Monthly Archives: February 2012

Quick Weeknight Meals: Southwest Potatoes

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For working parents, getting weeknight meals on the table is a big challenge.  Between commuting, caring for children, homework, and bedtimes, there is little time to prepare a meal.  The Quick Weeknight Meals series aims to help solve this problem so we can eat at home, healthfully and frugally.

Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart,
the more you eat the more you fart,
the more you fart, the better you feel,
so beans, beans for every meal!

I’ve brought you this moment of kid humor in honor of American Heart Month.  I’ve got a beany, heart-healthy recipe to share with you–low in fat, high in fiber, and packed with veggies.  Like I’ve said before, preventing heart disease is even more important to us as South Asians because we are more susceptible to it.  Check out these tips on a heart healthy diet from the Mayo Clinic.

Back when I first started cooking, this was one of the first dishes I created on my own.  After I graduated from college, my mother was intent on teaching me to cook.  I resisted.  I had no interest in cooking and thought it was sexist that she wanted to teach me (but not my brother) to cook.  The cooking lessons were generally a part of making me a “marriageable girl.”  I asked whether men were being trained to cook so that they could be “marriageable boys.”  Further arguments ensued.

(If you’re reading mom, I love you!)

Ironically, my future husband (I Am Dad), is an excellent cook.  And we plan to teach I Am Toddler to cook too when he’s old enough.  Man or woman, knowing how to cook healthfully is an essential life skill.

Eventually, I did develop an interest in cooking, but not the usual (to me, boring) dal bhaat shakh rotli.  No, I wanted to make fun meals (dips, sandwiches, fusion food, etc.).  In my mind, anything with Mexican flavors is fun food.  Here’s an easy dish that uses the Mexican flavors of beans, garlic, onion, tomato, and taco seasoning (Costco Mexican, though not authentic).

Southwest potatoes – an easy vegetarian weeknight dish.  Heart-healthy too!

Bake your potatoes.  This takes an hour so start this first.  Russett potatoes give you great texture and flavor.

Pressure cook your beans.  Make sure your kitchen is messy.  This adds to the taste of this dish.

Here are my chopped veggies, grated garlic, and frozen corn.  This large picture size shows me that I need a new cutting board.
Sautee your veggies and the cooked beans in a nonstick pan.  Looks like healthy confetti!
Cut open your baked potato, spoon the bean mixture on top, and add sour cream and salsa.

Ok, back to the recipe.  These are approximations, so you can tweak the mix of veggies and seasonings to your taste.

Ingredients: 
Russett Potatoes (1-2 per person)
Medium-sized onion, diced
Medium-sized tomato,diced
1/4 green bellpepper
4 cloves garlic, grated
1 cup or so of beans (kidney, red, pinto, or black)
1/2 cup of corn (kernels)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2-3 tablespoons taco seasoning
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Garnish: sour cream, salsa, taco sauce

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Scrub your potatoes, poke them in several places with a fork, and rub vegetable oil on them.  Set them on a baking sheet and let them bake for an hour.  You can bake the potatoes in the microwave to save time – 7 to 10 minutes on high, turning halfway through the cooking time.  Once they are done, set them aside.

While you are baking the potatoes, pressure cook the beans until they are soft but still retain their shape. With my pressure cooker, this means you let the whistle hiss continuously for 15-20 minutes.  Open the pressure cooker once it has cooled and the pressure has dissipated (on mine, a button pops down).  You can save time by using canned beans instead.

Now, chop up your veggies.  I used frozen corn to cut down on the chopping.  This would be a great summertime recipe with fresh corn.  You can save time by prechopping your veggies on the weekend and freezing pureed garlic into small ice cubes.  Another option is to buy your veggies prechopped at the grocery store.

Heat the oil in a nonstick pan at medium-high.

Add in the onions and garlic first and stir until fragrant.  Then add in the corn and bell pepper.  Let them cook for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes.  Add the cooked beans, reserving the bean water.  Now add your taco seasoning.  2-3 tablespoons should do, but you can add more if you want more flavor.  Salt to taste and add the cayenne pepper.

If you want a barbecued taste, you can increase the heat to high to char the veggie mixture a bit.  Make sure you stir frequently though.

There are two ways to serve the potatoes.  The way I did it, and a better way.  The better way is to scoop out the inside of the potato, leaving about 1/4″ shell of potato.  Mix the scooped out part with the bean mixture and then put it into the potato shells.  The easy way (the way I did it), was to cut the potato in half and just pour the mixture on top.  The problem with my way is that you have a ton of plain potato left over after you eat the bean mixture, and that’s just not fun.

