I’m always eager to explore avenues that contribute to my children’s overall well-being and development. One topic that consistently captures my attention is the profound impact of nutrition on cognitive development in young children. It’s a journey filled with discoveries, insights, and a commitment to nurturing our children’s minds and bodies.
The Foundation of Cognitive Development
Research has long suggested that proper nutrition plays a major role in cognitive development during early childhood. Adequate nutrition is needed for proper brain function and cognitive performance. (1) As parents, we hold the key to providing our little ones with that nutrition. Here are some nutrients that are related to proper brain function and how we as parents can ensure our children receive these nutrients.
1. Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Nourishing Young Minds
Omega-3 fatty acids are vital constituents of the maturing brain and are considered crucial for development. These fats are abundant in fatty fish like salmon, and walnuts, and serve as building blocks for brain cells. Omega-3s are essential for normal cognitive development and function. (2)
2. Vitamins and Minerals Essential for Brain Function
Vitamins such as vitamin B12, and folic acid and minerals such as iodine and iron support brain development and its functioning. (3) If reading the above made your head spin a little, I hear you! It’s not always easy to ensure your child is getting all the nutrients they need for proper cognitive development.
While we can ensure they are eating a balanced diet, sometimes there are gaps. Children have their moods and one day one vegetable will be their favourite and the next day, they will refuse to eat it. So what is the solution in this case? Let me share with you my top 3 tips to make sure my child is getting all the nutrients.
1. Complan: Supports Overall Growth and Development of Children
Complan offers tailored solutions for the nutritional needs of growing children. It has 34 vital nutrients including 100 % milk protein to support 2X faster growth and nutrients like iron, iodine, and folic acid to support brain development and its functioning. It is also fortified with other vital vitamins and minerals like calcium, zinc, vitamins A, C, E, and many more. The best part is, it has become my child’s favourite drink too!
2. Creating a Positive Mealtime Environment
In addition to nutrient-rich foods, a positive mealtime environment is essential for children’s overall well-being. Minimizing distractions, involving children in meal preparation, encouraging them to explore new foods, and ensuring healthy eating habits help them build a positive relationship with food.
3. Bring in Variety and Flexibility
Offer a wide variety of foods to your child and be flexible with their preferences. This way, they feel confident, responsible, and more likely to make healthier choices. Nutrition plays a central role in cognitive development, especially in early childhood. By providing children with a balanced diet rich in essential nutrients, nutrient drinks like Complan which contains vital nutrients to support overall growth and brain functioning, etc. we can pave the way for their future. As parents, we have the power to nourish and empower our children to reach their full potential. 1
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the blog content are independent and unbiased views of solely the blogger. This is a part of the public awareness initiative supported by Complan.
heat the oil in a pan and remove from the stove, now add curry leaves, green chilli & coriander leaves to the oil.
Add water to this oil mix.
Add this mix to the dry ingredients and form a dough with it.
Roll this dough thin and cut out round shape with help of round glass or bowl or cookie cutter.
preheat your oven at 180 and bake the Nipattu for 12-15 minutes. Keep a watch and set temperature accordingly as all ovens behaves differently.
Optional- you can add 2 fined chopped garlic cloves in warm oil also with one spoon onion powder.
let it cool down completely before storing in airtight container. It might be soft once out of oven but as it cools it will be crunchy, just keep an eye it its turning brown you know it is done or you need to lower the temperature setting.
For more healthy recipes click here or check the cooking section from Menu.
We all have made many choices in our life, that have made us proud and sad at times. Today I would like to talk about my one choice that changed a lot in a better way with a roller-coaster ride. First let me share why I am writing this post today?
Before I share my choice let’s understand little more about it.
What is CHOICE ?
Choice is a chance when you have two or many options and you have to decide among all what’s the best for you. Let’s take very simple example from your life, when you were have to choose between different flavours of ice-cream and after waiting for a while you choose one. That’s your very first CHOICE as a kid.
