Kanika G.'s Blog, page 2
February 4, 2015
Tania and Sonia
Tania's baby sister, Sonia, is now 4 months old. You may remember that Tania had made a a very cute crib mobile for her soon after she was born.
Tania has been an awesome big sister. She helps papa give Sonia a bath. She hands him the soap and wash cloth.
She helps mama change Sonia's diaper. While mama takes off the dirty diaper, Tania opens up the clean one and hands mama the baby wipes. If Sonia is cranky during the diaper change Tania tries to distract her by making funny faces.
Sonia loves to be rocked in her rocker and Tania rocks her very enthusiastically, specially if mama is busy cooking or bathing.
Sonia loves to watch Tania and follows her with her eyes as far as she can. Tania in turn enjoys jumping around close to Sonia to entertain her.
Tania has been an awesome big sister. She helps papa give Sonia a bath. She hands him the soap and wash cloth.
She helps mama change Sonia's diaper. While mama takes off the dirty diaper, Tania opens up the clean one and hands mama the baby wipes. If Sonia is cranky during the diaper change Tania tries to distract her by making funny faces.
Sonia loves to be rocked in her rocker and Tania rocks her very enthusiastically, specially if mama is busy cooking or bathing.
Sonia loves to watch Tania and follows her with her eyes as far as she can. Tania in turn enjoys jumping around close to Sonia to entertain her.
January 27, 2015
Chocolate mug cake
Tania has a sweet tooth and loves candy, chocolates, cakes gulab jamuns and ice-cream. But mama has taught her the importance of eating healthy nutritious food and to eat sweets in moderation. Mama however recently came up with this quick and easy to make, healthy, tasty, recipe for a chocolate mug cake that made both mama and Tania very happy. Papa enjoyed it too. Here is the recipe.
Ingredients: Powdered oats- 3 1/2 tbs Cocoa powder-2 tbsp
Sugar- 2 tbsp
Baking powder- 1/4 tsp
Milk- 2 tbsp
Egg- 1 no
Melted butter 1/2 tsp
Almond essence-1/2 tsp
1 tbsp coarsely ground walnuts (optional)Mama only had regular oats so Tania helped mama grind them in to a powder in the mixer.
Mama put all the dry
ingredients in a large cup (mug) and Tania mixed them with a fork. Then mama added in the milk,
egg, melted butter and stirred vigorously with a fork making sure it was all
mixed well with no lumps.
Then mama put the cup in the microwave for 100 seconds (1 minute and 40 seconds) and the cake was ready for Tania to eat!
Mama originally found this recipe on http://kurryleaves.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/chocolate-espresso-mug-cake.html but as you can see, she tweaked it. Particularly, using oats instead of maida (flour) makes the cake both fluffier and healthier.
Win win! That was clever of mama.
Ingredients: Powdered oats- 3 1/2 tbs Cocoa powder-2 tbsp
Sugar- 2 tbsp
Baking powder- 1/4 tsp
Milk- 2 tbsp
Egg- 1 no
Melted butter 1/2 tsp
Almond essence-1/2 tsp
1 tbsp coarsely ground walnuts (optional)Mama only had regular oats so Tania helped mama grind them in to a powder in the mixer.
Mama put all the dry
ingredients in a large cup (mug) and Tania mixed them with a fork. Then mama added in the milk,
egg, melted butter and stirred vigorously with a fork making sure it was all
mixed well with no lumps.
Then mama put the cup in the microwave for 100 seconds (1 minute and 40 seconds) and the cake was ready for Tania to eat!
Mama originally found this recipe on http://kurryleaves.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/chocolate-espresso-mug-cake.html but as you can see, she tweaked it. Particularly, using oats instead of maida (flour) makes the cake both fluffier and healthier.
Win win! That was clever of mama.
January 6, 2015
Walnut garlic dip with carrot sticks
During Christmas break Tania ate lots of sweets and a fair amount of other junk food. Mama decided it was time to return to healthy snacks again. She decided to make a walnut garlic dip and Tania helped.
