Happy Ganesh Chathurthi

Happy Vinayaka Chavithi to all my friends and Family...

Ganesha Chaturthi also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi, is the Hindu festival celebrated on the occasion of birthday of Lord Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvathi, who is believed to bestow his presence on earth for all his devotees in the duration of this festival. It is the day Shiva declared his son Ganesha as superior to all the gods, barring Vishnu, Lakshmi, Shiva and Parvati. Lord Ganesha is believed to be God of power, prosperity,wisdom and good fortune. In India, people worship Ganesh before initiating any work or start any travel. Ganesh Festival is one of the main festivals celebrated blissfully and joyfully all over India.

In Andhra, kudumu (rice flour dumplings stuffed with coconut and jaggery mixture), Vundrallu (steamed coarsely grounded rice flour balls), Panakam (jaggery, black pepper and cardamom flavored drink), Vadapappu (soaked and moong lentils), Chalividi (cooked rice flour and jaggery mixture), etc., are offered to Ganesha along with Modakams. These offerings to god are called Naivedyam in Telugu.

In Andhra, Matti Vinayakudu (Clay Ganesh) and Siddhi Vinayakudu (Turmeric Ganesh) is usually worshiped at homes along with plaster of paris Ganesha. But now a days due to the pollution control and other factors that are effecting the natural resources in the process of nimajjanam the new mantra is getting rounds in India i.e., Go Green by using eco friendly Ganesh. So say no to idols made of chemical, Plaster of paris, baked clay, plastic, thermocol (polystyrene). Opt for natural, biodegradable material so that after immersions (visarjan) it does not pollute water and surroundings. Natural products can be used to make the idol such as unbaked clay, coconut, paint with natural colours, etc. 

So by following this rule for this year I made an idol with my own hands which i wanted to share with you all...  Here are some of the pics of our Bojja Vinayaka and our Puja at home. People celebrate in various ways in each place depending on their customs and traditions. In the same way in Andhra too there are different variations especially the prasadams we offer to God. May be the procedures are the same but the name of the item is different. So according to our tradition we offer Kudumulu and Aardhi(Palu ardhi or bellam kudumulu which is called in some of the places). 

For recipes of kudumulu and Aardhi click here :

So here is our Puja: 

The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating

Hi Friends How are you all??? Its been so long that i have posted in my blog due to some busy life schedules. But really feel like posting something interesting in which each and everyone of us are really crazy about. And wanted to give a good perfect start for my blog. Recently seen this article in some magazine and could not wait to share with all u guys...Lets enjoy the Healthy treat together...



Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites, like purslane, guava and goji berries, aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice.

1. Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters.
How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.

2. Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.

3. Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes.
How to eat it: Chop and saute in olive oil.

4. Cinnamon: May help control blood sugar and cholesterol.
How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.

5. Pomegranate juice: Appears to lower blood pressure and loaded with antioxidants.
How to eat: Just drink it.

6. Dried plums: Okay, so they are really prunes, but they are packed with antioxidants.
How to eat: Wrapped in prosciutto and baked.

7. Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death.
How to eat: Roasted as a snack, or sprinkled on salad.

8. Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.” They are high in omega-3’s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins.
How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.

9. Turmeric: The “superstar of spices,” it may have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.
How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish.

10. Frozen blueberries: Even though freezing can degrade some of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil; associated with better memory in animal studies.
How to eat: Blended with yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkled with crushed almonds.

11. Canned pumpkin: A low-calorie vegetable that is high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A; fills you up on very few calories.
How to eat: Mix with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Answer of a CEO and a video which is really Inspiring...

Hello friends.... I always love to hear some inspiring stories from my frnz and will try to memorize when i feel like. May be all the stories will not effect us but at least knowing is always better i feel. So that may be in future in circumstances when we are in some critical situations these stories may help us to be bold enough and take some decisions. So when Yesterday i got a mail and i liked it a lot and inspired me a lot so would love to share with u all.... This is really very inspiring and a gr8 message conveyed at the end which is not just true but the fact with everyone...Frankly telling its true for me at times when i give excuses for the things that im not that successful... :)
So Here it goes....

Last year an occasion where a very successful company's CEO was speaking in a seminar…
he was repeatedly trying to convey a message to all the students of prestigious college…
"What you do is not an important thing… How well you do your work is more important… that is what defines your success"

Many of the students raised queries regarding the same statement… as some of these students were not convinced with this statement.

The students said… only some professions are chosen ones.
Some students said… they only wanted to chose what they think is a great career ahead.
Some… wanted to say… only if it is a good company… they will join it… because that is what will give them a better tomorrow.

CEO was not able to understand how to convince the students that… it is their hard work that counts and not any other factor… that can take to fame.

He wanted to tell them… some people land up in the place they want to be… some people have to accept what they are doing…

But… no matter what you are doing… it is only how well you do the task… matters in the end.

He thought for a while… and immediately…
… told all the students… that he has a picture to mail them…
That will explain to them… what exactly he wanted to convey in his message…
he took all the emails… and then immediately that night…
emailed them this photograph… which tell every one what was in his mind.

