There was a time when deciding ‘what to cook’ was a last-minute decision — and it worked.
Our parents, grandparents and other family elders would look in the kitchen, ask around, or simply walk to the market and whip up a meal. Life allowed for that kind of spontaneity because:
Markets were closer
Expectations were simpler
Commitments were reasonable
Distractions were fewer
Time was just more available
Today, that is no longer the case.
We are living faster, juggling more roles, and making hundreds of micro-decisions daily. So when it is time for lunch or dinner, the innocent “kya banayein?” often turns into decision fatigue, stress, and even skipped meals or last-minute ordering in.
Here is what has changed:
Time is fragmented: Between work, errands, childcare, and traffic, there is rarely a free hour to think, shop, and cook on the fly.
Expectations are higher: We want healthy, tasty, quick meals — often all at once.
Distractions are constant: Social media, work emails, and the ‘always on’ culture eats into our planning energy.
So while last-minute meal decisions worked in the past, today’s lifestyle demands a new approach — one that acknowledges your busy calendar and still lets you eat well.
That is where meal planning comes in.
Contrary to popular belief, meal planning is not about being rigid or repetitive. It is not about making your week boring. It is about making it smoother.
Planning your meals in advance means:
Fewer decisions before meal times
Better grocery budgeting
Less wastage and guilt
More headspace for everything else
Think of it like scheduling your food just as you schedule meetings, workouts, or kids’ activities.
One hour on a weekend = fewer moments of “what now?”
You don’t need a fancy spreadsheet. Start with a handwritten list or an app like AMIYAA. Plan 2–3 meals. Build from there.
In a fast-paced world, planning isn’t overthinking — it is self-preservation.
So the next time you find yourself stuck at mealtime, remember: the problem is not your cooking skills. It is the lack of a plan.
And the solution is beautifully simple — just plan it once, and eat in peace the rest of the week.
We often don’t think twice about what we are eating—until life forces us to.
A health scare, new fitness goals, a wedding, a baby, a festival binge, persistent fatigue, or just the stress of everyday life—somewhere in the middle of all this, someone always says: “You should really watch what you’re eating.”
Food becomes the quiet centre of everything. It is what keeps us moving, healing, growing, and coping. And yet, our daily relationship with food is often last-minute, chaotic, or plain neglected.
We stand in front of the fridge and ask, “What should I make?” — sometimes once, often multiple times a day.
That decision fatigue is real.And Exhausting!
This is where meal planning comes in—not as a diet plan, not as a strict regimen, and definitely not as a punishment.
But as a simple, thoughtful routine that brings clarity, comfort, and control into the daily act of feeding ourselves and our families.
Meal planning isn’t just for fitness freaks or super-organized parents. It is for anyone who has ever found themselves scrambling to put dinner together after a long day.
It is for people who want to eat better but don’t want to be in the kitchen all the time.
It is for those of us trying to save money, reduce food waste, and bring a little more joy at meal times.
And no—you do not need fancy tools, meal prep boxes, or exotic ingredients. You do not even need to resort to the last minute deliveries be it for missing ingredients or for cooked food.
Meal planning can start with just deciding tomorrow’s lunch today. Or writing down three dinners you actually want to eat this week.
Meal Planning gives you back your mental space. It cuts down the “kya banayein?” stress. It creates time for what truly matters—because you are not in the kitchen more, you’re in it smarter.
In a culture where food is celebration, comfort, and care, meal planning is how we honour that spirit without burning ourselves out.
Let us build this habit together, one step at a time.
I have yet to come across a household where this question has not troubled anyone. EVERYONE has encountered it sometime or the other be it getting out of bed in the morning, leaving for work or even in the middle of an office meeting – this question is known to come up at the most inopportune times! It is the most annoying question for anyone who takes care of the meals for self/family. Answering it adequately is made more complicated by the fact that in India:
We like to eat freshly cooked meals. This needsorganizing and prepping, which takes time.
We eat combination meals viz., a sabzi (vegetable dish), a dal (Lentil), with all or some of these – Rice, Chapati, Salad, Curd/Raita, Papad, Pickle, maybe a beverage too. This requires a lot of unique permutations and combinations for each meal.
The Reality
This question cannot be avoided and this decision has to be taken for multiple daily meals. (This leads to Stress)
While the question remains the same, the answer has to be different and interesting each time. (This causes more stress)
Every single time when we start thinking of what to cook, we either call upon ours or our family members’ already stretched memories to throw up some options for choice. The top of mind recall mostly throws up the few options which ends up making our menus repetitive and boring.
