Day 1: 30-day “Be a vegetarian and see for yourself” challenge

It has been a long time since I posted anything at all. Obviously, this is going to negatively affect my blog. Therefore, here I am back again, ready in action and raring to go. The 30-day Vegetarian Challenge is on again, starting today. However, I have renamed it the 30-day “Be a vegetarian and see for yourself” challenge which I think reflects better the aims and motives of this activity which is to showcase the wide variety of foods, dishes, recipes etc. that can be cooked without meat.

I was born into a vegetarian family and becoming one was automatic. And I have never had cravings to try out non-veg foods of any sort although I started eating eggs a few years ago for a number of valid reasons.

Without going into too much detail of the pros and cons of any diet, let me launch here into what I have been up to in my 30-day “Be a vegetarian and see for yourself” challenge.

DAY 1: 29th June, Tuesday

Breakfast: A simple glass of cold milk with cereal

Mid-day snack: an apple and 3 rice thins (and guiltily sneaking a few Gems or Smarties, as they are called here in Australia).

Afternoon lunch: Sambar chawal-a very delicious and tangy South Indian curry that can be had over rice, dumplings etc. I have some leftover sambar that I will be pouring over vadas which I am planning to cook tomorrow. Vadas are extremely yummy lentil dumplings that can be had with sambar, coconut chutney or just on their own.

Dinner: Veg clear soup since I had a few veggies lying around and also because it is sooo freezingly cold outside that a soup was ideal. Here’s a simple trick if you want to spice up the soup just a little bit. Simply add a small amount of chilli sauce. It will add a different flavour altogether to your regular veg clear soup.

Do let me know in the comments section below if you need the recipe for any of the above-mentioned dishes. Btw, is anyone of you watching the current Aussie favourite-Masterchef? I absolutely love it and just wondering if any of you out there is also a die-hard fan like me….I can’t afford to miss even a single episode since that makes me anxious…I looove it so much. And with the re-entry of 3 eliminated contestants, it’s going to be exciting once more. Wotsay?

Day 3: 30-day Vegetarian Challenge

I have been a bit slack with posting these days. Being a full-time student, I am being kept quite occupied. Studies have started in full-swing and assignments are already due in two weeks. Phew!!

Anyhow, here is day 3 of the vegetarian challenge. The Saturday morning dawned bright and beautiful. The plan was to go shopping for an ensemble for the interview that I have next week (wish me best of luck for that). So here are my meals for the day:

BREAKFAST: An English breakfast, consisting of poached eggs on toast, some garlic bread and salad on the side.

LUNCH: Lunch was outside since we were in the mall. I ordered a spinach and ricotta roll.

DINNER: The lunch was so heavy that I originally planned to skip dinner. However, went to a friend's place and she ordered home delivery. So we had to eat. But trhe food was so tasty that I couldn't help myself but gorge. Seriously worth it! Chilli paneer (Indian home-made cheese made Chinese style)with naan (an Indian bread cooked in a tandoor). It was ordered from 'The Wishing Well' at Camberwell. I had never been to the place before. But a serious recommendation-If you live in/ near to Camberwell in Melbourne, do visit this place. Looks like this place is going to be my new haunt.

That's it for the day. Be back tomorrow.

Day 2: 30-day Vegetarian Challenge

Day 2 was quite enjoyable, to say the least.

BREAKFAST: Was a simple breakfast of potato sandwiches. I remember these as being a staple childhood favourite. Boiled, mashed potatoes, mixed with salt, chilli powder, garam masala and finely chopped onions, put in between two slices of bread and then grilled in a toaster. This really fills you up especially if you are planning to have a late lunch.

LUNCH: I had made peas, potato and mushroom curry with gravy the night before. So for lunch, I carried that on a bed of cous cous. Yummm!!!

DINNER: It was a Friday night so off we went to our favourite place to have dumplings. I ordered the vegetarian dumplings, absolutely great as always. The dessert was a slice of icecream cake.

So that was my uneventful day 2 which ended with me looking forward to the weekend.