Here are the ingredients:
60 to 80 grams of walnuts (It is better to use walnuts that have been toasted in the oven)
1 whole wheat or oat nut bread slice4 cloves of garlic1/2 green chilli or 1/4 Serrano pepper (optional)
4 teaspoons of yoghurt or curd
1 tablespoon olive oilSalt to taste
Here are the ingredients:
60 to 80 grams of walnuts (It is better to use walnuts that have been toasted in the oven)
1 whole wheat or oat nut bread slice4 cloves of garlic1/2 green chilli or 1/4 Serrano pepper (optional)
4 teaspoons of yoghurt or curd
1 tablespoon olive oilSalt to taste
Tania toasted the slice of bread in the toaster while mama gathered the rest of the ingredients. Then Tania broke the toast into 6 pieces and put the toast pieces and walnuts in to the mixer. Mama held the mixer and it's cover in place and Tania pushed the button to grind the mixture. Then mama added in the garlic cloves, chilli, yoghurt, olive oil and salt and ran the mixer again till the contents formed a paste.
Then mama took it out in to a bowl. Mama also peeled and cut up a red carrot into sticks and arranged them in the bowl.
Tania really enjoyed this afternoon snack of carrot sticks with walnut garlic dip.
You can make the dip thicker or thinner by using less or more yoghurt.
Variations: You can add some cumin. You can also make the dip sweetish by using less garlic, no chillies and some pieces of pear. Then you can spread it on toast or eat it with crackers.
December 23, 2014
Tania celebrates Christmas
It was Christmas morning. Tania was very excited. The stocking she had left for Santa was bulging with presents. She jumped out of bed to see what she had got. A book, "Charlie and the Chocolate factory". Oh Santa really was clever. However did he know that she dearly wanted that book? She also got lots of chocolates and candy. Tania was the picture of contentment as she chomped on a chocolate bar and started reading her book.
Mama came by to call Tania for breakfast. She said, "Tania why are you eating chocolate before breakfast? You know you are not supposed to do that."
"Oh mama, it's Christmas morning and Santa gave this to me. Besides I am reading 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' so it is hard to resist the chocolate."
"Okay" said mama smiling. "What else did the jolly old fellow give you?"
"He gave me this book, a Lego windmill set as well. I can't wait to make the windmill with papa. And he gave me these chocolates and candy."
"That is lovely. He sure is a generous fellow. Now come and finish your breakfast. You do want to go to Tanisha's house to exchange Christmas gifts, don't you?"
"Yes I do! Yes I do!" said Tania jumping up and down. She loved Christmas morning. It was always so festive.
After breakfast Tania went to Tanisha's house. Her house was beautifully decorated for Christmas. There was a Christmas tree all dressed up with baubles and a star. There was a lovely holly wreath on the wall.
Tania wished everyone in Tanisha's family "Merry Christmas". Tanisha's mother brought out some excellent food: Christmas cake, kalkals, marshmallows coated with toasted coconut shavings, milk toffees and marzipan. There was hot cocoa and orange juice to drink.
Tania and Tanisha gorged on the food and exchanged gifts. They chatted and had a grand old time. Tania got home in time for lunch but she was too full to eat a bite. Mama had expected that. So Tania spent the afternoon reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". "What a grand festival Christmas is!" she thought.
Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays!
photo credit for christmas cake: Brett Jordan via photopin cc
photo credit for marzipan: MissCakeable via photopin cc
photo credit for kalkals: Neha John
December 5, 2014
Tania's Garden - Part 2: Growing cherry tomatoes
Tania has been growing cherry tomatoes in her garden. Mama put cherry tomatoes in a salad and Tania loved them. She asked mama if they could grow them. The first step was to get the seeds. Extracting seeds from a cherry tomato to make it suitable to plant is an interesting procedure. Let us see how Tania and mama did it.
Mama took two cherry tomatoes and cut them in half. Tania used a spoon to scoop out the seeds in to a plastic cup.
As you can see form the picture above, the seeds are covered by a red, juicy, gelatinous goo that prevents them from sprouting inside the tomato. For the seeds to sprout the gelatinous goo covering needs to be removed. To do this Tania added a half cup of water to the tomato seeds.
Then she covered the top of the cup with a clear plastic sheet and secured it with a rubber band.
Next she made a small hole with a pencil in the plastic covering and left it by a window sill for 5 days to ferment.
