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Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

written by Parita Leave a Comment

If you’re still finalizing your Thanksgiving menu, feel free to steal some ideas from what we’re making.

Something to know about me is that I LOVE Thanksgiving food. Like LOVE! We didn’t celebrate it in the traditional way growing up, but since getting married, Vishnu and I started our own tradition. One that includes Thanksgiving food every year!

With that being said, we’re keeping things super low key this year in terms of having people. We’re not keeping the menu low key though! My mouth waters just thinking about it.

Like I said, if you’re still planning, feel free to make some of these dishes. Most of them are tried and true (ain’t no one messing around on Thanksgiving!).

I hope y’all have a delicious day!

Apps
– Pilsbury crescent rolls stuffed with Brie cheese with a side of strawberry jalapeno jam
– Strawberry, feta cheese, and pecan spinach salad

Sides
– Cranberry sauce (I’ve been making this for YEARS. It’s soo good.)
– Roasted broccoli (preheat oven to 425 degrees, chop the broccoli up into smallish pieces, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and garlic powder, and roast for 23 minutes).
– Mashed potatoes

Main
– Instant Pot Mac n’ Cheese (SO easy, SO creamy!)
– Air Fryer Tandoori wings

Dessert
– Dark chocolate silk pie (vegan!)
– Broiler smores!

ENJOY!

Written on November 24, 2020 Related:Family, Food, Holiday, Uncategorized

4th of July Weekend 2020

written by Parita Leave a Comment

If I recall correctly, we haven’t been ‘in town’ (wherever that is at the time) for the 4th of July holiday in a long time. This year, we stayed put and had visitors…my BIL and his fiance, Niel and Neelam. And it was one of the best long weekends to date.

Thursday

Niel and Neelam got here on Thursday afternoon, and I had most of the day off so it worked out perfectly. I got in a workout before they arrived, and then once they got to our place, we left immediately to grab some lunch from a Taco Truck near our place. Delicious!

And then we hung out at home until it was time to pick Kaiden up from school. You guys should’ve seen his face when he saw Niel and Neelam. So so excited but definitely trying to be low-key about it. Ha!

The rest of the evening was spent playing and running and singing. Oh and I made The Chutney Life’s Jalapeno Almond Pesto Spaghetti. So good! After dinner + bath time + books, K eventually went to sleep, while the rest of the stayed up and played with the Oculus and talked.

Friday

Everyone was home Friday, including Vishnu, so that was nice. We had Kaiden’s 3 year appointment in the morning, Niel and Neelam had lunch plans with her coworkers, and then we had a haircut appointment for K in the afternoon (he wore a mask the entire time!). In between all of this, there was Magnatiles, Frozen, a short nap, etc.

In the evening, we ordered in for dinner, which was nice because I didn’t have to cook and there was virtually no clean up.

We stayed up fairly late again talking about everything from sports, to politics (lots of politics) to Covid-19 to random family stuff.

Saturday

Saturday was fun, but for some reason I was super tired. Guys, I took like a 3 hour nap while Kaiden napped which extended to after he woke up. It was like that deep sleep you can’t shake, and man, did some rest feel good!

Saturday also included park time, a delicious burrito + corn on the cob lunch, Taco Bell for dinner, fireworks on our balcony with the whole fam (my sister and BIL came over). SO FUN!

I can’t remember what else we did on Saturday but it was a good time!

Sunday

Sunday was Niel and Neelam’s last day with us so we spent some of it at the park, and the rest hanging out at home, more specifically playing Monopoly Deal (a fan favorite game in our family right now).

When it came time for them to leave for the airport, you could tell K was sad. He asked when they would be coming back (and has been for the past couple of days).

Love that we made some awesome memories though and can’t wait until we move back home!

Written on July 7, 2020 Related:Family, Holiday, Life, Uncategorized

2013 holiday staycation

written by Parita 15 Comments

For the first time ever, I did not spend my Christmas holiday at home (in Atlanta) with family.  Instead, Vishnu and I stayed in Miami last week.  It was our very own holiday staycation.  And as strange as it was not to be with our parents and siblings, we really did enjoy the alone time.  The end of 2013 was very go go go, so it was nice to relax and stay put for once.

Here’s how our time went down…

1. As y’all know, I was a little sick last week.  This part kind of sucked.  In fact, I’m still getting over whatever it was that I caught.

2. Since we weren’t going home and didn’t have any major plans, I worked Monday, Thursday, and Friday.  While it doesn’t sound like fun to be working while everyone and their moms are on vacation, I actually got a good amount of stuff done.  I guess that’s what happens when no one is around.

3. We had a very special guest stay with us all of last week…Mr. Guinny!  Robin and Andy went home for Christmas and asked if we wanted to dog sit.  Did we ever!  And we were beyond excited to do so!

2013 Holiday Staycation 034

2013 Holiday Staycation 041

Guinness is pretty much the most well behaved dog ever, and he understands EVERYTHING.  We played, we cuddled, we went for walks.  It was a blast!  In fact, while we were going to bed one night, I asked Vishnu if Robin and Andy would miss him too much if we decided to just…I dunno…keep him.  Creepy?  A little but I FREAKIN LOVE HIM!

4. So my car was disturbingly dirty.  Like I was embarrassed to claim it dirty.  I dragged Vishnu along with me to get it washed earlier in the week, and what was an annoying errand turned into a date thanks to the organic cafe attached to the car wash place.  This place served fancy food and wine.  I would honestly eat there even if I wasn’t getting my car washed.  A little strange but very delicious!

2013 Holiday Staycation 033

5. Days off always equal movie time in my mind.  We watched The Next Three Days and Love Actually.  The Next Three Days has nothing to do with the holidays…absolutely nothing.  It’s a suspense type movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time.  I highly recommend it.  And of course, Love Actually is a Christmas tradition for so many people including us.  Beyond being a really well made movie, it just leaves you feeling so festive and happy!

6. Christmas lunch was a delicious assortment of cheese, veggies, hummus, crackers, bread, and prosciutto (for Vishnu).  We don’t celebrate in the religious sense, but like with Thanksgiving, we feel that togetherness, reflection, and gratitude are the essentials of the holiday season.  And what better way to incorporate all of those things than sharing a good meal with someone you love!

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7. It’s not that noticeable, but this little blog went through a major change.  I transferred it over from WordPress.com to WordPress.org ALL BY MYSELF!  My new host, Bluehost, was very helpful and available via email, telephone, and live chat, but on my end, it was just me.  I knew I could’ve gone to Vishnu for help, but I wanted to do this on my own.  And while we did hit a rough patch where I thought I lost 13 months of blog posts, it turned out just fine.  GO ME!

What does this mean?  Well for one, I have a new (and in my opinion much cleaner) theme now.  I am trying out a bunch of different plugins and widgets to make the blog more reader friendly.  Other than that, I’m not quite sure yet.  I’m self-hosted now so that gives me more freedom with the things I can do, but we’ll see what 2014 brings.  I’m kinda excited!

I plan on taking the next few days off, so I will see y’all in 2014!  But before I go, I just want to thank you guys for an amazing year of blogging.  I really appreciate the fact that each of you takes time out of your day to read My Inner Shakti!  I LOVE YOU ALL!

How did you spend the holidays?  Any major NYE plans?  Two of our best friends, Samir and Roshni, are visiting for a few days so we’ll be spending NYE with them and a few other friends!  Can’t wait!

Written on December 30, 2013 Related:Food, home, Life, Miami

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