Dieter's Delight - Broccoli Stir-Fry

Broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables. And it's one of the easiest to make. And whenever I can find some fresh broccoli, I make sure I pick up a head.

After all the wedding feast over the last week, I had to take it easy. And the dieter series is revived!

This is a fairly simple recipe and wont take more than 20 minutes including chopping.

Boil a huge pot of water with plenty salt. Add the broccoli florets. When they turn a bright green (after about a couple of minutes), strain and keep aside.

Heat a shallow pan, drizzle some olive oil and when the pan is really hot, toss the broccoli florets. Add the broccoli stems, carrots and any other vegetables of your choice. Keep tossing on high heat for a minute.

Transfer to a bowl.

For the dressing, squeeze the juice of 1 lemon and add some fresh ground pepper. Pour on to the broccoli and dig in!

Dieter's Delight - Mushroom Mint Salad

It has been a crazy day; How else would you term a day when the carpenter is on full swing, cutting, sawing and drilling, and you can barely enter the house without being showered with sawdust! So yes, I was getting some shelves fixed and that's a 2 day job! Sigh

It was past 8 pm by the time these guys left, and I was hungry. There was a sly temptation to order out - a million thoughts running through my mind - Dominoes is right next door! Or should I call Mast Kalandar (they are 2 km away), or should I call Yo Potato or may be a peta wrap!

And then, I could hear the mind's mocking laugh! To shut it up and not feel guilty, decided to rustle up something quick!

The mushrooms should be used by today, so I chopped them up, set them on the pan, on low heat, along with some lemon juice and salt. Cook covered for about 10 minutes. Let cool and drain the water.

Meantime, finely chop a handful of mint and some coriander. Roughly chop some cucumber. Deseed tomato and roughly chop that too. Toss everything together; add some yoghurt, and we are done :-)

And this is the new entrant in my kitchen - magnetic knife holder :-). (Thanks to S, it sure matches the color of the decor)

Dieter's Delight - Grilled Paneer on a bed of sprouts

I have tried lots of ways to lose weight, but what really helped me are eating right and working out right. Having said that, it's not easy to eat right and work out always. There have been pangs of emotional eating, raiding the fridge at midnight (like Nigella - oh she has such a negative impact on weight loss), eating because you go out in a group and you can't help resist temptation (yeah OMG did that to me) and then the bakers shower their love on you by baking these wonderful cakes and you can't help but indulge. 

And suddenly, I've been seeing too many posts on weight loss and a friend also remarked that I'd gained weight :-( So, it's back to basics - firing it away on the treadmill, combined with lots of reps of Surya Namaskar, a zero-carb high-protein dinner and a bit of weight training to balance out the cardio. And Green tea with mint and a dash of lemon :-)

For a vegetarian like me, protein options are limited. Tofu (I really don't like this much), Soy milk, Sprouts and Paneer are easily available and some of the best choices when it comes to eating tasty and healthy food. 

So here's tonight's dinner

Boil sprouts in a microwave (for about 5 minutes on high). Let it cool.

Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, mint and coriander.

Add some salt to taste.

I have a taken recent liking to green tabasco. So I added a couple of drops of that.

Mix well. Rest for a few minutes.

Meantime, slice the paneer into long strips. Brush with some olive oil. I added some chilli flakes, mint, coriander and salt. (I used my MR sandwich maker, dumped these strips in there and let them grill, turning them over at regular intervals)

That's it and we are done. Happy dieting. (Warning: Do not watch Nigella's show when you eat this. I loved the coconut ice-cream she made today and was looking at my bowl of salad and shaking my head in disbelief)

Eco Cafe, Chamiers - Eat more with your eyes

Chamiers has always held fond memories for me. My first time there was at the property right opposite to where it is now. The outdoors were amazing especially post monsoons.

It was at the Eco Cafe that I had my first sip of spicy hot chocolate after wading through some heavy rains way back in November 2010.

