#thats quite an amount of corn to eat

[kradnie]

the girl dinner thing is funny cause like there were the different branches of the trend, but also different versions of the song,, and like

everyone knows girl dinner but no one gets me when I say feast for a winner :(

[separatist-apologist]

Cosmic Brownie Cookies

I like to think Elain would bake these for Nyx, and any other children that happen to live in the neighborhood.

For @elainarcheronweek's cookie exchange- what a fun event to bring the community together.

Recipe below the cut:

I got this recipe from cookingwithkarli

Cookie Dough:

1 1/2 cups salted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

2 tbsp corn syrup

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 cup dutch processed cocoa powder

1 tbsp cornstarch

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Chocolate Glaze:

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup rainbow coated chocolate chips [note: I bought mine from nuts.com but amazon also has them, and a local bakery supply store might also carry them in your area]

Directions:

preheat the oven to 350

Cream together butter (I like to brown my butter, but thats optional) and sugar- you'll want it to be well incorporated, and a light yellowish/brown color

Once creamed, add in your eggs, corn syrup, and vanilla until everything is well combined

Add the flour, cocoa, cornstarch baking soda and salt. Mix until your chocolate cookie dough forms and the texture of the dough is soft without being sticky (you should be able to roll it in your hand without getting residue all over your palm)

Divide and roll out 12 cookies. They'll be quite large as this recipe is a crumble cookie copycat. I like to roll out smaller balls of 24, but do what makes you happy

Spread your cookies on a parchment lined tray- either 6 if you're doing 12 large cookies or 12 if you're doing 24. You'll want to keep a decent amount of space between them.

Bake for 15-17 minutes. You'll know they're done with they still look soft but not wet, and there are little cracks in the dough. They should be soft when you bite into them, and not hard or crunchy.

While your cookies bake, double boil (best method) or heat up your heavy cream in the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes-2 minutes OR until your cream is boiling. It should be very hot but not burnt.

If you decide to microwave your cream, check on it in 30 second intervals

Pour in your chocolate chips and let it melt in the cream, whisking until its smooth, well-combined, and without lumps

You can spoon it on about ten minutes after your cookies are out of the oven BUT it will melt your icing. I recommend waiting about 30 minutes so you don't end up with a drippy mess, but I'm not here to tell you how to live your life

Sprinkle candy coated chips on top

The recipe recommends eating them warm

Enjoy! These are a favorite in my house!

[calmingpi]

Happy anniversary to calmingpi, i made a calming pie again (this time with more lavender)

Good news is that it tastes pretty good. Bad news is that i believe i messed up my starch amount, so it's a lot more runny than it was the last time i made this. Its all a process, i suppose. It SHOULD come out not exactly firm, but not liquid either. Kind of pull-apart jammy, i guess

Anyway

Im afraid im not very good at precise cooking, but its about time i recorded my findings better. So heres my best attempt to write down the calming pie recipe. You know, for science (note: calming properties of said pie are still largely untested)

Ingredients:*

Bag of frozen blueberries (size big)

Lemon or lime juice (at least 2 shot glasses)

Honey (1/4 of a cup) (for any extra sweetener, use more honey, or white sugar)

Tapioca starch (I used the incorrect amount this time. Learn from my mistake and use about 4 or 5 tablespoons) (you can also use corn or potato starch. Maybe even rice starch. I used potato last time and it worked quite well)

Chamomile tea (2 bags) (get one thats only chamomile. Maybe sleepy time would work? Never tried that one. But i try to keep it just chamomile)

Dried or fresh lavender (I dont know. Eyeball it)

Ground cinnamon (????) (Eyeball it i guess. I put in a puff)

*blueberries, honey, chamomile, and lavender supposedly have calming properties. Starch is to thicken it, juice is for taste, and cinnamon is because blueberry pie apparently has cinnamon usually. And im sure the blueberry pie sparks have a good idea of what theyre doing

Instructions:

Make a pie crust (I used Bob's Red Mill gluten free pie crust mix. It comes with instructions)

Dump all of this into a pot and cook it on the stove at high heat. The blueberries will turn liquid and everything will just come together. Stir frequently. The most important thing is to constantly taste test the mixture to make sure its the right amount of sweet and tangy

I usually only use 1/4th of a cup of honey, which takes a little while to melt, because im of the opinion that blueberries are actually very sweet. The lemon or lime juice should also balance that out, so use less juice and more honey/sugar if you want it sweeter, or the other way around if you want it more tangy

Eventually itll start bubbling like some sort of witch's brew. Leave it like that for a few minutes and stir sometimes. When its been a few minutes, transfer it to a big mixing bowl, and let it cool. Make sure you take the chamomile bags out! They are funny to poke at but not so great to eat

Transfer pie to pie tin (which should already have crust in it), and add more crust to the top. Add an eggwash on it if you want (its just half egg/half water, and honestly it kind of wastes an egg but it does come out a little nicer looking)

Cook at 425°F for roughly an hour. I highly recommend putting a baking pan underneath the pie as its in the oven, because it tends to spill over the top as its cooking

Let it cool, and then eat the thang ding

[happi-meals]

Southern as Southern can get!!

My mom made this meal before we went to go see a movie. Aside from the cornbread being a lil dry, it was all quite delicious. As per usual (my mama can cook!).

She made boiled cabbage with turkey legs, beans (I'll have to ask which kind), also with turkey legs and peppers; candy yams, white rice, steamed okra, sweet corn, cornbread, and a fresh garden salad (which we forgot to eat that meal lol. I ate mines in a leftoever plate that night).

(The plate I had for later. Italian style dressing on the salad really completed it all!).

The amount of vegetables in this meal reminds me of how rich Southern food culture is (not just full of fried food and animal products), and how easily this whole meal can be veganized for days in the week I plan to eat only "green". I'll def have to learn more homecooking recipes to inherent from my mom and learn more about the history of Southern Black food culture to inform my feelings when I eat such "soul food".

The only downside to such a great meal like this is the gas it gave me later. Goodness gracious I felt like a fart-factory LMFAO. Putrid sulfur gas smelled like deviled eggs if they could possess a skunk. But it was partially my fault for not drinking enough water with such a fibrous meal, also I'm too sedentary for my own good fr lol.

But[t]... I beat the bloat blunder with a healthy bowel movement eventually as such a fiber-full, protein dense meal will keep anyone regular! Thats what I liked about this meal alongside the ethnic pride it gave me eating my geography! Its flavorful and healthy. Its Southern and its seasonal. Its so much of what I like about where and who I come from and being who I am.

Thanks, mama! ♥️

[sadboyayeron]

THE ONLY VALID MORIYAMA Nikoshi Doe

I came up with this Idea of Kevin having to raise Rikos son who’s name I decide would be Nikoshi Doe aka Niko

Enjoy

So If you Read “Tapping on my Chamber door” 

You know Nikoshi’s mother, Naima Dixon was born in Jamaica but came to the states at a young age after her mom past away.  She lived in the Bronx with her Aunt. She had tight curls aften in box breads or corn cornrows and dark skin with light brown eyes. She was 5’8.  Had a muscular build from all the years of track and had a scholarship to run at Eager Allen University. She was soon to have a spot on the olympic team for long jump, 100, 200 and 400 meters. She was then pregnant with Nikoshi after her and Riko started there little hook up.  The knew of each other but they first met in class.  She noticed Riko looking at her.

“Like what you see.”  I was trying to catch him off guard but he didn’t even look surprise.  But then he smiled.  Something sharp that left me feeling tingly, similar to how I feel before racing.  

“Not to bad, no.”  He chuckled, looked me up and down before he landed back on my eyes, “Want to sit.”

He left me in a trance and I took a seat next to him and sat my books in front of me.  I tucked some braids behind my ear and looked at him again, he was looking back with a smug smile on his face.  

At first I was thinking Nikoshi was Rikos frozen sperm and his mother was forced by Rikos uncle to have him BUT I decide that Riko died before he knew about Naima being pregnant She found out she was pregnant and went to Riko’s uncle for help and he said to give him the kid and she could get her scholarship Back.  So she agreed naming him “Nico” but sadly she died while giving birth from bleeding out. Tesuji doesn’t use that name and changes it to ‘Nikoshi’ stripping him of any last name (Doe) putting the kid into the system in the same place she grow up in Bronx. Ichirou is informed of Nikoshi ten years later after having his Uncle killed. Who then informs kevin.

Nikoshi is from the Bronx has a accent when he speaks. He knows Spanish because of the amount of Dominican and Puerto Rican foster parents he’s had.  Kinda understands broken english two because one of his foster brothers was from Jamaica which is cool because he knows he’s half Jamaican and some type of asian. He wears beat up high top jordan 1s baggy ripped jeans and long sleeves with a baggy jacket. He plays soccer because the system put him on a team and he’s very fast. He didn’t have much clothes but his best ones are the uniforms and he’s fine with that. He also plays street basketball and baseball with some kids in the area.

Kevin has to take Nikoshi in, according to Ichirou. Bringing Neil and Andrew with him. Ichirou just sent him a picture a kid and he was confused until he got that call that explained everything. He doesn’t need to explain who the kid is because you can clearly tell from the picture. Though the kid has milk cholclate skin, and curly hair that falls around his head in a fro.

When he frist sees Nico he has a scrape scab on his cheek, bruises on his wrist and purple knuckles. His ears a surprisingly pierced.

They find out Nikoshi Doe goes by Niko, he likes chocolate and cafe con leche (coffee), he likes shoes, he likes the color green, he uses a lot of slang and sometimes uses broken english and spanglish words, he’s quite but hyper and doesn’t know how to say still, asks why a lot, he hates math and likes to read, he loves listening to music it’s his safe place, he was diagnosed with ADHD/ADD and takes a pill in the morning and after noon on school days, he doesn’t like the way the pills make him feel, he likes Bee, Bee suspects Niko my be Borderline but it’s hard to tell, Kevin explains Riko was too.  When they go to pick up Nikoshi they are informed of his diagnoses. 

“So Kevin Day, It is very nice to meet you my husband loves watching you guys play Exy,” She smiled at them and then opened a drawer in her desk pulling out two folders.“ Now these paper were just printed out today.  One from Nikoshi’s Doctor and another from his psychologist.”  Kevin straightened his back more at that.

“Psychologist?”  She looked up at Kevin.

“Yes, a lot of children in foster care go to see a therapist.  It helps cope with abandonment and makes sure the kids are transitioning well in their new homes.”  She opened one of the folders.  “Nikoshi saw a therapist who recommended him to a psychologist.  He was diagnosed with ADHD/ADD and given medication.  He went through three different medications before he was put on Focalin XR.  His biggest issues are impulsivity, managing feelings, and energy.  There is more information in the folder with getting the prescription at a pharmacy and things to know about his behavior.  He takes Focalin every morning before school, its not needed on the weekends but to long off it isn’t the best idea.  Though if you want him off the medication, if you ever come to adopting him you can do that.”  She looked towards the other two. “Will you two be helping take care of Nikoshi.”

“Yeah we are, is there anything else we need to know.  If he needs a therapist we already got that covered.  We can send her the information.”  Neil replied with a bored tone but

“Thats good to know, he just saw the doctor last week.  He gained some weight and is now at a more healthier weight then he was before.”  She sighed. “You have to reminded him to eat, he forgets to and he doesn't ask for food.  The foster home he was just at was good with keeping a schedule, he ate, took his meds, ate at school, had a snack at home, soccer practice and then dinner.  He gets distracted and has little habits that cause him focus to much on random things.  The meds take away his hunger also, so it important that he finishes.”  She then closed both folders and stacked them together before sliding them to Kevin.  

Kevin didn’t know how to process that.  This information sounded to familiar.  He always had to remind Riko to eat something.  Riko would go days without eating, or sleeping, or even both.  It got so bad the master had to tube feed him because he past out and didn’t get back up.  Niko always got back up.  He was taken out of his thoughts when the lady, Jennifer stood.  He picked up the folders and got up following Andrew and Neil out the door.  Nikoshi was still sitting in his chair, he was singing his legs slowly and seemed fixated on his hands.

“Nikoshi, these gentlemen here are going to be your new guardians,”  Niko looked up at them.  He got a better look at there faces, now that the glasses were off he could easily recognize who the taller man was with the chess piece on his cheek bone.  He was confused o say the least.  This had to be some sick joke, or a stupid stuPID dream.  He looked at the other too, the screw that littered the red heads tan face and the man with blond hair and black studs.

“Deadass?”  He blurted out suddenly.  Fuck.  He did not mean to blurt that out.  Kevin day looked taken back by his statement and the other too snickered from slightly behind him.  The lady looked horrified.

