In my village of excess the cyclical nature of existence has been ripped open and stretched to fit a square – a 1000 sq. ft. fortified patch of urban earth called a flat.

Foldable, compact and more efficient than the ancestral hamlet of my roots which now is nothing but a mofussil dot on the atlas, unless it contributes to my excess, say by growing a crop like sugar which no one can do without, or cotton – for a fabric which never goes out of fashion.

My kitchen is smaller and churns out less food than the kitchens of a couple of generation of grandmothers. This is however no reflection to the size of my refrigerator, which holds food that can last weeks if not months.

But seriously, before we look at the refrigerator as the villain in all of this, we need to remember why we needed it in the first place.  I remember my mother hankering for a fridge because it seemed to be a way to avoid food spoilage which was ruining our mealtimes. We could buy, store and efficiently consume every last bit.

That was my mother’s generation; today refrigerator companies are seducing us with happy families in monochrome homes, eating ‘fresh’ food, straight out of a giant double door steel cupboard with ‘intelligence sensor’(?)

Elsewhere scientists and techs and vegetable developers are working very hard, sometimes at the cost of ignoring their families, to come up with new technology that can prolong the life span of our tomatoes, carrots and eggplants. Oddly it even seems right given the state of the village economy.

The village market has a new name – it is called a supermarket – which is like any ordinary market with a cape. Because of it I live life supersized, and cheap. So cheap that I can almost live with the guilt of having one of the largest carbon footprint this side of the world.

For most of us our aspirations have changed keeping up with the times. When I was a kid we ate carrots in winter, melons in summer… but now food is not a seasonal phenomena but a hemispheric phenomena. If there’s winter in one part of the world there’s summer or spring somewhere else, and there’s a market for food and all kinds of it, the year around. Its demand and supply… the more you want, the more things there will be to fuel that want.

So how are we going to change that? I see two things that have a strong working potential

1. Go back to the textbooks.
2. Appreciate the intrinsic value of things.

I was watching this road trip foodumentary by a very wide-eyed fresh-faced chef with a hurried but eclectic cooking style. In the American deep-south he encounters ‘soul food’. During the days of slave trade the African American slaves on the plantations made do with leftovers. So they reinvented and cooked with greens, vegetables and herbs, getting the most out of discarded cuts of meat, and quite literally putting their soul into it.

And I think we can take from that, turn our consumption into a precious and nourishing event.

My daughter’s Grade 1 science book explains it succinctly – in order to live, focus on the five basic needs.

And then invest the rest of your energy and resources to set the life button to ‘Restore’ in your happy box.

Here’s a peasant-style recipe to use up leftover rice – Pazhankanji, a cooling, probiotic breakfast.

This is my final post for the World Environment Day Blogdown… and I need YOU to help me WIN. Please SHARE, LIKE and TWEET with #thinkeatsave #WED2013 and click VOTE… there’s vote box right at the bottom of my post on the link. Thanks for reading!!

Its Holi and its our traditional festival of colours. Couple of decades ago no one in the south would have even known about Holi, but because of its fun element over the years its come to be a pan Indian festival immensely popular all over the country. Though to see the aggression with which this festival is celebrated you’ll have to be in the North. I used to be terrified of this festival, somehow being dunked in colour was very unappealing, but once the first round of colour hits you it doesn’t matter, and I would end up joining the rest. No Holi for me here, I put some turmeric over my daughter, because she has seen holi only in movies and the pictures of her cousins playing with colours, she loved the yellow of the the turmeric on her and didn’t ask me any more questions! After the Holi is played its a round of thandai for everyone, sometimes its laced with bhang (marijuana), but mine is the non-narco version of this very cooling super flavoured spicy milk.

1st STEP

SOAK 1/4 cup almonds, 1 tablepsoons cashew, 1 tablespoon pistachio in warm water for 2 hours. Peel off the skin of almonds and pistachios and set aside.

STEP 2

BOIL 3 cups milk with couple of tablespoons of sugar to taste, set aside and cool thoroughly.

STEP 3

BLEND. Using a spice blender, make a smooth paste of the soaked nuts, 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, 1/2 tablespoon peppercorn, good pinch saffron, 2 cardamom pods with a little warm water.

STEP 4

COMBINE the nut and spice paste with the cooled, sweetened milk. Stir in a tablespoon of pure rose water, and a few dried rose petals if you have. Refrigerate overnight.

FINAL STEP

STRAIN and use.

This drink is so simple yet typical of the rich tasting smorgasbord of North Indian beverages. Enjoy the colours of life folks!!

Yet having options kills me sometimes. I am one of those eternally confused mums who believe in taking all the roads, the ones walked on and the ones overgrown and neglected. My mother on the other hand is a person who’s blessed with foresight and hindsight, which makes it easy for her to decide on things, without wasting time, energy or resources. She says she can do it because she grew up having no choices. So she is really free from the burden. So generally her life view is either a tick or a cross.

