Quick and healthy salads

If you are trying to lose weight, and are bored of boiled vegetables or sprouts with lemon dressing, or are looking for some interesting variations of salad that you can serve to kids, try these four mouth watering salads that are really easy to make, and are low in calories and high on nutrition:

1. Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

Pasta (boiled)                    - 1 cup

Capsicum                          - 1 piece

Carrot                                - 1 piece

Onion                                -1 piece

Cheese (cut into cubes)

Mayonnaise                       - 1 tbsp

Curd                                      - 3 tbsp

Cut all the vegetables in small dice shapes. Mix mayonnaise with curd and stir well. Now mix veggies, cheese and pasta with the curd. Add pepper powder as per you taste. Keep it in fridge for an hour and serve cold. You can add coriander leaves to decorate.

Tip- Adding curd prevents use of mayonnaise, thus less fat. 

2. Crunchy Nut Salad

Ingredients
Cucumber  - 1
Carrot - 1

Onion (Diced) – 1

Peanuts - ½ cup

Almonds - ½ cup

Dates and raisins - ½ cup

Mayonnaise - 1 tbsp

Curd - 1 cup

Crush peanuts and almonds roughly. Add dates and raisins in it. Mix curd and mayonnaise well and add to the nuts. Finely chop the cucumber and carrot in dices and add them to the above mixture. You can add salt and pepper if needed.  

3. Banana Salad

Ingredients:

Banana - 2 whole

Tomato -2 roughly chopped

Cumin powder  - ½ tsp

Salt     - as per taste

Lemon Juice  - 1 tbsp

Sugar   - 1 tbsp

Chop bananas into chunk and add tomato to it. Now add the salt, sugar and cumin powder. Pour the lemon juice and decorate with peanuts and coriander. 

4.Chickpea Salad:

Ingredients:

Chickpea           - 2 cup

Cottage Cheese - 150 grams

Onion                - 1

Green Chilly     - 1 Finely Chopped

Tomato              -1

Lemon juice      - 2 tbsp

Coriander leave - few to decorate

Soak the chickpeas overnight and boil them. Chop the onion and tomato finely. Cube the paneer into small pieces. Mix all of them and add chilly and lemon juice. You can salt as per you taste. Decorate with coriander leaves.

A common myth is that chickpeas are full of carbohydrates and increase fat content in your body. In fact, chickpeas are rich source of zinc and proteins. Infact they are healthy source of food for diabetic person and pregnant ladies.

The post was originially written for http://beashealthliving.com. The Bea’s Knees is a one stop place for health tips, diets, fitness and exercise tips, home and gardening, pets, childcare, fashion, gadgets, movies, music, relationships, and life-cheats.

Hindi Hai Hum

Reading "Discovery of India" is a must if you really want to know how Asia developed and untold stories of India's culture. The word “Hindu” was never meant to be associated with any cast or creed. It was merely used by Old Persia to refer the subjects staying on the other side of river Indus, then called The Sindhu. India was then referred to as a Nobel Land (Aryadesh), Land of Aryans, in various communities.

Hinduism is a difficult word to define and definitely can’t be associated with any religion. It stands on the spirit of live and let live. Mahatma Gandhi defined it as “Search after truth through non-violent means.” This clearly shows that even a man who doesn’t believe in any form of Shiv, Vishnu, Brahma can still be a Hindu. Hindu was derived from the word “Hind”, meaning the Hindustan. So anybody who has adapted himself to stay in Hindustan could be told a Hindu, whether its Christian, Muslim or Buddhist. In old centuries, people lived to survive and not to decide the religion they would follow. It was the struggle for food and shelter. The fear of wild animals forced many number of people to stay close by and burn the fire on the boundaries. Unlike now where fires are used to burn the slum areas to clear a particular cast and get the land freed.

If British wouldn’t have started the divide and rule policy, there would had been no partition. They ripped the Golden bird and left a bird caught in a cage with torn wings. We would not have been just a developing country but a Developed and strong nation with a mix of culture, education, traditions and tehzeeb. Burqa has been associated with Muslim females, but it even existed in any Indian family. Ladies were not supposed to talk to any male member and in case they have to, then their face should be covered with dupatta. Not that I am advocating the purdah system. But I want to bring out the similarities between the two tribes which have been friends for long and now are the biggest enemies.

We all see how Americans and Europeans are adopting our culture, the Yoga Asanas, The Hare Ram Hare Krishna, Mutton Biryanis or the Indian Curries. We are dragging ourselves to enjoy festivals like Tomatino, which is just an extension of Holi. Words like Briyani, Bindi, Nose rings, Saris, Karva Chauth now don’t need an explanation to any foreigner. While travelling from Bangkok to India I met a French person. He said he has been religiously visiting Haridwar every year and has fallen in love with it. Being an Indian I have just visited the land of Haridwar only once. How many of us appreciate our parents when they ask us to take an off and go to Chardham ki Yatra? But if the travel agent will say he will be sending us for a trek to snowy mountains and a river rafting in Ganga, we all will make an attempt to go.

It is not our about religion, but the culture. We were being brought up in joint families, where every meal was a fest with a lavish menu of food. Be it the Diwali or the Ramzan, we associate any festival with new clothes and delicious food. Just like every person has different thought process, can’t every religion have its own rituals? Because of some dirty politics around the world, India has divided and people living in it will slowly grow much more apart. We need to stabilize it and fight against it. Need to search the true meaning of LIFE!