Most of our menu decisions are made a little before meal time or on the day of the meal itself. This leaves us with less time to organize and prepare or to even consider ALL the options that can probably be cooked.
Deciding what to cook/eat, at the last minute, limits one’s choices and facilitates sub-optimal food decisions. Some decisions also backfire for being unimaginative or because they are unhealthy, being meals of convenience.
Ideally one should cater for a variety of foods in daily meals while also ensuring that the meals are healthy, balanced and are cooked as per the desired palate of self/family members.
But how does one do that amidst handling hordes of other responsibilities too? This can be easily done by meal planning.
What is Meal Planning?
Putting it very simply, Meal planning is the process of deciding what meals one wants to eat in the forthcoming days. It is an efficiency hack & a strategy to organize the daily repetitive tasks into manageable actions.
By having a meal plan, one reduces the daily stress, avoids the last-minute scramble and ensures that every meal is a winner in terms of health and taste.
Why is Meal Planning important?
Meal Planning helps us to save time, money, resources, prevent food wastage and reduce our daily stress, to name a few benefits. It also enables us to eat a variety of meals which are tasty and healthy.
Another important point to note is that our health is governed by factors like our genetic makeup, level of activity and our daily diets, to name a few. While little can be done about our genes, we can do a lot where exercise and nutrition are concerned.
But there’s a catch!
While exercise-discipline is something that the individual can manage well, the nutrition piece goes haywire for most people.
Note that our health is made in the kitchens, therefore, to be able to take best food decisions, we need to simplify our daily menu decision making process.
How do we do that
It is important to identify and acknowledge the roadblocks in the process of optimal decision making. What is it that prevents us from eating carefully crafted meals every day?
Limited time, resources & money notwithstanding, it is mostly our inability to retrieve multiple, distinct (tasty & healthy) meal options from the layers of our memories each day because of our limited mental bandwidth.
This is why we need to bring those ideas out of our crowded mind spaces and document them so that we can get a bird’s eye view of all our available options while deciding our daily menus.
STEP 1: CURATING THE FAMILY MENU
The first and THE most important step towards meal planning is having a list of options of foods/meals/dishes, handy and accessible, to choose one’s daily meals from and not rely on our memories for this. This is not difficult as one’s daily meals are mostly as per one’s own home’s culinary culture.
You may create this list in a notebook, in a spreadsheet or in an App. The key thing to remember is that this list has to be easily accessible to you at ALL times.
Taking inspiration from how a restaurant’s menu is sectioned into Breakfast items, Snacks, Main Course, Vegetarian/Non-Vegetarian Dishes, Desserts, …, you can make a list of everything you like/want to eat in your various meals.
Ideally one can start with options which:
are part of one’s own cuisine and culinary repertoire.
can be made with one’s existing kitchen infrastructure and the available resources.
are one’s/family’s favourite meals.
One may go on to add one’s preferred dishes of various ingredients and foods from different cuisines that one likes etc,.
The quality of your daily meals will be a reflection of your Family Menu. This is why you should put together the list accordingly viz., if you want to eat more protein or millets etc,. then incorporate those food ideas in your list.
A list of your meal ideas which is ‘available on demand’ for making daily menu choices will reduce stress and save on decision-time.
This is also a great opportunity to record one’s family’s culinary traditions. Involve your family members in curating and adding to this list as it inculcates a sense of ownership of the menu amongst everyone.
You will be pleasantly surprised at the diversity that you have in your own familiar cuisine and how extensive, interesting and full of variety this family menu becomes over time. Also, this curation will be completely unique to you and your household.
IMPORTANT
At the initial stage you should only focus on making this list such that it is easy to pick ideas from and be cooked without much hassle.
Include foods that you would ordinarily have as your meals. Do not make this a wish list of exotic meals just yet.
Your Family Menu is the foundation of a healthy meal planning habit so make sure that it is a strong one.
While curating your Family’s Menu seems tedious & time consuming initially but it goes a long way in ensuring that one will save time everyday hereafter while deciding daily menus.
STEP 2: CONSOLIDATING THE RECIPES
Recipes are very useful when one is learning how to cook. As the proficiency in cooking improves, so is the desire to try new recipes.
How many times have you asked someone for a recipe or saved one online?
Most recipes are duly saved but seldom/never used as they are scattered all over the online spaces and are not easy to find when needed. Pull together all those recipes/links scattered across cookbooks, bookmarks, Pinterest boards, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Email etc into one organized spot.
Cook at least one of these recipes every week and see which works for you. Remove the ones that don’t and keep your list clean.
Between your Family Menu and the Recipe collection, you will have enough and more (interesting) options for your daily meals.
