Snack bar

One of my resolutions for this year is to get more organized in this new life of mine as a mom who works out of the house. The other resolution is to eat healthier(shocker I know!) now that I have a little tot around trying to emulate everything we do.

Being organized is especially difficult for me since I just get the weekend to get all my tasks done and who wants to do that when you have unlimited access to the TV and a baby girl who is SO much fun to be around! 

Anyways, so this Sunday during Anaya's nap(yes, my day is pretty much planned around her nap), I decided to organize a snack bar in my kitchen. 

Saurabh and I work from home a couple of days a week and my mom and the nanny hang out at home a lot too, so I just wanted to make sure there were healthy things easily available for everyone to snack on. 

Organizing your own snack bar doesn't have to be overtly complicated or expensive. Just need to add a few things to your weekly grocery list. 

So here is what I added to my snack bar: 

• White puffed rice chiwda. Really easy to make. Just fry some peanuts with curry leaves and spices and add puffed rice and roast for a minute. Season and done! This is baby friendly and Anaya loves it. You could use puffed barley, lotus seeds or pop corn(for older kids only) instead of puffed rice
• Home made trail mix . Mine had almonds, cashews, dried fig, hazelnuts, raisins and chocolate chips, but really you can add anything to like. Leave out the chocolate chips, add pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds, the options are endless(Pinterest it!). Chuck it all together, mix, store in jar. 
• Some raisins for Anaya. 
• Some peanuts(DH is a fan). 
• Some roasted chana. 

I used old pasta sauce jars because I have a drawer filled with them and I think they look pretty! 

I added them all to a old tray and set it in the kitchen. 

In addition to this, I have some cheese,nut butter and yogurt in the fridge for Anaya since she cant really eat most of the items above. Nut butters are especially great to spread on toast or dip fruits in. 

I also order fresh fruit every Monday from big basket and the snacks for the week are taken care of and it barely took me 15 mins to put it together! Bye bye store bought biscuits and sugar filled cereal! 

 I usually also make a batch of whole wheat or ragi cookies for the week and will be posting my fav recipes soon! 

Hope these tips make the dream of healthy snacking in your house a reality! 

A beginning with smash

There is no better way to start this blog than writing about my daughter Anaya turning one. If I begin writing about how I feel and how special this past year has been, yada yada yada...I will end up a crying bumbling mess and will never complete this post.
Right, so lets talk about cake smashes. They are all the rage on Pinterest(my friend and enemy), and are quite a new concept here in India. Basically what you do is make a small cake for your baby and let them go to town with it. The resulting pictures are both hilarious and precious.
I knew I wanted to do this for Anaya way before we started planning her birthday. My husband of course thought the idea was nuts but as usual went with it because it was too much of an effort to talk me out of it!

Lets talk about the cake




I got the recipe for this no sugar banana cake from here. I did add icing sugar to the cream cheese frosting though to give it more body. I was really nervous about making the cake because although I bake a lot, I am not that into cake decoration. Just not my thing. I wanted a tall cake so made it in tiny cake pans that I had lying around for 3 years for this precise occasion I guess, because I have never used them before. And sprinkles! In my mind, every celebration cake should have sprinkles, forever and always.

The set!
Where there are cake smashes, there are pictures. And when there are pictures, I want to decorate!
I got these adorable vintage paper fans from hopscotch since her birthday theme was shabby chic. A graphic designer friend of mine designed the bunting for me and we used an old yoga mat for the floor.

I am sure you can just as easily make the paper fans yourself, or hang streamers, or make paper pinwheels, or hang balloons. The idea is to come up with the color scheme first and try to keep the decorations true to that, makes for better pictures.

The birthday girl
Since I was making a banana cake, I knew Anaya would love it. A few things we did do were, schedule the shoot after her mid morning nap for 2 reasons. One is that she is usually in a really good mood after her nap, and also, she would be hungry enough to go for the cake.

She had such a good time smashing the cake and we all could not stop laughing watching her rip the cake apart. We even had left overs for tea!
So that was our cake smash and here are some tips for you to set up your own DIY shoot for your tot.

• Make sure the light is perfect. The best way to get good pictures is set up outdoors. This could be a balcony or a park etc. 
• Chocolate or red velvet cake don't do so well in photos and end up looking messy. Stick to vanilla, banana or carrot cakes. 
• Make sure the surface on which the cake smash is going to happen is washable. 
• Most importantly, have fun and try not to scare the baby! 

Hope you enjoyed reading. Another post on her birthday party coming soon!