My weekday dinners and breakfasts :)

There have been months of me slicing sweet potatoes old fashioned way. It became frustrating, time consuming and worthless effort. Then one day finally I ordered a mueller mandolin slicer. Okay, my history with knives is troublesome, no matter how blunt knife is, I find a way to cut myself. With this super sharp blade slicer and youtube, one day it happened. My finger almost sliced off, blood came pouring out, it didn't even hurt a bit. It was the expression we see in movies, someone gets stabbed and they don't even know it till they see blood.

Yeah, so now there is no way indian cooking was accessible with my hurt finger. Menu changed to salads, easy fixes every day. Breakfast wasn't really affected but dinner drastically evolved.

A few breakfast options we have are:

Oats with 1% milk, brown sugar and loads of nuts like walnuts, cashews, raisins, dates, pistachios, almonds blah blah. There is an awesome superfood trail mix on amazon. Its great with goji berries, brazil nuts etc etc.

Yogurt with granola or cereal with our favorite fruits like mango, musk melon, banana, apple, grapes, berries whatever I find in refrigerator.

Tofu scramble with bread. So many veggies can be added to tofu scramble. It usually goes with dry fruit shake made with soaked almonds, cashews, figs, dates, raisins, pista all the fav ones.

Blueberry coconut cranberry whole wheat pancakes from wholefoods mix. Eat with loads of fruits, lychee, whipped cream, maple syrup.

There are tons of other options to explore in breakfast. I am content enjoying these right now.


A few dinner options in our home are :

Spring greens, roasted nuts, mandarin orange, cranberries with maple syrup, orange juice, balsamic vinegar, himalayan salt, pepper. Simple easy and so so so delicious. For fiber, I have breads with little olive oil, garlic, pepper, , salt, feta cheese on broiler mode for 3 minutes till it browns. Its pretty perfect.

Pasta salad with spinach, brocolli, carrot, corn, capsicum, zucchini, pinenuts with vinegar, tobasco sauce, honey,sea salt , pepper, ranch dressing, mustard dressing, tahini sauce in dressing. Again with same bread. I should start getting french loaf to make it more regal. Sometimes I add onion, cucumber in vinegar sugar salt mixture, after an hour it gives pickled effect. I also made pickled beets to go with every salad. Only way beets go in my body. Throw in some kidney beans, chickpeas for protein.

Couscous pine nut with stir fried vegetables like spinach, carrot, onion, capsicum, mushrooms, cauliflower, spring onions. I went to this korean store and got so many kinds of fun vegetables like thin tiny mushrooms, sprouted beans. Add any vegetable you like with some salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tobasco. There are tons of recipes on this.

Tomato soup with beetroot, carrot, onion, sweet potato, parsley, ginger, garlic.

Dan dan noodle soup. I loved this one.
http://www.recipetineats.com/dan-dan-noodle-soup-vegetarian/

And of course vegetarian sandwich with diced onion, tomatoes, cheese, green chutney, sauce. Masala papad. These go with alcohol for us.

Ohh vegetarian options are unlimited. Try finding korean, chinese recipes. They are spicy, hearty, healthy which is what we all need.

Thanks,
NAMASTE

Salads soups to start with :)

Being a hardcore indian, the only kind of salad came with carrot, cucumber, beetroot cut in a plate. Other vegetables came in form of curries. When my chinese friend started inviting me for lunches, initially it was difficult for me to even like her food. It was bland, it was mostly veggies. Then came the appreciation of taste for raw vegetables. There are a few recipes that can give you a good start in salads section.

Some of my favorites are:

First one which is the most recent one is sweet potato salad. I love this recipe. Its got everything. Its super easy.

http://minimalistbaker.com/roasted-sweet-potato-chickpea-salad/

Second one is the one my friend made for me. Sesame cold noodles salad. There are lots of recipes of this one. Google it. It asks for tahini sauce which you can easily make at home. Add peanuts and green onion.

Next salad is pasta salad. Just boil pasta with brocolli corn. In olive oil, add zucchini and capsicum. Stir them a bit, add boiled pasta brocolli corn for like 2 minutes and remove. Top it with lettuce, romaine one, walnuts, pinenuts, cheese. For dresssing, use olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard sauce, tabasco, sea salt, ranch dressing, brown sugar or honey. And its amazing.

Fourth one is my kind of sweet salad. Kale cranberry salad. To start with, get one of those kits from safeway or wholefoods then experiment with your dressing. After a while, you will buy your own ingredients and make it. Leave it with dresssing for some time so kale becomes a little softer. You can add pickled beets to any salad.

There are lots of soups out there. I find manchow soup really healthy and easy. It takes 10 minutes to make it.

Try noodle bowls too like ramen noodles. If you eat eggs, whisk eggs add to oil till they get an almost bhurji consistency then add water, carrot, zucchini. After 5 minutes, add diced tomatoes, corriander, spinach, salt pepper, boil sphagetti separately. Mix them up and serve with peanuts, green onion.

There is this sweet potato salad where you mash sweet potatoes and add onion, tomatoes, corriander, lemon, ranch dressing with some tomato sauce , honey and salt. It tastes awesome too.


Of course, we indians have our own versions of healthy soups in sambhar, rasam, dal, thoran, pineapple pulissery. So don't leave indian cuisine.

I just tried this sella rice, its worth buying too. It makes amazing rice bowls. Its best for pineapple fried rice and some kind of rice my husband makes with hoisin sauce and peanut butter.

If you are vegan ,try tofu scramble with zucchini spinach capsicum cilantro with indian spices. Its yummy.

When we travelled from seattle to portland in train, they had these oats which were so simple. Just make oats, heat up milk, serve with brown sugar and dry fruits. Warm food on cold days.

All of these recipes are on google. Do try them. They bring a change to life.