My Scrawls

Green grapes juice! I hear u say “Grapes a mixer le adicha juicu… idula yenna ma pudusu?” He he I swear I am not going to give u any new recipe. Then what am I doing here…? I have been trying to digitalize my experiences (read innovations) in the kitchen. Here comes my new venture… Green grapes juice!

Before I move on to recipe, let me first wish all my readers a very happy Valentine’s Day!

Coming back to business! Allow me to explain the genesis of the green grape juice in my kitchen. Well I bought more than a pound of green grapes. Unfortunately they were bitterly sour. Couldn’t even taste a morsel! Hence the grapes were transformed as fresh juice.

Green Grapes Juice

Ingredients:

Green grapes: 1 cup
Yoghurt: 1 tbsp
Sugar (optional): 3 tbsp
Water: ½ cup

Preparation Method:

• Remove the seeds from the grapes (incase they have seeds).
• Blend all the ingredients together in the mixer with ice cubes.
• Serve Chill.

Tips: You can also add a small piece of ginger and 1 tbsp of lemon juice before blending the ingredients.

Nutrient Fact:

• 100 grams of seedless grapes gives 69 calories.
• Grapes are excellent source of manganese, vitamin C and vitamin K.
• Grapes lower cholesterol and protect against heart diseases.

Grab your green grapes juice, go green

Anu's Kitchen Green grapes juice

Chicagoans are staunch winter lovers. What ever be the weather here, Chicago remains busy through out the year! One of my friends passed me a forward which describes the Chicagoans reaction to the change in the weather. Here I share it with u all. Exaggerated but very very hilarious

Here is a piece of info about the first daughters which surely is not overstated. The school which the first daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama attend in Washington was closed due to moderate snow.

The kids, accustomed to the Chicago weather, used to play in the snow and enjoy the outdoors at their previous school in Chicago! They were left perplexed and couldn’t understand why their school should get cancelled on a snow day? Well Malia and Sasha would have seen enough snow and chill climate here at Chicago that the winter at Washington wouldn’t really bother them! Being a Chicagoan, I thoroughly enjoyed president Obama talking about his lovely daughters and highlighting the winter in Chicago

Few days ago, I posted an article about the Winter in Chicago. I had talked about the chillness and snow here at Chicago. It’s mid of February and the temperature has changed a lot. Though it’s officially “Winter” here…we can smell the spring in air!

Last weekend invited the heat wave to give a break to the chill weather at Chicago. We enjoyed the pleasant sunny weekend with temperature above 40F (nah… above 50F). After seeing the temperature in –ves of Fahrenheit, anything just above the freezing point is warm and pleasant to us

It’s been raining since morning. As I look through the window, I can see people walking with their umbrellas. Feels like they have recessed their winter jackets!

Is the nature playing a prank on us? Are we going to see cold waves after this temporarily entertaining warm weather? We might find the answers to these questions in few days. Till then let’s enjoy!

General winter activities in chicago, Winter in chicago

Recently I got to know about the famous Andhra recipe “Bendekaya chutney”. Since we like Andhra food a lot, I wanted to give a try. I slightly changed the Okra chutney recipe of Priya and ended up with my version. Here is the hot Bhindi chutney – Okra chutney!!

Okra chutney - Bendekaya chutney - Bhindi chutney

Ingredients:

Okra – 100 gms
Coriander seeds – ½ tsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Red Chilies – 3
Curry leaves
Tamarind – a pinch
Hing or Asafetida – pinch
Salt – to taste

Preparation Method:

• Heat oil and do seasoning with mustard, cumin seeds and curry leaves.
• Add the red chilies, coriander seeds, Asafetida and fry them in low flame.
• Allow them to cool. Meanwhile, deep fry okra in oil.
• Grind the fried okra and the seasoned mixture with salt and tamarind.
• Okra Chutney is ready to relish!

Okra chutney – Bhindi chutney can be had with Rice, Dosa or Idly.

Tips and Tricks:

• Deep fry the okra such that the stickiness goes off.
• Do not add water while grinding the mixture.
• We can also add garlic to this recipe.

Anu's Kitchen bendakaya chutney, Bhindi chutney, okra chutney, vendakai chutney

I bought lot of bananas and they were sitting idle in our counter top. They were ripe enough that we wanted finish them off. As I was surfing the net to find recipes using bananas, I came across the lovely “Aayis Recipes”, where I found the Eggless Banana Cake with Rava! The recipe sounded so easy that I wanted to try it immediately. I made few changes to the recipe. Here is my version of the Banana Rava Cake!

Banana Rava Cake

Ingredients:

Ripe bananas 2
Rava 1 cup
Baking powder 1 tsp
Cardamom powder ½ tsp
Milk 2 cups
Sugar ½ cup
Cashewnuts 1 tsp
Chocolate chips ½ tsp

Preparation Method:

• Roast the rava till it turns slightly brown.
• Soak the rava in milk for 2 hours.
• Nicely mash the bananas.
• Add mashed bananas and sugar to the soaked rava.
• Now add baking powder, cardamom powder, cashews and the chocolate chips.
• Preheat the oven at 350F for 10 mins.
• Take a baking dish and slightly apply ghee to it.
• Pour the cake batter in the baking dish and slide it in the oven.
• Bake at 350F for about 35 mins.
• After around 30 mins, pierce a knife at the center of the cake.
• If it comes out clean, then the cake is done!

The Banana Rava Cake tasted yummy.

Tip: You can also use coconut milk for soaking the rava.

Anu's Kitchen banana rava cake, Eggless cake, rava cake with banana

Bhagavad Gita is one of the most scared scriptures of Hinduism. It is the message delivered by Lord Krishna. Krishna explained Arjuna the way to lead the life and in turn achieve the self mastery.

Here is the Geeta Saar (Courtesy: Geetasaar.com)

Whatever happened, it happened for good.
Whatever is happening is happening for good.
Whatever that will happen, it will be for good.
What have you lost for which you cry?
What did you bring with you, which you have lost?
What did you produce, which has destroyed?
You did not bring anything when you were born.
Whatever you have, you have received from Him.
Whatever you will give, you will give to Him.
You came empty handed and
you will go the same way.
Whatever is yours today was somebody else’s yesterday and will be somebody else’s tomorrow.
Change is the law of the universe.

Here is the Geeta Saar that I received as a forward.

Modern Geeta Saar

For the benefit of my non Hindi speaking friends, I have tried to translate the modern Geeta Saar. Here is the (funny) description of this modern Geeta Saar – Essence of the IT Life!!

Project is an illusion|
You do it today,
Some other person would do it tomorrow,
Some one else in the future||

This is the modern Geeta Saar for the technical… rather IT world! Cute message from the IT head (Lord Krishna) to the fellow coder (Arjuna).

General geeta saar for IT, Geetha saar, Geetha saram, geetha the essence of life, modern geeta saar