Raj and I LOVE eating out. It is a bit of a problem. We have our favorite restaurants in each type of food specialty - thai, mexican, ethiopian, etc and basically rotate through those restaurants. Occasionally we will try some new places but for the most part we stick with what we like. BUT in all this eating out, I know I can't control myself and totally end up overeating and being unhealthy. Then I feel gross and so on. The week of Thanksgiving, I swear we ate out almost everyday. I told Raj that if he wants to continue eating out he can, but I need to stop. Sometimes with both our crazy lives, it is so much easier at the end of the day to just go out and grab some food. But, I know I like cooking and feel better when I do it...it just takes so much more effort.When I told Raj he would have to eat out alone, he suggested we make a menu for the week so we stick to only eating out 1-2 times rather than 4-5. So we did and for the most part we've stuck to it!! Not sure if cooking the Mexican food is going to happen cause we still have a lot of leftovers and I'm tired. It felt really good to cook and eat yummy food. Having some of my mom's food helped with the quantity as well. And raj did this mega grocery run that was so helpful because it meant I had everything prior to cooking.
The menu included some leftovers from Thanksgiving (chole - a chickpea dish and daal makhni, a lentil dish). The stuff I made was some of my famous tortilla soup,(this dish is my specialty made just right everytime) a bean salad that Ekta has given me the recipe for and some of Astha's pasta. If anyone wants recipes, let me know. And if anyone has more recipes to share...please do because I feel like I want to try something new for next week. One more thought..we have been trying to reduce our use of processed, canned goods over time. It comes from many reasons...the extra garbage created, the extra additives and preservatives, the amount it travels to get made, etc. This week's experiment was I made my own black beans and didn't use the can! I soaked them and used the pressure cooker and it was perfect. You could argue the bagged black beans are still traveling and a whole bunch of other things. We know its not perfect but constant baby steps! :) The tortilla soup used to use so many canned ingredients but now the only remaining are crushed tomatoes, a can of corn and the vegetarian stock used for the base of the soup. If anyone has any ideas to replace these, it would be much appreciated!
Life Lesson: Appreciate your incredible mothers and fathers who cook, because this daily cooking stuff is hard work!
Cooking is tough but rewarding. The hardest part for me is cooking for one--luckily you have someone to cook with and for :) it becomes therapeutic though--it's a way for me to relax after a long day while still feeling productive. And nothing can quite describe the feeling you get when you make something delicious and think,yup, I made that! (bonus points for being healthy too!) my family friend has a good food blog that I was following pretty religiously for a bit. He is a chiropractor and does a lot of wellness work so it's all pretty healthy, but tasty too! Google dr. Parel's diet. Good luck and happy cooking!
ReplyDeleteWORD! We have the sameee problems! I want that bean salad recipe btw, looks yum! Did you try the chili receipe I gave you guys? It is so filling, healthy, and easy to store...
ReplyDeletesejal, heena just recommended the website to me as well. going to post it here so i have it. http://drpatelsdiet.com/. and reema we still haven't tried any of your recipes. i should now. have been looking and slipped my mind. i'll email you the recipe. if you can read the ingredients in the box,it is basically that and mix everything together!
ReplyDeletethis is FANTASTIC! Paras and I used to do weekly menus and then get groceries afterwards so we didn't waste produce. And it helped me so much because I spent so much time just thinking about what I wanted to make that day. And we could look at everything overall and make sure we were getting enough fruits and veggies through the week.
ReplyDeleteFor your canned stuff -- think about frozen corn instead of canned just to get rid of preservatives, vegetable bouillon (or bottled "better than broth") which will last longer than a can/box of broth. Or think about making your own broth or boullion with some veggie scraps you save up over time (store them in the fridge till you have enough to make a batch).
I have this vegan slow cooker book which is also a good thought -- throw everything in during the morning, and you have hot food waiting for you when you get back home. You can even do all the cutting prep work the night before. I think it's a good investment. We have an Indian slow cooker book too. As long as you're okay leaving something on during the day. Great for when you're both home late and the last thing you want to do is start cooking, often when eating out gets pretty tempting!
Also, I would LOVE your tortilla soup recipe...mine turns out different every time and I still like the taste of yours the best.
shivani these are great tips! thanks. we'll see if it keeps up. i made tostada pizza yesterday but feeling lazy today and we have too much leftover food in the fridge right now. i thought i sent u the tortilla soup recipe. will email it to you if i haven't. hope all is well!
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