Greetings to all the Beautiful Ladies of this forum, People say way to someone’s heart is through their stomach. I strongly believe that now. And how I miss my mom & aunts for the wonderful food they made for me. I have been so busy in life always with education, training, pursuing hobbies & job. Being a spoilt brat at home, pampered always & neither mom nor me insisted on learning. After wedding realized the importance and the kind of stress it creates. However I now manage to cook something - like veggies, usual breakfast items, nothing major though but the simple dishes. All thanks to my stay at home a few months after wedding which gave me time to experiment & special thanks to YouTube videos (My poor DH) Now I am always thinking about what to cook & how to cook. My major concern is packing food for hubby. I mostly pack chapathi & rice on alternative days (with combinations of stuffed chapathis, colored rice, dal-rice) since DH works out everyday & he is very fussy about what he eats (No Oily, Less Rice, No salty/spicy, No too much sweet, but has to be tasty, etc). Please provide suggestions on healthy combinations/variations for Chapathi/Roti. After his workout, he is exhausted by EOD. I usually pack dry fruits or fruits with lunch but seeking help on healthy snacks I can pack for him along with lunch other than the ones listed. Looking forward for some important suggestions. P.S: We both work, so I cook lunch & dinner together in the morning. We normally don’t eat Indian breakfast. Only eat bread/cereal/juice/fruits, etc. So decent lunch, snack becomes important (staying away from home for 10 hrs, don’t get anything in office).
Look at Padhuskitchen, Raks Kitchen and Jeyashri's kitchen blogs. Also the Chitvish recipes here. All have simple vegetarian Indian recipe ideas with clear instructions.
If from Andhra, please see Gayathrivantillu. she has videos with text - very simple, precise instructions. i learnt my entire south indian basics from there - after that i tried other blogs for variety. for basic north indian you could try nishamadhulika. initially watching some videos helps. Please try one dish at a time. cook it consistently once a week for a few weeks. if possible, take a printout of the recipe, and note down any variations you make or you think should be made tasting the results Dont fret, if you enjoy good food, over a period of time you will invariably learn to cook well. be patient, cooking is a matter of practice and interest and everybody gets tbe hang of it invariably. Your post brought a smile on my face as i recollected how i struggled to learn a new cuisine without knowing the language or even the names of the dishes on many occassions. wish you a very happy married life. PS: if your husband works out daily, you should consuly a dietician once to check for the quantity and kind of protein in diet. since it varies person to person, a professional input would be better.
Thank you for your response & wishes @Lakshmi6197 . I'll lookout for the ones you suggested. I understand with time i will get a hang of it but I pity my DH when the dish turns out not tasty I hv managed to cook some of the basic south Indian dishes (color rices, dosa, idli, etc). Its early to say this but i lack creativity in my cooking. But for now, getting my basics in place is more important i suppose. You are right. May be i should work on getting a dietician for him.
the others have given good advice - one tip I can give especially if you are a vegetarian - include lots of lentils/pulses/dals everyday, since your DH is working out, he needs proteins
1) You can try to include sundals. They are easy to do as well. You just need to soak in the night. Morning after you wake up, put it in the cooker. Drain them and put tadka. You can add grated coconut as well. But if you are going to have it at eod then don't add coconut. You can make peas, chick peas (brown, white), paasi parupu sundal, rajma. these are very healthy options. 2) Another easier option is aval(puff rice). you need to soak for 10 mins and cook. 3) You can make dry fruits laddu in the weekend and send it to him. you can look into hebbarskitchen, yummy tummy, raks kitchen, sharmis passion etc.
@soulful please don't get disheartened so fast. You WILL learn to cook well. Please get the basics in place. Once you can manage that, the rest will fall in place. When i got married, i had never seen a rice cooker leave alone knew how to cook in one. Learnt that from Gayathrivantillu. Using a rice cooker, if you want to cook say 1 cup rice, put 3 cups of water, 1 cup at a time. The rice cooks almost the same as in a pressure cooker (soft as in south Indian main course meals). If you put 2 times water, it cooks perfect for lemon rice, tamarind rice etc. If you put water one cup at a time, water does not overflow. One more thing I was adviced was to cook the new dish as a side dish. Unless you are confident that the new dish will work out, have a standby dish. All recipes didn't work out, some came out perfectly the first time, some needed finetuning and a few were discarded altogether . All recipes of the same dish from different websites also taste widely different. If you can get someone to tell you family recipes, it would be great. Ask your husband his favorite food, and if not too complicated, learn to cook it first. Then move on to other areas. Cooking is work in progress for an entire lifetime. I asked you to consult a dietician as people who work out regularly have different protein requirements than others considering their age, built and exercise schedule. There are no hard and fast rules in cooking. Work on what works for you. Happy cooking and hugs to you
Awww thank you soo much! I see some motivation at least by someone. Usually I am only been criticized for not knowing to cook..I guess i'll get better with time, I need not be so hard on myself.. I had those moments too when the dishes turns out good, average & totally bad at times. But I keep myself going.. Only person to educate me on family receipes in MIL but she stays in india and more importantly she wouldn't bother to teach, I have tried that already. Now i'll make a manual of what I am learning.. lol Thank you agaian & hugs to you too