There is more to me than meets the I

Healthy Chicken Broth

2015-10-29T19:14:00.001+05:30

The first time I heard about bone broth was nearly 20 years ago when my mom, then 60, fell and shattered her ankle bones. They were so badly splintered that the doctors could not fix it and said that they would need to set on their own. I watched my mom writhe in pain every time she moved her ankles as one of the splinters would hurt her inside. Till one elderly doctor advised her to take bone broth, or as he called it bone soup for fast healing of the bones. Mom, being a vegetarian, agreed to have it after much cajoling. All of us were surprised to say the least at how fast her pain subsided, her health improved and her ankles began to set. Of course, those ankles never returned to the petite shape they were in, but she began to walk in a couple of months.

Time went by and I completely forgot about the ‘Chicken Bone Soup’.

I came across it again when I was researching how to heal a cavity naturally. You see, I am genetically predisposed to weak teeth, aggravated by my hypothyroidism. I had this real bad cavity and like a lot of you, dislike dentists. Having moved to a more holistic approach to health, I was curious to know if there was anything I could do to either prevent further damage or to heal the cavity as it was pretty painful, with the pain spreading to the side of my nose.

I found that bone broth was one of the top remedies not just for healthy teeth, but for healing cavities naturally. That is the first time I made bone broth. And, I can safely say that, I did in fact reverse my tooth decay. But that is topic for another post. J

Bone broth is an inexpensive nutrient-rich food, full of minerals, amino acids got from the bones, carcass & vegetables. It is an excellent immunity booster and improves digestion. Some of the health benefits include

Supports healthy skin, hair, joints & nails due to its high collagen content. Not to mention diminish fine lines and wrinkles.
Fights off infection. Excellent for children when they are down with a flu, viral infection or a cold & cough
Can help get rid of cellulite as it improved connective tissue.
Improves bone & tooth health due to its high content of calcium, phosphorous & magnesium
Helps fight allergies
As a large part of our health is dependent on the health of the gut, bone broth is excellent for fixing a leaky gut and encourages healthy gut bacteria. Helps fix a leaky gut by building healthy gut flora

Bone broth is very easy to make and can be made from almost anything. You can have a vegetable broth made from just vegetables, chicken broth from leftover bones or carcass, meat broth from either mutton bones or beef bones and even fish broth made from leftover fish heads or other parts of the fish which are not consumed in any other form.

What you will need is:

- 1 Kg Chicken bones and/or carcass

- 3 tblsps of Apple Cider Vinegar

- Approx 300-400g of mix vegetables like

· Onions

· Beans

· Carrots

· Garlic

· Ginger

· Leeks

· Celery

· Cabbage

- I guestimate the quantity of herbs (either fresh or dried) like

· Thyme

· Rosemary

· Basil

· Sage

· Peppercorns

· Bay leaves

· Cinnamon stick

· Coriander or parsley

- 4 litres of drinking water

- A large pot

Preparation:

Wash the chicken and add it to a large pot.
Put in the Apple Cider Vinegar and water.
Allow this to stand for about 20 minutes. The Vinegar helps draw out the nutrients from the bones and carcass
Add all the vegetables. You can also add them a couple of hours later if you wish. I put them all together.
Put it on high fire till it gets to a rolling boil.
Reduce flame, cover and let it simmer for about 3-4 hours. The longer the better. I have also left this simmering for up to 6 hours. If you lose too much water, you can add in another 500ml if you wish.
Add in your herbs an hour before turning off the gas.
Once cool, sieve and pour them in suitable containers or jars.
Discard the chicken and veggies. They have no nutritive value and no taste.

You can add to the nutritive value of the stock by putting in a couple of chicken feet if you are not averse to it. They are a rich source of collagen.

This stores very well in the fridge for up to a week. You can also freeze it for later use.

As it cools in the fridge, it will form a layer of fat on top and will be gelatinous. Do not discard the fat layer on top. When pouring out some stock, move the fat to a side and pour out your stock. It is this layer of fat that preserves it in the fridge.

This stock can be used as a base for your soups and gravies as well.

Cooking time for various broths will vary. If using other meat like lamb or beef bones, you need at least 6 - 8 hours of cooking. Fish or vegetable broth can be left to simmer for 2-3 hours. Because of the long cooking times, it may be a good idea to cook in large quantities and freeze.

Hope you enjoyed the recipe. Please do leave your comments and questions, if any, below……….

Here’s to your health & Happy Cooking!!

