Looking Back Post Fasting

A little while ago house'd asked me for tips on how to maintain my fast which was essentially a diet. However, my fast was very on the unhealthy side of things. I didn't eat for a whole day--only liquids such as milk, juice, soup, etc. The next day I would eat anything and everything as I pleased. I "sprinted" through the finish line by not eating for 91 hours and drinking just liquids. I officially want to hear nothing about soup until July 2012. Anyways all the fasting was for the well-being and rajipo of my guru-Pramukh Swami Maharaj and health for me came second for once.
In the beginning when I started fasting, I did try to maintain some "healthy" eating patterns like increasing fruits and veggies on days I could eat and drinking healthier things on days I couldn't. I also tried to keep up with light exercise on my eating days. However, after awhile, my body ran out of any stored energy and I would get dizzy even lifting a few pounds. My gym membership was officially dismembered in October despite the fact that I stopped working out since the end of August.
My plan now is to start gaining back healthy weight. Usually after a "starvation" type of diet your body tends to store fat. Well my body is more than welcome to store fat in places I want it to but its probably going to end up going right to my gut. Therefore, along with trying to eat healthier, I am going to start my half-marathon training which is in April in order to keep my body active as well.
In lieu of house'd dieting question I've been doing some reading on good dieting methods and tried to find things that I have done before unintentionally that have obviously worked.
1. Have a realistic and measurable goal.
2. 1-2 pounds a week is most definitely doable. I wouldn't try to drop any more than that in a healthy manner.
3. Remember the hunger response from GSBS? Try to avoid it by eating small meals--carry around a granola bar in your purse or a little bag of nuts or something if you know you are going to be on the run at your next "meal" time.
4. Only weigh yourself once at the end of each week. This way you'll be surprised to see your weight down a few pounds instead of checking everyday not seeing much change.
5. Also from GSBS: Increase your complex carbs and decrease your fats and simple sugars. Complex carbs mean being vegetarian basically: fruits, veggies, legumes, and whole grains. Simple sugars mean honey (sad face), syrups, table sugar, brown sugar, milk, yogurt, and fruit juices.
6. Obviously stay aerobic 20-30 minutes a day.
7. Decrease alcohol consumption--they are empty calories that are also going to make you bloat. Also beer and a martini have the same amount of calories.
8. If you get a food craving--write it down. I had a list of foods I craved on no food days. Turns out I either totally forgot about the list on my food days or when I went back and did read it, I didn't want to really eat that particular food anymore. However, if you are still craving that particular food 3-4 days straight, then go ahead and chow down! Don't designate a day of the week to eat your cravings though. If you do that, subconsciously your mind will come up with cravings even the day before since it knows that its the day to divulge. Proven fact.

Wegman's Recipe Combo Pizza

Recently and very excitedly I finally signed up for a membership for a Wegmans card and got this free recipe book with my registration. I flipped through a few days ago and everything in it looked absolutely amazing!! (meat and other uneattables aside) Today I got home from work, napped, did arti, and by the time everyone was starving and cranky. While I couldn't remember any one particular recipe, I ended up mashing a few together to get this delicious Squash Tomato Pesto Naan Pizza. Wow what a mouth full =) So good!!

All were either from my freezer or left over items...
Pesto
Mozzarella cheese
Naan
Sliced tomato
Pre-cut squash from Wegmans
Pizza Sauce

YUMMMMMMMMMM!

Best Coast

Ah, the age old question, which is the best coast? West versus East Coast? Snoop Dog versus P. Diddy? Real Housewives of Beverly Hills versus New Jersey? We East coasters tend to betray our side, and sensationalize and fantasize about the West coast as this wonderful paradise. But is it just a case of the grass is greener? After all, LC from The Hills moved to NYC to pursue fashion in The City. To find out for sure, I went for some October in California, stopping first at San Francisco, followed by Los Angeles.


I was lucky enough to stay with friends at both destinations for full immersion. I was advised to come to SF this month because the weather is best. They get a late summer, and it just so happened to be Fleet Week. To get the trip started right, we went on a wine tour with Napa Valley Wine Country Tours and toured Sonoma and Napa Valley. We made some fun Swedish friends, who enlightened us on Swedish onomatopoeia (pigs don't go "oink oink," rather, they go "nuff nuff"). These gentlmen also enjoyed Se7en for all Mankind jeans. (below: winery)
Weather in SF was great, sunny, and 75 degrees. Couldn't ask for much more! Both NoCal and SoCal excel in Mexican fare. We went to The Mission to grab a humongous burrito for $7 (try La Lengua / Cow tongue). Then we headed over to Dolores Park to people watch the hip and or gay (below). No one interested in bothering us straight ladies = perfect people watching opportunity. For food, also check out Leopold's (Russian Hill neighborhood) for spatzle (german mac 'n cheese), and a wide selection of German beer in a boot. It is cozy and sunny yellow inside, great for casual dining. If you're looking for a more polished place, The Prospect is a cool, hip, modern restaurant in the city where the music is just loud enough that you can still carry a conversation.

