Dieter's Delight - Broccoli Stir-Fry

Broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables. And it's one of the easiest to make. And whenever I can find some fresh broccoli, I make sure I pick up a head.

After all the wedding feast over the last week, I had to take it easy. And the dieter series is revived!

This is a fairly simple recipe and wont take more than 20 minutes including chopping.

Boil a huge pot of water with plenty salt. Add the broccoli florets. When they turn a bright green (after about a couple of minutes), strain and keep aside.

Heat a shallow pan, drizzle some olive oil and when the pan is really hot, toss the broccoli florets. Add the broccoli stems, carrots and any other vegetables of your choice. Keep tossing on high heat for a minute.

Transfer to a bowl.

For the dressing, squeeze the juice of 1 lemon and add some fresh ground pepper. Pour on to the broccoli and dig in!

Read More

Dieter's Delight - Mushroom Mint Salad

It has been a crazy day; How else would you term a day when the carpenter is on full swing, cutting, sawing and drilling, and you can barely enter the house without being showered with sawdust! So yes, I was getting some shelves fixed and that's a 2 day job! Sigh

It was past 8 pm by the time these guys left, and I was hungry. There was a sly temptation to order out - a million thoughts running through my mind - Dominoes is right next door! Or should I call Mast Kalandar (they are 2 km away), or should I call Yo Potato or may be a peta wrap!

And then, I could hear the mind's mocking laugh! To shut it up and not feel guilty, decided to rustle up something quick!

The mushrooms should be used by today, so I chopped them up, set them on the pan, on low heat, along with some lemon juice and salt. Cook covered for about 10 minutes. Let cool and drain the water.

Meantime, finely chop a handful of mint and some coriander. Roughly chop some cucumber. Deseed tomato and roughly chop that too. Toss everything together; add some yoghurt, and we are done :-)

And this is the new entrant in my kitchen - magnetic knife holder :-). (Thanks to S, it sure matches the color of the decor)

Read More

Dieter's Delight - Grilled Paneer on a bed of sprouts

I have tried lots of ways to lose weight, but what really helped me are eating right and working out right. Having said that, it's not easy to eat right and work out always. There have been pangs of emotional eating, raiding the fridge at midnight (like Nigella - oh she has such a negative impact on weight loss), eating because you go out in a group and you can't help resist temptation (yeah OMG did that to me) and then the bakers shower their love on you by baking these wonderful cakes and you can't help but indulge. 

And suddenly, I've been seeing too many posts on weight loss and a friend also remarked that I'd gained weight :-( So, it's back to basics - firing it away on the treadmill, combined with lots of reps of Surya Namaskar, a zero-carb high-protein dinner and a bit of weight training to balance out the cardio. And Green tea with mint and a dash of lemon :-)

For a vegetarian like me, protein options are limited. Tofu (I really don't like this much), Soy milk, Sprouts and Paneer are easily available and some of the best choices when it comes to eating tasty and healthy food. 

So here's tonight's dinner

Boil sprouts in a microwave (for about 5 minutes on high). Let it cool.

Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, mint and coriander.

Add some salt to taste.

I have a taken recent liking to green tabasco. So I added a couple of drops of that.

Mix well. Rest for a few minutes.

Meantime, slice the paneer into long strips. Brush with some olive oil. I added some chilli flakes, mint, coriander and salt. (I used my MR sandwich maker, dumped these strips in there and let them grill, turning them over at regular intervals)

That's it and we are done. Happy dieting. (Warning: Do not watch Nigella's show when you eat this. I loved the coconut ice-cream she made today and was looking at my bowl of salad and shaking my head in disbelief)

Read More

What's for lunch

It's a question that stumps me every day. I'm decent at decision making, especially at work,  but when it comes deciding clothes or menu, I am stuck. I look up to S or R for support, and then have never failed me.

Today was one of those days when I was just so exhausted and despite having a fully stocked fridge, was just not able to get myself to make an interesting dabba. As I rummaged through the fridge, I did find a bowl of left over sprouts salad.

The sprouts salad was made by tossing together 100 gm of boiled sprouts, 1/2 finely chopped onion, 1/4 finely chopped capsicum, lots of coriander and a little salt.

This was very easily converted into sabzi, by simply heating oil, seasoning with jeera, 1 finely chopped tomato, 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste, and dumping the salad into the kadai, and cook covered for about 10 minutes !

Squeeze a few drops of lemon and we now have a good healthy sabzi to eat with hot soft chapatis. I don't have a picture of this, as I was too lazy to do one, when I finished cooking. So may be another day !

Happy lunch-boxing !

Read More