Trip to India

glass of wine in between flights with chocolate caramel cake:

amazing mushroom kurkure and dahi de kabob: 

Paneer tikka and Paneer Amritsari:

the dahi de kabobs were AMAZING:

my thali : ) Daal Pachrangi, daal makhni, malai kofta, palak paneer, chhole, yogurt and garlic naan : )

gol guppe at a friend's house. to DIE for:

namkeen and sweet paanis:

dahi bhalle too:

dhokla:

kulcha w aloo gobi, green beans, chole, karele and mango yumminess:

I have never had a rasgulla on top of my kheer, seriously this is not illegal:

mango custard

made chai for everyone : )

yummy milk with malai on top:

paneer appetizer at a restaurant (Preeti is addicted to paneer):

I had a yummy vegetable cheese dosa : )

w idli fries!!

dad had paneer dosa:

yummy sweets at a family friend's home:

mango after dinner : )

kadi!!

appetizers at a restaurant:

yummy prawns:

YUMMY kababs: pineapple, chicken, veggie, fish

I was so full from the appetizers that I couldn't eat dinner so I went straight for the desserts: blueberry cake, mango tarts, papaya, coconut barfi and brownies in chocolate sauce!!!!

alas, I finally got my favorite pineapple pastry : ) and chocolate pastries : )!!!!

 good old poori, chole and dahi bhalle at home : )

celebrated Mother's Day with pineapple cake : )

YUMMY mathis:

tom yum soup at a hotel, it was SO good:

paneer tikka (she's obsessed):

I forgot the name of this roti but it was SO GOOD:

I had Singapore noodles with my tom yum soup : )

and cookies : )

mom had missi roti:

good old cadbury chocolate:

this is the best mango shake in the whole world, with fruits and nuts on top!!!!!!!!!

mossumi juice:

papdi chaat : )

my thaali : )

mom's channe bhature:

Preeti's paneer tikka (as usual):

her thaali:

more pics to come!!!!

Yesterday morning when I woke up and a few hours before that, the birds were chirping outside so beautifully. I felt like I was still in India. I love Delhi and Chandigarh. There is just so much there especially in Delhi. I was surprised by how much I like Delhi and Gurgaon now. I know Mumbai is better than Delhi in terms of night life but I'm more of a government person. Next time I'm in India, I'll check out Mumbai and Bangalore. I was in Mumbai when I was 4 (and Rajasthan) so I don't remember it. I love Delhi so much; improvements in traffic flow and infrastructure and the existence of low income housing and garbage cans would make it a dream. The food in India is of course amazing and I always miss that. This was my tenth trip to India and by far my shortest (two weeks). I basically lived there for a year and a half of my life. When I was younger, my mom took me out of elementary school around the Thanksgiving holiday (and the time of the Gulf war) and I did all my assignments in India. Hopefully next time I'll be able to go to Europe for some time before or after India. ~ happilyunmarried.com

5 Daal

measure 1/2 cup whole black moong daal: 

1/4th cup whole green moong daal: 

1/4th cup masar daal:

1/16th cup mot daal: 

1/16th cup chana daal:

beautiful mixture: 

wash the daals once: 

put ginger in the slow cooker:

add daal: 

we actually ran out of haldi (turmeric). I don't know how that's possible so whatever was left in the jar, we added water to it and poured it in. add 1 and 1/4 tsp salt too.

add 5 cups water. may need to add another cup later. put on high, cover and cook for a long time: 

All I know is after some coffee at 4 yesterday, I fell asleep in my bed, heard some voices about eating something in the evening, woke up at 3:30am to use the bathroom and am now enjoying brown rice waffles and chai. so tired. 

#back in the Pgh. So tired couldn't sleep on the flights. Watched a great movie called Big Eyes. Haven't showered or changed in over 24 hours and my contacts are still on. #nothing like coming home to a nice shower and my bed

Today was a nice relaxing day. I needed a break so I bailed out on wedding shopping (I really wasn't needed today) but missed going to the temple. I basically slept, read, hung out with fam and got a manicure and facial. I cannot believe I shopped for eight full days out of the last 11 days. I deserve an award. 

