Did you know ???

Did you know that Korean Red Pepper Paste (Gochujang) is a great ingredient to add to your healthy weight loss aresenal!

Gochujang (red pepper paste) is a unique, thick paste used exclusively in Korean cuisine to boost the flavor of meat, vegetables, and soups. Unlike barbecue sauce or other spicy condiments, gochujang is low in calories, high in fat fighting nutrients and chemicals, and adds instant flavor.

Source: this one page primer on the benefits of Gochujang

This paste is used to make Kimchi, and can be mixed in with rice and veggies for a spicy bibimbap (mix). It can even be used as a dip for cucumbers/carrots or my favorite Korean chicken wings/drummetts.


Picture courtesy closetcooking.blogspot.com/2007/05/bibimbap.html

And here is the recipe for Korean baked chicken wings/drummetts http://fenceriderkorea.blogspot.com/2007/09/korean-redneck-wings.html

Zucchini Fries - Recipes - Health.com



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Yoga retreat at 'Expanding Light'



I spent an awesome July weekend at the Sivananda Ashram's Expanding light at Nevada City. The atmosphere was exactly what I was looking for - calm, quiet, beautiful, peaceful and people with amazing energy and positivity. I loved it there.

Here is what we did.

DAY 1

We signed up for the "Personal Retreat" which means you tailor your itinerary yourself. We got there on a Saturday morning, ate a lunch of salad, wild rice and eggs, and a vermicelli stir fry with veggies. It was a great start to the day!

We then headed out in the sun to help Joan, one of the volunteers/workers at Ananda. We tilled the soil, weeded the ground, pinned fabric, and laid down some mulch. Phew, and that took about 2 hours.

When we couldn't take the heat anymore we headed to the Lotus Pond, and the Lahiri meditation center on the way. It was summer, and so we enjoyed dusty feet, sitting by the pond, and yes we clicked pictures in all our tourist glory.

We headed back to our accommodation. My husband and I stayed in tents and the friends we were with, stayed in the shared accommodation. We got to see and get a feel of both kinds of accommodation.

In the tenting option you are pretty much on your own - there are these dug out flat portions on the ground where you pitch your tents. You get a camping pass which you leave hanging on your tent, and thats about it. Bring your own flash lights at night!

The shared accommodation is two twin beds in a room, with a common bathroom. I was very pleased with the bathrooms here. I understand that this is an ashram and run with very low overhead costs, yet the volunteers have done a fabulous job of keeping the place comfortable and clean. Cheers to each and everyone of them!

We went to the 4.30 to 6.30pm session that evening which was held by a young yogini, she was going a little fast initially, and then went much slower allowing us to stay in our poses for longer. She sang for us, did some OM chanting and then concluded with some quiet meditation.

And it was time for dinner!

Dinner was pizza! Pizza in an ashram, really? Yes, and it was FABULOUS.

The chef that night was Premdas, a bright cheerful man who was so wonderful, it was contagious! We started off with an italian and english prayer and dug into the pizza.


Premdas, the Fantabulous Chef

Dessert was even more FABULOUS! It was berries with a cinnamon creme fresh. I seriously ate too much!

We sat at the living room/family room at serenity house reading, talking till a little late, and headed to bed soon after.

DAY 2

The bell went off at 6am! and I scrambled out of the tent at 6.20, rushed to the common bath area, took a shower, and got to yoga at 6:40, about ten minutes late.
The morning yoga was outdoors, and I'll say it again, I loved it!

We went back in to do some of the poses that required you to lay down. We had a breakfast of cereal, flaxseed, some sweet cobbler like fruit mix, fruit and toast.

Post breakfast we chatted up a lot of the volunteers at the Ashram, and listened to their amazing stories of how they got there.

We didn't stay for lunch, and left Sunday around noon to visit the Yuba river. It was totally worth the trip, it was shallow, the water was nice and warm, and they had a huge rock you could jump/dive off of into the water. There were LOTS of people and it was crowded, so make sure you expect that.

After two wonderful days we headed back to the South Bay driving about 4 hours to reach home at around 8pm.

Fabulous trip, and cheers to Expanding light and its staff!

PS: The pictures are copyrights of Ananda, I will upload pictures from my trip soon!

