Promise

I had written a large blog entry which I don't know how got deleted.. but I am going to promise to blog everyday.. Im going to start today with my entry of my daily food intake.. Im trying to loose weight and no other way to keep a track and make sure I ate 3 meals atleast... so bare with me..

Breakfast :
Green Monster(in yesterdays blog it explained what green monster is but check out www.greenmonstermovement.com )   - Classic ( Smoothie with Banana, pineapple,almond milk, spinach ofcourse and strawberry & DanActive)
Hot Oatmeal made with fat free milk..

Lunch: Small salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Dinner: Home-made minestrone with a dash of olive oil and Parmesan cheese

I will add the pictures soon.. :D

Lots to do today..

• I have to organize and clean out the pantry and the fridge.. 
• Tidy up living room and kitchen and office and bedroom. (basically my apartment is upside down right now)
• Get atleast a good 3 hours worth of studying done today..
• Work out for an hour today! Start training for the 5k run!
• Track everything I eat.. :D 
• Laundry ( Rajs and Mine, sheets,covers,curtains) 

Thats it for today.. gotta run..

I finally have a job!

After months of waiting I have finally gotten myself a half decent job although its working for a non profit organization as a telemarketer. I'm happy with it for now. Having felt completely useless for the past few months. I feel like finally I might be able to have a life of my own instead of relying on hubby for everything. Another set of news..  I am setting up my furniture for sale. Hubby and I have decided we don't need all these  things especially since we barely use them. I have dinning table with 4 chairs up for 125 - its been painted black. Its in awesome shape. its already put together but Im willing to separate and deliver it for a small charge. I have a beautiful storage bench in black up for $50.. its my fav.. i almost dont want to give it away but this was down sizing is about. I also have dishes a gorgeous set of all while dinnerware for $250, it includes a cake stand, a pitcher, 2 large platters, 2 large bowls, tea set of  a pot, sugar, creamer, 12 cups and saucers. a set of 12 dinner plates 12 small bowls and 10 large bowls, 10 dessert plates. Other than that for $10 a set of old fashioned glasses 3 designs 8 each.

Thats it for today keep reading and stay tuned

We have moved!

We've moved to Philadelphia,PA.. We moved about a month ago and that is why I have not been posting lately.. we're all moved in. I am excited to explore this brand new city and make new friends.. The most exciting part of it all is moving so close to NYC.. I can hop on the train any day I want to.. :)  I have finished unpacking but my bedroom is going to be my master piece this year.. I love flea markets and thrift stores. you can find gems hidden in a pile of mess at these stores. Apart from my bed most of my furniture in the bedroom is thrift store finds. We used everything as is at our old apartment but the space in the patio and the rooms itself helps me renovate some of the old ideas. We bought a three piece set from the Goodwill a long time ago for about $100 its all solid wood and perfect fit for our bedroom needs. I decided to give up one of the pieces which was  the mirror half of the dresser.It was huge and just a hassle to move all the way from NC to PA instead I picked up from my mother in laws hoarding a large mirror she has 4 of the same mirror. I am still in the process of refinishing the mirror and the dresser and armoir but the first coat of white has been put on each of them. I found at USA thrift in Camden NJ a cool little night stand for my bedside.Hubby and I used  tv trays as night stands at the old place. I found a goregous littel piece from Roses for $10 for his needs which is to store books and a lamp like the one in the picture above. For me I decided to buy the $9 thrift store find and refinish it into a shabby chic piece. Below are the before and after pictures. I found the drawer knobs at Anthropologie a long time ago and had bought them because they were on sale.  Take it easy readers!

After

Before

Why is it?

Why is it that I feel so empty within?
Why is it that I can barely get out of bed in the mornings?
Why is it I wonder everyday what I can do differently?
Why is it that I can't be the person I have always wanted to be?

I sit, I stare,I dream,I wonder....



Wonder if it will ever come true
The house,the home,the happiness I always dreamt of.

I miss me, more than I miss you.
I miss myself and the person I used to be.

Help me find myself again, help me find the truth again
The confidence,The happiness,the love...
That I have lost I want it all back
I want it all back now..




This was my first attempt at trying to write a poem, its not about me or anyone its just a attempt... at something artistic.

Old blog

While trying to make some posts I found all my old posts from my old blog and I've decided to post them because its all relative!! :D Enjoy

2 years!

