Mean Girl?

It is funny that I was just thinking about nasty comments form my daughter's classmates....
and saw this this  post on my reader.
My 7 year old girl has to face many situations at school where other girls will say mean things to her. and as mother sometimes I feel I am not to guiding her right. Like yesterday, some girl was teasing her (you are looser and will always be looser because my daughter’s favorite food was favored by only two other kids in class). My response to my daughter was ‘ignore the other girl’.
When I think back, I was that kind girl who did not know how to respond in language so I took shelter with books. I am always looking for advise/input in terms of how to manage this….
Books are fine and I am so grateful to this to a extent when I see my paycheck....
But I wish I could enjoy more of my time at school (and hope my daughter does)

Party Food

I am experimenting more with raw Vegan food now a days so I look for more and more information on web. vegan planet is not technically raw but it does provide much healthier options than I am used to ...

Got vegan drink?

For years, I have been trying to get rid of my habit of black tea with sugar + milk. I live in place where everyone walks around with one nose and one Starbucks cup (Seattle). I can blame my habit on rainy and cloudy days in Seattle but ultimately, I wanted to remove sugar and milk with tea.

Other than trying various types of tea with water only, now I am this spicy drink which takes a little bit preparation but allows me a lot of variation.
Also, you can create this in bulk and it has shelf life of a week

Here is recipe along with variations….


Spices

1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 pinch of Asafoetida powder
Few leaves of cilantro
-------
1 tsp oil
3 Roma tomato (make puree in blender)
3 cup water

1 tsp tamarind paste (If you have tamarind block and sock and take out the juice, you would need about 1/3 cup as it will be diluted)

Steps.
1.     Boil tomato puree with water.(Add tomato and water in pot and when it starts boiling, let it simmer for 15 minutes)
2.     Now in smaller pan, heat oil and add all spices (this will roast spices and bring out the flavor)
3.     Add tamarind past/water.
4.     This is ready to consume.

Variations
1.     You can skip all or some of the spices if you find the list overwhelming or you do not like some of the spices.
2.     You can replace tamarind with ½ tsp lemon or lime juice.
3.     You can chop and sauté tomato and then boil it. This will taste better.

I can bake...

After multiple failure, I kept going and going....
I tried yesterday this recipe yesterday. We loved the outcome. I did do some modification though....
I used 1/2 tsp soda instead of 1 tsp. And I used total 1 and 1/2 cup of flour (no almond pieces).

Evening plan for 10.11.10

Dictate simple sentences such as ‘I love my new puppy’
Math – Money problem (you had $10 and bought hat for $5, how much left)
Hindi – Letter recognition for Swar and simple words like अंक, अंग, खाओ, आओ, गयी etc
Revise table for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

After taking bath plan was to go to temple as we are observing Navratri. Prasad was supposed to be our dinner.

However, when I went to school for pickup, Kids told me their afterschool activity at school(I totally forgot about it otherwise I would have gone to Gym).
Anyway, after we arrived home at 5, we finished
--school homework and bath
-- son worked on his friendship book
-- Simple sentences for daughter and simple words for Son (part of his homework)

We did go to temple but I had to leave early and without Prasad (don’t ask why). So we came home, kids did some reading and I worked on stir fry veggies with tofu along with yogurt plus boondi raita with lemon rice.

After kids brushed their teeth and went to bed, and I soaked red kidney bean for next day dinner, I went to bed…Happy, feeling blessed.

forgotten food in my family

I was looking for one thing after another and arrived at Bong Mom's Cookbook
On her site, it says for Giveaway
Tell me in your comment "What is a forgotten food in your family that you would like to bring back"

Here is what I have to say about this….
I want to bring Kadi back to our table…

Kadi. Actually it is not forgotten food but ‘not liked food’. It is so hated food in my house that kids and hubby will not even taste it. For some reason, they just do not like it. I fail to understand it why?
Why I want to bring it back? Simply because it is one dish you can make in 10 minutes or in 4 hours, depending on time availability.
It’s quick version is extremely healthy, see for yourself
1 spoon oil,
2 spoon besan
1 cup yogurt (if it is less sour, you can increase the qty)
Turmeric and hing (Asafoetida)
Water (2 cup)
salt
Few fenugreek seeds for tampering.

Mix besan, and yogurt. Heat oil in pan once it is hot; add fenugreek seeds and Hing and turmeric. Few seconds later, add water. Once you see it boiling, add yogurt mix along with salt. Let it boil for at least 10 minutes (more if you have time).
Variation: you can add sautéed veggies, pakodas, onion to this gravy…Possibilities are endless (off course, it needs preparation for whatever you want to add)
You can even add many flavoring as well like kasoori Methi, spinach, curry patta, ginger
You can add Boondi

So far I have not been successful in incorporating this to our regular food.
Here is recipe from Tarla Dalal http://www.tarladalal.com/Punjabi-Kadhi-8679r

Packing Lunch

In my house, I make food everyday so packing lunch is not issue. However, we have two issues, Most Indian food tastes best when it is either hot or warm, never cold…so in school, kids do not like Indian food (not to mention that it smells and looks different).
Second issue is that we are vegetarian, so we really do not have better option than cheese pizza. I hate that pizza but kids beg me that I let them buy their own lunch.
My money sense also looks at $ amount that I end up spending for that pizza which school would have to pay me, if they want me to eat it.
On hunt for ideas on dealing with thsi issue