15 min Quick Spicy Pasta

~ Poorva ~ Leave a comment

A busy Wednesday at work, full of meetings and deadlines. I had been out for dinner the previous night and had nothing prepared to bring to lunch. And, I did not get any time to drive to the closest restaurant to pick up something.

The office building has a cafe with a limited hot sandwiches and specials where I managed to drop by just 5 minutes before closing time. They could not prepare any hot meals by then as they had shut down all their kitchen equipment. But they did not want me to leave hungry so found the last of some cold macaroni salad…. Continue reading →

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Top 5 planners for 2019

~ Poorva ~ Leave a comment

I love planners, and I always have an eye out for the latest planners in the market. I am most attracted to well designed colorful planners, but they should be highly functional!

We are already a week into 2019, but if you’re still looking for a planner for the year, I recommend checking these out –

  1. The Happy Planner – I have used this for 1 year in 2016-2017, I still have mine and love it!

    I had it during the phase when I had just graduated and was looking for jobs, and this planner was highly productive.

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    It is highly customizable and many stickers and inserts come specially curated for this planner. This is highly recommended for anyone getting into the world of planners.
    Price: starts from $24.99
    This 2019 one is just gorgeous !

  2. Ban.do – This is another classic and I have used it for over a year. I love love love this one, and it was with me all the time in 2017-2018. I had the small size and found it super easy to carry around.

    I loved its monthly cover pages, and the quirky little notes randomly put in 🙂

    Again, highly recommended.
    Price: Starts from $20.

  3. Silk & Sonder – she does monthly planners and they look absolutely gorgeous! I am gonna try this out super soon 😀

    Price: Starts from $15/month and has multiple options for subscriptions.

  4. Alicia Souza The Ultimate Planner – this new 2019 planner by Alicia Souza looks super pretty and elegant. The gold just makes everything pop!
    Price: starts from $34.99
  5. Our Team Planned Life planner – Designed by yours truly, with a very thoughtful design to allow you to gain maximum productivity of your time.
    Price: Starts from $1.50/month.

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    With separate sections for goals, bucket lists and to-dos. And a new theme for every month 🙂

    Get a planner today and start setting short term and long term goals, putting down your dreams to paper is just so important to reach them faster !

I wish you all a fabulous 2019!

Merry Christmas 2018 | Chai DIY gift 🎁

~ Poorva ~ Leave a comment

Hey you all :*

I know this is a super duper late post, and I should have shared this idea with you before Christmas so you all can use it for your friends and family, but I wanted to keep it a surprise for my family and so decided to share it now! You can make it for any occasion, or just like that for your own pantry to stock and use whenever you need some instant chai-lovin’.

Continue reading →

5 Snack Ideas for Clean Eating.

~ Poorva ~ Leave a comment

Snacking is something we often don’t plan for when we think about meal prepping. And snacks are where we involuntarily consume a lot of calories and unnecessary food. I always get hungry mid-day around 3-4pm and I want to grab anything and everything in my line of sight, this could be chips or cookies or candy.

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Hummus Love | Recipe

~ Poorva ~ Leave a comment

I first had Hummus at a Mediterranean restaurant, Acropolis I think. I found it really creamy and delicious. I happen to have a soft spot in my heart for dips, spreads, chutneys and the like. This was a unique new addition to my list.  I then went on to try the local grocery-store version of it and since then, I have had a tub of it in my fridge at all times!

I have had moments where no hummus in my fridge made me panic that everything was not right in the world! *drama queen*

But well it is true. My love affair has been solid with Hummus, I have tried many variants of it like garlic hummus, pepper, pine nut, ‘pizza’, onions, olives, artichoke….

Continue reading →

Meal planning | Self-love | Cravings

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpVjOm-g1An/
~ Poorva ~ Leave a comment

Let’s talk about the importance of planning your meals today.

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Breakfast – spinach omlette Soy milk coffee Lunch – tuna salad wrapped in roti Snack – carrots & hummus

I love food. Yes, I love all kinds of food.

I also get very easily tempted by food. Creamy and cheesy food is my absolute weakness. You bring a rich cheesecake in front of me, and my mind goes into an obsessive craving to eat it.

I also get very hangry, very fast. If I am not well fed, I get irritable and cranky. And I end up eating the first thing I see infront of me. No, I won’t eat you don’t worry!!!

Continue reading →

Why you should not eat that cupcake!

~ Poorva ~ Leave a comment

A small fun activity for you all –

How much do you earn in a month, after all taxes, what comes into your bank account? Think of the figure in your head or write it down on a piece of paper. Say, you wrote $5000 or Rs. 50,000 or €5000.

Now, write down how much money you CAN spend in a month? Can you spend $7000, can you spend Rs. 50,100? I don’t think so.

Now, you might have some savings, write them down, let’s say you get $5000 per month, and you have around $150,000 in your bank savings account, saved over 7 years.

Can you buy a car worth $200,000 right now in cash? I don’t think so.

You might need to pay in installments and you can buy it, but you can not pay the full amount at this minute, can you?

