Chinese Fried Rice

Ingredients Cooked Rice - 2 cup Finely chopped spring onions - ½ cup Finely chopped cabbage - ½ cup Finely chopped green beans - ½ cup Finely chopped big capsicums - ½ cup Finely long cut onion - ½ cup Finely chopped Ginger, Garlic & Chilies or paste - 2 tsp Soya sauce - 3 tsp Chili sauce - 1 tsp Oil - 3 tsp Salt - to taste

Preparation Heat the oil in the frying pan. Add chopped Ginger-garlic-chili or ginger-garlic-chili paste in the oil. Add chopped onion in pan and stir for 2 mins. Add all the vegetables except spring onions in the frying pan & fry for 5 mins. Add 1 spoon of Soya sauce & 1 spoon of Chili sauce & stir. After 5 mins add cooked rice in the pan, add salt and stir well. Add remaining 2 spoon of Soya sauce and stir properly, mix it properly. Add ½ spoon oil from side and stir well. Add finely chopped Spring onions on top of the rice and stir little bit.

Cauliflower Manchurian

Ingredients Cauliflower, cut into small flowerets - 1 no Green chilies - 3-4 no Green onions or shallots - 1 bunch Coriander leaves - 1 bunch Garlic, crushed finely - 3 flakes Garlic, chopped - 4-5 flakes Lemon juice - 2 tbsp Little piece of ginger, crushed finely Chapathi flour - 3 tbsp Corn flour - 3 tbsp Salt - to taste Oil for deep frying the cauliflower Butter for making the sauce - 2 tbsp Red chili powder - 2 tsp Soya sauce - 1 tsp

Preparation Make a batter out of the 2 tbsp corn flour and all the chapathi flour. Add crushed ginger, garlic, red chili powder, salt, cumin seeds, lemon juice, ½ tsp soya sauce and coriander leaves. Dip the cauliflower flowerets in it and fry till golden brown in color. Drain and keep aside. To make the sauce Dissolve the remaining corn flour in 1-2 tbsp of water. Add the remaining soya sauce, salt, chili sauce to the corn flour mixture and mix well. Keep it aside. Heat butter in a frying pan and add chopped green chilies, chopped garlic, chopped green onions and stir-fry for about 5-6 minutes. Add the above prepared corn flour paste and lower the heat. The sauce will begin to thicken and when it is thick enough, take it from the fire and pour it over the fried flowerets. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Sabudhana Kichidi

Serves: 2 
Preparation time: 3hr 
Cooking time: 15min 

Ingredients

* Sabudhana [Tapioca] - 2 cups
* Groundnut - 1/2 cup
* Chili powder - 1 tsp
* Oil - 4~5 tbsp
* Jeera - 2 tsp
* Coriander - to garnish
* Salt - to taste

Preparation

* Sash the sabudhana well
* Soak the sabudhana in a bowl for 2~3hrs Caution: The water must be just as the level of the sabudhana, excess water makes the sabudana sticky
* Meanwhile grind the groundnut well
* After 2~3hrs there must be no excess water in the bowl
* Heat oil in a pan
* When the oil is hot, slipt the jeera into it
* Add the soaked sabudhana into it and stir well
* Now add salt and chilly powder and mix well
* Once the sabudhana absorbs all the oil and color changes add the groundnut powder into it and stir well so that the powder mixes well with the sabudhana - about 2~3min
* Garnish with cut coriander and serve hot

Note: If you like to little over burn the kichidi at the bottom, add little more oil and keep the flame in high for 3~5min depending on the limit you require, but be careful don't make it char.

Baingan Paneer Masala

Serves: 4 
Preparation time: 30min 
Cooking time: 20min


Ingredients
* Egg plant [preferably long] - 4nos 
* Paneer - 200gm 
* Oil - 50ml [more the oil more the taste] 
* Chili powder - 50gm [depending on your spice level you may go up to 100gm] 
* Turmeric powder - 10gm 
* Lemon - 1nos 
* Salt - to taste

Preparation
[Marinate] 
* Cut egg plant into 4 pieces 
* Arrange cut egg plant over a plate/tray 
* Sprinkle salt over it 
* Sprinkle chili powder over it 
* Squeeze lemon juice over it 
* Mix well so that all the egg plant are coated with salt/chili powder/lemon juice 
* Leave it for 30min 
* Grate paneer [as powder as possible] 

[Cooking] 
* Heat oil in a fry pan 
* Allow the marinated egg plant to cook in medium flame 
* When egg plant is well cooked add the paneer and stir well 
* Cook in medium flame for 5min

Aren't you concerned with your health?

