Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Greek Panzanella

Serves: 6  
Cooking Time (approx.): 45 mins

Good olive oil
1 small Italian bread or boule, cut into 1-inch cubes (6 cups)
Kosher salt
1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, seeded, and sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 red bell pepper, large diced
1 yellow bell pepper, large diced
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 red onion, sliced in half rounds
1/2 pound feta cheese, cut in 1/2-inch cubes

For the vinaigrette:

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Basalmic Viniger1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons good olive oil
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the bread cubes and sprinkle with salt; cook over low to medium heat, tossing frequently, for 5 to 10 minutes, until nicely browned. Add more olive oil as needed.

Place the cucumber, red pepper, yellow pepper, tomatoes and red onion in a large bowl.

For the vinaigrette, whisk together the garlic, oregano, mustard, vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper in a small bowl. While still whisking, add the olive oil and make an emulsion. Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables. Add the feta, olives and bread cubes and mix together lightly. Set in refrigerator for 30 minutes for the flavors to blend. Serve at room temperature.

Note: I take no credit for coming up with this recipe, I only tweaked it to my taste.  Please follow this link for complete details of this recipe on Food Network.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Stri Fry Lime Chicken - Healthy and Delicious


 Serves: 2
Cooking Time (approx.): 45 mins
1.5 boneless chicken breast
*spicy lime marinade
6oz. baby spinach
1 yellow pepper (cut in strips)
1 red pepper (cut in strips)
2-3 cherry peppers (hot or mild- seeded and cut up), you can also substitute jalapeno peppers
1 Tbsp EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

*marinade: in mixing bowl- 3 T fresh lime juice, 3T EVOO, 1T chili powder, 1/4t kosher salt (I double this!!)

Marinate chicken for 30 minutes or more at room temperature. Drain chicken, reserve liquid. In skillet, heat EVOO over high heat; fry chicken for 4 minutes or until tender. Add reserved marinade (scrape sides of bowl- you'll lose a lot of spices on sides of bowl when you drain chicken) to chicken, add peppers and cook until peppers tender. Add spinach till it wilts. Toss all together and serve alone or with brown rice.

** I always add extra chili powder and salt

I do not take credit for coming up with the recipe, this recipe was shared by one of my dear friends.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Delicious Recipes..Indian Green Chicken Curry

I have been remiss in blogging and I did promise to do this more so here goes. I am going to try and post recipes once a week....I love to cook and bake so I am excited to be doing this!!

As most of you know I am of Indian origin. On one of our visits to Washington DC, we had dinner at this delicious Indian restaurant called Rasika - they make the most delicious Indian Green Chicken Curry I have ever had! Of course my husband has been craving it since and so I went online looking for something similar and found the recipe below which is pretty much dead on to the one at Rasika! Try it out, it's easy to make and most of the ingredients should be available at your local grocery store.  Also PLEASE let me know how it goes once you do make it...I would love to hear your experience and about any variations you made to it.

Serves: 4
Cooking time (approx.): 37 minutes

8  medium sized pieces (about 800  grams) of chicken
2  medium onion(s) chopped
1  cup(s) each of fresh coriander and mint leaves chopped (loosely packed)
4  green chillies
2  teaspoon(s) each of ginger, garlic pastes
1  teaspoon(s) each of cumin and garam masala powders (available at most grocery stores)
4  teaspoons lemon juice
salt to taste
  1. Grind the coriander and mint leaves along with the chopped onions, green chillies and lemon juice, ginger-garlic pastes, garam masala and cumin powders to make a green paste.
  2. Add the green paste in a pot and fry on medium level for about 5  minutes or till the paste is a pale green.
  3. Add the chicken and sprinkle salt to taste. Mix well. Cover and cook on low heat for about 30  minutes or till the chicken is tenderized.
    TIP:
  • The green paste can be made from any combination of green leafy vegetables like spinach, dill, fenugreek, basil, oregano, parsely along with fresh coriander.
Serve hot with: White rice or Naan (available at most grocery stores).

I have made variations to this recipe but I do not take credit for coming up with the original recipe.  You can find the details on the original recipe here.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Valentines Day

Valentine's Day is less than two weeks away! I thought I would share some links to some amazing blogs about free printables, and delicious recipes.

Below is the link from Skip to my Lou for a really cute "You hold the key to my Heart" printable

Hi! My name is Ashley, and I blog over at Mommy By Day Crafter By Night. I love to craft and sew when my two kids go to bed each night... and then I blog about the things I make. I am so excited to be here at Skip to my Lou to share a fun Valentine gift idea with a free printable to go with it!

