Weekend Build Ups: Let’s get ready for the week honey!

While driving back from work these days you see umpteen number of vendors selling corn or bhutta in this part of the world. I ama hoarder. And as they say ‘eat seasonal’ I try to get best of both the worlds, I buy at least 10 bhuttas and while I roast 3-4 on the gas, myself for the family, I pressure cook the remainin, deseed them and save in containers for usage in paneer corn masala, corn soup, salad, veg biryani, corn cutlets etc etc etc…easy peasy.

I usually keep such staples ‘ready to use’ in my fridge to be used as per requirement. These little weekend build ups to the war help me combat the weekdays in a breeze.

1. Homemade Eggless Mayonnaise:to be unloaded between yummy soft brown bread or between slightly grilled ready to use pizza base slices, garlic bread loaf slices. Endless usage. You can put onion, tomato, garlic, chicken shreds etc. in this and use it as filling between sandwiches etc.

2. Peeled garlic, a bowl full, stored in food grade air tight container
Garlic’s very good for your heart, immunity etc etc, I try to shove this in my dishes as much a s possible , pizza, pasta, aloo paratha , chutney,

3. Peeled onions: Its easier to slice phataphat on the board, whole-4-5, I slice them as per my requirement, it

4. Boilded and Peeled Potato: To whip up yummy cutlets/ dahi aloo, jeera aloo, sandwich, burger…mom says potato makes the meal complete, now what bout my expanding waistline. Will start suryanamaskar tom!!!!

5. Bhuna masala: Ginger, garlic, tomato, chillies pureed and fried in oil. For those lazy weekends rush to your local grocer and ask for Maggi bhuna masala. Its super convenient for a 5 minute paneer butter masala or biryani.

6. Grocers delight 24 x 7: Always keep Bread, Butter, Jam, eggs, paneer, frozen matar in your fridge.

7. A well stocked pantry: This place can go a long way in whipping up delicious meals through the week, at the drop of a hat! Jot down all you need before the monthly visit to the supermarket and voila you are done. It's equally important to store each as per functionality else you may not get the right ingredient at the right time and place

8. Freeze it: You can soak and then boil rajma, lobiya, chana on the weekend and store in the freezer. All you need to do on weekday is take this out and use the bhuna masala from above, dash these in with seasonings and you are good to go.

Apart from the all these little preparations like keeping roasted brinjal ready for whipping up baigan ka bharta or keepig peeled and siced potatos in water stored overnight in fridge, helps you buy those precious 10-15 minutes for yourself when you are getting late for work on the weekday.

For all the above you need to wake early on Saturday/ Sunday and do the preparations. You also need good quality food grade, air tight containers of various sizes. And above all you need a smile on your face and that wonder hug from your baby!