It works… for her.

My daughter is born into a world where some choices were already made for her, like pink is for girls… she slipped right into the pink jammys with a Barbie in one hand. She has so many things to choose from that neither me nor my mother, or her mother before her could even imagine. Her universe has perfectly sized tomatoes, beans that are the same length, supermarket aisles assault her pint sized senses with crazy dreams, aspirations and choices. In school five and six years olds like her are already learning about the food pyramid, knowledge is on their side, but sadly apathy isn’t far behind. Because with just as much ease she witnesses food discarded without a thought, third world guilt has long ceased to exist. Having too much of everything just killed it.

But did we always live like this?
Was there a time when our choices made sense with the way we communicated with our universe?
Can we take a leaf from back then and make sense of it in our present?

Well here’s a page, or a few pages from our life, if you see a message in it, take it, its yours.

Chickpea flour or besan is a very nutritive alternative to wheat. Take a look at this interesting information I found on the web “1/4 cup (of besan) contains 110 calories, 6g protein, 18g of carbohydrate (of which a hefty 5g is fiber) and an impressive 10% of the daily value for iron. Humble chickpea flour even edges out whole wheat flour in a nutritional tête à tête: it has 2g more protein and 1g more fiber in that same 110 calorie, 1/4 cup serving. Chickpea flours–is a unique type of fiber called “resistant starch.” And lest you fixate on the word “starch” and worry that bean flours will spike your blood sugar like white potatoes or refined flours, I draw your attention to the “resistant” part, instead. This unique type of starch resists digestion in your small intestine, and therefore it can’t be absorbed for energy like a normal “starch.” As a result, it does not produce a glycemic (blood sugar) response; in fact, research shows that eating the type of resistant starch found in beans will actually blunt the blood sugar and insulin response after a meal. Since it is not digested and absorbed, resistant starch travels on to your colon, intact, where the resident bacteria break it down (ferment it) to meet their own energy needs. One of the byproducts of this fermentation process is a family of very beneficial (to you) compounds called short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which, among their many contributions to your health, help prevent colon cancer by reducing the absorption of certain dietary carcinogens. Whole grains and beans are the primary sources of resistant starch in our diets, and raw bean flours are an excellent source of this beneficial type of fiber” (Tamara Duker).

A big part of the changes I have made in what I eat has been eliminating the consumption of the regular starchy carb… and exploring the whole, complex grains. I have done chillas and pancakes, and was kind of interested in exploring a gluten free bread. I kind of put together a version from a few recipes I found on the web, many use eggs, and I wasn’t keen on that. So here’s lunch,

Besan bread – what you need

1 cup besan/chikpea flour
1/2 cup cornmeal/makkai
1/2 cup sorghum flour/jowar
1.5 teaspoon instant yeast
1/4 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup lukewarm water
3 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Knead the flours, salt, oil, and yeast using the coconut milk and water. Its a sticky dough. Leave it to rise for about an hour.
2. Once the dough has risen, which wouldn’t be as much as a dough made using wheat, punch it, and shape it using a little olive oil, and place on a greased bakeproof dish. Dust with a little flour and make a cross on the surface, and let it rise once more.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Bake besan bread for about 30 minutes till the top is crusty and basically looks done.
4. Let it cool well before cutting. Its soft, but not spongey, and certainly not gluten soft. More a texture of handvo or almost cakey.

Blistered vegetables – what you need

10 baby potatoes, boiled al dente
handful of beans just topped and tailed
handful of baby carrots
3,4 cloves garlic minced
2 teaspoon dried onion flakes
salt to taste
EVOO

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a wok, drop in all the veggies, add the garlic, and onion and just sear on high, until vegetables caramalise a little, but retain their crunch. Season with salt.

my amazing tangy zesty Dukkah

the basic

3/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup hazelnuts
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cups sesame seeds
1/2 cup flax
1/2 cup coriander seeds
1/4 cup cumin seeds
1/4 cup peppercorn
sea salt to taste

the extras

1/2 cup powdered dry lemon
1/4 cup chilly flakes
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon thyme

Method

1. Dry roast all the seeds and spices separately and coarsely mill it together along with some salt.
2. Mix in the extras. And store in a clean, dry jar.

Dip besan bread into olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixture, sprinkle some of this dukkah and devour! Dukkah is an Egyptian spice mix that’s used as a starter. It can also be sprinkled on roasted vegetables, stir fries and salads, my version with good nuts, seeds and flax is delicious, packed with nutritional benefits, and can perk up an uninspiring meal.

And don’t worry about the ingredients just improvise with what you have at hand.

I rarely post regular, everyday recipes, basically because there are roughly zillions of Sambhar recipes or idli, chutney, dosa recipes on the internet. But when a friend recently asked me the basic steps to following the recipe, thought I should do a mind map doodle. Mind mapping a recipe or a set of instructions is a good way to simplify overload of text and information, particularly traditional Indian recipes, there are only a thousand ways it can go wrong in a modern kitchen!!

