From Appa-Amma to Appu and Aishu

This is a poem written by dearest sis R for Patti. I take the liberty of publishing it here for two amazingly strong girls.

Is the left shoulder that she sits on?

Whispering words of courage into my ear.

"How can I ever be gone,

When you are right here?

I am your guardian angel,

More now than you ever knew.

I am still praying and fighting

To make all your dreams come true.

You are my best child

No one can better be

I am immortal because of you

Because you love me, dont you see?

I can never be gone,

For you are but a reflection of me

I am always around,

By living you sustain me.

Dont despair my lovely child

Take in the light, the wind and the sea.

I am you and everything around you,

I could not closer to you be.

With all our love today and always,

Affectionately Amma-Appa

Tu Kahan Chupa hai hame ye bata!

I never imagined the worst nightmares could come true.Never thought that hope could vanish in a second. There is one thing that I blindly held on to, Faith. Seems like it does not exist. Or it has chosen to ignore us. I am losing my ability to pray because I fear that there is no one listening.

Noor e khuda
Aaj kal tu kahan hai ye bataa
Kya ye sach hai ke tu hai humse khafa

Mowgli

I have just heard of the experience from my Mom. She says it was the happiest feeling . I have heard endless stories of her priceless moments with her first bundle of joy . How she took her in her arms when she was a day old, how she invented games for her , how everyone in the family has that one special pic with her in the 1980 Tshirt , how she is still the first child for each one in the family and the rest of us a distant second ! Today as I stand at the threshold of the same event , I can barely contain my excitement and love.

Welcome to the Ramachandran Family little Mowgli and I'm sure you are going to snatch away the most loved child title from your Mom!!

Low Calorie Cooking - Recipe 1- Soya Granules Aloo tikki

Now the common misconception is potato is fattening and soya is healthy. This is just partly right. Boiled Potato has zero fat while Soya has quite a bit of fat. Infact my trainer made me have a boiled potato every morning in my good old days of gymming.Soya has protein and Potato has only carbohydrates. So I thought of making a perfect meal of protein,fat and carbs . So here goes the recipe

Ingredients:

1) Soya Granules(Ruchi) : 1 cup

2) Boiled Potato(with salt) :2

3) Ginger Garlic paste : 1 tsp

4) Cumin(Jeera) Powder : 1 tsp

5) Chaat Masala : 1 tsp

6) Green Chillies: 1 finely chopped

7) Lemon Juice : 2 tsp

8) Salt,Pepper and Sugar : as per taste

9) Cream (Optional) : 1 Teaspoon

10) Bread : 2 Slices

11) Bread Crumbs/ Rava(Semolina)

12) Boiled Green peas/cabbage/carrot (with salt)

13) Oil : 1/2 tsp

Method

1) Boil 4 cups of water and bring to boil. Add salt to the water so as to just about flavour the granules.This should be approximately 1 teaspoon.Put in Soya granules into the boiling water and cook for 5min. Remove from fire drain excess water and wash with cold water. Squeeze out all excess water and keep aside

2) In a wide bowl mash together the boiled potatoes,boiled peasand/or carrot and/or cabbage, soya granules,ginger garlic paste,cumin powder,chaat powder,chillies,lemon juice,salt,sugar,pepper and cream.

3) Soak the bread slices in water , squeeze out water and mash them along with the soya-potato mixture. This binds the mixture.Check all seasoning again at this stage and add as desired.

4) Make palm size tikkis/flat cylinders and roll them over the rava/breadcrumbs. You can make bread crumbs by toasting bread pieces and grinding them in a mixer.

5)Now since this is a low calorie dish, get a non stick pan on the stove and add 1/2 tsp oil to it. Take a half cut onion and use the flat end to spread the oil evenly on the pan. Now cook the tikki in this pan on a low flame with a cover. Flip till both sides have browned well.

6) Serve hot with green chutney

PS : Please ignore the shape of my tikkis :)