Here Comes the Big Momma!

Hey all! guess wat it is this time? I am 3 months-married and already have my 4th kid here! Too much to manage eh? ur damn rite! i got one more blog this time a recipe blog! i always wanted to start one but was too lazy and never had nuff time to cook and display :) So here it is for ur viewing pleasure anytime swarskitchen.blogspot.com, Brat will b sharing his preparations occassionally too since we share the kitchen u kno :P




Now go n chek out my new blog and tell me how it is :D

The Chennai Foodie!

Yelloooooooooooo all!

Two reasons to rejoice now..

Finally i woke up to the fact that i can actually write reviews worth publishing on a separate blog of its own.. initially as a means of saving all my work.. now m workin on building it as another blog useful to readers :) so obv my first notice is to my fella bloggers here who has made this blog come alive.. i mean really alive!

So here it is
chennaifoodreviews.blogspot.com

I will be writing reviews on places in chennai thats related to food and drink, could be anywhere from le royal meridien to thattu kada.. so all u foodies out there plz buzz me (in here) to add to my blogroll ... i wud love to make more friends there...

i am placing a widget in my blog's side bar so u ll kno my latest posts there.. as u all kno this is kinda my passion.. both writing and food..n i hope its a success :)

So welcome to my blog on chennai restaurant reviews, anytime u plz..do pass on the word too! i have two posts there already. .. looking fwd to ur comments...



BUT most of all, when am celebrating the birth of my second baby :) my 2 yr old here has won a million dollar cheque from Tessie! That's double celebration now aint it? Thanks a million Tessieeeeeeee, u made my day .. actually u made the whole week for me.. y else will i get motivated to start a new blog! In fact, thanks all of u for encouraging me so much...



Yay! I jus realised i ve reached more than 15000 hits ... reason 3!!!!

My Experiments with ...

Okay! Since a lot of people have been asking me to write bout the MAGIC diet that I followed.. here it goes... sorry to disappoint u guys its called the GM diet and u can jus browse Google to know a lot bout it … but here i write bout my experience with it!

Rules I did not follow –
Do not even attempt to smell anything other than what is given on the diet for each day, if you really wanna lose weight and are dedicated to it.
Learn to cook the wonder soup, search for GM wonder soup anywhere u can have it anytime how much ever you want (don use any ready made soup they contain lotsa sugar n starch)
NO MILK except on day four Get over coffee at work or shift to black coffee (or just pretend that u din read this line!)
Go easy on salt and no sugar intake
NO FRUIT JUICES except day 7! Abstain from all alcohol…
Drink 10 glasses of water for sure and 1/3rd more on Day 5!

I would like to confess that I did not follow even one of this except the alcohol part of course (teetotaler alrite!) I did have coffee (milk and sugar) everyday, fruit juice by mistake one or two times and I really din make an effort to cook the soup, and duh! I couldn’t eat my veggies without salt for heavens sake! And my answer to point one is yea I was partly dedicated, I did take a bite or two now and then to cheat my tongue from depression. Trust me it works, take a bite of ur favourite food and chew it longer cheatin urself like ur eatin lots, all ur tongue needs is the taste, quantity doesn’t matter.

Ok so this is a 7-day diet, I am not gonna describe it cos its all over the internet.

Day ONE – All fruits except bananas.

‘Melon’choly day – Toughest day, makes u wnana give up so badly but trust me push thro this, and its gonan b too good from day 2!

Breakfast: watermelon pieces
One litre of aquafina (say between 11 to 2)
Lunch: lunch box full of water melon
One litre of aquafina (say between 3 to 6)
Dinner: Watermelon pieces and one apple

(Try to eat just water melon, it helps lose more weight ...don b an ass like me)

Day TWO – All vegetables starting with a large baked potato for breakfast.

POtaTOE! – a diet that lets u have potato wow! tho its jus bland baked potato with a lil butter n maybe pepper on it, u die for this after a day long of just melons!

Breakfast: Boiled/Micowaved potato no butter (cheated with a lil salad dressing, com’n I din do use butter!)
One litre of aquafina (say between 11 to 2)
Lunch: salad at subway – lotsa crunchy lettuce, cucumber, onion, tomato, fat-free sweet onion dressing ( not supposed to but its irresistible) btw try it out its the sexiest i ve had in chennai!
One litre of aquafina (say between 3 to 6)
Dinner: home cooked boiled cabbage one big bowl and some chopped cucumber.