Riko used to self harm, stop eating for days, wouldn’t sleep for days either.  His uncle had to force him into a tube feeder once because of this.  Kevin and Riko had to see a therapist and she diagnosed Riko. His uncle disregarded it and gave him sum type of pills that made Riko’s anger at himself turn down a bit but he was more depressed. He tried to commit 3 times after. Kevin made him promise not to. He flushed the pills and started to abuse others.

Kevin explains this to Neil and Andrew.  They then try to learn more about BPD.  They watch youtube videos, read articles and books on it till they had a better understanding of the disorder.  They learn about the self-destructive tendencies and suicidal gestures that are quite common with the disorder.  They all try there best to build a good support system. 

Niko has a hard time with his identity and ‘who he is’,  he tries to remember that Kevin wants him and isn't going to abandon him, he tries to keep his shifts in moods to himself but in only makes things worse.  He tends to shut down in his room more often then not.  He finds himself getting angry at little things knowing he shouldn’t but he still does.  Anger attacks aren't as bad as the empty feeling he gets sometimes.

When Niko meets all the foxes he drifts more towards Nicky for whatever reason.  He finds that he like Nickys happy vibes and feels it radiate from him.  He likes to soak in it.

Niko likes talking to Neil, he gets candy from Andrew, and he likes playing Exy with Kevin. He didn’t like school and says it’s hard for him but he still makes honor roll no problem.

During the second month of school when he first started living with Kevin he expriences racism for maybe the first time.  He didn’t have any friends, nor knew anybody.  He could tell he was different from the other kids.  They were mostly white with a splash of color here and there.  The way they talked and walked was different then how he did.  He didn’t grew up with white picket fences like they seemed to.  They dressed different too.  He didn’t like the stares he was getting from the kids in his class.

“Nice hair are you a girl?”  One of the boys said, with his little click at his back.  It was recess and Niko stuck to staying to himself drawling in his note book that Andrew gave him. 

“No.”  The boys continued to laugh.  He hated when people talked about his hair.  He didn't like his hair.  Especially when his foster mothers always tugged and pulled on it.  That wasn't just it though.  It reminded him of his foster father Mr. James.

“Such pretty hair.”

The boys crept closers and Niko started to feel closed in.  One of them pulled out scissors and two grabbed him by the shoulders.  One talked about how there dad said them Black boys need to cut there hair.  Another used a slur Niko heard a lot back in the Bronx, used it himself when with the kids in the neighborhood but he never heard it used like this.  He started to struggle but another one grabbed his face and held him down so his face fell between his knees.  He felt chuncks of hair being cut of from his head as they fell down his back and some at his feet.  

He felt his eyes water and struggled harder.  He kicked the one to his right in the shin, knowing how much it hurt from when he played soccer with out shin guards.  The kids let go of that shoulder and he swung his arm hitting another kid.  They all let go once they heard a teacher yell at them.  Niko reached for the scissors and threw them in the grass.  The boys ran away and Niko was left to look at the small and large chunks of his hair on the concrete.  He didn’t mean to bother anybody.  He didn't ask to have this type of hair.  He didn’t ask to be different.  Sometimes he missed the Bronx but then remembered his foster sister getting shot, and his doped up foster parents he used to end up with.  He didn't want to go back, but he found himself missing it sometimes.

Nobody asked abut his hair during the rest of the school day.  Not even his teacher.  Its fine he didn't want to bother anybody.  When Andrew came to pick him up he was wearing his hoodie.  Today Neil and Andrew were coming over, so was Aaron.  Aaron practically lived with him and Kevin now though.  He said nothing on the way home.  He didn't want to bother them.  He was trying his hardest not to.  

But then he got home he went straight to the bathroom and locked the door.  He didn’t hear Kevin nor Aaron calling him.  He stared in to the mirror and glared at himself.  Disgusting. You look like a girl. He ripped off his hood and he felt something in himself crack.  His hair was clearly uneven.  Some areas you couldn’t tell but he could see how his curls on his forehead were shortened compared to the pieces on the sides.  He could tell where every spot was that had been cut, like there were circles showing him where to look.  A broken sob cut through his throat.  The tears rolled down his cheeks.  He always thought he was an ugly crier.  He grabbed his hair and pulled.  He kept pulling till he felt arms wrap around his torso.  He wanted to fight who ever they were off but he couldn't.  They grabbed his hands but they couldn't pry them from his hair.  He heard someone calling his name and found a face to that voice.  He noticed another person accompanied him in the mirror.  Holding on to him.  It wasn’t his voice he heard though.  He saw the other three at the bathroom entrance but it was Aaron standing closest to him.

“Niko its okay, let go buddy.”  He didn’t know if he meant his hands or his feelings but he let them go.  He saw more pieces of hair fall through his hands but ignored it and them screamed.  Kevin turned him around and held him again.  Kevin lowered himself to his knees to let Niko cry and scream into his neck.  He rubbed his back till he calmed down.  Neil and Andrew left to prepare some ice cream and play music.  Kevin noticed the hair that fell to the floor and so did Aaron.  It didn’t match the amount that should still be connected to his head.

Niko told them what happened at school with less emotion then he displayed before.  They were all furious but chose to keep it inside to comfort Niko.  They called the school and told them what happened.  The school apologized but Kevin still wasn't letting Niko go back to that school.  He transferred Niko to another and reassured him it was okay and it was the same distance anyways.  They took Niko to the babor shop and they evened out his hair.  He got it cut some on the sides as well, allowing the back and top to be longer.  His hair showed more off his forehead and ear piercings now.  He felt more exposed, but was happy with the hair cut.

When he meets Dan she gives him oils and creams to put in his hair.  Even showed him how to wash it too, Matt helps.  He got to meet there kids.

Allison braided his hair down for when he graduated Elementary School.  She teaches how how to do other things like twist, braids, and box braids.

When he goes to college Renee helps him bleach the ends of his hair blond.

He has nightmares often. And likes to have hot chocolate to calm his nerves. He gets irritated easily, they learn. When he gets irritated he stops talking and fidgets, tapping his foot and cracking his knuckles. 

Kevin’s night terrors slowly fade as Riko’s dark shadow fades into Nikos warm glow.

Niko definitely learns how to skateboards when Aaron gives him his old one. Kevin likes to watch them practice it together.  Just like Aaron likes to watch Kevin teach Niko Exy.  He joins a team in Middle School.  He's definitely going to be something.

Hope you guys like this.  Leave ask and suggestions about Nikoshi Doe. I would love to hear about it and write the prompts.  

[spacenerrrd]

The Courtroom

Word Count: 1097 Warnings: Mention of Deceit (once, not a character), breakdown, being ignored, mentions of being left out, basically just a bunch of angst

Thank you @sidespromptblog for their post that prompted this idea

~~~

“Of course you suggested a salad Logan.”

“Not just a salad. Of course we need protein for a well rounded meal so we should have some baked chicken.”

Roman groaned. “YAWWNNN! We should just get Chinese takeout!”

“But Thomas should be eating consistently healthy as the fresh food will-”

“Borrringggg! We don’t do it very often, just let the poor man eat his favourite tonight!”

Logan turned to Patton for support, but was greeted with a weak smile.

“I really do miss their dumplings…”

“Exactly! Virgil, you agree with us don’t you?”

Logan turned to face the anxious side who just shrugged. “He has been nervous about his work recently… Maybe this might help him.”

“Right! So we’re gonna order a dish of dumplings, spring rolls, rice crackers-”

“With the amount you are going to order he will feel sluggish and guilty for eating so much unhealthy food.” Roman rolled his eyes. “No he won’t, it’s only this once he’ll be fine.” He turned around and walked into the kitchen to order.

Patton gave a soft smile to Logan. “Next time you can choose the meal we pick,” he patted his shoulder before following Roman.

“That’s what you said last time too,” Logan mumbled.

Virgil shuffled his feet a bit, not making eye contact with Logan. “Sorry, I-”

“It’s fine Virgil, I understand,” Logan interrupted Virgil apology.

Virgil gave an awkward nod before scattering into the kitchen with the others.

Logan watched them go off, laughing at something Roman said that he didn’t quite catch. He probably wouldn’t of understood the joke anyway. He never does.

Logan didn’t participate during family dinner time. He passed it off that he was feeling unwell, and before Patton could pull the puppy eye trick on him, he had sunk out of the room. But he wasn’t going to his room. Instead, he rose in the middle of the courtroom. He stood in front of where Roman sat as the judge, just a mere week ago. He turned his head slightly to look at the witness box, where he had been brought up as evidence for Deceit’s case.

Even though he was the most qualified to help them do it properly.

Even though they knew he liked to play pretend for the sake of knowledge after he opened up to them.

Logan closed his eyes, adjusted his tie and cleared his throat. When he reopened them, they burnt. They burnt with a sense of passion, fuelled with anger and a hidden sadness.

Then he let loose.

“Would you like to explain to me why they won’t listen to me?” His voice boomed, echoing in the empty room. “How no matter how many times I am proven right, they won’t take my advice? Why I’m always cast to the side?” He stepped forward, hands slamming against the front of the witness stand as what little control he had broke as he started to scream. “Why is it that no matter how many palm cards I make to assist me with understanding their language, that they just don’t love me? It’s so obvious that I try so hard! The evidence is there! I’ve opened up to them, I have followed their stupid ideas to please them, yet nothing is reciprocated! Why does this even affect me?! Why does this hurt!? I don’t want to… to feel this anymore.” His eyes were watering now, his yells starting to go raw. But his voice quieted down to a whisper, as any louder would make him crack “How do I make this go away?”

He stood there for at least ten minutes, allowing the shaking that was going through his arms calm down and stopping the speed at which his chest was rising and falling. Once he was able to take a deep breath without it being caught in the lump in his throat, he slowly started to move. His feet took him up the step and sat him in the seat behind the witness stand. He tucked the chair in and stared out. He looked out to where Virgil sat in the Jury, eyes gazing over to where Deceit and Patton played the lawyers.

Where he should of been.

Logan’s gaze went up beside him, where Roman ridiculed him and laughed at him for being hurt. For being lied at and for being left out. Again.

Finally, his eyes fell to the back of the room, to the seat that he was forced to. Out of the scenario, where everyone else got to participate but him. The only time he got involved was when he was used to correct and check information.

“That’s all I’m good for, that’s why,” He mumbled. “That’s all they keep me around for. Because I’m needed to correct information. They don’t want me. They need me, but they’re never going to love me.” Tears fell from his eyes, his voice wavering. “I… I l-love them… and it all hurts so much… I am done being used. I don’t just want to be their pawn. I am just so, so tired. These emotions are exhausting. I’m logic and yet I feel… this.”

Logan had to take a second, taking a deep breath because he was going to break but dear god did he have so much more.

“I don’t know how long I can keep going like this. Where every decision of mine is belittled and I’m constantly left out. Where I’m called apart of their family because they need me, when in reality th-they… I’m not… I just want… I want to be apart of the fa-family… and I can’t go much longer pretending I’m fine that I’m n-not…”

That was where Logan shattered.

He leant forward on his arms as he started to sob. It rippled through his body and shook him of everything he had. His saw throat cried out more as he choked on everything he had been holding in and all his suffering. He lost track of how long he had been sitting there, feeling disgusting at how he expressed his emotion. How it shattered every bit of him. Slowly, when someone the sobbing stopped and the tears had slowed down, Logan could no longer keep his eyes open. They inevitably closed from the weight of emotional turmoil and exhaustion, pulling him into a deep slumber. In his sleep, he would slowly pick up the pieces of his broken self. Then he would spend the morning stitching himself back together, piece by piece until his mask was perfect in place again.

Until he shattered yet again.

