Atte Ke Sheera Moong Dal Kachori

After dishing out some Italian foods, for this months International Food Challenge ,a monthly event started by two wonderful food bloggers Sara and Shobana, the members of this food challenge group travelling towards Rajasthani cuisine of India.Rajasthani cuisine, the foods from this cuisne are prepared usually with milk, yogurt and buttermilk coz of the scarcity of water of the region of Rajasthan. Most of their foods last for several days coz of their traditional warrior lifestyles and depending upon the availability of the ingredients of this water starved ragion.This cuisine is a splendid array of unique,rich,colourful,spicy dishes and many more delectable sweets. Lentils and legumes like jowar, bajra are used very much in this cuisine and needless to say Gramflour is one of the main ingredient in this cuisine. The traditional Rajasthani dishes with vegetables can be eaten for many days and they dont need rigeraton coz of the weather condition of this region.

This months host was Manjula Bharath of Desi Fiesta, since she is from Rajasthani region she challenged the members with many delectable Rajasthani dishes, one among her challenge was her delectable Rajasthani Festive Platter. When i saw the spread i was awestruck, yes the platter she prepared was just mindblowing, can see her efforts and her love for her native. I chosed to cook a Halwa and a Kachori from the dishes she challenged coz of the lack of time coz ill be in India while this post is up.Thanks Manjula for challenging us with delicious Rajasthani dishes, trust me i enjoyed making and having both halwa and kachori.

Atte Ke Sheera/Wheat Flour Halwa:

1/2cup Whole wheat flour
1+1/2cups Water (boiled)
1/4cup Jaggery (powdered)
4tbsp Ghee
Nuts (chopped ) or melon seeds (as per need)

Heat ghee in a pan, roast the whole wheat flour in simmer until a nice aroma comes from, keep on stirring else the flour will burn.

Add the hot water gradually to the roasted wheat flour and keep on stirring.

Once you add the water, the wheat flour absorbs the water and turn as a thick paste.

Add the jaggery powder, and cook until they get well melts.

Now cook the halwa in medium flame until its leaves the ghee.

Put off the stove, garnish with nuts or seeds.

Serve warm.

Moong dal Kachori:

For Dough:
2cups All purpose flour/Maida
5tbsp Oil
Salt

For filling:
1/4cup Yellow moong dal/Yellow green gram (soaked for 2hrs)
1tsp Cumin seeds
1/2tsp Fennel seeds
1tbsp Whole coriander seeds
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
1tsp Chilli powder
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
1tsp Garam masala powder
1/2tsp Dried mango powder/amchur powder
3tbsp Oil
Salt
Oil for deep frying

Mix all the ingredients given for the dough, knead well until it forms as soft dough, keep aside covered with a wet muslin cloth.

Grind the soaked moongdal as coarse paste.

Heat the oil, add the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, let them crack.

Add the grounded moongdal paste,chilly powder, turmeric powder, garam masala,amchur powder,salt and mix.

Saute well until the moongdal loses the moist and turns dry, keep aside.

Roll a small ball from the dough into circle.

Place a tablespoon of filling mixture in the centre of the rolled circle.

Bring the end of the circle together to cover the filling, seal them tightly, remove the excess dough.

Roll each portion into circle, take care not to roll thin or dont give pressure while rolling.

Repeat the same process with the remaining dough.

Heat oil for deepfrying in simmer, once the oil is hot, slowly slide the rolled kachoris to the oil and fry until they turns golden brown and crispy.

Cool and store them in air tightened box.

Notes:
Dont fry the kachoris in high flame.

Fry them always in simmer and the kachoris should puff like puris.

Eat Fat Lose Weight

(Article first published as Eat Fat to Boost Weight Loss on Technorati.)

Fat has been vilified over the past half century, as many people have been led to believe it promotes poor health and leads to abdominal weight gain. Fats are one of the three macronutrients required for normal cellular functioning within the body and are necessary for optimal health, as well as being a contributor to healthy weight loss and weight maintenance. You can use fat to your advantage as you make the necessary dietary modifications to lose weight, as long as you make the proper fat choices.

Fat Metabolism Controlled by Hormones
Weight gain or loss is largely under the control of a very intricate system of hormonal balance, and is very sensitive to wild swings in blood sugar which leads to insulin resistance. Once insulin becomes metabolically inactive, it is unable to usher sugar from the blood into the cells and muscles where it’s required to provide energy to your cells. This is the beginning of metabolic syndrome and can lead to diabetes, heart disease and an early death.

Sugar, Not Fat Leads to Weight Gain
Sugar and ined carbs cause blood sugar levels to quickly rise and drop, making you want another sugar fix to start the process all over again. As this process is repeated multiple times each day, insulin becomes less able to flush excess sugar from the blood after each meal, and the sugar remains in circulation. In an attempt to prevent further damage, the body converts the excess sugar to triglycerides which are stored as fat for future use. Dietary fats have no effect on blood sugar or insulin, and don’t directly lead to weight gain.

