REAL FOOD. REAL HEALTH

Chicken cooked in the oven is an easy alternative to cooking on a grill! It can be surprisingly tricky to get perfect results... Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside and flavour all through! So here are few tips that may help. * Get the chicken to room temperature before marinating. * Dry the chicken thoroughly before applying marinade. If the chicken is too wet, the marinde will not stick to the chicken. * Make few deep cuts so that the marinade goes deep inside the me

Recently, one of my friend proudly showed me her Gardner’s hand! Rough, tough and lot of character. I looked at mine and felt mine didn't tell any story. I do many things, but none really leave much of a mark. Then, I was making my next batch of Beet Kvass.. that’s when I saw my hands! They were colored red… I realized, a fermenter’s hands are colored with the colors of life! Now I feel happy! Coming to beet kvass. Beet kvass is a fermented drink that is made by fermenting be

I cook for two reasons.. one for making food ready to eat day to day.. the other, for the joy of it! When I cook for fun, I don’t like recipes that get done very quickly! I like to savour the act of cooking.. take my time in getting the ingredients ready, seeing them come together one by one, then, there needs to be some physical work! I should feel like I’m putting some effort.. and finally.. what I’m cooking should take its time to get ready! So, what do I like to cook the

Me and my son have decided to have a living room camp out tonight! He took charge of dessert and candies…. I got all other responsibilities! So.. I made chicken for tonight. Cooking for kids is not easy.. I asked him what kid on chicken he wanted. Well, here is the list.. should be red in colour.. kashmiri red chilli, check. Should taste like restaurant.. mint, coriander, ginger, garlic.. check. Shouldn’t have ‘big things coming in mouth’… no whole spices, smooth gravy.. chec

These plants were left for dead.. thrown around by the strong storm that hit them. Pots broken, roots out and completely exposed to the rage of nature. It happened when I was out of town.. they stayed like that for over a week. When I came back, I had two choices, trash them or give them another chance. I’m not a gardener and don’t know much about plants. One thing however I do know is that Life doesn’t give up.. it fights and finds a way! So, I picked these up, threw in some

I have always pursued ways to make cooking easy, fun, fast, healthy and easy to clean up! I have discovered a lot, learnt a lot and have come to rely on few tools that are my go-to for everyday cooking. One tool I never cared much for.. and was recently introduced to me by some kind person in Instagram is hand blender! It is an amazing tool and I now use it regularly. I combined the convenience of hand blender with another tool.. Indian pressure cooker! The combination is a w

What is your go to breakfast? Mine is eggs and avocado. Eggs are flexible and can be cooked so many different ways. When you are in rush, just break them on a pan with some butter.. sprinkle some salt and pepper, you are done! I eat eggs this way with avocado and may be some home made siracha. However, making my son eat avocado is not straight forward. He won’t eat avocado generally, but loves the guacamole from Chipotle. That is the only guacamole he likes to eat as well! It

Cooking and food, it is not just life, it teaches about how to do life right. So lamb chops, what do they teach me? Well, lesson 1, keep it simple! Life, just like lamb chops, has intense flavour. You don’t need to mess with it. Lamb chops are one of the most flavourful food. All you need to get the flavour out is salt, pepper.. and if you are more adventurous may be bit of garlic. That is it! Life is just like that, season it with love, trust.. and if adventurous… bit of hea

Microgreens are baby plants.. that have condensed dose of nutrition! They are flavourful, colourful and super nutritious. Generally you would see them sprinkled on your salad… or get green shots in fancy juice bars. Even though it sounds exotic, there is an easy way to grow your own microgreens.. right on your kitchen counter! It is beautiful to see the seeds sprout, form roots and grow… into beautiful greens! This is done using a technique called Hydroponics. This is a metho

No.. I’m not going to talk about the awesome Kadhai chicken I cooked. I’m going to talk about cooking! Why do we cook? More specifically.. why do people love to cook? Is the sole purpose to eat? Not actually.. if the only purpose was to get enough to sustain your life, well, you don’t need to put in all the effort! Cutting, cooking, cleaning.. it is a lot of work. We cook for the experience! Cooking is meditative.. cooking is art.. the act of cooking itself is rewarding. Seei

