“The month of Ramadhan [is that] in which was revealed the Qur’an, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights [the new moon of] the month, let him fast it; and whoever is ill or on a journey – then an equal number of other days. Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship and [wants] for you to complete the period and to glorify Allah for that [to] which He has guided you; and perhaps you will be grateful.” — Surat Al-Baqarah 2:185 Wishing all my readers a blessed Ramadan ahead… It is surreal that we have reached yet another of this blessed month, Alhamdulillah… I have been more active on my social media of late. Those who follow me on my Instagram handle would definitely know about it – if you aren’t following me, then…
Payyoli Kozhi Curry | Chicken Curry
Can you believe Ramadan is right there at the corner? Sometimes it feels it came way too fast, but I can’t help it but say that it has come at a time when it is needed. I feel like I have a terribly parched soul, just struggling to get in terms with everything that is happening. For surely, this month comes like a relief at the right time. For me, Ramadan is like a breath of fresh air. A change in routine, a more balanced life, a peaceful thought process, a new hope… It literally recharges all the dying batteries within you. I am sure that feeling comes because the devils are chained during this precious month. There is no one but ourselves to beat when they are off our head. It takes some time to realize that there is a lot of inbuilt evil within ourselves, when…
Naga Spicy Ginger Chicken
The month end is usually the day of posting for the Shhh Cooking Challenge whenever I decide to participate. As I had mentioned in the past few posts for the challenge, the group is doing an Indian state every month and this month, it is one of the lesser known North Eastern states called Nagaland. I don’t know what was my mental status when I confirmed a “yes” for participation, only to realize that it was really difficult to find authentic sources of this state’s cuisine! The state’s food is an amalgamation of its influences of its surrounding territories, and the food uses limited ingredients, yet high on flavor. One of the main ingredient is the Bhut Jalokia or ghost chilli, as it is called, and has the reputation of being the spiciest chilli in the world! Their food is high on the use of meat and fish…
Strawberry Summer Cake
It feels good to have a break at times. I was trying to arrange a stay-cation earlier this month, but due to conflicting schedules, I got it done over this weekend. I was praying that the weather wouldn’t be harsh, as usually April ends start getting quite hot and humid. Thankfully, everything went in our favor. Not that the weekend started off well. HD tried to help extra and in the process, my house was hit with a mini sandstorm and our vacuum cleaner conked off. Who wants to go on a stay-cation after cleaning the whole house? He sensed my panic attack and immediately moped the whole place, though that did very little to salvage my stress. But still, we somehow put it behind and pushed ourselves out. Once out the house, the mood was different. The drive was good. We relaxed a bit. Then the dad…
Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream
While I made the Mango Kulfi and the Jack-fruit Ice Cream to fulfill my “blogger mind desires”, this ice cream was fair and square made for the girls. Whenever we go to Baskin Robbins, I always end up taking Jamoca Almond Fudge. I just don’t look anywhere else. It is my standard choice. Now my girls have started following suite. The elder one moved her favorite flavor from Praline and Cream and the younger one has graduated from the bizarre colored ones like Bubble Gum (yikes!). They have been telling me since ages to try this flavor at home. I knew it wouldn’t be hard to replicate, but then it is more work that other ice creams. I have to roast and chop the almonds. I have to make the fudge sauce. I have to do a little bit of work in between to get it done. Oh…
Jackfruit Ice Cream
Just yesterday I mentioned my jack-fruit getting spoiled, so you must be wondering from where this ice cream post? If you have read it carefully, I have mentioned that one of the post is from my drafts. So this is the post… 😉 I don’t eat jack-fruit. I know I would get beaten up for this, but then that is the truth. I used to eat a lot of jackfruit when small. Each time we go home, my mattamma would reserve at least a couple of jack-fruits for us. She had a lot of jack-fruit trees on her plot, more than mango trees in fact, and they yielded the sweetest jack-fruits I have ever eaten. She still does have some trees, but not as much as it did before. She would patiently sit and remove the flesh from inside, and as though we were in a competition, my…
Instant Mango Kulfi