Basic Parenting

2015-06-25T15:09:00.000+05:30

Parenting has gone through a lot of change since I had my children in the ‘90s. We belong to a generation of moms where we clubbed traditional methods of upbringing with modern practises under the guidance of elders in the family and some family doctor who was more than willing to share some informed choices in parenting. Today, thanks to the internet, everything is available at our fingertips. Sometimes all that knowledge can be a bit overwhelming. Don’t get me wrong. I am all for knowledge, information etc etc. Provided we have the intellect and the common sense to decipher the information and the maturity to select what suits our parenting style. It is important to adapt the knowledge to our overall family values and style to enjoy the full benefit…..

Families are different and what sets each family apart are their cultural heritage and family values which has been passed down the generations. We need to respect that and adopt our parenting style likewise. What is alright in another family may not be alright in mine and vice versa. I wish more moms would consider that aspect when cultivating a new habit or correcting something that already exists.

Gluten Free Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2015-06-09T19:28:00.000+05:30

As promised, here is the recipe for my delish GF Chocolate Chip Cookies. They really taste better if baked with frozen dough a few hours later. But, if like me, you can’t wait, bake up a batch after you have cooled the dough in the freezer for an hour or so.

This is a very forgiving recipe. So, play around with the additives, or leave them out completely. I usually like a blend of brown and white chocolate chips. You can also put in flours of your choice or make them with plain old AP flour. I use a blend of the Maid Replacer from Zero G and oatmeal flour which I make at home by grinding instant oats. A mix of white castor sugar and brown sugar add an extra chewiness to the cookies. I have made them with a mix of brown sugar and jaggery powder and they have come out pretty amazing. I have also added cinnamon powder instead of vanilla essence and if I wanted them spicy I have substituted it with dry ginger powder as well. So, play around with the recipe all you want or make different varieties and store them in your freezer to bake as and when required.

I store them in the freezer in silver foil bags and pop them in the oven whenever anybody wants to have some. Takes just 10 minutes to bake.

Ingredients:

Makes about 24 Cookies depending on the size you like...

1 cup of Soft Brown Sugar - 200g

1 cup of White sugar - 200g

2 1/2 cups of Gluten Free Flour Mix - 312g

2 cups of Chocolate Chips - 250g

1 cup of Soft Butter - 240g

2 Eggs

1 Tsp Baking Powder

½ Tsp Baking Soda (or just 2 tsps of Baking Powder)

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract

1/4 Teaspoon of Salt (omit if using salted butter)

Cream the sugar and butter together lightly using a whisk. Add one egg at a time, along with the Vanilla essence and whisk again till completely incorporated.

Separately mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda together. Add other powders if using them. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and fold well using a spatula. Now add the chocolate chips.

Put it in the fridge for at least 45 - 60 minutes. Pull out, shape into balls and bake. You can put the remaining balls in a zip lock or silver foil bag and freeze for future use.

Bake for 10-12 Minutes at 180'C /350'F. They will be soft when done. Just let them cool for about 10 minutes till they harden. They taste heavenly with a glass of chilled milk.

Enjoy!

The Start of my Gluten Free Journey

2015-04-13T16:30:00.000+05:30

Ever since I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism 24 years ago, unbeknown to me, I have also suffered from gluten intolerance. In fact, I was unaware that there is something called Gluten Intolerance till I chanced upon it online. Suddenly, all the symptoms I had experienced since I don’t know when, had a name. But wait. Oh my God! Did that mean I had to give up all my favourite foods? No flat breads, no sandwiches, no pasta, pizza, spaghetti and the list goes on. Like the rest of the world, or at least a large part, I am addicted to gluten. It is like a comfort food. But, I had to abstain from it if I was to try and feel better. The symptoms that had bothered me the most were frequent bouts of constipation, fibromyalgia and painful blisters, especially on my scalp.

So, one day I gave up gluten. Just like that. By the way, I must clarify here that while most grains contain gluten, we are referring to the ‘bad gluten’ which is primarily present in wheat, barley and rye. Some people who are gluten intolerant cannot tolerate oats as well. This probably could be due to the gluten contamination in oats as most factories that market oats also market wheat etc. All I ate was rice, rice and more rice. Of course, I did love my dosas and idlis. I noticed the results almost overnight. Suddenly I felt much better. My stomach behaved much better in the next couple of days, the painful blisters on my scalp began to vanish. The weird pains and aches all over my body began to subside. The fringe benefit was that I slept much better, my energy levels were up (which is another thing we hypothyroid people deal with every day) and I felt more cheerful and upbeat in general.