You can make this recipe diabetic friendly by scooping out most of the potato and serving the bean mixture in a thin potato shell.  Substitute diced yellow squash for the corn.

These reheat well, so you can save your leftovers for the following day’s lunch.

Did you make this recipe or any of my other quick weeknight meals?  Send me a picture at iammomsblog@gmail.com, and you may be featured on an upcoming post!

Like what you see? Want to read more? Follow me on Twitter @Iammomsblog, follow me on Pinterest @Iammomsblog, or subscribe to I Am Moms to receive posts by e-mail.

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Working Moms – Think You Can’t Fit In Networking and Career Development? Think Again!

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This post is part of I Am Mom blog’s series for work outside the home moms (WOHMs).  Many of us are the first in our families to work outside the home, and in this series I offer tips and tricks to make this never-easy task a bit easier. 

So, remember how I said we can have it all but we can’t have it all at the same time?

I WANT IT ALL AT THE SAME TIME!  

And I’m slowly figuring out how to get it.

Being a working mom requires strategic thinking.

When I returned to work after maternity leave, I ignored an essential part of my usual career regimen: professional networking and career development.  Having it all meant somehow figuring out how to reintroduce these into my life. 

BC (before child), I used weeknights for these activities.  But now, weeknights are packed with feeding, diapering, cooking, and prepping for the next day.  Plus I’d rather not get childcare for the few hours in the day that I actually do get to spend with my baby.

Then how do I fit networking and career development back in?

Almost a year after becoming a mom, I have finally figured out how to add professional networking and career development back into the mix.

Here are 4 ways working moms can networking and gain career skills without needing extra childcare:

1.  Power Lunches
This awful term reminds me of suit jackets with shoulder pads from the 80s.  But I’m thinking of a more modern version.  BC, I didn’t value my lunch breaks.  Of course, I liked that I had a lunch break, but it wasn’t crucial to use it wisely because I also had time to myself after work.  Now, lunchtime is really the only me time I have.  Here’s what you can do with a power lunch:

  • Make New Friends and Keep the Old
    • Get to know coworkers and other contacts by asking them to lunch.
    • Sometimes you have to work through lunch, but having lunch with someone once every two weeks is doable. 
  • Lunch and Learn
    • Participate in professional development events that meet at lunchtime 
      • I joined Toastmasters this year and hope to add continuing legal education and bar association meetings to the mix.
    • Keep current in your field by reading articles/magazines over lunch (I won’t tell if you sneak in a copy of Glamour or Real Simple every now and then).  You can earn some continuing legal education or other professional licensing credits this way.

2. Leveraging the Workplace
This wouldn’t be a professional development article if I didn’t throw in at least one jargon-y business term.  Ha!  There are many opportunities for professional development and networking right within your own workplace. Take advantage!

  • Volunteer Strategically  
    • Volunteer for interesting committees and projects at work.
    • These help enhance our skills beyond your normal work and let your talents shine before coworkers and superiors.  Forget about being momboxed!
  • Use Workplace Programs
    • Attend any optional professional development programs your employer offers during the workday (e.g. trainings, mentoring, etc.). BC I might have decided to skip these, but now I don’t.  It is one of the few opportunities you have to develop yourself without having to arrange for additional childcare.
3. Replace Happy Hours with Homey Hours
BC, happy hours were a nice chance to relax and connect with friends and professional contacts.  Because it was after work, you could linger.  Now, that’s a very rushed time of day–no time to linger!
  • Homey Hours – Meeting in Kid Territory
    • Instead of happy hours, invite friends or friendly contacts (who you’d like to get to know better) over for a playdate or meal.  If they have kids, they excuse a messy home.  If they don’t, then 30 minutes with your little pookie will show them why you’re too busy to clean.
    • Homey hours are nice because you are already in a kid-friendly place and can easily step away to nurse or distract little pookie with a toy.
    • If you’re stumped about food, try one of my quick meals, or put together a quick snack like readymade hummus and pre-chopped veggies.

4. Network in Mommaville
When on maternity leave and even now, you intersect with other moms quite a bit.  Have you gotten to know them outside of the mom context?

  • The parents of daycare classmates, other moms on breastfeeding/parenting listservs, and moms on the playground (ok, I Am Baby doesn’t yet go to the playground) are interesting people who you could get to know personally and professionally.  As moms, we have a natural kinship, and we can support each other as working moms by getting to know one another. 

Now, I will caution you that I don’t recommend these during maternity leave or your first 2 months back at work.  At those times, just keeping your family alive and healthy is enough to consume all of your mental and physical faculties.  But once you start to feel like you’re getting into a groove with your return to work, these are nice practices to add in.