But as you grow older these choices becomes more hard and options becomes less and you have to decide what would be the best for you as that can impact on your life.
CHOICES -Impact & Importance
Your every choice has a big impact on your life either in a good way or bad way. When you have to decide your subjects it sets a bigger goal for you in your life as whatever stream you choose your will join that profession.
So it is really important to make all your decisions with proper understanding of all the pros & cons as the results can be fruitful or bitter.
My Choice and why I am proud of it?
I choose to put myself before all the traditions and emotions that were holding me back trying to make happy all people around me.
Now let’s talk about the decision I am happy and proud . It was when after my delivery , when I decided to stay with my husband to take care of my newborn without any elderly support as they were not able to stay with us ( personal issues).
This was a big decision as being first time parents we know the journey would not be easy for us, but this journey prove to be the best learning experience. I was learning everyday to take care of my baby and everything, this DO IT ON YOUR OWN situation boosted my confidence to handle everything .
What I gained !!
Home Baker & Blogger
I started baking to beat the postpartum depression and it worked as a therapy for me, Meanwhile started writing down the parenting experiences and this started my BLOGGING JOURNEY.
I researched about cloth diapering and baby wearing that was one of the best choices too. As they made my life easier and they were eco-friendly, as it was not so popular at that time my learning helped me understanding and by this I was able to help many other new parents who have the same doubts.
Today when I think about that decision,I feel that if I have chosen to go to my parents place. I wouldn’t get the chance to know my capabilities to handle such situation. As we get support we will never try to find new ways to get out of the situation.
Finally, all my experience made me realise it’s always good to take a decision for you and work on it. It might be hard at that time but you would be proud that you did what you felt right for you.
Recently I have attended one session where learnt about olives and it’s benefits.
It was such an amazing informative session at Olives at your table INDIA baking with Ajay Chopra and learning about how we can include olives in our daily lifestyle!
We learned about different olives and it’s nutritional benefits!
They have Good fats only! About 75% of an olive’s fat content is oleic acid, which helps maintain normal blood cholesterol levels.
They are an excellent blend of vitamins, minerals, and good fats.
So, wanted to try this recipe with olives, let’s jump to the recipe.
Ingredients
Olives 1 cup ( blended without water ) you can take green or black as per your availability.
After spending amazing time in Jaipur and visiting few of the most popular places of Jaipur. On Day 3 we headed to a less explored region of Rajasthan i.e. Shekhawati region.
As mentioned in my first blog this is region is located in Northern part of Rajasthan. It consists of Jhunjhunu, Sikar & Churu district.
Places we visited came under Jhunjhunu district. As per the guides this region was founded by ‘Rao Shekha’ and named after him.
About the region
This region consists of some of the most beautiful and iconic havelis. Word haveli means big house or as per our guide “Havadaar” ghar. These havelis were build by some of the rich merchants of that time.
This region was a part of ‘Silk route’ so the merchants were quite rich. They built these havelis to show off their wealth. Few of the famous havelis are situated in Nawalgarh, Mandawa & Fatehpur.
We visited Nawalgarh on our way to Mandawa. It’s around 120 Km from Jaipur and it’s a National Highway 52 via Sikar.
The most famous haveli in this place is ‘Podar’ haveli. After restoration it was converted into a museum and now it is maintained by the Podar trust.
This place is really beautiful, with lot of frescoes. Fresco is a technique in which the painting . It is done when the plaster is wet so that the paint penetrates the plaster and becomes fixed upon drying.
There are 2 courtyards with different kind of frescos all around it.
The door that connects these 2 courtyards was(is) amongst the most beautiful gates in the country.
There are around 700+ frescos in this haveli, these frescos depict many scenes from Indian mythology as well as some modern trends like trains and dresses and also European culture. All the colors used in these frescos was obtained naturally.
There is entry ticket which is Rs 75 pp and timings are from 8 AM to 8 PM.
