All about Keto!

That's the buzzword in diet nowadays - "Keto". And I've been part of this journey for the last 14 weeks. You must be wondering I drop in here out of nowhere and then begin with the rambling on Keto! Well, it is an important journey for us (S & I) and I wanted to pen my thoughts here so that I can come back to it in future and comprehend when need arrives!

It all began on 9th October for me and maybe a few months ago for S, he has been pestering for a while to embark on this blissfulness that is keto (read - sarcasm!). He has been interested in it and has been reading up on it as well after seeing his friend’s journey on this platform. To be honest, I was quite apprehensive because, you know, who lives without carbs? I love my rotis & idlis and don’t even get me started on the daals. I could never imagine a life without them. So I waited & waited and finally gave in. Thus began this journey.

In order to understand the Keto or the LCHF (Low Carbs High Fat) diet, one has to understand what ketosis is all about. Ketosis is a metabolic state of the body wherein it derives energy using the fats that you intake (there is little/no carbs to convert into energy). Basically your body turns into a fat-burning machine! Usually keto enthusiasts will tell you not to bother about weight loss and concentrate more on inch loss, now that’s a whole other chapter to discuss and I don’t want this post to go technical about it. 

And does it work? Oh yes it does. I have lost about 11 kgs in 14 weeks and can see surprising changes in just 3 months!

In the beginning when I actually started this diet it was more about experimenting with limited food that we, as vegetarians, could consume and believe me, it was challenging. I was surprised to know the amount of carbs a simple onion or a carrot contained! I knew potatoes were bad but other vegetables were increasingly shocking for me to understand. I have to limit my carbs to about 20 or below 20gms! Took me a while to comprehend but once I got the hang of it, there was no stopping. I put on my chef’s hat and got busy in the kitchen, some experiments are pictured below!

Growing up we are advised that fat is bad for you but after being in keto I am just appalled how much damage carbs do to you! It’s shocking. However believe me when I say it’s amazing to see your body react so beautifully without carbs! I won’t deny that I miss my regular food since it’s natural - you are brought up eating that food, it will pinch you somewhere. After all I am human and it doesn’t help that no place in Bangalore provides keto food on demand, it’s frustrating especially when you don’t want to enter your kitchen. However big a chef you can be, there will be a time when you want to chuck your hat and gobble up some food made by someone else! 

If I have to consolidate this whole journey in one word then it has to be - "satisfaction". Yes I think that’s what I would call it! Because health-wise, nothing has been satisfactory in the past the way being in ketosis has been! Not only has keto helped me physically, but I believe I have become a lot more calmer mentally. The only tough part of ketosis is that if you exceed your limit of carbs, the body will throw you out of ketosis and it usually takes about a week to be back into it. Keto can be very unforgiving if you cheat!

Unfortunately due to the holiday season as well as a travel that was planned, I had to give it up for about 10 days which surprisingly wasn’t all that bad. I expected a good amount of weight gain but then, thankfully, it was negligible. Keto stayed good which helped me end 2017 on a high! 

Now that we are in 2018 and settling in, I am back into Ketosis and I have to say that I missed it. I don’t crave for carbs anymore!

Not so long ago!

Wow... Its been so long since I paid a visit to my own blog! How neglected it looks!!!

I just sort of peeped in here in what looks like years and I am simply sad to see it like this... un-attended! True, the blame is on me but I guess I was kind-of forced to forget this page with a toddler around.

I'm sure you know the drill when it comes to children and mine is quite a handful. While I have been thoroughly enjoying seeing him grow, at the same time I have allowed myself an absence from this space here.

But now I am yearning to be back here and kick start this space, my space, rather, more than ever. Let's just hope I maintain the enthusiasm that I have just displayed here with & that's the challenge I am taking up now!

I have so many comeback stories that I start with but I'm afraid that will just have to wait. I only came here to say hello to my neglected blog :-)

With a promise to myself and to my blog to be regular, I leave now. See you soon!

...

