Mindful Eating- The goodness of wheat and richness of almonds ...for that perfect bite.

By -

Wishing you all a happy festive season.


It's festival time and the blog would look incomplete without a sweet recipe. I'm not a 'sweet's person' , but considering my family's love for sweet, I stick to this one basic sweet recipe made out of fiber based ingredients.

"Aatte Badam Laddoo" is a very basic form of sweet that I prepare, many of you would be knowing it, for those who don't know and want a quick, easy and healthy sweet preparation in their house, this one is for you.

Atta as you know is whole wheat flour containing important vitamins, minerals and protein and is packed with essential fiber (the wheat bran and the germ). It is always a better option than the refined white flour. Almond is supposed to be one of the world's healthiest nut. I got to know that almonds are no fruits, but basically seeds of the fruit of the almond tree. It is high in fat content, but good fat content-which helps grow our HDL level, lowers cholesterol and helps in reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases. It’s similar to having walnuts and avocados.

Ghee or clarified butter is not my favorite though from a health perspective. The amount of saturated fat and trans saturated fat along with the cholesterol levels, it has makes it an uncomfortable choice for me. That’s exactly why I go slow with these sweet preparations and don’t do it on a regular basis. We cannot pretty much do without the ghee when it comes to Indian sweets. :)

Cuisine - Indian
Preparation time – 20 mins
Cook time-25 mins

Total time-2 hours(includes the time taken in shaping the laddoos)
Recipe- Dessert
Serves - 50 medium sized Laddoos

THE WHAT?
 Ingredients (measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml)
 3 cups of whole wheat flour
 1 ½ cups of Ghee (Clarified butter)
 1 ¼ cup of granulated white sugar. You can also use brown sugar.
 1 cup of almond powder. (I prefer to make this at home by grinding almonds in the mixer).
½ spoon cardamom powder(optional)
 Raisin's/Cashewnuts slivers (Optional).



THE HOW?
  •  Take a wide, deep pan and place it on medium heat. Pour the ghee and allow it melt. Once, it has melted, pour the whole wheat flour and lower the flame. For next 15-20 minutes, keep stirring the mixture well till the wheat flour turns nice brown .
  • Now add one cup of almond powder and continue to stir for next 5 minutes. Take the mixture and pour it in a deep vessel and allow it to cool a 10 minutes. Now add sugar and cardamom powder.Mix it all very well.
  •  You can start making the ladoos now. Take a handful of the mixture, apply pressure from both hands or one hand, whichever is comfortable with you and give it a round shape.
Things to keep in mind

  • Constant stirring is required when the mixture is on the flame. Don’t increase the flame otherwise you run the chance of burning the flour.
  • Don’t allow the mixture to cool for too long otherwise it would be difficult to give them a nice shape. You should start once you feel it is comfortable for you to hold in your palm.
  • Place the ladoos carefully on a plate and allow it to cool further. This way they will become a little hard and nice.
  • Store it in an airtight container in a dry place and ENJOY.

Tips for adding your own twist
  • You can also add cashew nut powder instead of almond powder if you prefer.
  • You can taste the mixture post adding the sugar. If not up to your sweetness level, feel free to add more sugar.
  • You can add more ghee if you like to make it rich and give it a nice glaze.

Author-Namrata



Comments

  1. Unknown6 October 2016 at 01:43

    This laddoo is my fav laddoo. But I do not prepare it for the obvious reasons :P

    ReplyDelete
  2. Namrata Shailendra Singh7 October 2016 at 09:49

    :)

    I know.Eating in moderation is the key. Being a nutritionist myself, I would only suggest that eat everything but in moderation. Its the excess which is damaging.And not to forget that diet has to be always complemented with physical work out of any kind. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

To smooch or not to smooch.

By -
Image
I wonder if Indians smooch?


They do? Really? Have they always smooched or it is some new found sexual angle? Oh, forget it! How does it matter? With our population, nothing matters.

I had an idea about smooching back in school- the year 1996. You know how Chinese whisper works. When it came to ‘smooching’ what came to me was something to do with tongue and esophagus. The implementation happened 15 years later in the most unsophisticated, an ‘atrangi’ and unhygienic way. For a middle-class Indian who is raised with the mantra- ‘jootha nahi khate’, smooching = sin. Unsanitary sin.

Forget it! I am not a fan of smooch. But what if my kid is? The thing is that the biological clock and the academic clock are in direct conflict when you enter your teens or hit your puberty. Just when the world is putting the right kind of pressure on you to go to Stanford, your mind is solving calculus equation, your body is doing its own weird calculation...size? Inches? Bang!Bang!Bang!

You want your child to s…
Read more

My daughter, her first day of menstruation, her sexuality and her life.

By -
Image
Dear Love,
You started your menstruation today. I know it is painful and difficult for you today but trust you will adjust well. I am there for you. I am glad you chose me to be your friend in this journey. I am not surprised that you knew about menstruation. It's just that knowing the right thing is important so that you are not misinformed about all kinds of bodily changes you will observe in near future.

Remember, nothing changes in your life, though. You play and run, you eat and have fun the way you have been doing.  Maintain good hygiene habits and change your sanitary pad when needed. If you want to wear a white dress, go ahead. You may encounter an instance or two where you may find that you have stained your skirt or your legging. That's just an accident and I expect you to walk to the washroom and change, come back and resume what you were doing. This is NORMAL. There can be times where you will be not feeling very well due to cramps in your lower abdomen. If someone (…
Read more

Nutrition and Health Nugget- HDL -The good fat needed for our body-Taking control of Cholesterol

By -
Image
Have you gone for a full body check up? There are four health numbers which tells us how healthy or not healthy we are.
Blood Pressure-Which we have already covered in previous articles. The other three are Cholesterol, Blood Sugar and BMI or Body Mass Index.
HDL is good fat which should be higher than LDL. The Cholesterol and HDL ration should be
The actionables in 'mindful eating ' includes - Raising HDL-Eating more fruits and vegetables and the good fat found in avocados,fish and walnuts. Fruits-Avocados,apples.(Be cautious with the serving since fruits have their portion of natural sugar too). All kinds of beans and legumes(Kidney beans,Chickpeas,lentils,red beans,black beans etc). Whole grain anytime every time-Bread or flour. Shift from whole milk to reduced fat or fat free. Some people also add water to their half glass of milk and then drink.Better than having 1 glass of whole milk. Mediterranean diet has gained considerable attention in today's time particularly because of…
Read more