Giving Thanks!!

I know it's Thanksgiving and most of you must be celebrating it with your families,loved ones and friends....

Being away from home I do miss my family and my friends back in India but over the past 2 years I've made a family of my on here.. with some lovely friends and cousins who might live a miles away but are still connected!!

This Thanksgiving we are celebrating with my sister (cousin) (Nidhi and Munish Jiju).. who just moved to the west coast and I couldn't have been happier as she is just 5 hrs away from us and we can visit them whenever we want to.. Play with my niece and nephew (Rohan and Disha) whom I love and miss dearly!!!

But before we start the celebrations and eating huge amounts of food... Me and Hubby decided to do this post together by being thankful for a number of things this year :

Life:

• Starting the year celebrating with family.
• An amazing trip to Mexico (celebrating our First Anniversary)
• At least one of us was able to visit India and be with our family.
• My first solo art exhibition.
• Opportunity to learn yoga from Mrs. Priya giving me a new insight in life.
• A new car.
• A short but sweet visit from Dad.
• Brother spending his summer with us.

• A cross country road trip to Seattle with brothers (Sukrit and Ketan) in the new car to visit cousins (Sidhant and Maneet)
• A visit from our cousin (Roohi di) from Singapore and a fun trip to Vegas.

• Our wonderful friends (Yuthika and Barun) for being there for us always.

• Making our Diwali celebrations the most memorable one We would like to thank.. Priyank, Nisha, Ajay. Sneha, Yuthika, Barun and our cute lil Shubham

• We would like to thank Arthur Murray Studios for introducing us to one of the most fun hobbies: Ballroom dancing.

Technology:

• We are most thankful for tablets and smart phones which our parents have finally adapted to...
• For skype so that we can connect to our family everyday.
• For whatsapp which made messaging and sharing pics with our family and friends sooooo much easier.
• For Instagram which gave me new wings to show my photography talent and make new friends.
• For the blogging world for keeping me up to date with the fashion world and giving me a new platform to share my thoughts with the world and for helping me meet like minded people I can connect to and for the amazing friendships.
• For Google making the world searchable, accessible or Googlable.
• For Youtube for making POP pilates, yoga videos and all kinds of workouts available at the comfort of your home.
• For Netflix for hours and hours of in home entertainment.
• For Pinterest giving us access and ideas for absolutely anything.
• For Groupon that saved us money and introduced us to Ball Room Dancing, Yoga classes, Paint Ball, Trampoline arenas and lots and lots of yummy places to have gourmet food.       
• Birtchbox for sending me samples of brands I would have never heard off let alone trying.

And the last but the most important...

Family:

• We are thankful to our parents for giving us a good education and helping us become who we are today. 
• For being a strong support our entire life and source of inspiration and motivation. 
• For providing for us and teaching us valuable lessons for life. 
• We are thankful to our brothers for being our best friends even though we sometimes ignore their advise ;) (e.g. getting my hair cut. Sorry Suki ;)).
• We are thankful to our grandparents for teaching us some useful skills such as knitting and for all the 'masalas', 'chutneys' and all kinds of yummy stuff.

Thank you God for a beautiful home, a wonderful family, amazing friends and filling our lives with laughter and happiness. This is all one could ever ask for....

What are you thankful for today... ??? !!!

Recipe time : Healthy Pumpkin Cookies

It's Pumpkin season people.. and everyone wants to have all kinds of "pumpkiny" things.. from pumpkin spiced lattes to pies and bread or even cookies.. but they are laden with calories and fat and can throw you off our diet and keep you feeling guilty..
So I went online in search of some healthy options for my pumpkin fix and found this recipe and thought I should share it with you guys!!

Here it goes..


The "42 calorie" Pumpkin cookies.. or more like cake bites... you'll love them!!

Prep Time : 5 mins
Cook Time : 15-18 mins
Makes : 32 cookies

Ingredients :

1 cup        Whole wheat flour
1 cup         All purpose flour
1 cup         White sugar
1 cup         Canned pumpkin puree (not pie mix)
1 tsp          Baking powder
1 tsp          Baking soda
2 tsp          Pumpkin pie spice ( I did not have it so I added a tsp of cinnamon and cardamom powder)
1/8 tsp       Sea salt
1/2 cup      Unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp          Vanilla or Almond extract
                 Coking spray


Method :

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Grease cookie sheer with spray
Cream sugar, applesauce, pumpkin puree and extract together.
In another bowl mix flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin spice.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients together.
Form little blobs with a spoon or if you prefer using hands make sure you wet them a little with cold water so that the prepare mix does not stick to your hands and you can shape your cookies well
Bake for 15 - 18 minutes, until browned.

Enjoy them with coffee or tea.. or even with ice cream!!

You can add chocolate chips to it.. but it will increase your calorie intake..

Tell me how you liked them... You can make them for the kids at your Thanksgiving dinner... :) :)

Book Review 9 : The Fourth Estate

Book Review for November

Title : The Fourth Estate
Author : Jeffrey Archer
Published by : Harper Collins
Type : Political
Genre : Fiction
Pages : 549

My Rating : ***


My Review

Story Baseline : Two strong characters coming from totally different backgrounds, battling to gain power and willing to take endless risks...

The novel is about 2 ferocious publishers- Keith Townsend and Richard/ Dick Armstrong. Both the characters come from different backgrounds.. One is born in a well to do family with all the luxuries and facilities and the other is  a World War II survivor.. has seen the most difficult of times.. have been chased, put into jail.. have gone days starving and hiding from the enemy.. seen people die in front of him..

Both of them try to take over the media world by different means.. fair or unfair.. Only keeping the eye on the outcome.. no matter who gets hurt, with no regard of anyone and how it may affect the people around them..

It's a political drama where one tries to overstep and kill the other's effort and gain total control.
The book was long and it took me nearly one and a half month to complete. I thought of giving it up a number of times but the author does narrate the story in a way that you actually get a little hooked and wanna know what will happen next..

I felt as if the book could have been a little more precise rather than stating every detail.. somethings could have been left to imagination.. Plus I did not find the ending very good.. with Armstrong taking his own life.. as he had been portrayed as such a strong character moving forward through every kind of hurdle and difficulty..

There is no doubt the Jeffrey Archer writes really well and you do get hooked to his novels..


Linking up with BBC2012 at the overflowing library!!

P.S. Next up : Pumpkin cookies/ cake bites Recipe!!