It's Not Mother's Day Today! Yet, My DD prepares lunch for me!

Today was like any other day with usual routines. I was complaining again about how my little one is not allowing me to have lunch. Little one was sleepy and doesn't want to sleep,but play!  My elder one escaped the scene. I was trying to put the little one to sleep. Five minutes later I hear the secret clattering sound of dishes in the kitchen. I don't want to ask "whats happening there? " as, I feared it would distract my little one to get up from her Zombie mode! After 20 mins of rocking, she finally fell asleep. I gently transferred(this is how my mom says lol!) to bed and came out bending my body in funny shapes! 

                                                 ❤❤When I came out of the room I saw this❤❤

A salad made with Cabbage,Cherry Tomatoes,Black Olives and Cheddar Cheese. Guava juice as a thirst quencher! 

I recently read somewhere that Yellow color makes people happy. The Yellow Sunflower made me feel so Happy, Lucky and Proud. My DD's thoughtfulness made me feel like "I am the most most most.. luckiest MOM in the whole wide world" I ❤ U Dear :) I hugged her and 

thanked her! It's like my mom is near me to take care of me!

I asked her if she has prepared a bowl for her too, for which she said No i'll prepare now. But, We both shared the same bowl of salad and had a nice little chit chat! 

DIY Holder

Its Summer time here in USA. 2.5 months of holidays. Play time,Screen time and Play dates are doubled, yet kids get bored often. So here, easy craft works or DIY projects help us a lot :)

Today, I wanted to talk about 3 R's Reduce-Reuse-Recycle . They are learning about Recycling at school. We discussed how we can  Reuse the things we have at home, and how it cut down the waste we throw away. She told me, at school how they reused the egg carton to organize the shells. I also showed her how Gayathri has used the cereal box to create a cool Father's day gift. She wants to try it soon. Just waiting for us to buy a cereal box :)

What you need:

1. Clean Shampoo bottle.
2. Cloth or duct tape
3. Scissors/ Card board cutter
4. Glue
5. Pom pom and a button to decorate

This part takes little time and patience. I helped her with folding the cloth so that it looks neat.
There are lots of colored and decorated duct tapes available at the market. Those are so easy to use.

Simple Pin Wheel Activity for kids

Just two more weeks of school for kids. Then Summer holidays starts. As said, the last two weeks they do not get home works to do. So DD was so bored and we did an activity that she learned from her friend during "Teacher Needs A Break" session.

I just purchased Origami papers recently and it came in handy for this project.The size 5.9"*5.9" which is perfect for this one. The picture says it all and doesn't need much of explanation.

You could also use this as a way to give your return gift too :)

All you need is :

1.Any paper or card stock

2.Scissors

3.pushpin

4.Pencil with Eraser

you can also use the old calendar to have a glossy design and also you can glue two papers to create a pattern. Always there are various possible ways to enhance it with your imagination.  

Instead of a pushpin, use can also glue it to the stick and place it in your garden :)

Here the step by step instructions.

Crispy Vegetable Pakoda !

Its Raining here in Fremont! A cup of hot chai is always we crave for! What else? Of course Pakodas or Bajji :) Yes! preparing the pakodas for the evening :) Earlier, when I started cooking, making pakodas is a pain for me.Cutting the vegetables, making the right concoction for the pakoda mix shabba!! Now-a- days it's one of easiest and quick one to do! Now, I would nail the pakoda mix just by eyeballing the ingredients!So, here's the recipe:

Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's day, my daughter gifted me with a purse, they made at school, capturing all the details about mom. It was amazing to know how much she knows about me! The way she gives it to me as a surprise is so CUTE :) Its a yearly appraisal for us ;) We can see our wonderful picture they had drawn! I had curly rainbow hair 2 years before! Was a princess last year! ! LOL! This year I looked very pretty!Ok, jokes apart! I was wondering how she is observing the tiny details about me. By this age then, I do not know my mom's favorite color! I feel very sad about it now, how have I taken my mom for granted! I started realizing,admiring and appreciating her efforts only after getting married. I started Saluting her after I became a MOM! I have and had so many WOW's for my MOM now:)
I feel so happy and blessed as my daughter appreciate, admire my work and even understand my tantrums sometimes! Loads of Love to my Amma and My little Cupcake for understand me and being everything to me!

Summer Snack!

Luckily I do not have to sneak in the fruits as my munckin will devour the fruits at the very sight of it. She likes surprises in her lunch box so I used to make the tiny animals with vegetables or fruits for a snack. Today I just started to cut fruits to make fruit salad,  but ended up with this :)
I am going to send this to a contest in a parenting group.Wish me luck!

Fruito-pillars with Oranges,Watermelon and Mangoes

Ah oh! Fruito-pillar is in trouble

Eggless Chrunchy Chocolate chip cookies With Crushed Corn Flakes!

Yes! With Crushed Cornflakes. It's my daughter's addition to the recipe.Helping me in the kitchen is my daughter's all time favorite thing to do. I hope this continues as a grown up too !! Specially if I'm baking, she wants to do the mixing!

I am not a great fan of cookies or biscuits so its just for my daughter we buy it. Chocolate chip cookies are her favorite and I bought one recently Britannia's choco chip cookies which cost $ 3.49 for some 10 cookies. I know the biscuits and cookies from India are priced way too much here in Indian Grocery Store, but this one made me go crazy and decided to see what's in it to price tag this much.  I was awe struck to find the so easy recipe . So I decided to bake it myself . It's homemade and you know what's in it! From then on we are baking these cookies at home.