Try to save this information in the same place as your Family Menu so that all the required information is in one place when you sit down to plan your meals.
What Next?
The creation of a FAMILY MENU is the single most important thing that one can do to ensure efficient meal planning. Everything else that follows next in the Meal Planning process will work well only if we have our Family Menus ready for use.
Once your menu is reasonably ready, you can simply choose what to cook from it everyday. However, some challenges will still remain which is why we need to simplify a bit more.
Interested to know HOW?
While managing the kitchen seems to be a daunting task, it is easier if we break down the kitchen tasks into these 4 basic steps:
Decide what to cook/eat for the next meal(s). Best done over the weekend and for at least next 3-4 days, if not more.
Take some time out to organise the required groceries, vegetables etc. Schedule some time for this.
Get the ingredients prepped in advance as per one’s meal plan viz., chop/ wash/ soak/refrigerate/knead/thaw…
Lastly, when it is time to prepare the meal, then one only needs to cook the prepped ingredients as per the recipes. Psst…This is the simplest part.
Truth be told Cooking is not as difficult as it is thought to be. It is actually the tasks preceding it viz., Plan, Organise & Prep which pose the real challenge.
But once one knows how to manage those, life is a breeze!
STEP 3: PLANNING THE MEALS
This should be done by oneself while the other tasks can be easily outsourced, remotely managed and monitored. This is because nobody else will be as invested in or clued into one/one’s family’s needs and preferences.
Also, remember that knowing what to cook/eat is more important than knowing how to cook.
This is an opportunity to make sure that one’s diets are balanced and include all the required nutrition to the extent possible. This also ensures that there is (good) food on the table at meal-times, especially when one is hungry and tired after a long day.
It is easier to make healthy food choices and fill any gaps, when all the choices are in sight.
If you have a reasonably good family menu list which is handy, it should not take you more than 10-15 minutes once every week to plan your meals of the next 7 days or so. I am speaking from experience. This is how it goes;
First, pick and choose your Dal, Sabzi, Rice or other meal combinations for each meal for next few days from your menu, as per your choice and what your schedule allows for.
Next review and identify these planned meals for any gaps, mis-match, resource or other constraints. – any early/late meetings, eating out plan, guests coming over, any other engagement, things to be bought etc.
Adjust your meal selections to fill the gaps or work around those constraints. For example, if you see that some meals/ days do not have optimal protein or vegetables then add those items to those meals. Or if you have a very busy work day, then you can plan for the simplest of meals or may plan to order in/eat out or cook a larger batch of food the previous day such that the leftovers can be eaten again the next day etc.
Do involve other stakeholders (your family members) in this decision making as it makes Meal Planning inclusive and reduces any possible expectation mis-match & conflict during meal times.
Meal Planning will take some practice but once you make your meal combinations & plans as per your needs, time and resources a few times, it gets better. Promise.
You can even repeat your weekly meal plans, if you like. The good part of home cooking is that the meals and their combinations can be repeated as per choice. In my own home, Rajma-Chawal are cooked at least once every 15-20 days (by choice) and no one complains!
STEP 4: ORGANISE & SHOP
Once the meal plan for the next few days is made, one needs to identify the items from the plan which need to be organized and purchased. Create a shopping list for the required items of one’s meal plan and any other items you may want to buy.
Having a shopping list ensures that one does not wander in the shopping aisles wondering what to buy or tempted to buy everything, just in case!
A Shopping List enables one to buy only what is needed & in quantities that one needs.
This prudence helps to save money, time and prevents wastage of precious resources.
STEP 5: PRE-PREPARING/PREPPING
If you know what is going to be cooked in the next few meals and the ingredients are available and handy then it allows one to do/get some prep done in advance.
Prepping is to peel & cut/dice/chop/cube vegetables or marinate ingredients, soak/grind/boil the dals/chana, knead the dough, weigh the ingredients as per recipe or calorie chart etc., ahead of time.
Prepping saves on effort and last-minute stress by having all the ingredients in a ready-to-cook form.
It improves one’s efficiency when it is time to cook.
STEP 6: COOKING
Everyone wants their food to be tasty. It is at the stage of cooking that one ensures that the food is appetizing by choosing appropriate recipes which cater to one’s/family’s palates.
As mentioned already and contrary to popular belief, cooking is the easiest of the Kitchen tasks and is not as tedious as perceived.
Once you know what is to be made and the ingredients have been purchased and prepped, all that is left to do is to mix the ingredients over a flame.
If you find this hard to believe just take a look at any cooking channel and check out the Chef showing how to cook a recipe.