I came up with this idea because I was trying to think of something cute my my girls to send for Valentines Day to their aunt who is living in Tennessee right now. I love keys, so when I saw these key necklaces I thought it would be cute to send one with a gift tag that said "You Hold the Key to my Heart" tied onto it. 
I found the gold one with the bangles on it at Forever 21 ($5), the brass looking one at American Eagle ($17), and the silver looking one at American Eagle ($15).
I used some bakers twine (maraschino color) to tie the tag onto the necklace. Super simple- but I love the way it looks. I can't wait to send it to her! 
I am doing the 14 days of Valentines for my husband this year and I was trying to think of a way that I could use this tag for him (since the key necklace obviously doesn't work for him;) so I decided to just tie the tag onto his keys and it will just be a little extra reminder that will hopefully make him smile as he heads out the door in the morning:)

Your gift doesn't necessarily have to be anything "key" related- you could totally just tie this tag onto anything and it would work just fine... I love the way it looks tied with the twine on this cute gift box!
I am sharing this fun printable with you all today!
To print the tags, click on the "Download Here" link.
Thanks so much for letting me share this idea with you all! Feel free to stop by and say hi- I have lots of fun tutorials and free printables to share on my blog!!
xoxo, Ashley


------------------------------------
This blog post is credited entirely to AshleyDesigns by Meghna does not take any credit or liability for the above information.


Wednesday, January 11, 2012

First birthday Planning

I know I have been MIA recently on my facebook page and it's been forever since I posted on this blog but I figured it was time to update you ladies on what I have been up to.  

I recently traveled to Mumbai, India so my daughter could finally meet with her great grandmothers. They enjoyed interacting with her and loved all the time she was able to spend with both of them.  It was a three week LONG trip in all the heat and craziness of meeting with friends and family I hadn't seen in years!

After India, I went back to work part time for Johns Hopkins.  It has been an interesting time, working as well as balancing it all out with spending time with my little girl! I'm not sure I've found my happy balance just as yet! However, I am excited about planning my daughter's birthday!! 

My daughter, Suri, is turning ONE in March! My husband and I finally decided what we were going to do for her party! Never thought party planning would be this stressful!

We decided to have it at our house and invite all our friends and family to celebrate Suri turning One.  First things first, I knew I needed to nail down a theme for her party! We had planned to have a photo shoot for her prior to her birthday so that we could use the pictures for her invitations.  We met with the very talented Abhishek Pandya from Pandya Photography in NJ and he took some amazing pictures of our little girl.  Below are a few sneak peaks that he shared with us.



Next to have done is invitations! It's already January 10th and I have nothing finalized! Before we could finalize the invitations, I looked online for ideas on themes.  My husband finally found a  great link to a blog where the very talented Stacey Elle-Belle planed her daughter Liv's birthday using the One year old in a flash theme. We loved what she did with the pictures, colors, desert table but our favorites were the photo booth and the time capsule ideas.  I have since been trying to incorporate her ideas, tweaking them some, to plan Suri's first birthday! I would ideally love to follow everything she did, lets see how good I can be with it :)


Monday, August 22, 2011

Winners Posted

Don't forget to check if you are a Winner for the Fan Appreciation Giveaway! A huge thanks to all my fans and all the awesome sponsors for the event!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Giveaway is now LIVE!

Ladies,

Don't forget to join in on the free goodies at the Fan Appreciation Giveaway that starts today and runs all through the weekend!! We have some AWESOME sponsors who are donating some really really great items!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Giveaway

Don't forget - Fan Appreciation Giveaway starts on 8/15/11! You can take a look at a sneak peak on participating sponsors under the giveaway tab! Over $250 in prizes being given away! Please do not start posting/commenting till August 15th. All earlier comments will be deleted!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Friday, August 5, 2011

Sponsors...

Have some REALLY awesome sponsors giving away some really great stuff!! I can't wait to post all the information for it...tentative dates for giveaway will be August 15th through the 21st!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Giveaway....

Working on details of the giveaway with some LOVELY vendors! Can't wait for all of you to come check it out!

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Photo Shoot

Designs by Meghna participated in a photo shoot with Made-by-Meagan! Here's a sneak peak at one of my hair clips....LOVE how adorable it looks!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Rakhi

As some of you may know, I am of Indian origin.  On August 13th, we celebrate a festival called Rakhsha Bandhan. Raksha Bandhan is a celebration of a brother and a sister.

Raksha Bandhan is a festival which celebrates the bond of affection between brothers and sisters. It is a day when siblings pray for each others' well being and wish for each others' happiness and goodwill. The name 'Raksha Bandhan' suggests 'a bond of protection'. On this auspicious day, brothers make a promise to their sisters to protect them from all harms and troubles and the sisters pray to God to protect their brother from all evil. The festival falls on the Shravan Purnima which comes generally in the month of August. Sisters tie the silk thread called Rakhi on their brother's wrist and pray for their well being and brothers promise to take care of their sisters.

In today's scenario, the day has a different perspective. The occasion involves a pledge of life-time practice of moral, cultural and spiritual values. The values and the sentiments attached to the rituals of this festival are worth inculcating by the whole human race, the sentiments of harmony and peaceful coexistence. The festival of Raksha Bandhan assumes all forms of Raksha or protection, of righteousness and destroyer of all sin. The ritual of Rakhi tying has become so important that come what may, brothers and sisters try to visit each other place on this particular day tin order to bring back the oneness of the family, binding the family together in an emotional bond of love.


My swirl "haili" flowers inspired me to make some Rakhi's for my brothers.  The pale blue and green colors with the rhinestone centers look delicate and beautiful.