So, this is not typical San Francisco. It can get quite cold and rainy here. They say that you can tell who the tourists are by their fleeces that say "San Francisco" embroidered on it that they had to purchase for the lower than expected temperatures. Food was excellent!

Next stop: Los Angeles. I stayed in Arcadia, which is just east of Pasadena. There is a tight knit Taiwanese community here. The Mexican and Asian food can't be beat here! The weather can't be beat either. Sunny, 80 degrees, and beautiful succulents and lush florals here. The sunshine was easy to take for granted. Sometimes it was even downright annoyingly sunny, if that's even possible. One thing's for sure, you get your dose of vitamin D year round, but no snow for Christmas. (West coast 1-East coast 1.)

You MUST have a car to enjoy what LA has to offer. Driving is easier than NYC, but more challenging than NJ on account of the freeways and continuous traffic at all hours of the day.

My cousin and his friend seemed pretty amused when I said, “All I know in southern California is Arcadia and Cerritos.” So, I got to know the town better by driving. I had a low profile, Nissan Sentra, which I stocked with pistachio nuts like a squirrel. I spent a lot of time cooking at the house…and my go-to destination ended up being Pavilions, the supermarket down the street. I was still able to eat healthy when I cooked at home because I had the kitchen at my disposal. Aaand as a housedaughter, price is a nagging issue, but thanks to the bazzilionaires who may or may not have made money in unsavory ways, they donated parks and gardens and their homes to the public to enjoy.
Side note: squirrels in California are redder than our east coast squirrels, who are more grey. Both collect nuts obsessively this time of year.
Day 1: First day out on the town was Pasadena Old Town to get shorts and a tank top. (Free parking for first 2 hours)
Day 2: I lucked out and stumbled into the 2011 Southland Orchid Show at the Huntington Library! Loved the gardens, and found that all the old people were hiding out in the air conditioned mansion-converted-to-art-gallery. Not a bad place to be! ($10 student admission, Free parking)


Day 3: Koreatown and Soot Bull Jeep! SBJ is well known by yelp and foodies alike to be the best Korean BBQ in all of Los Angeles. Some say even the best Kolbi BBQ in all the world! It was recently renovated, and is a very understated and casual place. Celebrities know they won't be bothered here. I spoke to the family who owns the restaurant.
Housedaughter HD: "What's the secret to your success?"
Soot Bull Jeep SBJ: "No secret. We have been here the longest. We were the first Korean BBQ to open up, and while others have opened up since then, we are still the best."
HD: "No secret sauce for the Kolbi beef?"
SBJ: "Same sauce as anywhere else. Sugar, Soy Sauce, Salt. But the ratio is special, that's the trick."

Day 4-6: Beaches! Santa Monica Pier, Manhattan Beach (my favorite one) and dinner at Cecil’s Ribs, Venice Beach. (Free municipal parking at Manhattan. Maybe $3 or so for Santa Monica, maybe free can’t remember. $5 parking for Venice Beach)


Day 6: The Grove and Farmer’s Market. Saw Russell Brand at the Anthropologie (TMZ, hire me!). I think I had deer-in-the-headlights + smile combo on my face, but I respected his personal space, and admired from afar. So I am now officially a fan of his! Every bit as scraggly and lanky as he is in the movies. Three middle aged ladies tried to chat him up. He did the smile-keep-walking, and politely ducked away. (First hour of parking, free. Celebrity sighting, priceless).

The Griffith observatory sits on top of a mountain, with great views of the Hollywood sign, and at night, the city lights of LA look like glittering confetti on a black ground. Gorgeous! (Free admission, $5 for IMAX film about stars and with a live narrator. Think listening to a bed time story)

Day 7: Cerritos! Treated to In N’ Out Burger (with fully loaded, insider’s only toppings) and animal style fries (beef and special sauce and cheese on top). Also, at a Mexican joint, we got Burritos with french fries INSIDE!

