Friday 31 July 2015

Attention! Attention! Attention!!

A quick media post to inform all my readers that this humble blog was chosen to be amongst the top 6 Indian Food Blogs. And I cant stop beaming at that!! :) :D

Read for yourself....

Link To Baggout Article- http://blog.baggout.com/2015/07/31/top-15-food-and-drink-blog-post-of-last-month-june-2015/

Excerpt...

6. Zouqh
Antara roy has shared a pasta recipe which she is confident can cure depression. She has shared a vegetarian version of it while it can be converted into a non-vegetarian one also. From this we can be assured of the power of Indian food and spices. If you want to look at such a powerful preparation, you must look at this post.
ZOUQH

Monday 20 July 2015

Weekend Trail- Bread Baking and Sartori!!!


Social experiments truly pave way to new beginnings. And since I relocated, I have been constantly testing myself in kitchen with projects that are equal parts exciting and enterprising. In my quest to quench my ever increasing appetite of testing and tasting, I conducted a small exercise this weekend which took a deliciously divine turn and led me to try my hands on bulk baking. It started as a small discussion on 2 popular forums, where we were talking about home-made, preservative free breads made with whole grains like whole-wheat and finger millet. Everyone seemed quite excited about the idea, and urged me to deliver it to their houses. And I did so. Sunday evening, I went over to each house to deliver a freshly baked bread and I was greeted with smiles and encouragements. I already received a few e-mails urging me to continue as the quality, texture and feel of the bread suited the buyer’s expectations. I too enjoyed myself in this whole exercise. The smell of fresh bread permeated through my house and both my boys were beside themselves tasting hot soft breads out of the oven. The only part I need to figure out is the delivery, as every weekend, as much as I wish, I really can’t travel around the city delivering breads. So thanks everyone for such an amazing response. I truly loved every bit of this weekend and the nice drive that it ended with. I would be most obliged to get your feedbacks so that I can come out stronger than this! Thanks a ton!! 




And my companion for this baking time was this new find- a bottled cocktail made with vodka and absinthe, named 'Sartori Absinthe Classic'. As a review to the drink, well, it was quite sweet yet had a kick to it. I felt it was a good breezer substitute, but for me it lacked the oomph of the green fairy. 

Friday 10 July 2015

A Honey Diet to be Remembered!!

Diet/dieting is such a misleading word with a wrong interpretation. In our day to day parlance we have started using the word to talk about a restriction of food in order to loose weight. But really, the father of the English when made this word, all he intended it to mean was the usual amount of food and drink of a living being, including an animal or an insect. It was not to take a drastic makeover of such heights. Alas, he might be turning in his grave quite violently; but today all we associate while hearing this word is restriction of food. And it’s only when we add 'balanced' to the 'diet' that we mean what it was supposed to be meant!!

Oh, I am with you. I know it’s confusing. But before you get very stressed and pressed about the word, I have got you covered. However, whatever it means, you just need to mean one thing while eating- HEALTHY EATING. It doesn’t have to be only about salads, trust me you need that elusive carbohydrates too. And sugar isn't your enemy. Your body needs everything that nature provides to you and the habits you have grown up eating with. It just means you move around those things and have a healthier option instead. Like if you love bread, and can’t live without it; restricting yourself of this treat would be much more harmful. In the absence of it, you would start craving it more and hence 1 fine day you would end up eating a whole loaf of it, rather than a slice. Similarly, if you have sweet tooth, eat something sweet twice to thrice a week. Don’t completely devoid yourself of it, rather opt for lesser sweet and more fibrous wholesome sweeteners like natural honey, jaggery, brown sugar etc.  

Today, I write for Dabur, who has recently launched a campaign called Honey Diet. And I have a few recipes that I have made with honey, replacing the sugar and gaining a more earthy flavour out of it. These three are my favourites, and all I want is for you to try this healthy recipes.

First up is my whole-wheat bread/pizza dough. This is a great alternative for white bread in your breakfast and has potential of being overly addictive.




Next in line is my Baked Apples. Another great breakfast option as well as a healthy dessert snack to satisfy the sweet craving.




And to end this lovely honey diet, try making my Whole-wheat Honey and Banana Muffins.



Hope these Recipes gave you a great idea to start with this new diet. In case you need more gyaan on healthy eating, follow the link here-http://antaras-zouqh.blogspot.in/2015/06/equality-dinner-plate.html 

For more information Dabur's Honey diet, follow the link here- http://www.daburhoney.com

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Thursday 9 July 2015

Work and food dilemmas!!

It’s not a new story... age old!! I have work to do so I can’t cook, lets order in today!! And this kind of becomes a repeated story for months on it. Yeah there is an easy Indian option to hire a cook. But that comes with its own pair of strings, not to mention the cost. And then, you don’t have strict office timings, when do you ask the cook to come in?? So the easy home-made solution to these woes- Maggi and others of its kind. It’s unhealthy, and hence you decide to put it off for the next New Year resolution to start eating healthy. If this is you and you have read till this point, you might want to continue on as I have figured out a great solution to these woes...

First of all, let’s look at the problem.
  •         Time: You never seem to have enough of it to look for pots and masalas on the kitchen counter.
  •     Energy: always tired to go in the kitchen... Really!!
  •     Now Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver both did some inspiring work on this front. But we dont get their food. We want our desi stuff!!


So here are the solutions to all these problems, in THREE words- PLANNING, MARINATING & REFRIGERATING!!

