Cooking Cooking

On my birthday I decided to take few resolutions(which sounds like a big word for me) among which "cook for a week" falls into second one. I am yet to make a seperate post on my thirty first birthday.

So after I quit working (immediately after Soni was born) I took cooking full time. I always cooked everyday fresh since I stayed home anyways and this was not a big deal as I had plenty time in hands.I enjoyed staying home, decorating my new place which was just less than an year old and spending productive time with my kid.

So when Suku was born I thought this should not be so difficult as I am used to it. But I was so wrong. Feeding him, pumping for him, giving Soni extra attention since she was getting jealous over new born was not easy. But I still stuck to cooking everyday(most times morning and evening)..one of the major reasons I never wanted to compramise on nutrition aspect is K being diabetic.

But I discovered slowly that this cooking schedule is killing me as it demanded lot of time as well energy which I felt could be put to better use. I understand that we need to eat everyday that too in right quantities
but there has to be other option where I could work on spending little time in kitchen and more time with kids.Afterall that's the only reason I chose to stay at home rather than being a full time working woman.
That's when I took a decison to cook for whole week at one go.Okay that seems very dramatic so I deeided to cook for atleast three days at one go.
I planned the schedule and decided to give it a try from the week of my birthday.
Initially this was difficult as I am not used to heating the food from fridge everytime. But I knew this was just in my mind set.So I bought good plastic containers to store food I cooked and arranged them neatly inside my fridge so that would look appealing to eat. I also decided to add good menu so that I wouldn't feel bored to eat the same thing over and over. So I prioritized variety over quantity.And it works!!!

The greatest perks are

# I get to go to gym regularly without having to worry about K's lunch or him taking enough protein.
# I get to play with Suku all morning when Soni goes to school.
# I get time to light Diya and offer my prayers peacefully.
# I get to make trip early morning to Suku's playgroups and play gym.
# I get to visit library often and participate in story telling.

So all these keep me going and I am glad I am sticking to this so far.

Yesterday evening I went to Patel brothers and bought vegetables like every weekend. But instead of them going into fridge they went on stove.
I made palak paneer,beans curry, chole,Brinjal(gutti vankaya),black peas curry,Beerakaya chutney, mango dal and sambar. All these were done within 3 hours and I am proud of myself that I mannged to clean the kitchen, load dishwasher, wash non stick pans,grind dosa and idli batter and be done by 10.00pm.

Wait- another perks of cooking at one go is not having to clean stove tops over and over and be done with minimal cleaning.

So by today morning I had ample amount of time to feed Soni her breakfast, go to gym,play with Suku and catch my morning news peacefully.All I did was switch on the cooker for rice and dal for kids.Ofcourse I prepared beetroot fry for kids which took me less than half an hour.

By then I had time and energy to clean the kitchen cabinets when Suku was catching his thirty minute tv show.

And publishing this post in the day time is also one of the perks ain't it :D?