The Food Story..: SoEasy

Food, Health and Nutrition..

1:53 PM

I read an interesting article about food. It talks about our obsession with "Fat-free" food.
We all want to be fit and healthy but we keep forgetting that we need fats also.
I think changing the focus from healthy food to nutritional food is what we all need. Well, thats my perspective on food.

Understanding the basics is very important. Just because olive oil is healthy it does not mean that we should start cooking Indian food in olive oil. It is not meant for high temperatures that our Indian cooking is used to.

Frankly, I prefer cooking in little butter rather than using truckload of olive oil. I use butter every now and then - Sautéing my vegetables, as a spread on an occasional slice of bread, a bit with crackers.

Similarly I have seen a lot of people substituting sugar with honey. What they fail to understand is that honey is also sugar and excess sugar is well just as bad. It is loaded with nutrients and It is still high in calories and is a high energy food. Food not used for energy may be stored on the body as fat!

Some of my basic rules are:

1. Avoiding processed food

2. Avoiding sugar

3. Letting go every once in a while

4. Limiting alcohol to 1-2 glasses of wine per week

5. Post workout fuel - The most important meal of the day

6. Controlling portions

7. Dinner by 8 latest

8. Using butter instead of Margarine

Needless to say that I love experimenting with my butter and this weekend I finally made garlic butter for the week ahead.

Here's the process:

1. I used a little jar and cut salted butter (approx half stick) in tiny cubes and stuffed it inside the jar

2. I chopped a few garlic pods finely and stuffed them in the jar

3. I added some garlic powder (Totally optional but if added gives that extra strong garlic flavor) fresh rosemary, pepper and chili flakes

4. I closed the lid tightly. I keep this jar on the stovetop. It makes the garlic butter really soft and all the flavors mix well sitting there

How do you like your butter?

Baking

The Best Brownie Recipe

9:39 AM

I know I am on a diet and focusing more on all things fitness these days. The last few posts have been about all things fitness and I should stick to that. There is no fitness without those cheat meals. We need to create imbalance every once in a while. Human body is an amazing piece of machinery. It adapts quickly. So if you need to include cheat meals to give your metabolism that much needed kick. That my friend is a true story. I am not an advocate of cheat days but a little indulgence once in 3 days works for me.

I think it works differently for everyone but the underlying theory is same more or less. I have often seen people missing out on meals because they had a piece of cake as a part of their cheat day. I think we just need to understand at any point the body should not be devoid of nutrients. Enough said. Please read this article and also this.

So this week I ran 13 kms on Thursday morning and that left me with a considerably free evening.

I decided to bake something for my office team. I also had that itch of creating that perfect tissue-thin crinkly crust on top brownie with gooey-ness inside.

I have my standard brownie recipe but this time I changed the recipe a bit and it turned out really nice. My idea of a good brownie is thick, fudgy, firm, dark chocolaty, very chewy and rich. It should not be dense, too gooey or under-baked. It needs to have that tissue-thin crust on top and should just melt. Well in this house we take our brownies very seriously. That's all.

Here it is:

Ingredients

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used Hersheys this time)

1/2 cup Fresh Cream (I had lots of malai saved up)

100 gms Butter at room temperature

1/4 cup almonds ( I didn't have walnuts so I used almonds)

1 Mars chocolate bar chopped in to smallish chunks (You can use any chocolate chunks. I enjoy the fudgy taste of Mars)

1 Tsp Vanilla extract

1/2 cup White Flour + 2 Tbsp

1 Tsp Baking Powder

2 Eggs at room temperature

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup cane sugar (You can use 3/4 cup of White sugar)

Method

Roast almonds well in a pan. Crush the almonds using mortar and pestle or alternatively using a mixer and keep aside.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees centigrade. Line an 8x8-inch baking pan with butter paper and grease with oil

Heat butter on low heat in a thick bottomed pan until it is browned. Combine the cocoa and mix well. Add sugar and fresh cream and whisk well. Add eggs one at a time and whisk really well ( I did it for 10 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract and mix well.