The Chef is able to do everything with aplomb because all the three previous tasks (planning what to cook, organizing & prepping) have already been taken care behind the scenes.
See, what I mean?
That is all there is to Meal Planning, really.
Even though this may seem like a lot of work, it is really not. The most difficult part here (like anywhere else) is getting started. Remember that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
The rewards of Meal Planning are many- like getting to eat your choice of meals which are good, healthy and tasty & all this with no stress! While the joy of looking forward to thoughtfully planned meals is something else altogether, Meal Planning is liberating in more ways than one! Do give it a try.
‘Health food’ is usually processed food that is available for sale and described such because it is prepared, packaged and marketed as healthy. It is usually sold in retail in fixed quantity packs.
Think about this for a minute – Can ‘health food’ completely fulfil the nutritional requirements of all the family members in an economical and sustainable manner?
Good health is easily achieved through eating the right foods
‘Health foods’ may or may not be strictly healthy for all as the constitution of the same may not be agreeable to all body types. Some might have fibre but added sugars. Others may claim to be healthy but if you carefully check their labels, you won’t find those very different from other similar products in terms of the macros, micros and caloric values. These are also usually a bit more expensive than the regular grocery items that one buys for the home kitchens.
‘Healthy Food’ on the other hand, is a general description of food or combinations thereof which is deemed healthy for human body. It basically includes optimal portions of grains, vegetables, proteins & fat.
The required food combinations for each home are different and thus are adapted by the home makers accordingly while also fulfilling the diverse expectations and requirements of their own family members.
It is easy, economical and sustainable to eat ‘healthy food’ as there is plenty of choices and variety available to cater to everyone’s tastes.
The truth is that it is NOT what one eats for a one month/three month/ fixed duration plan but what one eats everyday that defines one’s health in the long run.
Therefore, one must look inwards towards one’s home kitchens for maintainable & healthy food choices.
We cannot stress enough on the virtues of home food and the importance of cooking at home in helping one to maintain good nutritional health. Combine this with optimal exercise, rest and relaxation and you have the perfect recipe for a healthy life!
Being healthy is not the end of a journey but it is the journey itself hence all the more reason for it to be sustainable!
This journey of good health begins in the home kitchens.Cook & Eat more at home!
Can everyone be a masterchef? Does it fascinate you to watch cookery shows with Chefs demonstrating their cooking prowess? It looks so simple when they do it. This is because it is easy and do-able for them and not only because they are PROS but because of the following reasons as well!
The Chefs KNOW what they are going to cook beforehand.
The Chef is only cooking one dish at a time.
The Chef is also under no obligation to cook what “everyone” will like.
All the required ingredients are ready, chopped, prepped as per the recipe by the support staff, and organized neatly in small bowls, handy for use.
There is no last-minute confusion about a missing ingredient or a risk of compromise because somebody forgot to “soak the rajma” a night before! 😉
The Chefs are under no pressure to use less oil, moderate salt & spices, or cook with health or other considerations in mind. Their focus instead is on aesthetics, plating & driving a perception of rich taste.
Since everything is ready and prepped, the actual process of cooking is merely an assembly of ingredients with aplomb!
This last part is essentially the show that we all watch in awe with our mouths agape!
We do not mean any disrespect to all those talented Chefs out there but only want to draw attention to the kind of planning & support which goes behind the scenes to pull off the recording of each recipe demonstration.
If done right and planned properly at home everyone could be a Masterchef! And we mean it! All it takes is a little bit of planning and everything is sorted.
There is a learning for all of us here.
Get into the habit of planning the meals in advance. It always helps to save time and reduces stress. This will include taking into account the preferences of all family members and their specific requirements for their meals so that everyone’s needs are catered for.
2. Once the meals are planned, one knows exactly what groceries are required for each meal and can proceed to buy/organize accordingly.
3. The required peeling & chopping of vegetables, soaking, marinating, pre-cooking, etc can be done as per the planned schedule. One can even get it done from the service providers if the option is there.
4. When it is time to cook whether one is doing it oneself or someone else is doing it for them, It can be managed easily as this is the least stressful of the activities.
AMIYAA: What’s cooking (Indian Meal Planner)
The fact is that the one person who is in charge of providing food for everyone at home has to do all these tasks oneself in most homes. That person, be it yourself, your Mom, Grandmom, Sister, Father, Brother, Cook – each one could do with help. It is high time we all stop taking our daily meals (& how/where they are coming from) for granted and extend a helping hand.
About time we EMPATHISE and participate in the process.
Meal Planning will help and make all this easier!