Day 1: 30-day Vegetarian Challenge

Yesterday, I was at home. Didn't have to go to work or lectures. So obviously, that gave me lot of time to have relaxed meals, which I absolutely cherish. I also went for a long walk and it was a fine day. Okay, now I did take pics as well the entire day but just can't seem to locate my phone's transfer wire at the moment to post them online. However, below is a detailed list of what I had. Post your comments and suggestions below, I would love to read them.

I started the day with a piece of fruit, a pear.

BREAKFAST: My breakfast consisted of two poached eggs on 2 multi-grain bread slices, smeared with canola spread.

LUNCH: For lunch, I had a delightfully delicious meal of two mushroom kathi roll. Traditionally, a kathi roll is made by putting together cooked dry veggies/meat in a flat bread, made of plain flour and wrapping it all together. However, I had cooked wholemeal wheat rotis , the Indian equivalent of a bread. That was definitely better since wholemeal is better than processed plain flour any day. To make the roll, I rolled up some mushroom and capsicum (bell pepper) sabzi*, wrapped it all up and devoured two of these rolls. They tasted absolutely great since the mushrooms and bell peppers were mixed well in a cooked mixture of tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, green chillies and spices.

*sabzi-In India, a sabzi means a cooked dry concoction of veggies/ meat. A curry, on the other hand is actually a sabzi, but having a liquid gravy.

EVENING SNACK: a cup of coffee along with a homemade snack. I made the snack in five minutes flat by simply heating up some oil and shallow-frying some peanuts. I then drained them and to the same oil added rice flakes which turned brown as soon as they got in touch with the hot oil. These rice flakes, aka poha or chivda is easily available at any Indian food store and is quite healthy. I then mixed the peanuts and the poha, added salt and pepper and gave it a good shake. It's a perfect any-time snack.

DINNER Dinner was simply oven-roasted broccoli, drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper and some lemon juice. I then followed it with some leftover pumpkin soup.

So all in all, it was a hearty meal. Be back tomorrow with my meal for day 2.

Being a vegetarian is super-easy. Try it for 30 days

I am a Uni student, now in my last semester. That sure is exciting. The last week, I was helping out the new students who have just come in, giving out directions, answering questions etc. During down-time, all of us senior students were chatting when the topic of food came up. Now, now, food is my passion for sure.

While chatting about it, the focus turned to the different types of food and cuisines. A girl practically screamed when I informed her that I am a vegetarian. "What!!! I can't believe it! How can you stay without meat?" and then the exclamation was even louder when I told her that I had never ever tasted meat of any sort in my life.

It is quite understandable. I was born into a family that has been vegetarian for ages. And then , quite surprisingly, there is a state in India which is completely vegetarian. How does that sound?? Despite being vegetarian, I still enjoy a variety of food and the diversity of vegetarian foods that India offers is anyway quite amazing. If you have ever been to India, you would know that a large population of the country is vegetarian and there are restaurants which cater exclusively to that.

As for me, although I now live in Melbourne, yet I have never been tempted to try meat. I have still stuck to my vegetarian diet. And coming to a different country has been absolutely great for me since I now cook my own food and can be as experimental as I like. My mother, although quite a good cook herself could not be labelled 'extremely experimental' although I do remember recipes that she had invented. So now my repertoire of vegetarian recipes is not only limited to Indian cuisine but I make food from all over the world, experimenting, adding and deleting things and giving it my own unique touch.

Reflecting back on my colleague's comments, it's easy to see why she was shocked. The Western diet has predominantly consisted of meat, in some form or the other. However, it has been proven that a non-vegetarian diet is not great because:-

a) Raising animals for meat puts immense stress on the environment and is contributing to global warming.
b) Some meats are quite rich in fats and can lead to obesity and other health-related problems.
c) Meats are expensive than veggies, lentils etc and imagine how much you would save if you stopped eating meat.
d) Most importantly, eating a non-vegetarian diet is cruel to animals.

