Recovery Drink

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Last sunday, went #cycling a 100 miles in the sickening and humid weather. It was not the first time, and definitely knew how not to die. Just pedaled back home, and made my recovery drink first thing after a Sugary Lemonade. 

This one is a bliss, and a great healer after a hot day. All you need - 

Take 1 big piece of your seasonal fruit like Mango, Guava, Banana, pear etc. and cut it into the blender. 

10g of ginger crushed, 

10g of raw turmeric, 

and 2 spoons of seed mix. 

Add a spoon of brown sugar.

Pour all of this in a blender with half cup of cold water and whisk well. 

Top it to 500 ml mark and make a smoothie.

Carve 2 glass out of this. Dunk 1 immediately, and go for second one after an hr. Catch a short nap in between if you:)

When I baked the bread!

Well, that's kind of an unkind way of putting it. I bake breads very frequently for our daily consumption. It was just for the past 3-4 weeks, when the focus was on launching grainnys.com, I didn't get time to bake any bread. I know it's a time consuming process, but is absolutely worth it, when what you are making is just the way you want, without any artificial additive, is clean, and 100% wholegrain.

What is in the sandwich?
The bread, chilli flakes in mustard oil, and garden tomatoes. On the side you see is traditional Kasundi (from Bengal) a desi mustard sauce...
and news article on use of Cannabis in cancer treatment.

Eat simple... and - Viva la vida loca :)

Peanut milk smoothie for dinner tonight.

Reached home early and got time to go tinkering in the kitchen. Have been toying with the idea of finding a replacement of animal and soy milk. Peanuts looked like one possible option. So here is a cup of peanuts, soaked and drained. Blend this with 4 cups of water for around a minute. Voila! We are ready. The blend can be used as-is for making a yogurt or using in a shake. This can also be strained for clear milk. Don't through the pulp. It can be used in baking, or added to chapati dough. The milk tastes like, well, peanutty, but it's a good taste.
I went on to make a smoothie, adding a spoon of jaggery, fresh pomegranate, and grainny's seed mix, having a hearty dinner, dunking in some calcium rich Ragi cookies, straight from a beer mug.

Sunday Hearty Potatoes and Plum Dressing

Typical Aaloo chat has been favourite for ages. Just that it can beat any of the McD or KFC junk in crappiness.
This one is a different story. Because it does taste devilish but the nourishment is divine. After the Mango smoothie and Jamun morning, Ritu conjured this for a quick Brunch.

Hearty potato salad-
Take Boil/steam chunks of potato (2per person),
sprouts of Moong Daal and alfaalfa (half cup per person)
2-3 Raw grated Carrots
2-3 celery leaves chopped
Salt to taste
Toss them together and this is ready.

Plum Chutney
Pulp of 3-4 plums
1 tomato
1 Tablespoon jaggery
2-3 pinches of Salt
And half teaspoon chili flakes
Blend these in a blender and its ready

Eat this by tummyful. Give a smart slip to bread and parathas.

Saturday Mango Smoothie

Its been many Saturdays, when I got up with the sun shining bright. It's an unusually hot day for this time of the year. In another year, it would be the middle of Monsoons, raining. If there is anything good in this, than it's Mangos. They will keep rolling in till the first Monsoon shower, and disappear after that.
Anyway, it's a no work day and Ritu is still in bed. There is a farm to visit this morning and we need to eat well before that.
So here I find 2 Mangos (langada) and set out for my 2 min smoothie. Quickly chopped them into the jar. Grated 1 inch of ginger, a hefty pinch of mint leaves, Grainny's home made seed mix, 2 spoons of brown Sugar (it is weekend dude!) Handful of ice cubes, and that is it.
Blended it, topping with water to 900ml mark. After 30 -45 seconds the smoothie is ready.

Took the picture, drank my glass, and settled the remaining in fridge, because the girls are still sleeping.

