Vegan Zoodles Recipe | Zucchini/Courgette Noodles with Almond, Cashew and Cilantro Pesto Recipe with OXO Good Grip Spiralizer Product Review and A Giveaway

Learn how to make Vegan Zoodles or Zucchini Noodles with Almond, Cashew and Cilantro Pesto ~ Vegan and gluten free low carb zucchini or courgette pasta with blanched broad beans and almonds and flavoured with creamy almond, cashew nuts and coriander pesto

Gardening, especially growing fruits and vegetables has never been my ‘thing’! I am notorious among my family and friends as a person with black thumb who even managed to kill succulents! I am that bad! A complete contrast to my very keen and green gardener parents who have a lush and lovely garden back home growing flowers of every colour, fruits and veggies of every kind!

Then something happened and suddenly little seeds that we planted actually sprouted and then grew into large plants finally bearing fruits of our labour! How? I am still struggling to find an answer. It could be the quality of seeds or the compost or most likely to do with my little helper who might have inherited green fingers from both sets of his grandparents. They say that the genes skips generation and it might very well be true!

Spicy Sweet Potato Paratha Recipe | GitaDini Product Review and A Giveaway

Learn how to make Spicy Sweet Potato Paratha ~ Spicy Indian flatbread made using sweet potato mash and assorted Indian spices

There is always a new gadget to add to the kitchen to brighten up the décor, ease cooking prep, or to store things more efficiently. These days the market is flooded with hundreds and thousands of kitchen gadgets, available in various size, shape and budget to suit every need. There’s a lot more to product design than simply making something look good! For me, a good product is one that I find easy to use, it does the thing that it says in the label, something meets my needs, something that I like to use regularly and lastly, the look is appealing to me. For me, GitaDini products tick all the boxes and easily fit the bill of a good product. This post is about my experience of using GitaDini kitchenware and cookware extensively in my kitchen for the last two months. You can scroll down to find the details about how you can enter a giveaway to win this beautifully crafted kitchenware from GitaDini!

GitaDini is a US based family business founded by a dynamic husband and wife team, Jitu and Gita Patel. Apart from their wide range of home décor and furnishing line, they have a beautiful collection of kitchenware which I will be reviewing here. I’ve always worked with brands which I find best fit for my blog readers, mainly related to food and cooking. I usually take couple of weeks to extensively test the products in my kitchen before posting an honest review as I don't believe in misleading the blog readers with false information. It has been close to two months since I started using the GitaDini kitchenware and I am in a stage where I can happily share my experience.

Khatta-Meetha Lauki Dal | Sapori Product Review and A Giveway

Learn how to make Khatti-Meethi Lauki Dal ~ One pot sweet and sour bottle gourd lentil soup

A week before the madness of Christmas holidays began, I received a large box of parcel from the Forma House, a UK based company specialising in unique home ware products sourced from around the globe. With all that running, organising and buying mini truckloads of presents for the family and friends, it was a pleasant surprise to receive something special during the festive season. The package contained two beautifully crafted pieces of Sapori Collection from the well-known brand La Porcellana Bianca; Sapori Potato Pot and the Sapori Casserole Pot in a beautiful shade of red. This post is about my experience of using this elegant cookware extensively in my kitchen for the last one month and also about how you can enter a giveaway to win this striking Sapori Casserole Pot worth £55!

I normally work with brands which are best fit for my blog readers and usually take couple of weeks to extensively test the products in my kitchen before posting an honest review as I don't believe in misleading the blog readers with false information. It has been little over a month since I started using the Sapori pots in everyday cooking and it was not difficult to fall in love with such beautifully crafted pieces of cookware. Both products came with very useful instruction manual as how to clean the product before using. The Sapori collection is created to meet the needs of people who are constantly looking for ways to enhance the flavours without compromising the nutrition quotient of food. It is designed for those who want to rediscover the joy and real taste of traditional recipes, whilst still being healthy.

Instant Andhra Tomato Pickle Recipe | Simple Andhra Style Tomato Pickle Recipe with Nirlep Cookware Product Review and A Giveaway!

Learn how to make Instant Andhra Tomato Pickle ~ Instant Andhra style tomato pickle flavoured with spices, tamarind and garlic tempering

It is always hard to come back to England after a fun filled trip to India! The colours, weather, buzz, noise, and the sense of never being alone are just other things you miss apart from family and friends. The holiday is always too short when one visits home!!!

Juicy, firm, red Tomatoes for Instant Andhra Style Tomato Pickle

This holiday with our family was one that finally helped us in taking one of the big and most important decisions of our life. I will talk about it in one of my next posts in coming days. For now all I want to talk about is food... The food cooked by our loved ones and the few I cooked for them, like this Instant Andhra Tomato Pickle!

