Mixed Vegetable Rice

Today I'm sharing my favorite rice dish, which I cook every Sunday afternoon. This dish is not only  healthy food but also tastes good. I consider it as healthy food because, all vegetables used in cooking are very good for health.

Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time : 30 mins

Ingredients:
Rice - 2 cups
Oil - 2 tbsp
Cinnamon stick - 1 medium
Cardamon - 3 cloves
Cloves - 3
Shahjeera - 1 tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Carrots chopped - 1 cup
Beans chopped - 1/2 cup
Corn - 1/2 cup
Green Peas - 1/4 cup
Onions - 2
Chillies - 2
Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
Turmeric - 1 pinch
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Cashew nuts - 8 pcs
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp

Cooking process:
1. Wash rice neatly and soak it for 30 mins
2. In a pan heat 2 tbsp of oil and add cardamon, cinnamon, cloves and shahjeera. Let them fry for 2 mins.
3. Add vertically chopped onions, chopped chillies  and pinch of turmeric in to the pan. Fry them until the onions turn translucent.
4. Add ginger- garlic paste, mix it well and leave it for 2 mins.
5. Add chopped carrots, beans, corn and peas to the pan and mix them well. Leave the mixture for 5 mins on medium flame.
6. Add chilli powder, coriander powder and salt to the mixture and mix well.
7. Cook for 5 mins in completely low flame.
8. Add these completely cooked mixture to soaked rice. Add 6 cups of water in to the rice bowl.
9. Add chopped coriander leaves and mix the rice and vegetables well.
10. If you are cooking in electric cooker then it might take some 20 mins to cook. If you prefer to cook the rice in Pressure cooker then make sure you turn off after 2 whistles.
11. In the mean fry cashew nuts and keep them aside.

Garnish the rice with fried cashew nuts and possible with mint leaves. Serve with Carrot raitha.

Carrot Raitha:
1. Chop 1 medium onion, grate 2 medium carrots and chop 1 chilli
2. Add them to 2 cups of yogurt.
3. Add salt to taste.

Mixed vegetable rice with Carrot raitha

Cheers,
Vrinda

Healthy Breakfast

"Honey, they say ( weather forecast) it is going to rain today, I shall go by car" is the first thing I hear on a Saturday morning. That is when I realized that this Saturday is a working day for my husband. Then I dragged myself from the bed and reached balcony to wave bye to him. Later I went to freshen up, splashed cold water on my face which completely brought me back in to this world. After shower when I reached kitchen that is where the biggest challenge of the day begins 'Breakfast'... the thing is we prefer not just a breakfast but a 'Healthy breakfast'.

I usually cook Dosa, Idly and upma in the mornings for breakfast, which are only served to my husband.  I consume very less oil while cooking them, but I prefer eating fruits over them. Mostly my breakfast includes fruits, Tropicana juice and small portion of dry fruits.

Dry fruits:

1. Helps reducing weight, as these are the foods associated with lower Body mass index (BMI).
2. These help in reducing cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic diseases.
3. Help in increasing the bone health.

Pomegranate:

1. Helps reducing dental plaque.
2. Systolic blood pressure can be reduced in just 2 weeks.

Juice:

1. Juices rich in Vitamin C, folic acid and potassium are excellent source of bioavailable antioxidant phytochemicals. 

Some researchers say that consuming lot of juice will increase the chances of gaining weight. Whereas it is also believed that consuming them in the mornings and avoiding them rest of the day is very good for health.

All these food items which are very healthy make my breakfast complete and keep me active through out the day. I'm not following any diet plan, but I've seen lot of change in my skin and body while I have this kind of breakfast. 

Share your views and the breakfast you prefer...

Cheers,

Vrinda

Ambulance - plz give way!

In India route clearance should be done only for the President and the Prime Minister. Whereas for the Chief Ministers the red light should be turned green that is all no other concession is to be provided according to Indian government. But yesterday when we were returning to home from office we've seen a situation where an ambulance with patient is blocked in traffic for CM convoy. This is ridiculous, is CM's convoy more important than the patient in critical state with immediate need of assistance. I wouldn't expect to halt convoy and let ambulance move, but at least ambulance should be allowed to pass by immediately rather stopping it for 5 to 10 mins.  Sometimes even a delay by minute can cause death. By the way these VIPs are also public people, they are public servants in fact. 

