Healthy living

The past few weeks have been filled with festivities and feasting what with the Indian festival of Diwali and the American Thanksgiving. We have been overindulging ourselves. There are more holidays to come with Christmas and New Year around the corner!! Holidays mean lots of celebrations and parties which means lots of food!! We all know that the tables are laden with rich food making us consume almost or more than the entire day's worth of calories in one meal!! NO, I am not being the grinch!! Indulgence in rich food once in a while is absolutely fine. There is nothing wrong in it. The point I am trying to make is that we need to balance these rich meals with healthy, low calorie meals. That is not hard at all. With a little planning it can be easily achieved, like this Superfood Salad that is super easy to plan and make, won't break the bank and is filled with all good nutrients from a variety of fruits and vegetables! Try this and let me know your thoughts. It is versatile ...

I love trying new food items, new food ingredients from different cultures and traditions as long as it is healthy and good for me. I am sure by now all of you are well aware of this as my blog is testimony to this fact. This particular salad that I am bringing to you today as part of the Thanksgiving DFT is one such foodie adventure of mine ! The whole discovery of this recipe makes for interesting dinner conversation. I typically shop at this farmer's  market in my neighborhood that is Jewish. They have good produce at a very reasonable price. Once when I went shopping I saw fennel bulbs with the greens on it for sale for 50 cents each. The bulbs were huge. I looked at it and thought to myself that if there is such a demand for these bulbs, there has to be some recipe that I could use it in! I know that fennel seeds  are good for the digestive system as we Indians use it a lot , then the bulb and leaves also have to have nutritional value to it. I bought a bulb and reached ...

Thanksgiving is the only time of the year when we get cranberries. I didn't know what cranberries were until I came to this country. Then I only knew of cranberry juice, which I love and cranberry sauce that comes in a can. Until last year, I had never brought home cranberries as I didn't know what to do with them. Everything changed last year. I made cranberry pecan bread , cranberry chutney , cranberry wild rice pilaf and it all turned out good. This year I am expanding my horizons even further. I made this cranberry rice which was delicious. I tried it with the organic Mekong brown rice from Lotus foods and it came out delicious! I really like their brown rice! It cooks within 30 minutes to a perfect consistency. The texture is great and not chewy. I, who would not eat brown rice before, now look forward to it! No,Lotus Foods is NOT paying me to say this or to write this post. This is entirely my opinion. You have to give it a try to know for yourself if what I say is tru...

Thanksgiving is next week. It is an American Holiday that is celebrated Nationwide. Everything comes to a standstill.Families come together for this special occasion from near and far. There is lot of food and merry-making. This kind of begins the holiday season here in the US which continues until New Year. All the rules of eating healthy is forgotten during the Holiday Season. But it does not have to be so... Amidst all the rich foods, you could sneak in some healthy ones to so as to balance your plate. With a little thought and planning, you can plan your meals to be a little more healthier by swapping some ingredients, offering smaller and /or healthier desserts. Here are some easy, healthy options for you to choose from. Just click on the title of the recipe and the link will take you to the recipe in it's entirety. I am bringing this to Throwback Thursday , Angie's Fiesta Friday & Saucy Saturdays. Loretta @ Safari of the Mind and Petra @ Food Eat Love are co-h...

DFT is back just in time at the onset of winters, comfort food and Thanksgiving celebrations!! This month, Team DFT is bringing you meal platters that are healthy and delicious to also celebrate International Diabetes Month! Creating Recipes with a Cause! I am a proud DFT blogger. To learn about DFT,  Read this Link !  view more DFT recipes,  Click here ! As part of this team, I am bringing you a complete  plate that contains a balanced meal comprising of Ratatouille and Roasted Cauliflower Quinoa Rice and a Salad. Have you heard of Ratatouille ?? Yes, the movie right?? Everybody is familiar with that movie. The message of the movie is very true: anybody can cook. Did you know that Ratatouille is also the name of a dish?? It is actually a French dish made with summer vegetables like zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers and lots of tomatoes!! I made it with fall vegetables. I used a variety of squashes to make this. It is a super-simple, super-easy dish that is very fl...