If you are concerned about your weight and/or health as I do, then see below.  I am sharing my experience here.

Before your age turns 30 [at least by 40] consider the below:
1. What is the criteria of being healthy?
2. Should I need to 'only' care about calories, weight, BMI?  Are there any other factors to consider?
3. How active I am?
4. How I want to be in my 40s and over 50s?

In recent past years, I was concerned about my health for 3months just before my annual Medical Checkup[MC], and will be very strict on my diet, will start walking, running etc. Once MC is done then back to normal life style.  I wasn't a couch potato, but equally not much concerned about health.

Let me re-wind my life to about 15years back...

I was 86kg in weight and 168cm in height. That was the only data I had about me in this context.  Absolutely no idea what was my Blood Pressure[BP], Cholesterol, Body Mass Index[BMI] etc. etc.  Who cares?  I was active, was able to run, walk, climb stairs as normal as possible.  Eat as shameless as possible, eat whenever and whatever I wanted.

1999: This year was my very first medical checkup.  Everything except by weight, BMI, rest everything was as normal as possible.  Its obvious that my weight = over weight hence BMI was so high.  BP? it was 87/54 [low BP].  The physician was stunned at me and asked whether I was ok, as I had to climb 4floors to get into the clinic where the MC was done [it was a 4F bldg and no lift was there].  He was checking with me whether I felt dizzy or anything strange.  As I was perfectly fine I said so too.  Now my Total Cholesterol [T-Cho] = 180mg/dl, HDL = 53mg/dl TG = 90mg/dl.  Calculated LDL = 109mg/dl [normal]

Years passed gradually the physical activity increased day by day such as walking to/from train station from/to home/office.  Walking during sight seeing, climbing stairs several times at office to switch between two floors etc.  The weight gradually reduced to 78kg.  
Note: I have not done any exercise specifically to reduce weight, the normal day to day activity helped me to reduce 8Kg.

2002: MC my Total Cholesterol and LDL cholesterol were high.  T-Cho = 260mg/dl, HDL = 51mg/dl, TG = 90mg/dl, Calculated LDL = 191mg/dl.  Wait a min in 3years why this sudden change?  After very long investigation found that the consumption of below were increased in recent years.
A. Potato fries from McDonald
B. Pizzas with double cheese topping

Now its time to keep fit as I am going to have my MC soon.  What did I do? Walked as much as possible, reduced oil consumption, totally cut consumption of potato fries from McDonald and pizzas.  Go to office in cycle [One way: 10Km].  Result: in 5months reduced 9kg and I was 68kg.  Wow this was lower than my university days.

2004: Not much change in my Cholesterol levels but my weight, waist size, BMI had improved levels.  Still I was put in danger level on the Cholesterol.

2005:  Now the life style little changed [bit eased] weight increased to 72kg.  Other stats were more or less same as previous year.  T-Cho = 225mg/dl, HDL = 53mg/dl, TG = 90mg/dl, Calculated LDL = 154mg/dl.  Wow better than 2002.  Perhaps cut on those high fat items helped?

2006:  Except weight, BMI nothing else changed much, although there was slight change in cholesterol measures.  Weight was about 76kg.  T-Cho = 221mg/dl, HDL = 57mg/dl, TG = 93mg/dl, Calculated LDL = 146mg/dl.

2007: Weight = 77.7kg, T-Cho = 242mg/dl, HDL = 53mg/dl, TG = 192mg/dl, Calculated LDL = 150mg/dl.  Increase in weight and T-Cho.  Reason: Started drinking alcohol [a social drinker, but when drink will really get drunk as though I have to crawl back home]

2008: Awareness increased did few physical activities that helped in reducing weight to 72kg, but not much difference in Cholesterol levels.

2009: Again weight gained now to 77kg.  Cholesterols increased as well.  T-Cho = 251mg/dl, HDL = 60mg/dl, TG = 179mg/dl, LDL = 172mg/dl.

2010[3/2011]: Not much change in weight. Observed reduction in Cholesterol.  T-Cho = 231mg/dl, HDL = 60mg/dl, TG = 142mg/dl, LDL = 156mg/dl.  Reason: you can see in the summary.

