Cooking Tips

• While soaking the rice and urad dal for idlis and dosas, wash everything thoroughly before soaking. And use this soaked water later, while grinding it. If you washed the rice and dal after soaking you will lose most of the vitamins.
• Excess salt in any dish can be brought down by adding diced potatoes, tomatoes or a teaspoon of sugar.
• While you are making vadas, if the batter is watery,  you have to face the problem of oil splattering while frying. Then add a tablespoon of ghee to the batter to solve this problem.
• For thicken any gravy or soup add corn flour to it. It is an excellent thickening agent. Its remember to mix it in certain water before adding, to avoid lumps.

• While making any pasta add salt to the boiling water in which you are cooking. That will be the only chance you get to salt it. Add the salt after boiling. If you add it before, it will take a longer time to boil.
• To avoid sticky rice, soak the washed rice in water for at least ten minutes before cooking. Add a teaspoon of oil can get the separate the grains of cooked rice.
• While make any deep fried dish, if the hot oil starts foaming and rises in the pan, add a small piece of tamarind to the oil. This will prevent foaming and spill over.
• If you want to have soft idlis, do not beat the batter before pouring idlis. The air bubble sin the batter helps you to get soft idlis. Beating the batter removes these air bubbles.
• Put the chill onion in the refrigerator before making it pieces to avoid tears. Another way to avoid tears is to soak peeled onion in water before making it pieces.

• To get crisp, golden dosas add a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds to the urad dal and grind it.
• Add a pinch of sugar while cooking any green leaf vegetables. This will help maintain the bright green color.
• For maintaining the bright color of any vegetable, don't forget to put it in ice cold water as soon as you blanch them.
• To keep apples from turning brown, add a little citrus juice like lemon or orange and toss apples in it.
• pinch of turmeric powder added to all kinds of dal while cooking hastens the cooking process.
• Remove the stems from chilies before storing them. This will keep them fresher for a long time.
• It is better to use round dishes in the microwave oven rather than square or rectangular dishes as round dishes spread heat faster.

Benifits Of Onions And Garlics.

Garlic and onions both contain a variety of natural chemicals that have are capable of fighting infections and healing the human body.

These natural foods are full of chemicals that can help protect a person from a variety of infections, diseases and illnesses. Garlic and onions help to protect against cardiovascular disease, respiratory concerns, diabetes, and a variety of cancers.

A number of tests have shown that a diet rich in garlic helps to lower the total cholesterol rate of an individual, including the bad cholesterol or LDL while at the same time it raises the good HDL cholesterol in the bloodstream. Garlic is responsible for producing a great deal of cells in the blood that are deemed "natural killers" and these can help to fight off many different kinds of infections as well as deadly tumors. Garlic lowers blood pressure and it decreases the risk of blood clots developing. Blood clots are to blame for the incidence of many strokes and heart attacks.


Garlic fights a great number of bacteria and viruses and therefore helps to prevent infections and it decreases the risks of a number of different types of cancer, with an emphasis on cancers of the stomach. It is important to note that garlic is best eaten in its raw state and its medicinal properties are at their height when garlic is cut up, sliced up or chopped. Cooking garlic, especially for too long or at high temperatures is responsible for destroying some of the compound known as "allicin" in it as it is allicin that makes garlic as healing in nature as it is.


Onions have many benefits to health as well. Much like garlic, onions help to increase the HDL cholesterol in the blood, especially when they are eaten in their raw state. Onions also help to decrease the bad cholesterol or LDL in the blood and they increase the ability of the blood to dissolve blood clots. Onions are excellent at decreasing the risk inherent in developing diabetes and help to fight off the bacteria that are responsible for causing many infections in the human body.

Onions decrease the risk of many different types of cancers. A compound known as quercetin has been discovered in onions and this compound is extremely powerful when it comes to fighting cancer and is an excellent antioxidant.

Homemade Facial Mask

A homemade facial mask, which hardly costs any money, can also work wonders. In the following lines, we have provided a number of recipes, to help you make your own facial mask.

How To Make a Homemade Facial Mask

For Dry Skin

Ingredients

• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 1 tsp Honey
• Ground Oatmeal

Instructions

• Take a bowl and put olive oil, yolk and honey in it. Mix well.
• Now, add ground oatmeal to the mixture, enough to make a thin paste.
• Apply the paste on your face and leave for 15 minutes.
• Rinse with tepid water and pat dry.