Start small but do get into the habit yourself or enable the decision-maker of your family to do so and everyone will eat better and live better!
‘The 100+ Thali Project’ was a challenge that I set for myself.
I wanted to see how my life can change and how different my meals can be if I start planning them the way I am wanting others to do, using AMIYAA App.
Ghar ka khana (Home-cooked food) usually does not elicit a very excited response unless one has been away from home for long. In such a scenario, the simplest of home food becomes the strongest of cravings. Once this craving is taken care of, we resort back to the “lauki-torai” jokes and make light of it!
The other occasion when one talks wistfully of Ghar ka khana is about the favourite dishes that one’s Mom cooked for the family or what one ate in one’s childhood and youth.
Else, home food mostly remains on the periphery of public discourse and is taken for granted most of the time.
Daily Home Cooking and its associated chores are considered mundane and monotonous with little or no differentiation brought in, on an everyday basis. It is at a huge disadvantage for this very reason and has caused a bit of apathy and more than a bit of discontent amongst the people impacted – those who are eating and those who are cooking!
However, with the variety of ingredients, fresh seasonal produce, diverse cuisines, more experimental palates, I sought to bring some excitement into this daily chore and experience in my own home.
The Family
We are a family of 4 ranging from 16 years to 56 years. Our parents (76/84 years) join us for lunch on weekends and holidays. Everyone is vocal and has strong preferences where food is concerned. While I prefer being a vegetarian, my family likes to eat non-Vegetarian food as well so we do cook it occasionally.
How I went about it?
The first thing I did was to sit with my family and list down all of our favourite meals in the AMIYAA App’s very useful “My Handy List” in the Library module. We would keep adding to the list as and when we would remember. By the end of it, this list itself became quite long and helped me plan meals of choice.
We also realized that we have some favourites Dals (Pulses/Legumes) which we combine with standard Sabzis (vegetables). Then there were certain dishes that we like to have with Rice & others with Chapatis. In our Meal Plans, we tried to switch these combinations for variety.
We tried not to repeat any one type of Dal or vegetable within a week and ensured that we also had ample protein in the week along with seasonal produce.
As a family, we also order in sometimes so that had to be accounted for in the Meal Plans as well, along with the times when we were going to a friend’s place or had guests over.
The deal with the family was that while Breakfast would be on the go as everyone had a different schedule to follow, we would have one Dal-Sabzi Meal in the day and one meal would be ‘different’. The latter usually was Dinner or Lunch on Sunday when we all ate together.
We also agreed that we will try to incorporate new ingredients/dishes/recipes in our Meals occasionally to add variety to our daily meals.
However, we agreed to have a few new introductions to have a fall-back option in case one/more family members did not quite like the new dishes. The fall-back option usually was a leftover from a previous meal so that took care that one did not have to cook more dishes for any one meal.
With this understanding amongst us, I set to work. I started by making my Meal Plans for 3-4 days at a time and planning accordingly. I found this easier than when I tried to make plans for longer durations. I did not mind doing this twice a week as it also gave me an opportunity to ensure that my fridge was not collecting too many leftovers or unused ingredients. This helped me cut down the food waste tremendously.
WEEK 1
The first week was tough to get the discipline in place. It took some getting used to for me and the family. There was a good selection of fresh vegetables, proteins and greens in the meals, along with ensuring that none of the Dals got repeated. We also got to eat ‘Litti-Chokha” at a friend’s place. We had never had it before and loved it.
Lunch & Dinner
1 / 7
WEEK 2
As I mentioned earlier, I prefer to eat vegetarian food and, in my quest, to add vegetarian protein sources, I introduced Soya chunks to our menu. Each of the family members (including myself) had a certain preconceived notion about Soya having eaten it earlier. I took the opportunity to make it to our tastes and this worked for us.
Now I am looking for new recipes for Soya once the Green Peas go out of season.
We also had an epic failure in the Amla Methi Sabzi. I had seen the recipe on the internet and got swayed by the health benefits of both ingredients. As expected, both of them lent their sour taste to the dish and it was almost unpalatable. The day/meal was saved by the Dal and the freshly made pickle of Carrots, Turnip & Cauliflower (Gobhi-Gajar-Shalgham ka Achaar)! J
The family enjoyed Mutton Curry at my elder brother’s place on Saturday.
Inspired by the Litti-Chokha of last week, we made Dal-Bati for lunch on Sunday which was loved by all three generations of the family. We happily repeated it for Dinner.
Learning of this week – You win some, you lose some! 😉
Lunch & Dinner
2 / 7
WEEK 3
This week saw Cabbage Sabzi being repeated (after 9 days). But no one complained or noticed. This could be because it was paired with a different dish this time. 😉
Our daughter (21) made Pasta Dinner on Friday.
