Low calorie Baked Dinner Recipe: Baked Stuffed Bell Peppers

Hi Friends!!
Today I will speak about two low calorie dinner options which can be enjoyed guilt free. The recipes are easy to prepare & have good nutrient value. I have one vegetarian baked recipe for all my friends.

Baked Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:
Bell peppers: 2 large (choose your color make your impression)
Onion: 1 medium
Tomato: 1 small
Cottage cheese: 100 g (fat free)
Peas: 1/4 cup
Green Chili: 1
Dried Parsley leaves: 1/2 teaspoon
Olive oil: 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Pepper: 1/2 teaspoon

Preparation:
1. Cut the bell peppers into half. Clean the inside, to make them look like bowls. Grease the inside with a brush.
2. Chop the Onion, tomato, green chili finely. Crumble the cottage cheese (paneer) into small pieces.
3. Mix the ingredients above in a bowl. Add the salt, parsley leaves, pepper to the mix. Add 1 teaspoon olive oil.
4. Fill the bell pepper halves with the mix & place it on a plate to bake.
5. Preheat the oven at 350 F. In the pre-heated oven place the plate & bake for 10-15 min. It can be done on the stove also on a low flame on the tawa with a cover.

It is known that cooking reduces the nutrients in the food so try avoid too much cooking. I have used the filling raw & cooked the whole at once only. This is a twist to the usual Shimla mirch ka bharwa. It has less spices, oils & simple. Hope you guys like this. Thanks Friends!!

Recipe- Healthy & Yummy for Weight Loss

Hi Friends!! I have been talking about ingredients which should be there in your diet which promote a healthy lifestyle. Today thought of spicing up a bit with recipes which are easy to make & tasty to eat. Giving two recipes which are powered with great ingredients already spoken about some.

Tofu Shimla Mirch:

Ingredients:
Tofu: 250 g (Generally it is cooked with Paneer or cottage cheese, tofu chosen over the same for                               providing high quality proteins)
Green bell pepper: 1
Yellow bell pepper: 1
Red Bell Pepper: 1
Onion: 1 large
Tomatoes: 2 medium
Garlic: 2 cloves
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder or Kashmiri mirch powder
Some Oregano leaves for flavor
Black Pepper
Olive Oil for cooking
Salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Cut the 3 bell peppers into one-inch squares. The three colors have been chosen to make the food look colorful. Also their good nutrient source can be used. Cut the onion also in the same way. Cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes
2. Puree the tomatoes & garlic.
3. Heat a non-stick deep frying pan. Pour small amount of olive oil into the pan. Add the onions & the bell peppers. Cook till they are sauteed well & move in a separate bowl.
4. In a little oil add the puree & the turmeric & Chilli powder. Cook till the gravy thickens & changes color. Add salt to taste.
5. Add the tofu & stir for some time later add the cooked onion & bell peppers. When the preparation is well mixed & gravy is well spread over the ingredients add half ground black pepper & some dry oregano leaves powder. Adding Oregano will give a nice different flavor to the preparation and also help in case of any stomach ailments.

Grilled Garlic Chicken:

Ingredients:
Chicken: Breast pieces 4
Lime juice: 1/2 cup
Garlic: 4-6 cloves (small) or 2 cloves (large) minced
Mustard paste: 1 teaspoon
Ground black pepper: 1/2 teaspoon
Soy sauce: 1 tablespoon
Olive oil: 1/2 tablespoon
Salt if required

Preparation:
1. Wash the chicken pieces & make 2-3 slits on both sides of the pieces.
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients. Add salt if the soy sauce does not have any according to your taste.
2. Coat the chicken pieces well with the mix & keep it refrigerated for 1-2 hours in a closed container. The chicken would be marinated well in this time.
3. Spread the chicken on the grilling plate over a piece of aluminium foil & place it in a pre-heated oven at 160F, or in case of microwaves you can choose grill for poultry. You can grill for approx 15 min. turn around in between to grill both the sides well.
4. You can check the chicken whether it is cooked or not by poking it with a fork. If it is cooked it will go inside well.

Don't have photos for the same, sorry for that.

I hope you like these recipes. They are low fat & low cal recipes & very easy to cook, don't require too much preparation time as well. Tell me whether you like it or not. Awaiting you suggestions & comments. Thanks!!

Weight Loss- Power Foods

Hi Friends!! I am looking for some responses about the content I am writing, it will help me to improve my posts. Well this one talk about foods which have proven in reducing fat in the body. These foods are considered as power foods. These foods are available very easily & can be added to our daily diet easily and help us with the weight loss plans. Well listing down a few which I know:

1. Peppers/ Chilies: Chilies provide a great source of Capsaicin, this is the chemical which provides the pungent characteristic to the peppers. This induces a food generated thermogenesis which converts a part of the meal to heat immediately. There could be many people who cannot have very spicy food for them the alternative is bell peppers. It also provides with colorful & flavorful taste. It can be taken in simple preparations without much hassle.

