Recipe for the Week - Kheema Pulao


Another pulao recipe!! Yup, you guessed it, rice is definitely a weakness with me!! (Which explains why my weight isn’t budging that easily :-))


What you’ll need: (2-3 servings)

1.5 cups long grained rice, washed and drained
1 Maggi chicken stock cube
½ lime
½ cup green peas
300 g mince meat (meat of your choice)
1 tbsp oil
½ tbsp crushed ginger
½ tbsp crushed garlic
½ tsp coriander powder
½ tsp garam masala
¼ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp red chilli powder
1 medium onion chopped
1 tomato chopped
1 green chilli chopped

What you’re going to do:

1. Heat the oil in a large pan or pressure cooker and add the onions and fry till golden brown.

2. Add the green chillies, ginger and garlic pastes and fry for a minute.


3. Add the tomatoes, cover and cook till mushy.

4. Add the spice powders and mix well. Fry for a couple of minutes.


5. Add the mince and fry on high heat, stirring continuously till the meat looks crumbly.


6. Add about ½ cup of water and cook on low heat, till done.

7. Add the green peas and cook on high heat till most of the water evaporates and the peas are soft (I used frozen peas). It shouldn’t be too dry, though.


8. Dissolve the Maggi cube in ½ cup of warm water and add this to a pan with 2.5 cups water in it. Bring to a boil.

9. Add the rice, salt if needed, juice of ½ a lime and lower the heat. Cover and cook till rice is done.

10. Stir in the kheema masala and mix well, so that no part of the rice is white.

11. Serve and Enjoy!!



Note: This is a dish with which it is very easy to go overboard, so serve some vegetables and fruits on the side to put a hold on your appetite! I served this with some cucumber raitha and stir fried baby corn and capsicum strips.

For vegetarians, I guess substituting the mince meat with minced soya chunks and the chicken stock cube with a vegetable version would work just as well. Try it out and let me know!

Link List - January

I’m down with a cold, and a runny nose (sniffle). So while I comfort myself with some hot chocolate, you guys go ahead and check out some cool stuff posted by some cool people out there.


Image Courtesy: Buzzle

Starting with something yum - Purple Foodie has something for those cold, wintry days; guaranteed to make you feel warm all over.

Sal at Already Pretty has some very, very important information to share: the most dreaded fashion mistakes.

For those who are married or in a relationship, Sheila of ‘To Love, Honor and Vacuum’ has some sensible but oft-ignored suggestions.

Whether you are the ‘crafty’ type or not, you are going to be hugely impressed by Linda’s craft room at Craftaholics Anonymous.

Again from Sal, a beautiful post on honoring your beauty.

An interesting post about stuff you can’t really eat gracefully at 1000 awesome things. I’m sure we can add to the list :-).

You’ve probably already seen this, but if you haven’t, hurry over and check out Prutha’s post at Don’t Shoe Me. I’m not saying anything more. A picture is worth a thousand words, and Prutha’s pics are probably worth more.

The beautiful Emily from ‘The Lovely Things’ has guest posted at ‘Clothed Much’ about how modesty can also be sexy.

A lovely post about how awesome Dads are at 1000 awesome things. Very sweet and moving.

Ever had days when you’re so uninspired, you could actually walk out your door in a potato sack and not care?? Charlotte has some great tips for such days at Girl Next Door Fashion.

Finally, lots of people have tips about how to shop, it being the sale season and all. But do you know the 10 things you shouldn’t do while shopping?? Debbie tells you what they are at Day 2 Day Personal Concierge.

Tell me which link you liked the most!! Achoo!! Gotta go now, hope everyone’s had a great start to the week!

Weekly Goals Update – 29 January 2012


This week was kind of average, with some annoying negatives I can’t get rid of.


1. Woke up at the same time everyday (except Sunday)
2. Went to bed at the same time 5 days out of 7
3. Worked out for 45 minutes on 5 days
4. Controlled over eating on weekend
5. Didn’t nag the hubs at all
6. Increased my protein and vegetable intake; continued with 2-3 servings of fruit/day
7. Disinfected entire kitchen


1. Yelled at Cub when he upturned the entire pile of clothes I had spent nearly an hour ironing
2. Can’t manage to control carbs portions, especially dinner
3. Watched too much TV (And not the news)
4. Hardly read the newspaper :-(
5. Irregular in my prayers

I’ve decided to make my book-reading goal a fortnightly thing, otherwise it’s putting too much pressure on me. Reading is supposed to be enjoyable, not a chore!!