Day 8: Briefly visited the Getty long enough to spend quality time at the watercolor exhibition. It was cool how watercolorists used mussel shells to mix paint in. The museum is just absolutely beautiful, inside and out. (Free admission, $15 parking) I must say that California is a great place to live and to vacation. I had great fun soaking up the sunshine, cruising around town. I am probably more of a SoCal girl than NoCal. “Los Angeles, I’m yours.”


Thanks to Daily Love Affairs for the guest blog spot! - The Housedaughter

Songs of Nostalgia...

Most songs are always of some sort of nostalgia either reminding you of a place, person, event, etc. But a few recent songs on the radio seem to be similar to songs from several years ago about ex lovers and flings...anyways here's a mini nostalgia playlist:

Adele--Someone Like You

David Guetta--Without You

Dandy Warhols--We Used To Be Friends

Gwen Stefani--Cool

The last two are my personal favorites and found on probably every one of my I-tunes playlists as well. They are a sort of baseline on what I just most other songs and music on.  Anyways hope you all had good memories return to you from listening to those.

PURPLE Bell Pepper!

I'm amazed. I just opened my refrigerator door to find this rare vegetable. Actually I'm not sure exactly how rare it is, but I was stoked and surprised to see it. Apparently my masa and masi found it when they went apple picking around here last weekend. Anywho, time to cut it up for the pops salad. =(

Starbucks' Salted Caramel Mocha...

is DELICIOUS!

I'm on lunch break right now and decided to stop by here and grab a drink since I can't eat anything today...and definitely one of my Top 5 Starbucks drinks of all time. Give it a try. It just tastes like such good yummness and especially on a semi-chili day like today...its perfect!

Demi Lovato - Skyscraper

"Miss Basil"

So with nothing to do with the last month or more I decided to go back to gardening. I used to help my grandfather garden when I was a little girl and then of course I did a lot of it growing up at the house in Clinton. Since the Pops wasn't around too much, I was pretty much in charge of the the landscaping and helping my mom with her vegetable garden.
At the Regency, the soil isn't very good and well its just not worth investing a lot of money in renewing it so I dealt with what I had.
A daily ritual in the scorching July-August heat was to water the plants for an hour every night.
The roses finally came into full bloom about 10 days ago as the weather started cooling down post-Irene.
The basil photo is after its 3rd harvest. I used all of it for pesto and just froze it. I think the last harvest I will try to dry it.
And the ardvi/taro/patra took the most energy out of me. Pre-Irene and all the rain, it took me a total of 6 hours to make moats around all of the plants. They need A LOT of water--pretty much grow best in South Asia in swampy areas. They took so much time because the soil really really sucks and is more like clay and very tough to deal with. I think that is also why the leaves didn't grow to a larger size and stayed fairly small compared to how large they used to be in Clinton. Irene in a way was good because it provided constant watering for a few days, but with the pressure of the water, the moats/walls around the plants washed down and now the water doesn't hold anymore. =(
Regardless, I had a great time with the water and keeping up with the few plants I had to maintain this summer. It was therapy in a way. Today I just went to ShopRite of their 3 for $10 deal and bought 30 Mums plants. I planted 15 at the Red Mill Inn and will finish planting the remaining 15 at the Regency today. Not really a fan of the Mums--but the Pops loves them for some reason so whatever. I'm also planning on buying the large bags of daffodil and tulip bulbs from Home Depot that I saw today and planting them so they bloom in the Spring.

Pesto Pizza!

This was delicious and very simple! I made it twice in one day!

So I made pesto using any recipe you find online or you can buy it ready made. Whenever I make anything, I ALWAYS modify it to my tastebuds, so sometimes I never really keep track of how I'm modifying it, which is what happened in the case of this pesto unfortunately.

Ingredients:
1 Mama Mary's Thin Crust Pizza Crust
1/4 c. pizza sauce
1/4 c. pesto
1/2 c. shredded Mozzarella cheese
Salt to taste
1/2 Fresh Lemon

1. Turn oven on to 350 degrees F. During its pre-heat time, put the crust in the oven.
2. When the oven is done pre-heating, take the crust out. Spread on the pizza sauce.--its not supposed to be too saucy--just a thin layer
3. Spread on the pesto on top of the sauce. It's okay if the two mix.
4. Throw on the cheese and shake on some salt and squeeze on some fresh lemon juice.
5. Bake the pizza until the cheese is melted.

YUMMMMMMM.