Today I've been given a little break (sister's idea). I was getting whiny and irritated so I got to wake up at 10 today and was told they'd be back around 1 to pick me up for the rest of the shopping (don't know how that's gonna happen cause they haven't left yet). Yay. Had two gobi pronthees with Amul butter, YUMMMMM

#still shopping

Before a breakfast of street omelettes, papaya, and pomegranate this morning, I had an amazing massage where my boobs were finally massaged. I can die peacefully now. #chai

We are hopefully near the end of the fourth day of wedding shopping. So badly need a massage. So many sarees. So many coffees. #sigh

awesome! Reusable single-brew coffee filter pods

Calorie Count Today:

1 coffee w cashew milk and cream: 45 cal
1 Fiber One coconut almond chewy bar: 140 cal
1 raspberry Nutri Grain bar: 120 cal
1 really small bottle of low calorie Gatorade: don't know

1 egg/cheese muffin at Dunkin Donuts: 240 cal
1 DD medium coffee w 2 creams and 2 sugars: 130 cal

1 lentil quinoa bowl at Panera w egg (YUM): 370 cal
1 bag potato chips (oops): 150 cal

my smoothie: 230 cal
1 bowl of kaale chunne: 200 cal

Total: 1625 cal

Great field experience today. Most interestingly I think it's possible that electrons are female and protons are male.

Had a wonderful acu appt today. There were certain new points on my legs and toes that got poked. A  group of welfare abusers finally popped out of my left glut. 

Calorie Count:

less than 8oz orange juice: 90 cal

coffee w 40 mL cashew milk and 2 tbsp cream: 5.83 cal + 40 cal

two bowls bean and vegetable soup: 250 cal

hash brown: 130 cal 

another coffee

my remaining baklava: 350 cal (I don't have a boyfriend)

salad and pizza for dinner: 600 cal 

45 min on the elliptical 

ate a lot this weekend. today consisted of eating lots of supereats kale/chia chips, Boar's garlic hummus, TJ white bean hummus, Van's brown rice waffles, SweetBalance popcorn, sleeping, drinking lots of water and YumEarth organics lollipops. better choices but tomorrow I'm making a huge salad and a veggie pizza. 

#getting my period 

oh my god not only am I a Rite Aid wellness+ member now I'm a Plenti member!!!!

+ 1 Chobani key lime yogurt (YUM, 150 cal) and 45 min on the elliptical instead (-350 cal)

The goal of keeping fit and some weight loss for me is to get rid of the old energy and dissolve some of the angry and irritating emotions and anxiety that constantly plague me. It has nothing to do with looks cause otherwise then I would never get out of bed. If I constantly cared about what I look like then nothing would ever get done. #dissolving the past #cellular work 

Today's Calorie Count:

smoothie:
less than 8 oz almond milk - 50 calories
2 small apples without the skins - 130 cal
tbsp sunflower seed butter - 100 cal
total: 280 calories

cochin masala chai w 4 tbsp milk + 1 packet stevia in the raw: 32 cal

lunch:
two bowls of bean soup - not sure, guessing 200 cal
1 hashbrown - 130 cal
cream in coffee 4 tbsp - 80 cal (whoa!!!!!!!)

later, I will have:

ayurvedic meal:
veggie cheese sandwich: sandwich thins: 100 calories
1 slice of swiss cheese: 70 calories
tomato, cucumber, lettuce, jalapeños: don't know
bhujia 1/2 cup: 100 calories

dinner:
bowl of kaale chunne, around 3/4 cup: 201.75 cal
bowl of matar paneer: not sure, around 50 cal (how many calories is four pieces of paneer with a bunch of peas)?
no roti today

total: 1243.75 cal

and 30 min on the bike

I can die peacefully now

The last three days I have started counting how many calories I have eaten per day. My whole psyche is increasingly demanding that I cut sugar and calories. I've been doing good despite being on the road a lot but improvements need to be made in cutting how much cream I put in my coffee and cutting potato chips. That would then keep me around 1300 calories per day. That's my goal. 

So the funny thing is I asked India's Got Talent if they fund the trip from Pittsburgh to Mumbai and the response I got was a short 'Try bookmytrip.com.' LMAO!!!!!!!!!

I'm excited to finally try the new Keurig 2.0 K560 Brewer that my brother got me for Christmas!!!! Look at all the coffee that comes with it : ) I am so excited <3

foods I'm craving: pumpkin, pistachios, sweet potato....I could eat a whole pumpkin right now..

One cool thing is I got an inquiry from India's Got Talent asking if I could perform flamenco at their show. I was thinking sure but I would have to perform on April 28th in Mumbai. They just asked me three days ago. Why couldn't you ask me like two and a half months ago!!!!!!!

