15 Marbles

Moments.Musings.Memories. ❤️Gathering little marbles from ordinary days and keeping them for our memory jar. ❤️

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  • Penne Pasta with vegetables in garlic infused white sauce

    Now,if the name,didn’t make you go,wowwwwww…and make you drool,this picture definitely would.

    And this is just the picture of the veggies..:)
    The white sauce recipe was shared by a cousin,when I was may be 17-18 and since then,it has been a family favorite.My dad who doesn’t care much for noodles-foodle,pasta-wasta(his words not mine!),actually took a bite,to make me happy the second or third time-well he didn’t have a choice,when my sister and I bullied him:D And he asked for seconds..Since then,this is the only pasta dish,he eats and relishes.As for my sister and best friend,any pasta/veg in white sauce,is good only if it tastes like mine..and coming from two VERY fussy eaters,this is a compliment.
    DH loves it too,and fortunately,so does the little one.

    (Not a very good picture..)
    Here’s my Penne Pasta with vegetables in garlic infused white sauce:
    You need-
    400 gms of Penne Pasta( you can replace Penne with Fusili or Macaroni as well)
    1 whole Red Capsicum,diced
    1-2 carrot-diced
    6-7 green beans-diced
    1/2 cup cauliflower or brocolli florets
    1 medium sized onion diced.
    1 tsp olive oil
    salt and pepper to taste
    For the Sauce-
    2 tsp butter(I used olive oil spread)
    1 cup milk( I used low fat milk)
    1/2 cup water
    1 tbsp all purpose flour
    3/4 cup grated parmasaen cheese
    2 garlic cloves,crushed.

    Preparation:

    * Prepare the Pasta,as per the instructions on the pack.Toss it with a tsp of olive oil and keep aside.Save a little water,from the pasta,in a separate bowl.
    * Saute’ the vegetables and keep aside.
    * To prepare the sauce-
    (Start with a fresh pan,to get the perfect white color) Take some butter in a pan and when it starts to sizzle,add the crushed garlic cloves.Pick up the pan and shake it gently,so that all the butter,gets the garlic flavor.Lower the flame.Remove the garlic,after a minute and add the all purpose flour.Keep stirring,so that the flour or the butter don’t burn.This is the most important step,if you want the right color.Keep the flame low.
    When the flour turns slightly yellow,add the milk and water.Stir/whisk vigorously,to avoid lumps. When this mixture,starts bubbling,add the grated cheese and stir again.Make sure,you maintain medium heat,till all the cheese melts.Add salt to taste.You can also add pepper if you like.

    *Once your Sauce is ready,toss in the veggies and the pasta and the water saved from boiling pasta.Mix it well and serve hot.You can garnish it with some cheese if you like.

    Serving Suggestions- Serve hot with Garlic Bread and crisp green salad.

    This is the first post on Project Lunchbox! I packed this yummy pasta along with some garlic bread and told him to sprinkle some water on the pasta,before heating it..(which I know he is not going to do!)

  • Project LunchBox

    The owner of the lunchbox is the darling husband.Till we were in the US,DH used to come home for lunch and most of the days,I would breeze through the morning,getting fresh meals on the table,day after day.On the rare day,when he was going to be very busy,I would just pack something for him..or he would grab a burger or sandwich.
    Then we moved to Melbourne-I don’t remember much about the first 5-6 months..may be he took lunch on some days,on others,he ate out…I didn’t care much. After we moved to this house,last february,pretty much the same pattern continued.Some weeks he would take boxed lunch on all 5 days,sometimes,may be 2 or 3 times..But one thing was constant..there was hardly any variety in his lunch box.
    It was always- Rice-daal-sabji OR Curd-Rice OR Fried Rice OR Rice with Curry …you get it? the rice was constant.
    He insisted it was easier to eat..and I didn’t mind,because,rice is easier to cook. Recently,I realised,how boring it is for him.He doesn’t complain..but just thinking/writing about it,bored me out of my mind. So,I have decided to bring in variety.Since the beginning of 2010,I am giving him boxed lunch,EVERY single day,unless he has a lunch meeting or if I am sick..and I want to continue this..because-1) It saves us money and
    2) Its healthier. If only I can find other options.
    The problem is it should be something that I can cook the previous night.Simply because,he doesn’t have the patience for my cooking to get done in the morning and starts panicking and threatening to leave,without the lunch.This gets me also worked up and I end up feeling unappreciated.And also,if I get up early to cook,so does Aadi and I am so not ready for a longer day of mommying.So,anyone back to the Project LunchBox-I am going to try and post what I pack for him,everyday..and hopefully some of you will share something interesting with me.
    Do you or your spouse take a boxed lunch to work?What do you normally pack?

