Chappatti Breakfast Burritos

If you have a desi husband (Pakistan/India ) he would like some paratha, naan, bhatura for his hearty breakfast..lathered in butter ghee preferably..but if you are a wife like me, sleepy and grumpy in the morning if the poor man asks for something other than toast you would love to make these frozen chappati breakfasts!

                                          

My husband has recently demanded requested for a chappati and curry breakfast, coz he says thats what he used to have as a child. He has been away from home since college and all of a sudden I have to deal with his nostalgia.

• I made about 20 chappattis, on two pans at a time to speed it up.
• I made 3 different wraps with egg whites for a start up.
• Made some keema, in a little olive oil with just a hint of spices, used some leftover Chickpea curry and in another pan made his favorite tuna and peppers with oregano.

• Seperately, I whisked some egg whites with a dash of milk,and seasoned them. He has been told to avoid yolks for cholestrol reasons.

• With everything ready, I spread sheets of kitchen paper over the counter, one chappatti on each and then the filling.

• Wrapped them into burritos, with the kitchen paper. This helps because once reheated the paper will keep the bread moist.

• Put them into breakfast bags, labeled them with instructions to heat in the microwave for 1-2 mins and dropped them into the freezer!

There, life made easier in one go.

The Boogie-Wipe Sleeve

I know its an icky topic, but it needs a post!

My son has been going through a very bad viral flu. Its getting better but during the past whole week I was on stand-alert with a tissue paper in my hand to wipe off the antimatter as soon as possible...but a lot of times the nose was swiped with the sleeve before I could rush to the scene.

I had to change his pullovers thrice in an hour! Finally I thought of a way out..

I pulled out some of his clothes that were packed for donation and cut off the sleeves .

Made him wear these, and the situation came under controll. He is too young to understand that he needs to blow his nose and not wipe it off with his sleeve, although I did tell him everytime not to do that but he couldn't help:)

How I used my Glass Baubles

Here's a perfect proof of the fact that this sign has a magnetic power of its own. It can draw you closer to itself within nano seconds. Beware ladies!

We are a non-Christian Family and do not celeberate xmas, but I have to admit...I love Christmas decorations and Christmas SALES! This year the after Christmas sales here in Munich were great! I was lucky to have my son's birthday during the same time and I got lots of nice Party dishes on throw-away Prices! Comming to the post..I also could not resist buying these tiny Little glass baubles on 70 %.

I chose a non-typical christmasy Color and hung them on my Dining light fixture with some wire!

Car and Truck Themed Party Ideas

Just a little sum up of what we did for our son's 2nd Birthday (Warning: Long Post)

Napkin Rings for Plastic Cutlery

I used crepe paper stripes...wrapped around bright tissue paper napkins. I stapled the strip into a ring and then added washi tape on top. It was a quick little way to follow the theme.

I made approx. 40 of those and then packed them into a box for transportation to the party hall later


Cars and Trucks Decoration

I printed these images and then cut them out individually. I taped them onto a long gift wrap ribbon. Using a roll on double sided tape made things a lot easier!

Sorry about the lack of Pictures.. One I was tooooo busy serving the food to take pictures and two I do not want to put up pictures with my friends in them due to privacy concerns.

DIY Car Shaped Buntings

I made six of these cute little buntings for the backdrop.. what you see in the pictures is not the originally set up backdrop. Just before the cake cutting my little fire ball pulled the whole thing down..tearing the sheet of paper I had used to make the background!! I wanted to yell !! But I kept my cool and quickly pulled off a table cover to fix the biggest party blooper ever!! Please notice the three buntings on the right..

Fuel for Kids Drink Labels

Just printed the images and glued them onto bottles of orange and apple juice.

DIY Party Snack Boxes

I printed out a free template.. they were time consuming but worth it. I used a scorer for the sides..without that it would have not been possible..I could not handle them with tape so I used staples to hold them together firmly. To serve the chips I used squares of Butter paper to line them..otherwisw they would have become stained with oil..there are some spots but that was after thez were served to guests.

 To add the theme I used washi tape with cars and trucks on it.

Cake Banner

 Just take two bamboo skewers and add a little washi tape between them to make a banner. I also added a bunting cutout I had from scrapbook paper. Adds height and interest to the cake!