As part of the new, healthy, and amazing lifestyle, here is a video that teaches you how to make your own lip gloss/lip balm.




My inspiration started with wanting to lose weight, and I found Lori Painter, a one woman crusader for a raw lifestyle and living sustainably.

Cheers!
Sri

Belated Birthday

My last birthday post was over a year ago -

6 more years to go!!

Cheers!! **Clink**

My 60-minute YouTube Workout

This is my compilation of free workout videos. It probably runs over 60 minutes. Its got warm-ups, cardio, abs - everything you're looking for in a full workout.

Its easy no set up required exercise that you can do at home. I agree some of the videos are not slick and professionally made, but its the best out there. Its especially hard to find workouts that let you follow the counting/sets, so you can actually turn on the playlist and exercise along with the instructor in the video.

Here is the entire playlist - My 60-minute YouTube Workout

Hope you enjoy it, and leave me a comment if you have found this useful.

Sri

My Big Realization

I realized that Adam Smith was right all along - every individual is selfish.

When somebody else does it, I am quick to judge, but when I do it, I feel justified.

The twangs of Jealousy.

I know I should give him space, and free time to meet people, friends, school friends college friends. But my mind is plagued with questions about what about the past dont I know.. did she have feelings for him, why would they be talking for so long? are they just going out for coffee or are they getting dinner? does it matter? how do I know? how can I tell?

I breathe easy. Go online, read some, feel better, deep breathe again.

After a while, I call, he doesnt pick up. I give him another 20 minutes. I cant breathe again.

I know its okay, I am assured of his love, but I still feel this way. How can I make it go away.

He gives me all the space I need, I dont feel a thing when i get dinner with a friend, so I should obviously think the same, and give him that space, but I dont, urgh, why?

Is there a permanent way to solve this? I read on google, that it reflects my lack of confidence in myself. I dont deny that, but I just want a fix, for now, quick and easy. Like for example, a call from him saying he's done and a full narration of the conversation. :)

I guess I'm just a paranoid crazy girl friend. :)

Black Friday - chaos theory, but consumerism at its best!

As a broke grad student I am looking forward to buying stuff at Black Friday. My first experience with black friday was an 8 hour wait for a $350 laptop. I know, great deal, isnt it?

Black Friday Rule #1
Always brag about the deals you got.

Black Friday Rule #2
Ignore the ebay resellers who are looking for profit, you're doing this for survival.

Black Friday Rule #3
Nothing much has changed since last year. Its very likely you wont get those free flash drives.

Black Friday Rule #4
Go with a bunch of friends so you don't question the meaning of life while freezing in a long line.

Black Friday Rule #5
There are black friday sale days on saturday and sunday as well, dont worry.

Good luck fellow grad students, may you jam yourself at the door of best buy and be confused by the girl at the cash register who tells you its 20% discount on 30% on 10%, got that?

And always remember rule #1, let me know your loot for the year!

-Sri

I think that a lot of things go unsaid when we choose not to write. We know we love each other and we’re getting married. Simple? No, writing about it makes me think about all those years when we waited for this, to be together. It seemed like eternity, we never had a date or a year, now we have a date and a year and soon a time and place and everything else.

Lets go get a movie now.

Point. Click. Shoot.

How far beyond the FINISH-ing line do you really need to run?

Blog Worthy -Karma Talk

So its not often that you "eavesdrop" on a conversation (I claim it was accidental) and think now THAT is something I want to blog about.
The chance-eavesdropping happened last evening in the mall, while I was getting out of work. Two middle aged women,thier phsyique bordering on obese, wearing jeans, tee shirts, and sneakers, and chatting - they looked typically american to say the least. Now, they were talking loudly about a man, likely to be a messy ex-husband- because they were badmouthing him and something he had done to another woman in the past.

To cut a long story short - this chatty lady then proceeds to declare "Its all Karma - one day he will realize that all the bad stuff he had done is probably not worthwhile" and she repeated saying Karma Karma - if not in this lifetime sometime later - Karma will catch up with him"
These many instances of the word "Karma" - almost (mis)pronounced as "Carr-ma" got me intrigued. Why would a woman half way across the world attribute bad behaviour to Karma? I haven't said the word Karma these many times in my whole life.
Karma is different from Destiny though.

