Five foods is really really tough to choose - I racked my brains, listed and re listed food items and could not make up my mind. So for this post I have done some cheating and listed five food categories along with my favourite items belonging to those categories. At times you should not just follow the system but workaround the system to suit your needs ;-) .. so here's the list ...
Breakfast
Both my mom and my MIL have always made hot home made breakfast for us which we loved to devour. So you just need to get fresh and sit at the dining table and some hot breakfast will be ready - with my MIL its delicious idlis, dosas , aapaams and with mom it is poha, upma , potato filled toast sandwich etc. Every Sunday my mom used to make idlis and me and my brother used to eat dozens of them. At times we used to get treats on Sunday morning in the form of sabudana vada - gosh, I miss those days !
We have tried to continue the tradition of hot homemade breakfast too till off late when the work timings have screwed up our schedule and we end up having cereal most of the times - wish I can reinstate the breakfast ritual.
Favourite Breakfast items - Idli chatni , Masala Dosa , Aapam , Aloo paratha (or any stuffed parathas) with melted butter as topping, Veg Upma , Handava
Lunch
Lunch on weekdays in office is not noteworthy at all. Heat up food in the microwave and eat at the desk or with a colleague over casual conversations. They say that you should enjoy your food to allow maximum nutrients to be absorbed from it but somehow I never enjoy these quick heated, time constrained lunches. For the same reason I dislike eating out during weekdays - you are always watching the clock not to be late for any meetings or overshooting lunch timings.
Lunch on weekends is totally another ballgame, I just don't feel like entering the kitchen on weekends :-). My dear hubby is very considerate and doesn't have any issues with food so that makes it a whole lot easier. I like variety in food and like to try out different stuff. I love to eat colourful food - its so pleasing to the eye !
As a matter of fact am not a great cook either so it feels a little disappointing when you put in a lot of effort and it doesn't taste great.
Favourite Lunch items - Home cooked full course meal (veg, chapati, dal, rice, salad)
Snacks
I love to munch on stuff during the day - fruits, nuts , biscuits .... till I got married I never ate any biscuits, can you imagine that ? I got hot snacks when I returned from school too (I was pampered I should say :-)). My mom never allowed me to eat street food - everything was made at home. So if we wanted vada pav - she would make it as a snack one day, even french fries ! I remember being tempted to eat street food when I went to junior college and I used to call home to ask mom if I could have one - she would always advise me to eat the healthier stuff. So I ended up drinking just the Aaree ka lassi and returning home where there would be fresh fruits waiting for me - I used to enjoy the lichiees, chickoos and seasonal fruits. Engineering college spoilt me I guess, where I started eating vada pav from stores near the bus stop. Till date I have never eaten pani puris from the roadside hawkers, eaten sev puri and sandwiches hardly a couple of times.
Everyday when I reach home and look around for food to snack I get so tempted to eat hot cooked food - maggie , pizzas , grilled sandwiches ... and here's a secret :- when I was a kid I thought it would be awesome if I could get married to Sanjeev Kapoor's son :-) (hoping he would have his father's abilities)
When it comes to fast food how can I forget the fried demons that are so delicious - potato chips, vadas(potato, sabudana, mendu,dal), french fries .. even plain puris taste so yummy ! Its sheer cruelty that such unhealthy food is the most delicious.
Favourite Snacks : All types of vadas and home made french fries
Dinner
Dinner on weekdays is pretty much mundane - since we have to pack lunch for the next day, there is limited options to cook. Plus both of us don't like spending too much time in the kitchen since there's so little time and so many activities to do in a day.
We both love eating out so we usually eat at the restaurants a couple of times over the weekend - over and apart from Indian cuisine, I like Italian, Thai and Mediterranean cuisine. Mexican is an absolute no-no and I dislike American and Chinese cuisine too.
I like to experiment different recipes at home too - pastas, soups, frankie, indo-chinese and other non-typical dishes.
Although I have limited intake of meat(at most one meal per week) chicken biryani is my weakness, wish one day I can pass it on too.
Favourite Dinner items : Punjabi dishes @ restaurants in India, Indo-chinese @ restaurants in India, Sizzlers, delicious Chicken biryani @ anywhere in the world, Augratin and garlic bread
Food for thought
So with the whole body mind connection where the body influences the mind and vice verse as we feed nutritious variety to our body, we need to correspondingly fuel the mind. I like brain stimulating conversations, pondering over things, sharing of ideas, exchanging views - enabling you to look at things with a whole new perspective. And that's the basic reason why I couldn't stay put at home even for a couple of months - you just don't have interaction with worthy people and are stuck in your chain of thoughts. It felt as if I am locked in a room with depleting oxygen levels. Even when we socialize with our relatives back home or friends here, I hate the aunty type talks of exchanging recipes or gossiping. Books provide a wealth of information but miss the human interaction aspect of it. In some ways I like social networks-you get new information and updates on regular basis, keep in touch with people and know whats going around you. And for that matter even blogging offers you a medium to exchange information - learning and growing, sharing and caring !