Notes- Mango comes with various aromas, colors and tastes. This one is traditionally not used for smoothies. Exactly why I had to. The ginger compliments the intensely sweet pungency of this variety.

Used to Sugarless smoothies, this added sugar felt a bit too sweet to me. But guess will go well with the other two. Anyway if you are making it, use your own spoon.

The color was rather pale, as the mango is inherently light yellow in color. With added mint, the color became more green. I would not think much of it. I like'em yellow blonde.

Musk melon smoothie

Check out @manasarvind1's Tweet: https://twitter.com/manasarvind1/status/485952722957369344

Mango Salsa

So Ritu got this recipe from somewhere, and than we added a bit of our twist also to it.
Take everything you see here in the picture.
2 medium mangoes (using Kesar here, but I guess Langada will be better with its unique pungent sweetness)
7-8 Garlic cloves (hand pound fine)
1 onion
2 celery stalk sticks
2-3 green chilies
2-3 tomatoes
Juice from 2 lime
Salt, chilli flakes, oragano to taste
Can add fresh mint/pepper mint
And a spoon of mildly roasted Sesame seeds and peanuts for some crunchiness.

Coarsely mash the Mango Pulp with hand. Now lick those fingers, before washing the hands.
Chop everything finally, and mix together.
Give it a hearty whisk with a spoon, after adding the condiments.

Hard part - Leave this in fridge for 12 hrs/overnight.

Eating Ideas - Eat a bowlful of this Raw for supper, or pep it with Grainny's Trail Mix 50:50 for a hearty energetic meal any time.

Grilled potatoes and Avocado Dip.

Ritu and I have been away to attend a Natueco meet in Rajkot. It turned out to be a non stop feast of traditional Gujarati food and Kesar Mangos. Along with the meet, there ensued a huge side discussion on Vegetarian and Vegan food with Saroj and Amrish, syphoning off impossible numbers of mangos... Anyway what does it have to do with today's breakfast?

While left potatoes to boil on gas, grossly chopped Basil, green chillies and opened one Anaar (pomegranate)... Anaar is simpler to write ;)

On the the side crushed some dried tomatoes and seeds in a grinder.

Process- grilled potato in pan with a spoon of Coconut oil. Added chillies and Basil towards the end. Once done, sprinkled the seed mix and some dried tomatoes on top. Salt+pepper as per taste.

Great for a Breakfast. With ample good carbs, vitamins, minerals and some proteins. Club this to a Banana+mint smoothie (finished before I could click), and it becomes a super charger for the day.

10 mins to prepare and cook.
(All the smoothies I make are without any animal products and added sugars. On a special day, I may add some coconut or bean/nut milk but otherwise its just water.)

What you see in the dip dish is Avocado Spread Ritu made yesterday. Very Raw and Very yummy.

Kesar from Saurashtra.

Kesar, a variety of Mango, can even be called state fruit of Saurashtra. Last 2 days we witnessed almost a celebration, of this fruit in every meal, every one taking pride in the fruit and it's aroma and taste.  This lot is hand picked from a Natuco method orchard. I would call it organic++. Our prized delicacy for the next few days.

Mango peach Smoothie

When you want a Smoothie in a jiffy, and still make a meal out it, this is the one. 

All that you need...
-1 mango,
-2 peaches,
-spoon of crushed and soaked Tukhmaria/chia seeds. Can also add Flax and Sesame seeds along.
-mint leaves,
-Cold water (half a glass would still keep it very nice and thick)
-some heart and star shaped ice cubes :) -electricity
-and a blender.

Note
I neither add sugar/honey nor milk/yogurt.
So this is Vegan. You can add if you wish

Process...
Chop all in blender and whizzzzz. I like to keep it a bit coarse.

This made around 700 ml. It's like 2 big servings, but am going to have both. :)

Yesterday
...could finally see that www.grainnys.com is up and running. Celebrating with this rich coloured and textured smoothie.

Green Smoothie

Did I talk about eating my greens today? Actually drinking it...