~~~

~~~

A/N: Well That Hurt.

And now, the tags (thank to the people who asked to be tagged, it was pretty nice uwu):

@emologan

@kastrefeila

@tacohippy56900

@ambersky0319

@smolgoblinsstuff

Fanders Logan Tag list:

@thats-so-crash

@Ffsas-side-account

@lo-brokeit

@yonnie-boy

@unknownsandersfan

@sanders-sides-shambles

@pandagirl0730

@bubblegum-borb

@the-feels-are-coming

@starry-eyed-haiku-dreamer

@logically-asexual

@hanramz-the-fander

@ahoardofsides

@callboxkat

@faacethefacts

@angered-turtle

@anachronistic-cat

@reba-andthesides

@AskolotlQuestions

@crankywhenprovoked

@katatles-the-fish

@ispeakhalflies

@dib-leo-pard

@sassy-in-glasses

@elvishfrenchassassin

@ocotopushugs

@goodonebadgirl

@kirsten-the-freak

@haikyuupaladin

@weird-short-person

@thisisshien

@lepardlover

@someshinningideas

@angeliclogan

@nightlovechild

@siriuswhiskers

@anastasialestina

@i-will-physically-fight-you

@ace-v-p-d

@radioactivebread

@theshipqueenarrives

@allthemetalsoftherainbow

@dudlebuggs

@cinquefoilelove

@rptheturk

@ono-its-ryane

@evilmuffin

@k9cat

@theresneverenoughfandoms

@raisin-oatmeal-cookie

@hamster-corn

@roman-is-a-dramatic-prince

@vulnerablevirgil

@confinesofpersonalknowledge

@candiukas

@thought-u-said-dragon-queen

@muontsy2

@katesattic

@toujours-fidele

@planetsanders

@anonymouseandkeyboard

@logan-exe

@jughead-is-canonically-aroace

@justmyshitandmoreshit

@blaikleethepanagender

@runyou-cleverboy-andremember

@heck-im-lost

@ultimate-queen-of-fandoms2

@beetlequail

@johnlockandrarry

@moltengoldenstardust

@analogical-mess

[petite-elf]

okay so first one is tomato sauce that you can add to pasta, chickpeas or idk beans :) idk if it's super healthy but i don't think it's super unhealthy as well and I've been eating it a lot when i didn't have the energy to cook complicated meals so i hope it's not too difficult or complicated to prepare - i think that dicing onions is the part that needs the most work, other than that it's mostly stirring and waiting a bit. and it doesn't involve many pans and dishes, just one (or 2 if you're making pasta) so you don't have a lot of cleaning to do afterwards. :)

so,

Tomato sauce:

ingredients (idk the exact amounts so you kinda have to eyeball it according to how much you want to eat and what ingredients you're using):

- oil for frying

- onions (let's say 2, but i like to go nuts with onions bc i love onions)

- garlic powder (as much as you want, i use it instead of regular garlic bc imo it adds more flavor, doesn't go bad as quickly and you don't have to chop it and get dirty)

- italian herbs (as much as you want)

- salt

- tomato sauce (passata?)

- tomato paste (adds nice sweetness)

- optionally: if you're making the sauce for pasta, you can add canned corn, it gives it nice sweetness as well

- you can garnish it with sunflower seeds or some other kind of seeds or diced nuts if you want for it to be a bit healthier :)

Preparation:

1) dice the onions

2) pour some oil into a pan and throw in the onions

3) when the onions go a bit softer, add salt, herbs and garlic powder. stir for a moment, so that the spices let out some flavor (if you're doing the chickpeas version, add the chickpeas and stir for a bit. if you're using corn, add corn and stir for a bit)

4) add the tomato paste

5) stir for a bit, so that the flavours mix and add the tomato sauce

6) let the sauce boil, stirring from time to time, until it gets thicker (i recommend covering the pan at this point bc the sauce likes to splash out of the pan and it's annoying to clean up later)

7) voilà it's ready!! :D

you can make a bit more and just eat it for a few meals, thats what i do - it can definitely survive a day in the fridge!

the other one is fried rice (with eggs or without eggs)

Fried rice:

Ingredients:

- oil for frying (if you want to spice things up you can use sesame oil but it's not necessary at all)

- rice (i use white rice but i think you can use brown rice for a healthier meal)

- onions

- garlic powder

- salt & pepper & other spices

(you can experiment with spices, paprika is good, curry is good, even italian herbs are ok in my opinion)

- frozen vegetables (whatever you like, i don't recommend the ones with potatoes tho! :))

- optionally: a few eggs

- optionally: smoked tofu

Preparation:

1. Prepare your preferred rice and set it aside.

2. Dice the onion and set it aside or just leave it on the cutting board when you...

3. Prepare frozen vegetables (you're probably going to fry them in a pan until they get hot ig?)

4. Add the onions to the vegetables, fry them together, and when the onions get a bit soft, add garlic powder and other spices. Stir for a moment (if you're using tofu, add tofu now).

5. Add rice.

6. Stir and fry for a few moments.

7. If you're adding eggs, add them now and stir until they're set. You're done! :D

anyways sorry if the instructions/ingredients are not precise enough, i can try to come up with exact proportions if you need it! i also want to say that I'm Polish so all of the ingredients are quite cheap and available here so sorry if advance if they are hard to get where you live! (and pls excuse any mistakes I made, English is not my first language :)

I'm not a food expert so I'm not sure how healthy these meals are but they are probably healthier and cheaper than heavily processed ready to eat meals. :) I also like them bc you can buy ingredients in bulk and they don't go bad quickly so you can just keep them in your shelves/freezer without worrying about wasting food/grocery shopping etc. :)

Also: frozen vegetables are often simple to prepare and by adding eggs or beans etc. to them you can eat quite a healthy (and imo tasty) meal, so it's good for when you really have no energy to cook.

can anyone share their healthy depression meals? like things that are quick and simple to make? its been difficult to eat in a normal way and i dont want to eat super processed stuff for every meal thnx

[jesseneufeld]

How Industrial Seed Oils Are Making Us Sick

Contrary to what we’ve been told, industrial seed oils such as soybean, canola, and corn oils are not “heart healthy” or otherwise beneficial for our bodies and brains; in fact, plenty of research indicates that these oils are making us sick. Read on to learn about the history of the industrial seed oil industry, the adverse health effects of consuming these oils, and what dietary fats you should eat instead.

Use these links to skip ahead to another section:

What are industrial seed oils?

How are they made?

How they got a reputation for being “healthy”

Six reasons industrial seed oils are bad for you

The health problems they can cause

How to avoid them

Why quality matters when it comes to omega-6s

Six fats you should be cooking with

What Are Industrial Seed Oils?

Unlike traditional fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, butter, ghee, and lard, industrial seed oils are a very recent addition to the human diet.

In fact, industrial seed oils, the highly processed oils extracted from soybeans, corn, rapeseed (the source of canola oil), cottonseed, and safflower seeds, were only introduced into the American diet in the early 1900s. How, then, did these oils come to occupy such an influential position not only in the Standard American Diet but in "”Westernized” diets around the world? The story is strange indeed.

Industrial seed oils were originally used in the soapmaking process. So how did these industrial byproducts end up on our plates? Check out this article to find out. #nutrition #paleo #chriskresser

In 1870s Cincinnati, two soapmakers—William Procter and James Gamble—decided to enter into business together. While soap had historically been made from rendered pork fat, Procter and Gamble were an innovative pair and decided to create a new type of soap from vegetable oils. Around the same time, oil was discovered in Pennsylvania; it quickly displaced cottonseed oil, which had long been used for lighting, as a fuel source. Cottonseed oil was consigned to the status of “toxic waste” until the enterprising Procter & Gamble realized that all that unwanted cottonseed oil could be used to produce soap. But there was another plus that appealed to their business sensibilities: the oil could be chemically altered via a process called “hydrogenation” to turn it into a solid cooking fat that resembled lard. That’s how an oil formerly classified as “toxic waste” became an integral part of the American diet when Crisco was introduced to the market in the early 1900s. (1)

Soon, other vegetable oils followed. Soybeans were introduced to the United States in the 1930s, and by the 1950s, it had become the most popular vegetable oil in the country. Canola, corn, and safflower oils followed shortly after that. The low cost of these cooking oils, combined with strategic marketing on the part of the oil manufacturers, made them wildly popular in American kitchens even though their use was unprecedented in human history.

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How Are Industrial Seed Oils Made?

The general process used to create industrial seed oils is anything but natural. The oils extracted from soybeans, corn, cottonseed, safflower seeds, and rapeseeds must be refined, bleached, and deodorized before they are suitable for human consumption.

First, seeds are gathered from the soy, corn, cotton, safflower, and rapeseed plants.

Next, the seeds are heated to extremely high temperatures; this causes the unsaturated fatty acids in the seeds to oxidize, creating byproducts that are harmful to human and animal health.

The seeds are then processed with a petroleum-based solvent, such as hexane, to maximize the amount of oil extracted from them.

Next, industrial seed oil manufacturers use chemicals to deodorize the oils, which have a very off-putting smell once extracted. The deodorization process produces trans fats, which are well known to be quite harmful to human health.

Finally, more chemicals are added to improve the color of the industrial seed oils.

Altogether, industrial seed oil processing creates an energy-dense, nutrient-poor oil that contains chemical residues, trans fats, and oxidized byproducts.

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From Toxic Waste to “Heart Healthy”: The History of Seed Oils

How did industrial seed oils go from being classified as “toxic waste” to enjoying the title of “heart healthy” fats? The story involves a scandalous combination of donations to medical organizations, dubious scientific research, and unsubstantiated marketing claims.

In the late 1940s, a small group of cardiologists who were members of the still somewhat new American Heart Association received a $1.5 million donation from Procter & Gamble; thanks to this generous infusion of cash from the makers of Crisco, the AHA now had sufficient funding to grow its national profile as a physician’s organization dedicated to heart health. It also were quick to endorse industrial seed oils, more kindly referred to by now as “vegetable oils,” as a healthier alternative to traditional animal fats.

Around the same time, an ambitious physiologist and researcher named Ancel Keys introduced his diet–lipid hypothesis, in which he presented data that seemed to suggest a link between saturated fat and cholesterol intake and heart disease. Since animal fats are a rich source of dietary saturated fat and cholesterol, they quickly became the object of his derision. Citing animal fats as “unhealthy,” Keys instead recommended the consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which preliminary research had associated with reductions in cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. Keys’ conclusions were in line with the industrial seed oil industry’s motives—to get people to eat more seed oils! Soon, ads for “heart healthy” margarine (a solid form of vegetable oil) and other seed oils became commonplace, and healthy, traditional fats were all but forgotten.

While Keys’ lipid hypothesis is now understood to be based upon faulty research, his ideas nonetheless permeated the medical community. (2) Soon, many medical organizations, including the National Cholesterol Education Program and the National Institutes of Health, had hopped aboard the anti-animal fat train, echoing the AHA’s advice that people should avoid animal fat and instead consume polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as Crisco and other shortenings, soybean oil, and corn oil. This confluence of events and mutual interests led to the sweeping replacement of natural dietary fats such as lard and butter with unsaturated industrial seed oils, indelibly changing the shape of the American (and eventually, the global) food landscape.

Only in recent years has the validity of the health claims associated with industrial seed oils been seriously called into question. A 2014 meta-analysis found no benefit to overall health from reducing saturated fats or increasing PUFAs from vegetable oils. (3) Furthermore, the evidence does not support current dietary guidelines urging people to replace saturated fats with vegetable oils. (4, 5)

In fact, a growing body of research indicates that the consumption of industrial seed oils has significant adverse effects on our health.

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Six Reasons Industrial Seed Oils Are Terrible for Your Health

There are six main problems with industrial seed oils:

The consumption of industrial seed oils represents an evolutionary mismatch.

Eating industrial seed oils raises our omega-6-to-omega-3 fatty acid ratios, with significant consequences for our health.

Industrial seed oils are unstable and oxidize easily.

They contain harmful additives.

They’re derived from genetically modified crops.

When industrial seed oils are repeatedly heated, even more toxic byproducts are created.

1. They’re an Evolutionary Mismatch

Evolutionary mismatch, a mismatch between our genes and the modern environment, is the primary driver of chronic disease today. In few areas is evolutionary mismatch more apparent than in the Standard American Diet; the high amounts of refined carbohydrates and calories of this diet work against our ancestral biology, causing us to become overweight and sick.

Industrial seed oils, like refined sugar and excess calories, also represent an evolutionary mismatch. Up until the 1900s, humans did not consume industrial seed oils. From 1970 to 2000, the average consumption of one industrial seed oil, soybean oil, skyrocketed from a mere four pounds per person per year to a whopping 26 pounds per person per year! (6)

Today, linoleic acid, the primary fatty acid in industrial seed oils, accounts for 8 percent of our total calorie intake; in our hunter–gatherer ancestors, it accounted for only 1 to 3 percent of total calories. (7) Researchers who are wise on the topic of evolutionary mismatch posit that our bodies just aren’t designed to handle such a massive consumption of linoleic acid. As a result, our high levels of industrial seed oil consumption are causing our health to suffer.

2. They Have an Imbalanced Omega-6-to-Omega-3 Ratio