So here’s my way of making Sambhar, give it a try, and let me know how it turns out!

Assemble for the basic Sambhar curry

1/2 cup toor dal/arhar dal
Roughly 2 1/2 cups vegetables cut into chunks, potato, pumpkin, tomato, onion, drumstick, carrot, yellow cucumber, beans (your choice)
5 okra trimmed and cut in half, stirfried separately (optional, but what’s there not to love about bhindi in sambhar)
A gooseberry sized lump of tamarind, or abt 1/2 tablespoon of tamarind paste
2 tablespoon sambhar powder (I make it at home, you can use store bought)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon hing powder (asafoetida)
1 cup hot water
Salt

Assemble for the seasoning

2 dried red chillies broken up
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon femugreek seeds
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 tablespoon ghee/coconut oil (I love to use flavourful oils)
about a handful of chopped coriander, if you like, for the garnish (freshens up the taste)

Method

1. Soak the toor dal for about 30 minutes while you get the rest of the stuff together.
2. Split the hot water equally into two cups, soak tamarind in one and in the other sambhar powder plus asafoetida. Set aside.
3. Cook dal in a pressure cooker for 10 minutes or until dal is done, soft and mushy.
4. Boil the chopped veggies (minus okra if using) with turmeric and some salt, until almost done. Now add the okra and give another boil.
5. Stir in the cooked dal and the sambhar, asafoetida mixture. Now bit by bit add the tamarind liquid, tasting as you go along till you are happy with your personal choice of sourness. Stir and simmer for 10 minutes, check for salt.
6. In a seasoning wok, heat ghee/coconut oil, fry the dry chillies, pop the mustard and fenugreek, scorch the curry leaves. Keep an eye out not to overheat the wok, burned/charred mustard can destroy your sambhar. It’s perfect seasoning that makes or breaks this south Indian staple. So if you burn it do not hesitate to discard and repeat the process! Pour the seasoning over the sambhar curry, take off fire. Garnish with a little fresh coriander.

Sometimes you can add a pinch of jaggery to the sambhar to balance the taste, but personally I avoid it particularly when using naturally sweet vegetables like pumpkin.

That’s it – there you go Sambhar – demystified. Now can anything be more simple?

What you need

quarter cup Tofu, firm

3 tablespoon Chickpea flour (besan)

1 medium sized turnip, grated
quarter zucchini cut into thin slices
dash of nutmeg
pinch Himalayan pink salt
more sea salt, if needed
freshly milled pepper
Olive oil

Method

1. Blend the chickpea flour, tofu, salts, nutmeg, using a hand blender, adding water as u go, to make a thick pancake batter. The consistency will be just fractionally thinner than cake batter.
2. Stir in the grated turnip.
3. Heat a non stick skillet and spread the batter thickly, like a pancake, or drop it like latke. Place the zucchini slices on top, drizzle with olive oil, and cook on medium to low heat, flipping once, until both the sides are well done.
5. Sprinkle some freshly milled pepper, and have it with some greek yoghurt, or even herbed, garlicky labneh.

One of the things to eat more of while following a plant based nutritional eating pattern (really laughing hard at this point, as I didn’t want to use the term diet food!)… is moong bean. Its low in cholesterol  high in soluble fibre and lowers LDL. In addition its a low GI food, so very suitable for pcod and diabetes. Mung beans contain about 3.16 g of protein per cup, ofcourse lower than meat, but still a good option for vegetarians sans the saturated fats and cholestrol.

I have kilos of moong in my kitchen, all three kinds, the whole green ones, the split yellow moong, and the green split moong. There’s a lot of ways to include it in everyday food. I have posted the moong crepes earlier, and I continue to get feedback on how yummy you thought it was. Now here’s another way…

Hummus – I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t like this dip of middle eastern origin. This is a quick fix way to make hummus that involves no overnight soaking or even a pressure cooker, and packs in all the benefits of moong.

WHAT YOU NEED

(single portion)

3/4 cup soft cooked yellow split moong
1 1/2 tbsp tahini
juice of meyer lemon
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp EVOO
about 1/2 cup water/extra dal water (for easy blending)

METHOD

All you need to do is blend this whole lot together, tip into a bowl, sprinkle some freshly milled pepper, and roasted cumin. Have with veggies of your choice.

For me this is a breakfast dish… really I start my day with this plate. Its huge and keeps me going for a good couple of hours. You can make this even more interesting by blending in jalapeno peppers or roasted bell pepper, sun dried tomatoes and so forth.

Shakshouka is a simple yet sublime dish… of Berber origin, very popular in middle eastern countries. It is generally a breakfast dish, but for me its a wonderful base dish that lends itself to endless possibilities. You can add vegetables, greens, beans, even experiment with different herbs to make a version that appeals to you. Its eaten with bread, and the eggs are only lightly poached and have a runny middle. But me, being averse to goeey yellow yolks, I like the eggs well done…. and I don’t eat bread with it.

