Rujuta Diwekar and the Blood Group Diet

Hi guys , have been out of action for a while .But I am back with something really interesting .I have a wedding to attend in November and as the saying goes I am "shedding for the wedding ".Or rather have been trying for the last one month following the principles in the book written by Kareena Kapoors dietitian , Rujuta Diwekar .
Her Formula seems pretty simple and elegant :
1. Dont have coffee or tea first thing in the morning.
2. Eat something as soon as you wake up , then breakfast within an hour and then something every two hours
3. Last meal 2-3 hours before bed
4 . Workout every 3 days .
There is more , but for that its best to read her book , "Dont lose your mind , lose your weight".
I am happy to report a loss of 2.5 kg in 4 -5 weeks , which is okay .
Then i heard about another diet which people are raving about , The Blood GRoup diet , where in you eat specific to your blood type. It doesnt have a scientific basis according to the experts , but testimonies across the world have been positive .
So i have decided to combine the two diets , and publish a blow by blow account of my experience on them .I could not find any blogs or youtube videos which do that , although there a lot of reviews of the diet in general  , and almost all of them positive .
I am a A POSITIVE Blood group , so my poisons are meat , wheat and dairy .
These are the food groups on my avoid list .
I'll tell more about the blood group diet in general as i go along , but here i would recap what I did on the first day
Started the day with a small banana, breakfast was two dosas, then a cup of green tea with a handful of peanuts , post workout soy milk smoothie with a scoop of protein powder and apple , lunch was a cup of cooked sona masoori rice and half cup of toor dal , then a cup of real milk tea (slipped here) , and fruit yoghurt for an evening snack .
Dinner was a cup of moong dal and about a cup of aloo shimla mirch subzi
It was tough not eating rotis , and even tougher giving up bread, and the worst was not having my favorite chai . But all of them are on my banned list so...and i dont even want to talk about cheese .
BUt I soldier on , its only been a day . Will be back  with more .

gatte ki subzi

Today I will touch upon the extremely sensitive topic ( sensitive for me )of "gatte ki subzi". Being a Rajasthani , it pains me to see all the bastardised recipes of gatte floating around on the internet .People try them out and invariably end up disappointed.So listen up everyone , this is how authentic "gatte ki subzi" is made . And yes it is calorie dense , so have it once a month or once a year or once in your entire life , but respect yourself and eat the real thing.
Here goes -
For 4 people take a cup of besan (chickpea flour) in a bowl
Add about 3/4 teaspoon of salt ,1/2 teaspoon jeera , 1 teaspoon red chilli powder, 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of hing (asafoetida).
Then , this is the most important part , take 1/4 cup of melted ghee and add about 3/4 of it . Save the rest for later .
Mix all the above together thoroughly using your hands , then make a semi hard dough with water , carefully adding very little amounts of water at a time , because besan absorbs water quickly and can become sticky if u add a lot of water at once .
Divide the dough into 3 or 4 parts , roll into cylinders and drop gently into a pan of boiling water .In about 10 to 12 minutes the cylinders will float up and become soft and develop little bubbled pock marks .This is the time to turn of the gas , drain the water (but save about a cup for later ) and keep aside our besan cylinders aside .The whole process is quite similar to making pasta dough and boiling pasta .
Next take a cup and half of yoghurt , add one teaspoon each of salt and red chilli powder , two teaspoons of coriander powder and half teaspoon of turmeric powder and whisk it thoroughly .
Heat the ghee we saved earlier in a  pan , add a pinch of asafoetida (hing) , then turn down the gas to a low flame and add the yoghurt to the ghee mixing it in slowly . Then turn the gas to medium flame and allow the yoghurt to fry for a few minutes , then add one cup plain water and one cup of the water we boiled the gatte in .
allow the mixture to boil for a few minutes . Then cut the cooked besan cylinders into pieces and add them to the yoghurt mixture . Allow the subzi to simmer together for a few minutes . Serve hot garnished with chopped coriander leaves or mint leaves .
ENJOY.

