This my dears is a thread to all the working moms on GS who are always on the prowl for quick healthy meals and ideas for the ever demanding family.
Please share recipes / tips and tricks that are a hit with your family.
I’ll start…
I keep a clear chicken broth on hand.
I use it to boil my kids rice in, to make maggie noodles or just to boil pasta in.
I may not feel 100% good about the carbs they are getting but now I know there are protiens offsetting them.
Especially helpful w/ picky eaters who are self proclaimed veagans.
Great thread Muniya, Would love to know how other working mums cope.
i try to make up a base of cooked onions and tomatoes that i freeze in small portions. In this way i can rustle up a home made curry midweek without standing around for ages or use it for pasta sauce.. There are days i come home completely shattered and just haventy got the time or patience to be slicing and dicing
I try to plan my menu in advance so that i know wot i’ve gotta cook as soon as i work in through the door. I cant stand that conversation “right kids, what do you want to eat”, " i dont know mum", “right i’m cooking chicken curry and rice”, " I dont want o eat that" “so what do you want to eat?”, “i dont know” uffffffffffffffffffffff
my hubby wont eat the same dish two days in a row so its gotrta b something different.
Have you been watching Jamie Olivers 15 min meals? To be honest i have yet to be convinced!
I keep lots of kebabs in my freezer. They sure are a life saver
I make biryani ka masala with chicken and all and freeze it. When I want biryani I just thaw the masala, boil the rice and the biryani is ready.
great thread Muniya!
I have gotten into the habit of getting up early Saturday mornings and cooking for the coming week.
I often half-prep stuff like daal (i.e. cook it all the way except the tarka) and put it in the fridge. When we are ready to eat I heat it up, apply tarka and serve.
I’ve tried freezing cooked portions but never just the masala…so I’m curious to know about the spices bleeding out too…
Oh I forgot, my daughter loves lasagne, so I make a big pot, when it cools down, I divide into 6 portions. 2 she eats right away and the rest 4 portions go into the freezer and whenever she says she wants it, I take out a portion, leave it out for an hour and then warm it in the microwave up for her.
I have to say before I was not a fan of freezing food, bas wasey, but as I started reading and cooking stuff by Fauzia Kitchen Fun on FB, she give a lot of tips on how to freeze food and re-use later, that I found out that freezing is not bad at all.
I buy keema in bulk, make koftas, seekh kebabs, shami kebab (keema + boneless meat). I always make sure aata is goondafied and in the fridge if I am gonna be serving curry during the week.
After big dawats I always freeze leftover food.
For quick desserts I do chocolate mousse, (3-4 ingredients, blender and time to set), panna cotta, or sara lee pound cake french toast with fresh fruits and cream.
I use a pressure cooker for ALL my cooking, cuts time out a lot.
I will marinate and keep whole chicken in the freezer, great for those days when samajh mein naheen aaraha kya pakaoun.
Leftover daals become the base for aata and I will either make parathas or puri and serve with chicken karhai or even achari aaloo.
Make cookies and freeze. Darkened bananas are also frozen (measured for recipes)
For working ladies, you could marinate meat with even lemon juice/ vinegar and some basic masalas. And cook when you get home, the meat tenderizes due to lemon/vinegar and the spices turn it really nice. Easier and quicker to cook as well.
I keep tortillas , veggies, chicken on hand add plus some mexican cheese in the fridge for easy peasy quesadillas.
I will add more when I remember other stuff.
On the weekends the naan from the previous nights, I dampen a little bit and then saink it on tawwa with a little ghee. Tastes yum for nashta or brunch.
For busy out of home days, I thaw basa fillets in a strainer in the sink. Come home pat dry with kitchen paper cut 1 inch pieces a nd add some masalas and make lahori fish fry. Make basic matar pulao and you are gold.
Always always have chicken breast cut in strips and marinated in the freezer. You can use these for pizza topping, chicken steak and cheese sandwiches, pasta casserole, jalfrezi or masala pulao.
With mint and imli chutney I make in bulk and freeze in tiny Tupperware. Nothing gets wasteful and I always have fresh chutney on hand.
I was so good initially that I used to do bulk cooking on weekends and then only defrost them and make roti. I used to make things like qeema base(add potato or onion later), nehari, karahi etc. They tasted good.
when i freeze the tomotoe base, I dont add any spices or ginger garlic either, but i add all of these things to the when i start cooking the curry. I found when i froze the base with the spices added to it and then thawed it out, it just tasted weird, so now i just freeze a very basic sauce but it save a whole lots of effort.
I’m not a working mom but some of the things that we do at our place are:
Grind ginger and garlic, make small portions (about one/two tsp each) and freeze for later use.
Make tomato puree, by boiling tomatoes in a little bit of water and then pureeing the tomatoes in a food processor, putting the puree in a deep tray and then freeze. When frozen just break them into pieces and put to use later.
Freeze Shami kababs, chapli kababs, seekh kababs and koftay.
Crack and peel nuts in advance and put in containers for later use (almonds, cashew nuts, pistachios, peanuts).. these can be put in the fridge too
Make parathay and freeze.. not the regular parathay.. but the fancy ones (we add flour, skimmed milk, oil, water to make the dough)
Chop up vegetables like capsicums, green chillies and carrots and freeze
Peel peas in HUGE quantities ( because we love them in everything) and then freeze in bags.
Cut up, fry and then freeze bitter gourds for making salan later
great thread munz… I cant do frozen food.. I have tried cooking and freezing stuff but one it doesnt taste the same and two I feel like it takes forever to even thaw it.. I would rather just make something simple!
i froze the yakhni though and that comes in handy with chicken palao and my mom made me lots of kababs but its not like you can eat kabab on your own.. you do need something else with it?
and I also feel like I dont have time for prepping things.. gotta make more effort!
freeze yakhni (broth). We freeze it in small 1-time-use containers. can be used for noodles, pulaoo or even sabJi
Whenever we cook dry qeema, we make a lot and freeze it. it comes out almost-fresh every-time.
wash, chop and freeze Cilantro in paper towel. it comes out good every-time.
wash, dry and save mint leaves & curry leaves in containers
Make base masala and freeze (onion, ginger+garlic paste, namak, haldi, mirch and bhoono for sometime)
Most Important of all: I know its a bit of work, but if you can spend sometime up front in making proper 1-time-use packs when freezing meat its a blessing.
Another tip for working women, or women who are super busy. During the week use tried and tested recipes. I have a picky eater (hubby) and I will usually try new desserts and main courses on dinner parties. That way if he doesn’t like it someone else will, it is easier to shop for the new dish and I am gonna be in the kitchen so might as well.
On weekdays I just want to get out of the kitchen.
I don’t freeze pasta based or chinese food, but every time I make salan, I make sure I freeze some of it while it is freshly cooked. This way, by the end of 2 weeks, I have plenty of variety in my freezer.
So on my busy working days, when I know I will be too exausted to cook, I just take out 2 salans out of the freezer in the morning. By the time I return they are nicely defrosted. Heating them on the stove retains the flavour more than microwaving.
Also adding fresh dhaniya and garam masala makes them taste freshly cooked. Frozen Kababs are also very handy. Putting them in large pitta pockets with tons of salad and garlic sauce, and the kids love it!
I love freezing stuff too-I do however often run out of freezer space and sometimes resort to using pre-made pastes. Quite like the Shaheen pilau paste. All I do is add the chicken thigh strips/stock made from stock cube and rice and pilau done.
I tend to cook kebabs and then freeze them. It helps me when husband arrives and wants something now.
I think all the advice given so far is tops-well done all the organised folk out there.
