yennoda blogs: A Healthy Tasty Lunch

yennoda blogs: A Healthy Tasty Lunch

A Healthy Tasty Lunch

I was born in a wonderful town called Tiruneveli. Tirunelveli is famous for its "halwa" and taste of water.There r many varieties of food prepared there and here is one of my favourites and an easy one too!!

Black Gram Dhal Rice / Ullunthamparuppu saatham::

Ingredients for the Rice:

Rice - 1 cup

Black Gram Dhal- 1/2 cup

Garlic-10 cloves (cut into halves)

Coconut shredded - 1/4 cup

Salt

Preparation:

1.Wash rice,gram dhal

2.Add garlic cloves,coconut and salt to the rice and gram dhal.

3.Cook everything together in the pressure cooker for three sounds.(water 1:3 cups for those who want well boiled stuff or 1:2 for those who want it separate and clear)

We have to eat this rice with Ellu thuvaiyal.While the rice is getting ready prepare this tasty accompaniment::

Sesame Seed Paste/ Ellu Thuvaiyal::

Ingredients::

Sesame Seeds/Ellu (white) : 100gms/ (according to the need)

Red chillies:4-5 / (according to the taste)

Urad dhal: 1tsp

Tamarind: a little

Coconut: equal to Sesame seeds.

Salt

Preparation::

1.Dry roast Sesame Seeds lightly in a pan till they become hot and slightly brown and not too much.

2.Roast Red chillies,urad dhal and coconut in little oil.

3.Grind the tamarind,salt,red chillies,urad dhal and coconut first finely with water and then add sesame seeds to it finally.
4.Grind it for a few seconds only till everything gets mixed properly as a paste adding water if needed.(Do not grind the sesame seeds for a long time or too much cos the taste will become very sour).

When the rice is ready take it out of the cooker and mix it gently, the aroma of the rice mixed with black gram dhal and garlic will carry u away!!Serve hot with thuvaiyal and oil.

Note: We Should mix this Ellu thuvaiyal in the rice ,add some oil to it (coconut oil-if u like the taste or regular,cooking oil) and eat!We can also eat the rice by adding oil alone.. that is a different taste.After eating the hot and spicy thuvaiyal u can also add curd in this rice and eat it just like that! wow.. it is really good and yummy!

Black gram dhal rice is very good for our health,especially for women.This is a very good rice variety to do during weekend lunches/ as Brunches.Enjoy and dont forget to comment!

yennoda blogs: H4 Dependents

yennoda blogs: H4 Dependents

H4 Dependents

All these days i kept arguing with my hubby that iam wasting my time and iam going to do something to earn or to read or do something to keep my spirits high. I came to US since my hubby got H1.And only after coming here that i realised and understood the status of my visa!!

I had my younger brother to help me in this a lot , he made me understand my current position that Iam a H4 dependent and i also got the point confirmed that i cannot under any circumstances work legally. When i googled things regarding this i found they were many out there in similar situations, there r many in the same shoes.

Anyway i dont want to take it too much to the heart, cos iam a mother of two lovely kids!

Back in India, it was extremely difficult for me to manage with two kids and i had my parents staying with me and helping me all the time.My hubby is a great understanding and helping person too!

But after coming here i find it easy to take care of my two kids myself and i also find a lot of extra free time!Now i understand why most women here r working, be it an american or an Indian.
So i thought why sit idle and iam that kind of person to sit idle too! I keep doing something or the other atleast i engage in cleaning.

Later,I found cooking a very interesting art and oh my, with so many links and sites one just cant sit at home without trying those!So iam doing that right now..

And i also involve myself in my kids activities, we go to the library together i take lots of books for her, one big one for me and lots of cds for both of us! wow, i hardly have time to sit idle!
After coming here i have started to read many books and have cultivated a list of favourite authors, like Dean koontz, Sydney Sheldon, etc. Currently iam reading the collection of goosebump stories by R.L.Stine.These r for young readers but i found such stuffs interesting!

My passion is to dance so i also dance with my kids to all the favourite songs i like, at home itself!(This is one good method of reducing weight,u know!!)

I think H4 visa holders with kids will have lots of opportunities and ideas to spend their time with!

I hit one interesting blog where she has suggested many ideas for such people. I found her article very interesting and useful too. Her blog is Dreams come true.She has given many ideas of how one can spend their time useful sitting here in the US.

I would like to take her helpful hints regarding joining classes, or giving voluntary help.

Business people

As i said earlier the friends i met oh my god! They r doing business here and they got our phone nos. only in the interest of pulling us into their businessess.Oh my Oh my.. We were not interested at all. We r very well packed with all kinds of chores at home and office (husband) that we cannot spend time on some sort of silly business, and that too in such a country where everything runs on preset rules.Everyone follows the same rules and believes in the same product for years, how do u think that one can go into their lives all of a sudden and introduce some new product of sale ?? that is extremely difficult and highly uninteresting from my point of view.

So we have lost in touch with our "new" friends. They dont call us anymore and we r afraid to call them also.Anyway now iam getting some friends thru good channels.
Lets hope this keeps going.