It is the buzz word! No, I’m not suggesting any techniques or preaching any dogmas. What I mean is to find time to sit back and reflect on what your goal is. Why are you on the journey you are? Why are you working so hard to make a change to your ways, learning new things? What are all the sacrifices for? You must have a vision that is important enough for you to take this journey. What I am suggesting is to find some time to remind yourself of that vision. Reflect on how you

I had bunch of greens in my fridge, plus I had paneer! All I needed was inspiration from my dear friend @theketopoch awesome palak paneer pictures! I decided to make my rendition of palak (spinach) paneer (fresh indian cheese)! The great thing about greens is that they are easy to cook, very difficult to go wrong with, they are delicious and it is super quick to cook them! Also, the other thing that is great about greens is that you can mix different kinds of greens and get d

Today, when on my run, I was watching the sun set. The golden light of the setting sun was filtering through the leaves of the trees. I was alone on the trail… and there were wild flowers scattered through the grass. I felt alive.. and happy. I realize that real healing is not just of the body.. it is of the mind and also the soul. When you heal, you heal completely. Else, it is just patch work that will not be permanent. Also, the real healing comes only when we are one wit

Eggs are so versatile! Especially when you cook your own food and have a busy life, eggs come in very handy! They are pretty much perfect food nutritionally and there is so much you can do with them. After a long day today, I needed to fix quick dinner. So I made an Omelette! For ingredients, I chopped ~2 tbsp onion, ~2 tbsp tomatoes, about 50gms of chopped spinach, 3 eggs, ~40gms of chopped paneer, some spices, bit of milk. Whisk all of it together. Heat a pan with about 1 t

If I have to pick one thing that will be a roadblock in your journey towards health, it will be your emotions! I’m not talking about intellect that may raise Qs on what you are doing, your chances of success or creating doubts on your methods and progress. I mean your emotions. The reason emotions play such a strong role in health.. and more specifically eating, is that we naturally look towards food to resolve emotions. If you are sad, you are naturally pulled towards comfor

Is there a time that is not conducive for Keto? Yes… late evenings! You have done the keto the whole day.. it was easy and fun. You had your keto coffee in the morning, a delicious meal at lunch with greens, some protein.. you had your keto coffee in early evening, may be some soup for dinner. You are all done and ready to go to bed in some time. 30 mins before when you are lying in your couch watching a food documentary, you start craving something sweet. Your mind start sca

You have started on your keto journey.. and it promised to be the answer! The answer that you have been looking for, the truth that you have been sold on… it is supposed to be fantastic! No cravings, extra body fat melting away, stable mind and thoughts… the magic pill! Week into it and you can’t think straight! You feel sick.. you have no idea why! You have been eating your greens, ghee, MCT oils, nuts and seeds, avocados… what went wrong! You feel like you do when you have

Today me and my son went for a one day trip. He wanted to go stay in a cabin. So we booked a place about 2 hrs from Dallas. Generally when we make trips like these, we don’t plan much.. we travel and if something catches our eye, we take a detour and explore. So today, we saw few amazing places that we didn’t plan for when we started driving. In a little town called Waxahachie, we saw a tulip farm.. with a claim that they have 1 million tulips in bloom. Then, we went to the h

Today me and my son visited Homestead Heritage community close to Waco TX. They describe themselves as “Homestead Heritage is an agrarian- and craft-based intentional Christian community. Its literature stresses simplicity, sustainability, self-sufficiency, cooperation, service and quality craftsmanship. It also strives to live in peaceful coexistence with the land, other people and other faiths.” I really like the place! I have come here before as well.. and every time I vis

Goat meat is my absolute favourite! If you are from northern part of India, you may also love it. There are various ways the meat can be cooked. Biryani (made with rice and meat) is popular, so are the various curry dishes. Luckily, there are some good middle eastern stores in Dallas that sell high quality goat meat. Also, if you go the farmers market in Dallas, there are some vendors who sell organic, super high quality meats (@3bn_ranch). I learnt the method of slow cooking