I am sharing a basic version of shakshouka with two eggs, for a single portion – makes a filling breakfast or lunch – for when I need my egg protein.

WHAT YOU NEED

2 eggs
1 large tomato (chopped and nuked on high for 3 min. in the MW)
1 large onion chopped
1 bellpepper of any colour, cut into strips
2 garlic pods, minced

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika/chilly pdr
1/4 teaspoon turmeric (optional)
1/4 teaspoon jaggery (optional, just to balance the taste)
a little pepper
salt to taste

2 tablespoon olive oil
handful chopped coriander for garnish

METHOD

1. Heat oil in a skillet, saute onion, garlic, tomato, and bell pepper.
2. Season with salt, pepper, paprika, turmeric, and ground cumin.
3. In about 2, 3 minutes, when the mixture looks mushy and cooked, add the jaggery and give a good mix.
4. Make two depressions in the tomato gravy, and break an egg each into it.
5. Lower the flame to minimum, cover the skillet and let cook for 10 min. for well done eggs, or less for ones with a runny middle.

Garnish with fresh coriander, and eat smoking hot, as is – basically without bread if you’re trying to cut down carbs and so forth. Yummyyy!!

As far as the Glycemic Index goes, eggs and egg whites have a GI of zero, and has no potential to raise blood glucose level, making it an ideal protein option for egg eating vegetarians.

I have been at it, it has been 8 months, I am closer to my fitness GOAL. I am now 22 kilos lighter than when I started off in May 2012, losing about 2.75 kilos each month. It feels great. It feels great not only because of the physical aspect that everyone sees and appreciates, which to be honest is a very small component, I am a self conscious person and I basically hate being noticed so the praises and the complements are overwhelming mostly, the really great part is a very personal aspect. The fact that I could be consistent, I never despaired, never doubted that I could change, that is the biggest achievement in all this.

See the way I see… I don’t want to appear holier/better than thou when it comes to choosing right, eating right etc… (I have until recently eaten hedonistically)… but from the mails and messages I have been getting I just want to tell who have similar fitness goals or living with PCOS… that not losing hope and not losing sight of your GOAL is paramount. You set your sights at a point ahead, and make the journey. If just starting off is difficult, take a week at a time, for a month, then you’re already a natural. Trust me when the first 3 kilos each month peel away the rest is a CINCH. You’ll be addicted to your goals.

Just to set you off… here are 3 small STEPS:
1. STOP SUGARS – just stop it, I cannot sugar coat this pill for you, you’ll just have to take it like it is. This is YOUR goal – STOP the godamn refined, processed, horror called SUGAR. (in the first two months this includes sweets, mithai, chocolates, cakes, pastries, jaggery, honey, brown sugar, low cal sugar, sugar free sugar, or anything passing off as sweet as sugar). Look at it as a DETOX. If you’re reading this post chances are you’ve already eaten a lot of sugar to last a lifetime, so drop it for two months. Let your tongue forget the taste of sugar.

You know what’s really crazy by the time your second week’s up, you’ll start tasting the natural sugars present in the fruits and vegetables that you should start including in your diet. The onion in the stir-fry will be sweet, the carrots? don’t even ask!!

And the really cool part – weigh and measure yourself before the sugar detox, and after it (1 month) I guarantee you a difference. You know its no big deal to say no to a piece of cake or pastry, you HAVE to take charge.

2. STOP SIMPLE CARBS, like maida, starchy stuff, instead opt for whole grains/complex carbs. There are so many these days that its almost embarassing not to know or try some!! Try new unique grains and flours, quinoa, red rice, a combination of wholewheat, finger millet (ragi), besan (chickpea flour), jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet), amaranth flour – for roti and bread. These should form the smallest quarter of your plate.

3. STOP ‘DIETING’, eating boiled, insipid food in the name of DIET FOOD. Diet food is all about changing the way you think food, changing your lifestyle to a more wholesome pattern of eating. So you think and you eat! A little bit of planning, a little twist in the taste, a new approach, they can all go a long way towards your weight loss goal.

Here’s a recipe that’s typical of a lunch or filling breakfast. I call it HOUDINI PARATHA, you can call it whatever you want! Its so cool that I am letting you decide a mystery ingredient. Only that the mystery ingredient has to be a nutritious, wholegrain flour… or even a seed (like ragi/finger millet).

What you need

1 cup boiled and mashed cauliflower
2 tablespoon minced ginger garlic chilly
1 bunch chopped coriander leaves
1 teaspoon chilly powder (optional)
1 teaspoon turmeric (optional)
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup corn meal
1/2 cup any wholegrain flour or seed flour (I used a mixture of sorghum and chickpea flour)
Salt to taste
Some water for the dough

Virgin olive oil for cooking

Method

1. Use the first 12 ingredients to make a tight dough. Divide the dough into equal parts and roll out into thick roti.
2. Heat a skillet medium high and cook the roti on both sides, smearing with a little oil, till golden brown spots appear on the two sides.