(Potato is yumm even if it has no seasoning! Veggies with water content reduce weight soon like cabbage, snake gourd, ash gourd and beetroot.)

Day Three – Fruits and vegetables

Oh-yea-m-on-a-diet day!

Breakfast: very few pieces of apple and some green grapes
One litre of aquafina (say between 11 to 2)
Lunch: salad at pizza hut – lil smaller bowl lettuce, pineapples, cucumber, etc.
One litre of aquafina (say between 3 to 6)
Dinner: cooked beetroot (cheated with a spoon of curd) and grapes

(Veggies are tastier than fruits and healthier too. Just go easy on oil/salt.)

Day Four – Eight bananas and drink three glasses of milk

Go Ba’na’na’s!

Breakfast: 1 banana and my usual large cup of coffee (not cheating cos milk is allowed today!)
One litre of aquafina (say between 11 to 2)
Lunch: 2 bananas and a frappe at CCD [:D]
uff no water!
Dinner: two bananas around 6’clock and 1 small cup milk at 9 o’ clock

(You don’t need to finish all the 8 bananas eat as much as u can. But the body naturally craves for banana n nothing else today. Get non-fat milk, try not to add sugar or sugar substitute.)

Day Five – 10 oz. portions of lean beef (lean protein) and whole tomatoes

Supposed to be the FEAST day! Naaaaaaaaa

Breakfast: hard boiled egg (din remove yolk since m a sucker for it!)
Lemon juice with salt
Lunch: tomato rasam with very few spoons of rice and lotsa extra tomato pieces
Forgot the water (supposed to drink 1/3 extra today!)
Dinner: sprouts with tomato and 2 big glasses of tomato juice (unstrained) with salt

(Tomatoes reduce weight like nothing else! Eat tomato morn day n nite and c the difference. I am planning to go on a complete tomato diet! Make sure to get the water requirement for this day. Vegetarians can substitute the beef for egg whites (strictly no yolk, spoils the whole purpose), sprouts/tofu is the best option! You are allowed to make a sandwich out of any of these ingredients today.)

Day Six – Unlimited Beef (lean protein) and vegetables

Egggggggggggggs

Breakfast: hard boiled egg (its better to have sprouts!)
One litre of aquafina (say between 11 to 2)
Lunch: egg white omelet
Forgot the water!
Dinner: cooked cabbage bowel!

(Felt lighter when I woke up, thanks to yesterday's tomatoes. Go for water veggies and sprouts today)

Day Seven – Brown rice, fruit juices and all the vegetables

Now this is my feast day!

Breakfast: skipped!
The new amsutra slice ;) (What the hell I can have fruit juice today rite! .. ok! who am I kiddin?)
Lunch: boiled rice with cauliflower
Forgot the water!
Dinner: cucumber slices and apple juice (unstrained and no sugar)

(DO not drink packed fruit juice, have fresh ones unstrained and no sugar, I found out they actually taste good! Brown rice is thar rice in India, well m not really sure lemme kno if anyone knows, else there is always chapathi as a substitute.)

You can repeat the diet as many times u want but take a minimum 3 day break in between! This is 'not' like other FAD diets letting u starve thro the day, you can fill urself with the food recommended for the day as much as u want, in fact if u ever get hungry then ur not following the diet properly!

Wake up on Day 8 and ur pants will seem bigger! buy a belt for safety, trust me i experienced it!

Now this will sound funny to u after reading all this! I did not lose any weight after I did this diet! But I ve lost inches and I feel lighter and able to dress like I used to! Mayb its a healthy way to get in shape and a great mood lift! But one thing to remember is that 'don hog after the diet is over'.. its too easy to get the weight bak in maybe just a couple of days! Keep exercising as much as u can and plz be grateful to friends veggie fruits lean protien and water (esp. melon and tomato?) and keep eating lotsa them in ur every day diet!

Found a Friend in Food

I am happy I took a break for a week and writing this today. I’ve read a lot in this mean time while I have some changes in my mood too (yea as always). But I’ve a reason now something I want to share with everyone. Everyday I get to read a million articles on women, fitness, diet, clothing, fashion, exercise, this, that and what not. Moreover, there are commercials, television and movies. I might not know much women but almost everyone I know are so figure conscious, no matter if they weigh 30 kgs or 70 kgs. Well this includes me too. Sometimes, these seem like a positive thing but mostly it seems negative. Guess almost all of you know the incredible amount of weight I have put on since few months now that some people don’t even recognize me anymore? Yea I blame it on the medication I was/am on, but I agree I dint make much effort in the initial stage of it and now whatever I do, I just can’t get rid of it.