Healthy Fat Diet Shown to Decrease Waistline

Information from a study published in the International Journal of Obesity illustrates the effect of fat consumption on weight loss in two groups of obese participants. One group ate a reduced calorie diet with 18% of calories coming from fat, while the second consumed the same number of calories, except 39% of their calories were supplied by an almond-enriched fat diet.

After 6 months, the group eating the higher fat diet had a 62% greater reduction in body mass index (BMI), combined with a 50% reduction in waist size and 56% lower body fat when compared with the low fat group. The low fat group ate a high carbohydrate diet which converted to excess blood sugar and hampered their weight loss success, while the healthy higher fat group was able to lose much more fat eating the same number of calories.

Adding the Correct Fat to Your Diet

The results of this study underscore the importance of including the right fats in your diet to meet your weight loss target. Choose monounsaturated fats from natural food sources such as almonds, walnuts, flax seeds and olive oil, while avoiding vegetable oils and fats cooked at high temperatures. Overcooking oil causes hydrogenation and unhealthy trans fats which not only will pack on the pounds, but also leads to increased risk from heart disease and cancer.

Changing the way you think about dietary fat is an important first step toward improved health and natural weight loss. It’s easy to think of fat as a source of artery clogging plaque, but the body is much more sophisticated, and readily converts the fat you eat into cellular components needed for replication and not into stored fat. Eat monounsaturated fats in moderation, eliminate sugar and processed carbs from your diet and be rewarded with improved health and natural weight loss.

It is Visible if You are Looking for It!!

A lot has happened since I last posted. I visited my doctor and she was very pleased with the progress I have made. Ive been watching episodes of the TV series called "Heavy" on Netflix and getting ideas. I can feel my body getting stronger and I want to begin to push it a little more, but I also want to follow my physical therapists parameters. And Ive had my eyes opened with a new chart that I made.



Since I dont have cable-TV anymore I am not "up" on what is current in that scene, but I found the TV series called "Heavy" about obese people who go to a facility for thirty days to be rebooted. I have watched all of the Texas episodes and then the episode where they revisited the Texas people about six months later to see how they are doing. It seems to me that the camera eye view is almost totally focused on the exercise, with only a small percentage of attention on the food -- yet the affects of eating wrong show up instantly in weight gain for the participants. This view point is totally the opposite of my own focus.... so far. (It is easier to film actions like exercise, than it is to document people eating salad. LOL)



They seem to be on about a 1200 calorie a day diet of protein (fish) and vegetables (salad plus a few green beans) from what I can see. They do not go into the details of the food. But they sure go into the details of the exercise experience. At first as I watched I wondered about the people. I wondered why so many were crying and complaining. I wondered why this was so hard for them. Then it began to dawn on me that they are going through huge withdrawals and are initially under a lot of stress.



They are having carbohydrate withdrawals, family and friend withdrawals, and are also being forced to use their unfit pain wracked bodies in ways they never would have (or could have) done on their own. They are in a completely unfamiliar environment and suddenly every bit of bad behavior that they have depended on in the past to get them out of "bad situations" comes out to play. After the first week, though, things usually begin to settle down some, and their eyes begin to open up to the new possibilities for their lives. I think it is awesome and extremely tough to do. My hat is off to these many successful participants who put their lives on the air for us to observe... and to learn from. From what I have seen, nearly all of them are successful -- not absolutely all.



One thing I noticed is that even with their success they often still look like obese people when they are done -- but they have changed. If you were to meet them on the street and know nothing about them, you might only see that they are obese, but a few of them lost nearly a hundred pounds -- that gives you an idea of where they started. One man who weighed over four hundred pounds when he started had ankles that were nearly purple with lack of circulation. One of his legs had a "weeping" wound which is a spot where the skin has simply opened up and liquid seeps out, so he was not allowed to go in the pool until he got his doctors OK.



Later on, it shows where he has lost at least a hundred pounds (I dont recall the exact specifics) and looks a lot smaller and younger and happier.... but his legs still look purple. Another man had a "lymphodema" surgically removed and he is able to walk a lot better. I guess the reason that these physical conditions have stuck in my mind is because in my journey I wanted to reverse my pre-diabetic state which, technically, happened, but I am not without the disease, yet, and if I falter it will come back like a raging lion. I think the participants were brave and the trainers are awesome.



Ive been thinking about what my "weight loss goal" should be. The thought of choosing a number makes me a little crazy and does not work for me as a "goal." I cannot simply use "lose weight" as a goal either. I have tripped myself up in the past with that one. Once I lost a few pounds the goal would be met and I would wander off in another direction. I am comfortable with "continuing to lose weight." I feel able to continue (with the Lords help) on the path and not wander off. One of the ladies in the TV series said something about "perseverance and grace." and that has really struck me as being motivational for me. Id like to have those two in front of my face for a while to remind me, and help me stay on track. With my perseverance and Gods grace I shall continue to lose weight.