Car Birthday Food Labels

I found these free printables online.(Anders Ruff Custom Designs)  I printed them onto photo paper and made food labels instead.

DIY Polymer Clay Car Ornaments

I had made polymer clay some time back and had it wrapped up in clingfilm laying around..I tried to make use of it. The inspiration came from Christmas decorations I saw..I made them into hanging ornaments using elastic thread and added them to the pot of soup..to make it a little less ugly when sitting on the table.

Customized Party Hats

Here|s a frugal idea,cant find the right party hats like me *please don't get me started on the lack of good party supplies in german supermarkets* just use what you have and paint them! I asked my husband to get the party hats and he brought the most ugly ones!! saying that since he was not sure on the color he got some multi coloured ones! Blah..but they were super cheap..under a euro for 6 hats..I spray painted them into a plain red..

For the birthday boy..I used the car prints from the food labels and a little crepe paper to decorate.

DIY Birthday Banner

You can easily get the colors of your choice into the party banner with this simple bunting style paper banner...It was another freebie printable I grabbed online. I love all the good people sharing stuff for free!

Party Goodie Bags

Oh the hard work that went into them, and I forgot to take any pictures! Thank God I forgot just the pictures and not giving the bags away..that party was just inches away from being a crazy wedding! I had one which I forgot to give away to a guest who left early.

Car Photo Booth

I made a cardboard photo frame shaped like a windscreen for family pictures. It was a hit and everyone enjoyed giving a shot!

Road Signs
 I made these cute road signs as table center pieces. Using a baby food jar as a holder I put some Styrofoam in them and and stuck the sticks with signs on them.

Table Runner (Roads)




I made these roads to go under my table Center pieces..(We had several tables for ladies and for gents seperately arranged) These are just plain black Card paper cut into wide stripes. I used masking tape to make the road markings.

Decorative Intial Alphabet

Another quickie! I had some leftover paint mixed from my last project... I decided to funk up the plain plywood initial for my son.

Some paint and some thumb pins..to fake a pinhead trim!

Done!

Blue Pyramids of Giza

I apologize for the grandiose title..I am in a high aesthetic mood. So unlikely of me :p

Ok so this is another one from pinterest...I saw it and I knew I was going to try. So one Grey morning I woke up and found my self in the right mood to do some potato stamping! I already had a canvas laying around and some acrylic paints too.

• I could have done a better job with it but I was not looking for perfection..just having some fun with paint on my hands..I will look up the original link but heres what i did..

• I mixed black and blue and did a base coat with a clean rag. I did it as unevenly as possible to add variation of black and blue. I did not wait for it to dry..my tod was about to wake up!!

• I cut a potato into half and then made a triangle stamp from one side, using a sharp knife. That done, I plopped some white paint onto a paper plate and a drop of black too. 

• Then using white as the basic color to stamp I continued making rows of triangles. Alternatively, I used a little of the base paint and black too..not worrying about the shade..I wanted it to be uneven.

A quick 15 Min project to do on slow paced days.

Spiral Road Cake

I almost wrote ' Spiral Road Cake: Fail' in the title bar, but then I thought of the hours I spent searching for the right way, the right icing, the right recipes and the right time to do it before the big day. I'd be nice to myself!

 I was doing a general car and truck themed party I didnt want to stick with a specific Mc Queen or Bob the Builder theme because in my opinion it is far more expensive and difficult to stick to a particular charecter and to meet the standard a well known charecter demands for. To make a car shaped cake was what I did not want to do at all..I knew I would end up with a floppy car melting upon itself...so I approached the path I never walked..to make a carved cake. I was opptimistic, later slightly dissappointed too:(

I thought I would be able to come up with a detailed tutorial but honestly I was nearly about to cry when Things started getting off- track..so I could manage just these pictures!

I used two 26cm cakes for the base, two 20cm cakes for the next tier and two 18cm cakes for the top layer.

Because I had to serve a large number of people I made sure I wasted as little cake in the carving process as I could. 

I filled the cakes with chocolate pudding, layered them and marked my road track path with toothpicks. i cut along them...it was not easy and made no sence at first. There was a mini heart attack!

In a quick frenzy to finish off what I just started..I coloured a small batch of my first ever Swiss Meringue Buttercream and iced it on with a large cake icer tip. Smoothed it out and took a deeep breath..I am not a cake decorator and this became known to me just then!

