Tasty World Ragi Murukku Review

A review FINALLY!!! 

I know! It has been way too long! 

But don't you worry, I have snapped quite a few pictures and a lot of food recommendations on your way.

I am always on the look out for new snacks on the market. I had never seen this before so I picked it up from Food World in my recent grocery trip.

PRICE

I paid Rs. 35/- for it. It is most definitely affordable.

LOOK AND FEEL

These chaklis have a ragi color and they are chakli strands and not the actual round chakli. The packet boasts of LESS OIL. And I just might believe that. These are dry chakli strands, you wont have any residual oil left on your hands when you munch on them. 

TASTE

They have the distinct familiar ragi aftertaste. If you ask me - it has the same taste as your typical Ragi Mudde! The typical sandy texture of any chakli is present : combined with the aftertaste of ragi in your mouth. It is crisp and goes well as an accompaniment to your evening coffee. 

MY VERDICT

I love all kinds of chakli. But even I could not find this very appetizing because of the strong flavor and sandy texture of the ragi flour.

WOULD I BUY THIS AGAIN?

No. Only because - while I love Ragi in certain forms, I am not a fan of Less Oil Ragi Chakli. With chaklis, I prefer the oily  kai murukku made of rice flour. But if ragi is your calling, I suggest you give this a try!

My cast Iron Tawa

I wrote this post in June 2010 after a lot of research on what kind of dosa tawa to buy(we are big dosa-eaters in our family). This post came about after the only dosa tawa I had (which was non-stick in case you are interested) had to be replaced after just one year of use. You see , for optimum usage you need to replace your non stick cookware every year because the nonstick teflon coating will only stay for one year. Most of us use it for way too long thereby inadvertently consuming poison. In an effort to not do that and to have good quality life-long utensils : I ended up with my own analysis , and an iron dosa tawa.

To this day, this post has garnered the maximum attention on my blog. This is the post that brings people back to this blog from search engines... And it remains a popular post : so I am assuming many people are on the look out for good quality Iron tawas. 

This post is thus a tribute to all of you looking for Iron tawas - who have come onto my website. It is beyond time I share some pics of the tawa. This is the same iron tawa I bought way back in 2010. I use it almost everyday. I repeat , we are big dosa-eaters out here, and have dosa for breakfast nearly every single day of the week.

So there : a picture of me making set dosa today morning on my tawa.

Yapaa.com Review

I am reviewing Yapaa.com today. Sometime this week, I am planning to write a detailed post on cloth diapering and I am likely to revert back to Yapaa.com for the affiliate links (Nope - I get no commission for the same) as I have purchased almost all of my cloth nappies online and more specifically at Yapaa.

Having been recently pregnant and having a small baby , has not curbed my shopping needs thanks to Online Shopping. I shop regularly online and amidst the different online websites that are avaiable for Baby stuff : I must say Yapaa is the most affordable out there.

They recently had a full upgrade of their website in terms of the look and feel and as shown in the picture above - their website looks incredibly professional. Initially, they had only baby related products for sale, now they have expanded to include clothes  for Men and Women. Also the sale tab shows you the current products on sale.

The website is extremely user friendly. 

Since I am going to write about my experience in baby products : I thought I would show you that everything I bought can be accessed through the Baby Care/Baby Needs link on the website 

WHAT I HAVE PURCHASED

I have purchased disposable diapers, cloth nappies, feeding bottles and bibs as mentioned in this post here from Yapaa.com

MY EXPERIENCE 

The products have been in excellent quantity. The website is easy to navigate for me to find what I have needed and the price is really affordable compared to other online websites like Firstcry / Babyoye, making me always come back to this site to make the purchase.

VARIETY

Apart from all the standard brands available online, Yapaa.com has its own brand of nappies that cost much less than the branded ones : I have personally tried them and I must say - they are so worth the price ! More on this in my cloth diaper post with pictures.

