Ragi Pancakes

Ragi is extremely healthy and nutritive. It is also called red finger millets. I am loving it, I have been using it lately in so many ways in my roti, parantha, dosa, idlis and this time I have tried with pancakes.

Ragi pan cakes recipe

Ingredients:

Ragi flour 1 cup

Milk 1/2 to 1 cup .

Salt a pinch, 1tsp sugar,

1 tbsp butter,

1 egg,

1 tsp baking soda.

Method :

Mix all dry ingredients together except baking soda .

Add in 1 egg. Mix.

Add in melted butter and mix.

Add milk slowly to form a smooth lump free paste .

Add in a pinch of baking soda before cooking.

On a hot nonstick pan, pour in two tbsp of batter and cook on low flame.

Flip and cook the other side too.

Serve with Agave syrup or honey and fruits . You can serve with chocolate syrup and bananas as well.

Diet Plan and Weight Watching-Week 9 update

I am back with my diet update for last two weeks,  last to last  week went quite hectic at work and tiring so no time to update my status on blog.I checked my weight for week 8 , it was stable and for last week update I lost a pound  😀 yay! something going down on weighing scale, it was pleasing for my eyes !  and it was raining cats and dogs last week so not possible to go outside for long walks , I am trying to catch up during my daily walks .

I enjoyed making smoothies for my breakfast, used different combinations , they were all great , do try out some:

Kiwi, banana,yogurt, nuts, honey .

Mango ,yogurt, honey.

Pear ,Mango ,Yogurt.

Strawberry, banana, yogurt.

Some  pictures from  last week :

 

The third picture is a dal(lentils) soup with vegetables and some indian spices.

The fourth was our weekly sweet reward 🙂

the fifth one are baked red and green long peppers stuffed with rice,herbs and some minced meat.

Sixth one from our  smoothies.

Seventh is grilled chicken marinated with chicken tandoori masala, boiled eggs and steam vegetables with some beans and herbs.

the last one was whole wheat brown pasta, it was so heavy ! a little was enough to make you full.

 

My last week’s goals  , this week’s goals are same as well :

1. Calorie intake 1400 calories .
2. reducing bread from  lunch and dinner.
3. Handful of nuts everyday.
4. Adding more greens to my dinner  plate.
5. My dinner calories target is 400 calories.
6. Continuing my daily and weekly walks of 10 km.
7. 15 mins stretching exercise every morning.

apart from above goals I am also doing following as my routine:

Stopped taking sugar in my tea and coffee everyday.

no soda and colas and junk food

Replaced my morning sandwich  with smoothies.

Dinner latest by 7 pm .

Eating more vegetables .

3 fruits daily.

no white bread , brown or whole wheat bread.

Green tea after dinner.

Drinking a cup of warm water boiled with cinnamon and a teaspoon of honey in morning .

Below is link  from Colleen on her site about  her weight loss journey and some great health tips.I am sharing my every week’s results with her to keep us  motivated.If you would like to join us  , just ping back to her post below and keep sharing your results :http://silverthreading.com/2016/02/15/mindful-monday-healthy-living-mindful-walking/

Diet Plan and Weight Watching-Week 7 update

Hello my lovely friends,Hope you are all doing fine . I am back again with an update from my Diet Plan and Weight Watching. I have not posted anything lately on my blog . Firstly , forgive me for being lazy and secondly I was sick last week,  that means it was a no diet week , only sleeping and resting at home . I  had a flu , thanks to my sinus and this cold weather , that also means I didnt go out much on walks.

Last two weeks I didnt follow my diet plan , only took care of  eating healthy , as a result my weight had no changes. Since I was home , I tried quite many recipes , Will post soon  for now pictures only 🙂

Frankly speaking I was bored  from 6 weeks  of Dieting and recording my calories, the weight was reducing slowly but my motivation was losing faster. The break helped me to overcome my laziness and negativity. I thought about why I am losing motivation ? , may be I am trying to lose weight faster without doing much efforts  or I lost my focus of eating healthy and staying healthy. Losing weight was not my sole goal, eating healthy , more natural food  and achieving a healthier lifestyle were also on the list. They just got lost in obsession of weight loss.  Losing weight is game of patience, slowly and keep doing the small little things that you are doing and it will come .

I also  tried to cook lebanese food and algerian food last week  ,

some pictures for you:

crepes

my indian tea with ginger and milk

pasta salad with veg patty

baked egg inside bread

lebanese platter with hummus, mutabbal, boiled lentils, grilled vegetables

Hummus, mutabbal ,salad and saute chicken

Tli Tli

Tli Tli : is an algerian dish, looks like orzo pasta ,difference is  it is steamed  rather than normal pasta  which is boiled  .It is eaten with a sauce of meat and vegetables and some boiled eggs on top. Yummy 😛

Hummus ( paste of boiled chickpeas with herbs, olive oil) is a good and healthy option for dips and lebanese bread is also light and less in calories. I am using hummus as dressing for my salad .it is a good replacement of creamy dressings.

