Having a weekly menu help to take care of the healthy nutrition part as well as the other pragmatic side of life. Keeping cooking simple like Veg rice and raita on the days when you have a long working day or some hectic meetings and workshops. Having a plan ahead takes care of it. Moreover, avoids last minute hassle to take decision and even worries for ingredients.

Other than that we can avoid monotony by having different menus each day--takes care of each one's choice of food in the family.

If children sit and plan with you, they show interest in eating and helping you to prepare it on days they can afford to. Like Thursdays are hectic for me. So I put Mixed Veg sandwich for breakfast. I leave the kitchen after packing dabbas for lunch. My younger one leaves for school at 9. SO she takes charge of fixing breakfast for me, my husband and herself while I get ready and do last minute preparation for my workshops.

For those who are not fond of cooking but have to do it anyway, it is best to cook when you find time like at night , so that you are not stressed in the morning. I make a couple of dishes after dinner for the next day. It makes things do much easier. I also make it a point to have Idli/Dosa batter, bread /butter/cheese , boiled potatoes all the time in my fridge. 

Yes. In my house, we decide on the previous night what to cook next day. We do not eat meat or chicken on Saturdays. Accordingly we plan. Of course this planning makes things easier.

usha manohar wrote:

For those who are not fond of cooking but have to do it anyway, it is best to cook when you find time like at night , so that you are not stressed in the morning. I make a couple of dishes after dinner for the next day. It makes things do much easier. I also make it a point to have Idli/Dosa batter, bread /butter/cheese , boiled potatoes all the time in my fridge. 

Idli/Dosa batters are so handy and really save you in times when things go unplanned. Quick, scrumptious and above all does not leave you with the guilt pangs of feeding something unhealthy to your family due to time crisis. These things in your fridge definitely are good contingency plans.

 

 

Here our system is some differ than you. Here are food is very simple. In break fast we prefer prontha and bread. In lunch and dinner one or two vegetables curd salad and chapati. Rice is not our regular food. Here in Punjabi families Dall and in Rajasthan familes Curry is must in dinner.

Food is more or less the same all over India - you have either rice or rotis as your staple diet along with dhal /meat/fish and vegetables. The cooking style and use of spices differs from region to region. But for a foreigner it all looks the same. Down south we eat more rice and rice preparations while in the north it is more wheat . A balance of both would be a healthier option.

Well, my kitchen has a mix of all states. Born out of two different state's parents and then married to a man of third state, we have a mix of so many cultures. Moreover, brought up in an Air force background, we saw so may cultures around us and our taste developed for so many cuisines from across the country and then we adapted some International ones into our Indian cooking. My Kitchen is a perfect dhaba of all culture.

Arunima Singh wrote:

Well, my kitchen has a mix of all states. Born out of two different state's parents and then married to a man of third state, we have a mix of so many cultures. Moreover, brought up in an Air force background, we saw so may cultures around us and our taste developed for so many cuisines from across the country and then we adapted some International ones into our Indian cooking. My Kitchen is a perfect dhaba of all culture.

Your dhaba is a rich one as it's a symbol of harmony. 

usha manohar wrote:

Food is more or less the same all over India - you have either rice or rotis as your staple diet along with dhal /meat/fish and vegetables. The cooking style and use of spices differs from region to region. But for a foreigner it all looks the same. Down south we eat more rice and rice preparations while in the north it is more wheat . A balance of both would be a healthier option.

Yes every grain have their benefits. In these days habit of eating rice is increasing in North. In J&K rice is principal grain. They eat it with Urd Channa dal and souse of dry mango.

I like cooking very much and cook different varieties of food. Gender is not a matter in cooking. While you are good in cooking which makes bonding in relationship. And, this is true.