I also want to speed it up a little so Im beginning to focus on the exercise. Ive made up an activities chart for me to keep track of my daily activities. My physical therapist has told me that I can do "three minutes" of one exercise and then in a little while do "five minutes" of another one and continue doing this throughout the day. That way I dont have one gargantuan block of exercise to do all at once -- which can be completely overwhelming to me. Im more likely to simply sidestep the issue if it looks too hard (overwhelming) for me, but I can do a few minutes here and there, repeatedly throughout the day. Which is the reason for the chart.



Today was day one, and at the end of the day, I had not done any exercise. I would not have noticed that except that the chart has made me aware of the truth. So on day one, I noticed what I was not doing. For tomorrow I want to have some check marks under a few activities that I have done so I shall start earlier in the day to do a few of the "little minutes of activity." They are important and I need to incorporate them into my daily life. I shall begin the exercise again, in the morning.



I shared what I have been doing with a friend and she wants copies of my charts. I am pleased that she likes them and wants them... but Ive got enough experience to know that she may or may not actually use them. Ive tried to help people in the past with things they said they wanted, but many (I believe, most) people are not willing to actually adapt it to their own lives. I did the same things for years. Ive bought many pieces of "weight loss" equipment, but they dont do a thing for the body that does not get on them. In my defense I must say that the equipment is not actually made for people who are completely unfit and outrageously obese -- or, at least, that is what I thought. My physical therapist has taught me to pay attention to the fingers poking into my body (points of pain) and to make adjustments for them. Change something to stop the irritation but keep going. She says that to make improvements I need to get tired, but irritation only makes things worse.



One of the things the successful participants of "Heavy" have mentioned a few times is how much more agile they are now. Id love to have some of my former agility back. I can see it happening with the PT that I have been doing. If I persevere and depend on Gods grace, my agility, balance, and strength will improve. I wont be twenty-two again, but I can improve. Id like to improve and see where I might go with it. With my perseverance and Gods grace I shall continue to lose weight and increase agility and strength.



Ill be checking up on me with my chart, so Id better be alert and get active! Dont laugh... I think it might work!!



Be back soon,

Marcia

The American Medical Association Recognizes Shared Decision Making

Readers of the Disease Management Care Blog may be surprised to learn that the American Medical Association "recognizes" shared decision making.  A document recommending precisely that is available for your reading pleasure here.

Its a good review of the topic and makes for interesting reading. While the DMCB knew that the term "shared decision making" was specifically mentioned in the Affordable Care Act, it didnt know that there was an group called the International Patient Decision Aids Standards (IPDAS) Collaboration that is developing and piloting standards.  It also didnt know that there is an academic entity in Canada called the Ottawa Health Research Institute (OHRI) that is devoted to research on the topic.  The one area in which the Americans seem to still be leading, however, is commercializing the concept.

The AMA also recognizes that shared decision making can make the physician-patient relationship stronger, opposes any effort to link it to insurance coverage and supports more pilot programs.

This makes the DMCB happy to be an AMA member.

Once a week enough exercise the origin should be two and a half hours

Once a week enough exercise, the origin should be two and a half hours - So far, the experts always suggest that we diligently exercising regularly every day. But a recent study says that exercise once a week is enough, as long as we do it for two and a half hours in a row.

According to researchers from Queens University, anyone who can work out for 150 minutes at the weekend were able to get the same benefits as those who regularly exercise every day.

"Sometimes a lot of people are too busy in the active work so they can not exercise regularly. So long as they can meet the time 150 minutes a day to exercise alone, it has included healthy," explained lead researcher Dr. Ian Janssen, as quoted by the Daily Mail.

Health guidance is suggested that adults do physical activity every day for a total of 150 minutes. But there is no definite rule whether the exercise should be done 20-25 minutes every day, or 150 minutes a day greetings directly.

This study also proves that the health benefits of exercise 150 minutes to be had, no matter whether a person do it little by little each day or directly in a single day.

The results subsequently published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism.

Higher Intake of Fruits and Vegetables Lower Risk of Bladder Cancer

University of Hawaii Cancer Center Researcher Song-Yi Park, PhD, along with her colleagues, recently discovered that a greater consumption of fruits and vegetables may lower the risk of invasive bladder cancer in women.

The investigation was conducted as part of the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) Study, established in 1993 to assess the relationships among dietary, lifestyle, genetic factors, and cancer risk. Park and her fellow researchers analyzed data collected from 185,885 older adults over a period of 12.5 years, of which 581 invasive bladder cancer cases were diagnosed (152 women and 429 men).