The problem is not only with VIP convoy, it is with the huge traffic jams, the emergency services provided by our nation and the attitude of public. There are few people who try to overtake Ambulance, sometimes they even come in the way of Ambulance. We cannot do anything for traffic jams as it is out of our hands and talking about the services provided by our nation, I consider it a waste of time. But at least  we can try to change our attitude. 

I request you guyz to follow the below rules while you find Ambulance:

1. If you are travelling on Bike, please let a way to an ambulance with out causing any accident.
2. If at all you are travelling in car before pulling off the car just signal to the ambulance driver. Immediately pull the car to the left hand side of the road. 
3. Do not stop the car on the main road, try to move in to some street so that you will not jam the traffic. 
4. Before getting back in to traffic just make sure there are no more ambulances coming behind as in case of huge accidents there might be line of ambulances.

I do not know the rest of the world but in countries like USA and UK,  I've seen people following the above listed rules very strictly. There they value for the their citizens lives where as in India there is no value for human life!!! 

One more weirdest thing I've seen on TV recently is 108 getting prank ambulance calls!!! There were around 3.5 lac fake calls in the past 5 years, in the past 1 year the prank calls percentage increased from 14 percent to 25 percent. The TV report also says that  because of these fake calls there is lot of time is being wasted and sometimes 108 is not able to provide the service for the needy. I guess there are many mindless idiots out there.....


adios,
Vrinda

Hurray!!! CSK lost IPL5...

Hello Frenzzz....


I've been thinking to write a post on my adda since long, but was busy shuffling between home and office. Today I write  to share my happiness over the defeat of CSK in IPL. Yess I'm not happy because KKR won the match as I'm supporter of MI, but yes jubilant over the defeat of CSK!!!

I somehow was not glad about CSK making to the play offs and this feeling got even stronger when CSK defeated MI in the qualifiers. I felt Dhoni was just lucky to win all the games or the opposite teams were unlucky as they lost the matches even after performing very well. Let it be DD or MI they were performing consistently very good through out the series. These two teams loosing in qualifiers was very disappointing for me. I always wonder why Dhoni gets the whole credit irrespective the game is played by 11 players. 

 As Dhoni who comes in the last few overs of the innings takes away the whole credit of winning the match just by hitting a six or four. This is increasing his strike rate and the market rate from his brands. This is not fair, what about the openers and the middle order who play so well and try to keep less runs for the down order. What about the bowlers who bowl so very well in the whole game (oops... I take my words back.... I know how talented our Indian bowlers are!!)

My husband frequently argues with me saying that he made India win World Cup, but what about the games India lost after the WC. World champions consistently losing all the International matches is very shame!


Anyways I wanted CSK to loose the finals and they lost.... and from now on I'm going to post frequently.... keep visiting and shoot your valuable comments. 






Cheers,
Vrinda

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Wish you all a very Happy New Year!!!!!

Hope this year brings lotsss and lotss of joy and happiness in your lives.


- Vrinda.

Karthika pournami

Karthika month is the most auspicious month in Telugu calender. In this month we offer prayers to both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu. In this month we offer prayers to god by following shower with cold water, light lamps, charities and fasting. We do fasting on Mondays, ekadashi and on the most auspicious day of this month Karthika pournami. There are two significant festivals in this month,  one is ksheerabdhi dwadashi and the second one is Karthika pournami. Ksheerabdhi dwadashi is 12th lunar day, we offer prayers to Tulasi plant.

Karthika pournami is a full moon day , this is most auspicious, sacred and extremely powerful day (this year it was on Thursday, 10th Nov). On this day in the evening timings we lit lamps in Shiva and Vishnu temples. We make the small lamps with rice flour or wheat flour and pour cow ghee or sesame oil in that we place a wick  and light the lamps. After pooja we do donations to Brahmins or scholars. In this month it is good to donate clothes to poor people. This practice is considered as good one irrespective of day or month, but ancestors have told us to do in this month because this falls in November, it is when the winter season starts. So offering clothes to poor people will help them to have better clothing in winter season.

