Back with breakfast ideas and in specific the quick and healthy series.

Add a power-packed punch to your daily breakfast - Plain or as a sandwich filling, an egg salad will start your day right. Its healthy, tasty and easy to make. Honestly,what more could you ask for. This recipe too, like Oats and Muesli Super Crunch,was an invention due to necessity. I use boiled egg for the egg salad due to the fact that once my (usually perfectly) boiled egg broke up and since I could slice it up in the egg cutter, I used it differently.

What you need:

• Carrots(grated) - 1/4 cup
• Cucumber(grated) - 1/4 cup
• Diced Capsicum(tiny pieces) - 1/4 cup
• Diced tomatoes(tiny pieces) -  1/4 cup
• Thousand Island salad dressing - a generous helping (I’m usually pretty generous :))
• Boiled egg white diced up
• Boiled egg yolk crumbled
• Salt and Pepper - to taste

How do you do it:

• Take a wide salad bowl and mix up the carrots, cucumber, capsicum tomatoes and diced up egg white with the Thousand Island salad dressing to a creamy consistency.
• Add the crumbled yolk as a garnish over with salt and pepper.
• And you are done!

Variations:

• You can add some spice with chilli flakes and oregano and lime juice and garnish with coriander for that truly ethnic touch.
• You can use scrambled egg whites instead of boiled ones.
• You can add some crunch with walnuts and salted pistachios.

More Eggy recipes

• Heidi Swanson’s Yummy Egg Salad Sandwich
• Truly American egg salad

“If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out.”
-Rabindranath Tagore

Quite a long time back, I had asked you to look forward to making home perfumes.

Here we go. Lets start with the basic things you need to start with.

Basic Ingredients:

• Essential oils
• Pure Vodka
• Distilled Water

Essential oils and Notes:

Fragrance and perfume are fittingly compared to music, with them having notes - three kinds rising to a harmonious blend.

• Base Notes:
  The base on which the perfume is built. The smell that stays the longest.
  Rose,Patchouli,Vanilla,Vetiver etc.
  
• Middle Notes:
  The heart of the perfume, which stays a little less longer than the base notes.
  Pine, Chamomile, Black Pepper etc.
• Top Notes:
  The snazziest part of the perfume that is perceived immediately on the application of the perfume.
  Bergamot,Lemon,Tangerine etc.

Preparation:

Its a home preparation and I’m writing it, should be easy right? Of course! The consistent ingredients are 8 - 10 tablespoons(Vary as per strength needed) of pure Vodka and /2 - 1 cup of water. The essential oils and blends vary. You need to stir the essential oil/the blend into the vodka till the oil disperses and let it stand for 4 to 6 weeks in a cool dark place. Dilute it with distilled water at the end as per need.

Now getting down to the blends:

• Relaxing:
  

1. Lavender oil - 2 drops
2. Chamomile - 2 drops
3. Sandalwood - 1 drop

• Energizing:

1. Bergamot - 2 drops
2. Rosemary - 2 drops

• Aphrodisiac:

1. Ylang-ylang - 1 drop
2. Cinnamon - 1 drop
3. Black Pepper - 1 drop

If your budget’s a little tight, stick to a single oil perfume.

The greatest thing about making your perfume is giving home made signature gifts to your loved ones.

There are times, as you are getting off the bed (which by the way, you seem to be struggling with!) you feel the need to get the good ol’ blood pumping. You are thinking ” hmmm… probably a brisk walk or a good dose of exercise”. Truly, nothing better to get the heady rush of blood. But, are you up to doing it? I am guessing not.

Well, no hassles - Welcome to the world of easy-to-do yogasana stretches! I can instantly think of 4 reasons why the stretches I’m going to tell you about can help you, and immensely at that:

1. It doesn’t take you more than ten to fifteen minutes to do these asanas, after which invigoration is guaranteed.
2. Let’s suppose you have a workout schedule, and are feeling lazy on a particular day - these asanas create a guilt free day for you.
3. You can use these asanas as a warmup for your workout schedule.
4. If you are starting to get into a workout plan, start with these simple asanas and move onto bigger things.

Now lets begin, shall we?

1. Pada Hastasana - Forward Bend - Hands to feet:
   
   The first asana simply requires you to bend forward.
   • Stand up straight, inhale and raise your arms above your head.
   • Bend forward exahaling till your hands touch your feet. Do this without bending your knees.

   Even if you aren’t able to touch your feet, bend as much as you can and you’ll be stretching your spine and strengthening your legs.

   Do 3-6 reps of this.

2. Ardha Chakrasana - Half Wheel:

   
   This is a powerful back bend posture that can strengthen your spine and give a sense of buoyancy to your body.

   • Place your hands on your waist, Inhale and bend back, fixing your eyes on an object behind (like a picture on the wall, etc…).
   • Stay for as long as you can, exhale and bend forward.

   Do 3-6 reps of this.




3. Trikonasan - Triangular pose:
   

   

   This is one great asana to tone up your hips and gives a good workout to the abdomen and buttocks.

   • Stand straight with your feet sufficiently apart.
   • Inhale and stretch out your arms, with them being parallel to the floor.
   • Exhale, twist yourself and with your right hand, touch your right foot.
   • Inhale and get back to stretching your arms parallel to the floor
   • Exhale, twist yourself and with your left hand, touch your left foot.

   Do 9-12 reps of this.