  • The connection…-Guest Post

    Its time for the next guest post.This one is from one of my favorite bloggers..infact the one that initiated me into blogging.I read a post by a second time mom on Indiaparenting pregnancy boards and it made me reach out to her.That mom was Tharini and on her encouragement,I started my first blog.Tharini moves me and that was another reason,why I requested her to do this guest post for me.
    Here’s what Tharini has to say-

    There are many ways to meet people. Both in real life and on the virtual. And the way I met Trish, could fall into the category of ‘regular’….or not. How do you classify something that connected to the exact emotional state in two people?

    Indiaparenting it was. On a message board. Where I had shared Thambi’s birth story. Trish read it and reached out. Not only because it called for congratulations, but because it called for that special sentiment, called hurt. Hurt, that a mother’s presence would have made the all the difference, and her absence was a very raw wound for me. And Trish had sensed that. It was the same wound that hurt her too. Girls need their mother when they are becoming mothers themselves, period. And I was lucky to have that blessing the first time around, with a narrow miss the second time. And in all the things that a birth story entails, it was this that Trish keenly sensed and wrote to me about. Ah, the bliss of being ‘got’.

    She began blogging soon thereafter, and I learnt a little more about her and her life. But distances are always there, waiting at the corner, to wedge their way in and open the chasm wide. Busy lives with very little time was the distance that wedged itself in our case. We are not in regular touch or completely tuned in to each other’s lives. But when she writes to me about doing a guest post after 3 eventful years, that is the time to pause and think, and remember and reach out once more. So here I am, wishing Trish many many more happy sweet years of blogging and growing in her own right.

    A parting thought….this bookmark, with one question, READY? I love it. 5 letters, with a question mark at the end, and the potency of infinity? Oh wow!!! Ready? So open ended with scope for the widest interpretation, the popular one corresponding to your exact situation in life. At that time, for me, it would have been….are you ready to move forward from that point, from that ache and embrace your newly completed family, completely? Now, it is…are you ready to make some serious changes in your life, leaving behind old habits that tend to leach and remember what it is like to be pure once more?

    What does READY? mean to Trish? And what does READY? mean to you?

    Thanks for writing,Tharini and thanks for sharing this beautiful bookmark with us.
    Ready? to me today means-Am I ready to take charge of my health? Am I ready for the next phase,thats going to start in our life,as Aadi starts school?Am I ready to give myself sometime,to wait for nature to take its course?Am I ready to make some changes in our lifestyle to make it better in coming months and years..?I think its about time and I think I am ready!

    What about you?What does READY? mean to you?

    To read the other guest posts,go here,here and here

  • Friends Forever-Guest post

    I first stumbled upon Rayshma’s when Aadi was a couple weeks old.I read her blog,when I was up nursing Aadi inthe wee hours of the morning and her post made me smile,despite my sleep deprived state.I still remember,she had blogged about being cooped up at home that day.It reminded me of my days in Toronto.But,sleep took over and I forgot to save her url and I was discovering new blogs then..so,there was no way I could find her again.
    Imagine my surprise,when I moved to texas and found another blogger,in Texas..and that blogger was Raysh!She was truly my Texas Sunshine.We exchanged emails and there was a connection..We met and got along like a house on fire..and before she knew what hit her,Aadya had a new aunt!:D
    When I decided to do guest posts,this month,I don’t know what I was expecting..I just knew that I wanted to spread some smiles through the people who made me smile..:) But,Raysh this post..is making me turn beet red..seriously..:P
    And the rest of you,here’s Rayshma for you-

    Whenever i think of trish, i find myself smiling. that’s just the way she is, i guess! happy, cheerful… always smiling. and her smile sure is contagious! she is what is generally perceived as a giver. she gives without expecting… she remembers your likes and dislikes despite the hazaar things she has to do… and that’s bcoz she genuinely cares.
    saying she’s enthusiastic or talented really does no justice to her. she’s beyond all of that. her zest for life makes her one friend you’ll always want! if you don’t know how talented she is, you should drop by her art blog… and i dare you to come back without saying “WOW!!! frikkin fantastic!” *or something to the effect* THAT is how good she really is. and i think her personality really shines through because of how genuine she is. she doesn’t need to put on an act of enthusiasm, it comes naturally to her. and sometimes, i wonder how…!

    she’s the first blog-pal i met. and i sure as hell glad that i met her! i used to believe that my blog made me look like a better person than i am. i am, in person, rather shy. i take time to open up to people… to consider them friends… but trish never made me feel that i didn’t know her. it was like meeting a long-lost friend… someone i wanted to meet, but hadn’t got down to. as they say, some connections just happen. and i am so so honored to be doing a guest post for her.

    here’s to many more years of blogging and friendship.
    love you gurl! MUAH!


    This is the third Guest post..you can read the previous guest posts, here and here.