THE FINER POINTS OF UPMA

Hi , so i promised there would be another post dedicated to my favorite breakfast and here it is .My aim is to explain the finer points , which will eventually lead to the best upma in the world .
1.Most important is to dry roast the sooji rawa(semolina) , beforehand . If you don't , the upma ends up tasting like ....raw , sticky , slightly fevicolish.
So how roasted is roasted?Use a flat pan ( preferably non stick and thick bottomed ),and empty all the sooji into it .(Dry roasting the store bought sooji , cooling it and then storing it , keeps it fresh and no pests can thrive in it).On  A LOW TO MEDIUM flame , slowly stir it around for a few minutes till it turns slightly dry and pinkish brown to light brown . If this sounds too much , rest assured that if the sooji spends time in a thick bottomed pan , on a low to medium flame , being turned around and stirred around by you for 5 to 7 minutes , IT IS ROASTED .
2.The vegetables you choose to put in it will give its unique flavor every time . So , spend some time introspecting before you decide to go for broccoli , brinjals , karelas etc . The traditional choices are often best . -onions , peas, tomatoes , cabbage , potatoes .
3 . The Tadka or tempering has to be really fresh , and i mean those mustard seeds should be really sputtering before u add the other stuff, and the ghee or oil has to be hot .( yes u can use ghee instead of oil , especially in winters , if you do , no need to add the extra teaspoon of ghee mentioned in my previous post )
4.Eat it hot and with the sauce or chutney of your choice .Cold Upma - the less said the better.
5.The final consistency , has to be semi moist , so turn off the gas before alll the water dries up before u add the sooji . Then put a lid on it , transfer the pan  to a cooler burner (one which u havent used) on the cooking range and wait for a few minutes before serving.
ENJOY.
"I am a maniacal perfectionist . "- MARTHA STEWART

my favorite breakfast

my favorite brekky-UPMA.
If I was shakespeare i would write AN ODE TO UPMA or something similar , but since i am not , i will restrict myself to just extolling its virtues , and share a recipe with u guys.
UPMA is the nice guy of breakfasts . There are no fixed ingredients , goes well with everything and tastes good come rain or shine.
so the base is the tadka , or tempering , for about 4 people take two tablespoons of oil (anything except mustard), one teaspoon each of mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal , a handful of peanuts (small handful , optional ),few curry leaves , a couple of slit green chillies . there is no specific order of adding these ingredients , although u might want to add the mustard seeds first to the hot oil, and the rest of the stuff once they start sputtering .
Then after a minute or so , add any chopped vegetables you like , onions , potatoes, tomatoes , peas , cabbage (washed , peeled , chopped ), are popular options . people have been known to be adventurous and add grated corn , and mushrooms too. ITS MY UPMA AND ILL ADD MUSHROOMS IF I WANT TO, is the spirit . i have never done it , so i dont know , some guy did it and won some hi funda competition in the USA.. But i dont have details on the variety of mushrooms he used.
stir around the veggies , , about one and half cups should be enough , and after a few minutes add a couple of cups of water, a teaspoon(or to taste ) salt and a teaspoon of desi ghee.
when the water is boiling , add 1 cup of sooji rawa(dry roasted before hand )slowly , mixing it all the while .
once the sooji is in , , let it simmer for a minute , switch off the gas and cover the pan , after a few minutes open the lid , garnish with chopped coriander and voila .
serve with ketchup , green chutney , coconut chutney , lemon juice , curds , anything , heck even tabasco sauce , upma doesnt mind.
this is the basic recipe , like i mentioned for four people . feel free to ask questions , in later posts i will share tips for improving your upma and finer points too , like how roasted is roasted and what is the diff between different types of rawa and why some people add dry fruits to their upma and more on why it is the most wonderful breakfast in the world .Till then remember , "i have lived in the same place for 25 years . i just kept making it nicer and nicer"-martha stewart.