About Azra Faizan

Azra Faizan is a registered Dietitian and has been practicing in the field of nutrition for the last 7 years. As a lifestyle coach she helps people achieve a healthy lifestyle by changing their perceptions about diet and exercise. Her fitness mantra is ‘Quality of life should be measured in health and not wealth’. Before preaching to her clients she herself maintains a workout routine. Azra’s day starts with Power yoga and aerobics. She makes it a point to climb stairs up and down at every opportunity she gets throughout the day. Finally, she believes that sometimes a small nudge from the right person is all that is needed to get your body back on track.

January 19, 2019 By Azra Faizan Leave a Comment

Your Favorite Recipes – Made healthy!

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I’m a Foodie, Can’t do without good food.

I also love to cook! And keep trying out yummy Recipes at home.

My close friends and family mock and complain,” you’re a ‘dietician’ and you keep feeding us Fattening food”.

Little do they know, how I prepare my ‘fattening dishes’

Before I share a list of healthy versions of a few rich or ’fattening ‘recipes, let me share a story.

The first time I tried out a whole wheat pizza crust, I might have been 17 or 18, and all excited! And announced it to the whole house that the pizza we are eating today is healthy pizza with whole wheat crust.

Result – A lot of complaints about the crust being too dry and chewy, No-taste etc. And, I was asked to stick to the old recipe with refined flour, for the next time we have pizza. When that next time arrived and I made a Pizza, I just informed all that I stuck to the old refined flour recipe, the way everyone likes it. I didn’t get any complaints and everyone enjoyed the yummy pizza (the fact, however, was that it was made with whole wheat).

Moral of the Story – If you tell your audience, you have cut the cream, or fat or used healthier ingredients, more often than not, they already have a mindset that we are going to have tasteless food today.

On the other hand, promote your dish like you’ve gone all out to prepare it ‘restaurant style’ (without mentioning the healthy part) and it will make it tastier with no added effort

Here are few healthy recipes

** Biryani:–

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Starting with the finest, let’s start with identifying what’s healthy and what’s not in the recipe.

I personally consider biryani a healthy dish to start with. An excellent combination of proteins (paneer/chicken/mutton) with rice. Hence, balancing out your only rice dish.

Seasoned with the best spices in your pantry, each with its unique benefits helping in the digestion of your meal apart from adding flavour.

And usually combined with a good quantity of curd based salad, so you do not have to worry about your fibre and veggie intake either.

So what’s wrong? Except for the oil content, I cannot think of much.

Next question – where is the oil?

Answer- In the fried onions!!

Every biryani recipe has fried onions amounting to the same quantity as the chicken/mutton.

So if you are making biryani with 1 kg chicken you have to add 1KG FRIED ONIONS.

How then do you make this healthy? – take 1 kg onions, slice and fry 3 onions from this and grind the rest to a pulp.

Heat 2 tbsp of oil and cook your onion paste – this requires patience and can be done a day ahead.

Keep cooking and stirring your onion paste till the water is dry and it starts turning brown.

Keep a handful of your fried onions aside for garnishing and grind the rest to a paste. Add the fried onion paste to the rest of your browned onion paste. And voila!! You have 1 kg of fried onion paste to add to your chicken, cooked in less than the oil you would otherwise require.

This tip can be used for gravies requiring fried onion paste too, such as kormas.

** Chicken Nuggets:-

Who doesn’t like nuggets? Especially kids, serve them a plate of nuggets and you are their best friend forever!! So what’s wrong?? My answer nothing and everything.

Buy a pack of frozen nuggets or an order of McNuggets. And, you are feeding your kids questionable meat fried in questionable oil and seasoned with a variety of chemicals and preservatives.

Prepare a plate of chicken nuggets from scratch, with fresh meat and love and you are offering your kids a healthy, high protein snack!

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts, cut into slices.

Seasoning of your choice

Corn flour

Breadcrumbs

Flatten your chicken breast a bit with a meat hammer. Cut into nugget sized pieces.

Season with salt and whatever other spices you like, I like to season mine with herbs and garlic.

Add 2 tbsp. of Corn flour to the chicken, coat each nugget with bread crumbs.

These can then be stored in your freezer or fried right away.

They just need to be shallow fried in a skillet and don’t need any deep frying.

** Butter Chicken: –

Another hot favourite in my kitchen, yummy North Indian gravies, are usually made with cashew/almond paste and a lot of cream

Butter chicken has an added generous dollop of butter on top.