For Normal Skin

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Cooked Peach
• 2 Strawberries
• 1/4 cup Mashed Papaya
• 1 tsp Honey
• Ground Oatmeal

Instructions

• Put cooked peach, strawberries and mashed papaya in a blender and blend well.
• Now, add honey to it and mix in oatmeal, enough to form a thin paste.
• Apply the paste on your face and leave for 10 minutes.
• Rinse with tepid water and pat dry.

For Oily/Acne-Prone Skin

Ingredients

• ½ Apple
• 1 tbsp Honey
• Ground Oatmeal

Instructions

• Cook the apple till it becomes soft. Thereafter, mash it properly.
• Now, add honey and oatmeal, enough to form a thin paste.
• Apply the paste on your face and leave for 10 minutes.
• Rinse with tepid water and pat dry.

For Combination Skin

Ingredients

• 6 fresh Rose Petals
• 2 tbsps Rosewater
• 1 tbsp Natural Yogurt, room temperature
• 1 tbsp Runny Honey

Instructions

• The first step would be to soak the rose petals in a bowl of water.
• Once soaked, take off the excess water and crush the petals in the bowl.
• Now, add rosewater, yogurt and honey to it. To get the honey runny, you can heat it in a microwave, for a few seconds.
• Mix it well and apply to the skin, leaving it for about 10 minutes.
• Now, rinse your face using lukewarm water.

For Sensitive Skin

Ingredients

• 1 cup Natural Yogurt, just-out-of-the-fridge cold
• ½ cup Oatmeal

Instructions

• Take a medium-sized bowl and pour in all the ingredients. Mix them well.
• Now, apply the paste on your skin and wait for about 10 to 15 minutes.
• Wash off the mask with a washcloth steamed in the microwave.

For Ageing Skin

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 3 tbsp Warm Water

Instructions

• First of all, stir sugar into warm water, so that it melts. Make sure that the granules are perfectly dissolved; else you might run the risk of getting a tear on your skin.
• Now, apply this mixture on the face and gently massage around the skin.
• Rinse off your face with warm water.
• You can also take a warm washcloth that is steamed in the microwave. However, make sure the washcloth is not too hot.

Beauty Diet

Eating a proper healthy diet is important to keep looking beautiful. Given below are a number of food items that you should include in your beauty diet.

• Almonds: These nuts are known for their anti-aging properties. They contain a lot of vitamin E and have a high amount of fatty acids that help to keep your skin supple. Almonds also contain antioxidant selenium. Do not too many of them as they will add calories. A handful is enough.
• Protein: To keep nails strong and moisturized by eating plenty of protein. Protein helps in the build up of keratin. Keratin is the substance that makes up nails. Skinless, boneless chicken breast, lean turkey, tuna and beans are rich in proteins.
• Vitamin B: Food that is rich in vitamin B makes your hair shiny. Important sources of this vitamin are eggs, milk, green vegetables and poultry. Silica is important to keep your hair elastic, shiny and healthy. Raw oats, cucumber skin, onions and bean sprouts are rich in this mineral.
• Fish: Eating oily fish like salmon that contain omega-3 fatty acids will help hydrating and nourishing skin.
• Zinc and Calcium: Both these minerals help in eradicating pimples. Zinc is found in oysters, turkey, seafood, eggs and milk. Calcium is no doubt good for your bones, but helps in clearing your skin too. Calcium rich foods like skim milk, low-fat cheese and yogurt. These foods not only remove pimples but reduce wrinkles as well.

• Vitamin C: Vitamin C helps in the build up of collagen, which reduces wrinkles. When your skin has more collagen your skin retains its elasticity and wrinkles take longer to form. Kiwi fruit is the best source of vitamin C. Other good sources are oranges, mango, honeydew and papaya.
• Vitamin E: Vitamin E is known to ease the swelling and redness associated with sunburns. Swelling causes the stretching of skin that in turns leads to wrinkle formation. Eat plenty of peaches and blueberries to increase the build up of vitamin E in your body.
• Vitamin C and Iron: Vitamin C and iron together help to reduce the dark circles under your eyes. Eat skinless chicken and red, yellow and orange peppers. These are rich in both and will help in reducing dark circles.
• Water: Drink as much as water as you can. Water removes the toxins from the body and refreshes your skin and makes in glow. Water hydrates your skin and keeps it supple.
• Tomatoes: Tomatoes contains skin-caner-fighting antioxidants: beta-carotene, vitamin C and lycopene. Eat tomatoes in any form and you will ingest these antioxidants. To increase the body's absorption of lycopene cook tomatoes in a little olive oil.
• Apples and Celery: To remove stain from the enamel of your teeth eat crunchy foods like apples and celery.