Spices n Secrets

I love to exfoliate my skin no matter what the season is.


If it is summer, the dry and hot season calls for scrubs that are nourishing yet gets rid of dry flaky dead skin cells. And, if it is winter then dry skin syndrome heightens and scrubs becomes even more essential.


Today I have a recipe that is so delicious smelling that you can almost eat it.


Actually you can ! Because all the ingredients are edible.


Edible ingredients also means active ingredients that really gets down to work and give you a nice smooth skin feel after every exfoliation.


I am a coffee person and it struck me to include it into my skincare. And BAM! Comes into picture my DIY Coffee Chocolate Scrub Bar for not just face but the whole body.
The benefits are:

• Coffee has antioxidants and when applied directly onto skin, the skin cells improve.
• Some studies tells that coffee protects the skin from harmful UV rays and other skin damages.
• Coffee grounds are natural scrubbing agents that promotes good blood circulation as opposed to micro plastic beads that are used in commercial skincare products.
• Coffee has the exact same effect when applied on skin as it has when taken internally. The aroma of coffee is invigorating and very stimulating to the senses, and fills one with energy.
• Coffee reduces cellulite on skin. It also reduces puffy eyes,
• Sugar is a humectant, meaning sugar attracts moisture from the environment into your skin and helps keep skin soft and hydrated.
• Sugar is a natural glycolic acid, so it exfoliates dead skin cells.
• Milk has lactic acid which is a great cleaning agent.
• Milk has fats, so it is moisturizing the skin.
• Milk itself is loaded with vitamins which treat dry skin, boosts collagen, fights dark spots, and repairs ageing tissues.

I have used a premix meant for making hot chocolate/chocolate drink. And the reason is that a premix is a mixture of sugar granules, cocoa and milk powder. This way I don't have to measure and add sugar, cocoa and milk powder later into the scrub.

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup filter coffee granules
2. 1/2 cup hot chocolate drink mix (alternatively use 1 tbsp. of each - sugar granules, milk powder and cocoa powder)
3. 3/4 cup coconut oil

Method:

Storing & Usage Options:

In an Indian household, breakfast means bread, egg, roti, sabzi, paratha, poha, etc.


Dishes like pancakes, waffles, croissant, sausages, etc, are not considered common Indian breakfast. In fact, these are considered more as a dessert and delicacy.


One evening, wanting to experiment with pancakes, I made some for my family. It was an absolute hit-and-trial and I was rather amazed at the results.


Believing pancakes to be a good evening snack, everyone loved it and so the recipe became blog worthy!


I made a good enough stack of pancakes and drizzled thick sugar syrup instead of the quintessential maple syrup on not just top of the whole stack but inbetween each pancake. I then cut the stack like a cake and served each person a slice with extra syrup! This way you get a mouthful feel.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup all-purpose flour
2. 1/2 cup shredded fresh coconut (you can use desiccated coconut also)
3. 3/4 cup of milk
4. 1 egg
5. 2 tbsp. sugar
6. 1 tbsp. baking powder
7. 1 tsp. vanilla essence
8. 1/4 tsp. salt
9. Sweet syrup (maple or sugar) for serving

Method:

I have been reading a book nowadays, called Winning in Testing Times, edited by Namita Bhandare.


It is basically a compilation of speeches that were delivered at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in 2010.
From Manmohan Singh, Gordon Brown, Nandan Nilekani to Wasim Akram, Dr Ravi Gopal Verma, the Summit was an excellent gathering of people from almost all professions.


Each of the speeches and the question-answer rounds have been noted in this book. And all are so inspiring.


I finished the first speech by Dalai Lama and he had an interesting thing to say about parenting. And, I felt it is worth sharing.