But I wanted to be sure that it was in fact the gluten that was making me feel better. So, after a month of being off it, I decided to have a sandwich for dinner. By the time I was done with the sandwich, I could almost immediately feel the needle like pain in my scalp which I recognised as the start of the blister. It was so piercing that I needed to massage it to feel better. Next morning, my stomach was in a bad shape and that spot which was painful the previous night had turned into a painful blister. Ok, I’m done. No more gluten for me. And so I went completely off it. This was nearly a year ago.

Some gluten free brands I use

I am glad I went off gluten. I have lost some weight in the last year, I find myself more productive, cheerful and, feel generally healthy. I started exploring gluten free options and didn't find too many. Of course I did find a couple of bakers that made gluten free baked goods. Either they were too expensive or they were not what I was looking for in terms of taste. As the awareness about gluten grew, I began to find many brands of Gluten free flours, grains etc in the market. I picked up the different varieties to start exploring recipes on my own. I have started baking my own gluten free cookies which taste absolutely divine. Crisp on the outside and chewy, gooey on the inside. Especially with a glass of chilled milk. I always keep a batch frozen and pop them in the oven every evening. Takes just 10 minutes. Shall post the recipe in my next post. I am still in the learning stage and will share my recipes as we go along.

Exactly 3 years since I posted on this blog.........

2012-09-29T01:55:00.002+05:30

As I was posting on Soaps by Sangi I realised it was exactly 3 years since I visited this site. I guess I got so caught up with the kids education and housework, I gave blogging a back seat. There were other reasons too........like Twitter is really bad for blogging. But an excellent tool for precis writing.

In these 3 years my DDs have finished their schooling finishing with a 3.8 and a 3.9 GPA. My older one has joined an ad agency as a copy writer and has been working for the last 3 years. She has decided to put college on the back burner for now. But, does plan to do it eventually.

My second daughter is at a loose end. Toying between taking up a job or doing a course in management. Experience tells me not push the choices. She will come around eventually.

MY DS is 16 and doing his 10th, along with his 5 hours of tennis a day. Hopes to play a Grand Slam one day............

So, that is how homeschooling has turned out for us. I am happy and grateful that I have got through it painlessly.......

My DDs

Education and learning

2009-07-22T01:39:00.004+05:30

Have you, as a parent, ever stopped to ponder, what it is you are looking for in an education when you send your child off to school? There is no other aspect of our lives in which we have become more mechanical and laid back than education. A couple of decades ago, education, which went hand in hand with learning, was a very individual need. Education was based on family values, family and individual aspirations etc. I remember getting cent percent in Math in my board exams in the 11^th grade (at that time boards were in the 11^th as there was no 12^th grade). Based on my results I was encouraged to apply for a Commerce degree in any of the good colleges in my city as it would have been a comfortable walk-through. But, I chose to do a degree in History as that was where my leanings lay. At that time, my marks or percentages did not dictate what I did in life. Unfortunately, that is not the case today. The individual’s choice does not matter. And therein lies the problem. With education being so expensive, it is such a waste to spend so much time and money on doing something that one did not want to do in the first place. No longer is it what you want out of an education. But what education can get out of you? The confusion between the subject and the object is the reason why education is such a debated topic today. And to add insult to injury, the people involved, primarily the student and the parent has little or no say in the matter.

Another one on recession!!

2009-02-06T15:32:00.013+05:30

At the cost of sounding boring and repetitive, I will say that this recession thing seems to have got the better of us. Even me. Now one would wonder why me. I bored housewife, homeschooling her three children, bearing the brunt of her husband's joblessness, and watching her dog grow old. Well, it has hit me too. Why? I have been forced to reduce my jaunts at the supermarket to once a week where earlier I would go there when the fancy took me and when I was bored. I would walk the aisles of the supermarket as one would walk a botanical garden. But, I cannot do that any more.

I am forced to cook more often, something I absolutely detest and have had a dislike for since god knows when.

But look at the brighter side. I finally have something in common with Bill Gates! Now, now. Let's not get into semantics. We both are victims of recession!

Honestly, I hate the word victim. It reeks of losing, giving up before putting up a fight etc., etc.

My husband does not feel that recession has hit him. Reason? We were constantly in a state of recess.

The recession must have come as a breather for all those who have been struggling to make it in life but did not. After having spent all their lives convincing the world it was 'destiny' and abusing poor Destiny for all the ills in their lives, Destiny found a breather when they found a new 'reason'. Recession. We can rattle off all the statistics we pick off the dailies and the news channels to convince ourselves that we are not alone. But, are we really not alone? I think we are. Because we human beings all react differently to the same word. What is 'being broke' for you may not be the same for me.