Essential fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats that we humans cannot make ourselves and must, therefore, consume in our diets. They come in two varieties: omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids. Upon consumption, omega-6 fatty acids give rise to arachidonic acid and potent metabolites that are primarily pro-inflammatory in nature, including prostaglandin E2 and leukotriene B4. Omega-3 fatty acids such as ALA, EPA, and DHA, on the other hand, give rise to anti-inflammatory derivatives.

A delicate balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids must be maintained in the body to promote optimal health. The ancestral ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is 1 to 1. Westernized diets, however, greatly exceed this balance, with omega-6 to omega-3 ratios in the range of 10 to 1 to 20 to 1. (8) A high intake of omega-6 fatty acids, combined with low omega-3 intake, leads to an imbalance in pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory mediators. This imbalance produces a state of chronic inflammation that contributes to numerous chronic disease processes.

Industrial seed oils are perhaps the most significant contributor to the imbalanced omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio characteristic of Westernized diets and thus play a significant role in chronic inflammatory diseases.

3. Industrial Seed Oils Are Highly Unstable

The polyunsaturated fatty acids in industrial seed oils are highly unstable and oxidize easily upon exposure to heat, light, and chemical inputs. When industrial seed oils are exposed to these factors, two harmful substances—trans fats and lipid peroxides—are created. Trans fats are well known for their role in the development of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes; in fact, for every 2 percent increase in calories from trans fats, your risk of heart disease is nearly doubled! (9) Lipid peroxides, on the other hand, are toxic byproducts that damage DNA, proteins, and membrane lipids throughout the body. The accumulation of lipid peroxides in the body promotes aging and the development of chronic diseases.

4. They’re Full of Additives

Because the fatty acids in industrial seed oils are so unstable, synthetic antioxidants are added in an attempt to prevent oxidation and rancidity. Unfortunately, these synthetic antioxidants come with problems of their own. The synthetic antioxidants BHA, BHT, and TBHQ have endocrine-disrupting, carcinogenic, and immune-disrupting effects. (10, 11, 12, 13) Also, TBHQ has been found to increase the IgE (immunoglobulin E) response to food allergens, setting off a release of antibodies, and may thereby promote the development of food allergies. (14)

5. Industrial Seed Oils Come from Genetically Modified Plants

In addition to being nutrient poor and full of unsavory chemicals and toxic byproducts, the overwhelming majority of industrial seed oils are derived from genetically modified plants. In fact, the plants used to make industrial seed oils comprise the top genetically modified crops��corn, soy, cotton, and rapeseed. In the United States, 88 percent of corn, 93 percent of soy, 94 percent of cotton, and 93 percent of rapeseed crops are genetically modified. (15, 16, 17) Few studies have been conducted on the long-term safety of consuming genetically modified foods, giving us yet another reason to avoid consuming industrial seed oils.

6. They’re Often Repeatedly Heated (And Extra Toxic)

As if industrial seed oils weren’t already bad enough for our health, restaurants and home cooks frequently engage in a practice that further magnifies their harmful effects—they repeatedly heat industrial seed oils. While the habit of reusing industrial seed oils over and over (typically in large deep-fryers, in the case of restaurants) reduces costs, it results in an oil that is chock-full of toxic byproducts.

The repeated heating of industrial seed oils depletes vitamin E, a natural antioxidant, while inducing the formation of free radicals that cause oxidative stress and damage DNA, proteins, and lipids throughout the body. These harmful effects explain why repeatedly heated industrial seed oils are associated with high blood pressure, heart disease, and intestinal and liver damage. (18, 19, 20)

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How So-Called “Healthy” Seed Oils Are Making Us Sick

Contrary to what many health organizations have been telling us for years, industrial seed oils are not healthy foods. Rather, their consumption is associated with a variety of health problems.

Asthma

Eating industrial seed oils may increase your risk of asthma. A high intake of omega-6 fatty acids, such as those present in industrial seed oils, relative to omega-3 fatty acids increases pro-inflammatory mediators associated with asthma. (21)

Autoimmune Disease

Industrial seed oils may promote autoimmunity by raising the body’s omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio and by increasing oxidative stress and chronic inflammation. (22)

Cognition and Mental Health

Industrial seed oils are particularly harmful to the brain. A high omega-6-to-omega-3 fatty acid ratio predisposes individuals to depression, anxiety, cognitive decline, and dementia. (23, 24) Canola oil consumption is linked to worsened memory and impaired learning ability in Alzheimer’s disease. (25) Trans fats, which end up in industrial seed oils unintentionally, as a consequence of chemical and heat processing, and intentionally, during the process of hydrogenation, are associated with increased risks of dementia and, interestingly, aggression. (26, 27)

Diabetes and Obesity

Are industrial seed oils making us overweight and diabetic? The science certainly seems to suggest so. Research in mice indicates that consuming high levels of linoleic acid, the primary fatty acid in industrial seed oils, alters neurotransmitter signaling, ultimately increasing food consumption and fat mass. (28) In mice, a diet high in soybean oil induces obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes, and fatty liver disease. (29, 30) Animal research also suggests that canola oil may cause insulin resistance. (31)

Human studies also point to the effects of industrial seed oils on diabetes and obesity, especially in children. A maternal diet high in omega-6s compared to omega-3s is associated with an increased risk of obesity, a major risk factor for diabetes, in children. (32) A childhood diet with a high omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio may also lead to insulin resistance, prediabetes, and obesity in adulthood. (33, 34)

Heart Disease

Contrary to what the AHA has been telling us for the past 100 years, industrial seed oils are not good for our hearts! In fact, oxidized fatty acids from industrial seed oils appear to play a pivotal role in the development of cardiovascular disease. Researcher James DiNicolantonio has presented a theory called the “oxidized linoleic acid theory of coronary heart disease” that links the consumption of linoleic acid-rich industrial seed oils with cardiovascular disease. (35) His theory goes like this:

Dietary linoleic acid from industrial seed oils is incorporated into blood lipoproteins.

The instability of linoleic acid increases the likelihood of lipoproteins oxidizing.

Oxidized lipoproteins are unable to be recognized by their respective receptors throughout the body and instead activate macrophages, which initiate foam cell formation, atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular disease.

Industrial seed oils also contribute to cardiovascular disease by increasing the omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio. A high omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio is an established risk factor for cardiovascular disease because excess omega-6 has pro-inflammatory and prothrombotic effects on the vascular system. (36) Finally, another emerging theory suggests that canola and soybean oils may contribute to cardiovascular disease by inhibiting processes involving vitamin K2, which is essential for heart health. (37)

IBS and IBD

Research suggests that industrial seed oils may harm gut health, contributing to conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In one study, mice fed a diet high in omega-6 fatty acids from corn oil experienced increases in pro-inflammatory gut bacteria; these changes favor the development of gastrointestinal pathologies, among many other chronic diseases. (38)

Human studies also suggest a link between industrial seed oils and GI conditions. Women with IBS demonstrate significantly elevated levels of arachidonic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid abundant in industrial seed oils, and pro-inflammatory PUFA metabolites, compared to healthy controls. (39) Furthermore, an imbalance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids is correlated with IBD. (40)

These findings suggest that consuming high levels of omega-6 fatty acids alters the gut microbiota and promotes gastrointestinal inflammation, thereby contributing to the development of IBS and IBD. Since industrial seed oils are the most abundant source of omega-6 fatty acids in the Standard American Diet, it stands to reason that people with IBS and IBD should avoid these oils and instead consume natural fats from olive oil, coconut oil, wild seafood, nuts and seeds, and healthy animal fats.

Inflammation

A high omega-6 intake from industrial seed oils promotes chronic inflammation. The consumption of both partially hydrogenated industrial seed oils and non-hydrogenated soybean oil is associated with elevations in C-reactive protein, TNF-alpha, and interleukin-6, which are biomarkers of systemic inflammation. (41, 42)

Infertility

Approximately 9 percent of men and 11 percent of women in the United States have impaired fertility. (43) While many factors are contributing to soaring rates of infertility, one overlooked cause may be our high consumption of industrial seed oils. Infertile men exhibit a significantly elevated omega-6-to-omega-3 fatty acid ratio compared to fertile men. (44) In animal studies of female mammals, a high intake of omega-6 fatty acids causes poor reproductive outcomes. (45)

Macular Degeneration

Industrial seed oils may be harmful to the eyes. A high intake of omega-6 fatty acids increases the risk of age-related macular degeneration, an eye disease that causes progressive vision loss and eventual blindness. (46) Imbalanced levels of omega-6 consumption may contribute to eye problems by promoting inflammation and by displacing the omega-3 fatty acid DHA, which is crucial for vision.

Osteoarthritis

In individuals with osteoarthritis, there’s an association between omega-6 fatty acids and the presence of synovitis, an inflammation of the membrane that lines joint cavities. Conversely, an inverse relationship has been found between omega-3 fatty acid consumption and cartilage loss in the knee as indicated by MRI. (47) Since industrial seed oils contribute a large amount of omega-6 fatty acids to the diet, avoiding these oils may be beneficial for those with or at risk of osteoarthritis.

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How to Avoid Industrial Seed Oils

The first step in banishing industrial seed oils from your diet is to clean out your pantry and get rid of any bottles of canola, corn, cottonseed, soybean, sunflower, safflower, or peanut oils you have in your kitchen. These oils are not “healthy,” despite misleading claims that may appear on their labels.

Step number 2 is to stop eating processed foods, as these are a significant source of industrial seed oils. Also try to reduce your consumption of restaurant foods, which are typically cooked in repeatedly heated industrial seed oils.

Finally, step 3 is to avoid eating grain-fed meat, to the extent you can. There is evidence to suggest that grain-fed animals may accumulate the toxic byproducts of industrial seed oils, which comprise a large part of their diet, in their meat; when you eat this meat, you too may become a repository for lipid peroxides and other harmful byproducts of industrial seed oils.

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When It Comes to Omega-6, Quality Matters

While industrial seed oils are high in omega-6, there are also plenty of whole, fresh foods that naturally contain omega-6 fatty acids, including nuts, poultry, and avocados. When consumed as part of a balanced, real-food diet containing abundant omega-3 fatty acids from seafood, omega-6 from whole foods is not a problem. These whole-food sources of omega-6 fatty acids include nutrients that protect omega-6 from becoming oxidized, and they are also not exposed to the chemicals and industrial treatments that make industrial seed oils so toxic.

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Six Fats You Should Be Cooking With

Now that you’ve eliminated industrial seed oils from your kitchen, what fats should you use instead? Look to the types of fats our ancestors have used for thousands of years—olive oil, coconut oil, and animal fats are natural, wholesome sources of fatty acids for nourishing our bodies.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the types of fats I recommend.

1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Olive oil has been a part of the human diet for literally thousands of years. It is rich in the antioxidant vitamin E and polyphenols with a wide range of health-promoting properties, including cardioprotective and anti-diabetic properties. One tablespoon of olive oil contains 1.9 grams of saturated fatty acids (SFAs), 9.8 grams of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), and 1.4 grams of PUFAs.

2. Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is a superfood with many health-promoting properties. It contains medium-chain triglycerides such as lauric acid, a fatty acid that is readily used by the body for energy and has antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral properties. Coconut oil contains 90 percent saturated fat, which makes it very heat stable.

3. Butter and Ghee

If you tolerate dairy, butter and ghee may be great additions to your diet. Butter and ghee from grass-fed animals contain conjugated linoleic acid, a type of fatty acid with anti-cancer and metabolic health-promoting properties. While butter may contain traces of milk proteins, ghee is usually a safe option even for dairy-sensitive people because all milk constituents are removed in its creation.

Both butter and ghee are comprised mainly of saturated fat. One tablespoon of butter contains 7.2 grams of SFAs, 2.9 grams of MUFAs and 0.4 grams of PUFAs, while one tablespoon of ghee contains 8 grams of SFAs, 3.7 grams of MUFAs, and 0.5 grams of PUFAs.

4. Pastured Lard

This may come as a surprise, but it turns out that lard is mostly composed of monounsaturated fat, the type of fat in olive oil that has been promoted as “heart healthy” by the conventional medical community for decades! Lard, the fat rendered from pigs, is high in saturated fat and is a good substitute for butter in recipes if you can’t tolerate dairy.

One tablespoon of lard contains 5 grams of SFAs, 6 grams of MUFAs, and 1.6 grams of PUFAs. Lard also contains 500 to 1000 IU of vitamin D per serving, depending on what the pigs ate and whether they were exposed to sunlight. If you are interested in getting a nice dose of vitamin D from lard, choose lard produced from pastured pigs that have been allowed to roam outdoors.