The museum displays the art and culture of Rajasthan,different festivals and way of celebration.
Different types of bridal costumes which brides of different sections of the society wear.
There is a section which displays different turbans which holds specific significance and are wore on different occasions .
In the marble art section, there is this beautiful artifact of a Rajasthani women. Build out of single piece of marble.
There was a school at this place which was converted into a museum. To accommodate the kids, they constructed few rooms on the first floor.
The caretaker/manager of this place showed us the Haveli and informed us each and every detail about the place plus. He helped us in clicking some good pics as well ?.
After completing our tour and taking a lot of pictures, we continued with rest of the Journey towards Mandawa which another 30 Km. We booked the stay a place which was 9-10 km before Mandawa city.
Mandawa is 236 KM from Delhi.
On the way we stopped at a hotel and to our surprise it was one of the most cleaned and hygienic and modern roadside hotel/property. It has auto on lights in bathroom with contact less flush etc.
We had tea here and it was really good. Place name is – Hotel Om, Sikar Road. You can see it on the left side while coming from Jaipur and going towards Mandawa.
We stayed @The Desert Resort which is part of WelcomHeritage hotels. It’s design replicate the rural culture. It has mud houses/huts of different sizes.
Desert Camp main entrance
This was the second time we didn’t find the service up to the mark as per 5* standards(First one was with Sofitel BKC Mumbai which is one of the worst service we ever had)
So, there was a film crew who has occupied most of the resort and we were given choice of 2 rooms, one in each category and the rooms were not cleaned at all.
The covers of sitting area was dirty there was dirt on the floor on the table, we called multiple times for all this.
Also not sure if there was shortage of staff but as there was a bottle kept outside of room which was there when we arrived and was still there when we were checking out.
Another thing is there was garbage left by guest in the main garden area right in front of reception and few of the housekeeping members pass by but no one picked it
Overall their attitude was not at all good which is totally opposite of the people of this region. We booked this place for 2 days but moved out after one day to a different property.
Garden area
And this was one of the best decisions as we got the chance to stay in one of the original heritage property more than 100 year old Haveli – Vivaana Culture Hotel
Day we reached Desert resort we relaxed as we were tired of walking a lot in Jaipur and explored the property itself.
The property is good with some activities as well(which are very costly like Rs 1500-2000 per activity) we didn’t do any activity as most of these activities we were going to do in our next destination.
Desert Camp
In Mandawa city there is a lot to see and can be covered in half day or max a day’s time. All the tours are done walking only. The guides here knows multiple languages as before pandemic most of the tourists were foreigners.
Beautiful Frescos of different Havelis in Mandawa
Fun Fact 1 – our guide asked us which language we prefer we said Hindi then he said he is not comfortable in Hindi as their native language is marwadi and after that he can talk in English, German, French etc.
Fun Fact 2 – Bajrangi Bhai Jaan wash shot in Mandawa (Pakistan part)
Frescos inspired from different historical events
There is a fort in Mandawa which is now a hotel and there is entry fee and as per the guide it was not worth.
Mandawa Fort
There was this one golden room and the ticket price of that was 100 pp and that was not worth at all. So, you can avoid that and can save some money. Why not worth as the room was not maintained at all the family living there have stored all the crap and the walls and ceiling was not maintained.
Roof with original gold work
After completing our tour of Mandawa we came back to the Haveli where we were staying and had a tour of that as well.
Vivaana @night
They also do village walk but not sure if it was due to pandemic or we were Indian tourist the person was not at all interested in taking us for a walk, so we did that by ourselves.
100 room Haveli and a beautiful yellow door of some house with Frescos
You will see a lot of cows and bulls and cute little kids playing in the evening, we went to a vendor who make Bangles but we were little late as they have already turned off the furnace(small one to make bangles).
He didn’t even showed his own property(he works there was customer relationship manager at the property) with any enthusiasm or interest.