Karthika pournami is my fav day in the whole year. This year I celebrated this festival in Bangalore. My day started at 3:50 am, I cleaned home and took shower by 4:15 am. I meditated for more than an hour, later I went to Shiva temple. In temple priests performed rudrabhishekam to Lord shiva, Rudrabhishekam is nothing but a regular abhishekam where priests chant the sacred veda mantras (rudra namakam - Chamakam) while doing abhishekam. I returned home once the pooja in temple was over. I have beautiful idols of Shiva and Balaji (a form of god Vishnu). I performed abhishekam to those idols at my home.

In the evening I lit lamps, did pooja, read karthika puranam and offered mangala harathi to lord shiva and vishnu at home. Then I cooked coconut rice and Gulab-jamun, offered it to Lord Shiva in temple and later distributed to the devotees. In the mean I lit lamps in temple as well. I made those lamps using wheat flour, rice flour and rangoli color. To make them soft and easily mouldable, I added some oil to the flour. This way I made some 70 colored lamps and some 50 flour lamps.

Before I lit the Lamps

After I lit the lamps

SOOC 

In the temple Satyanarayan Swami vratham was going on, later we attended Shirdi Baba Shej Aarathi. Later we performed all the rituals and cam back home. Night after coming to home we had dinner. On karthika pournami there is ritual of floating lamps on pond. There were no ponds or lakes near my place so couldn't fulfill that custom.

Hope you guyz had a wonderful karthika pournami as well. I close this post with a small mantra

Shivaya Vishnu Roopaya

Shiva Roopaya Vishnave

Shivasya Hrudayam Vishnoh

Vishnoscha Hrudayam Shivaha

Om namah shivaya!

My all time favorite Ads

Camilin ad:
This is my all time Fav ad, I always wonder who would be the one who has got this amazing thought. WOW! This is not only my fav Ad... I guess it is Indian's fav ad. The beauty of this commercial is, it keeps the cultural sentiments along with the humor.

This 'Change' Ad is another wonderful one, simply out-of-the-box.

Polo add:
Polo is my fav mint, I always carry one in my bag. When I have it, sometimes I remember this ad. This is very funny.

Happy dent ad
This is amazing one, a chewing gum commercial. I've seen many ads which has a similar story where a girl gets attracted to boy who has a fresh breath. This one is completely different, the outstanding shot in this ad is the chandelier one.

Center shock
In this ad, I like the expression of the old man, he is so kool. This one was awarded as best ad of the year ( I don't remember the exact year though).

Naukri.com
S is for Shameless, wow I wish I could say something like that to my employer :D

Vodafone zoo zoo
This was my Grandmother's fav commercial, it used to bring smile on her face. Very creative, I take this opportunity to thank Ogilvy & Mather agency for providing such an entertaining ads for us. The producer Rajiv Rao and Directer Prakash Verma, hats off to you guyz.

Hutch
This is very popular ad in India, the beauty of this ad is its simplicity.The dog name is 'cheeka' and the boy name is 'Jayram'. This is again shot by the Nirvana Films of Bangalore. The caption 'Wherever you go, our network follows' and the song 'You and I' have become very popular among youth. After this ad the sale of pugs doubled in India.

Non smoking Ad
Indian Cancer Association's campaign against smoking is a must-watch. The tag line is kool.... check it out.

Airtel
'Har ek fren Zaroori hota hai' it is the ringtone of almost half of my frenz, and this song is dedicated to me by few. This is very kool and I have added it becoz it is my personal fav.

Mint o gol
You should see the girl's fren smile at the end, it is worth watching. And you will meet the boy 'Rocky' who is handsome, romantic, smart and intelligent.

Aamir khan Tata Sky ad
The ad is simply brilliant....the monologue played by dual characters portrayed by a Aamir khan  is simply outstanding. 'Tata Aur Sky ek saath' is tagline and this ad.

Maruthi suzuki
Maruthi has stormed the televisions yet again, this ad is not just for the particular car it is about the company. The advertisement lasts for some 30 seconds, even after watching the final tagline 'kitna deta hai' you will not realize it is a car Ad. It has changed my husband's view towards the cars,that's fuel consumption is more important than style of the car.

Imperial Blue
This is my husband's fav ad.....check it out. It's true Men will be Men!!

If you have any personal favorite please feel free to share, I will update to the list.

Cheers,
Vrinda.