500 gms boiled spinach (minced)
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
150 gms desi ghee
1 tbsp green chilli paste
1 tbsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp green cardamom powder
1 bay leaf
100 gms cottage cheese cubes (fried)
100 gms cottage cheese (grated)
Fresh cream

Method:
Heat the ghee in a kadai and sauté the garlic ginger paste till it becomes golden brown. Add all the spices and boil for 30 seconds. Add the minced spinach and cook for 25 minutes. Add grated cottage cheese and cook for 10 minutes more. At the end add fried cottage cheese and fresh cream. Serve hot.

Advertising watchdogs have condemned cosmetic giant L’Oreal for making misleading mascara adverts featuring Penelope Cruz. The TV and magazine adverts boasted women could have up to 60% longer lashes with its Telescopic mascara. But a viewer complained to the advertising standards authority that the actress was wearing false lashes.

It also ruled the adverts “did not make clear that the claim referred to an increase in the ‘appearance’ of lash length”. In the commercial for L’Oreal Paris Telescopic mascara, Cruz stood on a terrace next to a telescope and said: “Imagine, lashes that could reach for the stars.”
Spanish-born Cruz, 32, signed an exclusive contract to become L’Oreal’s spokesperson last year.

Mother-of-three Jordan 29, whose real name is Katie Price famous for her big silicon  boobs and husband Peter Andre (mysterious girl – singer) have decided to name their daughter “Princess Tiàamii”.
The couple explained that they chose the names because their new daughter is “our princess”.
Tiàamii, the baby’s middle name, was created by pop star Andre by combining his mother’s name Thea with Jordan’s mother’s name Amy.

“We’ve put an accent over the first A to make it more exotic and two Is at the end just to make it look a bit different,” Jordan told OK! magazine.
The couple claim Princess, who was born on June 29,  could have been called Tinkerbell, although they were dissuaded when they realised too many celebrities had named their dogs after the fairy from Peter Pan.
But Jordan seems pleased with the title, gushing, “I’m going to get a tattoo on the back of my neck with a crown and the word Princess underneath.”
The couple already have a boy, Junior, together, while Jordan has son Harvey from a previous relationship with footballer Dwight Yorke.

8 eggs
Salt to taste
2 tbsps milk
4 tbsps oil
2 small onions, sliced
5 medium fresh button mushrooms, sliced
1 small carrot, grated
¼ small cabbage, shredded
¼ cup bean sprouts
½ cup cheese, grated
Tomato ketchup as required

Break eggs into a bowl. 
Add salt and milk and whisk them together.
Heat one tsp of oil in a non-stick wok.
Add a quarter of the whisked egg and lift the wok and move it
in a circular motion so that the egg spreads.
Drizzle a tsp of oil around the sides and remove the omelette onto a plate.
Similarly use up the remaining whisked eggs.
Heat the remaining oil in a pan, add onions, mushrooms, carrots and salt.
Toss.
Add shredded cabbage and bean sprouts and toss. Place an omelette on a plate.
Spread a little grated cheese and top it with a portion of the cooked vegetables.
Roll. Press while rolling to make a tight roll. Cut into thick slices on the slant and serve with tomato ketchup. Make other rolls in the same way.

To make your skin sexy smooth:
Mix with besan and milk to make a paste
Turmeric makes a great body scrub, which is why desi brides have a haldi ceremony before their wedding.
A mix of haldi and besan leaves your skin soft, smooth and glowing.
Don’t expect miracles in a single application, though. Make it a weekly routine.

To help you digest food faster:
Add liberally to your food.
Food cooked with turmeric is digested easily, since haldi helps improve the secretion of digestive juices.
It’s also a great disinfectant, which is why we marinate raw fish and meat with haldi before cooking.

To stop bleeding:
Dab a pinch of it on cut. It’s almost miraculous how easily and quickly haldi can stop heavy bleeding.
Before you run for that ointment or bandage, wash the wound under running water, and press a pinch of turmeric on the cut. It will stop the bleeding immediately. Being haemostatic in nature, it stops bleeding.
Haldi helps blood clot faster, thus controlling its flow. When used as a local applicant as part of emergency first aid, its antiseptic properties help wounds heal faster.

To clear your skin of spots:
Apply haldi and lime juice
If your face is plagued with pigmentation and spots, here’s how you can even out your skin colour.
Apply a little turmeric mixed with cucumber juice or lemon, to the affected area. Leave on for 15 minutes, and wash off. Do this every day.

To clear sore throat:
Drink with milk. Add half a tsp of fresh turmeric powder to 30 ml warm milk and drink once or twice daily, in case of sore throat.
It’s a great antiseptic drink that will kill germs and prevent inflammation of the throat.

To soothe rheumatoid arthritis:
Add liberally to food
Turmeric has been used historically to treat rheumatic conditions.
And according to animal research, it may reduce inflammation.

To prevent gall bladder stones:
Add to food
It has been found that few people in India have gallstones, this is sometimes credited to turmeric in our diet.
Early animal studies report that curcumin, a chemical in turmeric, may decrease the occurrence of gallstones. Limited human research suggests that curcumin may stimulate squeezing (contraction) of the gall bladder and stimulate bile flow.

Make this scrub at home:

Mix wheat bran (choker), gram flour (besan), curd or malai, and some turmeric.
Apply on your face and body, half an hour before bathing.
It’s perfect to clear away dead cells and make the skin soft and smooth.

Shahnaz Husain