Winter blues.....

It is that time of year that I started feeling the winter blues. Ugh, what a horrible month November has been! It started off with stalkers and hackers worry me. If that was not enough, then we all came down with a virus. We fought that off relatively fast but it stuck around over the weekend and that was for the pits. Thanksgiving was a disaster as we decided to eat out instead of cooking. Never again! I miss my hearty and stick to your ribs old fashioned good ele American cuisine. Yes, I want to have dressing and sloppy mashed potatoes smothered in gravy. It may be laden with high fat but I deserve to splurge every now and then. They messed up our order way too much for me to be happy. How hard it is to get an order right? The best thing I had the whole night was an iced mocha coffee. That's sad! I really wanted to say I have a great meal! Bummer indeed!

I did not even try to go out an battle with Black Friday crowd! I went ahead and shopped online and stopped after we got finished at the restaurants (yes we ended up at two-long story) going into Walgreens to buy the kids some toys. They had a great 50% off sale. I also snagged some awesome bohemian tunics for $10 a piece! I am addicted to their new tunics they have there alongside the cute leggings. Not exactly hijabi style on the leggings but underneath and abaya or at home for the dh it would be cute! The tunics would be okay paired with a long skirt or regular wide leg pants. I am all about the bargains either way it goes! My daughter turns 11 in a few days and she wants a hamster so bad! The pet shop closed up early so she was furious. I ended up ordered one online from PetSmart for like $22.99 and now it is back to its regular price. So, I got a bargain on Thursday for that price and it is a kit that comes with all the things needed for the first few days. Then I bought a few extras for her to use. I had bought the bulk pet food for her the other day arounf 5.50 lbs for $5.54 with my PetSuppliesPlus card. I found some more good deals on clothing and giftable items from Walmart and, eBay, and Zaful. I hope everything meets or exceeds my expectations. I ended up getting a new dish to prepare desserts in. I hope that I can come up with a nice trifle dish for my family.

 I have a weekend party to prepare for and let me tell you 11 year olds are very picky. She is tossing between an arcade, pizza place, science museum and horse park. I think I have made up my mind with dh to do the Derby Museum, the doll cake we ordered will go home with us and we will order White Castle to take home. The good thing is they have veggie burgers now and they cook them alone away from all the other foods. This makes us very happy because we do not do pork or non Halal products. I am a vegetarian so that goes without saying that I do not do meats at all! I just hope that she enjoys her birthday. I figure a stroll through the museum and looking at the horses and then home with parents to celebrate. Trying something different than the usual Chuck e Cheese parties. I guess she outgrew it! I just want her to enjoy herself as she had dental surgery other day and seems pretty much like she wants to have fun for a change. she has three more dental visits coming up adnd I think she is upset. So, this should do the trick and cheer her up. Let's pray that the party goes well!

Going to get more active!

It is about time I get more active in my writing. I have some news that I want to go public about. I will start posting weekly now. At the end of this month I will share a story with you that will be surprising for you. I hope that you will read it well. Stay tuned.....

Tomorrow is "D" day!

Tomorrow is "D" day! That being said....."D" is for delivery..... I am so anxious to try the tasty foods from the home delivery food service. I will tell you all about it as soon as I get the items delivered at my door! I have placed an order with items like pasta, jalapeño poppers, mozzarella cheese sticks, pizza dough, and garlic bread. Most of their items are pre-made.....this will give me some time since I am a busy mother and a student. I have been trying to find a way to skip some time in my kitchen. I really pray this food suits my family well. I guess we shall find out what awaits us tomorrow.

~Ayesha

Going to try groceries DELIVERED to my door.....AGAIN!

Wow, it has been awhile since I have written. I had almost forgotten about this blog. I am so glad that I was able to recover it again. I have since gone through a tremendous amount of changes since I have last written. Many things both good and bad have occured and I want to tell you so that you understand why I have not written much.At any rate, I will go into more details later on the changes but for now I want to discuss GROCERIES! 