Fountain in other blockPlay areaVivaana
The Maze waterway in the middle of the courtyard is a tribute to the amazing human ability to negotiate problems and came out free at the other end.
Maze courtyard
We gave the same review in their feedback book and to our surprise the owner does check that, and we got a WhatsApp message from the owner Mr. Atul Khanna very next day when we were on rout to our next destination. He apologized for that person’s behavior and informed us that there CRM is very enthusiastic.
There are different category room starting from Deluxe, Luxury and Royal. We got the opportunity to stay in Royal room which was quite amazing and weird as well.
Beautiful Royal room
Weird in the sense that the bathroom of this room was on the first floor and it’s an open bathroom.
Royal room in the main building
The room is very beautiful with frescos all over the room. This property has 2 blocks, basically they acquired the haveli adjacent to theirs and combined it.
Original and working Rolls Royce
The Luxury rooms with frescos are there in second block and on low occupancy they close that block to save some money.
Overall with mixed experience we enjoyed our stay in Mandawa and will definitely recommend it to everyone.
My baking experience with borosil oven Prima 60 litre OTG
Pin it
Baking is like a therapy for me, I started baking in oven after my little one was born and it worked as stress buster for me.
That time we bought 21 L LG microwave convection oven as we were not sure how much we would be using it. But my love for baking kept growing and I kept on learning new new recipes and trying in my small microwave .
I have baked breads, cookies, buns, pizza, bati and many more items in my LG microwave .
But frankly I was not so satisfied with microwave oven baking as end results were not up to mark. As it was 21 ltr oven I need to bake limited quantity every time. So my baking time and electricity consumption was increasing.
So we finally decided to buy proper oven and our search started with all available brands.
What we searched before buying oven?
Capacity
Temperature settings
Reviews
Multiple uses
Baking time
How much you can bake in one go
Why above points are important !!
It’s really important to decide how many ltr oven you need to buy as per your baking requirements, here you should consider future needs as well. You won’t be changing your oven any time soon
Temperature settings is important as there are many recipes that need higher temperature. In many ovens the max temperature provided is 200 – 220 °C
Reviews, user feedback is also important as good looking and feature pack product does not mean it’s good.
We should always consider oven which has multiple features like bake, toast & grill are most common one
Timer is another important feature as if you want to bake multiple trays in one go then you might need longer time to cook. Many ovens come with just 60 min timer
How much you can bake in one go, again if you want to make large batches and want to cook it in one go & if you have smaller capacity oven then it will consume a lot of time & energy
After our search we finally decided to buy Borosil – Prima 60 L OTG as it was one of the few which fulfill almost all of my requirements. So let’s see why I choose to buy Borosil.
Features
It has multiple functions that includes convection, rotisserie, grill, bake and toast
As it’s Borosil it has borosilicate Double Glass Door
Adjustable Temperature Control 90° – 250°C, max temperature is 250°C
0 – 120 minutes mechanical timer, it was really important as when you are baking for many people your oven can bake continuously for 120 minutes
It has keep warm function, which will keep oven running at set min temperature to keep your food warm
Power Indicator automatically turns on when the timer is set
Motorized rotisserie for uniform grilling function available in Borosil Prima Oven Toaster Griller
12 Stage heating options in Prima Oven Toaster Griller
Illuminated chamber helps in baking as you can keep an eye while you are baking.
As it’s 60 ltr we cam keep multiple trays at once
Items included with Borosil 60lt
1 Removable Crumb Tray for better cleaning
1 Cooking Tray
Grill Rack
Handle to take out Cooking Tray
Rotisserie Rod Set
Rotisserie Handle
Recipe book
Instructions manual
My experience with Borosil Prima Oven
Very easy to operate as it has four knobs for setting temperature, mode & heating rod and timer to adjust as per your recipe
For easy assistance it comes with a guide book and recipe book with all details to understand your oven
It’s quiet spacious to bake multiple items. I have baked around 25-30 medium size cookies in two trays, two cakes in one go, lasagna, breads, baked vegetables.