2011[1/2012]: Weight reduced 75kg [was 79.8Kg on 29-Sep-2011.  Observed increase in Cholesterol.  T-Cho = 261mg/dl, HDL = 50mg/dl, TG = 96mg/dl, LDL = 190mg/dl.

Summary of Observations
* When I was over weight my cholesterol was as normal as it has to be [1999]
* Even after my weight reduced, the cholesterol level has increased [2002]
* Even after few adjustments in the diet and activity there has not been much improvement in the cholesterol level

Factors to be considered to stay fit
Activities
* Keep yourselves as active as possible.
* Schedule your activities and keep it as regular as possible.  Be it walking, jogging, running or any aerobic exercise try to do it for at least 30 min a day.  Key point is to keep it as regular as possible and have to sustain i.e. continue it for ever.  Do not count the time you walk to Bus stop/Train station, Office or a Shop etc. unless you walk for 30min (continuously) and cover 3~3.5km at least. Note: This will differ according to age and capacity.
* Try to use stairs instead of lift/escalator if you want to go up/down by 2~3floors.

Food
* Never say 'No' to food, but limit intake quantity.  It is generally observed that in a day we eat at least 2.5 to 3 times than what we actually need.
* (Over) stuffing yourselves shall be allowed just once in a week, but be careful, if you don't follow other points then better not.
* Although you are free to eat what ever you want [but limit the quantity].
* Balance your diet as much as possible.  Its difficult to get everything in one meal, so plan your meal so that you get almost all nutrients that you need to intake in a week.
* Drink 'Oolong cha' [aka chinese tea], preferably warm, immediately after your meal.  This helps in digestion of the food that you had and dissolve the fat you just consumed.
* Do consider to use oils that have Mono Un-Saturated Fat [MUFA] or oils that have Poly Un-Saturated Fat [PUFA] and avoid Saturated Fat.
* Do not miss to add foods with high dietary fibre content.
* Avoid 'FAST FOODS' as much as possible.  Note: You may have in limited amounts for once in one or two months.

Others
* Make a note of your measurements (those that you can measure by yourselves such as weight, waist size, BMI) in regular intervals [Suggested interval: monthly~bi-monthly]
* Make a note of your measurements i.e. do a MC (those that you cannot measure by yourselves such as BP, Cholesterol, Body fat, etc. [Suggested interval: semi-annually(if you have abnormalities)~ annually].
Note: this is absolutely a must to stay fit so that you can find that you are deviating from normal and take corrective actions sooner than later.
* Join a gym.  I had misconceptions of going to a gym until last year.  But, after me joining this year felt that I should have done this several years ahead.  Lots of advantages in going to a gym.  Of course it depends on the facilities and type of equipments the gym can provide.

Advantages of a gym:  You have an instructor/trainer to monitor/train you.  You have equipments that can assist you to know your limits.  There are lots of difference in running/walking in a gym and on road.  On road you will have several hinderances [such as cycles, signals, dogs, others] so you cannot keep your pace.  More importantly there is a minimum level and maximum level of your heart beat when you walk/run.  If you don't reach minimum level there is no point in exercising, and if you exceed your maximum you are risking your life.  Note: this is for those who are planning to run/walk for fitness purpose not planning to run a marathon etc.

Conclusion
Above are very very easy to follow.  These are practiced and proven methods by me, but I failed to sustain.  Now I've decided to sustain going forward.  
Justification?  Usually I stop the fitness activities after my MC, but this time still continuing... 

My target for this year [2012] is to
* reduce my weight to 68kg [was 79.8kg on 29-Sep-2011 and now 73.8kg on 28-Jan-2012].  
* reduce my total cholesterol level below 220mg/dl [260mg/di on 5-Jan-2012 next measure due by Apr-2012]

Updates
As of Nov-26-2012
weight: 70.2kg
T-Cho = 230mg/dl, HDL = 49mg/dl, TG = 123mg/dl, LDL = 168mg/dl.

Eat Healthy, Be Active and Stay Fit

Disclaimer: There may be several references made in internet some are copy/paste, some are re-written.  Please do not try highlight those, but pay attention to the content and try to follow or suggest (me) improvements.  This is purely my view in my experience (and references) that may or may not suit you or you may have totally different view, so please do not to take these as things written in stone and startup a fight with me.  Any repercussions that you face is totally your responsibility.