Monthly Review – Jan:


I’ve definitely been nagging and yelling less than before; and I’ve tried to keep my workouts regular, also increased my weights. I read two books, more or less stuck to my blog schedule and did some cleaning/purging/decluttering. I also had my vitamins, fruit/veg servings and 8 glasses of water pretty consistently.

My biggest problem – controlling food intake, especially carbs and dinner. Catching up with the news has not been good and my prayers are sort of on and off. I haven’t really spent much quality time with Cub either.

Anyway, all in all, not a bad start!! Right??! :-)

Latest Sale Haul!


Yes, I went sale-shopping again!! As you might remember, my last haul was kind of a mini haul. So I went a few steps ahead this time!! Also, Cub stayed at home with his grandma, which made it a shopping-date kind of thing :-P.

Again, I made a detailed list and got most of the stuff in it, so I’d say it was a successful trip. I deviated from the list just once, and one item on the list wasn’t exactly what I envisioned it to be. Ok, enough of the preface, now I’ll show you what I got:


Plain white tunic from AND. I’ve wanted a plain one for so long, just plain white, no other colored details whatsoever. It’s really comfortable and is going to be of great use come summer.


Kurta with tribal print from W. This was not on the list. I got attracted to the print and then liked how it looked when I tried it on.


Floral Stole from Pantaloons. This is also something I’ve been looking for.


Red Sandals from Lifestyle. I actually wanted some Red shoes, preferably peeptoes. But these were really, really comfortable and I thought it might be silly to pass them up. I think I’ll get some good wear out of them, especially with my Indian outfits.
(Note: Still on the lookout for some glam red peeptoes)


Paddle Brush from Roots, Floral Hairband from Lifestyle, Star earrings from Pantaloons. Ok, I confess – the earrings were an impulse buy. But look, aren’t they too cute to resist?



And the deal of the day – Brown Bag/Satchel from AddOns. A brown bag was on my list and this was love at first sight. And it was marked down by 50%!! I love the little buckled pockets in front and the brass hardware. 



While I was shopping, the hubs said he was bored (so what's new) and that he’d be right back. Soon he came with a packet in his hand. I looked inside and – voila!! A new digital camera!! I’ve been cribbing for a while that my blog photos weren’t turning out good and that it was high time we changed the old camera, blah blah blah. And now a brand new Sony Cybershot is going to change everything!!! We should go out together (alone) more often!! :-D

I didn’t click a pic of the camera, but here is one from the internet:


So, all in all, a great day!! I still had a few things I didn’t get – a striped Tshirt, White pants (thinking of Jeetendra?), a long sleeved black Tshirt etc. But then the shops aren’t going anywhere, right?!!!

Have you guys made the most of the sales? Have you picked up anything you’ve really been wanting for a while?

Weekly Goals Update – 22 January 2012


This was actually supposed to go out yesterday night. Anyway, here it is!


1. Worked out for 45 minutes on 4 days, and had a 20 minute brisk walk on the day I couldn’t workout. Also, maid was on leave, so did all the household chores as well.

2. Exchanged my 1 kg weights for 2 kg weights.

3. Had at least 2 servings (and some days 3 servings) of fruit per day.

4. Did not yell or nag at ANYONE the whole week. (This is a biggie :-D)

5. Controlled my lunch portions.

6. Read a book – ‘Wise & Otherwise - A Salute to Life’ by Sudha Murthy

7. Read the paper 6 days (skipped Sunday).

8. Went shopping and shopped for just one item that was not on the list. (Yay!!)

9. Gave away all ‘To Be Altered’ clothes to the tailor. Finally!!


1. Overloaded on Dinner. Every day except one. :-(

2. Prayers were regular only 60% of the time. (Yes, I calculated)

3. Couldn’t follow house cleaning schedule, since the cleaning lady didn’t show up.

4. No weight loss as per scale.

There, only few downs, but they’re big ones. The dinner portions are my biggest problem now.

I’m kind of in a state of flux; 1 kg weights are too easy, but 2 kgs are pretty hard (though I’m still using them), ‘M’ sized clothes are loose, but ‘S’ sized ones don’t fit. In No-(Wo)man’s land right now, sigh!!!