Do you have any tips for building your network or developing career skills as a mom?  How do you fit it all into your busy day?
Like what you see?  Follow me on Twitter @Iammomsblog or follow me on Pinterest at Iammomsblog.
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Quick Weeknight Meals: Poodla

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For working parents, getting weeknight meals on the table is a big challenge.  Between commuting, caring for children, homework, and bedtimes, there is little time to prepare a meal.  The Quick Weeknight Meals series aims to help solve this problem so we can eat at home, healthfully and frugally.

Poodla are savory, protein-packed pancakes that make a delicious snack or meal.  My mom used to make them for us on rainy days after we came home after school.  Because they’re served hot, they’re the perfect winter food.  In California, where I grew up, 60 degree rainy days were the extent of winter.  Ha!  We were so spoiled.

For dinner, you can serve poodla alongside soup to make it heartier.

Because they are so high in protein and low in carbs, poodla are also perfect for diabetics or vegetarians. 

Poodla – healthy, savory, high-protein pancakes.
Here are the ingredients (sans the grated ginger and green chili – oops!)
Veggies all chopped up. Don’t they look delish?

I had a fourth picture of the poodla roasting in the pan but can’t get it to upload.  Gah!

Here’s the recipe for poodla.  As always, the amounts are approximate and you should adjust them to your taste.

Ingredients:
1 cup besan (chickpea) flour (available at Indian grocery stores or health food stores)
1/2 cup nonfat yogurt (can sub lowfat or regular)
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 tbsp grated ginger
1 1/2 tbsp grated jalapeno pepper
1 tsp salt
1 small onion, finely diced
1 small tomato, finely diced
1/4 green bell pepper, finely diced
1/4 red bell pepper, finely diced

Combine all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl.  Add the water little by little, stirring with a wire whisk as you go.  Stop adding water when your batter has the consistency of pancake batter.  Taste the batter and add more salt or ginger and jalapeno pepper to taste.  Now heat a nonstick skillet on medium high and put a little bit of oil on it.  Once the skillet is hot, use a ladle to pour about 1/3 cup batter onto the skillet.  You’ll know it’s time to turn the poodlo (singular form) when small bubbles form on top of it and pop, turning into holes.  The color of the batter become slightly yellower, showing that it has solidified.  Use a spatula to carefully flip over the poodlo.  Let it cook briefly (maybe 30 seconds to 1 minute), and put it into the serving plate.

Serve with ketchup or green chutney.

To make this quicker, you can chop up the veggies on the weekend.  The traditional recipe calls for diced onion, tomatoes, and green chilis, but I like adding in bell peppers for crunch.  It’s a nice contrast with the soft poodla texture.  You could also use grated carrots or grated butternut squash.  

What are your go-to weeknight meals?  Would you like to see them featured on the blog?  Contact me at iammomsblog@gmail.com or comment on this post.

Like what you see? Want to read more? Follow me on Twitter @Iammomsblog or follow me on Pinterest at Iammomsblog.

www.iammoms.com

Justice Sotomayor on Sesame Street – LOVE IT!

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In case you missed it this week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor was on Sesame Street! 

Check out the video here: 

 

Where do I start with how awesome this is?  

1. She’s a Latina Supreme Court justice hanging out with the kids!
Though we’ve all heard the phrase, “You can do anything you want to do” or “be anything you want to be,” seeing someone who looks like you in a position of power makes that message hit home.  This is probably why I’m so excited about prominent South Asian Americans. 

Plus, she’s introducing her kids to the legal system is a really down-to-earth way.  Kudos for being real Justice Sotomayor.

2. She’s speaking Spanish on TV!  
For those of us who spoke more than one language growing up, the non-English language always seemed unofficial.  It was something confined to our households and rarely portrayed in the media.  I loved seeing Justice Sotomayor speak in Spanish because it showed that one’s “home language” could have a place in the public sphere too. 

Bravo, Sesame Street and Justice Sotomayor!  And what a blast to see that Maria is still on Sesame Street after so many years — I used to watch her as a kid!  I couldn’t be happier about this (well, maybe I would be a little happier if Sesame Street had a Desi Supreme Court justice on the show…a girl can dream can’t she?).

What were your thoughts on the segment?

Like what you see? Want to read more? Follow me on Twitter @Iammomsblog, follow me on Pinterest at Iammomsblog, or subscribe to I Am Moms to receive posts by e-mail.