So a meal would be 1 paratha, a bowl of yoghurt, salad and a bowl of stirfry. Kapish?

Few months ago you wouldn’t see me dead… near a salad. I love the fact that my tastes buds have opened up to enjoy salads not as an accompaniment but as a meal in itself. Bright, colorful, flavoursome, salads are much maligned, ironically due the health benefits they have. I am asked these days with a sad shake of the head, and a sympathetic eye “you must be eating salads and all na?”

Oh yes! a couple days in the week I actually love having a nice chunky salad for lunch. I have been experimenting with a lot of hearty salads, packed with crunch, proteins, fibre, and fats. Salad Nicoise is one such salad that’s somewhere on top of my favourite filling salad list.

My version is for the vegetarian and for the protein, in addition to boiled eggs, I have used a combination of mushrooms, kidney beans, and broad beans.

first thing you do, couple of hours before you eat -

thinly slice 1 red onion, and 3 to 4 mushrooms, set aside

make the dressing -

2 tablespoon EVOO
bit thyme
bit oregano
bit basil
2 teaspoon dijon mustard (I used a lil extra basil dijon)
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (you can use cider or red wine)
1 garlic minced
pepper to taste
sea salt to taste
1/4 cup water

Beat all the stuff, add water to thin the dressing. Add the sliced onion and mushrooms into the dressing to marinate, and refrigerate until you need.

For the salad you need

2 boiled eggs, quartered
10, 15 french beans, stringed
1/4 cup broad beans
1/4 cup sweet corn
3 tablespoon black pitted olives, chopped
couple of broccoli florets
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bell pepper thinly sliced
1 cucumber thinly sliced
some shredded greens – romaine, iceberg, oak leaf, any other

1/4 cup cooked kidney beans, drained

Method

1. Lightly steam the french beans, sweet corn, broad beans, and broccoli. Season with salt and olive oil set aside.
2. For assembling toss everything together along with the dressing, you can go easy on the liquid and use as much as you need. Save the rest of the dressing in the refrigerator.

Always ready for a giggle!

Vijayam Athai is my dad’s oldest sister…I adore her, love her to pieces, and have the most fights and arguments with her. I tease her relentlessly and love to play pranks on her via telephone.   My dad has three sisters all of whom I love.  This post is about the oldest. Athai means father’s sister and mine are so splendid – they inspire me to be a really good one to my nephews.

Vijayam will come over to spend the day – saying I’m too old – don’t expect me to do anything – she’s 75 or maybe more – she’ll land up, have coffee – have you had your tea yet, no athai – here i’ll make tea with jaggery for you – she enters the kitchen – ofcourse in a few seconds she has the lay of the land…lights the stove starts boiling water – what are you making for lunch? Athai, I thought I would make…no no no! I know! why don’t we make etc etc etc – infact you don’t know how to make it do you, I’ll make it and you can learn.  And after that we can make etc etc etc for tiffin by the time Meera comes home.

By the end of the day, she would have cut all my vegetables, cooked every meal, made batter for the week, taught me 2 dishes, dried and put away the dishes and she’ll leave saying ‘such a good girl – how well you looked after me’.

Is it possible to not love her?

One day I was about to set the cooker with arhar dal for a rasam…the rice was already made and my energy efficient athai stopped me in my tracks. Why do you want to set the cooker again? Is gas free? Are you Tata- Birla’s daughter? An oft used phrase by my family elders to all those born after 1970 – which makes us suspect that perhaps there were some nefarious links – ooh!]

But I want to have paruppu rasam – you can – you don’t need to cook it first. Really? yes and so she proceeded to:

• soak a Table spoon of arhar/toor dal and 2 red chillies in a bowl of water
  

  Prepping for Rasam with simple flavours

• cut some tomatoes, julienne some ginger
• slit a green chilli
• wash some fresh corriander
• dry roast 1 tbs of corriander, 1 tsp of jeera/cumin and a few peppercorns
• Ten minutes later she made a fine paste of the soaked dal, red chillies and roasted spices.
  Then set the tomatoes, ginger and green chilli to boil in a little water – added salt and turmeric.Once the tomatoes cook, the paste is added, ‘keep stirring or the dal will stick to the bottom and burn’ [ of course I wasn't stirring - just sitting on the counter and watching her] ‘don’t be in a hurry to add water, the raw smell of the dal has to go first’.The raw smell ‘went’ and a beautiful fragrance filled my kitchen – now we add water about 2 -3 cups, wait for it to start simmering gently – do not let it boil – just little bubbles – add the corriander leaves and switch if off.Temper with a little mustard and jeera spluttered in hot ghee.

