Restaurant reviews of Jason's Deli ,Red Robin Burgers & Sweet Tomatoes for Vegetarians

It's like I am buying bananas just to watch them get a spotty sunburn this summer. So the very intelligent husband of mine gave me an idea, quote '' why don't you apply a sunscreen on it!! "

Got the joke??

Here's another one from my husband -
On one of the lazy boring days I wanted my hubby to cheer me up with his really perky PJ's.
Me: Please tell me a joke.
Husband: Which one??
:)

Got the Joke?

Yeah the second one was so funny , isn't it? I really had a good hearty laugh that day!

Now listen to this joke from my 3 yr old son-
Ankush, my son: Mommy, let's go to Legoland.
Me: Legoland is too far. We cannot go there right now.
Ankush: Let's go far!

This so innocent thing made me feel so funny about it! So I ended up laughing so loudly. And then my cute little son got to know that he can make me laugh when he tells "Let's go far". And so now he keeps asking me daily about going to legoland or disneyland or India and then I tell him it's too far and then...the same - let's go far continues....every.....day!!! Kids you see..........!!

Coming to the restaurant reviews:
All the restaurants I am mentioning today are kid friendly restaurants

Jason's Deli:

This is one of the very vegetarian food friendly restaurant we found. There are quite a few dishes on the menu for us.
Here's the link:
http://www.jasonsdeli.com/system/files/private/menus/jasons_deli_vegetarian_menu_6.pdf

In the picture above we had ordered Zucchini Grillini Sandwich, Zucchini Garden pasta, Tomato Basil soup, mac and cheese for my son. Everything was tasty. I especially love their sandwiches. My son loved his mac and cheese. They also have a salad bar-all you can eat. Free ice cream. Good service. I rate it 4 out of 5 'coz of the wide vegetarian friendly menu they have.

Red Robin Burgers:

Only one garden burger is available on the menu. That is the only main dish available with few variety of sides. They also have a good menu for kids. Of course my son had his mac and cheese again. Their coleslaw and potato steak fries were yummy. Service was prompt. We especially liked their bottomless freckled berry lemonade. I also loved the interiors of the restaurant, all american feel. I would rate it 2.5 out of 5 only 'coz of the limited options. Hope they had more choices for us vegetarians. !

Sweet Tomatoes:

Don't have a picture of it. But before proceeding  further I would rate it 4.5 out of 5? Why? 'coz my extremely picky eater son loves this place. I do not have a problem of him not eating his food whenever we visit this place. That is probably because of their wide variety of options to eat. It has a buffet system for their kaleidoscopic array of salads, vinaigrettes, soups, pastas, breads and desserts for us vegetarians. It's just so fun to keep getting this hotchpotch of food on the plate. I usually see all the kids getting excited with their plate. They also do have a theme every month. And few of their dishes keep changing along with the theme. So if you are a vegetarian and haven't visited this place, do visit it. Even our parents loved it when they visited US. Visit  http://www.souplantation.com/ for details.

Yeah, so that's about it for now.
Have fun until next .

Storytime: Ankush and his Candy update!

Friends and Fellow readers  dot dot dot
If you guys have subscribed for my blog in your google reader, you now know its closing on july 1st unfortunately. I have subscribed for many of your blogs in my reader and I have already switched over to feedly. So please keep coming back to check my blog, subscribe to any new feeder and have fun dot  dot dot.

Easy Peasy Method for Jowar/Sorghum roti and Green Apple Tokku recipe

I have always loved north karnataka food. My husband being from north karnataka ,helped me to explore their cuisine to a whole different dimension. Everytime I'm in my in-laws house, I enjoy the variety of flavours I get to taste. The main staple dish in north karnataka cuisine is Jowar/Sorghum flour roti. Making this roti is itself a talent which I don't seem to possess. It requires a lot of patience and practice to acquire the traditional art of flattening the roti with the palm.
So I came up with this idea of making this roti after a few trial and errors. It's an easy way to learn for all beginners.
Ingredients:
Jowar flour, salt, hot hot water to mix the flour , wax sheets or any other  non stick sheets.

Procedure:
Follow the four step video.(Sorry for the bad quality videos!)

Step 1: Pour enough hot(water needs to be really hot) water slowly into the flour(mixed with salt to taste) mixing it until everything is moistened. I usually eyeball it and don't follow any measurements. Cover bowl with a lid.