One point to mention, baking time increases little more if you are baking more items in one go.
Illuminated chamber is really helpful to keep a check on items baking. I would say it’s really important as I have worked with another oven without light bulb and it’s quiet tough to see the baked level without taking out tray.
Big double glaze glass on front so it’s quite easy to keep an eye on every corner of the tray.
Initially there was uneven heating issues so I was getting some dark and some light color cookies. In my case it was thermostat issue and got it fixed.
But still to avoid that you can change the tray directions when you see it’s getting darker at one end.
Oven overall weight is not heavy so you can shift on your own if required.
Oven thermometer is must to know the exact temperature of oven as it’s always less or more then what you have set. You should get a good quality one else temperature issue will be there.
Oven trays/wire rack quality is ok, but can’t keep heavy pans like Dutch oven or iron tawa on the wire rack which is required in sourdough baking.
Overall a happy customer as I love baking in my oven and every oven behaves differently so you will get use to when you bake.
Soya is included in my daily diet, so I keep trying different recipes of soya. This one is easy to make and it taste amazing!!
You would love this crispy dosa with coconut chutney. Let’s jump on the recipe.
Ingredients
Dosa
— Rice/ Idly rice – 120 grams — Urad dal – 50 grams — Soya chunks– 100 grams (grind well in mixer) — 1 tsp – Red chili powder (as per taste) — 2 tsp – Salt (as per taste) — 1/4 cup soaked poha
Coconut Chatni
— 1 Coconut — 2-3 Green chili — Salt as per taste — 10-20 kadi patta — 2-3 dry whole red chili.
Procedure
Wash & Soak Urad dal and rice in separate bowls overnight or around 7-8 hours. Grind dal & rice separately in fine paste.
Add soaked poha in rice while grinding, to make it more crisp and good golden brown color.
Mix both the paste in one big bowl and keep in warm place for minimum 5-6 hours for fermentation.
It should double in quantity after 5-6 hours.
After the fermentation process add 100 grams of soya chunks powder.
Add salt, red chili powder as per taste
Place iron dosa tawa or non stick pan if you don’t have dosa tawa on high flame
Heat it well, check by putting few drops of water, should evaporate quickly
Pour one big spoon of dosa batter on it and spread it to form round shape
Once its semi cooked add some oil and let it cook well
Cook on low flame for some time and dosa will start coming out easily. For crispy dosa this step is must
Take out dosa with thin steel spatula and serve hot with coconut chatni
You can add fillings of Vegetables, paneer in this dosa if you like
Coconut chutney
Chop coconut into small pieces for easy grinding
Add coconut, green chilies, kari patta, salt in mixer jar and grind into fine paste
Take out in a bowl and Now Make tadka for the chutney
Take oil in small fry pan, add rai(small mustard seed) when it’s hot. Add kari patta and two whole red dry chilies
Now add this tadka to your coconut paste
Enjoy this yummy and healthy chutney with your crispy Dosa 🙂
Immunity building in our kids is an important aspect we parents work on as children are growing up. The steps we take should begin at an early age. Children also need to understand what it is all about.
It is obvious that their little minds are curious to know, why we need to work on building immunity. My daughter is going to be 4 years old and she has started asking questions and we try to explain her in the simplest way possible of building immunity while indoors.
How to explain kids in simplest way, importance of Immunity.
Be Open– Answer their questions in the best possible way you can. Educate them with love and kindness. They will be curious to understand how nutrition and immunity works.
Interaction– Talk to them about it and how being healthy is important.
Balanced diet– Importance of eating healthy food that makes them strong. Including fruits, milk with a supplement like PediaSure that has 37 essential nutrients for complete and balanced diet and dry fruits.
