I made this eons ago, but never posted the recipe as the picture didn’t look all that appetizing. Today while hunting through the drafts for my next post I realized that I only had chicken dishes in there. I am sure you guys have had a chicken overload by now, so I had to get this one out to give you a break from all that cluck cluck. Don’t let the lackluster picture and those burned edges deceive you, this is a great way to have pizza on South Beach …

Looks like I have been starting every other blog post with an apology. This time I have a genuine excuse for my tardiness. Over the past three months I have spent a good amount of time at the chiropractor’s office and with a physical therapist due to a constant pain in the neck. (And no, I am not figuratively speaking about Siv or my boss) I don’t want to bore you with all the details but I have been doing a lot of exercises as part of the Physical therapy …

Phew! I got through the first two days of the second round of SBD Phase 1 successfully. Today was considerably better than yesterday both on energy level and on the cravings front. It is just going to get easier from here. I don’t think I’ll be able to post day-by-day menu and recap on the blog this time, but I’ll try my best to update as frequently as I can. Today it’s going to be a quick post on a brand new discovery which I feel is going to be …

It’s been almost 5 months since I got off South Beach Diet. It was early March. I had reached my target weight; I was happy with the way I looked and the way my clothes fitted; I had learned all the basics of a good healthy diet which was sustainable; my body was well-conditioned to not crave for bad carbs; my metabolism was at its best. Then came summer, it got really warm around here and my one and only true weakness started popping up everywhere – BEER! There was …

This one is a rather boring looking curry, but it was really tasty for a quick fix dish made with this and that from the pantry and refrigerator. I have never really combined chickpeas (garbanzo beans) with eggs before, I wasn’t planning on it this time either. As the chickpeas were simmering in the gravy inspiration struck me and those eggs poached in the spicy coconut gravy was just so delicious.
 
Ingredients

1 can cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans) washed and drained
2 eggs
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp …

 
Garlic spears are the flowery tops of the elephant garlic plant. Look how pretty they are! Raw spears have a really spicy garlic flavor, but it turns much milder once cooked. The more you cook the milder it gets! The texture is a little firmer than that of an asparagus, a little crunchy and tender at the same time. Garlic spears are in season now, and are available in some farmers markets and also at Asian stores, I got mine last week from Uwajimaya (my favorite Asian store). I …

Aval is the Malayalam name for flattened or beaten rice. Growing up, one of my favorite snacks used to be Aval Nanachathu (which translates to wet aval), which is just flattened rice mixed with grated coconut and jaggery or sugar. It is very easy to make, so it was a frequent tea time snack at my house. But after I left home, I never bothered to make it myself, no idea why!  When I went to India in March, I found brown rice Aval at the store, anything brown rice …

I have wasted away another beautiful weekend doing absolutely nothing. I stayed in bed most of the past 48 hours, while everyone around me was doing something cool and exciting. Damn those social networking sites and the status updates! Reading about all the fabulous ways in which the others were spending their weekends made me feel a little guilty. After a stressful week I was getting exactly what I needed, uninterrupted me-time, but still I couldn’t help but wonder why I was the only one who didn’t want to get …

 
I don’t have much to say today. I’ve been blogging daily for the past 5 days, which is a lot for someone who’s been doing just 4 posts per month since February. So I’ll just jump right into the day’s tally and the recipe. 
It was a really cheap day at $7.20, as the lunch was from yesterday’s left-overs. This brings our weekly total to $40.04, which means we have $20 leftover for tomorrow. I can finally afford a latte!

Spicy Chicken and Lettuce Wraps with Garlic Yogurt Dressing
This …

I am not exaggerating when I say that this is my new favorite dish! I have always liked chickpeas aka garbanzo beans aka Kabuli Chana, but the black chana which we call Kadala in Kerala has always been my favorite. I normally buy canned garbanzo beans only for quick fix dishes and for salads, but recently I came across an interesting recipe called Lemony Chickpea Stir-Fry on 101 Cookbooks. Just reading about the golden, crusty, pan-fried chickpeas had me drooling and made me wonder why I never tried chickpeas this …

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post. I’ve been doing so well this year, keeping up with my resolution of being a more active blogger and all. Like all new year resolutions, that one had a shelf life of exactly one month. On the same note, I couldn’t reply to many emails and comments in the past two weeks either, my apologies! I am so glad I started my diet long before New Year’s, I am still sticking with it. I did slightly slip last week, on …

This is my last SBD weekly update post, till I get to my target weight. SBD has become a way of life for me, with occasional indulgences. In some ways I think I might be in Phase 3 already, but I still have 4.5lbs to lose, so I am officially sticking to Phase 2. Weight loss is really slow now, it has been toggling up and down 0.2-0.3 lbs every day, which sounds like a plateau to me. But at the end of the week I am 0.7lbs down from …

As I mentioned before, breakfast is my biggest challenge on South Beach Diet. I love eggs, but it gets boring really quick. I did try oatmeal, but I am not a fan. Thanks to everyone who offered different recipes suggestions with oatmeal, I still need to try those out. For now, I am alternating between a fruit + cottage cheese combination and eggs for my breakfast.
Since I am still largely dependant on eggs, I have been doing a lot of experiments to keep it interesting. This frittata is the …

It seems like we’ve been eating a lot of salmon lately. Well, why not? Salmon is a very healthy option for the South Beach diet. It is easy to prepare since there is literally no cleaning if you buy the  filets. This fish is so versatile that I use it in breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes.  I’ve been experimenting with different salmon recipes lately, here is one that turned out great and as usual it is a quick and simple recipe.
Ever since I discovered the Piquillo Peppers, I always keep …