Meal Prep Part 3

This post took a lot longer to materialize than I thought. I started a new job, moved and then moved again. I just never found the time to write. Sigh.

So this post is about freezing other than Indian cuisines! There are some things that should be kept in mind:

1) Never freeze fully cooked pasta, noodles etc. unless prepped in a certain way.

2) Potatoes do not freeze well unless they’re in a mash or in stews and soups

3) Never freeze dairy based sauces, dressings and condiments for more than a few days except cheese.

4) Always freeze dressings in portions. Since most are not cooked, defrosting a large batch and refreezing might spoil it.

5) It always pays to freeze extra vegetables after prepping them. This link: https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/uga/uga_freeze_veg.pdf has a lot of vegetable prepping methods!

6) Preserve fresh herbs by chopping them up and freezing them in an ice tray in your choice of oil or water

In all cuisines, there are food types that can be easily frozen. I usually combine flavor profiles from different cuisines into a dish to make sure it suits my taste!

Dressings

Dressings for salads and pasta can be frozen easily. That way, you just need to throw a bunch of veggies together or boil pasta at the time of eating. For pasta dressings, I also cook vegetables like asparagus, bell pepper etc. and add it to the dressing. Pro tip: Orzo pasta works great with oil based sauces since it’s really small

Sauces and Curries

As mentioned above, freezing sauces with dairy is not a great idea. However, sauces like pesto, stir fry marinade, teriyaki sauce, Thai curry paste, marinara sauce etc. can be easily frozen. Most Asian cuisine can be frozen, even after adding tofu! Having frozen broths and gravy can be helpful as well.

Bread, Noodles and Pasta

Any baked bread can be frozen. It should be cooled completely and sealed tightly before freezing. I wrap mine in aluminum foil and put it in a freezer bag before freezing it.

Pasta and noodles can be frozen as well. Cook the pasta till it’s just short of fully cooked according to your taste. Toss it with oil so every noodle is well coated. Spread it on a foil covered tray and freeze the tray. Once frozen, transfer the pasta to a freezer bag. When ready to eat, just boil it for a few minutes in water!

Roasted Veggies and Casseroles

It shouldn’t be a surprise that roasted veggies freeze very well. The only exceptions I’ve found to this are potatoes and cabbage. Similarly, most casseroles will freeze well. I recommend baking it for 10 mins less than the recipe. When ready to eat, bake for 10 minutes after defrosting!

Patties, Falafel, Kebabs etc.

All kinds of burger patties freeze well, including just portioned and shaped meat. Falafel is another thing that freezes great and just needs to be shallow fried before eating. I also microwave mine, but the texture becomes dry and might not agree with everyone.

I was extremely surprised that kebabs freeze well too. Just make the kebabs in your usual way and freeze them in individual containers!

Soups

My all time favorite thing to freeze is soup. Every time I have extra veggies or even some fruits, I just roast them and purée them. Add some herbs and you have an amazing bowl of lunch!

I hope these tips were useful! I will follow up with some of my favorite recipes from here on.

Meal Prep Part Two: Freezing Indian Food

This post is majorly about freezing Indian food, but a quick general note first. When I started meal prepping, the first thing I did was research what can be frozen and what cannot be frozen. I found a guide by Lauren Greutman (her handle: @iamthatlady) that is amazingly detailed. Here’s the link: https://www.laurengreutman.com/83-foods-to-freeze-or-foods-not-to-freeze/

I love having Indian home food every other night. Finding complete guides to freezing Indian foods is quite hard. It took some experimentation, but here’s a list!

Chutneys:

Most chutneys freeze pretty well. I always make big batches and use them when needed. Coconut based chutneys are the only exception. I found the texture changes on thawing and it isn’t very appetizing. While not a chutney, a mix for pani puri water freezes very well. Just blend it like you normally would and freeze it. When needed, you can dilute it with water and add salt, cumin powder and chat masala. Sometimes when I’m running low on herbs, I just add some chutney I froze. So, that’s another advantage of freezing these.