Mutabbal( mix of grilled aubergines  with yogurt )  can be eaten like spread in sandwich or just like that with bread.

Crepes were the sunday breakfast, love it with different toppings of fruits and jams.

Egg baked inside bread, topped with some cheese and herbs.

My ginger tea helped my distress soul in cold.

  this week’s goals are  :

1. Calorie intake 1400 calories .
2. Cutting carbs from Dinner .
3. Handful of nuts everyday.
4. Adding more greens to my dinner  plate.
5. My dinner calories target is 400 calories.
6. weekly walk of 10 km.
7. 15 mins stretching exercise every morning.

apart from above goals I am also doing following as my routine:

• started smoothies for breakfast.
• Stopped taking sugar in my tea and coffee everyday.
• no soda and colas .
• Dinner latest by 7 pm .
• Eating more vegetables .
• 3 fruits daily.
• no white bread , brown or whole wheat bread.
• Green tea after dinner.
• Drinking a cup of warm water boiled with cinnamon and a teaspoon of honey in morning .

Below is link  from Colleen on her site about  her weight loss journey and some great health tips.I am sharing my every week’s results with her to keep us  motivated.If you would like to join us  , just ping back to her post below and keep sharing your results :

(http://silverthreading.com/2016/02/01/mindful-monday-healthy-living-the-8020-rule-other-healthy-diets/#comment-30654)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pesto Chicken

Another healthy recipe from our kitchen.  You can eat it as a Salad or a Starter as you prefer. It is a good dinner idea for people like us on diet . It will help you keep full and low on calories.

If you have been following this blog you must have noticed we are quite a fan of pesto sauce, I love the fresh smell of basil which makes anything I put it in so desirable with its fresh aroma and taste.

 

Preparation time : 15 mins                                                              Cooking time: 10 mins

Serves 2

Ingredients:

200 gm chicken filets.

1 big tomato.

2 tablespoon pesto sauce.

Salt, pepper as per your taste.

20 gm mozzarella  grated cheese

1 bay leaf.

Directions:

Boil the chicken with bay leaf and some salt. You can  use the water from chicken as chicken stock later.

Cut the tomatoes into round thin slices.

Spread some pesto sauce on each boiled chicken piece and put the tomato slice on it.

Sprinkle salt and pepper. Top it with some grated cheese.

Bake in oven for 10 mins till the cheese melts and you see brown cheesy crust on top.

Serve it with salad .

Here the pictures that will help you get better idea how we did it.

1

2

3

4

5

5

6

7

7

 

The inside view 🙂

Pumpkin Puree ( Indian Style Sweet Savoury )

Pumpkins are great for health . Mashed pumpkin has only 50 calories per cup and 3 grams of fiber. “Fiber helps keep you fuller longer, which keeps your appetite at bay so you eat less overall,” says nutrition and fitness expert JJ Virgin, author of The Virgin Diet.

Consuming one cup of cooked, canned pumpkin would provide well over 100% of your daily needs for vitamin A, 20% of the daily value for vitamin C, 10% or more for vitamin E, riboflavin, potassium, copper and manganese at least 5% for thiamin, B-6, folate, pantothenic acid, niacin, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus.

 

Preparation Time: 10 mins         Cooking time: 30 minutes

                    Serves – 2                        

Ingredients:

300 gm peeled pumpkin cut into cubes.

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon sugar

pinch of asafoetida powder

Salt -1/2 teaspoon

crushed Pepper-1/4 teaspoon

chili powder-1/2 teaspoon

1 tablespoon lemon juice or dry mango powder.

1 tablespoon Olive oil

Directions :

Add oil to cooker and once heated , all the cumin seeds and let them splutter.

Sprinkle asafoetida powder in oil and add pumpkin pieces.

Saute for a min and add spices (salt, pepper,turmeric, chili powder)

Add 1 cup of water , Cover and cook on low flame til pumpkin pieces are soft . ( If cooking in a pressure cooker, put the lid and cook until 3-4 whistles on medium flame)

Check if pumpkin is completely cooked, mash in until you see a puree. Add teaspoon of sugar and dry mango powder. Cook for another 5 mins on low flame till you see oil separates from puree.

Eat it with paratha or puri ( both are indian bread) you can enjoy it with boiled rice as well.