Sift flour and baking powder in to the mixture and mix well.

Stir in almonds and chocolate chunks in 2Tbsp of flour and throw this mixture in the brownie batter

Pour the batter in the pan and bake for 25 minutes at 200 degrees.

Tip: Make sure the oven is really hot when you place your brownie pan inside the oven

Enjoy..

Ciao..

FitLife

Favorite Five

5:32 AM

"Snacks can make or break your diet"

Well all you fitness enthusiasts already know this. We all swear by it. We work on it. We count our macros and portions right. Just when we think we are doing everything right the whole process of eating/ preparing the "right" snacks becomes tedious. The monotony sets in and before you know it you are grabbing that on-the-go sandwich with bazillion calories in it.

The cafeteria at my workplace sucks. Even if you tried you wouldn't be able to find one right thing to snack upon. Most of my colleagues go for the diet options which are even worse. Every weekend laboriously I plan my snacks for the week ahead. In my world eating fruits is not the only healthy snacking option. It is good to eat fruits but somehow I can never satiate my hunger pangs. I need things which are substantial and also have a bit of proteins since I rely on natural sources.

So I decided to compile my current favorite snack ideas:

1. Gram flour pancakes ( or called besan ka chila)

Besan (Gram flour) - 1 cup
Ajwain (Carom seeds) - ¼ teaspoon
Garam masala - to taste
Salt - to taste
Onion - 1, finely chopped
Spinach - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
Carrot - 1, grated
Yogurt - 2 Tbsp
Water - 1 cup
Oil - to shallow fry cheela

In a bowl take besan, carom seeds, garam masala and salt and mix well

Add all the vegetables and mix well and then add yogurt.

Add little water at a time and make batter thick enough to coat the back of spoon. In case it in lumpy add a little more water.

Heat the pan on medium heat. Add oil and with wooden spatula spread it on evenly to coat pan.

Once it is hot, pour the batter and spread it to make a round shape pancake. When done flip it over to cook the other side

2. Apple Peanut Butter Grilled Sandwich

Apple slices finely cut length wise
Peanut butter - 1 Tsp
Maple Syrup/ Dates Syrup/ Honey - 1 Tsp
Bread - slices -2

I make a sandwich with rye toast and spread peanut butter and then arrange apple slices and drizzle honey/ maple syrup/ dates syrup and grill it on high heat. It works like a charm on heavy training days. Food is an important part of recovery and you can never train well by compromising on your fuel.

3. Roast Tomato and Mozzarella

This one is my favorite these days. I place the tomatoes, cut side up, in a single layer on a well greased cake pan I place some peeled garlic pods also. I drizzle the pan with the olive oil and sprinkle with the rosemary. I then roughly roast it for 40 minutes at a high temperature. The tomatoes caramelize and garlic flavor gets infused. I love to spread the tomato on a multi-grain cracker and have it with a bit of mozzarella cheese. When I pack it for work I just place the tomatoes and add mozzarella chunks. To add more flavor I cut chicken salami pieces really fine and make a nice little tangy salad..

4. Rice-Paper rolls

This one is pretty simple. I pulse cabbage, sweet corn and carrots together for a coarse mixture.

I mix in Soy sauce and chili sauce to the vegetable mixture. For other vegetable combinations you might need to saute or pre-cook the veggies a bit

I use this mixture as a filling for the Thai rice paper rolls.

5. Yogurt

I love to eat yogurt as a snack, dessert or side dish. I love it in every form.

There are times when I pulse pineapple and yogurt together and freeze it to have chilled fruit yogurt

I love mixing berries and cocoa with my yogurt too. This combination works like magic for me.

It is so convenient to carry to work in a small box . I normally buy packaged yogurt which has thick consistency since Greek yogurt is not easily available here. I then make my own flavored yogurt and pack it as a snack. I also tried mixing pumpkin puree and vanilla extract and loved the combination.

So what do you think? Please share your ideas and I would add more to this..

Ciao..

Dinner

About Fitness And Jazz..