(Link on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mAhSDWUQtM)

Step 2: When flour is cool enough to touch but still hot, knead it properly like you would mix chapathi dough.    Take a min or 2 to properly knead the dough. This step is important. Ofcourse I haven't covered the whole kneading process in the video.In this step you can add a little water if required. Cover it and leave it for 5 mins. In the meantime heat your pan(needs to be hot, keep the setting to more than medium heat) and get out your wax sheets.

(Link on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le33ZEicTK8 )

Step 3: Place a ball of dough between 2 sheets of wax paper having dusted it with wheat flour/jowar flour generously and lightly flattening it with your palms. Roll it with a rolling pin, dusting it after every few rolls and tossing it over and making sure it's not sticking to the paper. Dust flour if it feels sticky. 

(Link on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csaaxBKc_20 )

Step 4: Your pan must be now hot enough to make roti's. Place rolled dough on pan, take a paper towel/thin cloth dipped in water. Pat the roti with the wet towel. Once you see bubbles, flip it and pat it with wet towel again. Cook  both sides until done.

(Link on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8topZpaJkc )

It's now ready to serve with a curry and sliced onions.

Green Apple Tokku:

This tokku is a green apple version of the yummy mango tokku my mom prepares.I really love the tangy flavor of this recipe. This recipe could also be done with raw mangoes.

To all those who don't know what a tokku is- it's very similar to pickle but different . You can use it just like how you use a pickle and is also lasts for a few weeks.

Ingredients:
Oil
Mustard - 2 tsp
Green Apple - 4
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp + 2 tsp
Jaggery - around half a cup
salt

Procedure:

Grate the green apple. You can leave the skin on.

Heat oil in a pan. Oil needs to be a little more than normally necessary. 

When oil heats up, add mustard seeds.

When mustard seeds crackle, add grated apple and saute it. 

When half cooked add chilli powder, jaggery, salt. Keep sauteing it until properly cooked and excess oil left out. 

Store in an airtight bottle. Can be kept in refrigerator to make it last really long. 

Note: 

*Adjust salt, chilli powder and jaggery according to your taste and preferences.

*If excess oil doesn't ooze out, it means the oil was less. Do not fret. Just saute it until properly cooked.

Enjoy it!

Until next time, Chao!

Refashioned 2 - It's all in the Jeans!

2 proverbs I totally believe in:

1) Tiny drops of water combine to make a mighty ocean

I so much believe in this one and truly have implemented in our lives whether it's saving money, water or learning, giving..almost in every aspect of our lives. And it has truly helped me.

2) Only stretch your leg so much that the mat allows you to. (This one is a literal translation of the kannada proverb "chapey iddashtu kaalu chachu")

I believe we should live our lives knowing our limitations to stretch our luxury/materialistic needs. Luxury should only be so much as to keep ourselves happy but not to do it to create an impression to others or in common terms -'Do Showoff'. !!

Coming to the topic refasioned. I refashioned few of my old jeans. Jeans could be easily turned into a skirt(among others ) , that too in different patterns. All you need is a sewing machine and of course sewing skills(Intermediate sewing skills are more than enough to do these). I you don't have any of the one, always look for a good tailor who can do it for you. But it's worth trying it with your old jeans rather than thrashing it.

Here are quick few looks of my refashioned jeans.

This particular one has a jeans turned into a skirt and have given a bottom frill with my old salwar.

With this one, I turned the jean pant to a skirt with a different pattern and combining it with crochet patterns.I hand sew the crochet onto the skirt .

In this one I turned my jeans and an old kurti top(which I got bored of wearing and whose material was still good ) into a new top/blouse. You can use jeans as frill also.

Old jeans could also be used to make wallets, kids dress, hand purse and many things more.
Check out my another skirt with jeans here.

A Reuse Tip:
While presenting gifts to others in a gift bag, it will be helpful if you write the name or wishes on a small card rather than writing it on the bag itself. This way the person who receives the gift can reuse the gift bag by just removing the card safely without damaging the bag.  Don't you think so?

Hope these tips help you and encourage you to reuse items at home.

Have fun until next post.

It's Storytime : Ankush and his Lovely Day

DIY Refrigerator Clay Magnets

Me and my friend were travelling in the bus back home. We just felt like being a little naughty that day. Don't remember whose silly idea was it but we removed our water bottles from our bags.

No, we did not drink the water, neither used it to clean our seats nor did we use it to clean the bus.
Ok, why would we clean the bus?? Never mind. Lets move on.

We then did the inevitable !! Yes.