  VARIATION:
  You can puree the tomatoes, ginger, green chilli, and corriander too into a fine paste. Once this paste cooks, add the ground dal and spice mix. ‘This way, no one will keep the corriander leaves to the side of the plate – its very good for health’.

  

  One hot meal!

  Eat with hot rice or the grain of your choice, veggies and crisps on the side.

Has it been tough?

For me, I was done with my lifestyle, the month of May was a little stressful as I was having sugar withdrawal. But with my change in diet, and switching from a carb rich diet to a protein rich diet, switching from simple carbs to complex carbs, there was so much going on, that I was able to ignore the sugar cravings. Once that was under control pretty much everything else can become a routine.

Listen to this… there are no minuses. On the plus side I have lost 17 kilos, my cholesterol levels – which was skirting borderline – is way within the healthy limit, and I cannot even begin to tell you how optimistic, energetic, and vibrant I feel most of the time. I have zero mood swings – depressive mood swings is something that I have really battled with, and its liberating to be finally free of that tormenting cycle of ups and downs. I was away on this holiday to India for two months, I survived weddings, family get-togethers, travel, loads of rich food, and yet managed to keep my weight loss consistent to about 3.5 kilos a month. This inspite of eating the occasional dessert! Its really simple if you put your mind to it and are determined to change the familiar pattern.

Its all about pushing the envelope!!!!!

Here’s a delicious, savoury crepe with moong dhal, served with a raw chutney of walnuts, and wholesome veggies. Moong dhal is a good source of vegetarian protein, and fibre, and the chutney with its nuts carrots and cucumber is low in saturated fats and cholesterol, and has some good omega 3s, and natural sugars.

For the chilla/crepe you need

1/2 cup yellow moong
1/2 cup split moong with the green skin intact
1 teaspoon cumin
a good bunch curry leaves
Salt to taste
Chilly flakes to taste

Method

1. Wash and soak the moong dhal for about an hour or two, and in your blender, grind to a paste with the least amount of water. Add the cumin, salt, chilly flakes and curry leaves and pulse a couple of times. The batter would be medium thick, and not runny. But spreadable.

2. Heat saucepan to a medium hot, smear with a little oil, and pour a ladel of the batter and spread it – but not too thin. When the top looks cooked flip over, and cook the other side till a little crispy.

For the Walnut and vegetable chutney

6 – 7 walnuts
1 carrot, chopped
1 small cucumber, chopped
1 small onion
a little coriander
1 green chilly (optional)
1/2 cup thick yoghurt (preferably homemade)
Salt to taste

Method

1. Put everything in the blender, make a paste, and pour into your serving dish. As simple as that.

In my last post I talked about how “sugar” has been my undoing. How so? First let me explain what happens when we eat food.

When we eat, our body breaks down food into organic compounds, one of which is glucose. When glucose enters our bloodstream, our beautiful, yet forgotten pancreas automatically produce the right number of a hormone called insulin needed by our cells to absorb this glucose. The cells of our bodies use glucose as a source of energy for all our functions. But the cells cannot access glucose unless it moves from our bloodstream into individual cells. Insulin virtually opens the door of each cell… allowing the glucose to enter…. and energise us.

In PCOS, there’s an increased possibility that our response to insulin is at best sluggish, meaning the insulin knocks at the cell door, but the cells don’t hear it, the pancreas think “oh! the sugar’s not in yet let me send some insulin out there”… and so suddenly there’s a whole lot of them insulin guys and the glucose thugs (waiting to be reformed) hanging about in the blood stream. So a large amount of insulin needs to be released before the cells responds and takes the glucose away into the tissue… and you know how it works too many sugar vagabonds in our blood stream eventually leads to something called “diabetes”.

My diet at the present moment is something of a reform diet. I am training my body to accept only the acceptable (this is really the only way ahead). Know what’s right for you, figure out the good thing, and then change the way you live your life. And while I am at it here’s the disclaimer… what works for me, need not work for you. Its not one size fits all, never… my responses, reactions, and opinions are purely mine. If you like to try it for yourself, feel free to, after consulting your doctor or dietitian. Now that that’s out of the way let me tell you something about “appam”.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Appams are to Kerala cuisine, what Eiffel Tower is to Paris. You cannot possibly appreciate the depth (or the heights) of a malayali’s taste buds if you haven’t tasted appams. If you’re in Kerala a make shift signboard declaring “takes order for homemade appams”, particularly in central Kerala, and more particularly if you’re near a church, is a given.

Appams are conversation starters when malayali women get together…

“oh my! what delicious appam!!!” (envy, that her appam’s never got off her appachatti, and had to be soaked in warm water for a day)

“appams! my great grandmother’s appams were to die for!” (ya right! just wipe that drool off your chin willya?)”

“what brand of appachatti do you use?” (put down, in the event the hostess was beaming too much)

“so you grind soaked rice, and use coconut milk or fresh coconut?” (ya sherlock, in a bid to unearth the secrets of that mighty puff in the centre and the lacy crisp that surrounds it.)