1 cucumber
handful of spinach leaves
30 odd mint leaves..
3-4 celery sticks and leaves
Blended into a coarse smoothy with some water.
Missed - some coconut milk/ a raw mango/ green apple...

2-3 mins to prepare, 1-2 mins to blend.

Insisted on not adding any salt, sugar, or lime. But Why?
... because we should learn how to survive in difficult situations 

Honestly it would have been impossible to eat it all, but to drink it down was much easier. For greens (or fruits), unless required, am rather a blender than a juicer. I like to not let go of anything. Even if the carotenoids take bit of a hit, all other nutrients are well delivered as a full package.

Most important is to have the greens from your own or from a very trusted source. Don't try this with the supermarket greens.

I want to ask the friends here, weather they are a blender or a juicer? and why so...

(Had to find a similar looking image on net, as was in too much of hurry to take one of mine. Courtsey:youngandraw.com)

Brown Rice Pulao

Ritu and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and some of it can actually be shared online. Night before, we had a little argument on what is better to eat for dipper (between dinner and supper). We both agree that its ok to have a bit of grains for dinner but best to skip them in supper. So we found a middle path. Steamed beans, carrots, and spinach. Sauteed onions, tomatoes, and green pepper. Boiled a little brown rice, mixed all of it in a pan, added a cup of coconut milk, and ginger+garlic+basil paste. Mixed it all over flame for 30 seconds, closed the gas and lid, and left it to settle for 5 mins.

Veggies 60% Rice 20% and water 20%

Preparation time - rice soaked for 30min, rest all 15 mins (chopping a mound of veggies basically) including 10 mins cooking.
Eating time- 45 mins, because we love to eat at a tortoise pace.

Dried Tomatinoes

Closer to Sun dried, Tomatoes, these are being air dried at a slow temperature in a sterile enclosure, to retain their nutrition and save them from aerial contamination. Put a piece in your mouth and let it explode with flavours and taste. This is one of the most amazing food I have been thinking of making for a long time. All that needed was a bagful of tomatoes, and space in our kitchen. Now ready, they can be tossed in almost everything, be it pasta, Daal, Pulao, Sabji, Mutton or chicken curries, sandwiches. And guess what, one doesn't need to stop the stray hand going in the container and eating it just like that. 

But why all this fuss about tomatoes? Because they are a good source of Lycopene, an outstanding antiOxidant.

And we are talking of serious contents here...
45902µg per 100 grams. That is the highest concentration found in foods. 

A 50g serving of these can get you a good portion of your daily RDA of many minerals like 
Iron (27%), 
Magnesium (26%), 
Phosphorus (19%), 
Potassium (53%), 
Copper (38%), 
Manganese (50%)

Upavan Workshops in Punjab.

Ritu Mathur, the inspiration and the pillar of Grainny's, helping people adopt better food habits. Ritu recently conducted a series of workshops with Kheti Virasat Mission, in 5 major cities of Punjab. he workshops drew big numbers, as more and more people are now concerned with eating clean healthy food. 

'Organic Food' vs. 'Food'

What is called 'Organic Food' now, our grandmothers called it 'Food'.

The Sports Bread

It's criminal to bake only 3, when you can bake 23.
But it's just the beginning

26/05/2014 

Important activity of the day. - 

Making a bread is not a difficult task, specially the ones which are sold all over the market as Brown bread or gourmet Bread. What has taken all the time, in the last 15 days was baking all natural and Vegan Breads for sports and fitness nutrition. The loaf is balanced with complex carbs, proteins and minerals. All coming from natural ingredients.

 One on left is good for pre workout and the other 2 are for post workout. Difference is in the variance in proteins and the kind of Carbs. BTW, reinstating, all ingredients are straight 'from the plants' and none 'made in the plant'... Well yeast comes in a package. 

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In another incident today, N. Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister of India.

Solid yet soft. The rise is modest, but the taste is awesome.