“Happiness, contentment, the health and growth of the soul, depend, as men have proved over and over again, upon some simple issue, some single turning of the soul.”
~ George A. Smith
“To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.”
~ Buddha
Eat healthy food for good health. Eat nutritious food. Have regular meals. All these and more we hear day in day out for good health. Feed your stomach with good food to live a healthy life. And all this time we are focussing on feeding our stomach but there is more to be done for a healthy living.
More??
This is something I learnt yesterday. It is something I knew, we all know it well actually. But choose to not give it enough precedence. In our fast paced and competitive daily lifestyle little things that matter a lot in the long run are put aside and forgotten. And then we move on, picking along the way fear, negative thinking, jealousy and so on. At the end of it all even after a healthy diet we still feel we are lacking in something.
And when you sit and worry and ponder over it, the answer strikes you. It may either be too late then or just in time. Like it did strike us yesterday. It was a Sunday and the family was gathered around the idiot box. Cribbing, switching channels, cursing little things that were not going as planned or just about anything in general. That was when we heard him saying, on television that is.
‘We feed our mouths well with the aim of maintaining good health. But did you know there is more to feed our body with than just food‘ he asks.
‘There is more?’ was our reply.
And we were all ears to grasp the secret to good health. He continues, ‘we have ears to hear, we need to hear as much good words and good things as possible and leave out the rest; we have eyes to see, we need to see the good and the positive all round us; we need to take in and smell the good and ensure a healthy living’.
That was all. Very simple. Yet so complicated. Something we know. And yet we don`t.
People around us say many things, good and bad. We need take in well all the good and destroy the bad outside of us itself before it enters our mind and corrupts it. We need to see good and happy scenes as much as possible. The nature, animals, blooming flowers and so on. Remember and store all the marvellous, valuable things you saw in your mind. Delete the rest. And take in and breathe fresh air, smell of nature, smell of the rain and other things that can make you happy.
Bottom line, learn to see the good in all things. There is something good in everything and everyone. But it is in us to ‘unhide‘ the ‘hidden’ good in everything. Even tough situations in life have some good, like good experience that can make us stronger or valuable lessons we learn at the end of it all.
We need to feed our minds well too for healthy and content living. A healthy mind and healthy body go together. A casual Sunday morning session of sitting in front of the television turned out to be enlightening one for a change.
And now coming to food. Regular and not to healthy dishes can be transformed into a more healthier one, right? We all do this very often. I tried it too for a crumble recipe. That delicious and light English dessert recipe. How we all just love it. Fresh and juicy fruits, topped with flour and butter mixture and baked. Enjoyed warm with a generous scoop of icecream on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Maybe in your backyard as you watch butterflies hopping from one flower to another or with a good back or watching the rains pour or in the company of your loved one. I know I am going on and on here. But I just can`t help it when the topic revolves round a ‘fruit crumble’.
Simplicity and divine go together for me in case of a ‘crumble’.
And to make it healthier I added some oats to the crumble mixture along with plain flour. It gave a nice crunch too. Some replace all of plain flour with wheat flour. That is fine too. In the end you must love it and enjoy it.
Apple/ Fruit Crumble
A delightful and light dessert made from fruits in season!
For filling
- 4 medium apples OR any other fresh fruits of your choice
- 1/4 cup dates
- 1.5 tbsp fruit jam – like mixed fruit or orange marmalade
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon powder
- 3 tbsp sugar/ brown sugar
For crumble topping
- 1/2 cup plain flour
- 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
- 50 gms butter (chilled)
- 2 to 3 tbsp brown sugar
To serve
- vanilla ice cream or
- chilled vanilla custard
For the filling
- Peel, core and cut apples into bite size pieces. Deseed and slice dates.
- In a saucepan put all the filling ingredients and cook over low flame till soft but not mushy, about 8 to 10 mins. You may sprinkle 1-2 tbsp water if needed.
- Remove from heat and cool.
For crumble topping
- Cut chilled butter into small cubes.
- In a mixing bowl mix in all the crumble ingredients except butter. Add butter and mix with your fingertips or fork till mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Proceed
- As you make the topping , preheat oven at 180 C.
- Grease a medium size shallow baking dish with butter.
- Put the fruit filling into the greased baking dish. Sprinkle crumble on top and press down gently.
- Bake at 180 C for 25 mins or top is golden and filling is bubbly and fruit juices start to ooze out.
- Serve warm.
For filling use any fresh fruit of your choice – like – peaches, pears, strawberries, plums.
You can even make it from a combination of the fruits. The above pic is a combination of apples and plums.
Instead of pre cooking the filling, you can mix all the filling ingredients in a bowl and set aside for 10 to 30 mins for flavors to deepen. Then put into greased baking dish, cover with crumble and bake.
You can substitute flour and oats with about 1 cup wheat flour or mix of oats and wheat flour. But you may need to increase the butter quantity to get the crumbly mixture – up to 80 to 100 gms.