 

Diet Plan and Weight Watching-Week 6 update

 

I am back with my diet update for week 5. Last week  , I was indeed a bad student, I couldn’t control much on my calories this week. I will blame the cold weather for my binging 😉  I ate outside one time and  mostly cooked at home . The calories target of 1400 cal was missed  few times .Sometimes it was less and sometimes more than 1400 cal , but good news is I still managed to shed a pound in spite of my carelessness , my body is now getting active and increasing its metabolism.

Tips :

• Maintaining a diary for calories intake helps a lot to keep a check of food consumed.
• Adding some spices makes boring food interesting. Try out your cooking this week.

Some  pictures of the cooking done this week except the donuts .

 

A good idea for lighter dinner, 3 pieces of  medium sized vol au vent with homemade vegetable sauce makes 400 calories.

Recipe : https://fromworldskitchen.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/dinner-ideas-vol-au-vent-with-red-sauce/

You cannot indulge much into pizza except for a while it was a month already without pizza so we baked at home, 3 slices of homemade pizza are enough for  reaching 450 calories.

Pizza Recipe : https://fromworldskitchen.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/some-paneer-pizza-tonight/

Okra  Recipe : https://fromworldskitchen.wordpress.com/2015/10/15/bhindi-masala-do-pyaza-okra-indian-style/

fourth pic is pumpkin puree indian style with indian bread ( Recipe  coming soon )

fifth pic: minced meat with grated cauliflower cooked in indian spices ( Recipe  coming soon )

One donut  for a sunday breakfast doesn’t hurt, you can eat it guilt free 🙂

My last week’s goals ( the ones marked red are missed goals) , this week’s goals are same as well :

1. Calorie intake 1400 calories .
2. Cutting carbs from Dinner and lunch.
3. Handful of nuts everyday.
4. Adding more greens to my dinner  plate.
5. My dinner calories target is 400 calories.
6. Continuing my daily and weekly walks of 10 km.
7. 15 mins stretching exercise every morning.

apart from above goals I am also doing following as my routine:

Stopped taking sugar in my tea and coffee everyday.

no soda and colas and junk food

Replaced my morning sandwich  with boiled or scrambled eggs.

Dinner latest by 7 pm .

Eating more vegetables .

3 fruits daily.

no white bread , brown or whole wheat bread.

Green tea after dinner.

Drinking a cup of warm water boiled with cinnamon and a teaspoon of honey in morning .

Below is link  from Colleen on her site about  her weight loss journey and some great health tips.I am sharing my every week’s results with her to keep us  motivated.If you would like to join us  , just ping back to her post below and keep sharing your results :

(http://silverthreading.com/2016/01/11/mindful-monday-healthy-living-make-life-changes-to-help-you-achieve-your-goals/)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diet Plan and Weight Watching-Week 4 and 5 update

I started my Diet from Dec 2015 , the first two weeks  were to balance my food intake and adapting my habits to cooking/eating more healthy food. The initial two weeks were no weight loss and no weight gain weeks.The last two weeks I had lost 2 pounds in total, It’s not much but it is great feeling to see the scale meter coming down rather than going up as was the case from past few months.

The last two days of Dec and first two days of January, I couldn’t help myself to stop cooking and eating outside 😀 Holiday time . I ate and slept and ate again, went shopping  and dining . Although I tried to check the calories limitation not to exceed the level of 1800 cal, at which I do not gain any weight according to my BMI . I enjoyed my break from diet and also my  favorite food.

Some pictures from long weekend ,

 

 

My this week’s goals  :

1. Calorie intake 1400 calories .
2. Cutting carbs from Dinner and lunch.
3. Handful of nuts everyday.
4. Adding more greens to my dinner  plate.
5. My dinner calories target is 400 calories.
6. Continuing my daily and weekly walks.
7. 15 mins stretching exercise every morning.

apart from above goals I am also doing following as my routine:

Stopped taking sugar in my tea and coffee everyday.

no soda and colas and junk food

Replaced my morning sandwich  with boiled or scrambled eggs.

Dinner latest by 7 pm .

Eating more vegetables .

3 fruits daily.

no white bread , brown or whole wheat bread.

Green tea after dinner.

Drinking a cup of warm water boiled with cinnamon and a teaspoon of honey in morning .

Below is link  from Colleen on her site about  her weight loss journey and some great health tips.I am sharing my every week’s results with her to keep us  motivated.If you would like to join us  , just ping back to her post below and keep sharing your results :

http://silverthreading.com/2016/01/04/mindful-monday-healthy-living-setting-realistic-goals-for-2016/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green Beans with Tuna

 

Preparation time : 10 minutes                               Cooking time : 15-20 mins

Serves :2 

Ingredients

1 small can tuna ( 100 gm)

Onion- half small, finely chopped

Green beans –  200 gm,cut into two piece each

Garlic -2 big cloves finely chopped

Salt -1 teaspoon

Pepper powder-1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder-1/2 teaspoon

chili powder-1/2 teaspoon

Asafoetida powder- to sprinkle

Persil  (for dressing)

1 spoon lemon juice (dressing)

 

Directions:

In a wok/pan  heat oil  and  sprinkle some asafoetida into oil, add chopped onion,garlic and fry them for 2-3 minutes on medium flame.

