I am a student and also working on a part time project and in between my school, work and married life I used to find it hard to find time to cook enough everyday. After sometime even the restaurant food didn’t taste good especially for vegetarians who already have very little choice. I am also not very find of the canned food that we get in stores. So to make life simpler I adopted some of these practices, suggested by one of my cousins,  and since then my family is eating healthy home cooked food. I would love to share these tips with you all so that we can have more families eating healthy home made food.

  •  Make use of the freezer. I pressure cook almost all kinds of dals including Tur Dal, Channa Dal, rajma, chola, moong dal, cool them completely and stored them in small airtight containers (Ziplock containers) and freeze them. The trick here is to store in small packaging based on how much you will need for one time cooking. Once frozen it is hard to scoop out hence small quantities. Also I have put date labels on the boxes just to be aware of when it was cooked. I usually stock enough for a month and then refill whenever I find that extra half hour. By storing Dal in such a manner, when I come back from school I simply have to thaw one container and season it as desired which takes barely few minutes. And there I have a nutritious protein rich dish added to my meal…
  • I also do this with some vegetables. Semi-Boil a lot of potatoes the traditional way in the pressure cooker and store them in Zip lock bags without peeling or cutting it and use as required in curries, snacks, breakfast etc.
  • In case of cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, capsicum, I pre-cut them freeze them in Ziploc bags again in small packaging so I just have thaw them and use as desired.
  • Cooked vegetables and curries can last for an extra week if freezed. They might simply need a re- seasoning to bring back the fresh aroma of spices.
  • Another useful addition to my refrigratir is cooked rice. Whenever I cook rice I make extra plain rice so that next time I can temper it with some spices and make a different version for variety.
  • For paratha lovers, it is really helpful if you pre-make some of your favorite stuffings and store them in the refrigerator. Use them as and when you feel the craving for stuffed parathas.
  • For a healthier addition to my meals, I include a lot of fresh fruits most of which do not need much cutting and still be a nutritious addition to the entire meal.  

 There is a lot more we can do to make eating healthy food simpler. We just have to get creative in the kitchen.

Hope these tips will be useful to you. Do let me know your comments on this  and feel free to add your tips that you would like to share with others.