Reduce fat everyday

A simple way of reducing fat content in your body is by eating horse gram.
1. Cook the horse gram like dal. Drink the excess water. If you like, you can use the cooked horse gram in curry, sambhar etc.
OR
2. heat the horse gram in a microwave or just on the gas stove for sometime and then make a fine powder of it and store. use one table spoon of the powder in any cooking that you do like curry, sambhar etc etc. it does not add any taste. but is a very good fat reducer.
OR
3. Just heat the horse gram and eat it as a snack.

Difference between dals

I found it very difficult to differentiate between the various types of dals available. When I cooked, I knew which one to use. But if I had to buy it, I did not know its name. Also some dals looked similar and I was confused when the shopkeeper asked me which one I wanted. So here is a blog to help someone in my condition (specially from my mom)

I have listed 4 important types of dal here.

1. Uddin bele (kannada), ulatham paruppu (tamil), Urad dal (hindi)
It is dirty white in colour. You get it in oval shape and it is really small in size. You also get broken ones in which the oval shaped dal is in two halves.
Used for making flour (paste) of vada, idli, dosai etc. very good for strong hip bones.

2. Masoor dal (hindi): this is pink in colour. Really tiny. Very easy to identify as it has a distinct pink colour.

3. Kadalai paruppu (tamil), Kadle bele (kannada): Bright yellow in colour.
Hemispherical in shape.used for sambhar, rasam etc.

4. Thoram paruppu (Tamil), thuvar dal (hindi): lighter yellow than the previous one. Also hemispherical in shape, but not as round as the previous one. Flatter compared to the previous one. Used in kootu etc.

The most confusing are the last two types as they look quite similar with a very subtle difference.

Stop crackling mustard every day

My grandma used a very useful tip that I would like to share. In most Indian cooking, we crackle mustard seeds and put in our dishes. This is called Tadka (hindi) or oggarnne (kannada) or thalippu (tamil). This is a small job. But the vessel used for this gets oily and needs washing every time. Instead, what can be done is, you can crackle lot of mustard at a time and then drain the excess oil. This crackled mustard can be stored in a bottle and used every time for cooking. It will not get spoilt for months together. It saves time of doing the crackling and also washing the vessel.

Shining hair

After washing your hair pour milk all over it. Leave it for 2 minutes and then rinse it out for shiny long hair.

Dark Circles

Grate some cucumber and freeze in an ice tray. Massage frozen cucumber cubes onto eyes to reduce puffiness and dark circles.

Dandruff treatment

The use of fenugreek seeds is one of the most important remedies in the treatment of dandruff. Two tablespoons of these seeds should be soaked overnight in water and ground into a fine paste in the morning. This paste should be applied all over the scalp and left for half an hour. The hair should then be washed thoroughly with soap-nut (ritha) solution or shikakai.

Prepare your own natural soap

Preparing natural soap:
Fenugreek (Hindi: Methi , Tamil: vendhayam, Kannada: Menthya)powder 1 tbsp
Shikakai (you can buy it from the shop. I would prefer to use Rose brand)3 tbsp
Green gram(Hindi:Moong, Tamil:Payaru, Kannada: hasiru bele) powder 3 tbsp
pudina extracted water
Make a liquid out of the above. Your soap is ready.

Skin care - dark circles

To clear dark circles around the eyes, apply cotton soaked in strained tea liquid for 10 minutes.

Skin care - skin cleansing

To cleanse skin apply 1 tsp of milk with 3 drops of glycerin and 6 drops of rose water and leave for 20 minutes.

Storing salt

To prevent salt from getting moist add some rice grains to the bottle of salt. The salt will remain fresh and the sprinkle holes will not get blocked either.

Bad breath

To get rid of bad breath chew a parsley twig or lemon rind or eat an apple.

Hair care - hair fall

To reduce hair fall:
With 2 tbsps of milk, take mulati from stone. Mix with kesar and apply on early balding places. Then shampoo.

Hair care - hair fall

To reduce hair fall:
Mix two tbsps of coconut milk and 2 tbsps of lemon juice. Apply on scalp. Wait for 40 minutes and then shampoo.

Soft towels

To make bath towel more absorbent and soft, put a handful of salt in a bucket of water and soak the towel for 2 hrs. Wash and dry.

Sparkling clothes

Dry lemon peels in the shade and grind them into powder. Mix one tbsp of this powder in your ordinary washing powder and wash your clothes as usual. They will come out sparkling clean.

Pigmentation of skin

To lighten pigmentation of skin, apply the juice of cucumber, lemon and potato all mixed equally with ½ tsp of rose water and glycerin.

Wrinkles

Fresh cream (milk cream) left on face overnight (NOT FOR OILY SKIN) is an effective cure for wrinkles.

Kitchen tips - Old jam

If jam becomes thick, add cream and make it into a tasty pudding.

Remedies for health problems - Stomach pain

For quick relief from stomach upsets, eat a ripe deseeded tomato.

Hair care - hair fall

To reduce hair fall:
Mix 2 tbsp of ginger water, 10gms black pepper powder, 10gm lemon seed powder.
Apply on scalp. Wait for 40 minutes and shampoo.

Household tips - tight shoes

To ease tight shoes, keep a piece of cut potato in the shoes overnight.

Skin care - Soft skin

Grind a few pieces of ripe papaya with a little milk. Add a tsp of honey or glycerin to it. Massage skin with this pulp for few minutes. Then wash off with cold milk. This helps to soften skin and keep it looking young.

Kitchen tips - use whey

Don’t throw away the whey remaining after making paneer. Use it to knead chappathi dough or prepare gram flour batter for bhajjis.

Remedies for health problems - bee sting

Stings from cacti rose plants or bees which are not visible to the naked eye can be removed by pressing cellotape over the bitten area and pulling it away gently.

Hair care - hair fall

To reduce hair fall:
Take ½ bottle water. Add 4 tbsp chopped onion, 20 to 30 laung and a few bay leaves. Close the bottle and keep it in the sun for 20 days. Apply the lotion to hair. Keep it for ½ hour and shampoo.

Household tips

If you keep a few camphor tablets in the cupboard in which you keep your silverware, your silver will not tarnish

Skin care - Stretch marks

To reduce the ravages of stretch marks mix
½ tsp full of papaya pulp
1 tsp of sandalwood paste
1 tsp of rose water
2 drops lavender oil
10 drops of almond oil
Apply to affected area. Keep it for 15 minutes. Wash with warm water.