Our Mother is an amazing and generous cook and on Sundays, we like to eat her specialities. She makes Dosas like a pro and that is what we had this Sunday with all possible accompaniments.
In the evening, we had friends over and had Red Thai Curry with Steamed Rice for Dinner.
Lunch & Dinner
3 / 7
WEEK 4
Sem Phali was the new vegetable on our menu this week. We had never made it at home or even eaten it previously. It was strongly recommended by our vegetable vendor and so we bought it and cooked it with potatoes. We loved the crunch and mouthfeel and will definitely have it in future as well.
Chowmein got repeated after 12 days (Week 2) but again its pairing was different from earlier. And it is a ‘least resistance meal’ where I am concerned! It is part of the Family’s Favourite List!
Cholai Saag (Amaranth Leaves) got repeated after 8 days but it was green (Week 3) vs red (week 4) and the dish combinations were different each time. Also, we like Cholai so planned to have it again.
Soya chunks made a re-entry, albeit in a different avatar. A dry Sabzi as opposed to the Curry version of Week 2.
Lunch & Dinner
4 / 7
WEEK 5
Bokchoy Soup & Fried Rice make a comeback in our dinner after 13 days. Oriental flavours are enjoyed by all in the family and this time they had Chilli Chicken to go with it.
I tried an Andhra recipe of Methi Koora (A dry preparation of Methi Leaves with Arhar Dal) for lunch one day.
Our family likes the Sindhi dishes of Sai Bhaji (All greens & Chana Dal) and Bhugar Chawar (Spiced Rice). This week We also had Dal Pakwan, another Sindhi Dish at our friend’s place.
We ordered in Samosas and had Chaat for dinner one night.
We went out with the family for lunch on Sunday and had a light dinner to balance the sins of the afternoon! 😉
Lunch & Dinner
5 / 7
WEEK 6
We tried Kundru Sabzi (for the first time) this week. Liked it and will be making it again. Gajar Matar got repeated in the Menu after 20 days but since we all love it, no one had any issue with it. In fact, the complaint was why it had not come into circulation earlier?
Baingan Bharta & Kala Chana Curry (Last made in Week 1), Palak Paneer (last made in Week 2) were other dishes that were repeated this week. These again are part of the Family’s Favourites List so were happily accepted by all.
Rounded off the week with a sumptuous Aloo-Puri, Kaddu lunch on Sunday.
Lunch & Dinner
6 / 7
WEEK 7
Soya Curry made a comeback this week (Last made in Week 2) and Fried Rice after Week 3. The Kaddu Sabzi made a faster comeback (within days) on popular demand by the family.
Our office colleagues came for Dinner one night and we had the Burmese Khow Suey with them.
Dal Bati returned to the Sunday Lunch scene again on demand, by old and young alike!
Lunch & Dinner
7 / 7
WEEK 8
A lot more dishes or ingredients from previous weeks appeared again on the Menu. These were included after discussion with the family. But having done this for almost two months, the family was happy to see their favourite meals coming back into the menu of this week and I was relaxed knowing well that meals were being enjoyed by everyone.
Lunch & Dinner
8 / 7
Howdidwe benefit?
The repetitions in the Menus were not for lack of choice or bandwidth but consciously picked on from the long list of family favourites list that we had created initially. Our relationship with food improved tremendously and we started enjoying the meal times more. We started looking at new recipes, dishes and cuisines more curiously wanting to try them at home. Our collective urge to ‘order-in’ reduced drastically as everyone was getting to eat a variety of tasty food of their choice at home.
The family discussions were diverse and did not get waylaid by complaints of food! 😉
We made Menu selection an inclusive activity so that it did not fall on anyone’s shoulder (mine!) singularly. We ate consciously. We were happy and looked forward to our meals every day!
For me, personally, there were a lot of other gains too.
I reduced my stress of figuring out what to cook for everyone by making it an inclusive activity.
I saved my time by planning the meals for a few days at a go and then following up with organizing groceries and prepping in advance.
I planned my monthly purchases such that I availed the ongoing deals in the store.
I also reduced wastage by not buying excess and limiting fresh produce purchase to only what is needed for the next 3-4 days.
I got time to work on my startup (AMIYAA) and to spend it with family & friends too.
And we all ate healthy and tasty food and continue to do so!
Honest Admission:
It took me much longer to write and put together this blog post than it took me to make my meal plans of 8 weeks (2 Months) and put them in action! J
I think everyone should try Meal Planning. It helps!