After 5 days the seeds had sunk to the bottom. A thin white layer formed at the top. Tania poured out the water and the white stuff and some of the goo. Only the seeds, separate from the goo, remained. She rinsed the seeds about 10 times to make sure all the goo and the white stuff were properly cleaned out. Then she put the seeds on a Styrofoam plate to dry. She made sure all the seeds were well separated from each other.
The next day when the seeds were all dry Tania planted them in a pot full of mud that she had got with Tanisha from under the swing in the garden near her house. She made 3, 1 cm deep holes with a pencil and put 4 tomato seeds in each hole.
Now 2 months later this is what the tomato plants look like.
Tania also planted some cucumber seeds a week before the tomato seeds and here is what the cucumber plant looks like:
Look! It already bears pretty little yellow flowers. So hopefully Tania will soon have some juicy, home grown cucumbers to eat.
Mama took two cherry tomatoes and cut them in half. Tania used a spoon to scoop out the seeds in to a plastic cup.
As you can see form the picture above, the seeds are covered by a red, juicy, gelatinous goo that prevents them from sprouting inside the tomato. For the seeds to sprout the gelatinous goo covering needs to be removed. To do this Tania added a half cup of water to the tomato seeds.
Then she covered the top of the cup with a clear plastic sheet and secured it with a rubber band.
Next she made a small hole with a pencil in the plastic covering and left it by a window sill for 5 days to ferment.
After 5 days the seeds had sunk to the bottom. A thin white layer formed at the top. Tania poured out the water and the white stuff and some of the goo. Only the seeds, separate from the goo, remained. She rinsed the seeds about 10 times to make sure all the goo and the white stuff were properly cleaned out. Then she put the seeds on a Styrofoam plate to dry. She made sure all the seeds were well separated from each other.
The next day when the seeds were all dry Tania planted them in a pot full of mud that she had got with Tanisha from under the swing in the garden near her house. She made 3, 1 cm deep holes with a pencil and put 4 tomato seeds in each hole.
Now 2 months later this is what the tomato plants look like.
Tania also planted some cucumber seeds a week before the tomato seeds and here is what the cucumber plant looks like:
Look! It already bears pretty little yellow flowers. So hopefully Tania will soon have some juicy, home grown cucumbers to eat.
November 7, 2014
Tania's Garden - Part 1
After the seed germination project, Tania got interested in gardening. Kazoo ate the tiny little mustard plants that she had grown in the moist paper towels. After that Tania wanted to grow mustard so she could eat some mustard greens herself. For the mustard greens to grow to full size they needed to be planted in soil. So mama got a cardboard box and filled it up with mud. Tania used her watering can to pour water and moisten the mud.
Then Tania sprinkled some mustard seeds on the moist mud. As before in the germination project the mustard started sprouting leaves in a couple of days and in about a week the leaves were big and round with smooth edge like this:
After a few more days the plants started sprouting a new kind of leaf. Eventually the plants shed the roundish leaves shown in the above picture and only the new kind of leaves remained. Now after about a month the mustard plant looks like this:
These leaves, unlike the previous ones, have crinkly edges. Tania is waiting for the leaves to grow some more. Then mama will use them to prepare the famous Punjabi dish called "Sarson ka Saag" for Tania to eat. Right now Tania keeps a sharp eye out for Kazoo while watering the plants to make sure Kazoo does not eat these mustard greens as well.
Tania is also growing some lemon trees in a pot. Mama and Tania took out the seeds from a lemon and washed them. Then they peeled out the outermost layer of the seed. This makes the germination process faster. Then they put the seeds between two sheets of damp paper towels and put the whole thing inside a ziploc bag and sealed it. After a week the seeds sprouted a half centimetre white shoot. Tania and mama took a big pot and made 4 holes at the bottom for good drainage. They filled the pot with mud and wet the mud. Then they made four, 1 centimetre deep holes and put the 4 sprouted lemon seeds, 1 in each hole. A couple of weeks after that the lemon plants look like this:
Tania is really enjoying gardening. She waters the plants everyday and squints carefully at her plants to see how much they have grown. She loves to pet the leaves.
Next, Tania is planning to grow some cucumbers and tomatoes. Mama will post the results of that project in a future blog post after they get some nice pictures.