Some notes:
When I make my pesto, I freeze it, which means I don't add the Parmesan until I'm ready to use the pesto. However, instead of mixing in the parm, I just sprinkled it on top of the pesto once I spread it onto the pizza but before I threw on the mozzarella cheese.

Shoutout to Saurabh!

Deep Fried Goodness

I was going to say I usually am not a fan of deep friend things, but then I remembered all those appetizers from last year and cheesy fries that I craved every few days. Anywho, I made these as a "wariety" for the Pops for his Chaturmas...and well we all ended up eating them leaving him no left overs for today because they turned out to be just thaaattt good. So if you don't mind opening all your doors and windows to the chilly air outside, I urge you to give these a try.

Deep Fried Cheesy Broccoli, Carrots, Potatoes

I really eyeballed this recipe, so really just give it a whirl and I'm positive it will turn out just as good for you!

Potato Prep:

Wash and peel 2 medium sized yellow or white potatoes. Slice to them ~1/2 cm thickness and leave them to kinda of dry while preparing the rest of the things.

Carrot Prep:

Rinse a handful of the ready peeled carrot sticks. Drop them in a small pot full of water and bring to boil. 

Broccoli Prep:

Wash a handful of broccoli florets and cut the stems off, but keep them long enough that you can hold them by just a pinch. Drop them into the pot with carrots and keep at boil for ~3 minutes.

Drain the boiling water out of pot and immerse carrots and broccoli in an ice water bath for a few minutes. 

Drain cold water and let carrots and broccoli dry on paper towel.

"Kheru" Prep--Kheru is a Guju term. I believe its called "batter" in English, but I learned Guju first so that first term that came to me.

Once again this recipe is farali--but instead of the two farali flours, just substitute all-purpose flour.

• 4 tbl shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 heap tbl yogurt
• 1 serrano pepper--grinded with hand held grinder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 c. Buckwheat flour
• 1.5 c. Rajigira flour
• 1-2 quarts cooking oil heated to about 375 degrees F in pot leaving at least 3" space at top of pot

Mix all this together and then add water to make a semi-smooth (you don't have to break the cheese) batter that has the consistency of pudding (enough to make it stick to the vegetables).

Drop a tiny bit of batter into the oil to see if it is ready--the oil will start to bubble a lot around the batter.

Dip each vegetable into the batter one at a time and place carefully into deep fryer. HOT OIL WILL BURN YOU RIDICULOUSLY! Remove when dark golden brown with a slotted long arm spoon and place on a paper towel on a plate.

Dip in spicy honey mustard dip or squeeze some lemon on and shake some masala on.

"Healthy Frick" Food

So sometimes for my dad's chaturmas, I just throw some things together which I suspect taste good and it apparently does.

I'll call this a "Roasted Zucchini Salad"

Ingredients:
1 Medium Zuccini
1/2 Green Bell Pepper
1.5 c. Purple Cabbage, cut
Dry Italian Seasoning to taste
Salt to taste
Olive Oil
Pepper to taste
1 Fresh Lemon

1. Pre-heat oven at 350 degrees F.
2. Cut the Zuchini into long pieces, about the thickness and length of your forefinger.
3. Cut the bell pepper into pieces, about the size of a dollar coin.
4. Arrange the Zuchini and bell pepper pieces onto a baking sheet. Drizzle on olive oil. Sprinkle on some seasoning, salt, and pepper to taste. Squeeze on about a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice. Bake for about 20 minutes until bell pepper edges start to brown.
5. Add few tablespoons olive oil and saute the purple cabbage until it is half-cooked (you don't want it overly cooked and too floppy). Add seasoning, salt, pepper, and lemon to taste.
6. Toss and serve.

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Works Amazingly

This a great workout I found sometime last year I want to say that I do when I'm too lazy to go to the gym but too bored to do anything else at home. I personally do feel the effects but up the weight limit if you don't!--remember women can't bulk like men since they don't have as much testosterone.

New Song I'm Lovin...

Lovesick

by Lindstrom feat Christabelle

Easy Peasy Cheesecake!

I guess I'm in the baking mood =)

Ingredients:
1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust (6oz)
1 16oz Low-Fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese Container, softened
1/2 c. White Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp lemon zest
3 eggs--see note below

1. Pre-heat oven at 325 degrees F. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla. Add the egg substitute and mix just until blended.

2. Pour into crust. Bake 40 minutes (until center is almost set). Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours.

