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January 24 2012

Eggless Chocolate Cake

This is a simple chocolate cake, prepared using sweetened condensed milk and Soda (Yep!). No eggs or milk, so it’s a great recipe for people who don’t like dairy products. You can substitute almost all of the butter (up to 3/4th the required quantity) with apple sauce to cut down on the calories. No extra sugar required, since the sweetened condensed milk is sweet enough. You could add extra sugar if you feel like, of course. 

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

4 tbsp cocoa (unsweetened)

3/4 cup aerated soda (Pepsi or Coke)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup butter (I substituted this with 3/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce + 1/4 cup butter)

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk 

Instructions:

1. Preheat over at 350F. Grease and flour a round 8 or 9” baking pan (I used a 9” baking pan)

2. Sieve the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa

3.  In a separate dish, melt the butter, add sweetened condensed milk and mix well. Add vanilla essence to the mixture

4. Add the all purpose flour mixture and the soda (Pepsi/Coke) alternately to the butter mixture. Stir the mixture really well and then transfer it to the baking pan. 

5. Bake for 30-35 mins in the pre-heated oven.

Optional: You can prepare your favorite icing (chocolate preferably) and slap it on the cake if you wish. To keep the sugar & calories low, I usually skip the icing bit.

January 08 2012

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Cashew Raisin Cake - Recipe here. Bake at 350F in an 8 or 9 inch baking pan for about 32 minutes. I replaced half of butter with applesauce and used almond milk instead of regular milk. Turned out great! My husband ate 3 slices, even before the cake cooled down. 

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December 31 2011

Things I want to try to do in 2012

The keyword in the title is “try” :-) No compulsions, of course.

1. Lose the remaining 7 pounds. Enough already!

2. Visit India - Haven’t seen my friends and a lot of my extended family since almost 5 years. New nieces and nephews, sisters- in- law and brothers- in- law whom I haven’t met yet. Yeah, I’m a real slacker.

3. Visit a country other than India

4. Travel to Alaska next Summer

5. Adopt a more natural way of living - Conserve, recycle, re-use, and banish the remaining chemicals. 

December 19 2011

Natural Cure for Dandruff

Squeeze some fresh lemon juice in a bowl. Take a piece of cotton wool, soak it in the lemon juice and then dab it all over your dry scalp, starting with the area that has the highest concentration of dandruff. Tie your hair and let the lemon juice work its magic for 1/2-1 hr. Shampoo and condition as usual. Follow this process about 1-2 times a week. 

Before treating my scalp with lemon juice, I usually apply coconut oil, but this is not required. 

December 15 2011

Pookie Bear: help! i need natural remedies for hair and skin

lund-rani:

Ok so

when i was younger, my hair used to be so thick, soft, silky, and shiny. now that i’m older; it’s thick, but not soft, silky, or shiny at all. i was wondering if you guys had any remedies to make my hair soft and silky again (even if its not natural). my hair is also really greasy so i have…

For hair, I would recommend that you massage it using warm coconut oil before shampoo. Leave the oil overnight. You can sleep with a towel on your pillow so as to not make it dirty. You might have to rinse twice during shampooing to get rid of all the oil. 

What type of shampoo do you use? If your shampoo is too drying, then your scalp is going to overcompensate by producing more oil. I used to have the same problem. After I started using a milder and chemical free shampoo and conditioner, my hair has become less oily. I have used Burts Bees shampoo/conditioner with very good results. I am going to try Dr. Bronner’s next. Even though it’s difficult, I would advise you AGAINST wetting your hair everyday. You need to allow yourself to self regulate and get adjusted to being washed less. 

Your acne might be getting worse because of your oily scalp :( I dab tea tree oil on my face twice a day (after using a face wash) to control acne. My acne’s almost gone now :) I also use pure Rose Water (available in Indian stores) as a toner to keep my face fresh. 

December 14 2011

The Year 2011 (yeah, one of those posts!)

I think this is the first time ever that I’m actually doing a year wrap up post. So here goes it!

1. Lost 26 pounds by exercising and eating like a human being (instead of a pig)

2. Realized that there is no shortcut to lose weight

3. Made a lifestyle change towards using more natural and chemical free things for personal and house care. My greatest find in this category: Dr. Bronner’s! I use Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds for laundry, hand washing dishes, in the dishwasher, as a carpet cleaner, oven cleaner, car washing soap, shower gel and face wash. Next up in my list is to use it for shampooing as well. 

4. Started recycling every small piece of paper and plastic around my apartment. I thank the City of Austin for making it easy for me to recycle stuff. There is a recycle bin everywhere! How can you not recycle when it’s so convenient to do so?

5. Moved to one of my all time favorite cities in the US- AUSTIN! I <3 Austin, seriously. It gels very well with my liberal mindset. 