Hand wash– Washing hands is one important habit inside or outside home. We taught our daughter how to wash her hands properly like rubbing individual fingers, b/w fingers and from clean back side as well.
Wash hands before and after eating food, after play, etc.
Quick learner– Kids are quick learners and they understand easily if you are open with them. Give them age-appropriate information so they have the right information from you.
Just like we want to protect our children from diseases, it is important we also protect them from wrong or incomplete information. We must answer their questions to the best of our ability.
These are some really simple ways you can teach kids the importance of immunity and how we can inculcate clean habits. Staying healthy and taking proper precaution is the only way to stay safe from infections.
The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not reflect the views of any brand. Any omissions or errors at the author’s end does not assume any liability or responsibility on any party mentioned in the blog.
After starting my diet plan I ordered some gluten free cookies from Amazon. Their taste was ok, but I don’t like the choice of ingredients. So thought of baking some gluten free cookies at home.
Here is my version of gluten free cookies sweetened with jaggery, made with love and yes approved by all family members eldest and the youngest!
Ingredients
190gm Oats Flour
90gm Almonds flour
30gms milk powder
1/2 tsp Cream of tartar
1/4tsp baking soda
50gm gram flour
1/2 tbsp cardamom powder
Two pinch salt
200gms jaggery ( take less or more 240 gms as per your sweetness requirements )
150gms Ghee ( clarified butter ) It can be reduced to 120gms too.
Tip – 1/2 cup desiccated coconut ( I have made half mix with coconut flavour by adding 1/2 cup coconut in half the mixture, take out two tbsp for coating before bake )
-Add some small pieces of jaggery too it tastes really nice in cookies, it doesn’t melt while baking!
Procedure
Shift all the dry ingredients ( Oats Flour, almonds flour, milk powder, Cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, gram flour) in a bowl and mix properly.
In another bowl add clarified butter ( Ghee ) and grated jaggery.
Now whisk ghee and jaggery to make it fluffy and creamy.
Add and mix dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in parts. ( Do not add all in a go ).
Make small balls from your dough and keep in baking tray.
Now keep it in fridge for 10 minutes, meanwhile pre-heat your oven 170c. ( You can store your dough in Fridge if you don’t want to bake at the same time )
Bake your cookies for 12min on 170C ( Keep an eye as temperature settings may be different in all oven )
Take our the cookies and let them cool on rack, do not touch until they are cool as they are super soft at this stage.
Once properly cooler store them in aur tight container.
Being a vegetarian and following particular diet, paneer & soya plays a very important role. I find it difficult to eat the chunks so was trying different versions to make it more appealing . Let’s see the recipe and it’s ingredients.
Nutrition facts for the recipe
Carbs:22gm Protien : 47 gm Fat -11gm
Macros change according to brand, above mentioned macro nutrients information are for Nutrela brand
Ingredients
60 gms soya chunks (Nutrela)
100gms paneer
10 gm olive oil/Ghee
Chopped Coriander
One onion finely chopped
2-3 green chilies finely chopped
Salt as per taste
1 tbsp Red chili flakes
Finely chopped/grated vegetables of your choice ( Capsicum, Carrot, cabbage, green chilli, zucchini, red yellow Bell pepper, cucumber)
Procedure
Instead of soaking soya we will directly grind it and make aata(fine powder)
Make sure there are no big pcs left
Add finely chopped onions, green chili, coriander, salt, red chili, ginger garlic paste.
Add finely chopped capsicum, carrot.
Mix properly until it’s combined to form a dough.
Make small equal sized balls and with the help of your palm flaten the top and bottom to form tikki.
Take a flat base big pan or tawa and spread one spoon oil on it.
Heat it on medium to low flame and put tikki gently on it.
Let it cook from one side, it will take around 5 to 10 minutes on low flame.
You can now cook without oil too with the help of frying pan foil by Asahi kasei.
Flip the tikkis gently and cook the other side.
Tikkis are ready to serve with coriander or tomato chatni.