Its been two years today 23rd of July since I first made a random friend. Raj and I met each other today 2 years ago.. that's the day I met my best friend and my life partner. I knew the day I met him that we were going to be friends for a long time. We decided to celebrate tonight with a simple dinner of sandwiches, brought back home a few cheap bottles of sparkling wine and played board games all evening. Now making popcorn because its time for a midnight snack. We stopped by at the bookstore after dinner... Here is a sneak peak into our special night.. I also wanted to post a few new blogs about what kind of jewelry is a must have for the fall. A night out on the town under $50 courtesy of Forever XXI. My Cat and 5 ingredient Wednesday! A refinished dinning room set and a bag of lost bubble tea mix's. Everything coming up this weekend.. since I've been caught up all week..stay tuned.

Take it easy readers....

K

Lets Eat Pray and Love

When Elizabeth Gilbert's eat pray love was first published. I was so hyped to get the book and start reading it. I bought it immediately. After having read the first 1/3 of the book I was taken aback. The book was not as amazing as everybody seems to think it is. I actually got so bored I was not sure I even wanted to finish it. A few weeks ago I decided to pick it back up and start reading it again and finish! I will finish it this time around. I have set myself a goal to finish it before Eat Pray Love ( The Movie ) is out in cinema's. I thought Eat Pray Love is the kind of book I would absolutely love.. because I cannot remember the last book I read which was about food or traveling that I didn't love. Well a little bit of background explanation seems required here. I am massive food junkie and I am a massive travel junkie too. I am the kind of person who loves not only to cook but also to eat out. One of the things that satisfies that need for me is traveling.. whenever I go traveling it fulfills my need to explore and fulfills my curiosity as far as the need to learn about people, their cultures and their traditions. As many of you know from before I was born in India, I grew up in England then I moved to the Netherlands for 8 months to take part in an International Student Exchange program. Till today its one of the best things I ever did to explore about myself. Thats where I learned about my love for wanting to travel and learn about cultures and people and most of all about me. I also learned there how much I LOVED to cook and entertain. Before Arnhem,NL I was not much of a cook, but meeting people who shared the same love as me definitely made me feel like I belonged somewhere. I miss my friends from Arnhem. Every one of them helped me learn a new thing about me. As far as pray is concerned I am practicing Hindu,who is always confused and curious about my religion. I am trying to learn a little bit more about it everyday. Thats one of my other goals long with shedding the 30 lbs as I grow older I feel a sense of urgency to learn about my religion and what its all about. I want to give my self a set of goals which can be fulfilled so I find inner peace.

Anyways away from the rambling, I hope to finish the book and have a review my the end of the month, its fairly small book, will keep you posted about the goals. 

Take it easy readers

K

Vegetarian Chili

Vegetarian Chili - Yum Yum Yum.. ever since we had chili over at David and Emilie's a month ago I'd been meaning to make chili at home.. Its the perfect meal.. I saw several recipe's but then finally decided to make my own recipe for the chili.. Its a great meal for the summer or the winter and its easy to make a tone and freeze.. We bought some soy hot dogs and poured the chili over them its the best ever!!

 Ingredients - 6 servings
Oil - 2 table spoons
Bell Peppers -  2 Medium finely diced
Onions -  1 Large Finely diced
Garlic - 6 cloves - diced or paste
1 can of Black beans
1 can of kidney beans
3 Jalapeños seeds removed and finely diced
2 cups of Morning star beef starter ( Can use Nutrela soy chunks or real beef too)
1 cup of Vegetable stock
1 diced tomato small or medium
1 table spoon chili powder
1 table spoon cumin powder
1 table spoon paprika
1 table spoon pepper
Salt to Taste

In a pan allow oil to heat up then add bell peppers first because they
take longer to cook - I have to cook everything on high or medium high
on our stove but you can keep it on medium if you have a gas stove.
Once bell peppers are soft and fully cooked add onions and garlic.
Allow onions to sweat out then add jalapeños and tomatoes along with
morning star starter. Add chili powder , cumin powder, paprika salt
and pepper.Cook for 3-4 minutes and add vegetable stock , black beans and kidney
beans and cook for around 1and 1/2 hours on low heat or in a crock
pot.I made mine in a rush so I only cooked it for 1 hour, but the more you
allow it to simmer on very low heat the better it will be in taste. It
freezes well and stays good in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Frugal Friday

Every Friday I would like to do a frugal Friday where I can find something that is excellent pricing and perfect for some one looking to decorate,dress or eat on a budget.  Today's find is  Ikea's  Lack side table.  This table is perfect as a side table or a night stand or even can be made into a seat for a smaller room. Just add a floor pillow with a pop of color over a black. for $7.99 this table is a steal. Available in 8 colors! I have a black one which I've been using as night stand. Hubby has made it into a book stand to keep all his night reading.

