Giving Time to Myself

As was precisely noticed by some of my fellow bloggers, I can have a little time to myself while my D is in the trip... So I kind of trying to do this, though also have been having cold for the past three days and not enjoying my condition at all. However, I gave time to myself. I made a little treat of fried chicken wings with Russian salad for yesterday dinner. It was delicious (not boasting about my cooking skills)! Besides, it was just a right thing for making myself feel good (physically and mentally).

 Another thing I can't stay without these days is crochet. It certainly requires some time consumption of which I am very glad :) I tried awesome Wagon Wheel Square pattern and now planning to make a pillow cover. I have done 5 squares so far, 4 more to go. I find this pattern to be suitable for winter time stuff, may be the colors I chose speak for this. Hey, my phone's camera isn't that bad at times.

I would also like to thank all who left so encouraging comments on the previous post, and those who considered my blog to be of any interest to them and joined it :) 

My browser has been behaving strangely these days, and sometimes I am not able to load my own blog page or your blog pages. I saw that you were posting so beautiful things, but I can't actually check and comment! So hopefully it will work fine tomorrow. 

Have a lovely day ahead and keep warm! Blessings to all!

Fit living - possible?

        I have come to a point when I start worrying about fit living. I have no problem with my weight and still somehow stay on a same mark, though I feel that a little bit more and I will start gaining on extra kilos. Last year me and my D tried to involve ourselves in such activities as dancing and gym. The dancing lasted for 3 months while we could keep up with gym only for 2 months in total. After that we were quiet occupied with jobs, house, family, friends and so on. Well, I say that our life is busy, not hectic though. So I am again thinking of how to improve this situation.

    Even if we can't go out for activities much, we still can do good for our bodies at home by walking at the backyard, I also try to do some exercises in the morning before office. It is more difficult to make my D to do the same, not everyday at least. He just says he doesn't have time for any yoga/fitness stuff in the morning (in the evening as well).  From time to time I just ask "When will WE start gym? I really want to...". I shall admit I am also lazy, I feel tired after office hours too. All this results in us staying at home in the evenings, peering into a laptop and eating something. 

     Another issue is eating healthy. Me and my D are non-veg people however almost whoever lives here in India becomes more or less veg. It happened to me. It doesn't mean that I didn't eat vegetables before, in fact, my family eats loads of them too, but more of meat as well. 

    So our diet does include lot of veggies, cooked and fresh, beans and peas, which are also good for health. We don't eat much of sweets, though we both love them, we eat different fruits, we have started eating from outside rarely now and try not to skip meals during the day. Still, some problems with additional body shapes come! Our work contributes to it surely:  eating not home made food, spending too much time in an inactive pose, which is also bad for a back... I am also worried that very frequently we have a late dinner at home. If take into account all I said above, then you have to change the entire life style in order to live a healthier life. So is it possible to have fit living without much effort? 

     

Indian ginger, chilly and papaya - what I like to eat

   When I started this blog, the main idea was do describe my life in Chandigarh. It included everything from what I do personally to how people live in the city. Today I am starting a new part of posts about Indian food, which was not familiar to me anyhow before I came here. I didn't know that vegetables could be so tasty, same as I never knew that there were so many more spices!
  My husband D, as a true Indian, likes spicy food. However, in my first months in India I couldn't share this love, because almost all the things I tried were unbearably spicy for me so that I couldn't eat them without pouring water in my mouth constantly. Now, after 2 years spent here, I am in love with spicy Indian dishes.  One of the main spices of India is chilly pepper. I knew about it of course, but we don't use it Russian dishes much.
 I used to order lunch from some dhaba (small Indian cafe). Besides the main course, there were always 2-3 chilly peppers, prepared in a way that they were not really hot. So, once I got how it was done, I decided to try it at home.  I made a small amount of chilly pepper in a jar day before yesterday.

 All you need is 10 chilly peppers, salt and crushed cumin seeds (Hindi "jeera" or "zeera"). You have to add salt and cumin  into chilly pepper halves and then keep them in a jar for few hours. Chilly becomes salty and loses it's excessive spiciness and you can eat it the same day (or evening).
One more very important ingredient of many Indian delicacies is ginger (I am not taking here about ginger tea). Ginger is an incredible spice and a very good remedy for many health problems. Ginger is a root and it indeed looks like this, what you can see in the picture below (there are also chilly pepper pods):

  I like availability of such products in India, because they are healthy and tasty too. I have started drinking ginger water in the morning, straight after getting up. It is said to have good influence on overall organism. I prepare it since evening by grating it and adding in a glass of water. Water becomes a bit spicy by the morning so now I will be adding half of a spoon of honey to it.
 Another thing I discovered when I came to India was that you could buy almost any kind of fruit in the market, be it exotic or an "ordinary" one, and it also won't be costly. I adore this fact! So, only yesterday we were helping ourselves with papaya - juicy, delicious! And the colour is awesome too, so summery!

Papaya has very interesting seeds, my husband read in Wiki yesterday that they are spicy in taste and can be used instead of black pepper. We haven't tried whether it is so, but we trust a reputable source of information :)

Summer on your plate! Many people here like to eat papaya and other fruits adding some salt and cumin for example. I prefer a pure taste of fruit. Mmmm, so tempting even in the picture!

"We are what we eat"... well means I am a spicy ginger fruit! :) Hehe :)
                                          <<< Have a nice week ahead, eat healthy food!>>>