5. Pastured Tallow

Tallow is fat rendered from meat other than pork, such as beef and bison. It has a high smoke point that makes it great for high-heat cooking. In fact, most restaurants used tallow in their deep fryers until the 1970s, when the industrial seed oil industry usurped the position of traditional fats in our diets. Tallow contains 6.4 grams of SFAs, 5.3 grams of MUFAs, and 0.5 grams of PUFAs in a one-tablespoon serving.

6. Duck Fat

Duck fat is a delicious traditional cooking oil that also has great versatility. It has a high smoke point, making it great for high-heat cooking, but a delicate flavor and similar fatty acid profile to olive oil. One tablespoon of duck fat has 4 grams of SFAs, 6 grams of MUFAs, and 1.6 grams of PUFAs. Try using pastured duck fat for roasting potatoes—you’ll never want to use anything else for cooking potatoes once you’ve given it a try!

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Finally, be sure to incorporate plenty of healthy fats from whole foods into your diet. Soaked and sprouted nuts, avocado, coconut, wild-caught fatty fish, grass-fed meats, and wild game are all excellent sources of healthy fats and can be incorporated into your diet in countless ways. Note: When you’re choosing animal fats for cooking, remember to choose pasture-raised sources because conventional alternatives are significantly higher in omega-6s.

If optimal health is your goal, then industrial seed oils have no place in your diet. Instead, cook with traditional animal fats, get your omega-6s from whole food sources such as nuts and poultry, and balance things out with omega-3 fatty acids from seafood, shellfish, and fish oil.

Now, I’d like to hear from you. Do you avoid industrial seed oils? What types of fats do you eat? Let me know in the comments below.

The post How Industrial Seed Oils Are Making Us Sick appeared first on Chris Kresser.

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New Post has been published on Health bolt

New Post has been published on http://www.healthbolt.net/cooking/how-to-cook-cabbage-healthy/

How To Cook Cabbage Healthy

Contents

Amedysis home health

Groundbreaking cancer cookbook

Regular bowel movements. brown

Heart-healthy monounsaturated fats

-carb meal ready

Appears beneficial phytochemicals

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Nice Healthy Meals To Cook Cooking a nice meal and then sitting down at your table for one can … forward to and something that’s actually easier than … Whether you’re looking for healthy recipes and guides, family projects and meal plans, the latest gadget reviews, foodie travel inspiration or just the perfect recipe for dinner tonight, we’re here to help. Is Cooked Sushi Healthy On average there is one tablespoon of sugar for each cup of cooked sushi rice. And each sushi roll contains about one cup of white rice in it. So, the rice in one roll alone contains 240 calories. Instead, we use shell eggs that have been pasteurized to kill any harmful bacteria without actually cooking the egg itself. ( … Ask for brown rice sushi instead of regular white rice, Rathbun says. "There are ample amounts of fiber in brown rice, which is important for maintaining healthy digestion and regular bowel movements. brown rice is also a great source of manganese, selenium, and magnesium," she adds. Healthy Alternative To cooking oil cooking oil spray cans are also available, which can be used with heart-healthy oils of your choosing … Unsweetened applesauce is a convenient substitute for cooking oils in baked goods such as brow… Avocado Oil Recipe. An emerald green oil made by cold-pressing the flesh of ripe avocados, this oil ranks right up there with olive oil as a rich source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. Yes, olive oil’s the reigning champ of healthy, versatile fats, but these alternatives are worth a pour. All have the same amount of calories—roughly 120 per tablespoon—along with health (and … Healthy Meals To Cook In A crock pot healthy crock pot lunch ideas. life’s daily hustle and bustle can hinder our ability to have a healthful, yet quick lunch handy. creating make-ahead lunches in the crock pot is a simple way to enjoy a satisfying midday meal when you’re in a time crunch. And when you’re on a strict budget, meal planning can be quite the task. If you don’t have much grocery money to work with, and you’re not sure where to start, use this guide for planning meals on a t… Eating healthy the hands-free way. Looking for more ways to use your slow cooker? Try these crock pot chicken ideas too good not to love. That’s where our beloved Crock-Pot comes into play. These 13 keto crock-pot recipes will have your high-fat, low-carb meal ready for you when you get home from a long day at work. If you’ve got artich… Are cooked vegetables healthy Several vegetables are actually shown to have improved nutrient value when cooked. It appears beneficial phytochemicals are trapped in the cell wall without applying

Corned beef and cabbage is a St. Patrick’s Day staple, but it’s not as easy to cook for some of us. If you are hoping to make an easy recipe for the holiday, check out the demonstration video above. T…

Advertisement There was, however, a pot of gold at the end of my cabbage-y rainbow: I got to tell my editor the story about how I can’t use a calendar and then pitch him on publishing my recipe for ca…

Mar 11, 2013  · If you are looking for healthy cabbage recipes, use red cabbage to prepare wraps with quinoa and goat cheese. In this dish, goat cheese and quinoa are …

I usually cook cabbage about once or twice a year. I don’t know why because I love the stuff, it’s healthy and even better, it’s cheap! Wait a minute I know why I don’t cook it …

Try these 23 cabbage recipes–easy to make and healthy! At less than 25 calories per cup, there’s no reason not to love cabbage. These cabbage recipes are delicious, easy to make, and incredibly …

To Healthy Sauté cabbage, heat 5 TBS of vegetable broth, chicken broth, or water in a stainless steel skillet. Once bubbles begin to form add shredded cabbage, cover, and Healthy Sauté for 5 minutes. For great Mediterranean flavor, transfer to a bowl and toss with Mediterranean Dressing.

Evolving from the pierogi, Volga German immigrants brought the recipe to the US from Germany and Russia. Also commonly known …

One should wait at least 2 weeks before going on it again. The ingredients needed for the cabbage soup are inexpensive, and it doesn’t take long to cook it. Clean the vegetables. Take bell peppers, ca…

In the caption, the Vanderpump Rules boss wrote: "Last year it was the turkey dance, this year it’s the red cabbage dance! Ha…

Healthy Ways To Cook Boneless Chicken Breast Healthy Cooking Pans Healthy Home Cooked Meals Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Nice Healthy Meals To Cook Cooking a nice meal and then sitting down at your table for one can … forward to and something that’s actually easier than … Whether you’re looking for healthy recipes and guides, family projects and meal plans, the latest gadget reviews, foodie travel inspiration or just the perfect recipe for dinner tonight, we’re here to help. Is Cooked Sushi Healthy On average there is one tablespoon of sugar for each cup of cooked sushi rice. And each sushi roll contains about one cup of white rice in it. So, the rice in one roll alone contains 240 calories. Instead, we use shell eggs that have been pasteurized to kill any harmful bacteria without actually cooking the egg itself. ( … Ask for brown rice sushi instead of regular white rice, Rathbun says. "There are ample amounts of fiber in brown rice, which is important for maintaining healthy digestion and regular bowel movements. brown rice is also a great source of manganese, selenium, and magnesium," she adds. Healthy Alternative To Cooking Oil Cooking oil spray cans are also available, which can be used with heart-healthy oils of your choosing … Unsweetened applesauce is a convenient substitute for cooking oils in baked goods such as brow… Avocado Oil Recipe. An emerald green oil made by cold-pressing the flesh of ripe avocados, this oil ranks right up there with olive oil as a rich source of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. Yes, olive oil’s the reigning champ of healthy, versatile fats, but these alternatives are worth a pour. All have the same amount of calories—roughly 120 per tablespoon—along with health (and … Healthy Meals To Cook In A crock pot healthy crock pot lunch ideas. life’s daily hustle and bustle can hinder our ability to have a healthful, yet quick lunch handy. Creating make-ahead lunches in the crock pot is a simple way to enjoy a satisfying midday meal when you’re in a time crunch. And when you’re on a strict budget, meal planning can be quite the task. If you don’t have much grocery money to work with, and you’re not sure where to start, use this guide for planning meals on a t… Eating healthy the hands-free way. Looking for more ways to use your slow cooker? Try these crock pot chicken ideas too good not to love. That’s where our beloved Crock-Pot comes into play. These 13 keto crock-pot recipes will have your high-fat, low-carb meal ready for you when you get home from a long day at work. If you’ve got artich… Are cooked vegetables healthy Several vegetables are actually shown to have improved nutrient value when cooked. It appears beneficial phytochemicals are trapped in the cell wall without applying a heating method. So while eating vegetables

If you are anything like me at all, you’re going to find yourself wanting to rush this slow recipe along … a full 90 minute…

[anoopkam]

Got the chance to go back to Slice of Spice restaurant in Trivandrum today… This is my second visit to the place… It was a rainy day with some of the roads along the way looking like the Ganges and traffic difficult as routes were diverted due to fallen trees… Inspite of it, I found the place to be quite crowded but still, managed to get a seat…

Slice of Spice

Slice of Spice

Last time I had made the mistake of ordering stuff that were clearly not in their wheelhouse… So, this time, I decided to stick to their specialties… Hence, went for what the waiter recommended for me… This included what they call their “Healthy Herbal Chicken” Soup, what they call their “Mediterranean Heat” and a piece of their famous “Al-Ashrouf” Chicken…

Once I placed the order, I contacted the owner to know if he was in as I wanted to personally thank him for suggesting and letting me try a new dish they were introducing in the menu back during my last visit… Turns out he wasn’t there and instead, his restaurant manager spotted me and greeted me… So, this time, the owner thru the manager had me try a new version of an item that they are yet to start serving… In fact, based on what he told me, they made a portion of it exclusively for me to try and let them know my thoughts on it… This item is what they call their “Sweet Surprise”…

So, these are what I had today: Healthy Herbal Chicken Soup, Meditteranean Heat, Sweet Surprise and a Juicy Leg Piece of Al-Ashrouf Chicken…

Healthy Herbal Chicken Soup

Mediterranean Heat

Sweet Surprise

Al-Ashrouf Chicken

Even though the place was crowded, the soup came faster than last time… What I got as recommended by the waiter was what they call as the Healthy Herbal Chicken Soup… This is essentially a Chicken Soup consisting of a very flavourful Chicken broth thats thickened along with some pieces of shredded boneless chicken, Egg-White drop, Broccolli and Baby Corn…

First of all, having the word “Healthy” in the name, I didn’t expect the soup to be thickened with corn starch… Even though the level of thickening is less compared to most places, I think being a “healthy” soup, the corn starch could’ve been avoided altogether… It doesn’t really affect the taste (until the soup cools down) afterall 🙂

Healthy Herbal Chicken Soup

Healthy Herbal Chicken Soup

Healthy Herbal Chicken Soup

Now coming to the taste, the chicken broth had a strong flavour of Chicken along with the ginger, garlic, celeriac stems (not visible but flavour seemed to be there), pepper and then there was the flavour of Broccoli infused into the broth… The baby corn seemed to have been pickled in vinegar, hence giving the sour taste of vinegar when chewed into… The Egg White drop clearly added richness to the whole soup… The pieces of Chicken in there were cooked perfectly… Altogether a really great soup… Only suggestion I have is that instead of the Broccoli, I would’ve preferred some Coriander leaves and Bok Choy in it… Not that the broccoli is bad… Its just my personal preference… 🙂

As I was starting on the soup, they brought in the Mediterranean Heat… They call this a kind of grilled Pita bread sandwich, consisting of grilled chicken along with some cheese (cheddar) and veggies mixed with a Mayo dressing with their signature blend of spices… The veggies included carrots, cabbage and onions… Altogether, to be completely honest, it looked like one of whats knows as a “Shwarma Plate” but of-course, different from the rest… The sandwich was grilled and then served with a cup of their signature spiced Mayo and some pickled vegetables (carrots and cucumber)…

Mediterranean Heat

Mediterranean Heat

Mediterranean Heat

Mediterranean Heat

Mediterranean Heat

Mediterranean Heat

Coming to the taste, this felt exactly like eating a Shwarma Plate, but whats different is the taste of the spices here which we don’t find elsewhere… The Pita bread was grilled to a good crisp condition, with some charring as can be seen… The Chicken and the veggies were cooked well… As I ate it, essentially what I could taste was the spices used and the level of spiciness does indeed justify the word “Heat” in its name… From the taste, I could make out that the cup of spiced Mayo that was given is the exact same Mayo that has been used to dress the filling… The combination with the pickled vegetables seemed to work fine as the pickled vegetables seems to give a cooling effect to the sandwich… The quantity of the filling seemed to be just right considering the volume of the bread… The problem I had with the filling is in the Chicken to veggies ratio as I felt that it needed more Chicken in it… Another problem I had with this sandwich is that the taste is completely dominated by the spices and hence was hard to detect the taste of the ingredients… I firmly believe that Spices should only complement the taste of the ingredients and not supplement it… So, not that its bad, but I think some amount tweaking on this recipe should make it better… 🙂

As I was about to start on the Mediterranean Heat, the manager himself came over and served the “Sweet Surprise” the dish that they made exclusively for me to try… The Sweet Surprise turned out to be a starter of chicken thats made with a cream based marinade with very less spice… This is served with a small cup of garlic Mayo and pickled vegetables (same as what was served with the Mediterranean Heat)… Essentially this looks like a variant of the popular Reshmi Kebab…

Sweet Surprise

Sweet Surprise

Sweet Surprise