PRICE

Usually I love shopping online because of the good deals I can get online across the different ECommerce websites available today. With baby products, I believe Yapaa will give you the best deal for most Baby Care Needs.

MODE OF PAYMENT

I usually pay via Cash On Delivery and most products ordered by this website have reached me within two working days. I have also tried the electronic payment via the bank debit card and I have experienced no issues.

So give their website a try the next time you want to buy some baby products. 

Anklets fit for a wedding!

Ever since I have started this blog posting jewellery pictures on this blog, my eyes seem to zoom into jewellery on any person I happen to be having a conversation with.

The anklet I have shown in the picture here belongs to a dear friend. I might have caused her great embarrassment by snapping a picture of this asking her to pose in the office cubicle pathway which may/ may not have included me crouching down to make eye level with her feet to get a good enough snap for you guys !

With every one opting for light weight jewels and very few people actually wearing good traditional patterns I had to capture this to retain the beauty of South Indian Jewellery. This anklet is FIT for a wedding. I believe my friend wore it on her wedding day. This is not her daily-wear anklet but something reserved for special occasions. Can you check the detail of craftmanship and design on the anklet. Doesn't her leg look absolutely beautiful?

I was completely bowled over when I saw it 

Feast your eyes on the beauty!

P.S. Thank you Meena for letting me show your jewellery online!

Favorite Things - March

Life happened. That is the only way I can explain the hiatus here :) 

I could go into a long unwinding story about how difficult it is to raise a child, manage work and try to maintain a hobby like blogging... but you would go to sleep by the third sentence. So I will save you and me that trouble!!

But just because typing something here (anything random really!) makes me happy : today is a post on random things that are making my life happy at the moment.

Enjoying good and easy home cooked food - Pressure Cooker Pulao

Kinda-healthy desserts 

Office Team lunches

Loving brass items : my first love!

And spending time with my favorite guy in the world :) We are enjoying our many walks in the park !

Stay tuned! Many reviews are pending from my end!

Restaurant Review : The Egg Factory

I Work From Home because my son is way too little for me to leave him alone and go to work.
And my day revolves around my son's needs 24*7. First time moms will relate.

And because I work from home, there are times when I really really need a break. Because you see taking care of a baby, managing work schedules, keeping the house relatively clean, cooking, cleaning after myself,  cleaning after my son, maintaining some sort of work-life balance and not losing my mind in the process takes a huge toll on me at times.

I repeat, moms will relate.

And so last weekend - it was time for a Date Night ! So I fed my son his evening dose of Ragi Manni, gave him a kiss and the husband and I were glad that we had an hour to ourselves to go have dinner !

I had a craving for eggs that night. You see, I was raised a vegetarian! I have dabbled with different cuisines and different dishes (veg and non-veg) over the years and I am a vegetarian again today because that is what I grew up eating and that is what I essentially love to eat. Due to a series of health problems I had over the last two years, (that had no connection whatsoever with my diet by the way ) , I decided to give up meat two years ago and I have still not bothered to try it again. Let me be honest, over the course of the last two years, I have had my meat-cravings a couple of times esp. when I am around people who are eating meat and I want to sample their dishes. I might have even given in and sampled a couple of times but for the most part I am a vegetarian. Scratch that. I have given in.

Now, the Egg is an acquired taste for me! Because eggs are also something that I did not grow up eating as a staple in my diet. There are days when I absolutely love eggs and crave them. Then there are days when I hate the disgusting egg smell ! Then again there are days when I love boiled egg-puffs, poached eggs, fried eggs and I even crave omlettes and frittatas....

I spent the majority of last year pregnant :D And I spent the majority of last year craving eggs and meat due to my pregnancy :) And I spent the majority of last year not eating either egg or meat due to my STRICT vegetarian policy during my pregnancy!

Have you already slept through my incredibly long monologue on how I sometimes crave eggs and how I always craved eggs during my pregnancy?

Thank you for your patience!

So, ahem,anyway - I wanted eggs last Saturday. Off to Egg Factory we went!!