Today was very hot in Chennai and I was too sleepy. I'd left work early so I could catch up on some sleep before I headed to Eco Cafe. I woke up with a start, to find that it was already quarter past 6. I didn't want to rush through the traffic, with what me being an almost-victim to an unabashed auto driver yesterday. Surprisingly all lights turned green and I just zoomed ahead and had reached Chamiers in under 15 minutes.

First one to arrive, I just wandered a bit, trying to get some pictures. Slowly the foodies trickled in. There were an overload of DSLRs around. There was a tripod and Doc had the external flash too. It was tricky shooting inside the cafe, as it was dimly lit in yellow. Flash made things worse, and I was a little rusty to shoot without flash. So, pardon my jaundiced pictures. (Kamalika - picasa link here - https://picasaweb.google.com/103933428096344757675/EcoCafe)

If I had to rate the food based on presentation, Eco Cafe would score a perfect 10. Unfortunately, we just can't eat with our eyes. :-)

The food was ordered in random; obviously we weren't fine dining.

The veg chowder soup, was crumbly and the right temperature. (The soup bowl was chipped. Chamiers to take note - you really DO NOT serve in chipped bowls). Bruschetta was crisp and thankfully didn't soak with the tomatoes. I quite couldn't figure out what the other toppings were. You just can't go wrong with the potatoes - the wedges were perfect. (Eh.. well, I did mess up the aloo capsicum once and S was kind enough to tell me it was okay, but I felt super guilty throughout that day)

The chocolate almond milk was too nutty with the almond flavor overpowering everything else.

I'd always liked a pasta salad, and the ingredients here were interesting. Roasted aubergines, zucchini, bell peppers, thyme and balsamic. It was total let down when a forkful was eased into the mouth. The aubergines weren't roasted and were completely raw. Pasta was under cooked (I know pasta has to be al-dente, but this was one below al-dente). Neither was there thyme, nor balsamic. The flavor was lacking.

The cinnamon-apple cake is usually an all time favorite but today's piece was cold and probably old as well. It didn't feel fresh. But hey, the spicy hot chocolate was just perfect as always ! The waffles were right on the money - neither too crunchy nor too soft, with the honey doing the honors. The pancakes were good, so was the maple syrup. The chocolate sauce on the waffles had a benadryl-y flavor. Something was just not right with the chocolate sauce.

The club sandwich was decent. The penne pasta with mushrooms and pesto had too much pesto and olives. In a nutshell, every dish had one ingredient that was over powering (mostly the pesto / olives) and we couldn't quite catch the flavor of the other ingredients.

That said, the mushroom risotto with ratatouille was perfect. Perfect risotto, not too soggy not too dry and not too many mushrooms. The caramel custard with oranges by the side, was pleasing to the eye, and to the taste buds as well.

I'd go there again for the spicy hot chocolate and perhaps for the sandwiches and the waffles and of course for the laid back ambiance. Slightly over priced, and over powering flavors in some of the dishes could be a sore point with the Eco Cafe. Having said that, I'd certainly recommend Chamiers for the sheer joy of sitting in a quiet environment and sipping the hot chocolate on a rainy day.

What's for lunch

It's a question that stumps me every day. I'm decent at decision making, especially at work,  but when it comes deciding clothes or menu, I am stuck. I look up to S or R for support, and then have never failed me.

Today was one of those days when I was just so exhausted and despite having a fully stocked fridge, was just not able to get myself to make an interesting dabba. As I rummaged through the fridge, I did find a bowl of left over sprouts salad.

The sprouts salad was made by tossing together 100 gm of boiled sprouts, 1/2 finely chopped onion, 1/4 finely chopped capsicum, lots of coriander and a little salt.

This was very easily converted into sabzi, by simply heating oil, seasoning with jeera, 1 finely chopped tomato, 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste, and dumping the salad into the kadai, and cook covered for about 10 minutes !

Squeeze a few drops of lemon and we now have a good healthy sabzi to eat with hot soft chapatis. I don't have a picture of this, as I was too lazy to do one, when I finished cooking. So may be another day !

Happy lunch-boxing !