Vegan Carrot Cakelets

It's like my body just decided to grind to a halt mid-way, stubbornly refusing to move forward. Two weeks of more-earnest-than-ever working out and conscientious eating, and ONE pound lost. Which translates to- three days to go and six pounds to lose. Which translates to- impossible, end of story. This would be the time to crack open a bottle of hard liquor, wallow in some serious self-pity and cry myself to sleep.

But strange as it might seem, I can hardly stop myself from grinning ear to ear all day these days! Despite all the despair on the weight-loss front, life's looking pretty sunshine-y at the moment! :) Why, you ask?


 #1

I GOT PUBLISHED!!

 Sorry, not a cookbook. Not yet, at least. Ermm... no, not a novel either. Not that i wouldn't want to. But for the time being, this is just a couple of my recipes from the blog. In the Mumbai edition of The Asian Age. But needless to say, i was inordinately stoked at seeing my name in print, and have been walking around with my head in the clouds for the past couple of days!

#2

I'M GOING ON VACATION!

And oh, after so, SO long! Cold weather and I don't seem to see eye to eye, so I'd been house-bound all through winter. But now that spring is finally here, I'm all ready to fish out those linen shorts, sunglasses and flip flops and hit the road! And to make things even better, I'm going on this trip with an old friend of mine, who I met in NY after a long gap of eight years! Lots of walking, talking, giggling, catching up, fooling around, and late night gossip sessions lined up for next week ...can't wait!

#3 (saved the best for the last!)

I hit upon the ultimate SNACKING JACKPOT yesterday!

Call them chewy cookies. Or cakes with a bit of crunch. They are pretty, tasty and addictive. Moist and delicious. And unbelievably quick and easy to whip up in a hurry. Not to mention, one hundred percent healthy.  Impossible? Ha, what do you know.

Carrots, oats and whole wheat flour. Rum-soaked raisins. Vanilla, cinnamon and cumin for flavour. Held together with applesauce and honey. Rounded off with a tablespoon of coconut oil. No unrefined flour, butter or eggs, but just as delicious. Tell me the health-freak in you isn't doing cartwheels already!

Peel carrots and grate them fine. Plum up some raisins in hot water, or if you anything like me, in some good liquor, preferably rum.

The original recipe called for all coconut oil, but when I made it that way, the smell and taste of the oil overpowered all other flavors in the cookie. After a couple of trials, i have concluded that applesauce works best, with just a tablespoon of coconut oil in the end, just to give it a slight hint of the aroma and flavor. But if you are a fan of coconut oil, go ahead an do away with the applesauce entirely.

Sift all dry ingredients together, add the carrots and raisins (drained), pour the wet ingredients into the mixture and stir until incorporated fully. For bite-sized cookies, make balls of one tablespoon of batter apiece and lay them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Flatten slightly to form the shape of a cookie.  Bake for twelve minutes in an oven pre-heated at 350 degrees farenheit. Allow to cool for ten minutes and then- stuff.your.face.

Vegan Carrot Cakelets
Recipe adapted from ohsheglows

• 1/3 cup whole wheat flour 
• 1/4 cup regular oats 
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4-cup slivered almonds 
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots, packed 
• 1/4 cup raisins, soaked in water/liquor (preferably overnight) 
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar (optional)(i like mine really sweet) 
• 1/4 cup apple sauce (could be substituted with coconut oil)
•  1 tablespoon coconut oil (need not add if you substitute applesauce with coconut oil)
• 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• Pinch of ground cinnamon
•  Pinch of cumin
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper 
2. Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, cumin, baking powder, salt, and oats in a large bowl. Add in the almonds, raisins, and shredded carrots 
3. In a small bowl mix the honey, applesauce, brown sugar, vanilla, coconut oil and freshly grated ginger. Add this to the flour mixture and stir until combined 
4. Take one heaped tablespoon of dough at a time and shape into balls. Flatten slightly and lay on the lined baking sheet 
5. Bake for about 12 minutes and cool for 10 minutes on a baking rack.

Enjoy! Meet you back here in a week's time, all tanned and happy (and atleast a couple of pounds heavier, going by all the junk food that is on the radar!).Till then, take care and be good. Toodles!

Easy Gazpacho

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.