How to make it healthy – My recipe calls for 2 tbsp of oil initially for sautéing the onions, plus a generous dollop of butter in the end. Instead, I add 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of oil for sautéing the onions, and minus the butter in the end…

My recipe called for frying marinated chicken and then shredding it. I just grill/broil the chicken in the oven instead.

My Recipe calls for 50 g of cashews -While making the cashew paste, I add a tbsp of melon seeds while reducing the cashew quantity a bit. And grind it with milk instead of water to make a thick and creamy paste (thereby avoiding the cream in the end)

My recipe calls for 150 g of fresh cream, which I substitute with either milk or thick buttermilk. If I’m in a festive mood, I add 1 tbsp of fresh cream to 150 ml of milk (Small indulgences are always allowed).

Make sure to remove your gravy from the flame after 30 seconds of adding the milk/buttermilk, as this will otherwise curdle in the gravy.

** Pizza: –

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Let’s end with where it all started. My healthy whole wheat Pizza base!!!

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup ground oats

1 tbsp yeast

1 tsp salt

1 cup lukewarm water

½ cup milk

2 tbsp sugar

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 Tsp pepper powder

1 tsp oregano (optional)

1 Tsp. dried basil (optional)

Dissolve the sugar in the lukewarm water. Mix the yeast in it and keep for 15 – 20 minutes in a warm place.

Mix all the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients, including the yeast mixture, mix with a spoon, and bring together with your hands, you may have to wet your hands a bit.

Keep it for proving in a warm and dry place, for 2 hours. The dough will have expanded to double or more volume at this time. Punch it down once and shape into balls. Roll each ball and flatten to make a thin pizza base.

If you want to pre-bake the base, bake at 200°C for 8 minutes.in a preheated oven. If you are making the pizza directly, then add the desired toppings and bake at 200°C for 10 – 15 minute.

The same recipe for bread can also be used for other recipes like rolls and buns.

What are you waiting for? Rush to the kitchen to try your hand at these delicious yet healthy recipes.

April 5, 2018 By Azra Faizan 4 Comments

Beat the heat with these 6 healthy summertime Coolers

“It was so hot!! That I had a coke to cool down….

“I just can’t do without chilled juice in this heat “

Yes, we are in the middle of April and it’s getting hotter by the day. As the heat wave increases, we have this constant feeling of being completely sapped out of our energy. This feeling lingers through the day making us lethargic and lazy.

When the temperature soars and sweat pours, we are unable to satisfy ourselves with just chilled water, and want something more? The reason being increased sweating leads to dehydration. Sweating depletes the electrolytes in the body, and hence plain water does not quench our thirst and the body craves rehydration through soft drinks and juices.The downside, however, is that these drinks and juices come with loads of sugar and chemicals.

Having carbonated beverages or powder based refreshment doesn’t actually serve the cause of dehydration. These hardly contain any electrolytes and contain high amounts of sugar, which we need only in a small amount, as glucose does help in carrying the electrolytes into the blood.

Here is the solution!! I have tried to put together a few of my favourite healthy and refreshing drinks, to enjoy all through summer, these beverages are still high in sugars, but do not contain any white sugar, they are made instead with natural and unrefined sugars like jaggery, honey, and naturally sweet fruits.

Jaggery Lemonade

Let me start with my all-time favourite, jaggery juice or lemonade made with jaggery

Some will say it’s the same as adding sugar, But NO !! Although the glucose content in both may be similar, jaggery is loaded with antioxidants and minerals like zinc, iron, and selenium. Mixed with water it has a cooling effect on the body in the summers, and also aids in digestion.

Serves 4

25 gm jaggery, crushed

1-inch piece ginger, grated

1 lemon

Water

Soaked Basil seeds (optional)

Soak crushed jaggery, add grated ginger in 4 glasses water, for 2 – 3 hours (I usually keep it in the fridge while soaking, so that it soaks and chills at the same time). After 2 hours, mix and dissolve any lumps of jaggery that might be present. Squeeze juice of a lemon in it, strain the mixture, add soaked basil seeds to have a further cooling effect, and serve.

2. Aam Panna (Raw mango cooler)

Raw Mango is an extremely healthy fruit, a godsend for the summer that is high in Vitamin C, prevents dehydration, sunstroke, reduces body heat, relieves diarrhoea and constipation and activates the liver too.

A traditional recipe, one of my favourites, since summer also brings seasonal raw mangoes with it.

Serves 4 – 6

1 Raw mango

Mint leaves

10 – 15 g of black jaggery.

Water – to dilute.