Breakfast
Both my mom and my MIL have always made hot home made breakfast for us which we loved to devour. So you just need to get fresh and sit at the dining table and some hot breakfast will be ready - with my MIL its delicious idlis, dosas , aapaams and with mom it is poha, upma , potato filled toast sandwich etc. Every Sunday my mom used to make idlis and me and my brother used to eat dozens of them. At times we used to get treats on Sunday morning in the form of sabudana vada - gosh, I miss those days !
We have tried to continue the tradition of hot homemade breakfast too till off late when the work timings have screwed up our schedule and we end up having cereal most of the times - wish I can reinstate the breakfast ritual.
Favourite Breakfast items - Idli chatni , Masala Dosa , Aapam , Aloo paratha (or any stuffed parathas) with melted butter as topping, Veg Upma , Handava
Lunch
Lunch on weekdays in office is not noteworthy at all. Heat up food in the microwave and eat at the desk or with a colleague over casual conversations. They say that you should enjoy your food to allow maximum nutrients to be absorbed from it but somehow I never enjoy these quick heated, time constrained lunches. For the same reason I dislike eating out during weekdays - you are always watching the clock not to be late for any meetings or overshooting lunch timings.
Lunch on weekends is totally another ballgame, I just don't feel like entering the kitchen on weekends :-). My dear hubby is very considerate and doesn't have any issues with food so that makes it a whole lot easier. I like variety in food and like to try out different stuff. I love to eat colourful food - its so pleasing to the eye !
As a matter of fact am not a great cook either so it feels a little disappointing when you put in a lot of effort and it doesn't taste great.
Favourite Lunch items - Home cooked full course meal (veg, chapati, dal, rice, salad)
Snacks
I love to munch on stuff during the day - fruits, nuts , biscuits .... till I got married I never ate any biscuits, can you imagine that ? I got hot snacks when I returned from school too (I was pampered I should say :-)). My mom never allowed me to eat street food - everything was made at home. So if we wanted vada pav - she would make it as a snack one day, even french fries ! I remember being tempted to eat street food when I went to junior college and I used to call home to ask mom if I could have one - she would always advise me to eat the healthier stuff. So I ended up drinking just the Aaree ka lassi and returning home where there would be fresh fruits waiting for me - I used to enjoy the lichiees, chickoos and seasonal fruits. Engineering college spoilt me I guess, where I started eating vada pav from stores near the bus stop. Till date I have never eaten pani puris from the roadside hawkers, eaten sev puri and sandwiches hardly a couple of times.
Everyday when I reach home and look around for food to snack I get so tempted to eat hot cooked food - maggie , pizzas , grilled sandwiches ... and here's a secret :- when I was a kid I thought it would be awesome if I could get married to Sanjeev Kapoor's son :-) (hoping he would have his father's abilities)
When it comes to fast food how can I forget the fried demons that are so delicious - potato chips, vadas(potato, sabudana, mendu,dal), french fries .. even plain puris taste so yummy ! Its sheer cruelty that such unhealthy food is the most delicious.
Favourite Snacks : All types of vadas and home made french fries
Dinner
Dinner on weekdays is pretty much mundane - since we have to pack lunch for the next day, there is limited options to cook. Plus both of us don't like spending too much time in the kitchen since there's so little time and so many activities to do in a day.
We both love eating out so we usually eat at the restaurants a couple of times over the weekend - over and apart from Indian cuisine, I like Italian, Thai and Mediterranean cuisine. Mexican is an absolute no-no and I dislike American and Chinese cuisine too.
I like to experiment different recipes at home too - pastas, soups, frankie, indo-chinese and other non-typical dishes.
Although I have limited intake of meat(at most one meal per week) chicken biryani is my weakness, wish one day I can pass it on too.
Favourite Dinner items : Punjabi dishes @ restaurants in India, Indo-chinese @ restaurants in India, Sizzlers, delicious Chicken biryani @ anywhere in the world, Augratin and garlic bread
Food for thought
So with the whole body mind connection where the body influences the mind and vice verse as we feed nutritious variety to our body, we need to correspondingly fuel the mind. I like brain stimulating conversations, pondering over things, sharing of ideas, exchanging views - enabling you to look at things with a whole new perspective. And that's the basic reason why I couldn't stay put at home even for a couple of months - you just don't have interaction with worthy people and are stuck in your chain of thoughts. It felt as if I am locked in a room with depleting oxygen levels. Even when we socialize with our relatives back home or friends here, I hate the aunty type talks of exchanging recipes or gossiping. Books provide a wealth of information but miss the human interaction aspect of it. In some ways I like social networks-you get new information and updates on regular basis, keep in touch with people and know whats going around you. And for that matter even blogging offers you a medium to exchange information - learning and growing, sharing and caring !