One reason for this is that it tends to become boring and monotonous after some time. The funny thing is that it does not become so only for those who are eating it but even for those who are cooking it! In the latter case, it may be called decision fatigue!
Tastes and preferences are very personal attributes and the younger generation has to be led into acquiring tastes of traditional home-cooked food beyond their comfort foods and locally available ingredients. This is a battle that is mostly pitched against the heavily advertised fast food and restaurant industry which finds favor with the younger impressionable lot.
On the other hand, there is a battle to get the older generation to sample, accept and enjoy the exotic, non- Indian cuisines as well but the rigidity of their tastes makes it difficult as they prefer to stick to their own comfort zones especially where food is concerned.
What complicates matters further is that every family member has their own specific likes and dislikes with few items garnering favor with all.
Thai food icons set. Shrimp and traditional restaurant, cooking, and menu, vector illustration. Business photo created by sent via – www.freepik.com
It is the lady of the house who is usually in this tussle of searching for common middle ground and she comes under immense pressure to cater to everyone’s tastes and preferences satisfactorily. Add to it the decision fatigue she undergoes being made to be responsible for resolving this daily repetitive conundrum!
The limited number of the commonly liked dishes and food items then become the ‘least resistance meals’ and are made more often thus further compounding on the monotony of the menu.
There are some easy-to-do things to introduce variety in the daily menus and slowly get the family roped in as well.
One member or the other of the family is always unhappy with the dishes being served!
The first thing is to include everyone while making the meal plans. This way everyone has an opportunity to articulate what they would like to eat in the next few meals. All that needs to be done then is to include the same in the meal plan, cooked and served accordingly.
Picky children refusing healthy food. Cartoon vector illustration. Set of naughty kids rejecting vegetables, crying, dreaming of burgers, sitting at tables. Food, health, diet, caprice concept
The cooking style and flavors seldom change in daily cooking and new dish and cuisine introductions are few and far in between
One can tackle this by having a day(s) in the week or month (depending upon the ‘appetite for change’ of the family members) where one would try out certain new dishes or recipes. The trick is to have everyone’s support and interest while attempting to cook from new recipes. Sometimes, when the recipe being tried is radically different, a backup meal can be planned for, too to be on the safer side.
The same ingredients are bought and cooked cyclically, in the same manner, that they have always been cooked.
In a country like ours, where we have a very wide range of different ingredients available all year-round in most places, we are spoilt for choice. Adding to the diversity of our daily food selections thus is very easy. Variety can easily be introduced in our daily menus by bringing in more ingredients than what one is using currently. One can even explore making the same ingredient in a different way rather than making the same dish recipe repetitively as most home kitchens are wont to do.
The dish parings are fixed and standard in most households, eg., a particular vegetable/sabzi is always paired with any one type of Dal/legume.
This is a no-brainer really and the easiest way, perhaps to create a different meal. Just a little bit of tweaking and one can have a lot more different combinations within the limited offerings. The difference can also be brought in through various pickles or accompaniments as salads, papads, etc.
In most home kitchens, one grows up eating the same kind of food that one ate in one’s parents’ households (plus some) and so it continues, mostly. There may be a bit of exaggeration here but it is not far from the truth that new dishes, new combinations, new recipes in daily home cooking are more of an exception (weekend specials) than a rule.
Keep an eye out for our next blog post which we call “The 100 Plate Project”.
With the backing of good nutrition, one can easily achieve one’s health and fitness goals.
To put it simply, the successful pursuit of good health is based on one premise – Nutrition. Everything else follows this.
However, getting the right nutrition in place is far easier said than done, especially so if one is managing other responsibilities alongside as well. This is not because one does not want to eat healthy or is not serious about the health goals but because it requires effort and commitment.
In the daily rigmarole of responsibilities, one’s own needs often take a backseat, especially the healthy ones! It just seems so difficult to do everything the right way.
As in other activities, planning comes in handy for nutrition as well. Whether one is planning for one’s own dietary requirements or taking care of the family’s requirements as well, Meal Planning is of help to all.
Simply put, meal planning is as important to a healthy lifestyle as having a timetable for a successful study schedule is.
With meal planning, one is able to account for available resources and time, specific dietary requirements, and health goals that need to be catered for.
CASE 1.
1. We have never broken down our food into macros (viz., Carbohydrates, Fats, Proteins) therefore the moment one sees a table of food items described as per the macros, we get confused and overwhelmed!
2. What follows is that we start looking for recipes for the major food items and get further confused when we have to quantify each element and balance out the portions for the entire day.
3. However, the fact is that recipes are only indicative and quantification of each macro will still need to be done by each person as per the recommended plan.
CASE 2.
1. Your Dietician gives you specific meal plans, which may be very different from what you are used to eating usually.
2. You thus have to start catering for your meals separately from your family thus creating an extra load on your already heavily burdened shoulders / stretched schedule.
CASE 3.
1. You have to manage certain health conditions through your dietary intake as per the Doctor’s advice., viz., less oil, salt sugar, etc.
Remember, that whatever the case may be and whatever our health and fitness goals may be (Fat loss, Weight loss, Muscle gain, managing lifestyle disorders, etc),the ONLY way to a sustainable mode of eating healthy is to incorporate the macros/dietary requirements in our daily menus with our own style of cooking in our own kitchens.
Every household has a unique taste and preference and the food/recipes that we are familiar with are appreciated by us and our palates are used to the same. Another significant thing to note is that if we adapt our dietary requirements to what is being cooked in our kitchens then no special cooking is required and the same dishes could be served to the family most of the time.
This goes a long way in sustaining our diet plans and our healthy eating.
Also, most Recipes or Menus suggested by others are usually new to our kitchens and thus need a special effort to get cooked. Because of the special effort that is required, one ends up repeating certain dishes/preparations in a pattern and soon becomes bored of eating the same dish over and over again.
This is another reason that we are not able to adopt these ‘exotic’ recipes in our daily cooking/lifestyle in the longer run.
It definitely looks simpler to look outwards for help with either specific meal-wise/dish-wise recommendations or even pre-cooked meals, which one can order in, according to one’s specific diet requirements.
However, the fact is that we cannot eat out /order quantified/specialized meals ALL the time. It is neither practical nor economical nor is it sustainable.
And let us remind you that being healthy is a lifelong journey aided by sensible everyday decisions. It is not a short-term viz., 12 Weeks / 6 months /one-year plan.
Sooner than later we will have to come back to our own home kitchens and thus the earlier we take the matter into our own hands the better it will be. This will need some planning (investment of time & effort) initially but once we do it a few times, it rolls smoothly.
For all the foods that are noted in the nutrition plan, one should ask one’s coach for possible alternatives if those are not in regular use in one’s kitchens. One should not feel shy or overwhelmed. One should always get one’s doubts cleared to avoid unnecessary hurdles, as one has to look at the long-term sustenance.
Thus, whatever the marketing spiel is, always know that it is easier to maintain diets within one’s own cuisines and that a sustainable and healthy eating practice starts and ends in one’s own home kitchen!
By saying this, we do not propose that you stop eating out completely – that is not wise or practical because there will be occasions when you may have to eat outside of the plan!
You must remain flexible and adapt to those situations in an informed manner. Also, if you are able to manage a healthy home-cooked meal most of the time then eating out a few times will not make a difference to your health.
What we are saying is that meal planning and cooking at home is an opportunity for everyone to make the meals interesting by incorporating a bit of variety and ensuring that the meals check the required boxes in one’s pursuit of specific health/fitness goals.
Remember the six-pack abs are made in the kitchen!
This would be a real good possibility if only every household ate the same kind of meals, liked the same ingredients, and prepared them in a uniform manner. As things stand, food is very personal and unique to each household and there is no standard one-size-fits-all formula in Meal Planning.
Truth be told, no one knows better than us what food will get appreciated in our homes! And thus, no one else can decide our daily menus for us! We will have to do this ourselves till we make someone like AMIYAA App a part of our lives!
AMIYAA understands this and helps you to make your Meal Plans, just the way you and your family like it!
And with use, AMIYAA will only get closer to understanding your likes and dislikes! Like all relationships, this one too shall need your time, patience, and unquestionable support. 🙂
In AMIYAA, you have a friend.
Download the App now and use it! It will make a difference in your life! Every journey (however long it is) starts with a small step so do not be afraid of taking one in this direction today!
In conclusion, we would like to say that Meal Planning is not as complicated as it seems in your head. It is in your hands to keep it simple!
Most of us know basic cooking and our daily home cooking is just that and a bit more. Most daily meals being prepared across Indian households are being made from the accrued and knowledge and observations of the person cooking the food.
We may have learned some from our mothers, from our friends, and so on. Most people do not check recipes when they are cooking the regular daily meals unless they are new to the process of cooking. In such cases, recipes will help and should be referred to.
People mostly check out recipes when they have time or are entertaining or when they want to try out something new. But this is not a daily affair, for sure. So please do not confuse occasional cooking when you might need specific recipes with daily cooking where the estimation and experience come into play for cooking the meals for the family!