… and the tragic… there’s always one of those… ”sigh! I can never ever make appam.”

There are many ways to enjoy appams… Appam and Kadala curry (black chickpea curry), Appam and Ishtoo (or what malayali likes to call the stew, made with potatoes, or chicken in a coconut milk gravy), Appam and Motta curry (a spicy, egg curry) or as my daughter likes it, Appam with milk and sugar. Inspite of its elevated status and notoriety appams can be delightfully easy to make. Here’s the simple version, and then I present to you my coup d’ cuisine… take that any way you like… the energised version of the appam.

in which you make it like everyone else, you need:

2 cups unroasted rice flour (usually get that wth picture of an appam on it)
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup cooked rice (can use leftovers)
2 cups tepid water
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
4 teaspoons sugar (more sugar if you like sweeter appams, with crispier edges)
1 teaspoon salt
a kick ass blender
a small heavy bottomed wok with a lid

method

1. Put everything except the water in the blender, then adding water bit by bit, blend the whole thing to a smooth batter. Like a pancake batter.
2. Remove into a ceramic dish, cover, and let rise in a warm, dark place. In a couple of hours the batter would have risen, now mix and taste, and if required add more sugar or salt. if the batter’s too thick, add a little water to thin it – the consistency is of pancake/dosa batter.
3. Heat the wok on your burner, smear a wee bit of oil, and pour one ladelful of the batter, lift up the wok and swirl it around, until the batter coats the sides of the wok, keep back on the burner, on medium heat, cover and cook. You know the appam is done  when the centre looks puffed and risen. This process takes about a minute or so. Set aside, and make appams with remaining batter.

in which you make it like me, you need:

2 cups unroasted rice flour
2 cups watermelon rind (saved up from my daily quota of watermelon juice, remove the green skin, only the white rind is used)
3/4 cup grated, fresh coconut
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1,2 teaspoon jaggery
1 cup tepidwater
1 teaspoon salt
a small heavy bottomed wok with a lid

method

1. Put everything except the water in the blender, then adding water bit by bit, blend the whole thing to a smooth batter. Like a pancake batter.
2. Remove into a ceramic dish, cover, and let rise in a warm, dark place. In a couple of hours the batter would have risen, now mix and taste, and if required add more sugar or salt. if the batter’s too thick, add a little water to thin it – the consistency is of pancake/dosa batter.

3. Heat the wok on your burner, smear a wee bit of oil, and pour one ladelful of the batter, lift up the wok and swirl it around, until the batter coats the sides of the wok, keep back on the burner, on medium heat, cover and cook. You know the appam is done  when the centre looks puffed and risen. This process takes about a minute or so. Set aside, and make appams with remaining batter.

Yes, you can thank me for demystifying the appam!

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

If you’re looking at weekend breakfast/mealtimes when you can enjoy a delicious meal that doesn’t derail you from your diet, try this bulked up version. Watermelon rind doesn’t add up to the total calorie, and is a good source of an amino acid called cetrulline that helps improve our cardio vascular health, helps with cell division, healing of wounds, and in clearing out ammonia from our body.

Limit your portion to two appams, make a kadala curry to go with it. Chickpea is very high in protien, and what better way to kick start your day than a good dose of protien and fiber?

I’m Giving You
On Count Of Three
To Show Your Stuff
Or Let It Be . . .

In my last post I wrote about PCOS, and how it feels to be living with it. Like I said, and so many of you have been saying to me through your comments here and elsewhere that it is manageable, many of its effects can be reversed by taking charge of yourself. The first step will be accepting yourself, and your body the way it is. I’d say acceptance is important to change as much as change is important to continuity. Once I know who I am and what I represent, I think I am better prepared for the battle up ahead. My very dear friend of many years, after reading the earlier post, said, my PCO journey should read “ Please Chill Out to all those outta’ whack hormones” couldn’t agree more!

The Word Is Out
You’re Doin’ Wrong
Gonna Lock You Up
Before Too Long,

Now everyone is harping about weight gain, yes it is critical, as PCOD makes it difficult for us to lose weight. But if you took time to watch that dummies video I put up earlier it becomes easier to understand what happens to the food when it enters our system. So I am actually looking at cleaning up my act. What I eat and the way I eat it. My blog has a lot of healthy recipes, because I like food that does good on us… but to be honest I live a life beyond the recipes on my blog, where I binge, I eat chocolates, chips, deep fried goodies, also the salads and all the other healthy stuff too.

So the good is good, but the bad – its bad!

But They Say The Sky’s
The Limit
And To Me That’s Really True
And My Friends You Have
Seen Nothin’
Just Wait ‘Til I Get Through . . .