I haven't been to the gym in a week. I've fallen way behind schedule on my weight-loss goals. I've consumed unpardonable amounts of butter and sugar in the form of cakes, cupcakes, pretzels and sweetbreads. I've remorselessly sunk my teeth into juicy hot dogs and burgers. And cheesy pasta. And worked my way through bags of chips. Drunk galleons of wine. And beer. And coke. Not to mention, coffee. With milk AND sugar.

I'd been inordinately proud of the progress I'd made in the last month. Sure, eight pounds in a month doesn't sound like much, but for a person who has only put on weight in the last twenty five years of her life, it is nothing short of ecstatic to know that her body can move in the other direction as well. Plus, whatever little success I'd had was made even  sweeter by the fact that , this time, I'd actually accomplished it on my own terms, without following some crazy diet, depriving myself of the food I love or working out till I my lungs imploded on themselves everyday.

It is all a rosy picture while it lasts. But like I've realized the hard way, one tip in the wrong direction, and it all comes down like a stack of dominoes. And before you know it, you haven't worked out in a week, have fed your body with all kinds of junk and are four pounds behind in your weight-loss goals. Fifteen pounds in two months seemed like an easy target a fortnight back. Not so much anymore.

BUT. No time to mop around. Need to make a quick comeback. I have another two weeks to go for my two-month deadline and seven whole pounds to lose. Off to the gym RIGHT NOW.

And oh... a giant bowl of gazpacho for dinner.

Easy Gazpacho

This is possibly the easiest soup recipe ever. No boiling, cooking down or blending. Chop a few veggies fine and drown them in some spiced up tomato juice. And it's the best option when the weather is playing the kind of tricks it's playing nowadays - going from 50 degrees to 82 degrees farentheit in half a day's time. Nothing like cold soup on a hot day!

This one is adapted from Ina Garten's recipe, but tailored down to suit a weight watcher's needs. Meaning, easy substitutes for expensive ingredients and one-tenth of the amount of oil that she uses!

1 seedless cucumber
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red onion
3 cloves of garlic
3 cups of tomato juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
Juice of one half lime
A sprig of coriander
Salt and crushed black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Chop all the vegetables into chunks and pulse them a couple of times in the food processor along with the fresh coriander and garlic until they are all chopped fine. (You could do this with a knife as well but it takes forever. On the other hand, if you like a more hearty texture, you can go ahead n just chop all the veggies like you would do for a salsa)

2. Mix the tomato juice, lemon and lime juice salt and pepper and add it to the vegetable mixture. Drizzle olive oil on top. Garnish with slices of avocado or bread croutons.

The longer it sits, the better it tastes. So if you are making it in advance, make sure to add the croutons just before serving so that it doesn't get soggy.

Fighting the Fat Demons!

If you've ever come by my Blogger Dashboard before, you'd know that this blog has been around for ages. It was created on a particularly busy day at work, the kind of day when deadlines are whooshing past like cars on a freeway and there is so much work to be accomplished that anything else seems more inviting than the immediate job at hand. Plus, opening a blog required peering intently into my monitor and hammering into my keyboard, and from where my boss sat, it really looked like i was doing hard work! :)

But blame it on ADD, procrastination or just plain laziness, this baby has led a still-born existence ever since, with not a single post to its credit. I'd work up the enthusiasm to try out something in the kitcchen, click pictures, jot down the details of the recipe in fly-by bits of paper, but somehow the interest would fizzle out before it worked its way into a proper blog post. So why now, you ask? 

Well, apart from the fact that (i) I’m unemployed and have so much time in my hands that I don’t know what to do with it (ii) I’ve been following some incredible blogs that make me want to write again, and that (iii) I’m suddenly having guilt pangs for being in possession of having a perfectly good blogger url that is just being wasted away, I’ve also have had an epiphany of sorts. That I'm at the quarter-century milestone of my life, past the angst-ridden teens, past the age of confusion, when I should be completely and totally in control of my life and finally enjoying life, doing things that I love to do- Except that i don't. I've been trying to lose weight for ages, and I'm still fat. I've been trying to decide what i want to do with the rest of my life; but I’m still stuck in limbo. I never give my 100% to anything, I’m too lazy. So, this blog is going to be my online journal as I go in for a makeover. For a much overdue Operation Clean Up and Start Over. For getting a grip on my life.

So, here's the deal- Fifteen pounds to be lost in two months and a new healthy recipe every other day. Sort of like a Julie/Julia project (not surprising, as I’ve seen the movie only a million times!), but a low-cal fat-free version, if you please!

Wish me luck!