How to do jugaad: Ways you can save money everyday

It's Monday and it's time for another How to post. I was wondering what to give my gyan without being to preachy. I was like jugaad karna padega. And so this week I am giving a step by step guide on How to do jugaad in your everyday life. 

First thing I did was google the word jugaad. And I was very surprised to find a wiki page about it. For me jugaad is about saving money instead of spending it on what I feel are over expensive items. ( I am very miserly) So here's my list  of jugaadu hacks for everyday life. 

The kitchen: Baking,  cooking and other kitchen related jugaad

Smoking vegetables: You don't need expensive equipment to smoke those capsicums. You just need a pair of wooden skewers, some coal and an earthern pot. Read my post on How to smoke vegetables here! It's pretty simple. Soon you will want to smoke everything. (Ok, maybe not your house!)

Using foil instead of expensive silicon mats to make nougat and other sugar candies: If you love working with sugar and want to experiment you don't need expensive silicon mats. You can easily make nougat and other sugar candies with foil. 

Use ziplock pouches and parchment paper as instant piping bags: I do this all the time. Though I also use proper piping bags for frosting with nozzles, when I am out of piping bags I just use washed ziplock pouches for piping. It's very easy, just fill the pouches and cut of one end like you would cut a piping back. You can wash and re-use the bags when you're done. Another alternative is washed milk packets. 

You can also use parchment paper to make instant cones for chocolate and sugar frostings. 

When short of 1 egg while baking : Don't panic if you've started baking and realise that you're short of an egg.

How to form a habit among other things...

They say it takes a week to form a habit. Some say it takes 27 days. It's day two and I hope the 7 day habit formation is working 

This is not even a real how to. I am not going to teach you how to form a habit coz I don't know it myself. Read one of those self help books that you keep buying. 

  It has been a long day and it's almost my bedtime. Yeah, I know it's only 10.20 and I hate

to admit that I am sleeping relatively early these days. I am after all, trying to wake up early too. That's another one of my resolutions. I have been trying to lose weight/inches and also get fitter/healthier and so I need to exercise. (You can't really diet, when you're baking, can you?) So new year resolution #2 exercise for atleast 20 minutes each day. I have been exercising for a few months now, but the resolutions kind of makes it more compelling, you know. I missed it on the 1st coz you know new year's eve blah blah blah. (For the record, I was sleeping, texts, calls and fireworks woke me up.) 

So I downloaded these fun zumba videos and some basic workout thingys and I am going to exercise everyday for the next 365  363 days. And eat healthier. 

Speaking of food, I have been using Kitchenbug which is a Beta app that helps you collect all the recipes you find online. This has helped me tremendously. It gives nutritional info and the format of the recipes are print friendly. Check out their facebook page too. 



I have one more thing I want to share with you ( A little much needed self promotion here) As you may or may not know, I now own my own business Melete and I am also blogging about food, sharing recipes, and blabbering about my business at my new blog. Show it a little love. It's a newbie and needs loads of attention. 


And since I will be writing everyday *fingers crossed* and I don't want to ramble; I will be planning a few things for Pigeonheadophobia. Expect a few challenges, guest posts, How To's, loads more fiction, poetry (well, maybe). And maybe a makeover. 

It's gonna be an interesting year!
Anyway, ciao
see you all tomorrow

Yummy cuteness in a mug

Today I baked a cake.

 In under 5 minutes. 

In a mug. 

In my microwave. 

I used one of those Internet recipes. 

To my surprise it turned out to be delicious. I had expected it to be less than mediocre. I know that many people have always known the joys  of microwave cooking but for me this was a novel discovery. I have always been apprehensive of cooking things in the micro, always dismissing it as   something people who can't cook or are too lazy do. I mean, it's a quick fix. The cake was easy and hassle free. 

I would have clicked a pic if I wasn't busy gobbling it up

And I was wrong. Sometimes, even people who enjoy cooking don't want to spend hours in the kitchen(Not that I am implying that I spent all my time in the kitchen. I don't) So it's not laziness. Okay, maybe sometimes it is laziness. And tremendous hunger. And less time. Whatever the reason be, the food turns out  to be great. For me it won't replace conventional cooking methods but once in a while it could be fun.

I tried it today because I came across an article listing things that can be made in a mug. I love lists. Mugs are pretty good too. And the pictures looked great. I wanted to try it. It would take only 5 minutes of my time. And the instructions were easy. So I made a cake. And it turned out great. Then I got excited. This was a great quick fix. When you're craving cake and don't want a store bought one and certainly don't want to spend an hour, measuring, beating, greasing, baking, de-moulding; this is the thing to do. Find a recipe you like. (There are plenty online). I added my own variations to the one I found by the way. And it was egg less. Just imagine: A dessert for one in a mug. Ready in 5 minutes. I saw the time. The actual cooking took only 3 minutes. Prep time was two.

After I made and ate the cake I found a french toast recipe. Ya, french toast in a mug. How cute is that? I got back to work but at around four when my sister came home I made french toast. In the micro. In a cute little mug. With very less fat. And it was yum. 


I tried an omelet too. My own recipe. Nice and fluffy.

So I am pretty excited now. I am going to try countless  microwave recipes. I plan to make a nutella cake soon. And this time I will remember to take pictures. So that I can show off on facebook.


P.S : I have never blogged about food but this is my second post in a row about food. What has gotten into me? 

Burnt expectatons

It happens to all of us. We try to do something new in the kitchen with loads of grand expectations. And then we fail. Something goes wrong, so wrong that we start doubting our abilities.

In  some cases you can still re-use the what you think "inedible mess". It's like resurrection. And it takes a lot of creativity. And guts. If you don't try something with it, it will anyway go into a dustbin so you might as well as try to make it edible.

So what do you do when you decide to make chocolate at home and end up burning it? You DON'T throw it. That's sacrilege. And cruel.

Chocolate does get burnt you know? You are always supposed to and I repeat always supposed to melt chocolate slabs on a double boiler. Do not ever take a short cut and put in in the microwave or even worse the stove! If you think of doing that then you should just buy yourself chocolate and not try to make it. Remember making chocolate requires patience. It's not something you do in a hurry.

You don't want this to happen to your chocolate

So back to what I was talking about-how to redeem burnt chocolate. Here are the few different ways

1. Mash it with a spoon and spread it on a biscuit. Then put another biscuit on top to make a biscuit sandwich. 

2. Mash the chocolate and mix it with a plain sponge cake crumbs. You now have a mixture of sponge and chocolate. Make sure you mix it well. Spread this mixture in a glass bowl and a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. I promise you, it will taste yum. 

3. Let it harden and then crush it into very small pieces of nougat like consistency. You can use this chocolate "nougat" to sprinkle on top of ice cream or mousse or any frozen dessert. In fact, why just frozen desserts? Try your own combinations. 

4. Whatever you do, do not re-heat the burnt chocolate. This will spoil it further and you won't be able to do anything about it. 


Were these tips useful? I guess you will only find out if you ever burn chocolate. I hope that you never do.

Anyway, I was experimenting with chocolate today and here's what I made

Quite pretty, I think

What do you think? :P