Karma=consequences= next life ; Destiny=unchangable events=this life

Anyway food for thought -
Why would a white person be so interested in Karma? Are westerners increasingly using Karma as the mind's way of coping with injustice?

My happy birthday.

It was my "happy birthday" on the 3rd :)
23 is the number I am at right now.
7 years countdown to 30. Lets see how far I can go in those 7 years.

Cheers! **Clink**

I did it again today.

The panic stare. I gave a desi a panicked stare.

Somebody please tell me why we do this?

David Attenborough and BBC made the most
unbelievable TV series on the world that we live in.

Its a spectacle of the earths natural history.
Its breathtaking evidence of the wild life we share this world with.

Every scene has been painstakingly taken.. you'll have no idea until you listen to the "planet earth diaries" in the end. They talk about how they managed footage of animals so rare and so unpredictable and ended up with almost unbelievable footage. Imagine filming a full month underground in a bat's cave, waist deep in bat poop.

Its a must watch series.

Your bittorrent search ends here.
Watch the easier youtube-ish versions, but as extremely obvious you tube and its screens do NO justice to the actual footage and the widescreen aspect you could've watched it in. But hmph here you go. Watch it here at joox and the clarity is just awesome. Episodes 1 through 9.

Baffled by behaviour

The inter-desi unsaid communication in the USA is uncomfortable to say the least. One half of it is what you think in your head. The other half is the vibes you get from the other desi.

The strength of the vibe shocks me. Its either a "certain fear of rejection" type of vibe or a "I am cooler than you" vibe or a plain "i hope our eyes dont meet" vibe and some quick fixes to look cooler and more casual.

In the chance event of you looking at somebody in the face - will most definitely face a "look away" or a very panicked stare.

Just be nice and smile next time around.

Everyone wants a bit of the limelight
When Rajini saar becomes the world's most popular, hundreds of bloggers take thier one-blog-post worth of fame. And I am going to do just that.

I watched Sivaji twice, so I am not rattling off experiences from thin air. I paid $16, almost a $6 premium for the tickets both times. I saw it at P & G Wheaton at Silverspring MD. When I first saw the insides of the theatre I was pissed that our Thalaivar movie was being shown in a screen even worse than santham. It was a small screen, no balcony, small theatre. But then I'd rather get to see it than not see it at all. A friend at Cincinnati gets to see it on June 28th, Now THAT is a shame.
The moment the guy lifted that measly velvetty lil rope keeping us, we ran, FAST. We quickly got our tickets torn up and "caught seat" for our friends. The excitement had begun. There were whistles, occassional "padam podungada".. "enna potti varaliya" screams... and then Sivaji appears in old style and then new style.. and we went madddd... then ofcourse our thalaivars ubiquitous S.U.P.E.R. S.T.A.R rajini in silver and blue with the ta ta ta na..ta ta na..

I am not about to reveal the movie, but enough is said when I say.
I did dapankuthu dance for ballelika. Screamed like crazy for Oru Koodai Sunlight. Sang Sahana Saaral. Sat spellbound through Athiradee.
I stood on the chair for motta boss. I screamed thalaiva for "six- ku aprom seven, Thalaivar-ku aprom yevane?"
I screamed "Summa Athirudulle" every time he said it.
I hooted when he did the one rupee coin swishes and the bubble gum.
He rocked the first night scene "Neetu raathiri yamma, tookam pochidi yamma" and the ULTIMATE income tax tea shop scene with the "punch dialogues"

I didnt eat popcorn and I succesfully embarrassed my friends around me. But I loved every minute inside that theatre. Thalaivar Vazhgha!

Life in a metro.
Cross the road to the station in a mad hurry at 5..4..3...2...1..Dodge the express paper man.. Run down the escalators, quick look at the train schedule, run to gates, touch SmarTrip, run to next escalator, run down left side of moving stairs, fling urself into the open doors of the coach, only to hear "ding ding - Step back doors closing"

Phew. Breathe.

I think I like the un-bolded version of my blog. I just might go back and change the other posts from bold to un-bold or I might not!