Nawabi Paneer Curry Recipe | Simple Paneer and Peas Curry Recipe with Swiss Diamond Product Review and A Giveaway!

Learn how to make Nawabi Paneer Curry ~ Shallow fried Indian cottage cheese and green peas cooked in rich, creamy coconut and cashew nut gravy

So it’s just couple of days before I hang my office wear and see myself sporting jeans and comfy t-shirts.

It’s just couple of days before my stilettos are replaced with bare feet/trainers/sneakers.

It’s just couple of days before my office files are replaced with story books.

It’s just couple of days before my MS office calendar is wiped clean of meetings, seminars, trainings, project deadlines to colouring, learing, visits to the park, play groups, and other kid related activities.

It’s just couple of days before my jovial, friendly, caring and loving boss (ahem, my hubby is my boss at office) is replaced by the most demanding, clingy, attention seeking, bossy and loving boss who will make me work 24X7 without pay, holidays and other perks!

The Winners of Prashad Cookbook Are...

Kaushy Patel's Prashad

Hello All,

Thank you all for participating in a cookbook giveaway. After counting out the duplicate comments and leaving out my own comments, here are the two winners selected using random number generator.

The Winners of Mrs. Kaushy Patel’s cookbook Prashad are commenter #15 Manasi and #58 Naveen. Congratulations guys :) Please email me your shipping address to siakrishna(at)gmail(dot)com so that you can cook delicious meals from Prashad as soon as possible! If I don’t hear from you in week’s time I will randomly choose another winner(s) on 17th of April, 2013.

Warm Regards
Sia

Kehra Na Reveya/Green Banana Satay Recipe with Kaushy Patel's Prashad Cookbook Review and A Giveaway

Learn how to make Kehra Na Reveya ~ Raw Green Banana Satay (with spicy peanut paste stuffing)

Apart from family and friends, what one misses the most when they move from their home country? Someone asked me in this question in the first month when I moved from India to UK and I didn’t even blink before saying it’s the Food which I miss the most! Yes, it was the delicious and aromatic food from my vibrant country that I missed a lot; from my mother’s comfort meals to tantalising Indian street foods, from quick breakfasts at Darshini hotels to elaborate north and south Indian Thali meals, from very casual Punjabi Dhaba foods to sophisticated high end restaurants and many more like that!

Eggplant Curry with Coconut Milk & The Winner of Giveaway is...

Eggplant Curry with Coconut Milk

I LOVE the Baingan/Badanekai/Brinjal/Eggplant. ~Period~

My love for these purple or green beauties has no limit. I can eat it day in and day out without getting tired or bored of its taste, texture and all. When most of my friends, cousins twisted their nose and turned their back to anything and everything made using the eggplants, I happily sat there relishing the last piece of this versatile vegetable. I was every mother’s dream child who adored eggplants. For me this purple or green beauty is THE king of vegetables with fitting crown adorning its head!

5 Years of Blogging Celebration, a Huge Thank you & a Giveaway!

“Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and we'll meet now and then when we wish, in the midst of the one celebration that never can end.”

~Richard Bach

How to Roast Garlic (Roasted Garlic Recipe) and A Winner of My Indian Kitchen

Roasted Garlic

Yesterday I was going through all the food photos I had taken in the last 2 months. Suddenly I came across one of the simplest and quickest, and yet absolutely delicious recipe of Roasted Garlic I had made when I was all alone! Lil dumpling had recovered completely from viral infection and he was back in his day care. The bad and ugly virus which made my child suffer had happily found a new home in my body and I was left all alone at home coughing, sniffling and weak while the hubby left to work half heartedly after much persuasion from me.

A quick peek into Hari Nayak’s “My Indian Kitchen” & a Giveaway!

This is post is long overdue! I have been sitting on this post for awhile now. Not because I wanted to, but because of heavy workload, and some health problems with lil dumpling. But here it is, at last! When I received an email by the publishers of celebrity Indian chef and Restaurateur Hari Nayak’s latest cook book “My Indian Kitchen” to see if I was interested in receiving an advance copy, I readily agreed for two reasons. One, I love to leaf through glossy pages and pour over the beautiful pictures of delicious food! And second reason is Chef Hari Nayak comes from my home town, Udupi-Mangalore, a sleepy coastal town in Southern Indian state of Karnataka. Few months back I was pleasantly surprised when Hari mailed me when he came across my blog and wanted to leave few words of appreciation. So I was obliviously interested in taking a small peek into his kitchen and see how similar or different he cooks traditional recipes.