We sprayed the water on people passing by next to our moving bus! People on scooter, pedestrians, cycle..etc. We could see that the people were getting pissed but by the time they could react the bus moved forward. Most of them had no idea from where the water came from on that summer evening. But after a few minutes of our indulgence in fun and frolic of menacing all the oblivious people, the whole act came to a crashing end.

No, we still had water left in our bottles , enough to piss off probably a few more.

Two of the very infuriated passerbys on a scootor ,overtook our bus, stopped it, got into the bus , explained to our driver what had happened. I had never been so scared in my life before. I thought we were gonna be spending the rest of our lives in jail. They then started their investigation. They scanned each face on the bus but to our good fortune he couldn't recognize the poker face that we had. Neither did the back benchers in the bus who knew of our silly act admitted it.

They then walked away after shouting a mouthful of warnings! But we swore to ourselves we would never , ever, ever again do it .

Moral of the story:
Never Ever throw water on passers by from a school bus when you are in 3rd grade:))

Yes, it happened when I was in 3rd grade.That's probably the naughtiest thing I've ever did when I was in my primary school! That was the last for a few more years!


So coming to these refrigerator/fridge magnets.

Note:

* Use waste papers to do this project on as it is messy.

*Preferably buy magnets which as some kind of adhesive to stick it on. The adhesive side sticks to the clay.

* Amount of clay used should be small, check if the magnet can hold the weight of clay once you place the magnet on the clay. You can resize it but do it before you let it to dry.

* The magnet should be sealed properly after placing it on the clay, so that it holds the clay together.

*You can make different designs like you can see in the last pic! Use your own creativity. 

* I used air dry clay, but you could also try this project with other kinds of clay.

Gather your kid and you could have fun doing this project with them!

Yeah but tell them not to spray water on strangers.

Happy V Day Y'all

It's that time of the year again!  Happy Valentines Day everyone... Go get some love, give love, share love...
Do what u got to do on Valentines day!

Have fun!

My Guest post in Eve Of Reduction

Folks,
Check out my guest blog in EveofReduction: http://eveofreduction.blogspot.com/2013/02/guest-post-diy-decorative-clock-with.html


Plz do check out all the awesome DIY craft tutorials she has on her blog! Her makeover furnitures truly inspires one to  makeover our old furniture instead of tossing them over. Have fun cruising through her blog.


Enjoy!

Chanadal - Brown Rice - Quinoa Dosa

"Bye Chanadal brown rice quinoa dosa. Buh Byeee"

What am I saying?

Ok! Actually my boy has this habit of saying bye to everything. For example when we go for a walk , he says "Bye tree" , "Bye car" , "bye shadow" (after we pass the shadow of a tree) and so on and on and on...

The other day , I mean really long back other day, we went out and sat for sometime, and after a while ,I said to my son, "Common, let's walk now". So my cutie pie gets up, looks at the place he had been sitting and he says "Bye sit, buh byeee" !

The other day, the recent other say, he went under the table and he was playing there. And then I called him to come out to have dinner, then he comes out  and he says "Bye under the table". :)) He He He ..Isn't that so funny. God my son's a small clown who keeps us laughing on our toes with his cute little interpretations of his world.

I guess the world in the eyes of a kid is ..........I don't know. I really don't know. It's difficult to explain.

So coming to this recipe.

Ingredients:
Chanadal- 1 cup
Brown rice- 1/2 cup
Quinoa- 1/2 cup
Methi seeds- 1 teaspoon

For topping:
Veggies of your choice chopped finely. I used cabbage ,yellow pepper and corn.
You could even use spring onions/carrots/green pepper/cauliflower.

Wash and soak all the ingredients for approx 8 hrs or overnight. Grind it in a blender adding water and make it like any other normal dosa consistency.  No fermentation is necessary.
Pour a ladle of batter on a tava which is on medium high, spread veggies on it and lightly press it with a spatula.
Spread a spoon of oil on it, close it with a lid. When it is lightly browned underneath flip it, keep it for few seconds and then remove, serve it with chutney of your choice.
We had this with  tomato chutney and it tastes better with this than coconut chutney.

Enjoy this healthy dosa! 

"Bye Enjoy this healthy dosa, buh byeeeee"

:)))

AAAwwwwww...My Baby got his first homework!

Guess What ??
..

..
..

Yeah...You're right!!

My baby got his first homework!!!
Wait..How did u know that?
Did I somehow give it away :(
Hmm...
Wonder How!

Anyway..here it is!

I do not know why both of us got so excited looking at his homework. That's the magic the kids have on their parents. Every small thing they do or say ,gets the parents stand on their toes.

And the magic continues...