The first step I have taken is to stop obsessing over my weight. No I am not about to share what I weigh, or what size my clothes are over here, when I feel I need to make that sort of confession I will, but right now I am talking about, how about for a change, we love ourselves the way we are. Each of us is a creation, a manifestation of something we cannot quite comprehend, no matter what the scientists are telling us. So we are perfect, just because its the way we are. Now as a perfect being I need to get the better of a situation that makes me less than this perfect, beautiful self. This situation is called “eating all the things you really don’t want to be eating if you knew what it is doing to you”. Rather a long name for a situation, but it seriously it weighs a ton on the body and on the mind… and consumes a bit of you every day. Expensive.

Soon after that doc visit I mentioned here… I stopped refined sugars completely. That to me is really worthy of calling a step forward. I am, my friends, a sugar addict. I love sweets… I love chocolates, ice creams and mithais… over the last 5 years my sweet tooth has got the better of me… and I crave for a sweet taste in my mouth post every single meal. Hopefully it is a thing of the past. The first two weeks, of my no sugar life were very tough. I did indulge on the weekends, saying to myself “one lil bounty isn’t gonna hurt me… if the big picture works”. I saw sense in the third week… that one lil bounty was creating a cavernous pit of desire somewhere near my gut. So I just stopped listening to that voice… and I munched on an apple… you must know this about me that I am not much of a fruit eater, unless it is inside a cake. Week 4 I paged my blog pal Sangeeta … she’s a blogger I admire very much. There are many reasons for that, she is an exemplary mother, adventure loving, foodie, who’s an inspiration to all whose lives she has touched through her blogs. Sangeeta also does personalised meal plans, and I wanted/needed a friend for the handholding… and she stepped up. This is what I was talking about when I said, if you need help, ask… and ye shall get it! More about the nature of my eating in my next post.

Let me not leave you without food today… here’s my mid-morning snack/smoothie. I must add here that I am free from cravings, quit sugar, it helps!

I was officially diagnosed with PCOS sometime in 2005, though I had been exhibiting tendencies normally associated with this disorder since 1998, mainly irregular menstrual cycle, acne, and weight gain (rather a difficulty in losing weight). For those who don’t know what PCOS is, let me explain, it is the acronym for a disorder called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, also sometimes called PCOD - Polycystic Ovarian Disease. It is an endocrine disorder that affects women in their reproductive age. No one knows why it happens, but it causes our hormones to go haywire, and most of the times gets diagnosed when a woman decides to have a baby.  Having babies for those dealing with PCOD is often a daunting task, it involves frequent trips to a gynaecologist, understanding your cycles, and realizing that while all other women release healthy eggs that are potential babies, you need help as you have anovulatory cycles, meaning you do not ovulate during some cycles. There is also the presence of cysts in your ovaries, though this is not necessarily indicative of PCOD or vice versa. PCOD causes irregular menstrual cycle, crazy mood swings, inability to control one’s weight, adult acne… living with it is like being a teenager all your life. So not a good idea! If you want to read up about PCOD, just google it, there are thousands of websites and forums talking about a disorder that is increasingly becoming common in the recent years.

So in 2005 I was diagnosed with PCOD as we wanted to have a baby. I was immediately put on Glucophage/Metformin. This is a diabetic drug which is now being used to treat PCOD. Metformin affects the way insulin is controlled in our blood sugar. If taken over a period of time, Metformin also helps in ovulation. I also did two cycles of Clomid. Clomid, or Clomiphene Citrate, is a medication that blocks the receptor for the female hormone estrogen. This causes the pituitary gland to secrete more follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), which in turn stimulates the ovary to make an egg. So helps women who do not ovulate regularly to produce an egg every month. Round 2 of Clomid I conceived my daughter.

It has been six years since I was first diagnosed, yet not much has changed in my life. I still deal with irregular periods, we haven’t yet been able to conceive a sibling for my daughter, I deal with terrible mood swings and bouts of depression, I get acne, my weight has ballooned and I have systemically gained over 40 kilos since 1998 when I first started showing signs of PCOD. And each time I go to the doctor to get my cycle on track, I get a stash of Glucophage most of which I never end up taking.

So what’s the good part? The good part really is that PCOD can be managed and to a great extent you can reverse it by not letting your hormones get the better of you, by changing your lifestyle, and by following a specialised diet. I would say a good place to start would be,

1. Accepting your body along with its vagaries. Checked.
2. Learning more on your condition. Checked.
3. Believing that you can change your life. Checked.
4. Asking for help. Checked.

Earlier this month I found a new gynaecologist, in a clinic close to where I live. As usual I had problems with my cycle, after the usual talks and check up, she stared hard at me, or right through me I should say, and told me categorically, “I don’t know how you do it, but when you meet me in three months, you should have lost considerable amount of weight.” She then thrust a leaflet on low GI diet into my hands.

I am not a nutritionist, but I spent several days reading up about the Glycemic Index (GI) and trying to understand what this is all about, and more importantly how it works. But for dummies like me a video like the one below helps!!!

In the coming days I am going to post about how I am changing my diet so that the pre-historic in me stays right under the rocks.