TRUE… you give your best to whatever you do…
You will get the best out of it.

See the picture for yourself if I was mistaken, this is a photo of a name that no one forgets (atleast no one among the one's who know this game)

....
You should deserve… Before you desire
....
...Jonty Rhodes
He was a national hockey player and hockey was his passion
He was the hockey goal keeper for south african team.
He had to chose cricket because he was forced to do so…

Will that stop him from reaching to fame???NEVER!

He is the best… and people only know him as the best.

Moral : Dont ruin your career giving your self excuses that perhaps this is not where you wanted to land up.Try to focuss and enhance your capabilities in whatever you have in front of yourself.

And We give so many excuses about ourselves for such small things too. But after seeing this video that really made me think of myself once. If we are really not able to do by having evrythng in life then what about ppl who has something lagging in thier life and still they are successful. I hope it will touch ur hearts too and make u all to think for a while... Truly Inspiring and Heart Touching video... Also watch the video "To all of you who feel like giving up".

Awards time

Hurray im very much excited to get all these lovely awards for first time. I have got these awards from my blogger friends as an appreciation and wishes. Thankyou one and all.

My lovely friend Divya from Divya's Recipes, Jay from Tasty Appetite and Sanyukta from Creativesanyuktha shared these awards with me.
And thank you so much for remembering and sharing such lovely awards with me.
Divya is my first blogger friend and gave me so much inspiration to do more and more and im always very thankful to her. She has a lovely blog and with full of Indian recipes. She uploads each and every day with lot varieties of recipes.
And coming to Jay..Oh wow she is also having very much interest for cooking and all colorful and yummy tasty recipes comes from her.
Sanyukta is a blogger friend of mine and have very great collection of recipes and hats ofF to her patience and interest for decoration for each and every post and her creative mind was really unbelievable. I like her blog a lot.
So Please do visit their blogs for more recipes and fun.






And an award from Maya and Lakshmi of YummyOYummy Team. They are really fabulous and have such a lovely blog and doing a great work. They are having very yummy collection of recipes as their blog name. They are really encouraging for me in some sort of time with their comments and everything. Please do visit their blog for more and more stuff...

Also the same award from S Shah of Treat Your Tongue. Im very much glad that even though she is my new blogger friend she remembered me and shared this with me. Thats really an honour that she shared this with me. Thank you so much for the award. And according to the rules of the award i have to share any of my fav click so im sharing that too...

I love beaches a lot and visiting such lovely place on a very special day which is always very memorable for me alwazzzz. So a place which i like and enjoyed a lot is this.

Bahamas Beach at Nassau.

I wanted to share all these awards with my blogger friends. Im just mentioning few of them. But i wanted to share with you all... and its really encouraging from each one of you. Thank you so much.

Priya of Priya's Easy and tasty Recipes

Divya of Divya's Recipes
Priti of Indian Khana

Jay of Tasty Appetite

Kairali Sisters of Pazham Pappadam Payasam

S Shah of Treat Your Tongue

Maya and Lakshmi of YummyOYummy

Rachana Kotari of Veggi Fare

VineelaSiva of VineelaSiva

Manju of Life is beautiful !!!

Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen

Pavithra Srihari of Binge on Veg !!!

Gulmohar of Collaborative Curry

Prani's Kitchen of PranisKitchen - Recipes for food lovers -Try it you 'll love it

Gita Of Gita's Kitchen and

finally Viki of Viki's Kitchen

Happy Mother's Day

Mothers have always held a special place in our societal and family structures for thousands of years. Unlike fatherhood, which can be said to be an indirect relationship, motherhood is a natural and very strong bond between a mother and a child.

Mothers are everything for us when we are small...our lives revolve around her. For everything that we need we call mother. To protect us from all perceivable dangers we want her around us. To take us out we hold her arms. To kiss away our wounds we run to her. And for a warm hug and love we look for her. She is the everything of our lives, the greatest human being in the world or should we say divinity on earth. On the special occasion of Mothers Day pay tribute to your mother - the greatest blessing of God on you.

Im very much happy and proud to have such a mother and there is simply no way we can ever really thank mother for all she has done for us. Because it is not enough if we thank her each and every day through out our life. That is the greatness of a mother i feel. But i take this special day as an opportunity to thank her for all the gifts through out her life. Mothers Day is the perfect day to celebrate the joys of having a mother. And hats off to all mothers and enjoy friends. Its really a blessing of being a mother.

I really Miss her a lot. :(
I Love U MOM.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Quick Kitchen tips..

Everyone at some sort of time face problems in the kitchen while cooking. And we wont get any sudden thought about what to do. These are commonly faced problems in the kitchen and i have posted some of the tips of how to overcome those problems and work easier in the kitchen.

Too Much Salt: If you've added too much salt to a recipe, there are two solutions,

1.add a little sugar.

2. Add a raw potato slice. This will absorb the salt, especially in soups or stews.

Too Much Spice: Can add some lemon juice, or dump off any extra gravy and pour water in it along with the spices.