Take it easy readers..
K

A Quick and Healthy Snack

I love to cook and I haven't much lately. I have made excuses for it but I just finished a really good book I loved, I lost, I made spaghetti. I was super inspired and I would like to get back to cooking as much as I did when we first got married.  With the way the world is today no one has time for anything and its really important for me to learn and make it a point to eat healthier. In the past few months I have let my self go!! Completely,so has hubby and I have set my self a goal of eating healthy and leading a much better healthier life. My goal is to loose 30Lbs in the next 4 months, which means I have to loose around 2lbs a week. Yesterday when I found myself seeing  spots in the middle of the Barnes and Nobles I decided we going to set ourselves a challenge and not eat out at all for 1 month. I have set a special challenge just for me to find alternative ways of cooking some not to healthy dishes which I love. I started today with a recipe from Purva's Blog, I have used this so many times and I absolutely love it. Her recipe is fairly healthy  but I decided to improvise further. 

6 Whole Wheat English Muffins (Normally made with Crumpets which are really hard to find but the only place I have found them is Fresh Market.)
8 Chopped Mushrooms
1 cup of sweet corn ( Can use baby corn too)
1 Small Chopped Bell Pepper
1 Medium sized Onion
1 Small Tomatoes ( I omitted the Tomato)
1 Tablespoon of Ginger-garlic paste
1 Teaspoon of Oregano and Basil
Salt & Pepper to taste
Cooking Spray ( You can use butter too)

Method:
1. Heat the vessel sprayed with oil. Add ginger - garlic paste and saute Onions in this mixture.
2. Add tomatoes and saute for 1/2 a minute, dont allow the it to become too watery.
3. Add capsicum, baby corns and mushrooms along with salt, basil and oregano and let it cook for 1 minute.
4. Spread the cooked vegetables on the muffins.
5. Bake the crumpets in the Oven for 10 minutes on 180 degree celcius.
6. Serve it hot with any soup. 

Take it easy readers, leave me a comment 

K

 

Summer Date Night

Summer is the season of Love. A walk on the beach or a walk by the lake.. dinner at a small hole in the wall restaurant or just drinks.. There's something very sensual about a woman in red.. Here is my interpretation of a perfect summer date night look.  Below is the breakdown of the pricing for the items. Gold in in this season and that's my favorite part of about the outfit. I always like to make fashion happen without spending a whole lot. Except the Bag everything ever is under $100 and each piece can be worn with a different look again.

Dress - TopShop $80

Hair Accessories -Etsy $10

Bag - Urban Outfitters $198

Shoes - FredFlare $28

Necklace - Urban Outfitters $34

Earrings - Stella and Dot $29

Watch - Fredflare $34

Ring - Fredflare $12

Take Easy Readers - Comments are welcome
K

Petits Pains au Chocolat Recipe at Epicurious.com

Petits Pains au Chocolat Recipe at Epicurious.com

One of the best Pain au chocolat I have ever had! and I used work at a French Bakery

Why Magnet?

I was once told a very long time ago by someone that I'm like to a magnet to people. I could not come up with a name which wasn't cheesy or lame so I thought lets try the The Magnet if it works it works...if it doesn't then well better luck to me next time.. I've tried this whole blogging thing several dozen times. I wasn't even sure what I wanted to blog about. I began thinking what are my interests? would anyone even care to read my blog apart from my husband of course who feels like he needs to read everything ever written on this planet before the end of life.I'm not too much of a reader but blogs are one of my favorite thing to read. Its something so beautiful about reading about a complete stranger and realizing there is something joining us all as human beings together.. how we all feel the same emotions, how we all feel the same feelings, how we all want to talk about things we LOVE.

