Love & other Spices

10 ingredients or less

Quinoa, Butternut Squash, Pomegranate Salad with Pumpkin Seeds

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I’m not much into salads. There I said it. The salad played a essential but minor role in meals growing up. It was never, ever considered a main meal. It’s because the type of salads we had nicely complemented the Rice & Curry and gave that extra tang or crunch.
There was the cucumber salad which I love. Sliced cucumbers mixed with chopped onions and green chillies with a bit of fresh coconut milk and lime juice. I would sprinkle the liquid to my rice and the dish is elevated to the next level where I’d easily finsh off two portions.
And the raw grated carrot salad. Same method as the cucumber salad without the coconut milk. Then there’s the Gotukola salad. These are the salad we had mostly on rotation and was never eaten on it’s own. So I could never bring myself to have a salad as a main meal.

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Avocado Green Smoothie

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I wasn’t a fussy kid when it comes to food. I pretty much ate and drank everything. If it tasted sweet, it became my favorite. Those days there was no skimping of sugar, nor exotic ingredients. Just the stuff you get from the grocer’s round the corner. The avocadoes are bought from the weekly trip to the Sunday market. Me and mom would leave home in the morning and take the half an hour bus ride to the market. I had a love/hate relationship with it. I love going to the market for fresh fruits. I’d get a mangosteen, peel it and devour it’s sweet flesh. Or a get a thambili (It’s called king coconut, a variety of coconut only used for it’s sweet water) to quench my thirst under a burning sun. Mom would haggle and buy mangoes,bananas and avocadoes by the dozen.
I hated the chaos in the market, To get to the main market complex where everything was well kept and neat, you have to pass a long route of dirty and muddy roads, vendors with their wares everywhere, the noise and jostling crowd. Not to mention the sun burning down on you.

Cinnamon Hazelnut Bread – Gluten, Dairy and Sugar Free

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Breakfast is an important part of my day. I can never skip it. But I can’t sit down to a hearty breakfast still groggy-eyed and in my pj’s either. I start the day with a cup of tea and a digestive. Yes,that’s fuel for the heavy work to follow.
A half hour to one hour studies later, I’m off to make breakfast and lunch for boys and hubby. Waking them up, getting them fed and ready for school and work with packed meals in their bags requires copius amounts of energy. That’s where my tea and biscuit comes in handy. Ha.
Before I set to tackle the house which by this time looks like a whirlwind has passed through, I sit down for my proper breakfast. That is, I start cooking my morning meal. When you’re on a Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Sugar Free diet that’s the most sensible thing to do.

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Cinnamon Coconut Granola

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baked cinnamon coconut granola

It feels good to be back in this space after a long hiatus.  I was away from the blog and social media enjoying a much needed break.  I had taken a break from my studies too. ”What did she do? ” you may wonder. I read. Yes, a lot. I would go to my local library and bring as many books as I can carry. Fiction, Non- Fiction, Cookbooks. I read from morning to night. We each have different ways of relaxing,recouping. For me, it’s reading that does it. It’s theurapetic. I may not remember most of what I read now, nor I had the slightest idea to record the books I read. It’s the moments that mattered to me. The feeling that you get when you do what you enjoy, a time well spent.

I didn’t experiment much in the food front. I stuck to my comfy foods, foods that I know won’t cause me any insensitivies. But for some time now, I’ve been coming out of my comfort zone and trying different foods. Like the Hazelnut Bread recipe from ”The Ketogenic Kitchen” by Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly. The recipe for that will be coming soon. And this Granola. I should say that I’ve never been a ganola fan. Even when my husband was gorging on store-bought chocolate granola I stayed away. One reason was I couldn’t stomach the oats in it. And granola with milk didn’t appeal to me.

