Thursday, January 26, 2012

Avocado and Basil Mayo

This is hands down the best mayo I've ever tasted. I've used it on burgers, wraps and as a dip it tastes fantastic and is heart healthy too. If you can get your hands on basil and avocado do try this out.

Avocado and Basil Mayo: http://www.drbenkim.com/avocado-basil-mayo-recipe.html

2 ripe avocados, pitted, scooped and cut into cubes
handful of basil leaves
2Tb olive oil (I omitted this)
2Tb lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper to taste

1) Combine the basil, garlic and salt and blend to a paste.
2) Add the avocado and blend till smooth.
3) Mix in the oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

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If you are thinking, "why has she put the dressing on a soup spoon"
short answer- I have a 17 mo.
long answer- If this was in a bowl he would have managed to put his entire face in the bowl. He didn't even leave the spoon alone, he kept chanting "icheem-u, icheem-u" (ice cream). Out of the 10 photo I managed to click with great difficulty, 8 were out of focus as I was fending him off with 1 hand and clicking with the other- not easy.

Hows the WFPD going?

I am on week 2 no sugar, no APF, no fried food I thought I would die not so. But guess what my un-co-operative, un-considerate and sugar crazy husband did last weekend. He bought a salted caramel sundae from Haagen-Dazs at the mall and the woman asked, "and you? You don't want anything?" (we are regulars (can one even say this about an ice cream store?!) so she knows us pretty well) I said, "no I will share his" and he said, "she is on a diet". I wanted to decorate his head with that sundae but I just composed myself and smiled a 10 volt smile and bolted from there. He did something even more wicked- he stored half a cup of that sundae in the freezer. I had to fight the temptation to taste it (just salivated whenever I opened the freezer).

I don't know how many inches I have lost as my boy has misplaced the measuring tape. But one can check for weight loss without a tape. How? Just stand in front of the mirror and shake, if things jiggle you haven't lost anything. In my case still some amount of jiggling. And all this exercise and dieting just got me thinking it is SO hard to get a six pack or lose them evil fat parcels called muffin top (which looks cut on a muffin definitely not on the hips).

Another thing - I used to have terrible headaches every time I watched too much TV, too much internet (too much =40mins) or even cutting onions. I had to take pills else my day would be ruined. Its been 2 weeks no headache nothing *fingers crossed* is it because of the diet? And as you know I am not a doctor/nurse/nutritionist, this is just my observation.

Another thing (I am still not done yet) do you like adai? I L.O.V.E adai and yes you guessed it right J doesn't. But I am not concerned about him too much cos except for sugar he doesn't like anything much. I found 2 amazing adai recipes that you must try, listen J ate 5 of them in 1 sitting so thats saying something-
1) http://www.sharmispassions.com/2012/01/oats-adai-recipe-oats-breakfast-recipes.html
2) http://www.egglesscooking.com/2009/02/18/cracked-wheat-moong-dal-crepes/ (I substituted cracked wheat instead of the oats and followed the recipe of the oats adai)

Now I think I am done, have an awesome day y'all!

Monday, January 16, 2012

The ugly pics.

Sorry for the delay in posting, weekends are SO busy. Anyway here you go,

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See those love handles? Ugh. I hate them and see the extra fat hanging off the arms yuck yuck yuck. When I wave at people I only want my hand to wave not other things.

I have saved the best for last-

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If you are still alive read the measurements-
Waist- 35'
R. thigh- 22'
L. thigh- 21.5'
Arms- 10.5'
Weight- 123lbs

I had my last sweet sugary bubble tea yesterday. I bought almond milk (I don't like soy milk) surprisingly it tasted better than cows milk. We shall see how this goes.

Oh wait before you go I just have to show you my hilarious and weird Shankaranti platter. Its just too funny,

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 methi-palak muthias from Tarla Dalal, green chutney, rava ladoos, ridgegourd chutney and Idiyappam from Raghavan Iyer's 660 curries. I know it looks like a normal day menu for some of you (which is why I had to put this up!), but I so done with searching for menu. Cooking is the easy part coming up with a menu is hard. How was your festival hopefully you made something more delish than my sad platter!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Whole foods plant-based diet experiment.

