Me vs. Corn Syrup

(this is a repeat blog from my own blog)

Salaam ladies,

So lately everyone around me is dieting..which I consider to be impractical, unreasonable and unrealistic (for me). Hence is is forbidden in my dictionary.

You can guess how I feel about dieting. But why is it so hard to eat healthy and moderately? I ate some sushi for lunch, which felt pretty good about it; I wanted to eat something else since I had a small serving. So I went to the cafeteria at work and against every fiber of my being walked past the (awesome) onion rings.

I wasn't feeling salad. I know salad is really good for you, but it's cold, and light, and I never feel like it can be my meal. I wanted something hot but nothing was appealing, so I though...great, cereal. Grains and dairy. Wrong. Every cereal, Total, Special K, raisin Bran, and even healthy Start had high fructose corn syrup in it. What a shocker! These are the healthy cereals, or so I would think to put all those on that list.

What's my beef with corn syrup:

Read this. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/does-fructose-make-you-fatter/
It's just one of thousands of articles on the Internet about corn syrup.

And then start looking at labels; there's almost nothing (and I mean NOTHING) you can find without corn syrup. It's surprising some of the things it's in.

And my other beef with corn syrup is it's so secretive and most people don't know the truth about it but take in obscene amounts of it in every day foods, under their very own nose. It's completely unhealthy, unnatural and does not exist in nature!

on another note; most diets are based on avoiding foods high in preservatives, corn syrup and unrefined flours. These are things that are highly bad for you. But that's exactly why diets are so hard. There are very, very , very few foods that do not have these ingredients. Just pick up something as simple as a loaf of bread and read the ingredient list. How many of the ingredients do you recognize?

What are some foods you can recommend as easy healthy eats? What are some things I should watch out for?

Bliss from Bliss

I know...long time.

So I recently placed an order with Bliss...yeh the spa and body products company.

It was pure...Bliss. I'm a sucker for marketing and pretty packaging.

It came in a beautiful box. You must admire it with me.

Oh and do I love samples!

They came aplenty, and everything came with adorable cloth Bliss bags, which should come in handy when traveling.

So since the products seemed great, I thought the spa should be great too! I checked out the website to see what facials they offered. Did I mention I am in desperate need of one. So they had many options, but all of them $200+. Ouch.

Well maybe when I'm rich. Or we're not in recession/inflation/whatever excuse for the economy.. Or gas doesn't cost more than my car. Or rice and flour don't cost more than twice they did last year. Ouch again.

Dear future president/eight ball/ tomkat (Umara's special navigation system):
Will I be rich?

Sameera

Chicken Pulao Rocks!

I heart chicken pulao that I get at my friend's pakistani homes, especially Amina Chief with her very spicy, very flavorful, absolutely dreamy pulao. Yesterday I decided to try my hand at it and found a good recipe online that I made several adjustments to. The end result was delicious!

I'm posting the recipe with my adjustments here:

Chicken Pulao

3 cups rice

1 cup natural, low fat yogurt

1 whole chicken

1 large tomato, diced

2 medium onions, sliced fine

2 potatoes, diced into 1 inch pieces

2-4 green chillies, chopped roughly

chili powder to taste

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 star anise

2 tsp whole cumin

2 inches cinnamon

2 large bay leaves

3/4 teaspoon coriander seeds

2 cardamom pods

1 inch ginger and 4 garlic cloves, pureed

3 tbsp sunflower oil

Salt to taste

Handful chopped cilantro

Handful chopped mint

---

In a large pot, bring the oil to heat over a high flame. When it is hot, add the whole spices.

As they sizzle up in seconds add the onions and fry for five minutes until golden brown.

Then add the ginger and garlic and fry for another five minutes until the whole mixture goes a darker shade of brown. Add the turmeric, chili powder (optional), the chillies and the chicken.

Stir vigorously for five minutes until the chicken is brown all over. Now, add the yogurt and leave the chicken to cook on a high flame, stirring regularly to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. If it does, add a little water.

When chicken is halfway cooked, add potatoes and tomatoes.

After 10 minutes, stir in the rice and fry for a minute or so.

Add about 4.5 cups to cook the rice.
(Very important: If the yogurt has let out a lot of water, then adjust how much water you add here; you don't want to end up with too much liquid or mushy rice.)

Once you have done this, don’t stir the rice because it will get all mushy.
Turn heat down, cover and cook until rice is cooked through. Take a peek to make sure there is enough water once or twice.

When the water dries up and the rice is cooked, the pulao is ready.

Add cilantro and mint and serve with raita.