Of late, I have taken a little change from my normal routine. Everyday, I used to slave an hour and a half in the morning in some pathetic traffic to get to office and a little over an hour in the evening to get back home. For a couple of weeks, I was without a vehicle to commute and my colleague introduced me to the joy of metro riding. Even though I knew it was convenient, I always thought it was crowded and liked to excuse myself from it for so many unjustifiable reasons. But once I started using it, it made me realise how much stress it takes away from me. The ride is exactly 30 minutes to the nearest station to my office, which is followed by a 5-8 minute walk. With the climate getting better, I started using it and now even though I have a vehicle for myself now – Alhamdulillah!, I still prefer to catch the metro.
I still start at the same time from home, but it takes me around 30 to 40 minutes to get to the station. From there the ride, in which most of the time I doze off and I am awake by the time my station is reached. I sincerely hope I don’t oversleep. 😉 This is followed by a warm up walk, like I call it! The same schedule happens vice versa while coming back. My time of reaching home has overshot by around 20 minutes, partly due to the fact that the Maghrib (sunset) prayers are early now and I catch up with it at a mosque close the station before heading towards home. But still, I really don’t mind that extra time since I feel really relaxed of not having to take the stress of traffic, and that feeling has been immense. I take the metro whenever I can and only if I get held up in intial traffic that reaching the station becomes a bit late, I drive off directly to work. I am really hoping I continue this without breaking the habit. 🙂
On my parent’s plot back home, D is trying his level best to make it fertile. My umma’s sister’s (eleema as we call) house is right in front and when they were working on their plot, they had put some mango trees and one sapota tree in our plot as well. By the time D and umma got settled, all of them grew to become very fruitful trees, Alhamdulillah. Whenever it’s mango season, umma tells that they feel guilty of eating the mangoes all by themselves since there would be so much that even distributing would not suffice. She would sent some over in case some relatives are coming empty handed. Same is the case of the sapota tree. It is a small one, just about my height but it gives out so much fruit all throughout the year, MaShaAllah. The only problem is the ripening. By the time it ripens, the crows and the squirrels come, have a bite and throw it off. You can’t even use them, can you? So both of them keep a close watch and try to pluck as much as possible whenever it is closing on to becoming ripe.
Since umma knows B and I love sapota, umma tries to send a small consignment at least three times a year. I love to eat it whole, including the skin, while B loves it blitzed. Whenever I feel guilty of eating up most of it, I blitz a big glass of this for him as his after-work drink. 😀 HD is not very fond of it, so I get to eat his portion! 😉 I used to always make this with a pinch of cardamom till my colleague said that a juice shop guy back home had told him that they add a nice heaped tablespoon of Horlicks into their chickoo shakes. What a discovery! It just doubles the maltiness of the shake! It does help a lot having foodie colleagues, isn’t it? 😉 Off to the recipe…
I’m glad your commute is much more pleasant. We don’t have the greatest public transportation system in Indianapolis, but luckily the commute is not as bad as it would be in Chicago! This recipe is quick and simple. I didn’t realize chickoo and sapota were the same thing. I think my dad eats sapota, but I can’t say I’ve ever had it before.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Rafia…
Chickoo milkshake used to be one constant thing during college days to order while at a cafe … It was yumm, filling and so refreshing…. Seeing your milkshake I feel like having it now…looks good
Haha… I normally finish eating my chickoos before I can blitz it, and back home, when I go, they don’t have it… grr… thank you so much Anupa…
This Chickoo wonder has a nice malt taste and is irresistible Sweets. I agree.
Thank you so much Tum…
We too have a tree back home in cbe. And yeah have to save it from the squirrels and crows! 🙁 Never tried adding horlicks though I have heard about it. My dad is against horlicks after some news which I can’t remember exactly but we have never used it nor gift anyone hospitalized (which used to be the norm right) Do you know any other brand that is similar to horlicks? or raw alternate? Need to check it..
About your new routine – good job. Anything to keep stress away is good for you and for those who live with you! 🙂
Oh is it? 😕 I also buy a brand called Viva which comes from Sri Lanka, but if you read the credits, it’s the same company which makes Horlicks, but is cheaper and more finer than Horlicks. We love a good cup of Horlicks on cold days, so there is always a pack home… I think there is something called malt extract, Haven’t tried it though… Thanks a lot Fami… 🙂
me and my son’s favorite juice, adding Horlicks good and healthy
but here we are not getting ripe sappota, where u buy rafee
Akka, what you said is true, difficult to get good sapota here, even when I have asked HD to get from Aweer, still it was not good. I made the juice with what I got from home, they are super sweet. Thanks a lot dear…
In my place people dislikes chickoo for its rusty texture so i search for a recipe of it.
Thanks a lot Gleeve… hope you enjoy this recipe…