Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Instant Pot Recipes from facebook

I am all for automation ( work and home and specially in kitchen). 
I used my Aroma slow cooker/rice cooker/steam cooker  for a long time for that purpose .. but the nonstick inner pot and not able to program it to start at a certain time was my pet peeve.

Instantpot solved that issue in an instant!  steel innerpot, plus timer + programmable pressure cooker! for a working mom like me who wants to put things in it and forget about it and then come back to it when hungry and tired ( from work/shopping/play) 

They are expensive but i think worth it .. so wait for a deal if you can .. 

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=7-in-1+instant+pot&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=80967655752&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10832107339725523789&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_30hcns3flk_b

Crediting Lavanya Kartik who compiled this list of recipes ..

RECIPES

Desserts
Rice Kheer

Yogurt in IP6in1 with berries

Therattipal

Rava Kesari

Basundi

Blueberry Jam

Badam (Almond) Kheer


Soups

Minestrone soup

Vegetarian gravies

Chole

Dum Aloo

Red Thai curry Tofu

Idli with bhaji stuffed

Pav Bhaji

Kadai Paneer

Aloo Sabzi

Introducing Trivet method - Squash Sambar
Dal
Chow chow (cayote) kootu

Aloo mattar

Onion Tomato Masala paste

Mixed Vegetable Kurma

Chinna vengaya vethal kozhambu and potato fry

Idli with sambar and avocado chutney

Cumin Pepper Rasam (Milagu Jeeraga rasam) and Spicy Pepper Kozhambu (Milagu kozhambu)

Malai Kofta

Mini Peppers in a sweet, spicy n tangy gravy

Veg Manchurian with Hakka Noodles


Grains

Grainy Breakfast 
1/3rd cup each of millet, amaranth, buckwheat, 1 large pear diced, 1 tsp of cinnamon, 2 tsp vanilla, 2 cups water. Manual for 20 mins, NPR.

SteelCut Oats - Buckwheat - Amaranth Porridge
1/2 cup Amaranth, 1/2 cup Buckwheat, 3/4th cup Steelcut Oats, 1 large apple diced, 1 tsp cinnamon, 4 cups water. 25 mins manual NPR, PIP. Probably will need less time and water if you do it directly in the inner pot.
We ate it with a splash of milk, hemp seeds, pumpkin and sesame seeds

Quinoa
https://www.facebook.com/groups/InstantPotIndian/permalink/443316515856989/?hc_location=ufi

Tomato rice

Ven pongal

Plain Pasta

Quinoa Pulav

Rolled oats

Black bean Sweet Potato Quinoa Chilli with avocado and salsa sides

Mac n Cheese


Indo-Chinese pasta noodles

Paneer Pulav

BBB

Pulikachal,  Puliyodharai/Puliogare, Tamarind rice

Sphagetti with Veggie balls


Masala Ravioli




































TIPS

Toor dal issues

Inserts

Stacking in IP
Introducing Trivet method - Squash Sambar

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

For all those who supported Rohan in the fundraiser

This wouldn't have been possible without YOUR help. Thank You for all your support.

 we donated $500 to
 AID's Tamilnadu Relief and Rehabilitation Fund. 
 If my company matches the donations your support will be doubled.I am in the process of getting more details on that.



donation details are as follows:

$ 500.00 

12/23/2015 
 
Tamilnadu Relief and Rehabilitation Fund 

updates about the program can be seen here :- 

 https://www.facebook.com/EurekaChild/?fref=ts



 AID INDIA #aidindia has distributed 183 trucks of relief materials in 93 villages across flood affected areas of Cuddalore, Kalpakkam & Tiruvallur and also 72 slum areas in and around Chennai benefitting 91,500 people in less than 3 weeks.



Here is how your contribution is going to help prevent spreading of epidemics by helping floowd victims get a sustainable clean source of water  (your fundraiser helped almost 50 purifiers and probably touched >500 victims ( since the purifier will be shared in families e.t.c)

 

Friday, December 18, 2015

Last day of fundraising !! raised $300 !!


we raised $300!!! we exceeded out goal of $200!!

Shout out to all those pinkerton kids and teachers who made it possible.
It was impressive to see kids donating, buying, remembering to ask for money from parents a day before to help the sale and coming and supporting Rohan and encouraging him with his efforts!!

Apart from this Rohan's class also helped out Rohan in his efforts by doing chores at home and raising money for it ( master lesson plan from Miss Head to teach kids about chores and money and income and donations .. all in one lesson). Big thanks to all his class members who did chores for chennai ..They were known was Chennai Helpers :)


a big THANKS to PINKERTON FAMILIES!!

we shall update you soon on how your money was put to use :)





A special thanks to Shaun Jex for reaching out to us when we were planning this fundraiser in Andy Brown(which flopped )  and covering the story of our fundraiser here http://www.coppellcitizensadvocate.com/ ( Page 15 and 19)



The Best part was how much we enjoyed all of this .. Rohan loved making announcements on school news (live!! for the first time) , his friends enjoyed helping him reach his goal. some friends came and helped him on his sale stand to sell the goodies , A girl from 3B was soo generous she donated a lot more than she bought ( along with some others who did the same) and we all enjoyed encouragement from teachers  and their donations and Rohan enjoyed answering the teachers when asked about what he is doing? why is he doing that ? and what all they can buy in X dollars :)

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

3rd day of Chennai Helpers at school

Today was a busy morning as well!!

we raised $61 today ( so now we have $61+$56+$33 in total..go figure that out :))

I am impressed that the kids remembered to ask their parents for money for candy cane, candy and host choclate sales.