So it turns out that I do not have to go to the old school I went to to complete the rest of my field experience hours. The old teacher is not part of the school program this semester so I was assigned a new one. I am overjoyed to share that I got assigned to a school where many people I know who went there were/are brown!!!! I felt such a surprising relief with this new assignment. yay!!!!!! #brown people in public schools

http://distractify.com/beth-buczynski/dont-you-wish-your-girlfriend-could-curse-like-me/

I had a nice time at Paint Nite tonight. It was me and myself time. I usually go with someone but this time it was me with my thoughts. I came to the realization that I am who I am and it's just not going to change no matter how much I try. I was probably the messiest person there. I had a huge wad of napkins full of paint, paint on my sleeves, paint on my phone, a couple spots of paint on my fries, paint even on my face to which the teacher/painter alluded to twice and never got around to cleaning it until the end and ended up using two plates of paint because I needed more room to mix paint. And I even forgot to put the apron on halfway through the event!! In any case, it was calming for me : ) 

Today was a lot of fun at the fashion show. My makeup got an A+ : ) and I had flowers put in my hair by a wonderful lady who I learned does threading. I met her for the first time and she was also not happy with my eyebrows. ugh. but it was fun. I ate a bunch of amazing little cupcakes, lamb kabobs, aloo cashew rolls and a bite of kachori (cannot eat kachori must watch). I helped mom at her booth and had a good time in general meeting and talking with women. Near the end, even before everyone was packing up, mom and the aunties/didis started losing it. I enjoyed their little skits and hilarious, endless laughter over the silliest things. Basically it was time for a drink. One cool thing is one of the restaurant vendors left two boxes of ladus and menus in paper bags and they were just gonna be thrown out but then Auntie and I felt bad about wasting food and paper so we opened each and every bag (I kid you not) and made a couple bags of ladus which we ended up carrying out as if they were our babies. Baby ladus. The remaining menus and bags were also taken so Auntie could recycle them. Seriously we have too many ladus LOL! #rolling rock 

This week has been a rough week at the after school program. I'm prepping myself mentally before I go. I'm really disappointed with the experience in general but of course it is an invaluable experience for me in changes and organizational processes. Yesterday was the 2nd time this week the kids had their heads on the desks and I stretched it to nearly forty minutes. And of course it wasn't quiet the whole time. Three kids were sent to the principal and most likely I will not see them today because they got kicked out of the program. Yesterday evening, mom and I went to Hoss's for dinner and it was nice to let off some steam steam but she was worried about what I would do when she's gone to India. In general, she is quite shocked that I have been working with young kids this long. The good news is I've decided to move in with Dad after I come back from India and pursue tutoring in the MD area. #changes as usual

I'm finally printing out the contract that the models are supposed to sign for the fashion show. I will not take pictures of the outfit and post them in public, will not spill anything on the beautiful outfit (this is gonna be really hard for me), will not rip anything and will shave my armpits and put armpit pads on (even though the outfit will probably become mine anyway : ) #black bean soup and veggie burgers

In conclusion, the psychognats and psychorats of the world have not agreed to the symbology by which human societies survive. They do not understand the symbology and language by which humans communicate and live and further they do not understand the need to understand this. Basically, they do not understand the concept of understanding. How such entities have even taken form in the human body is a mystery which all the symbologies, languages and religions of the world, I feel, will never be able to completely explain. #inspiration - The Fifth Agreement by Don Miguel Ruiz

It's so interesting for me to email my sister's ex-romances (so adorable) for their addresses to send them her wedding invitations because she will never need to do that for me.... : )

delicious french toast made for mom. She only likes Aunt Jemima syrup. I'm enjoying feeding her as she works on her computer. sometimes she needs to be a kid too. #giving back #fashion show practice all day  lord!!

I can't deal with any more numbers....no more numbers..

there's nothing better than having your period and watching sex and the city all day on Saturday while signing marketing letters and chai (with an unfortunate break for India packing)....

stop at TJ's:

1 cherry pie (perhaps this was an indulgence): $6.99
1 chocolate macaroons (for the chocolate cravings): $3.99
1 blueberry raspberry oat bran muffins: $4.49
1 half gallon almond milk: $2.99
1 extra large cage free brown eggs: $3.19
1 frozen uttapam w coconut chutney: $2.49
1 roasted garlic marinara sauce: $1.99 (already have the dough!)
1 raspberry reduced sugar preserves: $3.49
1 hashbrowns: $1.99

Total: $31.61

Need two fillings (two chipped teeth) and a cleaning. Otherwise, I have good dental health. It's been like five years since I've had a cleaning so that is scheduled!! :P #rewarding myself at Panera with a free coffee :)