Ladled

I made it with some onions and frozen vegetables. We all enjoyed the wholesome taste.

1.  Kirkland Organic Sweet potato chips taste like banana chips and tapioca chips. Its the sweet flavor working 2. Adding  gongura chutney  in lentils reminded me of  chintakaya pappu  , which is lentils with tangy raw tamarind flavor.

When I found these two on sale at Albertsons, you can imagine what I had in mind. I made Phad Thai noodles. I had to boil the Lo mein Noodles longer than the 4 min suggested on the wrapper. The seasoning was easy to prepare. Add some soy sauce, water and oil and mix. I liked that the seasong wasnt on the sweet side. for extra hot, you can add the chili flakes.

pindi miriyam

My husband got home a Famous German 'Fitness Bread' packet. I had some idea of what to expect of the  German bread . earlier I would have dunked it in tea. I had a fallback recipe for it if it was still languishing in the pantry. Making a bread upma. In few days, the packet moved into the fridge. The sense of urgency has increased. Friday night, my daughter said that she wants something special for breakfast on saturday. No idea what the special had to be. I did get an answer that the special was because of the holiday. I promised Bread Pakora  (Yes, bread pakora can be pan fried) which she didnt care for as it has been a long time since I made it. With these things in background, my saturday afternoon, my brain had churned enough with brand new Fitness bread pakora idea.  ( Hint for innovation - stock up good ideas if you want those to be incorporated for new materials.) On the left is the scrambled egg with the fitness bread which I made last. To make it ...

I used  Banana Bread Recipe  from Banana Bread Cookbook: 51 Easy But Great Banana Bread Recipes book by Eli Hartly. If you are going to bake anyways, why not try a new recipe. I am glad I did. Usually we seem to have only 3 ripe bananas. This time we had 4 just like the recipe needed. I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup. I could have probably removed another 1/4 cup as the end result was still sweet. I liked the fine melt in the mouth texture. It reminded me of kesari.

At Costco, a food sample provider placed a tortilla onto a griddle pan.  She then put some mix of many kinds of shredded cheese. Thin strands. A minute or so later, she folded the tortilla onto the half. "Are you making a Gordita?" "No. A Quesadilla" And there it was that simple to make a Quesadilla. I never wondered how to make it, but having looked at it, I know I will make it sometime when the fridge has cheese and we always have roti. One reason for not being curious about Quesadilla is my history with queso. Not so great. But now I am appreciating some kinds. That melted cheese in crusted tortilla, with the toasty smell as well as the brown toasty looks. Warm. What else do we need from food?

Sometime I think, culinary experiments at home are more of 'What can i get away with?' I started out with a plan of making normal upma, meaning not semiya (vermicelli) upma which is my elder daughter's favorite. She was out on a sleep over, so we had to make the normal upma with farina. Then I laid my eyes on  Streits potato pancake mix . By then I had peanuts, diced carrots and onions sauteeing in the pan. And just because no one will question me, I tore the aluminium packet of the potato pancake and mixed it to the cooking veggies. The powder coated them all well. And then I realised that we had some  Delallo instant polenta  to take care of. with lightning speed, I added some water to the pan. In a while it started boiling with the starch paste. I ignored the impending doom and added the polenta, as it wouldnt take too long to cook. After few minutes, the overall outcome is palatable and in the end it didnt even scream failure or experiment. So go mix things you wo...

It is always amazing to find a twist on old staples. A friend came back from a visit to India and brought these jewel studded  chegodi  that have lentils stuffed on the top. This also reminds me of a story where a king offers another, food made of gold.

Photo Courtesy:  Chilis Pepper Jack mac cheese Chilis Pepper Jack mac n Cheese, frozen meal tastes very good with all the creamy sauce, little bits and yummy rotini pasta for a variety from the usual elbow pasta. Chicken Fajita too had a palpable flavor and nice mix of all beans, veggies and chicken.

Cashew cookie from Larabar is a healthy way of getting your protein without the added sugar in the protein bars. No processed foods. If you already eat dates, but find them hard to the palate, then the cashew cookie is a softened paste of dates along with pieces of cashew that makes the dates creamy.

California Garlic Grass-Fed Ghee Butter by 4th & Heart, On-the-Go Single Serving 5-Count, Pasture Raised, Non-GMO, Lactose Free, Certified Paleo spreads very easy on a toast, so easy that even a preschooler can make a mild garlic toast reminiscent of the Texas garlic toast, once you give them the toast. With a single serve packet, there is enough to spread onto two toasts. If you prefer to let the toast ooze , there's some liquid form to it too. I put an opened one in the fridge and that froze. Its easier to use when stored outside and sealed. Fourth & heart has a wide variety of spreads with Vanilla Bean, Salted White truffle and Himalayan Pink Salt flavors.

Dark Chocolate with Almond and Blueberry At first I thought I was holding a thick bar of chocolate, turned out to be two of them. The bar is thin which makes it easy to feel the pop like crunch of it.

I have been suffering with cold for a while, the decongestion is so bad that I am happy when even when  nostril is working. Today the nurse suggested Naspira and it works unbelievably. Imagine squirting water through one nostril and believing that it will come out the other and also clear up whatever is clogging the passage. You have to see it to believe it. Afrin is another choice but not after knowing about Addictive Nasal Spray

In a  Shop your closet before buying a new outfit , I recalled that there was  A Taste of Thai Spicy Peanut Bake available in the pantry from my previous foraging there. I had leftover rotisserie chicken from Costco, Kale that I badly need (for vitamin C to keep me fit from cold ) and ofcourse the strong urge to eat something spicy. In minutes, I had the kale, chicken and the colorful bake conversing happily in the pan. When I tasted it to see if I needed to add more spice to counter abundance of chicken, it was way low on the scale of spice that it made more sense to leave it as a sweet chicken than load it with spice.