What is better than shopping online and having the groceries delivered right to your front DOOR! I honestly am very excited to try this! I had done it in the past but not as much as I intend to start doing now. I hardly have time to shop and when I do I have to drag along the kids and it is a hassle. Therefore, I am going to try this in order to save myself time. I do not think that I will save money but both time and money are valuable. Right now, I need the time mostly since the kids are time demanding. 

So, I have placed a small order to come on this Friday and I will show you what I ordered. I hope that everything turns out great because I have another HUGE order scheduled to arrive after January 4th. I am very excited to try the things I have ordered. I will just leave you in suspense until the order arrives. Be on the watch for the review of some hopefully tasty products!

~Ayesha

I admit it, I am addicted to spices!

I am officially a spice addict! My father teases me because I have almost every spice there is. He states that the only spices you need in your kitchen are: salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper sauce. He loves hot sauce on just about everything. But, nowadays he is on a seafood fad diet and he really splashes the hot sauce on his fish. He loves tilapia, salmon, and milk fish mainly. He can devour fish daily and never get tired of it. I'll go into that in more detail at a later date Insha'Allah.


Back to the spices.....I am unable to consume food that has not been seasoned properly. I am a curry addict and I love spiced up food! By spicy I do not necessarily mean hot. I am talking about zesty and tangy flavors here! I love cumin, coriander, garlic, thyme and basil. This weekend I discovered a more economical brand of spices by the name of Badia. I will surely be using these as my first choice in spices for here on out. I have been paying $3 and up per spice and these were well under $2 a spice for most of the spice I purchased and I did purchase many.


For those of you afraid to try out new spices.....do not be afraid just go for it! your taste buds will thank you for it! Spices make you feel more uplifted and your taste buds flourish with delight!

~Ayesha

I love to cook and whip up unique flavorful concoctions for my family to adore!

Bismillah ir Rahman ir Rahim


Assalamu alaikum everyone! This will be my first post here on my newest blog "A Dash of Masala Please". I will start off with a mild introduction about myself. I am 29 years old, a Muslimah and a mother of three. I have a loving husband and all of my family enjoys my cooking. I am a college student, studying Psychology so I strive to balance school, raising a family, and still trying to find the time to cook delicious meals. I love to experiment in the kitchen and most of my attempts are totally, outrageously, awesome!


Today I tried a couple of new products and cooking experiments. I had two assessments for college last-night so I stayed up really late. I wanted something really simple to whip up for a light brunch. Therefore, today I whipped up some Macabee Kosher Cheese Bagel Pizzas (they came in a pack of 6 and about 4" in diameter around)  and some Annie's Macaroni and Cheese. I added some seasonings to the macaroni such as Badia white pepper and Badia complete seasoning and it was so yummy! It was a real hit! This was our first time eating the Macabee line of products. We will definitely be purchasing them again. The bagels were soft and delicious and the sauce on the pizza was mild and the cheese was decent. I like them, overall it was a good small pizza. Although, I must mention that Annie's products are nothing new as Annie's macaroni is always a first choice at our house.


For a late lunch I prepared a curried couscous or couscous biryani. It was actually my first attempt at this. I took Kook's Biryani Sauce, RiceSelect Couscous, a mixture of vegetables, scrambled eggs, cocktail peanuts, and seasonings and made up a huge pot of couscous casserole! This was even more of a hit than brunch had been. Everyone piled their plates with extras (2, 3, 4 and even 5 times). Having had a mild aversion to simple couscous, I think it was the addition of cocktail peanuts and scrambled eggs which had me coming back for more. I really liked the way their flavors blended in with the biryani sauce and the couscous. I will definitely be making this casserole again Insha'Allah. I will share the recipe and perhaps a cooking tutorial for this in an upcoming post Insha'Allah.


For now I must go. There is cleaning to do and little ones to tend to. Until next time.....


P.S.: Please check out the blog my friends and I share at: Journey to Islam as it is a very helpful site for new Muslims and people interested in finding out more about Islam.

~Ayesha