I'll start with saying a little about me. I'm a brand new American resident. Born in India, grew up in England with very westernized views about life unlike my forefathers who thought women were good for just a few things cooking and raising kids.. but then again all of our forefathers and some of our husbands feel that way.. Don't worry this is not a blog about womens rights! Moving swiftly on.. I always was the kind of girl who thought getting married was so far away in the future.. I read something a few days ago on a blog and the name of the blog made me think of me! "This is not the life I ordered" Well life has been something similar to me. I wasn't the kind who thought hey lets get married at 20 and start having kids at 22! however life is unpredictable and so I met my match - my best friend in the world my husband Raj when I was merely 21 like all love stories we fell head over heals and decided a trans-Atlantic romance just was not going to workout.. So he fly's to England and we get engaged and 4 months later we're married.. Things happened so quickly with my graduation, a part-time job and full-time school and a full fledged romance I wasn't even sure what hit me.. but having said that.. at 22 I was married and living with one of the most interesting people I had ever met in my life.. I've had plenty of flings with boys but there was something so different and special about this boy.. I knew the moment I first saw him that I was going to marry him..

My parents always said to me I always get what I want.. by hook or by crook.. Thats just how I am.I might wait years before acting on a specific plan but if I want to get something at the back of my mind I'm thinking about it all along. I have big dreams and I have every intension of completing at least 5 of the items of my bucket list starting with this one.. having a successful online blog which actually gets read by someone other than my husband.

I intend on giving you a blog which talks about everything from Relationships to Interior Design, from Cooking to Movies.My blog is inspired by Making it Lovely - I have been reading Nicole's blog for a while now and she is really inspiring.. Stay tuned!

Take it easy readers..

K

Muffin Time!

So I know I haven’t been writing much lately but I was just a little busy with my fiancé since he is at home most days and university is only getting more and more stressful I thought I  better concentrate for the next month and then actually enjoy my wedding without any stress about the university work.

I picked up a few silicone muffin cups today I was supposed to bake a cake for my cosin Pooja’s birthday but I decided that Id rather not bake on her birthday since it was a week day and a lot of other friends were coming too. I dint wanna mess up her party or steal the thunder so we bought a readymade cake for it but I still had all the ingredients so I decided to make mini muffins for the family. I wish Raj was here to eat um... but anyways this was one of the first times I had made muffins.. they came out perfect. Below is the recipe for it..

Banana Muffins

Preheat oven at Gas mark 3  ; 160 degree C

Flour – 2cups

Baking Powder – 1 tbsp

Baking Soda – ½ tbsp**

Salt – 1tsp

Walnuts – ½ cups

Raisins – 2tbsp

Sugar – 1cup*

Oil – 2/3 cup

Eggs – 3no.

Ripe Bananas ( mashed) – 4

Muffin tray greased and floured. 

·         Mix together the flour , baking powder , baking soda, salt, sugar and oil

·         Beat them together nicely

·         Add the eggs and beat a little more

·         Mix the nuts , raisins and mashed bananas and beat again together.

      Transfer the batter to the prepared tray or muffin cups.

*I used just ½ a cup because I don’t like my cakes too sweet

** I dint have Baking Powder so I just used a tbsp of Soda Bicarbonate or baking soda instead.

 You can use a cake tray too and make it a round cake and use some icing to decorate if made as birthday cake. Also chocolate chip cookies can be added to the muffins.

Design Design Homes Design!

So I tried the cookies I had baked from yesterday and I would suggest you add little less sugar and more honey because mine turned out very very sweet almost have to only eat them with milk.

Was browsing through the forums on thenest.com and I came across a really amazing Blog someone had suggested for Organization skills. This woman is my Godess... she seems to run and keep her home exactly how I have always wanted to keep mine.. with time and effort I hope to learn and become as compitent as her. 

You can grab urself some tips from here too http://hyperhomemaker.blogspot.com/2008/03/getting-ready-for-party.html

My sweetheart is flying back from Boston to Charlotte today and this weekend in a long time will be the only weekend we wont talk much.. well thats not too much of a disappointment since hez busy with the boys gives a chance to start working out how to organize the invitations and send them all out.  I will definately be uploading more on the invitations this weekend... When we will finally be able to start sending them out.. as an Indian there are soo many traditions I have to follow almost feel like giving up on them sometimes... but well anyways! I guess as long as it works out according to how I want it to be.. its gna be fine...

My recipe folder is finally looking great in shape today... Had some vege chilli at a really cool American style sandwich bar today! that was one of the most filling meals I have had in a really long time.. Also came across one really cool poster I want to get printed and have up in my house. I wasnt able to upload the poster but you can find it at http://designismine.blogspot.com/

This is blog is really cool for some good interior design pictures and other photo Art.

Thats it from me today I promise to make sure the next post isnt soo boring...