Boil the raw mango in a pressure cooker for 2 whistles. Retain the liquid. Peel the raw mango and scoop out all the pulp, discard the seed, and blend the pulp in a mixer with jaggery and mint leaves, strain and mix with the remaining liquid. At this point, the raw mango concentrate can be frozen into cubes and used as per requirement, 2 cubes in a glass of water. Or diluted with chilled water and served immediately.

3. Iced Green Tea with Ginger, Mint, and Honey

We already know how healthy a cup of green tea is, but what if you are not in the mood for anything hot? Let’s just make iced tea with green tea!!

Serves 6 to 8

6 cups water
1/4^th cup ginger, peeled and sliced
3 to 6 bags green tea (depending on how strong you like your tea)
1/2 cup mint leaves, tightly packed, plus extra to serve
1/4^th cup honey
1 lemon, divided

In a medium-sized pot, combine the water and ginger slices. Bring to a boil. Once the water boils, remove from heat and add the tea bags and mint leaves. Cover the pot and steep for about 15 minutes.

Strain the brewed tea; separating the liquid from the mint leaves and tea bags. Mix in the honey and juice from the half lemon into the tea. Transfer to a pitcher and cool at room temperature before refrigerating.

Slice the second half of the lemon. When ready to serve, add 1 to 2 lemon slices into each glass, along with a few mint leaves and ice cubes. Once the tea has cooled, pour it into the glasses and serve.

4. Muskmelon, Coconut and orange drink.

Coconut water is a very refreshing drink to beat the torching tropical summer thirst. Its liquid is packed with simple sugars, electrolytes, and minerals to replenish dehydration conditions inside the human body, combine it with a few fresh fruits and you have a designer tropical drink.

Serves 3 -4

2 cups or ½ a muskmelon, cubed

1 orange segmented

1 ½ cups coconut water (1 large tender coconut)

¼ tsp black salt

Mint leaves for garnishing.

Combine all the ingredients in a mixer, and blend until smooth, pour into glasses, and serve immediately garnished with mint leaves. We don’t strain this juice as we would like to have it with all the goodness of its fibres.

5. Kokum Juice.

Another gem to have in your kitchen in the summer, the benefits are endless and better explained here, but, most commercially available kokum syrups are loaded with sugar and preservatives, hence a fresh version would be more beneficial.

Serves 4 – 5

150 gms kokum
4 glasses of cold water
1 pinch salt
2 tsp black salt (pink salt)
1 tsp roasted cumin powder
15 – 20 g jaggery
½ tsp black pepper powder
mint leaves for garnishing

Soak kokum and jaggery in ½ a glass of hot water for 5 minutes. Blend it with blender, drain & keep aside. Mix all ingredients together in 4 glass of cold water and garnish with fresh mint leaves.

6. Fruity lemon fizz

For all those fizz lovers, don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about you. And YES!!! Fizz can be made healthy too.

Serves 1 – 2

1 Tbsp any mashed fruit (strawberry/peach/kiwi/cucumber/pineapple/sweet melon/watermelon)
2 Tbsp whole sliced fruit
3/4 cup sparkling club soda/sparkling mineral water
¼ cup mineral water

1 Tbsp lemon juice/orange juice
1 lemon slice/orange slice

Mint leaves
honey or stevia if needed.

You will need a good amount of fruit per glass since this will be what flavours your water. Adding frozen fruit can be very helpful because as the frozen fruit melts into the water it easily saturates the water with flavour. Frozen fruit also chills your beverage nicely. Another trick is to gently mash some of your fresh fruit to release the flavour.
Add your fruit, sweetener (if using), mint leaves, lemon juice and water to your serving glass. Stir/mash briskly and allow it to chill in the fridge until ready to serve, add chilled club soda to the glasses just before serving.

NOTE: I have tried to use natural sugars in my recipes, for diabetics, you can enjoy the same drinks with stevia instead of natural sugars if you are looking for optimum sugar control.

Overdoing anything, even if healthy will do no one good. Hence, the ideal serving size for these drinks would be 1 glass a day. Chilled to perfection!!

So Let’s enjoy every sip of these healthy coolers!!

November 15, 2017 By Azra Faizan Leave a Comment

10 ways to include water chest in your diet this season!!

water chest nuts

Water chestnut or water caltrop is an aquatic plant, belonging to the genus Trapa, whose odd-looking fruit encloses a single large edible seed.

In India, water chestnut is called Singhara, or Paniphal. Singhara has been cultivated in India for at least. 3000 years for its seeds. These seeds have been widely used in Ayurvedic and Unani systems of medicine In India and are also popular in Chinese medicine.