8:44 AM

I have been running for the past 11 years now and have been ~~competing~~ participating in races for the past 3 years. I have been obsessed with fitness for a while now. It is a big part of my identity and my lifestyle. I love every thing about it. It is a journey. I eat EVERYTHING. Crash diets are not for me and I realized that a long time ago. The fact that I have a sweet tooth does not help either.

I am at a stage in life where I need to lose a few kilos to improve my half marathon performance. I made some conscious decisions last year and the outcome has been great so far. I think I have hit the wall now. Some might argue that a runner does not have to do anything to lose weight because you know running does it for them. It is a myth. Running might help newbies in losing weight but for a seasoned runner (I am taking that liberty here) it gets difficult. Your body starts storing extra water, muscle weighs more than fat and all that jazz. The biggest challenge is that you are always hungry or what I like to call #rungry.

Last week I decided to take matters in to my hands. I have decided to go for a self imposed clean eating challenge. I know it is going to be super difficult but I gotta do what I have to do to reach my target and what better way than to blog about it?

So I will try and post recipes of my dinner. My days are smooth without any issues. I am very disciplined through the day. Sometimes I just go ballistic after my dinner and eat whatever I can. Stress eating is another one of my problems.

Some ground rules that I have set for myself are:

1. No Alcohol
2. No Refined Sugar
3. No substituting honey for sugar
4. No chocolates on rest days or easy workout days
5. Only 2 squares of chocolate allowed on heavy intensity days
6. No Junk food
7. No Biscuits (Another bad habit that I have recently picked up). Only 3 biscuits allowed on heavy intensity days
8. Ice cream only allowed if I am running more than 13Kms
9. Protein with every meal
10. Less portions and 7 meals in a day
11. Eat cheat meals every once in a while

So lets start from yesterday:

Mexican Bean Salad:

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Boiled red kidney beans
1 yellow pepper
1 shredded carrot
1 onion chopped
1 cup broccoli
1/2 cup baby corn
1/2 cup sweet corn
Garlic pods chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms finely chopped
Dried rosemary sprigs

Dressing
1 sweet lime freshly squeezed
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Soy Sauce
Pepper
Chilli Flakes
1 tsp Vinegar

Guacamole:
I used the standard Food Network recipe

Method:

In a pan heat a little oil and add chopped garlic pods and when garlic starts turning golden brown add mushrooms, rosemary sprigs and saute well.
Add yellow peppers and all the other vegetables one by one with broccoli at last.
Add beans and mix everything

Mix all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl, mix well and pour it in to the pan. Mix everything well.

Serve it with Guacamole..

Ciao..

Baking

A Cake Is All You Need

4:23 AM

A slice of cake, a good coffee and a good song. You just need simple things to get you started.
Sometimes you just need a cake. On that note let me tell you that I love coffee cakes.
Give me a light fluffy cake and I am the nicest person on this planet. I am really a cake person.

Today morning I realized that I haven't had any cake in a while. So I looked around in my fridge and felt like a winner when I spotted two Valencia Oranges sitting prettily. A friend of mine got me a bag of Valencia Oranges from his farm. I love these oranges. They are so packed in flavor and are so sweet and refreshing. There is a little bit of tartness but it wakes you up. I have used them for salad dressings, as a snack, for chicken marination and I think it was time to use them in a cake.

I looked around for a recipe and then decided to create my own.

Upside Down Valencia Orange Cake

Ingredients:

1 orange thinly sliced (with the peel)
2 Tbsp Jaggery Sugar (Can use brown sugar)
2 Tbsp Butter
1.5 cups flour
1.5 tbsp baking powder
0.5 cup Jaggery sugar (Can use brown sugar)
0.25 cup white sugar
0.5 cup oil (I used rice bran oil)
0.5 cup thick yogurt (I used store bought)
Juice of 1 orange
2 Tbsp orange zest
0.25 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 eggs

Note: I make my own zest. I peel the skin off and cut it in small pieces. In a pan I heat 2 tbsp water and 1 tsp sugar. I then add the zest to it and cook it for a minute. The zest becomes sweeter due to the mixture in which it is cooked

Method:

Brown the butter in a thick bottomed pan and then add 2 Tbsp Jaggery sugar when the mixture turns thick add the round slices of orange.