After adjusting for variables related to cancer risk (age, etc.) the researchers found that women who consumed the most fruits and vegetables had the lowest bladder cancer risk. For instance, women consuming the most yellow-orange vegetables were 52% less likely to have bladder cancer than women consuming the least yellow-orange vegetables. The data also suggested that women with the highest intake of vitamins A, C, and E had the lowest risk of bladder cancer. No associations between fruit and vegetable intake and invasive bladder cancer were found in men.

"Our study supports the fruit and vegetable recommendation for cancer prevention, said Park. "However, further investigation is needed to understand and explain why the reduced cancer risk with higher consumption of fruits and vegetables was confined to only women."

Whole Wheat Scones with Corn Tomato and Basil

Today on Serious Eats: Mexican Potato Soup. This soup is so fast, easy, and out-of-this-world delicious, it’ll make you believe in time travel, Nostradamus, and Yeti.

Summer is winding down, and a fall nip is in the air. It’s still warm enough to find ripe, juicy tomatoes and sweet corn at the market and cool enough to turn on the oven. There is no better time to whip up a batch of savory scones.

Scones are my Charming Boyfriend’s favorite breakfast bread, and turns out, they’re incredibly easy to make. CB pers the classic raisin version, but I like something a little more savory. I’ve been tweaking and fine-tuning this scone recipe, from Vegan with a Vengence by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, for a few months now.

We’ve had such a gorgeous bounty of corn and tomatoes this season, I couldn’t resist stuffing a batch of scones with gold and red, inspired by the chewy, speckled corn breads I grew up with.

To stand up to the filling, I subbed in whole wheat flour and went with a nonhydrogenated shortening instead of oil to give the scones a flakier texture. I compensated with a little extra almond milk to make up for the moisture loss.

Another little trick of this recipe is to combine the almond (or soy or rice) milk with vinegar: the classic vegan method for substituting buttermilk. The vinegar curdles the nondairy milk, giving it a similar sour flavor to buttermilk. The real deal would work fine in place of the vegan version.

The fragrance of basil will fill your kitchen (or whole apartment) when these come out of the oven. Moist and flaky, a touch sweet from the corn, and tangy with tomatoes, these scones are the perfect complement to a weekend brunch. And with the more substantial whole wheat flour and veggies, they make an ideal grab-and-go breakfast bread.

Give these scones a try while the fruits and veggies of summer are still with us. But hurry! The corn is going fast. (Oh Eve Arden, that made me so sad.) Maybe scones will become your favorite breakfast bread too.

~~~

If you dug this recipe, point your divining rod to
Vegan Bran Muffins
Zucchini Bread
Tofu Veggie Scramble

~~~

Whole Wheat Scones with Corn and Tomatoes

Adapted from Vegan with a Vengence by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Makes 16 scones

3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup nonhydrogenated shortening
1 1/2 cup almond milk + 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (vegan buttermilk!)
1 cup cooked corn (fresh from the cob or frozen)
1 cup tomatoes, fresh diced
2 tbsp basil, fresh chopped

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400 and lightly grease a cookie sheet.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and into a large mixing bowl.

3. With a fork, cut shortening into flour mixture. Leaving pea-sized bits of shortening will make a flakier scone.

4. In a measuring cup, combine 1 1/2 cup almond milk and 2 tsp apple cider vinegar. Stir until milk coagulates. Fold in milk-vinegar combo, corn, tomatoes, and basil. Mix until just combined, taking care not to overwork the dough.

5. Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface and shape into a circular mound, about 12” in diameter.

6. With a sharp knife, cut the mound in half, then the halves into quarters, and so on, pizza-style, until you have 16 pieces.

7. Transfer dough to cookie sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

8. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Enjoy with a fabulous breakfast or as a midnight snack.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, Protein, and Price per Serving
127.25 calories, 4.2g fat, 3.15g fiber, 3.15g protein, $0.24

Calculations
3 cups whole wheat flour: 1221 calories, 6g fat, 48g fiber, 48g protein, $1.08
2 tbsp baking powder: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $0.04
1 tsp salt: negligible calories, fat, fiber, protein, $0.02
2 tbsp sugar: 52 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.04
1/3 cup nonhydrogenated shortening: 500 calories, 55g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.60
1 1/2 cup almond milk:: 60 calories, 4.5g fat, 1.5g fiber, 1.5g protein, $0.75
2 tsp apple cider vinegar: 2 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.01
1 cup cooked corn: 177 calories, 2g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.75
1 cup tomatoes: 22 calories, 0g fat, 1g fiber, 1g protein, $0.50
2 tbsp basil: 2 calories, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0g protein, $0.08
Totals: 2036 calories, 67.5g fat, 50.5g fiber, 50.5g protein, $3.87
Per serving (Totals/16): 127.25 calories, 4.2g fat, 3.15g fiber, 3.15g protein, $0.24