Some relish it for its crispy-crunchy texture and delicate sweet coconut like flavour, others find its weird shape and even taste off-putting, Though, if people were to know of its dietary benefits few would be able to push it aside.

Their numerous health benefits are as follows:

Water chestnut acts as an excellent coolant for the body. It promotes salivation and quenches thirst. Being cool, sweet, heavy and bitter, it is effective in controlling nausea and diarrhea.
Since water chestnut contains useful minerals like iodine and manganese, it helps in maintaining proper functioning of the thyroid gland.
Being rich in polyphenol and flavonoid antioxidants, it has anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-cancer and antioxidant properties that help in strengthening the stomach and spleen, and thus removes the symptoms of a weak spleen, such as bad taste, insomnia, feeling sick, fatigue or swelling and urinary infections.
The powder of water chestnuts is effective in relieving cough. Grind water chestnuts to make powder and consume it with water or any juice twice a day. This is a natural remedy to provide instant relief from cough
Water chestnut has outstanding effects on defending and resisting cancer. This is due to an anticancer substance which inhibits the growth of cancer cells.
The usage of water chestnut either in raw form or in juice form helps to alleviate the problem of bad appetite in children as well as in adults. And, it is also helpful for healthy weight gain.
Water chestnuts are excellent sources of potassium with one cup providing 362.1 mg potassium. This mineral is vital for proper muscle and neural functioning. It also regulates water retention and blood pressure by balancing sodium.
It is natural antioxidants, has anti-ageing properties, prevents wrinkles, protects from UV rays and gives your skin and hair an overall good and healthy appearance.
Despite being a starchy food, polyphenols present in water chestnuts inhibit the breakdown of carbs to simple sugars and hence prevent an increase of blood sugar, which makes it beneficial for diabetics and overweight people.
Lowers Cardiac risks: The combined effect of water chestnuts on blood pressure, carb absorption and its good soluble fiber content helps in lowering cholesterol levels and decreasing risk of heart disease.
Good for sound sleep: The presence of Vitamin B-6 is good for sleeping as well as alleviating your mood. It produces neurotransmitters that are effective for your mood and sleep.
Singhara is very beneficial for women. Due to its nutritive, strengthening, and cooling properties it increases fertility and chances of conception
Healthy Pregnancy: Being an excellent energy source, as well as its specific properties to prevent miscarriage and control hemorrhage, makes it a super food during pregnancy it is helpful for the healthy growth and development of the fetus.

Post pregnancy – it helps in controlling bleeding as well as promotes lactation.

How to use:

Eat raw as a fruit – my favourite way, and the easiest, just peel the fruit and eat it raw.
Add to salads and stir fries – you can also chop the peeled fruit and add to salads or sauté in stir fries.
Add to curries or prepare veggies–some people like to use it in place of potatoes, to prepare water chestnut and green pea curry, others also cook it as a simple fry veggie, tempered with curry leaves, cumin and mustard seeds. For using it in curries and veggies, the singhara needs to first be boiled or pressure cooked…
Make cutlets–When you can use it in place of potato, you can also make cutlets with it!!! Just add boiled and mashed singhara to other boiled veggies, and prepare cutlets, and shallow fry.
Singhara halwa –dried singhara is also available in the form of flour, which can be used like semolina to make halwa. Just roast it in ghee, add sugar and warm water, and cook to the desired consistency. Top with your favourite dry fruits and enjoy!!
Make chillas/pancakes–Singhara flour can also be used to make pancakes or chillas, mix the flour with curds and water to make a pouring consistency, add spices of your choice and make chillas, enjoy with chutney!
Use to make chapattis (flat breads) – Singhara flour can be used to make, flat bread or chapattis, or parathas.
Use in baked goods – add it to your cakes and cookies to make them more nutritious…
Make puris, cracker or chips–Yes, Why not!! You can even make cracker or baked chips with these, by following any simple cracker recipe.
Make a dip or a chutney–Last but not the least, yes you can add a little crunch to your dip or green chutney, by adding a few water chestnuts to it…

What you waiting for get Water Chestnuts from the market today and have them

November 1, 2017 By Azra Faizan 12 Comments

What’s for Dessert….

always-eat-healthy

“You dietitians have banned all desserts for me.. “

“I have not tasted sweets since I discovered I am diabetic “

“No Artificial sweeteners, you say; does that mean I can’t ever enjoy life? “

Since the time I became a dietician, and later a GOQii coach, I must have heard these statements at least once every week.

