9,10 and 11.

Day 9:
Breakfast/Snack: Cottage cheese.
Lunch: Cabbage+Beans salad
Dinner: Lentil+Green beans soup.

Day10:
Breakfast: Skipped.
Lunch: Leftover Lentil+Green beans soup.
Snack: Peanuts/Almonds.
Dinner: Fav Lentil balls (recpie in pre posts).

Day 11: Saturday...been out shopping. The most tough part was walking across Cinnabon in the mall; for a second there I wanted to buy the delcious cinnisticks with cream and coffee!!!!!
Breakfast: Moong Dal Dosa (Split bean Pancake).
Recipe: Soak the moong dal (Hesaru bele in kannada) overnight.
In the morning, blend the soften dal, green chillies, ginger, cumin and salt together (add water if required).
The batter should be thick (like idli batter) in consistency; add chopped onions before preparing the dosa.
Snack: Cheated--had coffee.
Dinner: Lentil rolls again.
Currently high on protien!!!!

Day 7 and 8:

Completed 50% of Phase1!! Giddiness affected me on Day7, perhaps it was lack of sleep (slept from 2.30am-8am! and I usually sleep around 8-10hours..he he) or lack of breakfast; but by mid-afternoon i was drowsy too. Headed home early and cooked myself something nice..felt much better.
However, I still have dry eyes from past 3 days; considering if its the pollen allergy affecting my eyes
According to few of my friends and KC, you become 'Americanized' after your 4 years of stay (means you get all sorts of allergies, the immune system is not so good, gotto drink bottled water when you visit India.......). I hope its just an urban legend and 12hrs of sleep on weekend will(might) cure the dry-eye problem.

Anywhoo...read the extracts from the food journal...
Day 7: Tuesday--the weekly meeting was cancelled and it saved me from immersing myself in caffeine!
Breakfast: Surviving on Tea.
Lunch: cooked Black-eye beans + cabbage salad.
Recipe:
Pressure-cooker the black-eyed bean (or any bean of your choice). Let it cool.
Add canola/olive oil to the heated skillet, season with mustard seeds, cumin and green/red chillies.
Add cabbage and fry it until it softens. Add the cooked beans, salt, pepper. Let it simmer on the stove for sometime.
Garnish with coriander leaves before you dig in!
Snack: Peanuts (30)
Dinner: leftover Black-eye beans + cabbage salad + cottage cheese.

Day 8: Wednesday, got up early to cook.
Breakfast: Cottage cheese
Lunch: Lentil (Toor Dal) + Green Beans soup (sambar).
Snack: Peanuts+Almonds.
Dinner: Leftover Beans soup.

Pounds lost: I've lost 5 pounds in 8days!! I know all this might be water weight, but enjoying the momentary happiness for now.

South Beach!

Three months of gym and I've not lost any pounds; except a dress size :-)
So, watching Mr.B (colleague) loose 20 pounds in 12 days inspired me to take up the SBD! Actually, its the last resort to bring drop one more dress size before the west coast tour with my parents next month!!
I've also started thinking (means eating/drinking) healthy from past one year; is it coz I'm getting close to 30? Don't know. Justified that cutting down rice and all carbs from diet for a while, is the right choice since diabetics runs in my family. So, here goes my saga:

Day 1: Haven't shopped particularly for SBD, but have lot of veggies at home.
Breakfast/Snack: Cheese with almonds.
Lunch: Spinach soup with half onion(that's the sambar).
Snack: cucumber pickle
Dinner: Rajma+Black-eyed bean+green bean soup.

Day 2: No cravings yet!
Breakfast : Survived on Tea.
Lunch : Leftover Rajma+Black-eyed bean+split-moong dal soup.
Snack: Peanuts-30.
Dinner: Cabbage+Capsicum+Onion soup (with black pepper)
Dessert: Ricotta cheese (fat-free) baked with vanilla essence.
Recipe:Pre-heat oven to 450degrees
Mix Ricotta cheese with vanilla essence + soy/almond milk.
Pour it into mini-muffins pan.
Bake for 15 mins! Tastes bit like cheesecake!

Day 3 : Friday--got to avoid Pizza at office lunch!
Breakfast/Snack: Cottage cheese and almonds.
Lunch: Salad (side-ordered with pizza!).
Snack: Ricotta cheesecake (recipe above).
Dinner: Palak with Radish.
Recipe: Boil Spinach, let it cool down (pressure cooker is the best method!)
Meanwhile, cut red/white radish in half-moon size. Stir-Fry it with chili and salt seasoning.
Blend the cooled spinach in a mixer and add it to skillet with fried radish.
This is just like Palak Panner (except, add Radish or Tofu!).

Day 4: Weekend!
Breakfast: Leftover Palak Radish.
Lunch: Lentil Rolls!!!
Recipe: Soak Toor Dal and Channa Dal overnight.
In the morning, blend them with Green chillies, Ginger, Coriander leaves and Salt.
Make small balls and steam them for 15 mins in Pressure Cooker using the Idli stand!!
Very high in proteins and makes me homesick too (this is a traditional Karanataka dish).
Snack: Peanuts+Almonds--guess overindulged!
Dinner: Beans+Radish+Lentil soup (use samabar/rasam powder!)
Dessert: Ricotta cheese with almond milk.

Note to self: Avoid shopping at Target food aisle on weekends.

Coffee Cake!

According to KC, this was my 4th anniversary present to him! This is easier than muffins, but takes bit longer to bake. Best enjoyed with hot cup of coffee (filter or cappuccino!) in the bitter winter evenings.

Eggless Coffee Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 can (14 ounce) sweetened condensed milk

1 cup orange juice

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup melted butter

1/2 cup Pecans/Walnuts.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray PAM oil to a 9x13 inch pan. Mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Make a well in centre and pour the sweetened condensed milk, orange juice, vanilla extract and melted butter.

Mix well and pour the batter (to adjust the consistency add more orange juice/condensed milk) into the pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-45 minutes. Allow to cool. Cut and serve with coffee!

Mini-Muffins

My latest hobby--Baking! Yes, I don't believe it too. The last thing I thought I'll be good at was cooking!
However, its been burning on back on my mind that I haven't used the oven in four years. So searched for some recipes online, made some modifications and tried baking. Here is the journal
1. Mini-Muffins.Last month on a Monday morning (of all days) had a adrenal rush and started baking the first batch of mini-muffins. It was amazing to see the transformation of flour to mouth-watering treat. And I never knew baking was so easy and consumes very little time. The only problem will be putting together all ingredients. Here is the recipe:

Eggless Whole-Wheat Muffins:
Ingredients:

1 cup wheat flour (or you can change this to all-purpose flour).

1 tablespoon Baking Powder

1/2 tsp salt4 tbsp water

4 tbsp corn starch

1 cup whole milk

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

8 tbsp unsalted butter (melted)

1 cup blueberries
Preheat the oven to 400F. Spray the mini-muffin (or muffin) pan with PAM and keep it aside.
In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt.
In medium bowl, combine water, cornstarch; whisk until blended. Add in milk, sugar and vanilla and melted butter (I melt a stick of butter in the microwave just before adding). Don't let the butter sit in the mixture too long, it may coagulate. Add the blueberries.
Now, using a wooden spoon stir batter into it until blended, don't over mix. Pour the batter into muffin pan evenly and place it in the middle rack of the oven.
Bake for 15minutes, use toothpick to ensure dourness.Don't let it bake for too long, might turn crispy. Let it cool for 2 minutes.
The muffins were loose from the pan when I removed them from the oven and ready to serve