GROW YOUR OWN FENUGREEK & MUSTARD GREENS

Skip LOVES gardening. He has his small, neon green and pink plastic rake and shovel and spends countless hours planting seeds of fruits and vegetables in the garden. When we had been to Thailand last year, I found a Durian and a Rambutan seed, neatly wrapped in a tissue paper, in his backpack. Skip was upset when i told him that we couldn't carry it back home.

I, on the other hand, clearly haven't been blessed with green fingers. I have a few potted plants in my balcony that I religiously water every morning. I can't say they are the healthiest looking plants but they are surviving because Skip ensures they do. 

Skip and I decdied to grow garlic in our pots but when I saw that it would take almost 3 months for the bulbs to grow , I dismissed the idea and suggested planting Fenugreek and Mustard seeds instead. 

This is a fun activity to do with your children. 

It doesn't require any effort at all. 

The materials are readily available at home. 

It is a satisfying experience to see those little leaves sprout out. 

The leaves may be used in your cooking. 

The internet has a whole range of videos and tutorials (there's also a page on wikiHow!) on how to grow these leaves. The process has been described at length. Let me just simplify that in our post.

Disclaimer: this DIY is for the purpose of keeping your children occupied. If you need to know the process for large scale harvesting, this may not be the tutorial for you. 

Take a pot. If you don't have one, take a plastic container(I used an ice cream tub and a takeaway container).

Punch holes on the bottom of the container. I heated a knife and sliced through the tub (wipe and clean knife immediately after this step) .

Fill it with soil. 

I randomly sprinkled the mustard and fenugreek seeds into the soil into their respective pots. You may plant them neatly a few inches apart. 

Top it with another inch of soil. As you can see from the image , some seeds are still on top. It doesn't matter. They'll sprout too. 

Gently water the soil. Don't put too much water else the seeds will rot. 

Cover the containers with a lid as that will help retain moisture. Also I'm pretty certain that a pigeon from the neighbouring apartment was eyeing us the whole time, waiting to peck at the seeds. Water the seeds twice a day. 

Voila the seeds begin to sprout in a day and the shoots will begin to appear by Day 3.Remove the lid once the shoots begin to grow.

Get your children to paint an ice cream stick and name the pots. 

When the shoots are at least one inch long (mustard)/ two inches long (Fenugreek) nip them and put them in a bowl of water. Mud, if any, will settle at the bottom.  We've used these leaves in our curries, stir fries, omelettes, salads and also on the pizza (insert link). 

Note : Fenugreek leaves ought to be nipped when they are tender. The more they mature, the bitter they get. 

Have fun growing these plants with your children and please do send us pictures of the same. We'll post them on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Skip and I plan to grow coriander and mint leaves next. 

Bored? Board game ?

27/03 -  With my legs propped up on my study desk and my back slid half way down the chair in a posture I knew my father would have clearly disapproved of, I was reading ‘The Weather of the Future' when I noticed my laptop acting funny and then just like that it crashed. As I kept staring into the screen and simultaneously messaging Archie in a state of panic, my eyes welled up. I wasn't sure if I would recover all my work related data, pictures of Skip and of our holidays together. I also thought of our blog and that made me sadder.

07/04 - I decided that I might as well start typing out the posts on my phone. I have enough typing practice thanks to WhatsApp. 

When we began with self-isolation, Skip and I made our own board game which Skip declared to be his most favourite game in the whole world. Inspired by Snakes and Ladders, this game will keep you occupied for long hours. It took us three days to complete a game, with Skip winning it. 

Materials required: sheet of paper, pencil, ruler, dice and pawns depending on the number of players. 

      

1. Choose a sheet/chart paper of any size. The bigger the sheet, the longer the game will go on for, keeping the little ones occupied. ;) 

• I didn't have chart paper, so I took two colourful pages from Skip's art book and taped them together. 

2. Draw squares on the chart paper and mark them with numbers as shown in the image above. We got 120 squares. Remember, more the number of squares, the longer the game goes on for. ;);) 

3.The goal is to reach the end of the game by crossing hurdles on the way. The roll of the dice determines the number of moves you can make. We have some standard instructions on the chart such as skip a turn, move up to a higher digit and slide down to a lower digit. 

• Let your creative juices flow now. On other random squares, you can write fun instructions and also instructions that will get you your much needed 10 min break. You can also get your children to help around with household chores, exercise, read books etc.  Involve your child and let them scribble instructions as well. You could zoom in onto our board and copy those instructions as is. 

