Strawberry Buttermilk Popsicle

My husband can eat ice cream all day long. I will have to come up with different ideas to make it interesting. While I was making strawberry smoothie one day, I just thought I should put them in molds and freeze them. It tastes so good, its definitely worth the try!! 

Preparation time: 10 mins
Freezing time: min 2 hrs
Quantity: makes 4 popsicles

Ingredients:
Fresh strawberries - 1 Cup
Buttermilk - 1 Cup
Sugar (optional, I did not use any)

Method:
1. Roughly blend the strawberries with buttermilk
2. Pour them in mold
3. Freeze it for min 2 hours
4. Take it out from freezer, hold the mold in running water, loosen it and carefully remove the popsicle
5. Enjoy them on a sunny afternoon

Btw, I am waiting to make some mojito popsicle and one with bloody mary. I will try them soon and update. (:

Happy Weekend!! 

Crispy Kale Chips

Couple of days ago, I found Kale Chips recipe floating around in the internet. I thought I should give it a try since this had "healthy snack" tag :P. This is very simple and with just three ingredients, it tastes very good.

Preparation Time: 15 mins

Baking Time: 20 mins

Quantity: serves 2 

Ingredients: 

Kale - 1 bunch (I used the curly version, You can also use dinosaur kale)

Olive Oil or any oil - 1 Tb Spn

Salt to taste 

Method: 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 300 deg F

2. Wash and dry the kale

3. Remove the stem and cut or tear them into bite size pieces (keep them considerably big, remember that it is going to wilt while baking)

4. Put them in a zipper bag or regular plastic cover and sprinkle some oil and salt (remember to keep it low, kale will wilt and you will end up with salty chips). Give it a good massage

5. Spread them on a baking sheet and bake them until crispy for 20 mins

6. Serve them fresh

I read that if this is properly stored they last unto a week. I made less and finished it in two days :)

Vajrasana or Thunderbolt pose

Vajrasana is a simple sitting posture for meditation. This enables us to sit comfortably for a long period of time with erect spine.
Benefits:

• effective asana to relieve knee pain
• relieves pain in the heels
• helps moderate arthritis 
• improves digestion and releases gas
• reduces swelling of legs during pregnancy
• useful incase of varicose veins
• mobilizes stiff ankle and knees 

1. Start with sama sthiti

2. Slowly bend the right leg and secure the heel under the buttock

3. Bend the left leg and tuck it under the left buttock 

4. Keep the knees close to each other 

5. Keep the spine and buttock in a vertical line

6. Rest the palms on the thighs or cover knees

7. Keep the breathing normal and meditate

8. Return to sama sthiti

Vegetable Dosa

Sounds good isn't it? Yeah, this is what I do when I have left over dosa batter (well, I prepare so much batter that I make sure I have left overs! :P). Having dosa batter makes me feel so secured (yeah, I mean it!). With it, there are so many variations. This one is so easy and so creative. I remember that my mom used to make this in India. She used to make different shapes of dosa - Sun, moon, star or telephone, you name it! We would ask for some alphabet and amma would make that. It would be so exciting for the baccha party.

You can make this for breakfast on weekends or for dinner any time. This is so much fun, you can make any cartoon character your kids like and personalize it to their taste (spongebob & square pants or mickey mouse may be)

Preparation time for dosa: less than 30 mins (considering batter is ready)
Soaking time: minimum 4 hrs
Fermentation: minimum 6 hrs or over night
cooking time: 3-5 mins
Quantity: makes 25 veg dosas

Ingredients for dosa:
Rice - 2 Cups
Split Urad Dal - 1 Cup
Poha or beaten rice - 1/2 Cup or Puffed rice - 1 Cup
Split Chana Dal - 1/4 Cup
Methi or Fenu greek seeds - 2 Tb spn

Soak all the above for minimum 4 hours in water, grind it to a smooth paste using the same water. Cover the batter and let it ferment in a warm place. I usually keep it in oven over night and switch on the light in summer. In winter, I will pre-heat the oven to 180 F and turn off and then let the batter ferment over night. The next day, take it out, give it a good mix and add salt.

For topping:
finely chopped beans, cabbage, bell peppers, carrot, onions, sliced Jalapeños and peas - 2 Cups
oil - 1 T spn or less for each dosa

You can use as many or less veggies as you want. Use what ever is available or which ever you like.

