. This is how my routine weekdays life is now:

5:30 a.m.                     - I wake up
5:30 - 6:20 a.m.         - I cook breakfast & lunch. Pack our tiffin boxes
6:20 - 6:50  a.m.        - Get ready for work
7 a.m                            -  I leave home for work
7:30 a.m.                     - I am at my office desk starting work
12:30 -1:00 p.m.        - Lunch Break
4:30 p.m.                     - I leave office
4:30 -5:30 p.m.          - Car Driving Class
5:45 p.m.                     - I am home
6:00 - 7:30 p.m.        - Household chores, dinner preperation, breakfast & Lunch preperation for next day.
7:30 - 8:15 p.m.         - Resting, reading, watching TV,Chatting etc.
8:15- 9:00 p.m.         - Dinner work & Serving dinner
9:00 - 9:15 p.m.        - After dinner chores in Kitchen
9:15 - 10:15 p.m.      - Watching TV or other miscellaneous leisures
10:15 p.m.                 - Sleep.

This is how I have been following life. This goes on for 5 days in a week. I have 2 days off at the end of the week. I utilise these 2 days for some special cooking. I usually make a list of recipes that I plan to try in a month and assign 2-3 recipes per weekend. When I do my monthly grocery shopping, I purchase all the dry ingredients for these. This makes me equipped in advance. My aim is to try something new every weekend. It can be a very simple salad or a tough dessert/main course dish. The simplicity or complexity of the dish is not of much concern to me. Just the attempt and the outcome has been the focus.

The weather has been pleasant since 2 months. Despite the chill in the air, the sun is bright and warm. So no humidity, no sweat and it has been a while since it has rained.

Not many goals have I set for myself this year. Learing something new everyday and achieving prefection in whatever I have learnt and I know is all that I look forward to. Will be back with more recipes and more news to share. Till then have fun !!! :)

When my Kitchen came alive

Cooking, Touring, Browsing, Reading & Relaxing !!!  What a wonderful way to spend the second session of our November Hols, but hey we also had some rain and lovely weather !

November had been more like a fun month for me. Thanks to the numerous hols that came my way. We had hols for almost a fortnight on the whole. That gave me enough time to convert my busy life into a breathe easy life for a while. Initially I had hardly planned for my second hol session that came in the month end for the Islamic New year. Later I realised that we had another 5 full days of hols. It was a lovely feeling.

Food , obviously was going to have to factor in somehow. I decided that I could utilise these awaited days to refine my cooking skills and I browsed randomly and started gathering recipes to practice.  

My mind switched to strategising -"Idealistic Strategising" a plan on how to work but still enjoy it when you have no pressure/need to do so and to steal the moments of joy from what you do.

In reality the moments are really quite simple, the thought of getting through the small task of flipping pages of your recipe archive or watching your favourite televison show or reading a book or may be shopping also. These are those small little moments that most people don't even think twice about or the moments that most of us do not sit and soak in, the simple moments of family joy. I wish every day brings us something joyous to remember always and we just dont run around trying to cater to the demands of this busy life. It's these small little things that could be as huge as a volcano erupting! Take joy out of those small victories and embrace the positives no matter how insignificant....life is now about searching through your day for a sign of hope and holding on through this crazy journey!

And I had been feeling unusually creative so I figured out what "new" to cook each day. By "new" I also meant something simple and easy. Having relaxed a little you’ll now find many useful but oh-so-worth-it dishes sneaking into these pages. Partly due to the shelves sagging beneath the weight of almost 6 cookbooks, and mostly because of the endless delights a wide diet offers, some things that were off ‘the list’ have found their way back on.

After my recent Cupcake disaster, I pondered over the shortcomings extensively. I realise that I did learn something the day I messed my work. This made me look for more cake recipes. I gained some confidence again. But I thought of giving baking a small break and enhance my spirits through other ways.

Here is a list of the various stuff I worked on in the last few days :

1)  Chicken & Veg wraps
2)  Assorted Sandwiches
3)  Yellow Pigeon peas curry with rice
4)  Mutton & Vegetable Khurma
5)  Ghee Rice
6)  Chicken Balls
7)  Baked Biryani
8)  Mutton Phaal
9)  Masala Puri
10) Black Gram Patties
11) Chole Bhathura
12) Ragi Roti
13) Tomato onion Chutney
14) Cottage Cheese & Cabbage Parathas/Paneer -cabbage Parathas
15) Rava Idlis
16) Green Gram and Vegetable salad
17) Tomato Soup
18) Spring Rolls

The list looks long, but these dishes are very simple to cook. Their recipes will be shared in my coming posts.

The Pictures posted are of a place called Nakhal I visited during the hols. It has a lovely fort that dates back to the 15th century and a beautiful water spring which offers you tons of fun.