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Quick Weeknight Meals: A Review of Rasoi Magic Paneer Tikka Mix

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For working parents, getting weeknight meals on the table is a big challenge.  Between commuting, caring for children, homework, and bedtimes, there is little time to prepare a meal.  The Quick Weeknight Meals series aims to help solve this problem so we can eat at home, healthfully and frugally.
Rasoi Magic Paneer Tikka Mix
This quick weeknight meal is also a product review of Rasoi Magic’s Paneer Tikka Mix.  FYI, I purchased this product on my own and have been using them for years.  They are flavor packets that you combine with fresh ingredients to create instant subjis.  They contain all the spices you need (including salt) in premeasured quantities so you don’t have to fiddle with a recipe when you’re in a rush.  I can cook many Gujarati subjis without a recipe but need them for Punjabi dishes like this one.
Here is what a Rasoi Magic packet looks like: 

And here is the back, with the directions and nutritional info: 

To make this, you mix the flavor packet with a cup of milk and set aside, then blend up several tomatoes, and stir fry the tomato puree in oil.  You are supposed to separately pan fry the paneer and then mix the milk and spice mixture into the tomatoes and add the fried paneer into that.

It’s really quick and easy, and with readymade paneer you could probably make it in about 15 minutes.  That is assuming there is no baby crawling around on the floor, trying to munch on any little tidbits that you’ve dropped, like pieces of tomato or onion skins from another dish, while you repeatedly pick him up, slide your finger around his mouth to make sure he won’t choke on the tidbits, and put him outside of the kitchen to play with his toys.

That adds about 10 minutes to the cooking time.

Making It Healthier

I Am Dad and I like to put our own spin on this by adding additional veggies and not frying the paneer.  What we add depends on what we have, but favorites include cubed zucchini and onions.  Sometimes we substitute cubed, baked tofu for the paneer to make it healthier because paneer is pretty fattening.  We let it all simmer for a few minutes until the veggies are tender and the flavors are mixed.

On this particular night, we did not have any zucchini and didn’t feel like chopping onions (crazy busy day), so we just added in frozen mixed veggies (already chopped), including corn, carrots, peas, and green beans.  We already had some cubed, frozen paneer in the freezer, so I threw that in too.  It was nice to put together a fresh meal with veggies without having to chop anything.

Since we can rarely go through a whole block of paneer on our own in one sitting, I chop the leftover paneer into cubes and freeze it in a freezer bag with the date on it.  You know how sometimes you have all these blobs in your freezer in containers and you have no idea what they are or when they got there?  This system of labeling and dating the bags helps avoid that mess. 

Here’s what our version of Rasoi Magic Paneer Tikka Mix subji looked like in the pan: 

Now doesn’t that look better than takeout?

And by the way, one day I hope I’ll be one of those bloggers with gorgeous photos of delicious foods.  But for now, you’ll have to deal with my crappy cell phone pics, hastily snapped while I ask I Am Dad, “Wait a minute, don’t take it off the stove yet.  I need a picture for my blog!!”

 Suggested Accompaniments

Of course, paneer tikka subji can’t be eaten alone.  The day we made this was a special treat because we actually made bhakri, daal and rice.  Most weeknights it is too difficult to make the time for bhakri.  I know I just pissed off about 1500 aunties with that sentence.  Anyway, bhakri is a rare thing at the I Am household, because making the dough, rolling them out, and cooking them takes too long.  Not to mention that I’m terrible at it.  So I Am Dad usually makes them.

I have a couple of friends who make 3 days’ worth of rotli or bhakri dough at once, so when they come home from work, all they have to do is roll them out and roast them.  My friends who do this say 3 days is the max the dough will keep without becoming all gelatinous and gross.  So an easy way to make bhakri would be to have the dough ready to go ahead of time. 

Another option would be to just make white or brown rice and mix the paneer tikka subji into it with a dollop of plain yogurt.

Sometimes we buy naan to eat with this, but we try to avoid naan because it is high in calories, and the paneer is already rich enough.  

The Bottom Line

The Rasoi Magic Paneer Tikka Mix was delicious.  This flavor packet had been hanging around our pantry for awhile, but it still tasted fresh.  It was extremely easy to put together, and in the past I’ve used it when we had company.  I like that you don’t have to measure anything and can just blend and go. 

One downside is the cost.  Indian grocery stores in the US tend to charge $1.50 per flavor packet, and I’ve found recipes for paneer tikka online that aren’t too hard to make and are probably more cost effective. But I’ve also purchased these in Toronto, Canada, which has a huge Indian population, for only $0.25 per packet. 

If you don’t mind paying $1.50, or if you either don’t have the spices on hand or just don’t feel like measuring, then I’d highly recommend these.  They are still much cheaper than buying takeout and healthier too.

As for quantity, the packet and recommended additions were more than enough for the two of us, and we had leftovers for the next day.  

If you’d like to try another flavor, I also like Rasoi Magic’s Methi Mutter Malai Mix.  

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