Ganesha Chaturthi 2010

This is a post that has been sitting as a draft since months. I had forgotten to upload the pictures and today put in some time to search for the 4 month old picture in the backup folders. So here is our Ganesha V2010, Finally! At-least before the 2011 chaturthi :-)

Each of us have a hobby that eventually grows on you, one such is making an eco-friendly Ganesha all by ourselves at home. Even though it is an yearly once occasion, I look forward to it so much. Our debut with making the Ganesha started last year while in Israel. Our last year's Ganesha was more raw and we had our own worries how he would dry and stick and stay in shape. This time we managed to give him a better looking slim face and a custom made umbrella. We managed to give shape to the elephant God in less than 30 mins just after hour morning coffee on chaturthi. We quickly (h)air dried him and he was all ready for the pooja much ahead of us in time.

Quick Broccoli Pachdi ~ Raita

1 Cup Curd/Yoghurt
10-15 cooked Broccoli florets
[To cook them, you could either microwave them for a few minutes or cook in boiling water. Make sure you dont over cook them, else they lose their crunchiness.]
3 table spoons of one of these powders/podi
[MTR chutney podi/ Paruppu podi/ Mom made-Home made Idli Milagai podi].

Mix them all in a bowl and ta-da !!

Detox @ home

Some mint and basil leaves in water makes one of the best detox fluids made at home. This is with the greens. Try an other traditional one, famously called the Oma/Ova or Ajwain water. Boil drinking water, as it starts to boil toss in a spoon of ajwain. To it, other Indian condiments that can be added are Fennel, Fenugreek, Cumin to name a few.

Quick dinner with Quinoa

Wash the quinoa (preferably in a tea stainer) and cook it in a sauce pan, Quinoa : Water = 1:3. Toss in some spices if you like, I added garlic chives and a couple of basil leaves. Fry the onion and garlic pods in home made ghee or any healthy oil and keep them aside (do not mix with spinach else they will lose the crunch). Stir-fry the spinach separately, add salt and just serve all one on top of the other when u eat.

Happy start...disciplined start!

On 30Dec last year, when I got my wisdom tooth extracted surgically - many of my friends asked me the same question, "why now ?" when the new year is just around the corner. None of them basically appreciated the fact that I was in pain during the new year's eve when the whole world was "happily partying". I could hardly smile or speak or relish any goodies.  We had a quiet, literally "quiet" as we welcomed the new year at home with lil A's grand parents. The eve and the whole day we sat, talked, played, watched a bit of TV read cricket and made a quick temple visit. This was fun too. We had more of a very disciplined start to our everyday life. Extraction of wisdom tooth does impart a lot of discipline around the household inadvertently. Here are a few,

1. Eat less and eat right!
What with the mouth opening not more than 5 mm, I was fully on liquid diet for 5 days. Breakfast was a warm porridge (traditional wheat or ragi kanji) followed by a glass of chill strawberry or banana (skimmed) milk shake.  Lunch was a bowl of soup and well boiled vegetables. Dinner used to be mashed spinach + yoghurt or dhal + yoghurt. It was an out and out no-carb or less-carb diet.
2. More water~fluid intake
3. Say NO to snacks!
Since I could hardly bite, it was a no cookies, no biscotti, no beard (read peanut butter, jam, nutella), no to krishna sweets, no murukku, no thattai.... no nothing week!
4. Better dental hygiene
Brushing twice a day is good. But rinsing~flossing after every meal is even better. I had to keep the stitches clean and germ free. In our spoon-fork-meal plan, I dont think any/many of us have the habit of walking up to the wash basin and rinse and floss after our brunch & lunch sessions. We probably do with a glass of water and say the purpose is solved.
5. No to hot coffee, hot meals...

I could not sip in anything hot. Moreover, eating or drinking hot stuff is definitely bad for the food pipe and even the stomach. So I got to a mode where i was only having a moderately hot tea and coffee.

6. Learnt to walk slowly 

I could not run or even jog because the slightest jerk would hurt my jaw. And there wasn't much to do at home too. So AA and I would go on those "dampathi sametha" slow walks after every meal.

7. Slow eating and eating in small portions
I had automatically switched to a small dessert spoon and hence the portions for every bite/gulp reduced. And in order to chew and even avoid the food getting to the weak-wrong-left side, I had to constantly keep and swallow the food slowly from the safe-right side.
8. As a result, the younger one was finishing his meal
Lil A always needs company at the dining table till he finishes his meal. At least one of us should have our plates non-empty till the time he finishes, else he would get up too saying his tummy's full. But this past week, he finished his meal much ahead of me.
9. Guaranteed weight loss of 3-4 pounds in 1 week!
Obviously, if one follows all of 1-7 steps what else could be the result ?
10. Younger one becomes less dependent and more disciplined 
I was hearing less of "Amma, come here" or most of the times Amma got replaced by Appa or Paati or Thatha. It was a big no to his monkey tricks - uppu mootais - somersaults on my tummy.
11. House gets cleaned up
Since my mom was around, she pretty much took care of the food business and AA was on his year end 10 day vacation, so my dad and he were keeping lil A engaged all through his Xmas vacation. And I was free enough to clear some long pending jobs of disposing old stuff - shredding mails and papers. Winter cleaning of the wardrobes, clear pending laundry and many more.
12. A good break to the voice cords
13. Last but not the least
What a relief ! Got rid of that nasty wisdom tooth of a size of a cashew nut that had grown like a crescent into my jaw bones and perpendicular to the other teeth and giving me an unbearable pain at least twice in a year.

After experiencing all the above goodies, do you really think I would want to go back to that - let us say, not-so-undisciplined life ? I know I am still young to break these rules and pamper myself and my tummy once in a while ;-) But the fact is for most of us it is what they call the starting trouble. Once into the groove, there's no looking back. After this 1 whole week, I feel my stomach muscles have shrunk and I dont think I can over eat or drink a steaming hot coffee or I feel guilty to go pick a danish cookie from that box.

Happy 2011!