Method:

1. Over a heated skillet, add 1 T spn oil and sauté beans for 2 mins on medium heat (you can skip this step if you don't wish to use beans or use super tender beans)
2. Turn off the heat and add rest of the veggies
3. Sprinkle very less salt and mix well
4. Heat the griddle over medium flame, spread 2 scoops of batter
5. Top the dosa with 2 table spoons of mixed veggies
6. Spray oil and cover the dosa with a lid and let it cook for less than a min
7. Flip the dosa and let it cook until all the veggies are soft (you can also let it cook longer in case you like the veggies crispy)
8. Turn over, put it on a platter and serve hot with chutney

Have a happy weekend and keep Smiling!!!

Surya Namaskara

Surya Namaskara  (Sun Salutation)

Surya Namaskara is a set of 12 asanas or postures in Hatha Yoga. It denotes the worship of Sun, usually performed facing east, early in the morning. There are different variations of Surya Namaskara depending on the complexity. Here is the video reference for this variation.

Benefits:

• Activates digestion and strengthen abdominal muscles
• Normalizes the activity of endocrine glands, especially thyroid glands
• Promotes sleep

Things to remember:

• warm up before you start
• synchronize breathing with every asana
• Shavasana is practiced at the end of practice 

1	Namaskarasana {Prayer pose}	exhale
2	Urdvasana {Raised arm pose}	inhale
3	Uttanasana {Forward Bending Pose}	exhale
4	Eka Pada Prasaranasana {Lunge Pose}	inhale
5	Chaturanga Dandasana {Plank Pose}	exhale
6	Ashtanga Namaskara {Knees, Chest & Chin Pose}	suspend
7	Bhujangasana {Cobra Pose}	inhale
8	Adho-mukha Shvanasana {Downward Dog Pose}	exhale
9	Eka Pada Prasaranasana Right Leg Stretched {Lunge Pose}	inhale
10	Uttanasana {Forward Bending Pose}	exhale
11	Urdvasana {Raised arm pose}	inhale
12	Namaskarasana  {Prayer pose}	exhale

References:

Yoga pravesha and Yoga Journal

No Fuss or Guilt-free Ice-cream

Have you ever tried making ice-cream at home? Do you think you have to invest on an ice-cream maker for that? Does the calorie guilt bother you? Here is an awesome solution for all these. This does not require ice-cream maker. This is a dairy free (yeah!!! No cream in the ice-cream!!) and a single ingredient ice-cream. Do you want to take a guess what that single ingredient is? its Bananas. Yep, Just bananas.
You will definitely scream for this ice-cream.....

Although I am not a fan of banana. My husband is. I loved every bit of it. This did not leave the banana taste in the end. I found this recipe on pinterest a couple of days ago and I thought I will give it a try. I did not expect such good results. For my surprise, it did turn out great! Thanks to Jen for a great recipe like this. Here is her blog with the detailed recipe. You can get creative with this one and try it with different flavors. I added cocoa for chocolate flavor, may be next time I will try it with peanut butter, nutella or some fresh fruits.

Preparation time: less than 15 mins
Freezing time: 1-2 hrs
Quantity: 3 large scoops

Ingredients:
Spotted or ripe bananas - 2 nos
Vanilla extract  (optional) - 1/2 T spn
Cocoa, unsweetened (optional) - 1 1/2 T spn
Sugar (optional) -  2 T spn or to taste

Method:
1. Cut the ripe bananas and freeze them for an hour or two (depends on your freezer settings)
2. Put it in a blender or food processor and blend it till the frozen bananas turn to smoothie-like consistency (expect to stop in between to scrape the edges of blender)
3. Add vanilla extract, sugar and add any flavor - cocoa or peanut butter or fruits or nuts or even nutella. I used cocoa.
4. Freeze it again for an hour
5. Scoop that awesomeness and enjoy! (:

Gift Boxes

You know when people say - "the gift wrapper looks better than the gift", I guess its for me!! I love gift wrapping, so even a teeny weeny gift will have a fancy wrapping. For Sankranti, I made these gift boxes to put a packet of "yellu bella" (a mixture of sesame seeds+jaggery) and gave it to my friends. I used this tutorial from splitcoaststampers.com to make them. Also check out their video on youtube. You can make these boxes in different sizes, to put candies for halloween or to put some small gifts.

I used a regular letter size card sheet. I also used a scoreboard, its not necessary to have one. You can just mark them with the same measurements and fold them accordingly. I also used a mango shaped or paisley wooden stamp that I got it from India. Oh! I love those stamps. I bought them from a street vendor near Bull temple in Bangalore (I know, I just had to mention this! nostalgic!). They work best with fabric colors, I used a regular ink pad, it did not work that great. But its ok, now that the boxes are gone! :)