2. Lemon/ Lime: In some places it can be known as a lemon diet which has shown incredible effect on weight loss. It helps energize & cleanse your body thereby removing toxins (Simply known as DETOX). It also helps you maintain blood sugar levels at normal. This very simple ingredient has the quality to slow down the process of breaking down carbs thus regulating the blood sugar levels.

3. Sweet Potatoes: Surprisingly to most of the people sweet potato has a very good effect over weight loss & maintaining blood sugar levels. The vegetable has very less calories which are obtained from carbohydrates & not fats. It has small amount of protein & high fiber content which helps in the daily roughage requirements. Needless to say fiber helps the system clean & promotes cardiovascular activity, makes your tummy full. In latest research it has been seen to contain a compound named anthocyanin which acts as a great antioxidant. It increases metabolism & promotes weight loss.

4. Ginger: This is the most common ingredients in an Indian dish. Ginger is known for its qualities to improve immune system & anybody who has had cold must have been advised from time to time to have ginger tea or ginger with salt. But lesser known facts includes its effect on the blood cholesterol level & also acts as a blood thinner thus helping reduce blood pressure. The compound gingerol present in the root is an anti-inflammatory agent disallowing inflammation of blood vessels. This increases the body heat & makes the body burn fats.

4. Chocolates: Now this one has always been my favorite in the list. It has been seen that a bar (2 inches typically not bigger than that) of dark chocolate (70% cocoa, not white & milk chocolates which have high sugar content) just before the meal controls craving for sweet, salty & fatty foods. This helps in reducing Insulin spikes which have been culprit to storage of sugars directly to fat cells. The high content of cocoa (high in flavanols) in dark chocolates has been seen to possess great anti-obesity & anti-diabetic activity.

This is a huge topic & can be written in extents. I will be coming up with more on this topic in coming days. Do share your thoughts on this topic. Thanks!!

Dieting- Does it help?

Hi friends! Great to see your response in a day. I am very happy & optimistic about writing more about the topic. I invite you also to express your views & concerns about anything you wish to know.
Today I again wish to speak about one of the topics everyone talks on a day to day basis "Dieting". If someone asks you to eat & you refuse for any reason, the next question which comes is known to all of you "Are you dieting?".
A basic question which arises is "What does dieting mean?". I have seen many people living on one apple in the morning & afternoon. I am surprised at this from day one when I started understanding what dieting is (not the correct meaning though :P). I am startled today also  How can an apple fulfill all my body's needs. This is one thing all of us should look into ourselves & ask. It cannot. Dieting ideally means to maintain a balanced diet which includes carbs, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, roughage & water. I told you in my last blog that I had joined certain therapy services (of no help ;)), they advised me to stop eating carbs totally. Also sometimes to eat only fruits a day. I tried all of it & I guarantee didn't help much, I felt exhausted & drained. They kept on saying that is because the fats in my body were being used up by my body. I kept doing that for a good 2 months. And believe one day if I ate even a small scoop of ice-cream my weight would shoot up 10 times the ice cream's weight. I was very upset as well & always felt an urge to eat good things, an urge I could not control and today I actually laugh at it. I left all of it one day & started living normally, though I didn't lose weight I didn't gain any. So, please any of you if following such things request to please stop it. You are depriving your body of the basic needs.
Today I do follow an easy diet plan it actually might vary from person to person but should be more or less same. EAT CARBOHYDRATES in small or medium quantities but do eat, choose the right one for you. It is seen in research if the body is deprived of carbs the body feels skeptic about our intention & starts storing them. So, if you don't eat one meal & eat the next, the body will respond as a storage vault & store it for future use. Also we feel a tendency to overeat in such cases. HAVE FATS in your diet in small quantities, as the body does need fat. There are good cholesterol compounds which help our requirements of Vitamin D which is essential for absorption of Calcium, also helps keep our skin more fresh & young, also for better eyes & heart functions. Again the choice of fats have to be judicious & should not be exceeded. Now comes the PROTEINS, they are the building blocks of our body. Our muscles, hair & nails our mainly build of proteins. Also the enzymes our body uses are made of amino acids which are broken down from proteins. And the most important, protein helps to decrease the urge of hunger & keeps you full for a longer time as it takes more tie for the body to break down proteins than carbohydrates. So objective of dieting is also fulfilled.
I will keep this till here, and wait for your comments and suggestions. Thanks!!