my question, broadly stated, is this: in your weekly meal-plans, how exactly do you balance out the meat-veg-grains ratio?
i cook for two – or one-and-a-half, rather – and my strategy is to cook three saalans a week minimum - one chicken/meat, one lentil or grain, and one veg. in between, there’s fish or shrimp or a stir-fry noodle dish or sandwiches, but i have to watch it because of the real and inevitable danger of leftovers.
how do you do it?
Re: meal planning: keeping that balance
I don’t know exactly. I don’t think so much about it per say.
I don’t like to eat meat too often. I don’t like to eat rice every week either and I sort of don’t like to eat pasta/noodles more than once a week. And I don’t like to eat the same veggie/daal/meat the next week either, needless to say I’m too weird. But it’s the way I grew up, with simple food, and I think that’s the way to go if you want to stay healthy.
Here’s my week plan so far
Monday: Masoor ki daal and naan
Tuesday: Gobi handi with chapati
Wednesday: Pastabake with mince meat
Thursday: Okra handi with chapati
Friday: Take out day
Weekend: We’ll see when we get there 
Re: meal planning: keeping that balance
i plan it on Sunday’s since i cook at least 3-4 meals for the week ahead on Sundays. Normally, i made two chicken saalans, one beef (keema, kabobs etc..) and one veggie. I make daal/chawal at least once and a nice dish (fried rice, pualo, etc…) over the weekend. The rest isn’t plan.
Re: meal planning: keeping that balance
Arzi, that’s a good week plan. my veg-to-meat ratio happens to be about the reverse of yours in the plan you’ve posted. i do try to incorporate veg elements into the meat dishes i make – shaljum gosht, baingan raaita with a chicken main, for instance, then the oriental stir-fries with seafood/chicken and vegetable medleys or steaks with roasted veg accompaniments – but there is a lot of meat that gets eaten.
rice i do try and make once a week, since both of us do like it very much.
rabia, that sounds pretty similar to mine. i try to cook the bulk on Sundays when the grocery perishables are fresh in, but just as often i end up cooking as the week goes along. also, daal chaawal is love. especially with a good green chili pickle. yummm.
Re: meal planning: keeping that balance
so you have chicken only once a week?!
I eat meat about 3-4 times a week; only because I’ve never been a fan of daal and only know like two daal recipes so it gets boring!
Re: meal planning: keeping that balance
I love meal planning.. it makes my week so easy! I make the menu on Saturday so whatever grocery is needed can be done over the weekend. I also make less so I dont have leftovers the next day.. I dont like to eat leftovers neither do we do frozen (except for haleem, nihari) so I keep the quantity less.
I incorporate both desi and non desi to keep the balance.. oh and I tend ot make things that husband can take to work for lunch the next day!
sample menu!
Sunday
Biryani
Monday
aloo palak/ roti
Tuesday
home made pizza (chicken/veggies)
Wednesday
chick peas / roti
Thursday
egg fried rice
chicken manchurian
Friday
zuchinni salan/ roti
Saturday
Shawarma
Re: meal planning: keeping that balance
oh no, no, the thing is, that one chicken saalan will last me two days of the week. then there’ll be, say, a fried chicken dish or a chicken club sandwich or something some other day of the same week. i do make only one chicken saalan a week, simply because thereafter i incorporate chicken into something else, usually non-desi, within that same week. gosht gets cooked less frequently, and usually with veg, because i don’t eat red meat whereas my husband does.
Re: meal planning: keeping that balance
I plan on Friday so that we can get the groceries on Friday for the rest of the week. I cook fresh daily before my husband comes from office in enough quantity so that he can take the leftovers for next day’s lunch along with salad. I alternate b/w meat, lentil/grain, veggies but I also like to try new recipes also so sometimes this changes.
It also depends on how much time I have as I work 8 hours a day so if I have more time I’ll be cooking something that takes more time like meat otherwise I’ll just make some veggies as they cook faster. However we do like to incorporate more veggies in the meal so I’ll either add veggies to the meat or have a huge bowl of salad to go along with the meal.
Re: meal planning: keeping that balance
I’m the complete opposite haha. We’ve chicken once a week - very rarely twice - and maybe a meat dish as well once a week but that’s usually not the case. I can’t even remember when I had meat (lamb) last time. I don’t eat red meat outside because I’m only used to lamb and people just don’t know how to cook it properly and I don’t even like veggies:hinna:
Re: meal planning: keeping that balance
Yeah I don’t eat lamb and not too great at cooking it either - even with a pressure cooker it never comes out soft. But what about keema? That counts as red meat. I usually only buy chicken and keema from the gosht dukaan, and use keema for things like kofta, keema aloo, lasagne etc.
Re: meal planning: keeping that balance
i usually make chicken or goatmeat salans and have it with rice and daal, orange or sometimes brown masoor dal. if i dont make daal then i try to eat some chickpeas or bean salad along with the meat and rice. i try to have some sort of lentils and veggies with atleast 1 meal.
you can also add veggies to your diet by having vegetable soup as a side . or have a bowl of salad before eating your meal.