In a cake tin arrange slices at the bottom. Sprinkle the leftover butter-sugar mixture on them.

In a separate bowl sift flour and baking powder. Whisk the dry ingredients together.

In another bowl - Add sugar, yogurt, oil, orange juice, zest, eggs, lemon juice and mix them well.

Add dry ingredients to the wet batter in batches and whisk well.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Bake it thoroughly, especially in the center, or it may settle when it cools.

Once the cake is done, let it cool. Place a plate and place the cake tin upside down. Remove the cake tin slowly.

Enjoy The Cake

Ciao..

Baking

Sticky Date Cake and Good Times

11:55 PM

This is probably the easiest cake I have baked in a long while. It fluffs up and is moist from inside. The flavor of dates is even better the next day.

The recipe that I used is around 70 years old. When I was in the UK last year I went to this tiny bakery in Brighton. I have a thing for bakeries. I love love love bakeries. I think we all know that. Don't we? It was a rainy day and I wanted something with spices. The date cake was fresh from the oven. As usual, I started chatting with the owner. He was more than happy to share his recipe with me. He later told me that the recipe was given to him by his grandmother.

Last night we had a party at our place. It was an all Indian affair. I cooked all standard Indian dishes with probably zero twists. The dessert was my chance to be innovative. The afternoon was very windy and I was sure of a rainy evening. I think that's what prompted me to bake this one.

Here's the recipe, try and let me know what you think:

Ingredients:

1 cup pitted and chopped dates ( I had pitted and chopped dates handy but you can boil them in little water and puree in a blender)

3 Eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar ( I used Shakkar)

100 gms butter

2 cups white flour

1 tsp Baking soda

1/3 cup walnuts ( optional)

A pinch of grated nutmeg

1-1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Caramel Sauce:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons fresh cream

1/2 tsp vanilla

Method:

Preheat Oven to 200 degrees for 10 minutes. Grease the cake pan and line base with greased baking paper

Mix dates and soda together and pour boiling water on it. Let it stand for 20 minutes or so to allow the dates to become tender

Sift flour and nutmeg well

Using a whisker beat butter, sugar and vanilla until brownish, pale and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in date mixture and flour. Mix until well combined

Pour the mixture into prepared cake pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes at 180 deg or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean

Once done, place it on the wire rack and allow it to cool

Caramel sauce:

Combine brown sugar, cream, vanilla in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, until boiling. Simmer for 2 minutes. Pour warm sauce over warm cake or can be served on the side

And some leftover cake today morning :)

Baking

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

10:04 AM

I haven't abandoned this space like my other food ventures. I am pretty sure that this blog is here to stay. I am battling heat in my part of the world. I am not a fan of summers (not Indian summers). They are too harsh for my liking. I am trying my best to stay hydrated and taking best care of myself.. My cooking is all about shortcuts these days and I am definitely giving my oven a break.
Today morning when I woke up it was relatively cooler. Well I don't know about you but over here 39 degrees feel cooler in the summer months. I instantly decided to bake something. The thought of baking a cake was tempting but then it gets difficult to store it. Leaving it out in open in this weather is not a good idea and I don't like refrigerated cakes. This reason was enough to get me back to baking cookies. It can be stored for longish time. It does not need enormous kitchen time and if you are bored you always have the option of freezing your dough and baking it later.

My cookies always used to turn out crunchy. I like chewy cookies so I decided to take the matter in my hands and get on with it. I researched every website, every recipe and every book and then came up with my recipe after a few rounds of trial and error..

