Working women and food preparation

Why don't u get up a little early and cook for morning and night..are u living in India ? If yes ask the maid to chop vegetables in the morning..while she cuts veggies u can finish some other work..u can also cut or ask maid to cut many vegetables during weekend for the entire week..and store them in boxes in fridge ..if possible hire a cook for food preparation...if u buy 4 burner stove and cook many dishes simultaneously u can finish the cooking in morning and relax at night..I know how irritating it is to cook at night after coming from home tired.

 

Hi

As generic said try to get up little early probably by 6am.And cook for both the times in the morning itself.

I am also working with a school going kid.Generally I make little extra for night also.

Example Morning Idli with any chutney.Sambar,rasam and vegetable for lunch.Night sambar with dosa or sambar with upma.

You can make kurma with varirty rice for lunch and the same can be add with Idli in the night.

Also generally I make onion chutney,garlic chutney and corinader and mudina chutney on weekends and keep it in fridge.So morning I will do only Idli/Dosa/Pongal/Upma only.

You can your maid to cut vegetables in the morning.Try to relax after coming home in the evening,because it will be irritating to cook immediately after coming from office.

 

op, I had a similar schedule when I was working..I dint get enough time to cook in morning and ended up cooking at night also...was sooo exhausted..then I started using some techniques to become efficient..few tips which worked for me :
1. 4 burner stove for cooking dishes and 1 induction stove to boil milk and water...simultaneously do cooking while preparing morning milk and coffee tea etc..
2. Used to get vegetables washed cut by maid either early mornings before cooking or previous night and stored them ready for use in morning..sometimes would get 2-3 veggies cut by maid at a time and stored in fridge so that one day if maid doesn't turn up or comes late also I had veggies ready for cooking..few small veggies would be cut by me also..the menu for next day should be planned in advance and veggies should be kept ready accordingly. Green chillies, coriander leaves, curry leaves etc neatly sorted out and kept in containers in fridge. These things can be done while watching TV also.
3. Prepared coffee decoction for entire week during weekend and stored in fridge in a bottle.
4. Prepared dosa batter once a week preferably during weekend and stored in fridge for entire week..in wet grinder..used to run the wet grinder during free time while watching TV itself as I had to check on it once in 10 mins..Sometimes I would purchase the batter if I was unable to prepare it for some reason..When dosa batter got over I used instant mixes like rava dosa mix, rava idly mix and instant break fast mix etc such as Upma mix.The instant rava dosa or rava idly batter can be prepared previous night just by spending 5 min and kept in fridge for using the next day. Used to make chutney occasionally only..once or twice a week.side dish either chutney powder or sambhar if I'd prepared it for lunch.
5. If I planned to make sambhar rasam etc then little bit of toor dal I used to cook in pressure cooker the previous day and store in fridge after cooling it down..this would be done while eating dinner and relaxing as its a background task..few working women told me they prepare tamarind water also the previous night itself or purchase tamarind paste for sambhar and rasam.
6. Veggies like potato, brinjal etc will become black when cut earlier so u can cut cut and keep them in a container filled with water..some ladies get onions cut by maid once in 2 days and keep in fridge in airtight containers.
7. Always preferred making pulao, fried rice, mixed veg rice etc on weekdays along with raita as it is easiest and not time consuming.
8. Chapati dough need not be prepared everyday..once in 2 days is ok and u can store in the fridge..just take out had an hour before making chapati so the chill ness goes..see if u can get help from maid to prepare chapatis or atleast chapati dough.

Last but not the least do not encourage your husband to be a picky eater as this will cause lot of trouble to u in future! Train him to eat all dishes, if he doesn't like what u cook let him cook what he likes or eat at his office!

 

My Dear You are managing really well ! you do have more than a full schedule. I cant really see what else can you do .There are only so many hours in a day and you cant wish or insert more .

It is time your husband starts to help you out. He Expects a different dish everyday? well you expect his help in at least chopping and preparing the vegetables and indeed help in cooking itself. He comes early, so has more time and can, indeed should help.

If he does not know how, instruct him. Tell him all greatest chefs are Men! At weekend show him cookery shows of men. You must have been reading @iyerviji 's posts , as how all the men in her family cook. Indeed so do in my family. My husband of 50 years can cook and even feed other people. It is an essential life skill and not a shame for the men.

If that does not work, think technology; microwave and freezer. Cook double and freeze half. Many things come out faster in microwave. But you must have a double door fridge if you are in India, and there may be power problems. If not, there are many dishes half prepared that can be done this way. All fried onion masalas, Tomato and tamarind puree, Lemon juice, Cooked polao,Boiled Chhole, chane, rajma parathas etc can be frozen and used as and when needed. Peas, and leafy veggies can be washed and frozen. If you are in Metros, Cut vegetables are available, but are expensive. . Rice specially comes out well in Microwave. Or you can invest in a rice cooker which also doubles as a steamer.

Even food processors help to chop, grate and cut vegetables. They even make atta. But look for one that is faster to clean, or you may spend more time in cleaning gadgets. Do most of the planning and preparation in the weekends, and minimal cooking during the week. Rice cookers come with timers so you can even make preparation of any pulao and start in the morning. then you do not have to check on that.

You are doing very well but are falling in the trap of trying to be superwoman. You also need relaxation and "me" time. I would strongly advise that you ask your husband to share work.

All the best.

 

can we freeze tamarind puree n chappathi dough fr entire week???

 

wer are all the beautiful n talented working women????? lets pour in some suggestions!!
tagging @meerasrini @chillbreeze @Mahavid @IniyaaSri @Rith @sreeram @SGBV and all others!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Why dont u try other dishes for Brkfast..
Say U prepared Chapati Dough .. Why dont u prepare Stuffed paratha.. ( like Alu paratha , Onion / methi paratha ) .. So u dont need to prepare Extra brkfast .. if u eat eggs.. U can preapre Omlette brtead.. U can prepare sandwich .. n its less time consuming..
hire maid .. who can help u in cutting vegetables..

 

The suggestions from my side is

For breakfast you can add sabudhana kichadi (which can be prepared in just 5 minutes.)
You can really add variety with sandwiches.. The easy being bread omlette...
Also Along with idly and dosa, you can prepare paniyaram dear!! Thats bit different and easy too.
Other than these, you can add egg dosas, and Koozh (pearl millet or ragi or both) I have this every day.
You can also try Ragi puttu.. These all easily prepared and highly healthy as well.

And for lunch you can prepare many kuzhambu other than just variety rice dear. If you prepared sambar, you can have it for breakfast as well as for lunch..Same with other kuzhambu varieties also..one day you can prepare chapati or either stuffed parathas for a change.

For dinner, just roti with different side dishes will do I guess. For variety in side dishes, there are millions of indian websites and blogs!! So you can rock!!