Warm soup in a jiff!

Hi all,
 Cold weather is approaching, time to bring out our slow cookers! Yay!

Here is a quick recipe for this nice warm yummy soup, its a mixture of lentils, carrot and butternut squash.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup yellow lentil
1/2 cup green split lentil
1 cup lentil ( it just says lentil on the packet , u may get it from Safeway or trader joe's)
2 cloves garlic finely minced
1/2 cup roughly chopped carrots
1/2 cup roughly chopped butternut squash
1/2 cup onions( or celery ), chopped
4 cups of broth / water
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon oil

Method:
Preferred if you can soak lentils for few hours (at least 4 hours)
Do not drain the liquid, save it.
Heat a pan, put one tablespoon of oil.
Add onions / celery cook until translucent.
Add garlic , immediately add all the soaked lentils, stir for a minute add carrots and butternut squash.
In the mean time place another pot to boil water or your vegetable broth.
Transfer this lentil and vegetable mixture to you slow cooker add your vegetable broth to your slow cooker.
Turn on your slow cooker to high for three - four  hours, depending on your slow cooker.
When ready add salt and pepper to taste.

Yum, yum yum...serve hot with nice crusty bread or eat it just by itself.

Have a very great weekend!

It's flu season.......

Hello fellow mom's and friends,
I cannot believe this year is just flying by for me !! well its flu season.
Be sure to vaccinate your little ones and your spouse  and yourself. Of course the elderly would definitely benefit from this vaccine.
Today i went to Costco..and the amount of people sneezing and coughing already made me scared.. definitely getting all of us vaccinated this coming week.........
Also as you know the best way to prevent is proper hand washing and use of hand sanitizer, its CDC (deparment of disease control) approved.
Teach your kids going to day care or school the proper technique of hand washing....best way is make them sing " Happy Birthday.." song..and by the time the song is over their hand washing should be done. They will be happy singing the song and you will be happy making sure they cleaned properly. otherwise we know how they wash their hands , at least my little one, he counts one , two  three all done! really? , so i had to taught him to sing !
Also remind them to wash hands after :
  - coming back from play ground
  - before and after eating food
  - after using bathroom / potty
  -if u sneeze / cough
and the list goes on..

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Here's the link i am posting for more information..
Be safe with the little ones as the weather has been changing a lot lately..especially this weekend feels like fall already in full bloom..so cold. All my cold accessories are out with extra's in the car for emergencies...haha. Also started to give kids ginger and lemon water..(in a sneaky way) to prevent cough.

Take care
Enjoy
Ishita

PLan for the weekend!

This weekend oakland is having a eat real fest.....looks a great way to spend a day out.
Will try to stop by there at some time...hope to see you there, if you can

http://eatrealfest.com/event/Oakland/California/2011

Have a great weekend.

Enjoy
Ishita

Heart healthy

Hi all ,
I found this article that i really wanted to share with you all. Please share with your loved ones too and take care !


http://health.yahoo.net/caring/5-foods-that-can-trigger-a-stroke


~ Ishita

Celebration!!

This year my little girl started Kindergarten and today was her very first official spelling bee test and she did great and was crowned Spelling queen of the class!! So its celebration time..

How do you celebrate your special days?

We made her favorite fries and milkshake but home version.
We decided to make sweet potato fries.

Ingredients:
1 large sweet potato cut into long strips
oil for frying
salt for taste

Method:
Bring the oil to heat.
Start frying your precut sweet potatoes until golden brown color.
Sprinkle salt for taste.
Serve with ketchup or your favorite dip.

ENjoy and have a great weekend ahead !

Just thinking !

I wanted to thank all my reader friends for supporting my blog.
This blog is dedicated to all of you out there, all my fellow moms and food lovers. I would love to hear what do you think about my blog and is there anything you would like me to add on or change.
Enjoy your rest of the evening.

Green Pasta

Hi all,
Yesterday i was experimenting with my garden herbs basil, cilantro...and ended up making one delicious pesto.
Here's how i did. We made a green pasta out of it and also i made some green sticks out of it for my daughter's snack for school. Hope you all like it.

Ingredients:
1 cup walnut ( i liked the walnuts better than the pine nuts in this combination for pesto)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese ( grated)
1 clove garlic
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cup spinach ( fresh)
1 cup basil
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro (u can substitute with parsley if desired)
salt to taste

Method:
In a food processor, begin first pulsing your walnuts until bread crumb consistency.
Next add finely chopped garlic (this will prevent getting large chunks of garlic in your dish)
Add spinach, basil and cilantro.
Start the food processor on medium speed and from the top add olive oil to blend the pesto.
Once the mixture starts to look like paste add Parmesan cheese and salt to taste.
Blend for another minute or two.

This pesto can be made days ahead and freezes well.

Now for Green Pasta:

Boil the pasta of your choice according to the package direction.
Before draining pasta, reserve some fluid and drain the rest off. This reserve liquid will help you make pesto sauce.
Now in a large pan place one teaspoon of oil and add your drained paste, mix the amount of pesto you like and to get it mixing add reserved pasta water as needed to make the sauce.
Serve with garlic bread on the side.
Enjoy.


Green stick:
You will need a home made bread dough or store bought pizza dough.
Bring the dough to room temperature.
Roll it out on a large surface by sprinkling some flour on the surface ( to avoid sticking).
Now spoon out our pesto mixture on the bread as a layer, sprinkle some fresh finely chopped basil if desired.
Roll it in a twisted shape. Bake it at 375 for 10 minutes or until the bread sticks start browning.
Let it cool before serving it.

This is a great school snack or after school snack and so healthy that kids will ask for more.

ENjoy