Sweet Surprise – Pickled Vegetables

Sweet Surprise

Although it looks like a variant of the Reshmi Kebab, the taste felt different, as in its sweeter and the marinade seems to use cream and cashew-almond paste from its taste and it was lightly seasoned with salt and pepper… The Chicken was cooked perfectly and the combination of the sweet kebab with garlic Mayo and pickled veggies worked really well for me… Only complaint I had was that the kebab was a bit too sweet for my taste… A suggestion I conveyed to them was to reduce the sweetness slightly or instead of serving with the garlic Mayo, use their spiced Mayo instead or in addition to the garlic Mayo (tried using the one I got with the Heat and I found it to work beautifully 🙂 )…

I had asked the waiter to hold the Al-Ashrouf until I finish the items that I have been served… Once I was done with the Sweet Surprise and the Mediterranean Heat, I got served the piece of Al-Ashrouf Chicken that I had ordered… The Al-Ashrouf grill is what Slice of Spice is famous for and what I had been hearing ever since I heard about them… Whats special about the Al-Ashrouf is that its a Spice and Herbs mix that proprietary to Slice of Spice and they say they use a charcoal grill to grill the meat marinated in the signature marinade, to perfection… Among the choices, I went for the one they call the “Original Juicy Leg” and its a whole leg of the Chicken thats marinated and grilled so that  the meat is cooked and remains juicy… The Chicken is then served with a spiced salad consisting of cabbage, carrots and cucumber along with a small cup each of their Garlic Mayo and their spiced Mayo…

Al-Ashrouf Chicken

Al-Ashrouf Chicken

Garlic Mayo and Spicy Mayo

Al-Ashrouf Chicken

Al-Ashrouf Chicken

Now coming to the taste, this is indeed different from any other piece of grilled chicken that I have had so far… The Chicken was cooked perfectly and it felt spicy and sweet at the same time… The spice mix kind of tasted like a variant of our garam masala but the taste of the herbs makes it completely different… I feel the sweetness might be because they may be using a caramelised onion-ginger-garlic paste along with yogurt as the base of the marination… The two versions of Mayo that were served were lighter than others that I have seen before… The salad was seasoned well with spices and lime… Altogether a great Grilled Chicken experience thats a must try…

So, overall, a nice lunch that definitely worth ever penny… I am looking forward to be able to try more from their menu very soon…

  Slice of Spice – Healthy Chicken Soup, Mediterranean Heat, Sweet Surprise, Al-Ashrouf Chicken Got the chance to go back to Slice of Spice restaurant in Trivandrum today... This is my second visit to the place...

[zoecreativeecologies]

Test: My Flatmates Week of No Meat

Out of my flat of 5, I am the only vegetarian. This means, I have always cooked for myself, by myself, while my four flatmates cook meat-filled dinners together each week. I was intrigued as to whether I could convince them to join me and eat a meat-free diet for just one week. We watched a documentary ‘Before the Flood’ which highlighted the horrendous effect of the agriculture industry on our environment. This was enough to convince them. 

Each day, a different one of my flatmates cooked. 

Day 1: Spaghetti with Lentil Bolognese 

Cooked by Jayna

Did you find it easy cooking a vegetarian meal? Yes, I actually think its easier. With meat I worry about overcooking it or undercooking it - there is less risk with vegetables.

Were you satisfied with it? Or did you feel meat was necessary to complete the meal? Satisfied. I still got the full flavours and the nutrients that I would from any other meal. I’m not sure if it is healthy, but it feels a lot healthier. Normally when I am eating meat I have more meat than veggies, whereas this way I know I’m getting enough vegetables. 

Would you make it again? Definitely. 

Could you sustain a vegetarian diet for longer? Definitely. So easy. Especially when my peers are doing it with me. By myself it would be a lot harder, especially in a home where others are eating meat. 

Day 2: Tamarind Coleslaw 

Cooked by Grace. 

Did you find it easy cooking a vegetarian meal? Yeah, I don’t find cooking to be a huge challenge so it comes quite easy to me in general. 

Were you satisfied with it? Or did you feel meat was necessary to complete the meal? I think this meal is definitely enough to satisfy you, a full bowl of vegetables alongside some fresh garlic bread is very filling. But personally I wasn’t satisfied with it just because I don’t think I did the best job of making it, but it wasn’t meat that it was missing. 

Would you make it again? I’d make it again as a side salad, but not as a full meal. 

Could you sustain a vegetarian diet for longer? Yes, I’ve found this week easy and will definitely be living a meat-free life from now on. It helps when you have someone to motivate you to not eat meat, and be surrounded by friends who are doing the same as thing. It definitely makes a difference when theres a more social/community aspect to the experience. 

Day 3: Tofu Pad Thai

Cooked by me

Day 4: Kumara Burrito Bowl 

Cooked by Paige

Did you find it easy cooking a vegetarian meal? Easier than I thought it was going to be yes. 

Were you satisfied with it? Or did you feel meat was necessary to complete the meal? Satisfied but would have loved some chicken in there. But thats because thats what I’m used to, I have chicken with every Mexican dish and it was weird having it for the first time without. 

Would you make it again? Yes. 

Could you sustain a vegetarian diet for longer? Yes I could. 

Day 5: Cauliflower and Corn Fritters 

Cooked by Sarah

Did you find it easy cooking a vegetarian meal? Yes

Were you satisfied with it? Or did you feel meat was necessary to complete the meal? I did not feel meat was necessary, as long as you have the right flavours and sauces you don’t even notice the lack of meat. 

Would you make it again? Yeah

Could you sustain a vegetarian diet for longer? Yeah, I usually don’t eat a large amount of meat so cutting it out completely hasn’t been too much of a struggle for me. It’s also really interesting and fun trying out new vegetarian meals, Jaynas vegetarian Spag Bol tasted exactly like a mince one it was amazing! I enjoy cooking as a flat, its cheap and social so it’s been great having the whole flat in on this with me. 

[viralhottopics]

How I Paid Off $31,000 Of Student Debt In Only Two Years

I carried over $31,000 in loan repayment after undergrad. Paying it off took two years, but it was barely dented for the first six months. This was when I realized I had to make some drastic adjustments to ever whittle it down. The rate was not very impressive or efficient, but it helped me differentiate between necessities and luxuries.

Life before and after loans has been pretty stark in contrast. You no longer feel guilty for traveling across the world. You can choose to engage in grown-up sounding pursuits like investing in mutual funds, ETFs, & individual stocks! Saving for a house now just became a reality! You could buy all the fair-trade coffee to your little hearts extent.

I had to get creativemany of these ideas may not be applicable to you or painfully obvious! Regardless, theyre simple in theory, yet oftentimes overlooked in practice. My first job out of college involved contractual quality assurance work for a large tech company in Cupertino. I could have chosen a position in a cheaper residential market, as in anywhere outside of the Bay Area. However, Silicon Valley was an environment where I knew I would be challenged to grow. The pay was relatively meager for the industry, so I had to get creative and quite shameless!

1. Live at the cheapest residence you can tolerate

Live at home with parents if feasible. However, for the most of us, thats boring, or not aligned with our goals. I settled down at a room of a house in San Jose, California for a year. The home was owned by a sweet, blissful lady in her 60s. She occasionally made meals for me and rent & utilities came out to only a flat $500/month. Sounds amazing, right? Of course, there was a catchno overnight guests allowed!

2. Purchase food in bulk

Growing up, I had assumed that Costco was economical only for nuclear families. Breaking it down on paper, it may be profitable for unmarried folks too! Share large consumableslike giant bags of ricewith your roommates, if feasible.

3. Cook your meals whenever possible

A staple I loved in college and early adulthood were egg & soyrizo tacos. Theyre inexpensive, delicious, stupidly easy to cook, and surprisingly healthy! Find your staple. (I make other things too, sometimes..)

Example:

Ultimate Soyrizo Tacos

Heat oil

Drop soyrizo in skillet, and cook till slightly charred

Scramble up some eggs in the same skillet

Roast up corn tortillas

Huzzah.

Try making something new every week, its extremely therapeutic.

4. Only eat out with friends

Dont feel guilty for eating out with friends & family whenever if the occasion calls for it (celebrations, happy hours, networking, catch-up sessions). Just minimize eating out by yourself. This includes take- out/Munchery/Doordash/UberEats/Caviar, those extra expenses really consume your budget!

5. Avoid consolidation

Loan consolidation combines multiple, disparate loans into one, singular loan usually with a higher interest rate than its smaller counterparts. This may be more convenient in regards to forecasting payoff time and ease of payment. However, most borrowers end up forking more money over in the long-run.

6. Compare & stack up your individual loans

If you have multiple loans, take the annual interest rate for each one and multiply it by the amount owed to get the total yearly interest (TYI). Stack up each TYI with one another and assign your next payment to the loan with the lowest TYI. Repeat your calculations for all additional payments you make.

Example:

Loan A has 6.5% interest with $7,500 outstanding, amounting to $487.50 TYI.

Loan B has 4.5% interest with $9,800 outstanding, amounting to $441.00 TYI.

It makes sense to make a payment toward Loan A first at this time, to reduce accrued interest.

7. Leverage your local public transportation network to get around town, if available.

It may feel like a waste of time because driving around is so much more efficient, but you most likely have a phone! The bus commute is the perfect time to listen to podcasts, read e-books, and rekindle old friendships/connections over messages.

8. Embrace minimalism

This might be regarded as a trending fad amongst yuppies, but with all good reason! Minimalism can be succinctly summed into one mantra: Reflect on what you are considering to purchaseif you dont believe it will contribute to the productivity & overall quality of your life, dont buy it!

9. Leverage loan forgiveness programs

There are many loan-forgiveness programs floating around, albeit each one has a set of requirements you have to meet. One for the government & non-profit sector. Another one for nursing. Heres one for teachers!

10. Automate your budget

No one enjoys passive-aggressive notifications/emails from personal finance apps alerting that they are over-budgeting AGAIN this month. Luckily, Personal Capital has been optimized to focus on praise over guilt-tripping as a motivator. Their dynamic graphs & charts featured in the app have helped me determine which areas Ive been slacking off on maintaining thriftiness.

Credit card interest rates are usually higher than the average student loan: around 14% vs 47% respectively. Calculate the total yearly interest of your credit card debt and stack it up against your student loans.

11. Invest in yourself

How much you make can be a hard limitation on how much you can save for loan repayment. When you find some genuine passions and work towards them, youll naturally end up earning more in the long run. Most people never accomplish this in their lifetime, and I certainly am still on the journey. To try to hone in towards my passions, I consume knowledge. I pick up and read countless books of any topic that I have the slightest bit of interest in. Ive gone back community college to expand my programming knowledge. I leverage online courseware religiously. Learning new things for the sake of personal growth is always a noteworthy investment.

12. Cheaply travel on your vacation

In my opinion, travel (on a budget) is something you should never sacrifice in lieu of saving up to pay for loans. The benefits are immense to the soul and body. The Flight Deal posts travel deals, but they focus more on extreme anomalies.

For example, a buddy and I ventured off to Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, & London round-trip from Los Angeles for only $600 total. Most cities have hostels that run rooms for only $15/night (including free breakfast)! Im sure theres countless other ways to accelerate paying off your loans. Share your ideas with others struggling to crawl out of debt, and find out what works out for you!

Read more: http://tcat.tc/2j7UQAT

from How I Paid Off $31,000 Of Student Debt In Only Two Years

[anoopkam]

Yesterday, I got the chance to visit the restaurant Coco Bongo at Pattom, Trivandrum… I had been seeing a bunch of posts praising the Biriyani that they serve here and so since I happened to be nearby, stopped by for lunch 🙂

For those who may not be aware, the restaurant is located right next to the gate of St. Mary’s school and it above the Chicking outlet over there… Contrary to the way leading to the restaurant, I found the restaurant to be incredibly clean and shiny with a look that reminded me of a starred place… I was alone in there as I walked in, but soon found the place to be packed with practically everyone going for the Biriyani… 🙂

Coco Bongo

Coco Bongo

Coco Bongo

Coco Bongo

The menu here definitely a multi-cuisine one with options ranging from Sandwiches and Burgers to Steaks 🙂 But as mentioned before, I was there to check out the much revered Biriyani of theirs… Also, since I was in the mood for some soup, went for their Sweet Corn Chicken Soup as well, along with their Chicken Biriyani…

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

Chicken Biriyani

So, after about 20 mins or so, I was served the soup… The Sweet Corn Chicken Soup is something I have been seeing in practically all restaurant menus throughout my life and is one of my favourites since its usually the one soup thats not spicy and rather has a pretty vocal sweet component to it… Of-course the Cream of Chicken came later 🙂 Anyways, it was light and slightly creamy, made with Chicken stock, Sweet Corn and Egg white drop… It also had some shredded chicken white meat as well in it and was served as shown in the below pics…

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

Now coming to the taste, it was indeed sweet and the flavours of the Chicken stock and the egg really came thru and the pieces of chicken in it were cooked perfectly… As can be seen fro the above pics, there is no shortage of Egg white in it… However, what I found lacking in this is the seasoning (Any Sodium Police in the house?)… I ended up having to put in quite a lot of salt and pepper from the shakers on the table to be able to enjoy the soup… Once I put in enough of those, the soup tasted excellent… 🙂