4. We used a pencil to write on the board so that we could make changes as and when required. Feel free to "beautify" your board game by cutting out the sheet in any shape you like or using stickers/glitter or other artsy bits on it. 

5. Have fun creating your own game and playing it! 

When it's safe to step out of the house and if we happen to bump into each other, do not fail to notice my well-toned arms. Somehow, my pawn always ends up on 53 and 56, much to Skip's delight. 

Skip and I have been watching Ramayana. As Skip doesn't understand Hindi, I have to be his "tour guide" (I've explained to him it's a translator but he insists on calling me that).Sita has been abducted by Raavan and as she lay crying drenched in her own tears and the rains, Skip asked me why Raavan had captured her? I replied saying he wants her to be his Queen.  

Skip: Sita should agree to be his Queen instead of just crying all the time. 

Lulu: Why should she do that? 

Skip: Once she becomes the Queen, she can start giving orders and everyone will have to listen to her. She can then order to be taken back to Rama.  

Hmm… 

BIRTHDAY PARTY IDEAS

Skip turned 6. This year too we had his birthday party at home. I see a lot of parents having themed birthday parties but that just involves too much preparation and that means more stress. Getting decorations, snacks, party favours, cake et all following the same theme isn’t my cup of tea!

Last year I conducted two games and spent quite some time surfing the net looking for unusual, yet simple, games for kids between the ages of 3 to 10. This year I had something different planned and thought it apt that I share these birthday ideas with our readers.

I got the idea when I was thinking about the return gifts. You would all agree that choosing and buying the return gifts is the most taxing part of the preparations.

My style of birthday preparation is very military. I take down notes, create timelines, make lists and carry these ‘to-do’ lists around with me at all times. I had decided on calling few kids this time as I wanted to have children around the same age group for the activities that I had in mind.

Number of children invited – 10

Total number of mouths to feed (inclusive of birthday boy, accompanying adults, family and help) – 40

Birthday cake – Paw Patrol theme

Snacks – Mini pizzas, Samosas, mini submarines (sandwiches) veg and non veg, potato chips, mango juice

Activities - decorating pots and baking mug cakes

Return gifts – potted plants and microwavable mugs

Decorations – balloons, tent and inflatable bounce back toy

Time – 4.30 p.m

Venue – Home

I booked the cake from Desserted. It is a lovely cafe plus bakery located at Vasanthnagar that has some amazing bakes. Last year too I had ordered Skip’s birthday cake from there. They bake the cake exactly as per your requirement. The cakes look pretty and more importantly, taste splendid. I got a cake featuring the characters from Paw Patrol and threw in one of Skip’s favourite lines from the series which I thought was fitting for the cake.

For the decorations, I skipped the buntings and wall hangings and kept it simple. I scattered balloons on the floor and the younger lot had fun chasing these balloons. I also placed Skip’s tent in the balcony along with the bounce-back toy and this had the older lot occupied while we took turns baking the cake.

The snacks were ordered from Amma’s Pastries. The snacks were fresh and the sandwiches that were loaded with mayonnaise deserve a special mention.

ACTIVITY 1(POT DECORATING): I covered our table in the balcony with newspapers. I bought 11 potted plants. These plants came in plastic pots. As the pots were plastic, painting on them was out of question. Also, painting would have proved to be a messy affair. For decorating the pots, I bought ribbons, silver craft paper, rhinestone stickers and tubes of Fevicol. Each child was asked to pick a ribbon and stick it at the bottom of the pot. I cut out a sun, moon and star from the silver paper and also the first alphabet of each child’s name and asked the children to stick it on their respective pots. I then gave 5 strips each of the crystal stickers and asked them to let their imagination go wild.

ACTIVITY 2 (BAKING A MUG CAKE) – I bought 11 microwavable mugs. I had kept the ingredients ready before hand.  In batches of three, I made the children measure their own set of ingredients and mix the cake batter. The children enjoyed baking their own cake and licking off the batter from their mixing spoons! You can get the recipe for the mug cake here.

By the time, we were done with decorating and baking, it was time to cut the cake and then have our snacks.

Handling kids in this age group can be quite a handful but I had help from their mommies and my mommy.

The kids went back home happily holding onto their potted plant and their mug cake.

My next post in this category shall be on birthday gift ideas.