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Some notes:
1. To soften the cream cheese, place the container in the microwave on High for 45 seconds. (this is much easier at the same cost of buying the 8 oz packages)
2. Use Splenda if you want to make this treat even healthier.--I'm just not a fan of the Splenda taste.
3. For clean edges on the cheesecake slices, use a sharp knife to cut the chilled cheesecake, wiping the knife blade with a damp cloth between each cut.
4. EGGS-so I obviously used egg replacer--EnerG egg replacer which is 1.5 tsp powder + 2 tbls warm water mixed prior to adding to the recipe.

Spice Cake for Fasting

Yet another Chaturmas-friendly farrari recipe =)
Spice Cake!

Ingredients:
1/2 c. Singoda Flour
1/2 c. Buckwheat Flour
1/2 c. Potato Flour
3/4 c. White Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Ground AllSpice
1 pinch Ground Black Pepper
_________________________________________________________
1 tbls Honey
1/4 c. Oil
1 tbls Distilled White Vinegar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 c. Cold Water

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together the first set of ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

2. Stir together the second set of ingredients in a measuring cup.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients; pour the wet ingredients into the well. Mix the batter together until just blended. Pour the batter into an ungreased 8x8 inch baking pan.

4. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Either frost it with vanilla frosting or sprinkle on some confectioners sugar.

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Some notes:

When you make the batter, you might have to add some water and oil because the Singoda flour makes it extremely jello-like.

Also, the taste turns out great, however it does not rise as well as normal cake because of the farrari flours and their consistency. I'm sure the eggs have something to do with it too.

Pinwheels!!

so ever since Houston and Kashyup&Tejals wedding more than a few of us have been going gaga for these amazing pinwheel appetizers...so I'm going to make them today--unfortunately can't be lazy ab it because Shivu is not here to help.
So I found a basic recipe for them online and kind of twerked it a bit:
to make 100:

ingredients:
16 oz sour cream
16 cream cheese-softened
2 Serrano chilies-finely chopped
2 c. grated cheddar cheese
1 can olives-well drained and finely chopped
1/2 c. green bell pepper-finely chopped
1/2 c. red bell pepper-finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
4-5 tsp taco bell mild sauce (swaminarayan safe =D)
10 10" flour tortillas

MIX all the ingredients except tortillas

SPREAD about 2 heap tbls onto each tortilla

ROLL each tortilla individually

WRAP each roll with Saran Wrap
REFRIGERATE rolls for several hours

UNWRAP & CUT into 1/2"-3/4" thick slices discarding the ends

YUMMMMMMMMMM

some notes:
I used low fat cream cheese to make this a little healthier.
The serranos can be quite powerful and spicy even to the touch so if you wear contacts DO NOT CUT them. Instead throw them in a hand grinder!!

Met Photos & Favorites to come Soon!!

Maybelline Falsies Flare Mascara Review

So my Falsies mascara was running low and I have a wedding to go to this weekend so I was going to pick up the same mascara but I saw the new Falsies Flare on the shelf and decided to give it a go. I figured if anything, the formula is the same so I can just use the plain Falsies brush in the new mascara tube if I don't like how the Falsies Flare brush is. BUT I LOVE IT! It really works like they advertise it and if you don't believe me check out this photo of myself I uploaded...just ignore the foundation/blush/eyeshadow/eyeliner...I was just messing around with it and figuring out which of my products to take and which to shelf.

The eye on the right has plain Falsies versus the eye on the left which has the Falsies Flare. You can't really tell in the photo, but in person there is a VERY clear distinction. The Right eyelashes are more blunted and rounded but the Left eyelashes go up and out more. DEFINITE must buy. Although I asked my mom's opinion and she said they look like a put on fake eyelashes, but that was the look I was going for anyways so mission accomplished. =)

An Ironic Twist in a Suicide

Today I found the most interesting story on the internet while looking for something. Disregarding its morbidity, it was actually quite funny.I have no idea if this story is true or not though.

"On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency .As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly.

Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned. "Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "A person, who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide." That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.

In the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Mr. Opus. When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject "B".

When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, if the gun had been accidentally loaded. The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.

Now comes the exquisite twist.

Further investigation revealed hat the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself, so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide."

Surveillance

There's the surveillance where you have to sit outside a house and watch and then there's the surveillance where you have to rewind video footage and well...still watch. Regardless...it SUCKS. Between last night and today I had to watch a total of 7 hours of video feed on fast forward but it still took me over 3 hours. AND today was a no-food day so it wasn't even like I could sit there with a bag of popcorn and wait for something interesting to happen. Anyways the reason to set up surveillance in the first place is because you are anticipating a certain behavior, in this case theft. But after sitting and going through footage for 7 hours and NOT finding theft, it was even more bothersome to feel like I wasted my time on a senseless endeavor. Oh the things I have to do sitting at home and unemployed.