Once I was done with the soup, the Biriyani arrived… I was indeed surprised at how the Biriyani looked when it arrived… I mean just look at the pics… The shape is just perfect and smooth… To be frank, what the shape reminded me of was the stone they use in the sport known as Curling in the Winter Olympics (feel free to look it up)… Anyways, the biriyani arrived on a plate topped with some fried onions and a couple of fried cashew nuts and was served along with a small cup of the Vegetable Raita and some Pickle made out of Dates… The Biriyani was found to be made in the Malabari style with the aromatic small grain rice with the meat that was pre-fried before cooking into the Dum…

Chicken Biriyani

Chicken Biriyani

Chicken Biriyani

The Raita and Pickle

Chicken Biriyani

Regarding this Biriyani, first of all, the flavours seem to perfectly match that of the Biriyani thats sold by the nearby bakery named Square One and so I am not entirely sure if thats just a coincidence that it tasted exactly the same (only difference is in the rice used)… Maybe the owner can clarify at some point… So, basically loved the taste of the masala used and the rice was indeed of the aromatic kind… The masala was of mild spice level with a perfect sweet to spicy ratio with the tastes of the ginger-garlic paste and the garam masala (with some extra cinnamon, cardamom, clove and the maze spice) along with the taste of caramelised onions and there was a slight hint of ghee in it as well… The flavours worked incredibly well with the aromatic rice… The Chicken as I mentioned appeared to have been pre-fried as can be seen… The Raita that was served had onions, tomatoes and green chillies and the curd was indeed fresh as in, not turned sour yet… The dates pickle was awesome… Intense flavour of the date and chillies throughout making it incredibly sweet and spicy at the same time… Both the raita and the pickle worked incredibly well with the Biriyani…

Now, unfortunately I must mention the negatives as well… Regarding the restaurant service, I would suggest the owner give some training to the staff because, two things were observed:

The staff looked absolutely clueless when I walked in… Thats is, felt like they were confused and weren’t expecting any customers even though it was close to 12:30pm… [I hope it was not because of my appearance… lol… 😀 😀 😛 ]

I was never served water to drink until I ran out of patience and asked for it… This is not a good thing to do especially when you only have one customer in the restaurant… So, clearly being understaffed is not an excuse… And towards the end of my visit, when the room became packed, I looked around and observed that not a single table was served water… Not sure why this basic courtesy was being ignored…

Now coming to the food, I don’t have any complaints about the waiting time, but I did find a couple of issues with the Biriyani that I got…

The first is that as I mentioned earlier, the Chicken looked pre-fried… But the problem is that when I tried eating the chicken pieces, I found it to be overcooked, to the point of it being dry and tough to chew… Chicken when cooked properly has to be incredibly soft that at the slightest touch with a fork or a spoon, the meat has to just slide and fall off the bone… As you can see from the closeup pic below, its clear that the meat is dry and has shrunk (you can see the meat fiber curled up) which only happens when you overcook the meat… It was a bit disappointing because, the flavours of the masala and rice like I mentioned before was just perfect… The Biriyani came with a breast piece and a shoulder with wing piece… Both ended up being overcooked, with the breast piece being the worse of the two as its the part of the chicken that cooks the fastest… I seriously hope that this was an isolated incident and won’t happen again…

The other problem is that I found the Biriyani to be a bit more greasy than most of the options I have had… The pic below shows the amount of oil traces left at the bottom of the plate which should give an indication as to how much oil content was there in the Biriyani… The whole point of Dum cooking is that you get a healthy way of cooking by locking in all the steam and flavours and this doesn’t actually need any oil to be poured in… At best, you need just a minimum amount (teaspoons max) if you really want the taste of the fat being added (e.g. ghee… Can’t really understand the point of adding the almost tasteless refined oil)…

Overcooked Chicken

Oil Content

Anyways, even with the pitfalls mentioned, hoping that this was a bad day, I do hope to go back there again on a regular/good day to be able to try again… From what I understand regarding the place from a friend of mine, there are enough items in their menu which I really should be trying… So, hopefully will be doing the same soon…

Coco Bongo – First Visit – Biriyani Yesterday, I got the chance to visit the restaurant Coco Bongo at Pattom, Trivandrum... I had been seeing a bunch of posts praising the Biriyani that they serve here and so since I happened to be nearby, stopped by for lunch 🙂

[anoopkam]

Back at Supreme’s Oriental Spice restaurant, at Kuravankonam again after a while… Its been more than a month since I’ve been there and I did end up having a bit of craving for the Kung Pao Chicken… Other than that, I decided to go for what I haven’t had before from there… So, this time, I went for their Spicy Chicken Soup first… Then because of watching too many of Mark Wein’s videos recently, I wanted to try something that I haven’t had for years : The Crab… The reason for the gap is because I didn’t think it was worth the effort of cracking open the shell to drag out the meat… So, on being informed by the waiter that they don’t serve with shell, I decided to try out the Singapore Chilly Crab starter… Then when checking the out the options for mains, one of the items that I have been meaning to try ever since I saw Anthony Bourdain’s episode on Penang i.e. the legendary Char Kway Teow, which is available in their menu as Kway Teow… So, I went for the seafood variant and ofcourse, along with it I ordered a Kung Pao Chicken as well…

So, to list them all, they are a portion each of the Spicy Chicken Soup, Singapore Chilly Crab, Seafood Kway Teow and Kung Pao Chicken… This is a place that I have been constantly complaining about having too much quantity per portion… So, I must mention here that I took the leftovers (more than half) as parcel and basically had enough for me, my dad and my grandma to eat for dinner… 🙂 So, if you who is reading this is an owner/manager of this restaurant, pls reduce the portion size or at-least have an option of 1/4 plate for single cover… This time, I happened to be heading directly home from there which is why I decided to go there in the first place… 🙂 Else, its a huge wastage of food…

Oriental Spice

Oriental Spice

Spicy Chicken Soup

Singapore Chilly Crab

Kway Teow (Seafood)

Kung Pao Chicken

So, once I placed the order, I was served a cup of hot Green Tea… After a few minutes, the soup arrived… The soup that I ordered was what they called as their Spicy Chicken Soup… When I asked the waiter about it, he merely said that its a soup with Chicken, Mushrooms, Chinese greens and Green-chillies for the spiciness… And when I asked for the spice level especially when compared to the spicy fried rice that I had from one of my previous visits, I was informed that it is only slightly spicy rather than full on spicy… Thats why I decided to try it out… So, the below pic is how I got it…

Spicy Chicken Soup

Spicy Chicken Soup

First of all, my only complaint regarding this soup is that they used corn starch and made it thick… However, the soup tasted awesome with a really nice taste of the Chicken broth along with a rich flavour of Green-chillies, Ginger, Garlic and Coriander leaves, seasoned absolutely perfectly with the right amount of salt and pepper… The soup contained shredded Chicken, Mushrooms (mostly Button and a little bit of Shiitake) along with some Chinese Lettuce, Bok Choy, Green Onions, Coriander leaves and grated Green-chillies and also a bit of Egg dropped as well… Its clearly one of the best Chicken based soups I have had… I only wish it was not thickened…

After I was done with the soup, the starter arrived and as mentioned above, it was my attempt at having the Crab after so many years… So, what I got was what they call their Singapore Chilly Crab and I got served as shown in the pic below…

Singapore Chilly Crab

Singapore Chilly Crab

First of all, I couldn’t quite figure out where the crab was, because all I could see were these noodle like things that even tasted exactly like noodles… So, I called up the waiter and asked if there has been any mistake but apparently those “noodles” are the crab meat… I couldn’t believe it cause not only did it not look even remotely to the crab meat that I had many years ago when I had to crack open a crab myself, it didn’t even taste like crab and it really tasted like noodles to me… So, when I enquired further, I got informed that what they use is “Crab Sticks” and when I googled about it, I found out that the noodle like look made sense… So, if you are the owner/manager of the restaurant reading this, I’ve got bad news for you… Crab Sticks are not made up of real crab meat… They are imitation crab meat (Don’t believe me? Click here to find out more) with an artificial crab flavour added to it… There are many versions of it and unfortunately none of them use actual Crab meat in it… I think what got served for me was the version where they use wheat flour fillers and hence what I was feeling to be noodles were indeed noodles… 🙂 It is my humble request to stop using this fake crab meat and use real crab meat instead…

Other than the fake crab, the Singapore Chilly Sauce tasted absolutely divine with some strong flavours of soy and chilly along with crispy juliennes of vegetables like carrots, green beans, red cabbage, bell pepper, green-chillies and coriander… Its the perfect sweet and spicy taste that I will definitely like to have again… Since I felt that if I eat the whole thing, I wouldn’t have room for the mains, I just had that bit which was served onto my plate and asked the waiter to pack the rest for home…

So, once that was all done, I got served a fresh plate and along with it the mains… What I got for the mains were their Kway Teow and ofcourse my all time favourite Kung Pao Chicken to go with it… For those who are not aware, the Kway Teow or rather Char Kway Teow is a Malaysian dish, made with thick flat noodle pastry (rice cake strips) stir-fried in high heat in a wok with vegetables (traditionally bean sprouts, Chinese chives and chillies), Soy (both light and dark), Shrimp paste and assortment of seafood… Here, however, they also offer a Vegetarian as well as a Chicken based version of the same… I went for their Seafood variant and that came with some Fish, Crab Stick and Prawns along with an egg in it along with Juliennes of Carrots, Green Beans, Onions, Bell Peppers, Chinese Lettuce and Spring Onion… I have been wanting to try this ever since I saw the old episode of Anthony Bourdain in Penang and hence was incredibly surprised to see it in the menu here as I had been looking for it for years in India… Essentially, Kway Teow is to Malay cuisine what Pad Thai is to the Thai cuisine…

Kway Teow (Seafood) & Kung Pao Chicken

Kway Teow (Seafood) & Kung Pao Chicken

Kway Teow (Seafood)

Kung Pao Chicken

Now coming to the taste, it felt exactly as what I imagined it to be… It can be considered sweet and spicy but indeed mildly with the nice flavour of the sea to it thanks to all the seafood in there which indeed was packed full as can be seen in the up-close pic… Every ingredient in it was cooked perfectly especially with the pieces of fish literally melting in my mouth… I loved it so much that I am looking forward to having it again in my next visit, when it happens…

Now, the Kway Teow was perfectly complemented by the Kung Pao Chicken, although considering the portion sizes, I wished for an option where I could just just the Kung Pao sauce alone without the chicken for it… Its not that there was anything wrong with Kung Pao Chicken, which rather tasted awesome – even better than before, its just that with all the seafood in the Kway Teow, having the chicken pieces felt a bit too much to eat 🙂 That being said, the Kung Pao Chicken was absolutely perfect… Perfectly cooked chicken pieces in the most amazing sauce with Smokey Peanuts and Cashews along with the sweet yet spicy taste of the Schezwan Chillies in it… Compared to last time, I felt that it had a bit more stronger flavours, which is good as I liked this version better, especially with the Kway Teow…

So, altogether yet another glorious meal from the Oriental Spice restaurant… Once again, I still have issue with the portion size… I mean, I could literally eat only 1/4th of what was served and if you’ve seen me personally, you will know why thats a big deal… Other than that, only complaint I have is regarding the use of Crab Sticks instead of real crab meat, which I hope they do make the shift to very soon… 🙂

Oriental Spice – Spicy Chicken Soup, Singapore Chilly Crab, Kway Teow, Kung Pao Chicken Back at Supreme's Oriental Spice restaurant, at Kuravankonam again after a while... Its been more than a month since I've been there and I did end up having a bit of craving for the Kung Pao Chicken...

[anoopkam]

If you ask which are my all time favourite spots to eat, then a name you’ll definitely hear from me is Hotel Highland, in Manjalikulam Road, Thampanoor, Trivandrum… For those who are unaware, Highland hotel has been around in Trivandrum for decades and back in the golden days when Malayalam film industry used to operate entirely in Trivandrum, the hotel has been a regular shooting spot for whenever there is a scene taking place in a hotel… One example I can give is that old famous movie called “August 1” which had quite a number of hotel based scenes and most of it were done in this hotel… It has been a hub of not only film crews but also politicians, beaurocrats, you name them… 🙂

Original Hotel Highland

Hotel Highland Park

My parents have been taking me there for as long as I can remember and it is still one of our preffered spots even today… Not much has changed there over the years… The menu still remains more or less the same… The only change which was a major one in fact was that they opened up another hotel called Highland Park in the same road, opposite to it… The difference is that this new place has a vegetarian multi-cuisine restaurant as opposed to the original Highland, where you get all options i.e. City Queen and City Green restaurants respectively, I guess to distinguish between the two…

The food thats available in these restaurants is what I consider to fall under the classic food culture of Trivandrum and what I love about the places is that they have managed to stick to it even today… For this particular instance, what I am writing about is about my recent visit to the City Green restaurant at Highland Park… The menu of City Green hasn’t changed as well for decades… Hence, since this was a visit after a while, I went for my favourites from their menu… These are the Cream of Tomato Soup, Vegetable Spring Rolls, Paneer Pasand along with Naan (went for Mughlai Naan as opposed to the usual Butter Naan)… Then as takeaway, we got a couple of Bhaturas and their Chole Masala…