What I like to explain to my players is that – It’s not that you can’t enjoy desserts; it depends on how you choose to enjoy them.

Even where diabetics are concerned – our focus should be, not on cutting off all their sugar but, to achieve good sugar control.

Growing up, I had always observed an aunt of mine, whose husband was diabetic; make a separate serving of sugar free dessert for my uncle.And, I always used to wonder how would a dessert taste without any sweetness in it – But, the main ingredient of her sugar free custard or puddings, used to be some or the other added fruit.

When god has given us naturally sweet ingredients, why not use them to their fullest potential.

Going forward I would also like to add that, even though the recipes I am sharing are sugar free – they are still desserts, made with some amount of fats and are still an extra to our routine meals, hence should still be enjoyed occasionally and in smaller quantity than our main meals. I always like to remind my players that our society has smaller sized dessert plates and bowls for a reason. Because, we were meant to enjoy them in smaller quantities from the beginning – It is only, the commercial trend of JUMBO sizing everything that starts the trouble.

Date Balls

It is a customary Indian tradition to celebrate everything with laddus (sweet balls). You get good grades – laddu, you have a baby – laddu, your wedding gets fixed -laddu, and the list goes on…Why not have healthy Laddus then to celebrate every occasion?

Ingredients:

1 cup deseeded dates

¼ cup mixed nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachio)

Desiccated coconut.

Just soak the dates in ½ a cup of water for 10 minutes – and churn in a grinder jar with the nuts. If too soft, refrigerate for half an hour. Make lemon sized balls of the mixture and coat with desiccated coconut.

Banana custard

Everyone knows how to make custard – It’s the simplest desserts to satisfy our sweet cravings. And the recipe couldn’t get any more basic than this.

The trick to make a sugar free custard is to mash up an over ripe banana and mix it in the milk, instead of just adding chopped fruit.

Just follow the instructions on your packet of custard powder – and mix an overripe mashed banana in the end – strain the mixture if you don’t want any lumps. Serve as you wish – plain as a fruit salad or even a healthy trifle.

You could try the same thing with mango puree too, to make mango custard.

Date biscuits

This is a recipe I pulled off the internet in my earlier baking days. And, the first thing I realized after trying it once – there is no need of sugar in it, although the original recipe calls for it. So, I went on to perfect it, minus the sugar and it actually made no difference whatsoever.

Ingredients

Date Filling:

3 cups (400 grams) pitted dried dates

1 cup (240 ml) water

Oatmeal Crust:

2 cups (200 grams) old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup (130 grams) Whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¾ cup (175 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Method

Date Filling:Place the dates and water in a medium saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the dates are soft and have absorbed most of the water (about 5 – 10 minutes). Remove from heat, Let it cool to room temperature and then puree in your food processor until smooth. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Grease an 8 x 11 inch (20 x 28 cm) or a 9 x 9 inch (23 x 23 cm) pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

Oatmeal Crust: In the bowl of your food processor, place the oats, flour, and baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon. Pulse to combine. Then add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly. Press 2/3 of the mixture into the base of the prepared pan.

Spread the dates evenly over the oatmeal crust. Sprinkle the remaining dough evenly over the top of the dates. Bake for about 30 -40 minutes or until golden brown. Place on a wire rack to cool. Once the squares have cooled, cover the pan with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator at least one hour or until firm enough to cut easily into squares.

These will keep, covered, in the refrigerator up to a week.

Makes about 20, 2 inch squares.

Banana and mango ice cream:

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM ICE CREAM!!!

Ever heard that phrase? I have grown up with it… Well, this is technically frozen yoghurt but, I don’t see anyone complaining when it’s served up in a cone or a pretty ice cream bowl.

6 bananas, peeled and chopped
2 mangoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup (280g) yoghurt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the banana and mango in an airtight container and freeze for 4 hours or until frozen. Place the banana, mango and yoghurt in a food processor and process until smooth. Serve as you like.
When it comes to cooking, there is no reason to stick to only these fruits – if some other fruit catches your fancy like straw berries, raspberries or peaches or any other, you can try using them too in a similar manner.

Tip: If not serving straight away, return to an airtight container and freeze. Allow to soften for 5 minutes before serving. You could scoopinto ice-cream cones to serve.

Serves 6 -8

My list can be endless, Sweet potato porridge, Date pudding, Carrot and Date Porridge /Halwa…..

But, why should I do all the work, cooking is therapeutic for some and for some it’s an experiment. So why not all of you try this experiment and make sure to share your results..