Then Tania sprinkled some mustard seeds on the moist mud. As before in the germination project the mustard started sprouting leaves in a couple of days and in about a week the leaves were big and round with smooth edge like this:
After a few more days the plants started sprouting a new kind of leaf. Eventually the plants shed the roundish leaves shown in the above picture and only the new kind of leaves remained. Now after about a month the mustard plant looks like this:
These leaves, unlike the previous ones, have crinkly edges. Tania is waiting for the leaves to grow some more. Then mama will use them to prepare the famous Punjabi dish called "Sarson ka Saag" for Tania to eat. Right now Tania keeps a sharp eye out for Kazoo while watering the plants to make sure Kazoo does not eat these mustard greens as well.
Tania is also growing some lemon trees in a pot. Mama and Tania took out the seeds from a lemon and washed them. Then they peeled out the outermost layer of the seed. This makes the germination process faster. Then they put the seeds between two sheets of damp paper towels and put the whole thing inside a ziploc bag and sealed it. After a week the seeds sprouted a half centimetre white shoot. Tania and mama took a big pot and made 4 holes at the bottom for good drainage. They filled the pot with mud and wet the mud. Then they made four, 1 centimetre deep holes and put the 4 sprouted lemon seeds, 1 in each hole. A couple of weeks after that the lemon plants look like this:
Tania is really enjoying gardening. She waters the plants everyday and squints carefully at her plants to see how much they have grown. She loves to pet the leaves.
Next, Tania is planning to grow some cucumbers and tomatoes. Mama will post the results of that project in a future blog post after they get some nice pictures.
October 17, 2014
Tania is a big sister
Mama just brought home a baby sister for Tania from the hospital. Tania has been impatiently waiting for her. Mama told her about the baby a while back. Tania's friend Tanisha has a big sister. But this is different. Here Tania is the older one! She is looking forward to teaching her baby sister lots of things. We may write a story about this once we know how they are getting along. For now, Tania wanted to do something nice to welcome the baby home. Mama had an idea. She told Tania they could make a crib toy for the baby.
Mama printed out some pictures of things Tania likes: cats, puppies, fruits etc. Tania coloured them. Then mama and Tania used tape to stick them on to some cardboard to make them stiff. They made little holes at the top of each piece and strung them together. They tied the 2 ends of the string to opposite ends of the crib. The baby now has some cute and colourful pictures to look at and grab when she is in the crib.
Mama printed out some pictures of things Tania likes: cats, puppies, fruits etc. Tania coloured them. Then mama and Tania used tape to stick them on to some cardboard to make them stiff. They made little holes at the top of each piece and strung them together. They tied the 2 ends of the string to opposite ends of the crib. The baby now has some cute and colourful pictures to look at and grab when she is in the crib.
October 2, 2014
Tania is missing!
Last year Tania and her parents had gone on a vacation. It was a long journey back from a foreign country and they had to stop at two airports. But to add to that there was a problem with one of the air crafts and they had to make an unscheduled stop as well.
Mama, papa and Tania were all very tired. The airline had arranged for them to stay in a hotel till the problems were fixed. Tania and her parents made their way to the hotel room. Jet lagged and very sleepy they fell asleep as soon as they got to the comfortable beds in the hotel room. They couldn't even summon the energy to change out of their travel clothes.
Within minutes the whole family was fast asleep. Mama and papa took the big king sized bed and Tania had plopped herself on to the separate twin bed in the room. The trio slept soundly.
After a couple of hours mama woke up for a drink of water. She was still quite groggy but one glance at Tania's bed told her that Tania was not there. She was puzzled. Where could Tania be? She checked to see if Tania had snuggled up to papa. She sometimes did that if she had a bad dream. But no, papa was sleeping soundly and there was no Tania. She looked on the armchair, and checked the bathroom. Nope. No Tania there either.
Was Tania hiding? Did she think this was a good time to play games?
Strange child. Mama looked in the closet and did not find Tania there. She
dismissed the idea. It would be too silly to play hide and seek with
sleeping parents. Tania had no idea when they would wake up. She could be
hiding for hours.
Mama was getting worried but she tried to calm herself down and think. May be Tania got hungry and went out to see if she could get something to eat. Mama called the restaurant but no little girl had been there by herself.