1. Everyone is influenced by their mother. So, for a child (who later becomes a person) to become good natured and compassion, the mother has to be very kind and loving. In the words of Dalai Lama," At a very young age we survive on our mother's affection. At that stage the maximum affection we receive is from our mothers. That experience is absorbed by every particle of our body … Those who receive the most affection from their mother at an early age are safer and feel more secure. Those who grow up lacking a mother's affection or in abusive conditions, always remain insecure no matter how smart they may turn out to be."
2. The next remarkable point Dalai Lama made was in the context of religion and state development. But I found it to be application to parenting as well. He says that, "Without human action, Buddha's blessings are not very effective, are they?" He means that there are scores of scriptures and classes held on Buddha and his teachings but if people and state do not sit down to implement it, change will not take place. This got me thinking that no matter how many books on parenting and child care we read and no matter how many educational and learning toys we gift our kids, if parents/guardians do not deliberately sit down to talk, play and spent time with kids, never will they be able to change their parenting style for good. A lot of our efforts to raise to a child is dependent on television, mobiles, tablets and computers because with a click of a button songs can be played, alphabets are taught, and dances can be shown. We never really think about raising a child technology free and ourselves dancing, singing or teaching numbers and alphabets. Coming to Dalai Lama's point, human action is required to implement the things that are taught in parenting books. But, sadly we all prefer to pick and choose what suits our lifestyle and interest.

French beans is a tricky vegetable.


Its tasteless on its own and is difficult to come up with recipes for lunch or dinner.


But this recipe marvelous.
It can be prepared using fresh as well as desiccated coconut. I, however, had some freshly grated coconut and used it.


Try this simple recipe which goes really good with roti or paratha. It is also a perfect tiffin recipe.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups chopped French beans
2. 3/4 cup freshly grated coconut
3. 1 medium size onion chopped
4. 6-8 grated garlic cloves
5. 4-5 green chillies slit
6. 2 dry red chillies
7. 10-15 curry leaves
8. 2 tsp. rai/mustard seeds
9. 1 tsp. haldi/turmeric powder
10. 1 tsp. chana dal (optional)
11. salt to taste
12. vegetable oil for cooking

Method:

Vanilla is such a tempting flavour and aroma. It reminds both kids and adults that there is sweet dessert somewhere.


The day I tried making Chocolate Chip Cookies, I made some basic eggless vanilla cookies as well.
And much to my apprehension, my about-to-turn-2 year old girl, chomped on those as well!!
Extremely glad and satisfied that she replaced store bought cookies for homemade, I am sharing my recipe of Eggless Vanilla Cookies with you all.


I baked my cookies on stove-top. So, this means you can bake absolutely crunchy and great tasting cookies without any oven or microwave.


Happy baking!

 Ingredients:

1. 3/4 cup all-purpose flour/maida
2. 1/4 cup unsalted butter
3. 1/4 + 2 tbsp. granulated white sugar
4. 1 tsp. baking powder
5. 1 tsp. vanilla essence (click to buy Ossoro French Vanilla)
6. 1/4 tsp. salt

Method:

"Wow" is the only word that came out when I plated my first ever Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies and presented it to my daughter.


My about-to-turn-2 year old, was sure that something of her interest is cooking because the house was smelling like vanilla all afternoon. Therefore, as soon as I plated, she grabbed a hot cookie and ran away with it.


And in minutes it was over!
That's when I knew my recipe is a huge hit and absolutely blog worthy.








The chocolate that I have used is dark chocolate. And, rather than adding chocolate chips I have chopped a bar of chocolate into big and small pieces and then folded it to the dough. That way after baking you get this really yummy soft chocolate morsels along with a crunchy cookie.
Plus, chopping your favourite bar of chocolate also keeps in check the quality of chocolate used in the recipe. For instance, I always stay from Compound Chocolate because it uses low quality fat and not real cocoa butter. A good quality dark chocolate gives you yummy chocolatey taste. If you, however, prefer something sweeter then go ahead with milk chocolate.

Ingredients:

1. 3/4 cup all-purpose flour/maida
2. 1/4 cup unsalted butter
3. 1/4 + 2 tbsp. granulated white sugar
4. 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolates (click to buy Amul 55% Dark Chocolate Bar)
5. 1 tsp. baking powder
6. 1 tsp. vanilla essence (click to buy Ossoro French Vanilla)
7. 1/4 tsp. salt

Method: