@Beauty-and-the-beast

A late but tasty breakfast. Egg mayo sandwich 🥪

Baked broccoli, cauliflower, mushroom and potatoes for dinner. Simply the best.

A late dinner but a great dinner. Lasagne made with lentils and zucchini and a homemade sauce.

I made some coconut chutney. All I have to do is make some dosa - (savory Indian Pancakes). You can see how I made it here: https://www.ecency.com/hive-120586/@kaycooks/coconut-chutney-green

Making another small batch of mango pickle. Should get us through December. 😇

Not homemade. But samosas are welcome anytime. Assorted samosa box - cheese. Potatoes. Chicken. You never know which one you get till you take a bite. I personally liked the cheese samosa.

Dinner looks good and smells good. Prawns Biryani. I just shared how I make it on ecency. https://www.ecency.com/hive-120586/@kaycooks/prawns-biryani

Done making a couple of batches of hot sauce, crazy hot sauce, Indian gooseberry in brine and mango pickle. Looks like I have enough hot sauce to last me a couple of months, can’t say the same for the mango pickle and the gooseberry in brine.

This is what I filled my freezer with yesterday. Shredded zucchini, cup zucchini, blanched broccoli and cauliflower, cut carrots and some tomatoes. It took me about an hour to get it done. I didn't get to the spring onion. Hopefully, it will be done today. Plan for the day is to make a large batch of hot sauce and experiment making pickles today.

Prepping veggies for the week. Some will go to the fridge. But some will go straight to the freezer for a slightly longer stay there. These are not the only veggies we use during the week. I try to break down the prepping over a couple of days, and each day just over 30 minutes. I’ll show you the results in a bit.

I have a small pack of dehydrated mango in my pantry. It's been sitting there for a few months now. Though I snack on it once in a while, it's not my go to. So, been thinking, can I turn this into a jam? Well, its not a large quantity to turn into a jam, or maybe it will last a couple of weeks. I have got to do a pantry clean-out.

I just uploaded my latest recipe on ecency. https://www.ecency.com/hive-120586/@kaycooks/vegetable-sabzi-with-green-masala Let me know what you think...

Cooking Fails. I tried to make scrambled Indian Cottage cheese (Paneer). But just used the wrong kind of cottage cheese I guess. This was a soft cheese as opposed to the firmer Indian cottage cheese. The end product not only looked different, it tasted different as well. Different in a good way. I ate it anyways with Roti. Would I make it again? Maybe I would. If I didn't have anything else in the fridge.

I look forward to this breakfast. I don't make overnight oats often, because of my love for bread, egg and cheese. But when I do, I do eat a rather large portion. Overnight Oats with chia seeds, basil seeds, toasted flax seed and walnut along with some blueberries and banana sweetened with liquid jaggery. It is a great day today already 😀

For days when I don't feel like cooking, I always have some frozen pizza in the freezer. This pizza had some blue cheese in it. Not a huge fan of the Blue cheese, but it was absolutely delicious in this pizza. What do you do on days you don't feel like cooking? Do you go to restaurants, take away and deliveries or do you go to your freezer? #eatwhatyoulove

Prawns are one my favorite of all sea foods. You can add them to absolutely anything and they taste really good. Although, prawns have a short cooking time, this is one of those dishes, where they cook for somewhat longer time until they get a crust. You can read how I made it on ecency: https://www.ecency.com/hive-120586/@kaycooks/prawns-roast

Nothing smells better than home baked bread... I know, I know. Next time I will knead some more and then some more. But it tastes phenomenal. This is a whole wheat bread and I substituted all sugar for Molasses. It is a lot of time to make just one loaf of bread. I will make 2 loaves next week. One for the freezer and one for the week. Do you bake your own bread? Any tips for me?

Made the Naan bread for the first ever time and it was spot on. Like the one you would get at restaurants. But I know all the ingredients that went into making this Naan, so much better than the ones you eat restaurants. Happy Sunday #indiancuisine #bread

Index4Index – He who asks once is a fool for five minutes… **He who asks once is a fool for five minutes but he who doesn’t ask remains a fool forever. – Chinese Proverb** This is true most of the times. How many times have we not asked a question because we were too embarrassed or didn’t want to come across as not as smart or were just too afraid to ask. Many a times, I have been too afraid to ask the question. Many a times, I just wanted to fit in by not asking questions. Though it may seem difficult to start asking questions when you don’t understand something, it gets easier and you will be more confident asking the right questions. You will be surprised how you are not alone in not understanding. The benefit of asking questions is that the once you understand, you understand it. And its all worth it. So, the next time you have a doubt, or don’t understand a concept too well, just go ahead and ask that question. Thanks for reading. All photos are my own. All photos are shot on a mobile phone. This post first appeared on my Hive Blog. For the best experience view this post on Liketu https://liketu.com/@keechadkikali/index-4-index-he-who-asks-once-is-a-fool-for-five-minutes https://hive.blog/hive-147010/@keechadkikali/index-4-index-he-who-asks-once-is-a-fool-for-five-minutes

5 things that I am focusing on Hive as a beginner this year You create an account on Hive. And you are new here. You may know a couple of users here who mentor you. But for some, who don’t know any folks here, the platform may seem overwhelming. You read a few posts and then you write and publish your first introductory post and then you publish regularly for another week or two. For many the payout is good from the word go, but for many of us there is a payout here and a payout there. You exhaust your resource credits by making some upvotes, but there are no curator rewards coming in. Sounds disheartening? Don’t let this beginner’s journey be a demotivation. Too many whales have tread on this road and way too many users have started their journey on the same path. ***And, here I am, walking this path as well. But I am not ready to give up.*** Here is a list of 5 things that I will be doing for the rest of the year to keep busy on HIVE, grow my audience and be on my way to making a passive income. Well, the girl can dream. **Get some HP** I am not at the stage where I can invest dollars to get some HP. But over the last 4 months of being consistent some and consistent not so much, I have some HP. Just some HP. And I use the giftgiver delegation for some HP’s. Over the next couple of months, I hope to double, no triple my efforts to rake in some more HPs. If you are at a stage where you do not want to invest in Hive, you can request delegation. One of the sites where you can request delegation is Giftgiver https://giftgiver.site/ **Get MAIL Tokens to Read Emails** I signed up on Listnerds sometime in May and I am thankful that I did. I have sent a few emails as well and earned some Listnerd tokens as well when a couple of my emails were verified. If you want to sign up on Listnerds, you can join my team. Join Listnerds https://listnerds/ **Find for a contest that you can participate** There are quite a few contests and giveaways on the platform. And most days, I look for a contest that I can participate in. I write articles but sadly, I am too conscious to post them and many a times, I don’t get to posting them. But that is one area, that I think I will focus for the rest of the year and post the articles that I write. Apart from getting more audience for your posts, you also stand a chance to win tokens, Hive, Hive delegations, tokens and token delegations. You will be surprised to find there are daily giveaways, weekly contests and weekly giveaways. **Use Communities and tags** I will go ahead and say this. Initially, my tags were a bunch of keywords that I deemed fit for my posts. But not anymore, if you write posts and publish as your blog, chances are you do not get a lot of audience for that post. Unless of course, you have a large number of followers. Publish your post on the community that the article is about and that might get more views, upvotes for your post and you can grow your audience base as well. And here I am, exploring communities and tags going forward. Use tags to your advantage. Ok, a lot of Hiveans may disagree with me on this by saying tags should merely be keywords for your post. But I think when we are starting off, it is important that we give our content a larger reach. **Write regularly** Not something I have been good at. But all that is about to change. I aim at having a post published every day. But as I mentioned before, a lot of my posts don’t see the light of day. And so, I looked for the next best thing. And I found Actifit. My goal with actifit is to getting used to posting every single day and staying more active. I want to get used to it. I guess I have been pretty consistent here. I may have posted daily (minus a couple of day) for the past 2 months. And that sure is giving me the confidence I need to keep posting more. My goal for the next couple of months is to have an Actifit post every day and a different article at the very least once or twice a week. If you want to join the Actifit wagon, here is the Link https://actifit.io/signup?referrer=keechadkikali Let me know what you think I should add to my list at this phase of my journey here. Thank you for reading.   ___   Image created on Canva This post first appeared here and it's my original work on my blog on hive blog   https://hive.blog/hive-167922/@keechadkikali/5-things-that-i-am-focusing-on-hive-as-a-beginner-this-year  ____   Follow me on Hive  @keechadkikali https://hive.blog/@keechadkikali

Back to Yoga After a couple months of break, I started my online yoga sessions again today. This time with a new instructor, since my previous instructor will be busy for some time. A good friend of mine introduced me to my new instructor. The art of yoga is the same, but how each instructor teaches you is very different. Some of them treat yoga as a work out, others teach it as a part of an individual’s spiritual journey. Some instructors focus on getting the breathwork right, while some other instructors might be focused on getting the body aligned properly for each posture or asana. Both of my yoga instructors are as different as day and night. My previous instructor was checked in on how you are doing and created a flow or sequence or postures and asanas for that specific mood. If you replied you were restless, the day’s session included an Ashtanga sequence. If you replied that your day was just blah, a Hatha Vinayasa sequence would follow. Or if you were generally just distracted or feeling down and blue, a Hatha sequence where you held your postures for 60 sec at the very least ensued. Although it has been just one lesson today with my new instructor, I have come to realize that, the alignment of the body for each posture is what is the most important during our session. We don’t do too many asanas, but try to get each of the asanas right, or work towards getting them right eventually. It feels too easy, but only time will tell, if I get any better. Frankly, I miss my previous instructor. We did some yoga. We spoke some. And we did more yoga and spoke some more. Never felt like a work out. I have a list of work out / yoga goals and my goals have not changed though my instructor has. And I am so excited with each of the session that I am getting closer and closer to achieving my goals.   ___ This post first appeared here and it's my original work on my blog on [hive.blog] https://hive.blog/hive-124452/@keechadkikali/back-to-yoga  All photos are my own. All photos have been shot on a mobile phone.   **Let's Connect on Hive:**  @keechadkikali https://hive.blog/@keechadkikali @kaycooks https://hive.blog/@kaycooks   Thank you for reading!  ___

My 1 Month of HIVE Learning I am a newbie on the Hive blockchain. And for the past one month, I have been learning quite a bit of the blockchain every day. Today, I am still very much a noob but, I create this post as a note to self, or when I introduce the blockchain to family and friends, or it might help someone who is at just at the beginning of their Hive journey as me. Let’s start with the websites and extension Hive Keychain I thought to myself, why do I need a Hive Keychain extension? Well, as it turns out, it is easier to access the various front ends of the blockchain. I can publish posts via the community pages as well. I can send tokens, delegate and perform various actions all from the Hive keychain. I do not have to keep accessing my keys to perform any of the login and posting actions via frontends. So, once you have your Hive account set up. Do yourself a favor and download the Hive keychain and set it up. https://hive-keychain.com/ Hive Engine We have at some point seen some tokens rewarded to us on our wallets page, and have no idea what to do with them. We may have no idea how to stake, unstake, trade, delegate transfer these tokens. This is where you have access to it all. The Hive Engine. If you have your Hive keychain connected, accessing your tokens is a breeze. So, the next time you have some tokens in your wallet, head to the Hive engine and stake some tokens. Note – There may be different ways of accessing the Hive engine. But via is the keychain is the only way I know how to. https://hive-engine.com/ Other Helpful websites to help you get started. Giftgiver It’s nice to see some HP and HIVEs in your account correct. But as a beginner, there is hardly any of these coming in. Unless of course you have invested in powering up your HP. Visit the giftgiver site and enter your username in the faucet delegation and you will be delegated HP and you can also use the faucet, enter your username and you can receive HIVE and HP. You can claim from the faucet once every hour and from the faucet delegation once every 7 days. https://giftgiver.site/ Listnerds Ok, this might sound off. But sign up on listnerds. Even if you have a free account. You can send out an email once every 7 days. Read mails and get MAIL tokens, vote on the emails and you stand a chance to earn some LIST tokens. And at the same time, you can reach out and bring traffic to your post on Hive. For every mail you read, you earn 5 MAIL tokens and you can reach out to as many tokens you have earned when you send out your email. It sure is worth a try. https://listnerds.com/ Tags Tags is nothing like we have known tags to be from other forms of social media. But tags can greatly increase the reach of posts. They are communities of sorts with their own token, so you are not only reaching out to a larger audience but also can earn some tokens as well. But use the tags relevant to the posts. Some of the tags to use can be: Save HBD You have some HBD, you can either convert them to HIVE and later to HP and there is nothing wrong with that. I still do that all the time as a means to Power up my HP, but I think the better thing to do when you have some HP’s is to save your HBD. With the APR of 20%, you can earn some passive income while already earning some passive income on the blockchain. Delegate HP Initially, even with a 100% upvote, you rarely and barely will make anything as a curation reward. So, why not delegate your HP’s and earn some rewards. Some of the accounts where you can earn HPs for delegating HP is @ecency, @qurator, @bdvoter, @indiaunited https://ecency.com/@ecency https://ecency.com/@qurator https://ecency.com/@bdvoter https://ecency.com/@indiaunited You can also check https://hive.dlease.io/ to delegate your HP I am happy to understand and learn more. If you have anything that can help me here, I’m very happy to hear from you. This post also appeared here and it's my original work on my blog on [hive.blog](https://hive.blog/hive-167922/@eyewaa/my-1-month-of-hive). Images created on CANVA

Crypto-times If you are even relatively new in the crypto space, you know the past 2 days has been all about Luna. The Lunacrash to be more specific. Are you a Luna HODLer, did you make a quick buck and a quick trade? Do you avoid Luna completely, or are you one of those who just rolled eyes and said 'I told you so, the crypto is a scam.' No matter what category, you may have heard the cryptos coming a tumbling down. As I write this Luna is at 0.22. And it feels like only yesterday, when it was soaring in its 90's. BTC is around 26,750.00 and we were all expecting the BTC to be closer to reaching its 100K value. Is that a myth? Is this all the crypto world is going to be? Crash every couple of years. Gives everyone an opportunity to enter the markets when the prices are relatively lower. Image from Pexels

A chore I put off but until today I have decided that today is the day, I get to the tasks that are not an absolute necessity but has been on my wish list to complete for some time now. It is decluttering of my digital space. All those emails that have remained unopen for the many weeks. All the photographs on the phone. This is something I wish I could be more regular in decluttering. **Emails** - I think I will start with the emails, go through all my inboxes, unsubscribe to newsletters, those that have just sat waiting to be opened. Delete Junk, delete spam emails. *But why do I not do it on a regular basis?* Because it is too boring a task to get to. It is time consuming and it consumes a lot of mind space while it is in progress. *And why do I want to do it now?* Because important emails get lost in the clutter. It is a waste of time, when looking for a specific email. Moreover, it uses valuable server space. And we all know that it costs money to keep the server going. **Photographs** – All of us with smart phones are probably guilty of this. We take way too many photos, some are blurry, some are repeat, some not that great, but they continue to sit on our phones. I will go through all the photos, delete repeats, or ones that don’t make sense to me anymore, screenshot images, media on messaging platforms. At the end of it, I want to upload the images I decide to keep in folders named properly and in USB drives. Rid my phone from all the images so far. Maybe, just maybe, I will come across a few images that is going to take me back to those memories. And I may end up on this task for way longer than I intend to. But it is something I am going to do today. It might seem like the most mundane task and something that one would do when there is absolutely nothing else in mind. This for me, has been a conscious effort and a lot of thought has gone into making this chore an absolute must. Less Clutter, More Mind Space.

Understanding HIVE Now that I have been using the Hive platform for 2 weeks, I think I am beginning to understand a little bit more of how it works. And since, I have rarely come across something that explains for an absolute beginner, this is my attempt to simplify it for those who might be a beginner like me.  1. Hive Power is everything. Well, so are Resource credits and Voting Mana. Let me explain. You require Voting Power, Resource Credits to perform any action on the platform. They do get filled automatically, based on how much Hive Power you have and how much Voting Mana and Resource credits are exhausted. For a beginner with a absolutely 0 to the bare minimum Hive Power, it can take about 5 days to fully recharge. So, use your Resource Credits and Voting Mana wisely. Do not let your Resource credits go down below 80%, as it takes a much longer time to get the resources to fully charge up. Remember that every action you perform deducts your Resource credits. Like a post, Joining a community, changing your settings, writing a post, writing a comment.  2. Reputation and Hive Power influences the amount you can vote for. For an absolute beginner with a low reputation score, even a 100% vote can mean 0.00 USD. You can gain reputation by posting engaging content. And by having an engaging community, you can get more HP rewards for your post. So, take your time, write meaningful content and build your followers who engage in your post.  3. As a beginner, with 0 followers, when your submit a post to your blog, you may actually have no audience for your post. Submit your post in the right community. You will gain more eyeballs for your post, and gain some followers too.  4. Write a short post introducing yourself when you first start out. It gives the community to know about you.  5. Powering up your Hives and Hive Power - You can visit the giftgiver site to earn some Hives and Hive Power. It is not a whole lot, but it is something and it can help you get started. Or you can buy HIVE and convert them to Hive Power. 6. Post regularly. You will learn along the way.    Hope this helps you if you are starting out on HIVE.   ***If you made it this far. Thank you for reading :)***

Walking 10000 Steps a day Challenge An average adult takes anywhere between 2500 steps to 4000 steps in a day just carrying on with their lives, doing day to day activities. Well, I do not fit into this average adult it seems like it. I can go days doing less than 1000 steps by doing the normal day to day activities. I spend a lot of time working on the computer or phone. When I am working on the computer, my phone is kept away to avoid distractions, and half a day goes by before I take a look at my phone, and I have missed many a walking steps along the way. And since I don't get to an office to work, where is the opportunity to make 10000 steps, I wonder. Not all days, are below the 1000 steps. There are days when I am back home, a basic rural life - and I easily walk 2500 steps even before the sun is over the head. Not that I help with many chores, but the fact that I do not spend too much time in front of the computer. So, I have come up with a plan for a week. Keep my phone with me at all times, but in silent mode when I am working. And then, take a 15 minute walk in the morning and maybe a 30 - 45 minute walk during the evenings. Rather than keeping the bottle of water on the table where I work, I should get a refill from the kitchen. Rather than walk straight from the kitchen back to the table, I should probably take a 5 minute walk. I could do with the break as well. It is something I probably need to achieve, walking 10000 steps and more in a day. It would feel like an accomplishment in itself. I know that it is going to take me more than an hour of walking to get to the goal, but since I plan to keep my phone in my pocket, it might be a realistic figure. Now, I can get myself one of those watches or pendants that will count my steps for me, when I am not carrying my phone. But, for now, that is not an option for me. I would like to start making those number of steps consistently before I get me one of those. *Image is from Pexels and edited on Canva.

How much money is enough for me? How much do we need to live a comfortable life? Have we become such a consumeristic society. that we look away from the pain and need of others with the greed in our minds and hearts to make more and hoard more. But for whom? Do we really need all that we are accumulating and hoarding? Are we hoarding for our next generation. But what if, the world is not going to be the way it is when they are all grown up. Is it but a waste of our efforts and our time, time that could have been used differently. And then again, we want to provide better for our next generation or even for ourselves as we get another year older. This is a thought I had today. How much is enough for me. I tried to break it down in my head, and weird enough. the numbers kept going higher and higher. Ok, so there are the monthly bills - gas, rent, phone, internet, electricity, water and groceries. I can put a number to these. If I earned enough to cover these costs, is it enough for me? Going out - Well, this really just depends on where we go, how many times in a month we head out and what we eat when we go out and where we eat at. Some months, we hardly go out places and just meet friends at home and order in, while some months the outgoings are extravagant full day adventures. Well, I should be prepared for both right. Now, if I made enough for my essentials and have sufficient for outings, is it enough for me? Shopping - I am not much of a shopper and strive to be a minimalist, but let's just say, I want to go on a shopping spree, how much is enough for me? Well, we look forward to vacations and holidays, even if it just means going home. Sure, now we need more of the moolah's to have a good one. Well, the numbers have just added up already to quite a bit every month. How much will ever be enough for me? We have not even included savings and investments, Save for that next trip or invest more for the future. How much is enough for me? Budgeting is not that hard. But sticking to the set budget month after month, achieving milestones is the difficult part. I can create a budget sheet in a couple of days, but there have been numerous times, the budget sheet was not even opened once it was created. If I cannot stick to a budget, how will I ever know how much is truly enough for me? The mini plan for this year is to create for myself a basic budget plan - Groceries and bills to start with and try to stick to that plan, without going overboard especially in the grocery stores.

Skincare - What I use now This article is inspired by an article published by @ExpertWritter - reasons-why-i-didnt-continue-applying-skincares-36c60559 https://read.cash/@ExpertWritter Everyone has their reasons why we continue applying certain products or brand to fight the various skin related issues we each may have. And here, I give you my reasons why I stopped using many skincare products and what I use as an alternative. Skin is our largest organ. And what we apply on the skin is quickly absorbed. Most of the latest skin care products have ingredients that I do not understand, let alone pronounce them. Skin care products are often expensive. They constantly come up with new and better in their marketing campaigns, does that mean the previous production was missing something vital? There are so many products in the market, and not all products suited me, and I would throw away many products. Oh, and the number of products that would just go past its best before dates. All the money I wasted. The amount of packaging that is used. The number of plastic containers they come in. I think it is easier to steer clear of them than to find a place that will accept them readily for recycling where I live. **The alternatives I use:** As a hand soap, I use castile soap diluted in water and add a few drops of essential oils. Trust me it is as good as store bought hand washes. As a moisturizer I use Almond Oil / Jojoba oil / Avocado oil. When the weather changes to cold drier months, I prefer the Shea Butter. Apart from the Shea butter, I use the oils on my face as well as a moisturizer. And my skin is in fact better than when I was using mass produced store bought products. As a body and face soap on most days I use a homemade powder that consists of Chickpeas powder, Red Sandalwood powder, white turmeric powder (very little). On other days I use a handmade soap. that does not come in any packaging. I can go on and on. But this is just a basic simple changes that I have made that has saved me a lot of money while being gentle and good on my skin.

OMG!!! I'm a couple of articles old here on Read.cash and I only figured it now, that I can upload images to my posts and not just the lead image. Over the weekend, I hope to upload a few images that I had originally clicked to be a part of my posts / articles.

Starting a Balcony Garden It is only the beginning of summer here; the temperatures can soar as high as 48 degrees Celsius (that’s about 118 degrees Fahrenheit). The summer months are long and the air starts cooling off only by the month of October. Then why would I start a garden now? There are certain factors that I considered before this was going to be put to action. **Sunless Balcony:** Over the summer months, only 10% of the balcony gets sun for about a couple of hours in a day. Having said that, the entire balcony is bright. It is just that it does not get full sun, like it does in the winter months. **Starting small:** This is not an option for me. This is the only way I can have a balcony garden. I had a Sansevieria Cylindrica / cylindrica Snake plant, which really needed to be re-potted. And, there is no space inside for me to keep more pots or keep larger plants. So, I re-potted the cylindrica snake plant to a slightly larger pot and now it sits in the balcony. I did keep a couple of stalks in the existing small pot and that will stay in the window sill until it is time to be re-potted again. The second pot is an upcycled wooden box, really small wooden box and that is now home to spring onions that I am growing from root cuttings that were bought from the regular grocery store. This pot shares its home with Mexican oregano. **A little story time regarding this Mexican Oregano** I got a stock of the oregano and it was sitting in water for over a year. It lost all its gorgeous leaves and faced weeks of neglect and still, this little plant continued to keep rooting. I was out for about 45 days, and still it survived. So, it is only right that the plant gets some soil and a very important place in the garden. **Back to the plants I want to grow next** Though I have so many plants that I want to plant, next on the list is Mint. And one other plant that is very high on the list is Mango ginger. I absolutely love eating pickled mango ginger. And I got some mango ginger rhizomes from when I was back in India and now that I can see the nodes are sprouting, maybe over the next few days, I will get it in a pot. I would also like to add to the indoor space another teeny tiny plant or a succulent. Plants bring a lot of cheer to any space. And I would love to eventually grow what we eat. But until then, I am willing to learn what the balcony garden is going to teach me.  *If you reached this section of the article, then thank you so much for reading the article.* ***Do consider giving me a Like as it motivates me to write some more about the things that bring me joy.*** ***Note: All Images are my own unless stated otherwise.***