Ingredients
1 Cup Flour
1/4 tsp Baking soda
2 eggs (or 1 large)
50gms Amul Butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cane sugar ( Use Brown sugar if not available)
1/4 cup Chocolate chunks (I prefer chunks over chocolate chips)
1 tbsp Black strap molasses
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Method
Set your oven to preheat at 200 degrees and prepare your baking tray with well greased butter paper
Sift flour and Baking Soda together and keep aside

In a pan brown your butter on a low heat. When the froth appears and the color changes to pale brown switch off the gas. It gives a very nutty flavor to the batter

Let the butter cool down, add sugar, cane sugar, molasses and vanilla and whisk them together, add eggs and whisk until mixed properly

Add the flour mixture in 3 parts mixing well each time. DO NOT OVER MIX

Add chocolate chunks

Put the batter in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Use a tablespoon to scoop out batter and place it in the tray (You can use an ice cream scoop as well).
Tip: Form dough balls and leave enough space in the baking tray to allow them to expand
Once inside the oven, after 7-8 minutes I tapped the balls with the back of a tablespoon to flatten them (Read: No patience)

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Take the tray out and let it cool for a couple of minutes. Take the cookies out gently and place them in the oven on the wire rack directly for a couple of minutes.
(The cookies become crunchy if left for too long)

It feels so good to be back..

Dinner

Oven Roasted Vegetable Salad

8:08 PM

I added a new tag to my ever growing collection of hashtags on Instagram. It is called #DinnerForOne. I know that cooking for single person is a challenge and esp if you don't believe in leftovers. This is a perfect, no fuss recipe and I strongly recommend it.

I wanted to eat Salad for dinner and was at my laziest best on Saturday. I also didn't want any fancy dressing and yet I wanted a comforting salad because hello Sundays are #LongDistanceRun days. Yes, that's how complicatedly we do things around here. The dinner recipe idea had started forming in my head by 8 PM. I looked in the fridge and picked the most fresh ingredients and decided to give it a shot and yes I was done with my dinner by 9:20.. #SoComforting..

When I was in Germany my standard meal/ side meal every day was a plate of roasted vegetables.
I love the flavor of roasted vegetables. It brings out the sweetness of every vegetable and how they all end up infusing with each other. So Beautiful. *sigh*.

So here is my recipe of Oven Roasted Vegetable Salad.

Sorry for a very shabby picture. Hopefully this is the last shabby picture on this blog.
I am getting a new phone soooooon.

Ingredients:
1 Zucchini sliced thinly
2 Medium sized tomatoes sliced thinly
3-4 Garlic Cloves
1 Onion cut in to chunks
1 Carrot diced
1 Yellow Bell pepper cut in to strips
1 cup cooked spaghetti ( I used approximately 40 gm spaghetti and I broke the strands)
Olive oil for greasing and sprinkling
Salt
Black Pepper
White Pepper
Chilli Garlic oil ( Can use Olive/ refined)
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Herbs to sprinkle ( I used crushed rosemary, dill and paprika powder)
A few parsley leaves to garnish
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (Optional)
Note: You can select herbs of your choice

Method
I greased the baking tray with olive oil and placed the cut vegetables (except onions) on it with garlic cloves and sprinkled salt and crushed black and white peppercorns on it.

I sprinkled a little olive oil, a little chilli and roasted them in the oven for approximately 20 minutes.
Cutting vegetables thinly helps speed up the process and zucchini was really crispy when I took it out from the oven.. Yum!

In a pan I added chilli garlic oil and sauteed onions, I then added herbs and the roasted vegetables.
I kinda mashed the vegetables a bit using a spatula (Not too much.. just a bit)

When I was done with my light mish mashing I added cooked spaghetti, vinegar and mixed everything thoroughly. I then added grated parmesan.

I garnished the salad generously with chopped parsley..

Note: I have tried different variations and played around quite a bit with it and it was delicious every time.

Breakfast

...Pumped Up Kicks..

3:35 AM

Food, Health and Nutrition..

The Best Brownie Recipe

Favorite Five

About Fitness And Jazz..

A Cake Is All You Need

Sticky Date Cake and Good Times

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oven Roasted Vegetable Salad

...Pumped Up Kicks..

The Food Story..

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