It’s been ages since I have worked on a 3B2B series for the blog. Somehow, my drafts have been dwindling and I haven’t been getting three posts that would fit into a theme, so I had thought to give the series a rest. 😉 But this month, because of the heat wave, I ended up making two back to back frozen desserts and one was staring back on me from my drafts, so bingo! I had three posts ready to be give a little life to that series. As you may have guessed, you will get to see three back to back ice-creams or frozen desserts, whatever you would like to call it, to beat the blazing summers! Last month, B traveled home for a few days and he came back with a whole lot of luggage, including mangoes and jack fruit. I am sad to declare that…
Dry Coconut Rava Laddoo
Taking my time to do challenges is really helping me breathe well and choose what I want to do on the blog. I am really enjoying the phase, to say the least. With life getting tougher by the day, we need to adjust our priorities and while I still keep my blog close to my heart, I am going really slow and loving the process. This month, after a couple of months break, I got back into Recipe Swap which is now hosted by Mir. In this challenge, we are assigned a blog, which we dig into and choose a recipe that we would love to cook. This month, I was assigned Usha’s blog, which is one of my favorite discoveries after being in the Blogging Marathon. I love her neat, crisp pictures and her simple recipes. Just like her blog name, she features a lot of savory…
Mango Mousse Cake
I do sometimes thank God for making me keep posts pending to get to an opportunity. If you see, I rarely celebrate any personal occasion of mine except the girls’ birthdays or our anniversary. And today happens to be our anniversary number 15, Alhamdulillah. I almost forgot about it, actually speaking. Every April 14, I have done a post and actually, every year, the posts reflected how exactly I felt about him. The past six years I have been blogging, our marriage has been topsy turvy of sorts. I guess that happens to every family at some stage. At times, you wonder, how stupid you were to be or stay married to the man or the woman you are now with. But then after a few hours, the thoughts just tide over and gets replaced with something else. I guess that’s how life is, we need to wait for…
Easy Chewy Granola Bars | Granola Bars with Goji Berries & Chia
I am usually very prompt with doing my challenge posts. But for this month’s Muslim Food Blogger challenge, I delayed it as much as I possibly could. It wasn’t that the challenge wasn’t tough. I had a lot of ideas floating in my head. Oh, I didn’t tell what was the challenge. This month, we went with Lubna’s suggestion of making some healthy bites. It is summer vacations back home, and even here, schools were off the past month. When kids are off, then naturally, they are constantly hungry and searching the home up, down and center for something or the other to eat. So this theme couldn’t have come at the correct time. If you have noticed, I did three recipes with the similar theme in the last month’s Blogging Marathon too. 🙂 My first thought was to do something in line with the Dates Bliss Balls….
Besan Aloo Mirchi ki Sabzi | Potato Capsicum Curry
I wish I didn’t have to crib. Everyday I have a tough time trying to decide what to cook for dinner. I seem to find that it is getting tougher as the girls grow up. When I started blogging, they were small so they would eat anything that was given to them. But now, they frown and scorn for anything that I make, except pizzas. 😕 Being a mother, this is totally frustrating. With a totally tight schedule these days, I look forward to cooking meals that get done in 30 minutes. Rasha loathes eggs and any dal curry, while Azza is indifferent towards chicken and meat – I wonder if there are kids like that these days! Vegetables are an even big no-no, except for a cucumber daily. My girls don’t even like whole lentils or potatoes. Sometimes, I feel so lost… but then I pull out my…
Cookie Butter/ Biscoff Chocolate Chunk Cookies
I haven’t been sharing much on the blog because it’s been the usual hussle-bussle. I won’t say nothing is happening in life… There is a lot happening but somehow I don’t want to sink myself into it. It is always better to try and stay afloat, rather than push yourself down and feel awful about it. From the start of the year, things haven’t been really positive, and that has stalled even my weight loss. I am not able to put in as much discipline into my eating as I had done last year, and this is frustrating me to the core. But I am trying to stay focused on myself and keeping myself on line, making sure that I don’t lose all the hard work that I have done last year. Maintenance is as important and sustainable at the stage I am in, I guess… 🙂 Talking…