Cleanse complete

Successfully completed the 21-day cleanse yesterday - Week 1 was much harder than expected, but Week2/3 were easier. It gave me a chance to note all my bad food habits and also gave me time to (hopefully) give up some of them for good.

Green smoothies were a bit hit - hubby loves them a LOT and gave up his morning tea for them.

The Chia pudding was not a great hit with me - but the daughter LOVES it. The chilled gooey, coconut milk pudding suits her taste buds. Its a great snack or breakfast item for the kids.

The son LOVES almond butter, just as much as I do. We both licked it off the spoon every afternoon.

I lost 6-7lbs. That brings my total for this year to about 12+ lbs. I am MORE than happy. I feel fit, and healthy. I am getting rid of the pregnancy fat, slowly and steadily. I continue to go for short runs, walks, occasional biking, and doing weights/kettle-bells at home.

My only cheats were eating black beans a day before they were allowed, and a portion of the kids fries when we visited Ikea :). I am proud of myself!!!!

If you want any tips or any new recipes that I learnt, or some basic principles on green juicing, let me know and I will be happy to pass along what I know!

This is the program I did: http://simplegreensmoothies.com/cleanse.

Looking forward to pigging out this week, including a big bowl of icecream tonite :) :)!!!!

Day 3: The Thakkar Kitchen (part 2)

Continuing from the previous post...

This is what I cooked for dinner tonite....

Methi Kaaju Matar Malai (served with Paratha) - even though the name says malai, I used 2% milk and reduced it to make the gravy. This is a healthy dish and very flavorful too!

For Diwali, I tried making two new sweets. I loosely followed the recipes from the internet, and they turned out good. 

Peda - entirely cooked in microwave....

Kalakand - this one was a hit. It reminded me of "doodh no maavo" from Ahmedabad.

Mum made some awesome snacks - chakri, kachori, kela ni wafer.....

During a recent visit to a local temple, we tried a very good alternative to a typical vegetable cooked in Gujarat - they made "zucchini tuver" instead of "ringna (eggplant) tuver" - Dad and I (and my sister) are somewhat allergic to eggplant and we mostly avoid it. So this variation has become a hit in our house now. We all love zucchinis a lot (even the daughter).

Zucchini Tuver - with Bhakri, homemade pickle, ghee/gol....

When mum makes dinner, it's traditional dishes like this one below, which is our family recipe.

Vaalor Dhokli - a variety of vegetables (instead of Vaalor) can be used with dhokli...yum yum yum!

And on my birthday, mum/sis/I made this for everyone....

Undhiyu - I love all the colorful veggies.....Mum made those awesome muthiyas.....it takes a while to prep for it but cooking is sooper fast. We always have leftovers and enjoy them for a couple of days.

I had a picture of the finished dish but I can't find it on my laptop....

As mentioned in the previous post, if you need recipes, please leave a comment!

Day 2: The Thakkar Kitchen

With mum and dad around, fresh healthy meals prepared daily are a norm. Mum takes care of lunch, and usually, I prepare dinner. My dad is very fond of my cooking, and he has this curious look on his face when he asks me what's on the menu for dinner. He gets excited when I tell him I'm trying something new...especially if its something non-traditional.

My sister is an equally good cook as mum and I. She loves to bake, and her cakes are to die for! So the Thakkar Kitchen, as we like to call it, is always an aromatic inviting place!

One of the things I love to do is taking new ingredients (that are not typically used in Indian cooking) and making Indian dishes out of them. I was on a cooking spree in November - we tried out so many new dishes. I used to upload an Instagram picture to FB whenever I made something new, and so many friends have asked me for recipes. I usually google for recipes, but always modify them to suit our taste. Sometimes, I combine two or three recipes together. Whatever I do, the result is always great...which gives me the confidence to keep trying!

Here's some of the stuff I cooked recently:

Dabeli - Ahmedabad street food. A healthier version with no butter and also without onion/garlic to suit my parents' preferences.

Aloo Tikki Chaat - mimicking the famous "Bhalla" from Agra. We made this on Thanksgiving day and it was delish!

Chunky Guac - with black beans, roasted sweet corn, lemon zest, cilantro, black pepper and salt - served with some kind of healthy chips - we do quinoa/black bean, or gluten free multi-grain with flax seeds.

Lettuce wrap filling - Another favorite in our house, mimicking the veggie lettuce wraps from P.F.Changs!

Couscous Upma - I don't like traditional upma much, but I absolutely dig this one!

Chaat Baskets - I can never get enough of chaat. This one is my tried and tested recipe of all the ingredients that I love in my chaat. My mom loves it so much, she always makes me prepare more so we can have it for 2 days straight!

Paneer Tikka Masala Pizza - I don't like Pizza at all....and living in the US, I'm sometimes forced to have it (parties, group lunches, etc). I have never tried making pizza at home until now....so I took whole wheat pizza dough, and made a paneer tikka masala gravy to go on top, along with Amul cheese and Cilantro - and this is one pizza I could eat anyday! My dad said this is the best pizza he's ever had :)!

Spicy Masala Baby Potatoes - These were so so yummy!

If you need recipes for any of these dishes, please leave a comment and I will email it to you!