Hostel life is one of the best times in a person’s life. According to me, it is a time when we finally come out of our parent’s cocoon and get ready to face the world head-on. It is a phase which molds our personality, our thinking and our behavior. It actually carves out an adult out of us. We learn to adjust, we meet a good number of people, we go on adventurous trips, and we party with our friends. Yes, friends. We learn to make friends who will be with us in our thick and thins.
I came to Delhi in the year 2011. I was 18 and excited to be in this diverse yet enthralling city which never seemed to sleep. One fact about me is I am a foodie- a hardcore one at that. I love to experiment with food, to bring out new flavorful tastes and I am obsessed with the sugary goodness rolling off my taste buds making it feel alive. I don’t even want to calculate the amount of money I spent that time eating-out tasting food in all local restaurants. I associated with foodies like me and covered the vast expanse of the city experimenting with various foods, especially sweet things, be it pastries, chocolates, brownies, traditional Indian sweets or any other.
Running out of money at the end of the month became a normal occurrence for me. But I could not merely survive on mess food. I absolutely detested it. I hated the bland taste that hit my taste buds and I was missing my daily fix of sugar. It made me irritable to say the least.
One day, after I had my dinner in the mess I was sitting in my room and trying to remember any dish I experimented when I was at home which required minimum efforts and could be consumed daily. I came up with nothing. I tried to watch a lot of YouTube videos and my mind could not comprehend what to actually do. Finally, I tried experimenting but the lack of availability of various ingredients in the hostel made it very difficult for me to continue. Even a simple ingredient such as oil was a burden when kept in a hostel room.
Now you may find my behavior a bit over-dramatic. I know you do. But, the whole point of such detailed description of my state is I want you to understand the state of any foodie put in my position. If you are a foodie, you will understand the depth of reality of my state.
Also, it was a time when I wanted to lose a bit of weight and was in a huge dilemma. I kept thinking of ingredients that would help me control the amount of calories consumed and still satisfy my strong urge to consume something sweet. One day, during one of my random musings I came up with a dish that would be a tad-bit healthy and would definitely be something my tongue would love to savour.
I brought all the ingredients and started my mission. After 20 minutes of struggle, voila came my cup brownie! This incident took place 3 years ago and cup brownie became my guilty pleasure. I never get tired of it.
The quantity is just enough for me. Every once a while when I am alone with my emotions going haywire and my thoughts getting more random with every passing second, I whip up my favorite chocolate cup brownie and let myself indulge in it.
Recipe – Healthy Cup Brownie
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon of oats
- 1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder
- A pinch of baking soda (or ENO)
- ½ tbsp. sugar
- 1 sachet of Bru coffee
- 3 tablespoon of milk
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Method
- Crush the oats to create a powdery texture with it
- Mix all the ingredients together in a cup for about 2-3 minutes
- Let it stand for approximately 5 minutes for ENO or baking soda to take its effect
- Now, pop it in the microwave for 5 minutes
- Your cup brownie is ready
If you don’t like oats, you can replace it with crushed biscuits or wheat flour. You can also add chocolates if you are not that particular about calories.
Read more shortlisted stories for #CookMeATale blogging contest here.