Cream of Tomato Soup

Veg Spring Roll

Mughlai Naan

Paneer Pasand

Bhatura

Punjabi Chole Masala

Now coming to the food… The first thing to arrive was obviously the Cream of Tomato soup… This is basically the all time classic soup which you can get in practically any multi-cuisine restaurant in India… The version here is exactly how we used to get since years ago, which is a thick tomato soup topped with cream and fried diced bread as shown in the pic…

The soup turned out to be exactly as one can expect… Great rich taste of tomato and cream along with the crispy fried pieces of bread… For those who are too young to remember, there used to be a time when restaurants in Trivandrum used to use a bit of tomato ketchup along with the tomato puree for some extra tomatoey kick to it… This place seems to still do that based on what I could make out from the taste 🙂 Also the size of the bowl is bigger than what we see in the new restaurants here and the soup is filled almost to the brim, just like the old days… A time-capsule indeed 🙂

After the soup, came the vegetable spring-roll… Spring roll is something we get every time we see it in a menu and is the absolute favourite starter for both me and my mom… Unlike the original vietnamese version, the indo chinese version is usually done by sauteing the vegetables you typically add in a fried rice or noodle dish with some ginger and garlic and some soy sauce and then wrapping it in pan cake made up of either refined wheat flour or corn flour and then fried to crisp… Its served usually with a spicy and sweet garlic based sauce… Here in this one, they used refined wheat flour pancakes, like how it has always been until the maida-police started showing up 🙂

To be frank, this particular version of the spring roll is my favourite and what I consider to be the absolute best indo-chinese style vegetarian spring roll in the world… This is because, I have had similar spring rolls from wherever I have been in the world so far and nothing comes even close to this one for me… The pancake on this one is a thick pancake unlike the wafer thin ones we find in many of the “modern” places… The pan cake contributed into the flavour profile of the spring roll, which is why the thickness helps (I mean, if you can’t taste the covering, why bother making a roll, rt?) Also, the amount of soy sauce to seasoning in the filling is simply perfect in this one, unlike in most places where I find the soy and/or other sauces that they add to be overpowering, preventing me from tasting the vegetables… The vegetables in the filling remained crunchy and so, crunchy vegetables with the crispt crusted pancake together makes it a perfect roll… Another thing is that unlike many of the places, they don’t put in any noodles as part of the stuffing… There is a noodle spring roll option in their menu, but if you ask me, the noodles really doesn’t belong in a spring roll… The dipping sauce has a lot of garlic in it and they seems to be using Szechwan pepper for the spice component of it (Taste-wise it feels like a combination of the Szechwan sauce and the Hot Garlic sauce)… So, if anybody is there who haven’t tried the spring rolls from here, then I strongly suggest you do… 🙂

Btw, in the menu of the original Highland hotel restaurant, City Queen, you will find both veg and non-veg options… However, when it comes to the veg option, I felt that the one in City Queen is not as good as the one they serve at City Green… Just my opinion… Feel free to try and reach to your own conclusions…

So, after the starter, the main course arrived… I had ordered for a Mughlai Naan and their Paneer Pasand along with it… I guess its a new addition to the menu as I don’t remember having seen it listed before… Usually I take either butter naan or roti or the kashmiri naan along with the paneer pasand…

It came as shown in the pic… Its basically your regular naan topped with some butter and a sauce made with the mughlai spices and grated paneer… They also seem to have sprinkled some chopped coriander leaves and green bell pepper (capsicum/shimla mirch) to it on top as well…  If you ask me, it felt as if they made and blended a version of the shahi paneer curry and applied on the naan 🙂 The reason I say that is because, I could taste that typical shahi gravy which is the almond-cashew-melon-seed paste made with fresh yogurt and then having some saffron infused into it as well… So, if you have had shahi paneer before, then imagine that reduced and mashed lightly into a coarse paste and then smeared on top of the naan 🙂 To be frank, I didn’t like this one, but do feel free to try for yourself… 🙂

Then along with the naan came the Paneer Pasand curry… This particular dish is by far my favourite paneer dish… I simply find it to be heavenly and again, just the spring roll, I consider this too, based on my experience to be the best version of the same in the world… I am yet to find a better option than this… If you know one, please feel free to let me know… From what I could make out, this dish is made by toasting slices of paneer with a filling made up of potatoes and dry fruits (mostly dry fruits and very very little potato – just enough to hold them together that you almost don’t taste the potatoes in it) sandwiched between them… Then they finish it in a sweet yet flavourful almond-cashew-cream sauce and serve as shown in the pic…

The sauce is quite sweet but yet has the complex flavours of the masala infused in it… I have had other versions where they use either a creamy and rich tomato and almond based sauce and I have had versions were they use fried onion paste as well… This particular version is sweeter than the others and its uses cream instead along with the nuts ground into it… The stuffing appeared to have almonds, cahews, pistachios, tutty-frutty and cherries in it and as you can see, each of these paneer sandwiches is topped with a piece of pineapple (pickled in a lite sugar syrup) and a whole cherry held in place with a toothpick 🙂 Altogether a dish so rich that its fit for the mughal emperor and ofcourse fit for any celebration… Only downside is that if you don’t like sweetness in a curry then you probably won’t be able to enjoy this, which is why I guess that the waiters do warn the customers of the sweetness when they take the order…

That was it for the meal, I mean clearly, because of the sweet curry, I didn’t feel the need to order any dessert…

Now coming to the take away, Chole-Bhature is my grandma’s favourite vegetarian thing to eat… So, if a restaurant we visit has that in the menu, then automatically we order it as take away for her… Now, ordering this one here is a bit tricky because there is no such thing as Chole-Bhature in the menu… Here, in order to have the same, we have to order the Bhature and Chole Masala seperately… This can become a problem if you are capable of eating only one bhatura because then the 500ml portion of the curry becomes too much for you… Anyways, one again, just like the spring roll, I can say that this combination of their Bhature with their Chole Masala is the best chole-bhature that I have ever had… I mean, I have had the same from Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi and I am yet to find anything thats better or even close to the version they serve here…

Regarding the Bhature, I guess because they serve it piping hot on a banana leaf and in case of take away, they wrap it in the same condition in a banana leaf, the Bhature gets infused by the flavour of the banana leaf… This coupled with the seasoning in the dough makes these Bhature enjoyable as it is, without any curry with it (especially when you do take away as thats when you get the maximum banana leaf flavour in it)… I find this to be a unique characteristic of the Bhature from City Green…

Now, coming to the chole masala… This is hands down my favourite version of the punjabi chole masala… A thick curry with perfectly cooked chickpeas in an amazing onion paste and tomato puree based gravy cooked with coriander leaves and a spice mix thats just mindblowing to taste… They serve it topped with some pieces of freshly sliced tomato, onion, a green chilly split into two and a slice of lime…

The best way to eat this in my opinion is to squeeze the lemon on top of the curry and then with a piece of the bhatura, scoop in some of the curry with some of the chickpeas and then push in around half of the tomato slice and then one or two (depending on size of the morsel you are taking) rings from the onion (optional: add a bit of the chilly) and then put the whole thing in your mouth 🙂 As I said, this is my favourite chole-bhature and I am yet to find a better version than this… Again, if anybody knows a better one, please do let me know…

Altogether, its a reaffirmation of the fact that classics are called classics for a reason… No matter how many fancy and modern places come up serving equally fancy and modern food, the classics will still continue to be enjoyable forever… This is why you see places like Highland still standing strong serving the same timeless classics… 🙂  🙂

Hotel Highland – City Green : Veg Classic If you ask which are my all time favourite spots to eat, then a name you'll definitely hear from me is Hotel Highland, in Manjalikulam Road, Thampanoor, Trivandrum...

[anoopkam]

First of all, to be frank, I was avoiding SP Grand Days in Trivandrum for quite a while, simply because my parents have been there for some wedding receptions and also for official events and have always been giving me negative reviews regarding the food… I have been there just once to attend an interview, but never tried the food… However, while out on work, my friend/collegue took me over at there for lunch…

It was a bit crowded over there because of a wedding ceremony going on and we went in to their restaurant on the 2nd floor… My friend was hoping to goto their rooftop restaurant, but unfortunately it was not open at that time… I liked the ambience of the restaurant; looked good; like one of the 5-star places I have been to… There was a buffet table setup, but since we were not having that much of an apetitie that time, we decided and went for the Ala Carte menu… Now, this menu is a mostly a classic multi-cuisine menu we can find in most of the nice places in the city, where vegetarian dishes form a minority…

So, I ordered a Chicken Clear Soup, a Mixed Fried Rice and a portion of Kung Pao Chicken to go with it and he being the vegetarian, ordered a Veg Spring Roll, a couple of Garlic Naans and a portion of Paneer Butter Masala to go with the Naan…As soon as we ordered we were served some fryums as complementary, I guess to keep us waiting for our meal… 🙂

So, first came the starters – the Chicken Clear soup and the Veg Spring Roll…

Chicken Clear Soup

Veg Spring Roll

The soup came in a bowl slightly bigger than a ramekin and was essentially an incredibly flavourful chicken broth thats a bit spicy with the black pepper in it… Also had some pieces of shredded chicken and vegetables (the usual: carrots, beans, cabbages, coriander leaves, celery)… As I have mentioned before, the clear soup is my goto soup all the time and so, by far this one has a broth that is one of the best I have had… The veg spring roll looked good… Crispy fried roll served with a sweet schezwan chilly sauce… I had the opportunity to taste a piece and its basically hakka… The vegetables appear to have been just sauted with some soy sauce and filled inside the pastry and fried… However, the sweet chilly sauce makes up for the lack of flavours but essentially giving the sweet and hot component thereby making the perfect trio of sweet, sour and salty which is what can be seen in most chinese and other south east asian dishes… I have seen this sauce available in the supermarket and my mom even bought once by mistake thinking that its just chilly sauce 🙂

By the time we were done with the starters, the main course arrived, which are the Garlic Naan, Paneer Butter Masala, Mixed Fried Rice and Kung Pao Chicken…

Garlic Naan

Paneer Butter Masala

Mix Fried Rice

Kung Pao Chicken

Regarding the vegetarian items, the Garlic Naan looked to be soft and crispy in the edges… However, my friend told me that it could use some more garlic in it as he felt the flavour of garlic is not enough… Each portion came with two sizable pieces of the Naan… The Paneer Butter Masala as can be seen in the pic, looked quite rich with a thick tomato and cream based gravy and it came with a lot I mean, a lot of paneer… Even though you can’t see the pieces in the pic, it appeared to include more than 70% of the dish by its volume… I saw my friend being unable to eat all of it 🙂 However, one complaint he had which I too confirmed by tasting is that it has a tomato flavour thats too intense for it… From what I could make out, it seems like they used tomato ketchup instead of making fresh tomato puree to use in the gravy as I could sense the taste of the preservatives and the vinegar that I usually see in the bottled ketchups we get from the supermarkets 🙂

Regarding the non-vegetarian items, the Mixed Fried rice was again basically a hakka fried rice having vegetables, chicken and prawns thats mildly seasoned with soy… The pieces of chicken and prawns were of quite a generous amount and were cooked perfectly along with the rice and vegetables… They have added some extra white pepper powder when cooking this as well making it give a slight kick to the throat as you eat it… The quantity of the fried rice was just right for me and I loved it with the Kung Pao Chicken that I got… As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, the Kung Pao Chicken is my favourite dish from the chinese cuisine and so, since I saw it in the menu here, I just had to try their version… Unlike the ones I have seen, the version here in a dry one, which is a first for me… It came in a plate as shown in the pic, which a good chicken to vegetables to peanuts ratio… The chicken was batter fried like how they do in manchurian i.e with corn flour and appears to have been sauted with the sauces they usually use for Kung Pao with some vegetables namely carrots, capsicums, onions, celery and peanuts and then finally garnished with some chopped spring onion… This one tasted slightly sweeter than the versions I have had before and I guess since its dry, the flavours too were a bit more intense…

To summarise, altogether a great meal thanks to my friend and I do regret staying away from the place for so long… I guess it might be the singular versus mass production difference in quality and taste, which does happen in most places… So, hopefully I’ll get to be back there soon and will get to try other items from their menu… 🙂

SP Grand Days – First Visit First of all, to be frank, I was avoiding SP Grand Days in Trivandrum for quite a while, simply because my parents have been there for some wedding receptions and also for official events and have always been giving me negative reviews regarding the food...