Now mama was getting panicky and she woke up papa. Papa still lying down heard the whole story. He was worried too. Groggily papa was about to get up when he noticed something under Tania's bed. He looked carefully and he saw Tania lying there fast asleep.
He burst out laughing. Mama looked at him questioningly. Still laughing helplessly he pointed under Tania's bed. Mama too burst out laughing when she realised what had happened. Tania had fallen off the bed, but she was sleeping so soundly that even the fall, although on the soft carpeted surface, had not woken her up. She just rolled under the bed and continued to sleep soundly. Mama and papa just let her be there till she woke up an hour later.
Mama, papa and Tania were all very tired. The airline had arranged for them to stay in a hotel till the problems were fixed. Tania and her parents made their way to the hotel room. Jet lagged and very sleepy they fell asleep as soon as they got to the comfortable beds in the hotel room. They couldn't even summon the energy to change out of their travel clothes.
Within minutes the whole family was fast asleep. Mama and papa took the big king sized bed and Tania had plopped herself on to the separate twin bed in the room. The trio slept soundly.
After a couple of hours mama woke up for a drink of water. She was still quite groggy but one glance at Tania's bed told her that Tania was not there. She was puzzled. Where could Tania be? She checked to see if Tania had snuggled up to papa. She sometimes did that if she had a bad dream. But no, papa was sleeping soundly and there was no Tania. She looked on the armchair, and checked the bathroom. Nope. No Tania there either.
Was Tania hiding? Did she think this was a good time to play games?
Strange child. Mama looked in the closet and did not find Tania there. She
dismissed the idea. It would be too silly to play hide and seek with
sleeping parents. Tania had no idea when they would wake up. She could be
hiding for hours.
Mama was getting worried but she tried to calm herself down and think. May be Tania got hungry and went out to see if she could get something to eat. Mama called the restaurant but no little girl had been there by herself.
Now mama was getting panicky and she woke up papa. Papa still lying down heard the whole story. He was worried too. Groggily papa was about to get up when he noticed something under Tania's bed. He looked carefully and he saw Tania lying there fast asleep.
He burst out laughing. Mama looked at him questioningly. Still laughing helplessly he pointed under Tania's bed. Mama too burst out laughing when she realised what had happened. Tania had fallen off the bed, but she was sleeping so soundly that even the fall, although on the soft carpeted surface, had not woken her up. She just rolled under the bed and continued to sleep soundly. Mama and papa just let her be there till she woke up an hour later.
September 20, 2014
Tania and Kazoo
Tania was getting ready for Karishma's birthday party. She was trying on the eagle mask to see if it was comfortable. At that time Kazoo walked by and saw Tania in the mask. Kazoo was terrified. She started whimpering and her tail became really fat. It was puffed up to 3 times its original size. Tania had no idea what happened to Kazoo. She called mama. Mama took a minute to realize that Kazoo was frightened of the mask. By now Kazoo was hyperventilating.
Mama told Tania to take off the mask and explained that animals were often scared of masks. Tania took it off and together, mama and Tania comforted Kazoo. It was a full 15 minutes before Kazoo was normal sized and relaxed again.
Tania got dressed for the party but she waited till she was outside the house before she put on the mask.
That night, when everyone was sleeping, mama came out for a drink of water and noticed Kazoo growling at the mask. Kazoo is now practicing making scary faces of her own.
September 14, 2014
Tania's bath-time fun
Tania found one of mama's old empty liquid soap bottles in the
bathroom while having a bath.
She decided to put it to good use. It
was a plastic bottle with a very small mouth.
She tried filling it from the tap without much luck. Barely any water made it's way through the hole.
So she asked mama how she could fill it.
Mama took a bathroom mug, put some soap in it and filled it up with water.
As you can see the soap made the water all foamy.
Mama then took the empty plastic bottle and squeezed it hard to remove some of the air.
Then still keeping it squeezed she turned it upside down and dipped it in to the mug.
Then she stopped squeezing the bottle and let Tania hold it gently.
The water from the mug rose in to the bottle like a fountain to take up the space
created by the bottle expanding.
The bottle was now filled with soapy foamy water and
Tania had a grand time squeezing the bottle and spraying its contents
all over herself and the bathroom floor.