6. Left San Antonio for good! Yay! I hate that city. 

7. Started working for a fruit company :-) 

8. Completed 1 year of marital bliss 

9. Went to Hawaii finally. Saw actual lava flow into the ocean. Also drove all the way to the top of Mauna Kia.

10. Got to see the biggest Balloon Festival in the entire world, at Albuquerque Balloon Festival

I’ll do separate posts for “Best Movies from 2011” and “Things I want to do in 2012” :)

November 23 2011

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Gatte ki Sabzi- homemade a couple of days ago

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IKEA Round Rock TX

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Nutella choco mint cake balls: Chocolate cake made from scratch, mixed with Nutella, and coated with Andes chocolate mints & Nestle semi sweets chocolate mints. Topped off with coconut flakes :)

November 22 2011

HERSHEY'S | HERSHEY'S "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" Chocolate Cake

Using this recipe as a base for my chocolate cake. I used Nestle’s cocoa powder, since I don’t like Hershey’s cocoa taste. Also, used 1 1/2 cups of sugar instead of 2, since I’ll be using this cake to make cake balls! :)

Someday, somewhere - anywhere, unfailingly, you’ll find yourself, and that, and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life.

Pablo Neruda (via eles-dizem)

One of my favorite quotes. Ever.

November 21 2011

Vegetarian au Gratin (in White Sauce)

My mom’s recipe, modified a bit (she doesn’t use potatoes or bread crumbs- still comes out great!)

Ingredients:

2 1/3 cups milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)

1/4 cup corn flour or all purpose flour

salt to taste

pepper to taste

About 1 1/2 cups of mixed veggies (choose whatever you like- I used the mixed veggies frozen bag that had carrots, corn, beans)

1 potato, boiled and sliced into small pieces (optional)- No need to add potatoes if you don’t have any. Just increase the quantity of mixed veggies by 1/2 cup.

Cheese (any type you like)- Shredded or slices

2 pieces of Bread slices 

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven at 350F

2. In a pan, heat milk. Once it starts boiling, add salt, pepper, flour & bread crumbs. Once the paste thickens a bit, add it to your casserole.

3. Next, in the casserole, add your mixed veggies and potatoes. 

4. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top of veggies and the white sauce as per your liking. You can even use cheese slices. Just cut them into halves and place on top. 

5. Bake the casserole at 350F for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy! :)

Mint Chocolate Cake Balls

Makes approximately 50 (1” diameter) balls

Ingredients:
  • 1 box chocolate cake mix, plus ingredients to make the cake per box directions
  • 3/4-1 cup of peppermint scnapps
  • ~15 mint oreos, crumbled
  • 2 12-ounce bags milk chocolate chocolate chips or other melting chocolate
  • 1 box Andes Candies Creme de Menthe candies, crumbled or 1 bag Andes Candies baking chips*
Directions:
1. Make the cake according to the directions on the box, then let it cool to room temperature.

2. Carefully crumble up the cake in a bowl. (I cut it into about ten pieces in order to get it into the bowl easily, then crumbled with a fork.) 

3. Add crumbled Oreos and mix well. 

4. Add alcohol a small amount at a time until you have a moist, thick batter. 

5. Cover bowl and refrigerate for an hour or two until it’s very cold. 

6. Form the batter into small balls and place on a wax-paper lined baking sheet. Place baking sheets in freezer and freeze for a few hours until they’re fairly solid.

8. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave or in a double-boiler according to directions on the bag. At the end, stir in all but a few of the crumbled Andes candies or Andes chips and stir until they’re just melted but there are still green swirls visible. Reserve a few for decorating the tops of the balls later.

9. Dip cake balls into the chocolate, then place back on wax-paper lined baking sheet. Before chocolate sets, sprinkle the top of each ball with crushed Andes candies.

10. Let cool until they’re totally set. If you’re not going to eat them right away, store in the refrigerator. They’re great cold, but you can also serve them at room temperature.

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(via Chocolate Banana Cake — Duncan Hines®)

Spent my Monday morning baking this. Incidentally, this is the first time I’ve ever baked a cake :)

Khatti Arbi Ka Salan Recipe - Hyderabadi Recipe

A great friend of mine from Hyderabad introduced me to Arbi. I followed this recipe (more or less), but also added some fenugreek seeds during sauté. 

November 20 2011

Gatte ki Subzi

Traditional Rajasthani dish made by mom at home. Gathered the courage to cook it for the first time. It came out REALLY well!

Coconut Burfi Recipe

Made this for Diwali and it came out amazing! 

November 05 2011

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October 30 2011

Play fullscreen

Hare Krishna Video-1967 (San Francisco). I want to live in this era so badly.

October 21 2011

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subtlenights:

This is my first foray into tilt shift photography and I like it!

I took this picture during our trip to Las Vegas from the New York, New York casino building. I turned it into a tilt shift photo using this website. You should check it out.

Great picture! I took a picture from the pavement under the bridge, almost exactly same spot, in 2009. 

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