This is located in JP Nagar 2nd phase.

AMBIENCE



Egg Factory has a very laid back cafe-like ambience. There are sofa like couches in the corners (not pictured) as well as the lovely iron chairs (pictured). These iron chairs are the kind of chairs that were present in the 1960-70s in all of our homes, most of us have replaced these chairs for plush sofas so this decor brought back wonderful memories of 70s setup!!

You can peak into the kitchen from where I was sitting as shown in the picture and from what little I could glimpse through - the chef was wearing gloves, used spoons to mix stuff and everything did look very hygenic :) I can be weird like that !

MENU

I was surprised to see the Diner's Menu to be a folded piece of paper a la Newspaper! It was incredibly refreshing to see and every dish in there has egg (obviously) save a few marked with a "V" in front indicating purely vegetarian - of course we can add egg to the "V' marked dish to satisfy our egg craving!

Of course, I ordered only egg dishes!

FOOD

Made of boiled egg cut into cubes, coated in bonda batter(kadala maavu) - I was not a huge fan of this dish.  I need not go to Egg factory to have this!! I can get similar in the road side BAJJI store! And of course you might ask what else was I expecting  when I ordered Egg Pakoda? Good Question! Bad Choice on my part! Of course, my husband will lap up any deep-fried dish and he loved it!!



Of the three main dishes we ordered - south western fritatta was our absolute favorite - hands down!!!

South Western Fritatta had two ghee-roasted garlic breads, some spicy tomato puree, and a wrap made of omlette filled in the centre with some mixed vegetables, garnished with cilantro. Had the right amount of spice , gravy and crispy garlic bread. Yum!!!

Quesedillas were my least favorite. The tortillas were filled with a mix of sweet corn, boiled egg and cheese. I found the dish to be too bland in taste for my liking even though I had salsa as an accompaniment ! Sour cream made for an amazing accompaniment for the quesedillas still I feel spice was lacking!!

Menage A Trois refers to three different vegetables (one of them was mushrooms, I forgot the other two) added to the fritatta accompanied by crispy ghee-fried herbed garlic bread. It was good but no where as nice as the South Western Fritatta.

To accompany the food I ordered Pink Lady while my husband ordered Cold Coffee

My Pink Lady Drink

This drink has some frozen mixed berries, almonds, milk and yoghurt ! It was yummy - so easy to make that I need to make this at home as well. Inspiration has struck!!

PRICE

I would say Rs.700 for two people is reasonable (Rs.350/- per person). It is not cheap, but not very expensive either. Most definitely affordable for a bi-weekly egg-y-treat !

WOULD I GO BACK?

Most definitely, yes!!!!

Baby Food : Apple Puree

My son turned 6 months old on March 3rd 2013. Baby Solid Food has been on my mind for a long time now. As a first time parent, I claim to be no expert but I am just documenting what worked for me here as a reference for other mothers out there and as a self-reference for any future children I might have. 

So at 6 months -

 His routine at the moment is like this

My son's breakfast today

Breakfast : Apple puree with milk and sugar, and half cup of milk

Lunch : One bowl of Ragi Manni

Snack : two tablespoon of pureed boiled thor dal with water, ghee and a pinch of salt.

Dinner : One bowl of Ragi Manni

Also a couple of teaspoons of boiled water during the day at odd hours to supplement his digestion. 

In between all this, if he is hungry - I feed him.

I give him half an apple each day. I boil it with the skin on, then peel the skin off the boiled apple slice and then mash it with my hands, add a little milk and sugar to aid the taste . And because it has only been one week since he started these solid foods, the quantity is very less - so I supplement with another half cup of milk. The quantity is going to wary as time progresses.

I would like to note here - that I have tried tomato juice ( caused vomitting for my son), and mosambi juice (caused diarrhea) on my son. I have also tried supplementing mashed banana ( caused diarrhea again) for my son. But the above food pattern has worked fine and I am continuing with this for now.