A table full of delicious food

"Hi there .. whats for dinner tonight ?"

I call a friend for a short chit-chat to get some quick and tasty recipe ideas. But for most of us, it has become a cliche' to state that rather than cooking, to plan what to fix is the more challenging part.

We tend to eat out sometimes due to lack of ideas or laziness, though we have enough veggies and fruits stocked up in the fridge. Me and my husband being vegetarians, we do not have much choices if we have to lookout for restaurants that serve atleast a few vegetarian entrees. Eventually, we'd settle on eating something familiar, which is a complete vegetarian recipe for sure. Later, we'd repent that we didnt consume a healthy food and yet we had spent a fortune on it.

To insist that eating at home is much healthier, my friend Girija figured out a plan to make a table, with the meal of the day mentioned in every column. It worked well for me, so whoever has not done it yet, please do it, you'll be happy for yourself.

Just take a white A4 size paper and divide it into 5 columns. Number the rows from 1 to 15 or so. Name each column as Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks and Specials. Now, simply write down the names of the recipes you are familiar with along the relevant column. Also include the ones you cherish at various restaurants. Most of them are easy to cook and you can learn it in a jiffy.

The 'Specials' column has food that can be had very rarely, like deep-fried food or high-fat recipes. Although we do not want to intentionally add unhealthy ingredients to our cooking, we are all humans and would love to cherish certain favourite foods once in a while. I use this column to pen what we love to have during weekends, some special snacks or authentic meals.

Make sure you keep enough room for thoughts which come later on, so that you can add them to the list gradually. And last but not the least, put it up on the fridge or somewhere in the kitchen.

As and when you run out of ideas as to what to cook, just a glance at this chart will suffice. Though we know a lot of recipes, it just doesnt occur sometimes that we can fix it quickly. This chart is a helping hand in such situations.

And as a bonus, with all the money you save, you can and you should update your wardrobe, as weight loss is guaranteed with more home-made food!

New York Nagaram

It was a beautiful sunny day in New York and I got to visit the attractions at NYC. After having got to admire the beauty of the city and a distant view of the Statue of Liberty from the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building, we moved on further towards Times Square.

Being vegetarians and relatively new to the US of A, we did not get to find any restaurants which we were familiar with for their vegetarian entrees'. So finally we settled with French Fries from McD recollecting the scene from Nala Dhamayanthi when Madhavan insists for Veg. food and purchases 'finger chips'.

We were spending time relaxing in the park close-by and literally waiting for the dusk so that we can cherish the sight of the Times Square with all its lights for what it is actually famous for. As it was summer, it was not dark yet but still we decided to stroll along the sidewalks and enjoyed seeing these tall buildings and the neon ads flashing in bright colors.

And now, totally different from what Indians who've not visited USA would imagine, the Times Square area and the Niagara Falls too for that matter, will be densely populated by Indians. One can also see some Asians from India's neighbouring countries and some Europeans but rarely any Americans.

While me and my hubby were walking together enjoying the festive atmosphere which prevails there all around the year, we were walking past one Tamizh tourist in saree, standing alone. When we neared her, she was joined by her husband, they walked just behind us and this is how the conversation went. It was all in Tamizh.

Wife : Why did you leave me alone here and you disappeared for such a long time.

Hus : It was just a short while and I went to see the building X. Whats your problem now?

Wife : This is why I should not have agreed to wait here, people are staring at me and it was embarassing for me to stand alone here merely looking out for you. I should have come with you inspite of me being too tired to walk. ( This goes on and on )

Hus : "Kathaadha di, indha oorla ellarukkum tamizh theriyum, purinju vekka pordhu, asingamaa iruku" ( Translates to : Dont scream now, everyone here knows Tamizh, so they might understand everything about this quarrel ).

That is all we heard and we had to turn right at a junction and they kept walking further straight. Though sad for the lady that she felt lonely, it was funny to hear this conversation and it was a total coincidence that we understood the language.