My Dates and Almonds Laddos....

Come winter and our body starts craving for rich food that provide warmth and nourishment. I love how our winter foods are loaded with natural oils and vitamins ( in the form of nuts), good fat (that comes from ghee) and other nutrients. Laddo, Gajar Halwa, Moong Dal Halwa are delicacies that my mother always used to prepare during winters. They were all packed with ghee, ghee and more ghee :) Having soaked Almonds with Milk in the morning was a ritual. Undoubtedly, the best thing about winter is comfort food.

So, today I decided to make Dates and Almond Laddos. I absolutely love dates and almonds. And the best part is, it was ready in 15 minutes. That's it.

Ingredients
1 cup Almonds
1/2 cup Whole oats
1 cup Madjool dates
1/8 cup Chia seeds
2 tsp Ghee

Method
1. Coarsely grind Oats and Almonds.
2. Remove seed and chop Dates.
3. Heat a pan and put Ghee. When hot, stir in Dates till it becomes mushy.

4. Add Oats and Almonds and mix it well.

 5. Spread the mixture on a place and let it cool. Then add Chia seeds and mix it well. You can use your clean hands to do that. Roll into small laddos( balls) and it can be stored in an air tight container for a week.

I love these little balls that are full of all the good stuff I want Aanya to eat–nuts, dried fruit, whole oats. The only problem is I need to figure out a way to make her eat ;-)

Year End Reflections...

The year 2014 is about to end. There’s just something about seeing an entire year come to a close that prompts you to reflect back on it. To all the things that happened, and that did not happen. Its that time of the year, when we make resolutions for the coming year( honest and realistic ones? :)). Its that time of the year, when we find ourselves thinking if we made the most of the year. And its that time of the year, when we joyously celebrate with family and friends, waiting for the New Year. A fresh start. A new chapter in life.

Looking Back
Today, was the day of reflection on this year, as I discussed (or rather, tried to) with Puneet. And honestly, this has been the best year of our lives( as a couple) in last 7 years that we have been married. The coolest thing that I did personally was:

1. Taking membership of the County Library. Having read almost 10 books already, I never realised I enjoyed reading so much. Talking of books, I recently read an article by Rosemarie Urquico- "Date a girl who reads" Have you read it? If not, Read it. I was constantly smiling while reading it online. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads :)

2. Taking membership of the Dept of Recreational Sports. Being physically active all my life, I had become inactive last few year. So this was a much much needed membership, to fall in love all over again with Ping pong and Badminton and Swimming....:)
(as I play with my husband, as I played with him during school days....aah! Memories!!!)

3. No TV. Yes, in last five months, I haven't watched TV at all. And that includes, Netflix or Amazon Prime videos.  There was a time when I wondered how can there be life without TV, today I feel, we don't need TV, its a waste of time. I just hope, my daughter doesn't grow up to say "Whats a TV?" ;-)

4. And Blogging!!:)Untill last year, I never considered writing. Just a personal handwritten journal, is what I had being doing. I took a plunge into blogging and have come this far with 50 blog posts.

Looking Forward

Yes, that's me. I never believed in resolutions, and I don't know what holds for me in 2015. I just intend to find a decent job for myself, keep writing and always have one book to read.

I hope you have a safe and happy end to 2014.

May the coming new year find you

healthier and happier,

peaceful, content, satisfied,

looking forward

to fresh, revitalizing interests,

a variety of pleasures,

interesting new people,

material and personal successes

to make the new year

the best one yet.

Happy New Year!

Photo Collage Letter: DIY

Some memories are best kept to ourselves. But there are times when they should be shared. They should be shared and enjoyed by everyone. That was on my mind when my daughter turned 2 ( 2 years back :)) I wanted to make a collage that would highlight the best memories of the year and also be a keepsake for future. I searched collage and found this picture on google images.

I decided to make a collage on letter A ( as in Aanya). Bought a cardboard letter A from Micheals. I remember I was super excited that day. Shortlisted best pictures of the year but before I could get the pictures developed and start the project, not sure what stopped me. And the project was shelved. Shelved for 2 years, untill I saw this blogpost of Aanya's teacher yesterday. I had almost forgotten about 'A' that I had bought a couple of years back. Thank you Alyssa! :)

So, today, without wasting time. I got the current year pictures developed from CVS and made this collage.

The process is really simple. Just get a wooden or cardboard letter of your choice and a few pictures ( along with scissors, pencil, scale and glue)

Before applying any glue, decide the placement of the photos, including which photo overlaps the other, etc. Once you have that figured out, you will be able to work in steps with the glue. It’s almost like working a puzzle.

Trim the pictures and apply the glue. Ta..da...you are done!
I hanged the letter on the door with a double sided tape.

Displaying a collection of different pictures rather than just a single image is a great way to capture all of the feelings or special events surrounding an important time in your life. Its a great creative way to show off your pictures. Some of the things that you can do with collage are:

1. Create a collection from a single event like a family vacation.
2. Capture different personalities of your children.
3. Capture different facial expression of your children. Infact this was my initial plan when Aanya turned 2 and had given amazing number of expressions the previous year.

Enjoy!!

Month of November: Lessons learnt.

November was a fast-paced whirlwind month and so is December appearing to be, in terms of life.
Two best things happened last month: One, my daughter turned 4 (btw, she's really happy to be 4 because her buddies at school are already 4:)) and my family visited me during Thanksgiving. So, it was a blast of a month esp. towards the end.

Talking of family, my nephew is about Aanya's age, 2 weeks younger ;-) and I was meeting him after one year. So, you can imagine what madness was there for a week with 2 preschoolers, plus a little crawler who like a little puppy( as my sis-in-law says) would follow them everywhere. It was a pure delight to our adult eyes. During this one week of madness and sheer enjoyment, I learnt a few things from these 3 kids.

1. They make friends fast: " Do you want to play?" That's it. As adults, its really difficult to form a relationship so quickly. These kids met and within minutes they were gone, playing together somewhere. Soon, discovered their secret place too for their secret talks ;-)

2. They don't hold grudges: Sure. Little kids fight. They fought too. But when its over, its over. Now, I know why hindi serials don't revolve around the lives of 4 year olds.

3. They appreciate the little things: May be because, they are little things. Well, they appreciate big things too. Noone loves a dinosaur as much as a preschooler.

4. Sometimes it's best to just jump: Can't think of anything to do. Jump. Jump anywhere but jump. It will release endorphins and make you happy.

5. Don't give up: My 10 month old little nephew, loved how the door stoppers moved and made sound. He would keep hitting it, till it came out. To ensure, he doesn't get hurt, we removed all easily visible stoppers. And that didnot stop him. He would somehow find it at non visible areas. That's how determined he was :)

6. Humming and Singing is beautiful: Doesn't matter if the tune is wrong, doesn't matter if the lyrics are wrong. Just sing and sing together. Its such a beautiful thing.

“Do you want to play?” That’s it. As adults, it’s much more difficult to form a relationship so quickly. - See more at: http://www.scarymommy.com/reasons-kids-are-awesome/#sthash.Uy42Uiu0.dpuf

“Do you want to play?” That’s it. As adults, it’s much more difficult to form a relationship so quickly. - See more at: http://www.scarymommy.com/reasons-kids-are-awesome/#sthash.Uy42Uiu0.dpuf

“Do you want to play?” That’s it. As adults, it’s much more difficult to form a relationship so quickly. - See more at: http://www.scarymommy.com/reasons-kids-are-awesome/#sthash.Uy42Uiu0.dpuf