"aiooo.. look at this stupid belly and idiotic love handles, they just don't want to leave me", said I to J for the 10th time this week.
"give it time, you are working out it has to go" came the reply.

Ah? thats the point, I am working out so shouldn't they be gone already? I lost 2lbs and thats it, the number on the scale has not changed at all. I have not lost lbs or inches. Then few days ago I watched the documentary "Forks over knives". It was about two doctors who proved that with a whole foods plant-based diet (WFPD) one can overcome high cholesterol, diabetes and other ailments (in addition to losing weight). You can get all the information about the movie here- http://www.forksoverknives.com/about/synopsis/ http://www.nomeatathlete.com/forks-over-knives-review/

Ah? I do not eat meat so what is it with me and belly fat? Then I looked at my kitchen counter,


- Veggie chips are not mine (I hate American snacks, I find them too bland) it belongs to J (and like you, I am also wondering why he picked up that huge bag from Costco). Those fried peanuts and channa chor are mine. Coated with besan and spices then deep fried yummm...
-The chocolates belong to J, that doesn't stop me from popping 1 or 2 or 3 during the day.
-Biscuits, are bought for my kiddo (who does not like them) he eats may be 1/4 of it and puts the rest in my mouth.
- Also not there in the picture is a huge bowl of gulab jamun I made last weekend. They call out to me every morning and night "eat me, eat me" they say and how can I say 'nay"?

I think I know now why belly fat wants to be my BFF. So I have decided to make myself the guinea pig for this experiment, where I will eliminate the following food items for 4 weeks.
- dairy: milk, ghee, butter, cheese EXCEPT yogurt. I am a South Indian I cannot do without my curd rice. However I am going to limit myself to only 1/2 c of yogurt.
- sugar: (I want to die right now sniff..) I intend to use Agave/honey instead again very moderately.
- all processed food like all purpose flour, white bread etc.
In the movie they eliminated even oil (even olive oil because it was refined/processed product) I have no clue how to do a tadka or saute onions without oil. So I plan on use oil but less than 1Tb.

How long is this torture, I mean experiment going to last?
4 weeks. Starting from Monday Jan 16th till Feb 13th. Why Monday and not today? I have to stock up on fruits and non-dairy milk and also make some sweets for Sankaranti.

Workout plans?
I absolutely hate walking/jogging. It bores me to death. I need something intense, something that will make me sweat like a pig, pant like a dog and the workout should just fly by and not give my brain a chance to get bored. So I will be doing Chalene Johnson's Turbo Fire and Jillian Micheals' Ripped in 30 (its not new I have been doing them so I will just continue with those workouts).

This is going to be easy and hard. Easy because I don't like cheese/ghee/butter, hard because I love me some cakes/ice creams/shakes/juice/fried items. I usually don't do such drastic diet changes, the only time I did such a thing was going on a stupid no-carb diet with a friend for 1 week. It was SO horrible, I was still in school at that time, I just couldn't focus and was hungry all the time ( I mean what can a vegetarian eat on a no-carb diet?! and what the hell was I thinking going on that diet!),this seems hard but very much doable. And I do expect very drastic results by drastic I mean like 4 inches off my waist that kind of thing.

I know what some of you might be thinking, 'why are you putting this up on the blog?'
1) this blog is almost dead wait it is already dead. I don't go out, we have no social life whatsoever so there is not much that I can write about. I seriously considered closing down this site, because I don't like things to be in limbo (like this site write 1 post and disappear for 2 months) and I don't want to write crap just for the sake of writing because I am a severe OCD case, I don't like half-assed jobs. I mean if a recipe says roll the cookie dough to 8' by 13' I will get a measuring tape and measure my dough, I am that anal (or nut loose, no wonder I love Alton Brown). So this WFPD experiment will give me something to write or maybe even some recipes to share.
2) I also thought about making a private blog and writing about my WFPD experiment (I have to document it because I want my mom and sister to read about it) but there might be people who have the belly fat-BFF thing going on so it might help/motivate someone.
Get ready for Sunday cos I am going to be posting pictures (who doesn't like before and after photos?!) and all the measurements. It is going to get ugly.

These are really good to watch,