Bhindi (Okra) Spicy Fry

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 10min 

Cooking time: 20min 

Difficulty: Easy - for beginners 

Ingredients
* Bhindi (Okra) - 250gm
* Red Capsicum (finely chopped) - 1nos
* Green Chili (split lengthwise) - 8~10nos
* Mustard - 1tsp
* Chana dal - 1tsp
* Urad dal - 1tsp
* Cooking Oil - 10ml
* Salt - to taste
* Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp* Asafetida - to taste
* Curry leaves - to garnish
* Aam Choor (or Tamarind paste) - to taste
* Sambar powder - 1tbsp




Preparation
* wash, wipe and cut Bhindi as long slits (about 3/4~1inch length)
* heat oil in a pan
* when oil is hot enough add mustard seeds and allow to splutter
* add chana dal, urad dal and fry a little
* add turmeric power
* add asafetida
* add green chili
* fry well
* add bhindi (okra)
* add salt
* add aam choor (or tamarind paste)

* mix and fry well
* close the pan and simmer the flame and allow to cook for 10min

* now add sambar powder 

* mix well and allow to fry

* garnish with curry leaves

Serve hot with any rice items.

Puli Inji

Serves: 4 

Preparation time: 10min 

Cooking time: 40min 

Ingredients

* Ginger / Orange peel - 50gm

* Green Chilli - 50gm

* Tamarind - 50gm
* Red Chilli - 5gm
* Sesame - 10gm
* Rice - 10gm
* Mustard - 10gm
* Urad Dhal - 5gm
* Channa Dhal - 5gm
* Fenugreek - 5gm
* Sugar / Jaggery - 50gm
* Oil - 10ml
* Salt - to taste
* Asafetida - to taste
* Curry leaves - to garnish

Method

* Dissolve the Tamarind in water and filter well
* Cut Green chillies into small pieces
* Heat oil in a pan
* Season 5gm of Mustard, Urad Dhal, Channa Dhal and 2 red chilli
* Fry Ginger [or Orange peel] and Green chillies until the raw flavor vanishes
* Pour the filtered tamarind water
* Add salt and stir well and allow to boil in medium flame
* Mean while roast remaining Red chili and Mustard, Fenugreek, Sesame, Rice until they are crispy
* Grind the roasted ingredients well
* When boils add the ground mix and stir well and allow to boil
* Add Sugar [or Jaggery], Asafetida and mix well again allow to boil
* Remove from heat when the mix becomes a semi solid consistency [careful it should not become like a paste]
* Garnish with curry leaves


Serve hot or cold - goes well with curd rice, chapatti, dosa

Eating spicy foods can help prevent diseases

Spicy foods add an incredible amount of flavour to food. As ethnic foods become abundant, chili and spicy food is increasingly popular.  The good news is that adding spice to our food has a range of benefits for our health and wellbeing.




Chilies have long been used in traditional medicine, probably first by the Aztecs.  In Russia, a drink called Nastoyka (made from chillies soaked in vodka) has also been taken as a healing remedy.

Reduced Cancer Death Rate

Scientists have proven that capsaicin, which is responsible for the burning sensation when we eat chillies, can kill cancer cells, indicating that people could at least prevent the onset of cancer by eating spicy food.  This is because it is a natural antioxidant, meaning that it defends against disease causing toxins.

According to the World Health Organization, countries where diets are traditionally high in capsaicin have significantly lower cancer death rates for men and women than in countries where little spicy food is consumed.  Dr Timothy Bates who made the discovery, says that “This is incredibly exciting and may explain why people living in countries like Mexico and India, who traditionally eat a diet which is very spicy, tend to have lower incidences of many cancers that are prevalent in the western world.”

According to Bates, capsaicin attacks the power house of the tumour, thus killing the cancerous tumour cells and reducing tumour growth without harming the surrounding healthy cells. Capsaicin has been found to inhibit the growth of cancer cells in laboratory studies.

Prevents Dangerous Blood Clots

As well as preventing cancer, researchers have also noticed that people who consume large amounts of chili peppers experienced a lower incidence of thrombo-embolism, or potentially dangerous blood clots.  

Scientists have studied the medical records of countries where spicy foods are regularly consumed, and found that people who eat a diet high in chillies experience a much lower incidence of blood clotting diseases.  It has now been scientifically proven that capsicum is able to break down blood clots.

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