With this cake I had so many 'firsts' going on 

1st carved cake

1 st layered cake

1st time with Wilton Icing tips

1st time with SMBc

The frosting is all SMBc...I did mess up with the black one..here's my mistake. I was running short on time so I scooped some leftover pudding sitting on the counter into the butter cream to add the dark chocolate base before adding black color..so DO NOT DO THAT. Just in case. The cars are real, except for the biscuits which my friend brought as a gift. I fixed them onto the cake too. Road signs are card paper.

Birthday Number Wall Hanging

I saw this brilliant idea on a blog where someone made a pinnata from scrap cardboard and crepe paper. Since the pinnata is not a part of our birthday celeberations I used the idea to make a large centeral decoration for my son's car/truck themed party. I used what I had and it turned out pretty nice.

I used a large box and cut it with a paper cutter into the shape of Number 2.

For the crepe paper..I cut wide stripes off from the roll and then snipped it on both sides..see the picture. Unfold it and you get a long wide fringed stripe.

Fold it into half lengthwise, so that you have one folded side and one fringed side.

I used a paint brush to glue areas on the cardboard and then added my crepe paper stripes on it. Alternating colours as I went.

To bring it into the party's theme I added a truck printed on paper on one side:)

Done..trust me if you buy a party decoration that size from the store..it can be really expensive and not worth it when you just need it for a few hours! Either spend that money or spend some time and if your'e like me enjoy creating something yourself !

Planning a Desi Birthday Party Menu

My son turned 2 on new years' eve. The whole city celeberated his birthday with fireworks! Its the most festive day of the year for us. A day on which we try to count the countless blessings we have.

Last year I did a Small elmo themed party, just for baby and us. This year however, I managed to pull off a slightly bigger and busier party. Honk Honk! beep Beep!

Before you read any further let me just make a note. Birthday parties in our part of the world are not a similar affair as of those celeberated by people in the west. Although there is no denying that the whole concept of the celeberation, cake cutting etc is adopted enirely from the West..but the actual party layout is modyfied completely to suit the desi needs.

1. FOOD is the main attraction of the party, decorations, games everything is secondary.
2. It is more of a dinner invitation for adult uncles and aunties and less of an entertaining program for kids. If you fail to please the adults, your party is as useless as a pricked balloon !

I had been hunting blogs ( nearly all of them Western) for party ideas and I realized the stark difference in the needs of guests...a platter of fresh fruits, a couple of finger food and thats it! I am sure different lifestyles call for different party planning. Incoorporating pretty decorations with desi food can be a very tricky thing. I was looking for a balance between the two. Take a look:

Menu for approx 35 adults, 20 Kids + take aways!

Birthday Cake

Appetizer

• 12l Chicken Corn Soup
• Garlic Bread
• Mini Vegetable Rolls
• Croutons
• Bread Sticks
• Soup Condiments

Snacks/ Dinner Replacement Dishes

• Hunters Beef and Vegie Platter
• 2 Legs of Lamb
• Steamed Chicken
• 65 Sweet n Sour Chicken Meat Balls
• Chicken Pasta
• 50 Large Potato Samosa
• 80 Egg Sandwitches
• 75 Doughtnuts
• Dahi Bhara
• Chicken Nuggets
• Potato Chips

Salads
2 Bean Salad
Coleslaw

Condiments
Plum Chutney
Mint-Corriander Chutney
Tamarind Chutney

Drinks

• Juice
• Soft Drinks

Tea

Kashmiri Chai with Almonds/ Pistaschios

                                                                        Bean Salad

                                            Ultimate tastebud pleaser....the dried Plum Chutney!

                                                Pot of Chicken Corn Soup..zou could take a dive in it!

                                                                Mini Vegetable Rolls

                                                            Apple&Orange Juice

                                            Soya Sauce, Chilli in Viniger and Hot Sauce

                                                                  The Soup

                            Chicken Meat Balls in Sweet n Sour Sauce with Pinapple Chunks

                            Coleslaw> Carrots, Cucumber, Apple, Olives and salad dressing

                                                                    Doughniuts!

                                                                    Samosay

                                                              Egg Sanwitches


I hope this post helps you wheather you are a desi or not. I wanted to put down the menu in a post because when I was searching for one that suits me I did not come across anything!