Life is a full stop. Lost a dear one today...

The heart is full of pain and eyes tearful. It's just not fair...

The 11 brothers & 11 sisters story has lost one dear sister.

May your soul rest in peace Sneh didi... 

Raagi porridge

This post is specifically for a friend who requested this most common and predominant baby food prepared in the southern part of India.

The credit for the recipe goes to my maid who helped me six months ago when I was confused while starting solids for my baby. Though there are a lot of options in the market these days, I wanted something which is not milk based and of course which is homemade.

Traditionally raagi is used in south India and as north Indians, the benefits of raagi are lesser known to us primarily because raagi was unavailable up north earlier. But now things have changed and the benefits of raagi are out for all to experience.

Raagi is a very good source of calcium and your baby will need it in abundance once he/she starts to crawl and starts teething. Traditionally this porridge is made only with raagi but I have decided to include other grains and pulses like moong daal, wheat, barley etc.. These are optional and you need not add these if you don't like. So without much ado here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:
----------------

500gms Raagi millet
250gms wheat
250gms Green Gram (moong daal)
125gms barley
125gms brown rice
2 tbsp cumin seeds (jeera)
2tbsp carom seeds (ajwain)

Procedure
---------------
1. Wash all except jeera and ajwain. Raagi needs much more time while washing since it has a lot of impurities. You will need to keep washing it till raagi looks clear to you in water. This will take about 4-5 washes.

2. Soak the washed grains accordingly:
Raagi - 8hrs
Wheat - 8hrs
Moong daal - 8hrs
Barley and brown rice - 2hrs
3. Drain barley and the rice and let them dry completely.
4. Drain the rest of the grains and tie them up separately in a clean muslin cloth. You will need to keep this until they start to sprout.

5. Once they have sprouted untie them and spread it on a neat surface or on a plate and dry them completely. Ensure that there's no moisture left in them.

6. Dry roast each of the ingredients. I do this for at least 5min each or till you start getting a pleasant aroma from them. You also do this to the cumin and ajwain seeds.

7. Finally you collect them all and grind them into a fine powder. If you are doing this at home then care should be taken that the powder yielded should be really fine, you may also need to sieve it till you get the perfect consistency. I prefer to do this in a flour mill rather than at home as the former involves less sieving.

Store in a air-tight container.

OPTIONAL:- I also add around 50-60 roasted and powdered almonds into the mixture above. But you can exclude this if you are concerned about nut allergy.

Cooking before feeding:-
--------------------------------
I take about three spoonfuls of this, mix it in sufficient water, add a pinch of salt along with a few drops of ghee and finally cook this on a small flame. Keep stirring this till the paste thickens to about the consistency of a porridge.

Cool and serve... Or rather feed ;)

You can feed this porridge more than once a day but I generally do this once in the afternoon. Since this porridge contains many ingredients its quite filling in nature and the baby is likely to sleep for over 2-3hrs after consuming the same.

Apart from this I also feed my son oats for breakfast, wheat in the evening and rice & daal at night apart from about 20oz of milk everyday.

Dinner Tonite

Our Dinner Tonite... Baked Macaroni....

Recipe later

Masala Dibba

I love, love, LOVE my new masala dibba... This is exactly what I wanted to have in the first place.

I have been chasing this design ever since I saw it on a blog featuring Dastakar in 2009. After 3 years of searching I finally found it on fabfurnish.com. A relief and finally... happiness!

The blog mentioned this site called Ethaan.org (NGO based out of Delhi), whom I tried reaching to them desperately. Unfortunately despite my innumerable calls, emails I was never able to get any answer and hence left very disappointed, only until now...

Sigh I can't take my eyes off this new entry in my kitchen... Bit cheesy it sounds I know! But I am a sucker for these things and keep a great eye for the unusual...

This is definitely a must have in an Indian kitchen. It replaces the boring steel spice box so beautifully...

Here you go, some pictures of my new Masala Dibba

Quinoa Salad

What started as solid food for my baby turned out to be an action packed bollywoody food for the both of us. Bollywood I say, because there is so much masala and lots of things to make it zingy!

