Another delicious cup of yogurt, and not so expensive either. Well, relatively, that is.
This is the first time I bought Liberté Yogurt. Publix had a deal where you could get 10 cups for $8. So I got five of them. Hmmm, I think getting five more wouldn’t have been a bad idea at all.
This is one fabulous cup of yogurt. Creamy and sweet without being too rich or sour, I think it tastes even better than Stonyfield. The ingredient list at the back of the cup makes you feel pretty good about eating such delicious stuff too!
Again, I couldn’t help throwing in some chopped strawberries and blueberries in there. Talk about gilding the lily!
Growing up, yogurt was my most hated food. Probably it had to do with the fact that the yogurt-buttermilk churned at my home was of the sourest kind. My younger sister and I had such an aversion to it; its mere presence on the dinner table would make us cringe. It could make my skin crawl, I exaggerate not. Then Mummy got it into her head that we MUST be fed yogurt/buttermilk (like all good South Indian kids?). Each morning, before leaving for school, my sister and I had to drink up a glass of buttermilk. Pleading and threatening in equal measure, Mom would try her level best to make us gulp it down. It was never easy. Much crying and shouting accompanied by multiple ultimatums ensured noisy school mornings.
I had decided that as an adult, yogurt would be one of those things I could skip consuming. Most grownups are not allowed to have any food aversions, are they? But yogurt would have to be mine. I couldn’t imagine it being otherwise.
Many years passed by without yogurt even crossing my sight, let alone my lips. Marriage happened and then I came to the United States. A change of heart came about (not sure what caused it!). I started sampling organic fruit yogurts. Stonyfield has a good selection. But spending 99 cents on a cup of yogurt meant that it became an occasional summer indulgence.
Long story short, I enjoy my cup of yogurt now. I also sprinkle chaat masala over home made yogurt and slurp it up with much enthusiasm. You can also find me polishing off plates of dahi-puri at local Indian chaat joints. My current favorite?
Trader Joes has its own brand of Greek Style yogurt that comes in two flavors – Honey and Apricot Mango. Yum, oh yum. Oh, the cup also mentions that the milk for the yogurt comes from cows not treated with rBST (growth hormone). By the way, that cup of yogurt costs $1.29 but it’s substantially larger than a cup of Stonyfield yogurt. Serves as a great snack when combined with chopped berries (as seen in the thumbnail picture).
Smooth texture, a filling snack, wonderful summer treat… I think I am a convert.
What you see is lunch from a few months back, maybe even last year.
Paraanthas made of cornflour, whole wheat flour and methi leaves, a sabzi containing sprouted moong, chopped tomatoes and onions, garnished with coriander/cilantro leaves, a bowl of homemade yogurt garnished with a spice mix.
What you see is lunch from a few months back, maybe even last year.
Paraanthas made of cornflour, whole wheat flour and methi leaves, a sabzi containing sprouted moong, chopped tomatoes and onions, garnished with coriander/cilantro leaves, a bowl of homemade yogurt garnished with a spice mix.
I used the Kitchen-Aid to make the dough for the paraanthas.
Just threw in corn flour, whole wheat flour and fresh methi leaves. Sesame oil (my oft-used cooking medium), some salt, a smidgen of red chilli powder (or more?), some garam masala. Add water and run the mixer until you get a dough that’s soft and pliable. Roll into rounds, put on a warm pan, add some ghee, flip it a couple of times, until nice and brown and cooked. YUM.
I sprout moong a lot during summer. I tried doing it this winter and it was a bad bad bad idea. Firstly, sprouting is tough due to the low temperatures. Secondly, sprouts are not the best thing to eat during winter simply because they generate vata (unless well-cooked) and winter is a vata-aggravating season anyway. You are far better off eating vata-pacifying and grounding foods this time of the year. I am no Ayurveda expert but a HUGE enthusiast. There are many wonderful books out there that can give you more information about this amazing science of health.
How to sprout moong?
Take a cup of whole green moong seeds. Rinse with water thoroughly. Cover with filtered water making sure that all seeds are completely submerged and there is a couple of inches of water above them. This is important because the seeds absorb the water and expand in size. So you want to have extra water in the bowl. Check the seeds after a few hours (you can leave them overnight too). Drain out the excess water, if any. Take a clean handkerchief, wet it with water, wring it out, wrap the soaked seeds in the wet cloth and place back in the bowl. Check back in a few hours. Wet the cloth again, wring it out, wrap the seeds again, repeat. In a couple of days, you will see tiny shoots sprouting through.
You can repeat the process until the sprouts are nice and long. Now take them out and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You can add them to salads, sabzis, even pulaos/pilafs and biryanis. I must mention, in this above mentioned sabzi, I don’t toss in the sprouts as is. I steam them beforehand so that they’re easier to digest.