I made a resolution stating that I will diet and exercise and bring down my weight back to what I was in few months (if you remember me getting enlightened in my New Year post). I literally lived on fruits veggies and coffee for some 3 months out of which I hit the gym for 20 days causing me to put on another few kgs. I almost gave up, no actually I gave up! Started hogging on food left, right and centre. It was like revenge and I dint know I was hurting myself in the whole process but it’s like a vicious circle. You eat, feel guilty, get depressed and hog to chase away the blues (I swear nothing comforts like food not even alcohol). Maybe cos I have given up all my habits and have no resort to depend and was too lonely all thro the day and needed some company (my friend food). Now that adds a few more kgs. I resorted to pills and starting abusing FOOD and I really dint know that I was actually a victim of Bulimia nervosa. This is an eating disorder where people binge eat. Once I read up on it, it only interested me more and I was actually considering abuse of laxatives until I got to read the horrible effects of it! It is a typical act of Anorexics who are crazily affected by their body image and starve/purge and do everything to maintain it. I do agree that I believe that my good looking is very important to my self image and how I feel. I realized its not just me, there so many women around the world and a few I know too are disturbed so much due to this stereotypical stick figure view of a good looking woman but at the cost of physical and mental well being?

THINK AGAIN! (Well that doesn’t mean that am thinking again!)

And for all you Bulimics and Anorexics there (or almost there), I just found a MIRACLE DIET, (cant believe am saying that!) something that is fast, healthy and doesn’t take much of an effort. It actually worked for me. I still am yet to get outta the surprise (shock?)…. Dono how long it gonna last... So let me POSTpone it to the next POST!

Burrrrrrrrrrp

http://www.burrp.com/newsletter/chennai/2008/April/index.html

Movie and a Meal

Food food food ... i ve been craving for food since a month now .. no wonder i ve grown visibly bulky .. i go for a movie and its about food too!

'Anyone can cook' shud ve been the name for the movie ‘Ratatouille’ or to make it simple ‘Finding Nemo 2’! Yes I really loved the movie, nothing to beat Nemo and his eye movements/Voice tho..its pronounced ‘Rat-a-tou-ee’ I guess! I missed Dori a lot while watchin this movie. Ppl actually clapped in the end of the movie like they wud after a gr8 live performance.

‘Remy is a rat, constantly risking life in an expensive French restaurant because of his love of good food, as well as a desire to become a chef. Yet, obviously, this is a rather tough dream for a rat. But opportunity knocks when a young boy, who desperately needs to keep his job at the restaurant, despite his lack of cooking abilities, discovers and partners the young Remy.’ – IMDB.

Truly unbelievable logic-less story but too good for an animated movie. Emotions were typical of PIXAR ANIMATION! Fell in love with it.. need i say.,. an animated movie about food wat more can I ask for to make me fall for it.. ‘A challenge for the filmmakers was creating computer-generated food animations that would appear delicious. Gourmet chefs in both the US and France were consulted and animators attended cooking classes at San Francisco-area culinary schools to understand the workings of a commercial kitchen’- Wikipedia

Thanks a lot! The movie was a deliciously new recipe, for the first time tempting to cook than eat. Now I definitely need to write about a restaurant, probably the best ever I been to in chennai! Its called Benjarong, a Thai restaurant that is so different, a welcome change, esp for ppl who live in coffee day or beach like me.

The refreshingly new restaurant has awesome service, unbelievably Thai-ish mouth watering food and good ambience and they serve complimentary lemon grass to drink and "Mien Khum" which is a Thai version of Paan with coconut flakes, chilli pieces, lemon, onions, peanuts and a sweet sauce, except that its a starter. I loved the place right away and decided to blog about it. The pineapple rice brought bak memories of Thai restaurants in US and made me eat till the last morsel of rice. If you are in Chennai its time you visit this place, lil expensive but sure worth it! well yea I cudnt try the meat and desserts cos i don like them, so cant write much bout em’ but am sure they are just as fine! Happy eating!

Benjarong, 146, TTK Road, Alwarpet, Chennai' Ph: 4322640/ 7110061 Open 12-30 to 2-45 p.m. and 7-30 to 11-45 p.m. Credit cards accepted, valet parking. Average cost per meal, per head Rs.350. - The Hindu