Quinoa (prononced kinwaa) needs no introduction. It's one of the healthiest grain in the entire world, an all-rounder in nutrition. It's a good source of calcium, iron, magnesium and more importantly, it's gluten free. In layman terms it's a yummy tummy treat.

I included this as a part of my son's diet mainly because it's gluten free and it's packed with all the necessary nutritional quotient that it instantly ticked all my check boxes!

The only drawback is that it's not readily available in your regular departmental store and hence you will need to source this from an upscale high end supermarket. However I found this online at "zansaar.com" which has thankfully eliminated my travel time by bringing this to me to my doorstep. I use Roland white quinoa and a packet (340 gms) is priced at Rs.430 (quite expensive I must say). But considering everything that I have written above I've decided to ignore the price.

There are a lot of recipes to try out but today I am sharing this very simple salad. It's so simple, yummy and at the same time very healthy. So I am not complaining.

Ingredients:

Cooking quinoa:
Quinoa - 1cup
Water - 2cups
Salt - 1/4tsp

Add salt to the two cups of water and put it on boil. Once it starts to boil, add 1 cup of quinoa and stir in. Cook it till the entire water is evaporated which takes about 15 - 18 mins. Once done, keep this aside. 1 cup of quinoa yields 2 - 3 cups when cooked.

For the salad:
3 cups quinoa (procedure above)
Olive oil - 2 tbsp
Peanuts - 1tbsp
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Tomato - 1 finely chopped

Parboil the below:
Carrot - 2 finely diced
Potato - 1 finely diced
Pumpkin - small piece finely diced
Celery - 1 finely chopped
Dill leaves - a bunch chopped finely
Coriander leaves - a bunch
Green chillies - 1tsp
Ginger - 1tsp
Chickpeas or any other legumes (rajma, moth-gram etc) - 1 cup cooked
Salt to taste
Turmeric - 1tsp
Red Chilli powder - 1tsp
Chat masala - 1tsp
Juice of one lemon

Procedure:
1. In a wok heat up olive oil, add in peanuts and ginger, sauté a bit and then add onions and celery. Sauté this till onions become translucent. Now add tomatoes and green chillies and sauté till it blends in.

2. Add in the parboiled vegetables, sauté for a minute and then add the legumes.

3. Now add in the quinoa and all the masalas and give it a fine stir. Finally add in the dill leaves and lemon juice and give it a quick mix.

4. Finally garnish with coriander and serve.

This will guarantee you a guilt-free and a yummy indulgence!

Online shopping!

If you still haven't tried online shopping yet, I suggest you must do so! It is definitely a boon... Well, at least to me. It helps me save time and trust me, with an infant around, time is something that is hard to come by these days!

Shopping as such has become more of an ordeal these days, our little man is definitely not a shopping person... He becomes awfully cranky every time we go out shopping though he loves being outdoors! He is surprisingly happy in an autorikshaw or when we are out on a drive but a few minutes in any shop turns the little fella red with fury!

Hence I have had to give in and order almost everything online. Though it is convenient, I must say I hate the bell ring almost everyday... Sometimes good things do come at a price :-(

I have listed down a few online stores, more specific to India though, which I frequent regularly.

Here goes the list (please add a ".com" to all these).

Baby needs (not surprising my first pick is a baby store! All moms out there will agree with me):

Babyoye

Firstcry

Hoopos

Shoppers-stop

Mothercare

Groceries

Towness

Big basket

Lifestyle products

Urbandazzle

Zansaar

Fabfurnish

Clothes & accessories

Myntra

Jabong

Medical requirement - Apollo pharmacy

Of course there are many others but the above ones are those which I frequent the most.

I do miss shopping the traditional way; the window-shopping and the coffees in between but I do ensure that I occasionally squeeze in those as well while the sweet husband babysits...

Disclaimer: The above is hazardous to the husband’s wallet :-)