The objective of this post is not to sound morose but think aloud. Sorry for using you to bounce it off!

Dress Code in Colleges

2008-06-13T02:08:00.003+05:30

What is it with people who have suddenly taken to moral policing? Suddenly we want to control…….others, of course! So much so that even our educational institutions are giving more importance to discipline and dress code rather than imparting an education. Today, the so called educationists have taken over the role of the parents too. And what is more surprising is that parents do not seem to mind it. Don’t they realize that by doing so their own children are going to be brought up with someone else’s moral values and ethics? Are they really alright with that? I am not. In any case I think the schools and colleges should concentrate on what they are being paid for, which is educating our young and not dilute this with things that are the domain of parents.

A cousin of mine went to an Ivy League University to do his Masters in Business Administration. Since he had some work experience prior to joining this course, he was offered to give a guest lecture to the junior students. I remember him recounting to me his first experience as a lecturer. When he entered the class he was shocked to see students sitting with their feet up on the desks, sipping coffee and biting into sandwiches. There were hardly half a dozen students and he was expected to lecture them. This is back in the 70s when I was a high school student myself. Of course, my first reaction was envy. Why could we not have colleges like this in India? But I also wondered how much would a student learn this way because I was conditioned to believe that one has to pay attention to every word uttered by the teacher, there has to be a certain decorum maintained in class, not only out of respect for your teacher, but also because it helps one concentrate. But the cousin told me that not everyone can get into a college of such repute and the students who get in are there because they have worked to get there and want to be there. And if they want to do well and pass out with good grades, it is up to them to work for it. It is not the job of the tutor to motivate them. They have to motivate themselves. Also, grasping and learning has nothing to do with dress, posture or decorum.

So, coming back to all this hullabaloo about dress etc. in colleges over here, I think the educators need to do a rethink and find out if they are implementing all these codes because it makes a difference to the score cards of the students or are they taking their authority too far. On one hand our children should know what they want to become in life before they hit high school. On the other hand they are not free to choose what to wear well into adulthood! A irony of sorts, I would say.

A student's perspective

2008-06-08T01:44:00.005+05:30

My oldest daughter had an assignment to write a composition on a topic of her choice. The topic she chose was ‘My journey as a homeschooler’ which I have posted so that others can get a feel of homeschooling from a homeschooler’s perspective:

When my parents decided to homeschool us five years ago, my siblings and I were somewhere close to devastated. The thought of not going to school was incomprehensible. It took two years for us to start studying at home diligently. Since then it’s been only an uphill climb to becoming more independent, confident and successful. Today we believe that homeschooling is the best thing that happened to us.

The beginning of this journey was not easy. We had to learn how to study by ourselves because we had no one to push us. We had to get used to not wearing a uniform and getting into “school mode.” Studying in our pajamas was definitely odd! It took time to pay attention to what we were reading without sitting in a classroom full of students. As a result, we lost out on 6 months.

As time went on, we learnt to do all those things with ease. Most of all, we learnt to self-motivate ourselves. We became self-learners, although we had the occasional slip where we would not be able to concentrate at all and would spend the whole day “pretending to study.” We learnt to study only from books and the internet and taught ourselves how to take quizzes and tests. Our mother would spend almost the entire night downloading material from the internet and printing it out so we could study in the morning. It wasn’t very easy to concentrate on all that work when we were still in our pajamas.

Getting used to homeschooling was not the only problem our family faced. The decision we took to educate ourselves at home brought about a lot of mixed reactions from the outside world, including family and friends. When asked which school we go to, we would tell them that we homeschool to which they would respond by either laughing or seeming extremely baffled. My family has faced a lot of criticism for the decision we made. People have accused us of being “uneducated” and “uncivilized.” They have claimed that we are and will grow up to be anti-social because of this decision. It was hard in the beginning but then we got used to it. As we made progress, we realized that we could prove the outside world wrong.

Today, we are self-motivated, educated children who are still climbing up the ladder to success. We realized that we have proved the world wrong. We still face negative reactions when we are in the outside world but it doesn’t faze us any more. Compared to school going children, we are able to adjust more easily to the outside world and in a social circle. We are respected for our intelligence. Homeshooling has been the best thing that ever happened to us and we will never regret the decision taken five years ago!

Meaning of education

2008-06-04T01:10:00.000+05:30

This is what I came up with when I did a search on the internet to find out the dictionary meaning of the word education:

“…the act or processes of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.”

