Varalakshmi Vratham

Sravanamasam, the 5th month of hindu calendar is an auspicious month. Varalakshmi vratam falls on 2 friday of this month or the friday before poornima & Maha Lakshmi Devi is worshiped as Vara lakshmi devi on this day. This pooja is performed by married & unmarried women for prosperity, wealth & happiness.

For this festival we start preparations with purchasing of any gold ornaments or at least a lakshmi roopu or lakshmi kasu a few days ahead of the festival.
Cleaning the house is common in all festivals. Apart from that the preparations start one day ahead with arranging the pooja items. Few of the must have items on the list are flowers, fruits, coconut, turmeric, kum kum, toram & prasadam for goddess.

Setting up for pooja.

On the pooja day we wake up early in the morning take head bath & will prepare for pooja. Initially we arrange the goddess with flowers, ornaments & any new jewelry bought can be kept near goddess.

Pooja starts with lighting the deepam & pooja will take around 30 to 45mins. I have a CD of pooja procedure & I'm following the same for year's.{For pooja procedure you can get a CD or a printed book that are available in Indian book stores.}

For initial prasadam we offer paanakam, vada pappu, coconut & fruits. Later for the main prasadam which will be a elaborated one includes a sweet pongal, pulihora, gaarelu, boorelu, dal, curry,rice & curd. Usage of onion and garlic is restricted for prasadam. {List of items might vary but pulihora & a sweet dish are a must.} It is believed that we should offer lakshmi devi a sweet made of channa dal on this day. Besan related sweet dishes are also good to offer as prasadam for goddess.

Preparing toram is part of the pooja. It is made of 9 threads & turmeric is applied to it. Toram should consists of 9 knots and it is kind of a 9knot garland with flowers and leaves. We perform pooja to toram & can wear it right away. 

The important part of pooja is Vaaina Daanam. I generally offer the first vaainam to goddess & then to anyone who is present at the time of pooja. Later will invite friends that evening & offer them taambulam & prasadam.

I wish everyone a Happy Vara Lakshmi Vratam & may goddess shower you with her blessings.

Vinayaka Chaviti / Ganesh Chaturthi

Vighna nivarana Vinayaka/Ganesha birthday is celebrated as Vinayaka Chaviti / Ganesha Chaturthi.Vinayaka is also know as the leader of gana's and is prayed for all success in our life. This festival which falls in month of bhadrapada masa is celebrated by Indians all around the world.This festival is celebrated for 11days & at the end we do nimarjana of ganesha.

This festival is also special to me as my grand mother whom I called "Ammaji" was born on this day.She is the grand mom no one can never ever replace.

Coming to todays post for Blogging Marathon festive preparations my Vinayaka chaviti preperations will generally start 2 to 3 days ahead of his birthday. Cleaning home is a main part of the all festivals.Generally I make Vinayaka @home with clay so to do that I have to start with dusting, cleaning & decorating the house just before the festival day. Once the house is clean I will start preparing for pooja the next day.I make Lord Ganesha @ home with clay as shown below.This year I made ganesha & styled him with crystals.

Later the important part of pooja is mandapam & paalavelli. In USA it is hard to get palavelli so I generally make it with new store bought sticks & apply turmeric to it.Later will decorate it with leaves, flowers and fruits.For mandapam many Indian households have a wooden one if not you can replace it with a wooden table which you have never used before. I get birthday caps & use them as a replacement of chatram.

Next comes the pooja items those are flowers, fruits,betel leaves,mango leaves, kum kum, turmeric, sindhoor, sandal wood powder, akshata etc..
In andhra pradesh we generally get 2 ganesha's as one is made of pure black mud (Banka matti or Putta matti) second we get a nice colored ganesha. But the main pooja goes for matti vinayaka & turmeric vinayaka. On festival day we make a tumeric vinayaka for pooja and also a small vinayaka with clay.

As we are all ready with the arrangements of pooja we look for a good time with no rahu kalam & yama gandam on the day & perform pooja to god.We keep books, resumes & laptops while doing pooja.Coming to prasadam or mahanaivedyam I mainly offer Undarallu or Kudumulu along with rice, curries,dal,curd & sweets.

In India we invite guests to house to see ganesha & offer them prasadam & tamboolam.The ganesha chaturthi pooja goes on for next 11days & then nimarjanam. For the next 11days we perform pooja to lord & offer him prasadam like fruits or home made sweets.In general you are suppose to do the nimarjana on odd days & not on tuesday & friday. So calculating according to that we do nimarjana of god. Here is USA we do nimarjanam @sea which is very near to us.The turmeric Ganesha is made to a paste and is applied to kids books & laptops.

The festive preparations may vary from one state to other but the Lord we all worship is same.

Recipe for Undarallu
Yields 11 balls

Ingredients
1 Cup uncooked rice
1/2 Cup channa dal 
2&1/2 Cups water
1 Tbs jeera
1 Tbs ghee
Salt
Making Broken rice
First method: To make undarallu we need broken rice. So to make that take rice & grind it coarsely.
Second method: In this method we wash the rice & dry it on  a clean cloth. Allow it to dry for 8hrs. Rice will be very delicate & it's easy to coarse grind rice.
Making Undarallu
Now take the broken rice, channa dal, jeera,water & salt in a pressure cooker. Cook on medium heat for 2 whistles. Switch off heat & allow it to cool.
Take the cooked rice mix on to a plate.(Rice mix will be very hot so be careful while handling it.).Rub little ghee to your hands & take a scoop of rice mix. Roll it in to a ball.Repeat the same with rest of rice mix.

Eggless Nutella Muffins

Other day I was watching " Extreme Makeover" on abc channel & they were building beautiful homes for veterans who are injured & suffered a lot. It was just overwhelming & I just couldn't stop thinking about the army forces who are protecting us while leaving there lives & families behind. A small tribute for this holiday season which I wanted to mention to all the army forces protecting us " Thank you guys for all your hard work.You all are in our prayers & God bless you guys".

So coming to todays post for Blogging Marathon I made this eggless nutella muffins which are just perfect..:)

Ingredients

5 Tbs all purpose flour

1 Tbs sliced oats

2 Tbs Nutella 

1/2 Tbs semi-sweet chocolate powder

2 & 1/2 Tbs sugar 

1/2 Tsp baking powder 

1/2 Tsp corn starch

3 Tbs Milk 

1 Tbs Yogurt

Preheat oven @350 degrees.Set cupcake pan with liners and keep aside.

In a bowl sift all purpose flour. To that add oats, chocolate, corn starch & baking powder.In another bowl take nutella, sugar, milk & yogurt. Whisk them till sugar is dissolved.

Now mix both the wet & dry ingredients.

Now scoop up a spoonful of batter in to already set cupcake pan. Fill liners half the way & leaving space so that they can rise.Top them with walnut & bake them @300degrees for 15mins or till the tooth pik comes out clean.

Once done allow them to rest on a counter & enjoy them warm.