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Healthy Anzac Biscuits

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healthy anzac biscuits on a tray
It’s hard to satisfy kid’s sweet tooth with wholesome ingredients. Like all kids, mine tend to gravitate towards the large chocolate chip cookies displayed openly in the supermarkets. Their lovely smell is enough to entice even someone who hates cookies.
When you hear “Just one cookie,mama”  repeatedly, you give in. “Ok, Just one cookie each”. And the father joins in with two extra.
I like to have biscuits around in the house for tea time, or for that little hunger pangs which could come at any moment unannounced.

Dairy Free Broccoli Soup

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This is my first Autumn here in Ireland. I am in love with the scenery around me. The shades of trees from,green to the different hues of orange adorning the streets are a thing of beauty. And the falling leaves scattered around made me want to bring some home and photograph it. Which I did.The photo is in my Instagram feed.

The days are short and weather is getting colder. And I crave more warmth and often find myself in front of the heater or making something hot to drink or eat.

Growing up we had bone broth with lots of vegetables every week and that was called soup. A big bowl of rice with copious amounts of bone broth and spicy condiments was the norm for a Sunday lunch. Beads of perspiration would appear on my nose while I scrape down the last bit of the meal with the spicy sambal. That’s how it was supposed to be in the humid climate in Sri Lanka. It’s not that you crave soup in that weather rather it’s a norm, probably passed down from the Colonialists.

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Fish Curry Recipe

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Looking at this fish curry,evokes the memories back in the day . Specially tuna, it had to be my favorite fish. Because it resembled meat,sturdy and held it’s shape. I despised fish of all sorts except this. I hated the tiny long bones fearing that it would get stuck in my throat and the fish smell . I’ve always been a meat girl. Chicken was very rare those days, you get to eat it only on special occasions. It was always beef and fish on rotation.
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Oats & Wholewheat Pancakes

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I felt odd clicking the publish button. As my last post was way too back in time. A big no in the blogging arena. The guilt that I had abandoned my blog was way too much than I could take. Life moves on bringing with it new challenges and changes. You have to make way for those and that means pushing certain things aside for some time. I have started working from home. Between raising the kids, doing household chores and working, I found some time to post a recipe, requested by my friends when I posted a photo of it, on Facebook.

Easy Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

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What you see above is a totally unplanned shot of our lunch last week.
I wasn’t planning to shoot anything that day but when I plated the meal it looked photogenic and I had beautiful early afternoon light streaming through my kitchen windows that was just perfect.I had to click.

It all happened too fast,with this dish. I had almost half an hour to cook lunch before I dash out the door to pick my hungry kids. A quick search online brought me this recipe which I was satisfied with as I had just the right ingredients,beef and broccoli..tada..

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Red Lentils with Coconut Milk – Sri Lankan Parippu

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It’s December already. The end before new beginnings. The weather is very pleasant and I’m loving most of it. The mornings are cold and it’s hard to get the kids up from their cozy beds. Afternoons are bit warmer,though. But the warmth doesn’t come alone,it brings the cold breeze along with it. And you wish you could be that little girl again,playing outside until you’re tired.
In the evenings,we go for walks in the neighborhood, my husband joining us sometimes. I just love these little excursions with all three boys. Having Shawarma’s in the park,savoring every bite of lightly spiced meat and sauce while the cold breeze hits your face,watching the kids run around and chit-chatting with my husband. I couldn’t be any happier.
Back in Sri Lanka,when it comes to meal times,seeing the piping hot bowl of tempered Parippu (Red lentils/Dhal) makes most people happy. It’s a staple in our country. It’s a must when growing up. I have seen a many a kid’s faces wither away when they don’t see Parippu on their plate of Rice and Curry. My cousins refused to eat their food. Period.

Prawns in Mild Coconut Curry

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This month has been hectic so far. My elder son Ammar,one of the twins,came down with the fever. I should have expected this,with the weather change. We were sand blasted for a couple of days. The winds scattered copious amount of sand in to the roads and to our balcony too. A sign that chilly mornings and nights will be changing into warm ones. When that and it’s opposite happens-that is,warm days turn in to chilly ones-kids fall sick. It always catches me off guard.