I am impressed by the generosity of the kids who walked up to the table with like more money and say .. I just want a candy and want to donate the rest of it :)

We were almost out of supplies this morning ( 1 box of candy cane --sold ..2 boxes of hot choclate --sold :))

One thing I learned is that kids  get a great crash course on Business 101s from an activity like this (I think and I hope they are learning):-
1)  Smiling when somebody walks to the table and ask them how can we help/what would you like?
2)  kids are mostly grabbing the money in their hands and want to hurry up the process of giving them the goodies .. but i think they realised today that they need to let the customer (kids again) make up his/her mind on what they want , how they want to spend the money ..instead of rushing them
3) They are learning to tell folks how much everything costs and all the choices they are offering (Advertising and information dissemination)
4) Rohan also got his jingle bell necklace today to shake it up and make some noise ( creative advertising :))
5) we taught them on how to count the money and make sure if there is extra money then given back the remaining money or ask them if they would like to have anything else ( unless they explicitly say they want to donate the rest)  (Fair Business)
6) There are many kids who come and say "Oh i forgot!!" and look longingly towards the candy .. we give them what they want .. and tell them you can pay tomorrow for it ...hopefully this is teaching them how to build Business goodwill ;)

Not that this is a business(if it was we are i think overcharging our clients ;))  but i think our fundraiser is proving out to be a lot more than the fundraiser we had in mind


I forgot to take a picture today .. but hopefully I will be able to get one from Miss Mikkelson





Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Second day of "Chennai helpers at School"

Today was the second day of "Chennai helpers" at School.
Rohan's friend also chimed in and offered to help us with the sales.
Today we raised $56!
It was a busy morning :)


For more information please refer to the blog post before this post.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Attempts to aid Tamilnadu flood relief and rehabilitation program dec-2015


I was telling Rohan(my son) one night (every night before sleeping we talk about our days) that there is a big flood in India in Tamilnadu, Chennai and lot of people had to rush to second floor and are staying there until they are rescued without food, drinking water and heating e.t.c. He seemed a little concerned... he asked me if we could help them anyways? I told him yes .. we could donate to the organizations I volunteer for ( AID, VIbha) .. he said sure .. , I told him we could raise more awareness about it to encourage others to donate  as well .. he said sure and then we started talking abotu what fundraisers are and how they work ( wish i knew about it all)  and the couple of fundraisers we have helped in past ) vibha's pani poori contect, kite flying contest,  cheering AID marathon runners, vibha walkathon e.t.c ) and in the end I encouraged him to check with his teacher if he can do something in school and we could explore if we could do some fundraisers in coppell  as well. (more about the coppell fundraiser later .. we ran into some hiccups with that one)


Interestingly he remembered (which does not happen often)  to ask his teacher (Miss Head) about it and tell her about the floods and his interest in doing something. His teacher encouraged him , supported him  and came up with a great plan to sell hot chocolate and candy canes every morning at school drop pff time. They ran this idea by the Principal and she approved!!!

So here we are this week every morning selling hot choclate and candy canes( which are more popular) to raise funds for Chennai .. Thanks to Miss Head and everybody at his school to help and support him!!

we will make sure all the proceeds from the sale ( and more ;) ) are donated to AID india who are carrying out a fabulous job out there on the ground helping people with their short term and long term needs. All updates, plans can be seen here :-
https://www.facebook.com/EurekaChild/?fref=ts

you can even join their conference calls to hear from activists on the ground. (PM me if you need more details)

Today was day 1 and we collected $32 already!!!


Here are some pictures of our first day!  Hopefully we will soon have one outside school as well ..since many of our non-pinkerton friends are also enthusiastic to help and participate.. as soon as a find a place .. which allows us :)  (we tried Andy Brown , sprouts, tom thumbs .. but did not work out)





Thursday, April 30, 2015

Boko Haram victim's story

Sadly the girls are still not back :(
Inspite of all the international movement of girls rising and all .. I hate to see the world getting complacent at all the clicktivism that is going around.

In my son's school today i saw a donation box for water bottles for nepal earthquake victims .. and in my head I am trying to make sense of ...how this will help ? Is it utlimately all to feel good in your head.. that you did good .. nobody wants to know what happens/happened after you share that post .. how this water bottle from US will reach nepal and why and When?

Have we stopped thinking? or have we stopped questioning ?

Here is a story narrated by one of the girls who jumped out that night of kidnapping .. I wish we all can jump out of our fears...I wish i could..

http://girlrising.com/blog/saas-testimonial/