When asked why I chose to homeschool my children, I cite this meaning and ask them if this is really what a majority of the schools are doing today. Everyone is entitled to their personal interpretation, and their own adaptability of what a school does for them. But I found most of the schools amply lacking in the ability to teach children life-skills and powers of reasoning and judgment, which is to become an integral part of their lives in adulthood. Added to this was the burden of too much book knowledge, which was not going to help much as they embark on their different life-paths, whatever that may be. Of course, it didn’t help any to know that what you do in life has a whole lot to do with percentages. This is despite the fact that based on research conducted, it was found that a student who passed out with a whopping 98% did not fare better in life than a student who, let’s say, procured a decent 60%. The only use of the 98% was to secure a seat in college.

So, if the education system is no longer a stepping stone to a worthwhile career or life-path, what role is the current education system playing? As parents, how many of us have actually sat down and asked this question. In fact, when was the last time anybody questioned the role of education in a child’s life.

My daughter's first date

2008-06-03T01:11:00.000+05:30

Well, my 16 year old daughter went on her first date today. In fact, it is the first time she has ever liked a boy. Mighty excited and thrilled that she has left her thumb sucking days behind her and truly become a teenager. Or that’s what she thought. Of course, her role model is her 17 ½ year old sister who had a first boyfriend (if one may call it that) at 15. But after she came back, there was a big turn around in her attitude. Somewhere she was feeling the pangs of having left her childhood behind her and having ‘become like any other teenager’. ‘Mom, I am tainted. Help me, there is nothing different about me any more’…… and so on! Of course, it was all in good humour because I caught her ever so often blushing at the thought of the afternoon she had spent with her beau.

Feed your minds for a good cause

2008-05-31T01:42:00.001+05:30

Looking for an easy way to keep your kids sharp over the summer months and also help fight world hunger? Then FreeRice.com is for you. For each word you answer correctly, they donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World food Program. From its launch in October 2007 until May 27, 2008, Free Rice has raised 34,551,828,550 grains of rice and fed people in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Uganda and Nepal.

So what are you waiting for? Start answering vocabulary words and watch your bowl fill with rice. Your kids can spend the summer feeding their minds and feeding hungry people all over the world. Then, why not work it into your homeschool curriculum for next year? It's free, it's fun and it's a great cause!

+s and -s

2008-05-30T01:46:00.002+05:30

One of the best and obvious advantages to homeschooling is the speed at which the children learn and the amount they learn. I have realised that, left to themselves, children learn a lot more than through a structured approach. In fact, is that not the case with all of us? That is why adults seem to make better learners. Because once they get out of structured learning, they find themselves more motivated to learn since they are doing it for themselves rather than being told to do so.

Another advantage that I have seen is that since the children are not under any kind of pressure, they seem to outsmart themselves all the time. In fact, they enjoy the competition from within. In a formal school environment, it is always an issue of superlatives. Who is the best! Here it is more comparative. It is 'have I done better than last time?' And, I think, that is so important.

If there is an offside to homeschooling then the only thing I noticed when we began learning at home was the lack of discipline. But, again, I was viewing discipline from my definition of it which is largely influenced by the school system and the educators therein. But it did not perturb me very much since I knew they were going through their period of adjustment to a new way of learning.

Do the kids enjoy this kind of learning? I think they do a lot. Humans hate structure even if we have accepted it as part of our lives. But we are always striving to fight it. So, the children too are enjoying the flexibility of learning what they want, when they want and in the manner that most appeals to them. But, being animals of habit, I have encouraged a schedule since, after all, one day they will need to fit into this world.

Getting started with homeschooling

2008-05-26T16:13:00.004+05:30

We began homeschooling our children five years ago when our oldest daughter was 13 years old, followed by the second daughter who was 12 and our son who was 7. It was a well deliberated decision and we had taken 2 years over it before actually starting it. Believe me when I say that we have never looked back and regretted that decision. In an environment where competition is getting an ugly connotation and is undermining performance, it was the best thing we could have done for our children. Of course, it did come with its share of hiccups and are-we-doing-the-right-thing kind of emotions. The cross-eyed looks we got from family, friends and neighbours just made it worse. As time went by and all of us fell into a ‘routine’, we were glad we had the ‘guts’ and the ‘gall’ to ‘fight’ the system and take off on a path which was self designed and self motivated and not dictated by the phrase ‘the done thing’.

The children have become independent learners and responsible. Learning is no longer something that has to be achieved with someone else in the driving seat. They recognize the fact that learning is something which is the basis of all self-advancement and hopefully in the years to come will translate into success. Success as they perceive it. And hopefully as we perceive it. I will write the lessons that I have learnt and the questions that have cropped up in our short journey of homeschooling, maybe in a future post.