So, what do you do? Do you still go about and purchase handbags worth $1500 every month, or rent an apartment worth $4000 per month, or buy a car with installment of $3000 each month? No, you don’t. You plan your finances and you buy what you can afford. You plan most purchases, and set a budget for expenses, savings etc? Or do you go out on pay-day and spend Rs.20,000 when the salary credited to your account was Rs.10,000?

If you forget credit cards for a minute, how can you physically even pay that amount? You can not.

If you can not spend a penny more than you get into your bank, so how can you consume more food than you body allows?

If I am not working enough to buy an Audi, I will not buy it. So, if I am not working enough to burn that cupcake from my body, I will not eat it. 

I love food, I love that cupcake, and that cheesecake, the pizza, the chole bhature, the gulab jamun and the jalebi and that chicken biryani. Same way I also love the BMW X6 model, I love that sea view penthouse, I love that Louis Vuitton handbag.

But I don’t go out and spend my hard earned money on those, why?

I think the same way about the food I eat.

Continue reading →

57 real thoughts I had on my Wedding Day

~ Poorva ~ Leave a comment

A girl has a million thoughts running through her mind on her wedding day. I tried to share some honest ones from my mind with you all…

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1. Is this a dream!!!

2. How will I look as a bride!

3. I’ll live with him forever! Yay

4. Wow, I’m gonna be an actual bride!

5. Will my wedding be instagram-worthy?

6. I’m hungry.

7. How will I stay with my lenses till tomorrow with no breaks.

8. This won’t be my home anymore.

9. Will I look pretty?

10. I’ll kill him if the baraat is late.

11. I know papa will cry a lot.

12. I should have got a trial of the makeup.

13. Will I be able to bend to touch everyone’s feet in all the heavy stuff by the end.

14. Should I be eating so much, I’ll look fat.

15. At what point while getting ready can I take off the cover and see my chooda?

16. Will the heavy gold earrings fit in my piercing. Where’s the Neosprin?

17. I have hardly got any pictures with Ushi, mummy and papa. they’re just so busy with everything and don’t even have time to be with me.

18. Hope my inbox does not burst when I get back to work in 2 days.

19. I should drink more water to make my skin glow.

20. How did I get so lucky!!

21. What if I don’t get ready on time?

22. Wish our Paris visa hadn’t got rejected..Sigh

23. I should have got some facials done to get rid of these dark circles.

23. If I drink more water, I will need to pee..

24. Where is everyone?

25. What if I fall down while walking upto the stage..

26. I’ll kill the DJ if he messes up my entry song!

27. Will the haldi really make me glow!

28. When can I even sleep next?!!

29. I didn’t even prep my emergency kit properly. What if I missed something imp huh!

30. It’s not been as stressful as I expected. Am I doing something wrong?

31. My feet still hurt from the dancing last night what fun!

32. What would Sahil be doing right now?

33. I need to find more getting ready shots on instagram and Pinterest.

34. There will be actual pheras and sindoor. Woah what!!

35. I’m excited….

36. I’m so glad all my friends are here with me!

37. Is it weird to be thinking all these random thoughts on my wedding and nothing grown up.

38. Wow I’m going to be an actual grown up married woman!

39. I should have worked out more.

40. Can I get some of that chocolate cake.

41. Am I smiling too much…

42. How will I survive till tomorrow in this heavy outfit and jewelry and lenses. But well, I do look quite pretty

43. The dal makhni was so good at the tasting we did at the venue earlier, I should get to eat all the food at my own wedding.

44. Urvashi is just off posing for the cameras and not being a good sister of the bride.

45. Sahil is super duper late already. Ugh

46. I can’t wait to spend my life with him.

47. How I’ll miss everyone 😦

48. So technically our wedding is on the 22nd and not the 21st because it will already be post midnight when the actual ceremony begins. Hmm…

49. Can’t wait to sleep away for 12 hours after all this is over. Tomorrow I shall sleep yes!

50. I’ll be married and will have a husband. My very own husband WOW !

51. The decor is perfect just as I had imagined. We finally got the mandap I had dreamt of getting married in Aah.

52. He’s looking so handsome ❤

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53. Is the bride allowed to dance on the DJ?

54. Many of the guests have already left, less people to smile at.

55. Its hard to eat with the nosepin on. But a girl gotta eat.

56. I can’t believe this is really happening..I’m taking 7 pheras like in the movies.

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57. No tears please!! Stop crying stop crying stop crying!

And so I got married, and have been smiling ever since 🙂

 

Hot cocoa & cream

~ Poorva ~ 1 Comment

I love love love candles and have around 5-6 around my apartment at any given time. I explore a lot with different scents, but I never buy food or any gourmand kindof scents. I never even try them because I always find them too sweet or fake artificial kindof sugary sweet. But I tried this on a whim and oh my god I am absolutely in love with it. It might be the first candle I repurchase! It’s also perfect for winter time, it makes me feel so cozy and warm like a steaming mug of hot chocolate in my hand. Oh and did I mention the mug is topped with mini marshmallows and melted chocolate bits. Ah bliss!