Too Sweet : Add some salt, or, if the recipe is a vegetable or main dish, a teaspoon of vinegar.

Gravy Too Thick: If your gravy is too thick then add a little more liquid. For some gravies you can add milk which tastes good and make your curry a bit liguidy

Gravy Too Thin: Potato flakes may be added instead of flour to gravy, sauces and stews that are too thin, else some rice flour can also be added.

Overdone Vegetables: Put the pot in an pan of cold water. Let it stand from 15 minutes to half an hour without scraping pan.

Peeling Fresh Garlic: Peel garlic and store in a covered jar of vegetable oil. The garlic will stay fresh and the oil can be nicely flavored for salad dressings too.

For fresh Lemon: When a small amount of lemon juice is needed, insert a skewer into the lemon rind and squeeze juice out and store it again. The lemon will stay fresher longer than if it were cut.

Crisp Vegetables:To make your vegetables to remain crisp, cover the crisper section of your refrigerator with newspaper and then use the paper to wrap vegetables. Moisture will be absorbed and your vegetables will stay fresher longer.

Easily Peeled Tomatoes: Place tomatoes in a bowl, add boiling water and let them stand for one minute. Tomatoes will peel easily with a sharp knife.

Fluffy Rice: Rice will be fluffier and whiter if you add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to each quart of water.

Healthy Rice: Cook rice in liquid saved from cooking vegetables to add flavor and nutrition.

My Love for Music

Asha Bhosle Concert

I love music. I feel that music is like a therapy for any problems related to physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic, and spiritual—to help ourselves to improve or maintain ones health.Music has long been used to help people deal with their emotions and very powerful. My great timepass would be listening to music at any time. I love listening to songs that keeps me happy alwazzzzz......Hmmmm so You all may be thinking why am i telling you all such stuff!!!!!

Coming to the point last week we went to a concert on Saturday which i enjoyed it like anything. Its the concert of none other than The Voice Of Bollywood Asha Bhosle Concert and it was a fabulous show i say. Im a big fan of hers and heard that this show of her in US may be last show. May be its a rumor but at least i got a chance to see and so i don't wanna miss that chance. So i'm very much eager to go to that show. Somehow finally we got the tickets & i went the concert and it is a blast. The way she presented herself at the age of 76 is amazing. The way she performed and the josh she created was fantastic and managed herself so well. And at that point of time i got an idea that just for a glance why cant i capture the video of just one song at least so that everyone enjoys it. The one you can see along with her is Sudesh Bhonsle. So this was the video of the concert (just one song). See it and especially don't miss the excellent talent of the musicians in the last 2mins. Enjoy!!!!!!!!

Apologizing....!!!

"Apologizing does not mean that you are wrong and the other one is right... It simply means that you value the relationship much more than your ego.."


Hi everyone
The story goes that some time ago a man punished his 5-year old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became even more upset when the child used the gold paper to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.
Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her father the next morning and said, This is for you, Daddy. The father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction , but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty.
He spoke to her in a harsh manner. Don't you know young lady , when you give someone a present there's supposed ti be something inside the package??
The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, Oh, Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was full. The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.
An accident took the life of the child only a short time later and it is told that the father kept that gold box by his bed for all the years of his life. And whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems he would open the box and take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

So By this short story we all can understand that

• In a very real sense, each of us as human beings have been given a golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family, friends and God. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.
• And there is nothing wrong to apologize for the mistake that you have done in your life.
• Anger is not always good at times. "For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness" is a famous quote i always remember off when i get angry.

Sri Rama Navami.. !!!

Sri-Ramnavami is dedicated to the memory of Lord Rama. It occurs on the ninth day (navami). The festival commemorates the birth of Rama who is remembered for his preperous and righteous reign. The Festival is celebrated in india and Sri Rama Navaratri is celebrated for more than 9 days in which Rama Pattabhishekam and Sita Rama Kalyanam are the main rituals.

Sri Rama Navami is the biggest festival celebrated at Bhadrachalam Sri Sita Ramachandra swamy temple in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh. Sri Rama Navaratri is celebrated for more than 9 days in which Rama Pattabhishekam and Sita Rama Kalyanam are the main rituals. In 2010, Sri Rama Navami date is March 24th. Ram Navami utsavam is also celebrated as Sri Rama Brahmotsavam at Bhadrachalam.


Sri Rama Navaratri celebrations start on Chaitra Shudda Padyami (first day of Chaitra masam) or Ugadi day and last for ten days. Along with Lord Sri Rama and Goddess Sita Devi, Lakshmana, Anjaneyaswamy and Bharata are worshipped during the festive days. Ram Navami is celebrated on the day during which Punarvasu nakshatram falls. Punarvasu nakshatram is the Janma nakshatram (birth star) of Ramachandra. The rituals are observed in Telugu and Dravidan style of puja.

Theppotsavam is the major attraction on concluding day of Sri Rama Brahmotsavalu. Millions of devotees throng Bhadrachalam Sita Ramachandra swamy temple to watch the Navaratri utsavams. The procession is a gusty affair with the participants shouting praises echoing the happy days of Rama's reign.