Here is Egg less Chocolate chip cookies. My DD wanted to add her mystery ingredient. So she had a quick look at the pantry and found cornflakes.I do not want to disappoint her,so with fingers crossed added it, may be 2tbsp!!  Actually it did not change the taste of the cookie.The house smelled Vanilla while the cookies were baking ! The cookies tasted awesome and now these are my favorite :)

Book Report Vest

This is the recent school activity/project in my elder one's class. And it gave us so many ideas to do it. They have asked us to create a book report vest using some grocery bag. Sounds cool and interesting right? yes it was fun for me to.  Till now I have been using the paper grocery bag for disposing the recycle items. Creating a vest out of it was something new!! Just open up the grocery bag and lay it flat you will see it!!

Step by Step Instructions:
1. Ask your kid to choose a book and read it .
2. Flatten the grocery bag and make the markings to cut out the arm and neck portion. Cut out the front portion in Half so it opens up and the kid can wear it. Refer the picture below
3.The book report should have the following things:

• Title,
• Author & Illustrator
• Main Characters, 
• Where the story takes place? 
• Some Illustrations from the book (optional)
• Beginning,Middle,End part of the story.
• Kid's Opinion about the book ( like how they felt reading it)

Tell the kids before and ask them to plan it accordingly and  how they want it in their vest. Please,remember this project is to help the kids to come out with innovative ideas. Parents, please help them, instead do not pitch in with your ideas. Let them create their own and you will see how proud they will be once finishing the project.

They need to represent their vest and talk about it in class.They have a score card for it. Encourage your kids to talk about their vest to grandparents or to any family member or to your neighbours! This could be a fun "playdate" activity too!! Reward them with your sweet encouring words :) 

Below pics are the one my daughter created . 

It's entirely her idea and I helped her with the lace :) She is learning Art and somehow managed to draw the Mermaid from the book:)

My Aaha Moment!!

Sure, there were lots of Aahaa Moments ! But one occured recently, which proved how dedicated I am!!! It was just a casual talk between me and my Amma. we were discussing about the Sathumavu Kanji podi for the kids. She was telling me the nutrients for each ingredient in it. She mentioned Horsegram is very good nutrient but we generally do not add as it reduces the weight ! It struck me at that moment and decided to try it.

How to do?

Dry roast the Horse gram till golden brown or till the aroma tickle your nostrils!
Grind it to fine powder in the mixer.

How to take it?

Take a tablespoon of the powder, mix it in 1 cup of warm water and drink it daily morning in the empty stomach. It taste like nothing so you can just devour it ;-)

Will this work?

Yes it is! I'm taking this for a month now and I lost few inches though my weight did not reduce much. But my friend acknowledged it :-) I felt very happy as my dedication paid off !
I am going to continue this and will update on this!

DIY Book Holder

Coming Soon!

DIY Laminated Name Tag!

Laminated Name Tags

It is a must to have item if we have kids. We need to Put name tags on their bags,lunchbags and their coats, their pencil purse etc.. just to make it easy for the little ones and also to find it among the pool of "Lost and Found" section at school .Yeah moms you know what I mean ;-)

Last week my DD wants her old Tinker bell Lunchbox . The Write-On Name tag was on inner side of the lunch box. So i had to make one. I ran out of time and had to rush to school within 10 mins to  give her lunch box. So thought something quick and came up with this 5 min fix ;-)

All you need is
* Wide cellophane see through tape,
*scissors,
*construction paper or plain white paper,
*  Paper puncher
* Thread

I always save the flyers the school give to reuse it some way. So i chose florescent green to match her lunch box.

Instructions:
* Cut the construction paper/white paper to the measurement of the cellophane tape you are using.
* Write the Name and Room #
* Roll out your cellophane to the length of your paper
*Carefully place the paper on the cellophane and close it with the cellophane tape.
* Cut out  the extra cellophane tape .
* Punch hole on to one end of the tag
* Tie the thread to the name tag
* Then tie this Name tag either in the Zipper or on the hook provided for the name tag.

So easy! you created your own Name tag!
I have attached the pictures for your reference

Ah!! Mobile Phones!

Within minutes I decided  to  rejuvenate my blog again, I got a new topic for today!
Well It started like this. I decided to  start writing and opened my laptop. Boom! I could not remember the password! I failed two times.Eventually, I called up my hubby to ask him but he did not pick up the call. Only then I realised I did not touch my laptop   for 2 months! I was doing all sorts of e-versions on my mobile phone.  I was awe struck! I had to stretch my brain a bit to remember the password. What these mobile phones are doing to us?
Till I started working (only then i bought mobile phone) I use to remember most of my friends and relatives phone number and their date of birth. But now, I don't know any of their mobile phone numbers.Lucky me! I still remember those land line numbers.
I am so depended on my mobile phones and Facebook for my friends birthday. I wish to revive those memory skills of remembering those phone numbers and birthdays!

Welcome!

Hello There!

WOW!!! I started this blog in year 2009 with the name of Galata Kitchens, thinking that I could manage to blog and the website with the same name, being a 24/7 Mom/Wife/DIL! But, gone are the years and the blog, and the website too!! ;) (somehow managed the website for an year!!) I guess I just posted one recipe here and could not continue it! 
But today I should thank my co-sister Gayathri for asking me " Have you revived your blog?" I am like  "NO! Why ?" But that sparked my thought which was lingering in my mind for the recent days saying "Ok my little one turned one and my in-laws have returned back to India and I am all set with my new routine, I should do something". So here I am with the first post for 2015 with a new name to my blog! 5 years after I started this blog!! Hope I continue this and learn blogging ! Wish me luck!

Love,
Mahalakshmi