4. Vrikshasan - Tree Posture:
   
   Quite literally, you need to arrange yourself into a posture, where you resemble a tree.
   • Stand up straight, bend you right knee, while keeping your left leg firmly in place.
   • Keep your eye fixed on a point in the floor and slowly slide your right foot up your left leg, trying to maintain your balance.
   • After acheiving this position, slowly lift your arms above your head in a praying posture.

   Do upto 4 reps of this.

Its been wonderful doing this every morning and the refreshing feeling is worth much more than the 15 minutes that goes into doing it. Happy Stretching!!!

Just a quick note to all you people in Bangalore. Lifestyle is having a wonderful end-of-season sale with up to 50% off on apparel, cosmetics and footwear.

The apparel section on the ethnic side has great brands like W, Melange and Biba and the deals are truly unbelievable. On the western note, their prices on Ginger, Levis, Lee and Wrangler are extremely pleasing to the eye. Not just that,gliding over to footwear,ballerinas and peep-toes to mention a few are available for a steal. So what are you waiting for, go ahead and Indulge!!!

For more details, visit Lifestyle online

The very sound of french toast, conjures up a smackilicious image of golden toast topped with powdered sugar, cinnamon and a dollop of slowly melting butter.

The origin of this fantabulous breakfast is very humble, unlike its swanky name. Would you believe that French toast was used to salvage stale bread, that had become hard and crunchy? Soaking old bread in a mixture of milk and eggs and frying it was a sure fire way to an appetizing breakfast.

There is also an interesting piece of history about the French toast being known earlier as the German toast, and getting rechristened to French toast, due to the Anti German feeling after World War 1.

That’s enough history, I suppose. Now, getting down to making it:

What you need:

• Eggs - 3
• Milk - 2 tablespoons
• Sugar - 1 or 1 1/2 tablespoons (adjust to taste)
• Vanilla essence -  2 teaspoons
• Bread - 4 slices
• Butter ( as much you would like to slather )
• Powdered Sugar and cinnamon - mix this (for garnish)

How you go about making it:

• Beat the eggs along with the milk, sugar and Vanilla essence. Transfer this into a wide, shallow bowl preferably.
• Heat the skillet. Keep it on medium flame.
• Soak the bread in the beaten mixture for 2 - 3 seconds. If you soak it in too long, the bread falls apart.
• Coat the skillet with as much butter as you would like. Place the bread on the skillet and you can pour the mixture in small spoonfuls over the bread as it is getting done. Turn the bread over on the other side and keep till golden brown.
• Serve piping hot with powdered sugar and cinnamon mix, with a dollop of butter. Alternatively you can serve it with honey or maple syrup.

More French Toast recipes

• 20 great French toast recipes
• A range of great French toast recipes from Bed & Breakfast Inns online

Happy French Toasting !

A fitting post to get back after two  months. A long fit of wavering between ideas in the head and translation into posts.

Unproductivity in its simplest, the feeling of reluctance to get anything done and the very thought of a todo list giving you a sharp pain in your head. There may be a multitude of reasons for feeling this way, the most common ones being lack of sleep and an improper eating schedule. All of us would have felt this way at some point or the other in our lives. For some of us, like me, it may be a recurring dip.

There are 2 ways to handle this. The first one is the easiest and helps you flow along with your mind. Its alright - remain unproductive. Remaining unproductive may help you catch up on things you never seem to have time for in your normal day, like reading a book to the end at one go, playing a game or just plain old catching some zzzs. There is absolutely nothing to feel guilty or perturbed about,as long as you are aware of what is happening.

The second is much more difficult and takes some serious amount of will power. You know your are feeling unproductive, but you want to get a particular thing done. Motivation has reached an all time low and your sense of guilt and anxiety is shooting off the charts, in spite of which your mind is talking you out of doing what you have to. Simply do a counter attack, by forcing yourself to do a small part of the job like 10% of it. This way you are guilt free, as you have at least done some part of the job, even if not a considerable amount. Chances are once that 10% barrier is crossed, your motivation will magically reappear and you will complete the job.

Take my case, When I started to write this post, I was distracted and was telling myself ‘I’ll do the basic draft tonight and post it tommorow morning.’ But here I am finishing what I set out to do.

One of my favourite unproductivity hack is by Leo of zenhabits. Check it out here.

The use of fragrance in cosmetics is as widely appreciated as its use in healing. Cosmetic applications essentially restore and rejuvenate skin and hair to an optimum order.

Therapeutic blends can be extended to cosmetic preparations as the fragrance can not only evoke pleasant feelings but also increase self appreciation.

FACIAL TREATMENTS:

The following treatments for the face need to be diluted in a carrier oil and are best used as a wash oil.

Normal skin

• Lavender - Major
• Rose - Major
• Jasmine - Trace

Dry skin

• Sandalwood - Major
• Rose - Minor

Oily skin

• Bergamot - Major (Beware - irritant oil, patch test)
• Juniper - Minor
• Cypress - Minor

HAIR PREPARATIONS:

These preparations too need to be diluted into a carrier oil - 24-30 drops of the blend into 2-3 tablespoons of carrier oil. The end product can be massaged into the hair and the scalp. A hot oil treatment by indirectly heating the oil.

Hair Loss

• Juniper - Major
• Lavender - Minor
• Rosemary - Minor (Irritant)

Normal Hair

• Cedarwood - Major
• Bay - Major
• Rosemary - Major (Irrotant)
• Rose - Minor

Dry hair

• Sandalwood - Major
• Rose - Major
• Lavender - Minor

Oily hair and Dandruff

• Ylang Ylang - Major
• Lime - Major
• Rosemary - Minor

Look forward to making home perfume soon!