Add the spices ,salt pepper and now fry for a minute.

 Add the beans ,saute for 3-4 mins.

Cover the wok for 5 mins on low flame till beans become soft.

Now add tuna, mix  and fry them all for a minute on low flame until it all look cooked.

Top it with some persil and lemon juice and enjoy with bread . I added some Pomme Duchesse as starters at my plate ( duchess potatoes).

Pasta Salad with Chicken Steak

So tonight’s dinner was chicken steak  and some pasta salad.

 

               Preparation Time: 15 mins         Cooking time :20 mins

                                   Serves – 2 

Ingredients:

3 chicken filets( 100 gm each),

one filet cut into small pieces for salad and remaining two for steak

Cherry tomatoes   (5-6)

onion(1 slice) optional

yellow pepper  1/2 medium

Mozzarella cheese-5-6 cubes

boiled corns- canned ( 50 gm)

lettuce (10 big leaves)

Olives (5-6) canned

Boiled pasta ( 200 gms)

Salt -1:2 teaspoon

Pepper-1/4 teaspoon

chicken boneless  (200 gms)

Red Chili powder -1 teaspoon

Herbe de Provence 1 teaspoon

Garlic Powder-1/2 teaspoon

2 tablespoon Olive oil

1 teaspoon of vinegar

1 tablespoon of Green Pesto Sauce

Directions :

Marinate the chicken filets for steak  with salt,pepper, chili powder , garlic powder ,herb de provence and 1 tbsp of olive oil . Keep it aside for sometime before you  prepare your  dinner.

For Salad,first grill or shallow fry chicken pieces and keep aside to cool.

Chop lettuce, tomatoes , pepper , onion slice and add to your salad bowl.

Add the boiled corns ,olives and cheese cubes as well.

Now add grilled chicken  and boiled  pasta .

for the dressing : add salt,pepper,few drops of olive oil,vinegar , and pesto sauce. Mix well. Your Salad is ready.

Shallow fry your marinated chicken filets or grill it as you prefer, till you see both sides with golden brown color.

Enjoy !!

Diet Plan and Weight Watching-Week3

Today is my third week of Diet plan and weight watching and I am here with my update about last week . My week went quite good with all calories intake noted down carefully in my excel sheet reaching target of 1400 calories and sometimes even lower until i arrived weekend it was all good . I couldn’t control much on eating outside 😦 but  I tried to compensate  by walking  10 kms during my weekend.The goals were successfully accomplished almost until friday 😉

The good news is I lost some weight(1 pound)  even though it is not much in spite of my rebellion to my diet but I am happy for now 🙂

My last week’s goals were  :

1. To bring down my intake from 1600-1700  Calories to 1400 calories .√
2. Cutting carbs from Dinner and lunch. So Instead of eating two slice of bread for lunch and dinner  . I would reduce to one each meal.√
3. To include Yogurt in my meals. In India we make a salty yogurt dip called Raita. (You can add grated cucumber or small pieces of  tomato  with some salt, cumin powder or other spices of your choice in a low fat yogurt) .It makes a good side dish.√
4. Handful of nuts everyday.√
5. Adding Salad to dinner every day.  √
6. My dinner calories target is 300 calories  . (couldn’t keep everyday)
7. Adding walk to my routine.Currently I am walking to metro station everyday  which is 1.5 km . I will add 500 meters more to my everyday walk. I will get down a station before  and will try to walk down home.√ (even walked extra more than my goal , yay!)

This week’s goal are same as last week except I will avoid  much cheating.I will keep the cheat day limit to  1800 Cal which I  can compensate with my walks.

I am  expecting to reduce 2 pounds in this week ,apart from above goals I am also doing following as my routine:

Stopped taking sugar in my tea and coffee everyday.

Replaced my morning sandwich  with boiled or scrambled eggs.

Dinner latest by 7 pm .

Eating more green vegetables .

3 fruits daily.

no white bread , brown or whole wheat bread.

Drinking a cup of warm water boiled with cinnamon and a teaspoon of honey.

Below is link  from Colleen on her site about  her weight loss journey and some great health tips.I am sharing my every week’s results with her to keep us  motivated.If you would like to join us  , just ping back to her post below and keep sharing your results :

http://silverthreading.com/2015/12/21/mindful-monday-healthy-living-choose-your-eating-battles/