On a side note...I was asked today what my salary requirement would be for a Call Center Medical Librarian. NO IDEA. geez I would just like to get paid.

Potato Pizza

Since the start of Chaturmas, the pops only eats salads and farrari foods. So for the parent's 24th anniversary, which was yesterday, he wanted me to make them pizza that he could eat. Having visited Lowes 3 times, Home Depot, and a masonry place, I was in no mood to cook yesterday. Today's a new day, and despite feeling sick, I feel bad we didn't get them anything for their anniversary, which they surprised they made it to 24 years of togetherness, so potato pizza it is.

Originally, the idea was to use some sort of farrari flour like rajagda or singoda flour which you can find at some Indian stores. But after we thought about it, debras made of farrari flours usually turn out very hard and break like crackers instead of being soft. 

I found this recipe online for potato pizza, which is actually for those who are on gluten-free diets. Obviously I had to modify it for Swaminarayan appropriateness, so here it is. It turned out to be surprisingly delicious!

Ingredients:

5 Yellow Potatoes--These are great for all-purpose cooking. Russet Potatoes are even better for baking and can be used instead.

1 tablespoon Singoda Flour--I believe Egg Replacement powder should be a good substitute since the original recipe asked for 1 egg.

3 Tomatoes--Sliced

Mozzarella Cheese

Salt, Pepper, & Italian Seasoning to taste

Any additional toppings: brocolli, black olives, bell pepper, etc.

Directions:

1. Wash and shred the potatoes. Put into colander. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and let sit for 10 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 350F.

2. In a small bowl, add a few teaspoons water to Singoda flour and mix. The mixture should have a liquid consistency.

3. Lightly grease a skillet or pie pan. A nonstick saute pan will work as long as it does not have a rubber or plastic handle.

4. Press all the extra starch out of the potatoes in the colander. Transfer the potatoes into the skillet and mix in the flour mixture.

5. Evenly spread out and press the potato mixture into the bottom of the skillet similar to any other pizza crust.  Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes at 350F.

6. Sprinkle some olive oil onto the crust and bake for another 20 minutes at 350F.

7. Place one layer of tomato slices onto the crust. (add other toppings if you wish) Sprinkle with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning to taste, and a light layer of mozzarella cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350F.

AWESOME EKADASHI-CHATURMASNESS! ENJOYYYYYYYY

Cardio-Strength Combo Circuit

This is one of my favorite workouts. I did this workout almost everyday of the week last summer after graduating college. I made it a routine after lab hours Monday-Friday and switched up to an hour of yoga on Saturday mornings and took Sunday off. Originally it is a celebrity workout, although I can't recall exactly which one right now, but I modified it somewhat. You do need a gym for this, however last summer, the closest/cheapest place I had to home was the YMCA--which can be literally grimy sometimes since its so affordable for family memberships, but if your goal is to look and feel great, just go and don't think about anything else except seeing results!
The workout entails alternating a few minutes of cardio with a few sets of strength exercises.
For cardio, I prefer to use the elliptical since its low impact because I have terrible knees and ankles. However, if you're multitasking and starting to train for a marathon or something that involves running, use the treadmill for your cardio routine.

10 minutes Cardio: 4 min at low intensity; 4 min at medium intensity, 2 min at high intensity/sprint
     The point is to raise the temperature in all your muscles and increase heart rate.

3sets20reps of each using 3-5 lb dumbbells. (Ladies, you have very little testosterone and you will NOT "bulk" up  if you use higher weights. If the dumbbells you are using are not providing any resistance and you are not feeling the burn, go for more lbs.)
     Lateral Shoulder Raises
     Reverse Flys
     Alternating forward lunges combo'd with bicep curls


5-10 minutes Cardio: Medium Intensity



2sets20reps of each--adjust weight on machine so that you feel the burn.
     Chest Presses
     Leg Presses
     Overhead Dumbell Extensions--Use a 5-10lb weight. These work your triceps. Maintain proper form by keeping elbows close to your head.

5-10 minutes Cardio: Medium Intensity


CORE

2sets25reps of Ball Crunches

3sets10reps of Reverse Crunches
1set10reps Planks--hold for 30sec each

2 minutes Cardio: Low Intensity


STRETCH STRETCH STRETCH. Hold your stretches at least 30 seconds each.