Most people think that they do not need Meal Planning. They assume that they are fine and managing to run their kitchens well and feeding their families home-cooked food!
Sure, that is absolutely true! Nobody has ever gone hungry because they were not able to decide what food to cook to feed themselves or their families.
Kitchens are going strong, managing to handle the increased (post-Covid) pressures well, churning out meals more consistently than before.
Businesses are advertising majorly promising delivery of groceries or food in 15 minutes flat!
Ordering from restaurants, eating out, take-away is slowly inching back to their pre-covid levels. Industry experts are talking about how food-related businesses are going to do much better in the post covid world.
Things are looking good and soon the offices and schools will reopen and life will become what it was before the Pandemic hit us.
So where’s the problem then?
Before we go to the problem, let us step back and understand the context.
- According to research, Indians spent the most amount of time in the kitchens as compared to anyone where else in the world. And this research is from the pre-covid times. The time spent in the kitchen has only increased in the current circumstances.
- We are having more home-cooked food now than ever before.
- There are quite a lot of people who have underlying health conditions be it a lifestyle disorder or a genetic predisposition for which they need to be careful. Their daily diets have to take care of these factors.
- The first and second waves of Covid have also made us aware of the importance of having a strong immunity. Instead of solely relying on pills, we are counting on our kitchens and coming up with immunity-building concoctions and healthy foods.
- Food prices are rising for various reasons. While eating out a few times was always budgeted for, the costs of food for home cooking have also gone up thus putting more pressure on the home budgets.
- A lot of people have either lost jobs or taken pay hits and year-end bonuses are a thing of the past for now. Family budgets have taken a huge hit because of Covid.
- In a family, each member has a different choice or preference and that has to be factored in when one is planning the daily menus.
- The landfills/ garbage collection centers outside most major urban centers are beginning to rival the Himalayas. Food wastage coming from households is a real problem. According to Food Waste Index Report 2021, released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 50kg of food is wasted per person per year in Indian homes.
With this context in place, we should be conscious of the fact that the increased expectations from the kitchens have put the decision-maker (mostly the lady of the house) under immense pressure. And we must not forget that she is handling a lot of other responsibilities alongside managing this one too.
And that is where the problem lies!
That is some context (and problem) for everyone to mull over and think through, but it must be given serious consideration by all and most importantly by the women themselves!
It is time to see how we can optimize our efforts and relieve ourselves of some stress. Meal Planning is one such activity that we would like you to consider seriously.
Use AMIYAA: What’s Cooking Meal Planning App to help you in this task
Like all new things, this too shall require some discipline, and initially, you will find it challenging and would want to quit and want to fall back to your old ways and pattern.
We would advise you to persevere, for all good habits require patience and time to grow on you.
Once you get used to this, you will be saving a lot of time, resources, and money and also be able to create more interesting and healthy meal plans for your family.
It will be worth it! We promise!
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