To read more, and I know you do want to as there are many tips and tricks that you cant forgo; click here- http://www.smartindianwomen.com .

I See UC Browser!!

Internet woes are the worst to overcome. A bad connection coupled with a broken un-updated browser, and you are in for the most irritated ride in the world. I live by the internet and for me, a fast healthy connection is of utmost importance. Wifi helps to some extent, but the rest is gauged by the browser I use. Till now I was content with chrome. Firefox had lost its sheen long time back, and chrome had taken its place beautifully. But since a few days now, a faster squirrel of a browser is spreading its magical tail on internet, claiming to be the fastest till now.

A tech illiterate like me was asked to review it. I mean yes, the company had its reasons. I am pretty much all day on the internet, browsing through innumerable numbers of videos and sites and blogs. I use a smart phone too, and the chrome browser doesn’t connect my phone to laptop screen. So basically I am the perfect target for UC browser to seek. And hence, I started trying it out yesterday. It’s faster than chrome no doubt. And I am in love with its feature of connecting my mobile to the laptop. It’s so hassle free and I keep reading the particular blog, in and out, switching the devices. But I have saved the best for the last. You cannot even imagine how fast it downloads, and gives me an option to check up all my downloaded history, including…. Shh… don’t quote me ever… but really including torrents. I am no cricket fan, but Yuvi claims that he has a cricket corner especially for you guys who live and eat cricket. After so many good things, I feel it’s definitely worth a try. I haven’t yet managed to find a flaw, but well I have just used it for 2 days yet. So try and let me know if u feel there are things to be changed and features to be banned. I would most definitely try to connect you or convey your comments to the right ears. I am still a tech illiterate, but the cute colourful squirrel with its walnut is killing me with acute cuteness.

For downloading the browser, follow the link here- http://www.ucweb.com/

And for the cricket lover like you, here I throw in a small surprise where Yuvi talks to you directly. Do check it out on the UC Browser.




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Tuesday 7 July 2015

How to Tackle Fussy Eaters, My Way!!

Rant of a tired mommy...

I am a mommy of a 2 year old toddler. And somehow this designation goes hand in hand with being tormented and eating leftover for every meal. Kids these days are majorly fussy about anything that you wish to put in their mouth. And these fussy episodes last for more than an hour, 3 times a day. So what do you do in situations like this? Strictly follow your principles of no TV/videos during the meal time? Or give in to the lesser evils in the wake of nutrition for his growing years? Authoritarian principles of keeping them frightened of parents are a philosophy of the bygone era. And frankly with these little brats, I hardly think it will work as well. They understand our weaknesses even more clearly than us. They are smart, and all they like to play with are things that adults use, like vinegar in the kitchen; and petroleum jelly along with my vermillion powder in the bedroom. Imagine the mess Ansh created when he kept the bottle of vinegar in the place where we store bottled water; or when he mixed my petroleum jelly with vermilion powder and smeared it all along the bedroom walls. I can say that he really painted the town red with it. 

Now there are 2 approaches to tackling this. And none of it involves scolding, screaming and spanking frankly. In fact I was talking to a brother who was really naughty and had been beaten quite mercilessly when we were young. Now he is a grown up man of 23 years, and is still nursing many of those wounds in his heart. He despises many of my family members and cousins, and chooses to be an intoxicated introvert. After meeting him, I am more convinced than ever that it’s important to be a Buddy Parent than having a dictatorial reign in this era of complicated life stories. Fussiness and naughty play time is a part and parcel of growing life. And frankly it is what we as mothers get as a gift from our labour of love.

I don’t particularly scold him much. I instead punish him by closing him out in a planter balcony where ‘dinosaurs’ live. Or treat him when he does something extraordinarily well. Punishment without a treat is meaningless, and apart from giving him home-made goodies, I occasionally handout a few pieces of Kellogg’s chocos.  Somehow these kids have a way of understanding what mummy wants to feed, to what they don’t. And so keeping a few treats close to hand out to them during these episodes, really pays. My child is a fussy eater, and has days of not being interested in food at all. So for those days, I always keep a packet of mix grain baby food and Kellogg’s chocos to coax him into eating some fruits and veggies.  I have clearly surrendered rigid principles to lesser evils. After all, he is a child who needs to know the importance of eating and eating healthy at that. It’s his time to sit back and enjoy a few occasional treats. These little episodes of #KhushiKePal while eating really helps restore his faith back into food. After all that’s what the Bachpan is all about. And in fact, both of us are learning it together with each other!!


And oh before I end, and before someone starts judging me to be the worst mom in the world to be pumping copious amounts of cocoa and sugar in his tiny body, let me give you another trick I use on him. Now that I have realised that his little brain thinks that anything brown in colour with slight sweetness is chocolate, I trick him into believing Nachani ka aata is ‘choco’ for its colour. And a porridge made with it is cherished to the last spoon possible. I sweeten it ever so lightly with jaggery, and he is a happy child. He has never had a chocolate as a bar to be enjoyed. But instead, I give him chocos with whole wheat or a brownie made at home with properly sourced raw materials. I am no saint, and I don’t want to be one. It might be wrong to trick his little mind, but it works for me as nutrition is far more important to me in this day of fussy non eating kids.  

This is written as a part of the series- #KhuljayeBachpan by Kellog's.  https://www.facebook.com/mychocos 

If you are seeking recipes for these little guys, follow the below links.

And for a laugh- Conflicts for a New Mommy!!!

Cheers!!

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