So because of all the above reasons, I thought of the idea to host a 30-day experiment for all of you. I am going to post everything I eat during the day for the next 30 days, starting today 11th of March and ending on the 10th of April. You would see that even though I am a vegetarian, there is a huge variety in my diet. There is not a chance that I would get bored. I do eat out moderately but mostly cook at home with ingredients that are easily found in the local supermarket and things that are in season. My aim is to show how easy it is to be a vegetarian. Now I might/might not post recipes for each of my meals but if there is any specific recipe you want, simply ask me for it. I am more than happy to post it.

Beginning today, I have already started clicking photographs of what I ate. As I said, it will now continue till the 10 th of April. You can join me in this and post your ideas, comments and encouraging words. I look forward to reading and responding to them.

So here's a toast to the modern vegetarian diet, which is colourful, diverse, easy to adopt and cruelty-free.

Love
S

p.s. I will now report tomorrow with what I had today.

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DIY Facial-a real treat after a hard week

It's been a long time since I posted anything, thanks to my landlord. You would say that that seems like a strange reason. Why would the landlord not let me blog? Well, my dearest landlord decided it was time to sell his beautiful property. And so I was busy searching for a roof to put over our heads, so busy in fact that I had absolutely no time at all to blog.

So now it's been about a week or so and I have settled in quite comfortably. Have put things into their place. I can't believe the amount of crap that I had collected and had to leave behind. It is hard to judge when you have such a big house to yourself. But now since we have shifted to a smaller one, it's made me realize how we humans love to be hoarders. I have promised myself not to buy anything worthless from now on and be quite judicious as well as think of alternative uses for the tools and things that I already have. But anyhow, this is a topic for another day.

So after all my hard work, I think I definitely needed a pampering session. And for me, the best pampering is definitely a deep, indulgent facial. But who has the money to spend especially just after you have moved houses and paid a month and a half's rent in advance + bond money. A facial at the salon, however tempting is quite unthinkable, to say the least.

So I decided to go in for a simple DIY facial at home. I didn't need to spend a wad of cash plus I got it done right in the comfort of my own home.

Here's how I did it.

1) Started with putting cleansing milk on my face and rubbing it in circular motions. As soon as it started to dry on my face, I wet my fingers with water and started the motion again. Did this for about 5-7 minutes.




2) I then washed off my face with Neutrogena Facial Wash




3) Then, I took some Neutrogena Scrub in my hand and put it all over the face, gently scrubbing all the areas. Rubbing the skin too hard is never recommended. Did this for about ten minutes or so.



4) Meanwhile, I had kept the water to boil in a deep pan.

5) After washing the scrub off my face, I removed the boiling pan of water off the gas, put a clean towel over my head and lowered myself on to the pan. It is important not to do this in front of children or bend down too much. Both situations can be dangerous. I would say look for a place that is secluded and obviously the best time to do this would be when nobody is at home.

6) After steaming, when the pores are open and the skin is loose, that is surely the best time to remove blackheads. I should probably have purchased Biore`blackhead removing strips for this since the Clean and Clear ones that I have don't work that well. I didn't want to use my crappy strips so instead, I tried using a home remedy for blackheads which eventually didn't do anything at all for me. Just for your reference though, the home remedy calls for mixing a pinch of baking soda with water and rubbing on the blackheads. Failed miserably for me. Have you ever tried it? Did it work for you? Do let me know in the comments below. I don't know what I did wrong but next time I will definitely go in for the Biore strips. Have heard a lot about them.




7) The next step was easy---putting on a mask. I prefer making my own ones at home although I am not averse to trying the pharmacy ones.

So, I grated 1/4th of a cucumber, squeezed it to get the juice and then mixed about a tsp of honey into it. I mixed it well so it wasn't too drippy and then applied it to the skin for about half an hour before washing off.


Voila!! New, refreshed skin at home. I have vowed to do this every weekend to relive my skin of all the tension that it faces the whole week. Let's see how far of this resolve can I keep.


This DIY facial definitely left my skin feeling smooth and pampered, was inexpensive and I could do it in the comfort of my own home. Didn't take me more than about 45 minutes but definitely left me in a better disposition and a better position to face the next week.

Have you ever done a DIY facial? How were the results? What sort of face mask did you use? I am really eager to hear about it.

Do let me know in the comments section below.