Gravies:

This recipe contains a lot of dairy and will need to be eaten in two weeks. The portion is single serve!

My cousin freezes large batches of cooked gravies and adds vegetables or paneer to it at the time of eating. I prefer adding everything in and freezing single serve portions.

One thing you should never freeze in gravies is seafood. When I froze a batch of Shrimp Vindaloo, the shrimp turned leathery after thawing. The same seems to be true for all seafood, according to the internet.

There are many opinions on whether we should freeze dairy. I find freezing gravies with dairy in it is fine as long as the food is eaten in two to three weeks. The same holds true for gravies with paneer in them. The other gravies can be frozen for three months.

Bread

Indian breads are another thing that freeze well. They can be frozen uncooked, half cooked or completely cooked. The last time my mom visited, she froze around a 100 phulkas for me. I just microwaved them when needed. I will be adding a post about freezing phulkas, parathas etc. and a quick way to roll them as well soon. Till then, you can follow this link: (add link). I would not recommend freezing raw dough. It does not thaw well and the resultant bread will not be as soft as the ones made with fresh dough.

Dessert

Indian desserts come in a large variety. Some of these can be frozen very well. The best desserts to freeze are all kinds of halwas like carrot, moong etc. Other desserts which can be frozen includes barfis (except coconut based), ladoos etc. Basically, any dessert without a dairy base can be frozen. Just remember to eat them within the month. Needless to say, these guidelines do not apply to traditionally frozen desserts like kulfis.

Dry curries

While these can be frozen, I do not recommend it. The texture is too watery to qualify as a dry curry. This is especially true for potato. Never freeze potatoes, boiled or otherwise. Many guides recommend it, but my experience has been quite bad. When I prep for dry curries, I make sure to eat them within the first three days. They can stay fresh in the fridge for that long.

Lentils

All lentils freeze well. I freeze large batches of my favorites like dal makhana, rajma, moong, dal khichdi, moong etc. They can stay good for three to four months. You can freeze lentils cooked with salt and finish the dish later as well. I prefer to freeze mine in single serve portions so I don’t have to do anything before eating except chuck it in the microwave.

Fried Stuff

Homemade kachoris. Who wouldn’t want to freeze these?

I have frozen kachoris, samosas etc. multiple times. I usually do this when I get packages from India. They do not thaw well or reheat well. They become quite soft and lose the crispiness. However, if it means I can eat kachoris over an extended period of time without the effort, I will do it.

Batters and mixes

This last section is my favorite. Even before I started meal prepping, I used to freeze dosa and idli batters. It is extremely easy to make them and they are delicious any time of the day. Here’s my mother’s recipe for the batter https://everything-nothing.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/dosa_idli-batter.docx. The batter can be defrosted in the microwave. The recipe is for idli batter, but can be converted into dosa batter on adding more water. Hebbars kitchen has a good video about this (https://youtu.be/iT4YJV2tx1w). This recipe has other additions. You can use my recipe and watch the video for guidance!

I also freeze mixes for things like dhokla, biryani masala, samosa masala etc. They last longer this way and you can use them whenever you want. They do not need to be thawed as well! This last month we got a huge shipment of white dhokla flour and it is in our freezer now. I am not sure how long they last, but the samosa masala my mom made in May 2018 is still good.

I will keep adding to this list as I explore more. I have some tips and recipes for freezing other cuisines as well. Keep an eye out for my next post!!

Meal Prep Guide! – Part I

I recently started meal prepping for the week. I was a little hesitant at first because of two things. The first being my aversion to frozen food and the second being that all videos, blogs etc. I saw prepped for two recipes for the week. That meant I would be eating the same food every day of the week. That was not something I was okay with. However, when I looked at recipes and methods of freezing, I found that most cooked things could be frozen for at least three months. I also realized that my aversion to frozen food comes from the fact that I enjoy hot food. If I stick to food that can be heated, I should be fine.

Since I have a handle on the whole process now, I am writing a sort of guide to meal prep. Now, this is not a full-fledged meal prep blog and this is not a full-fledged guide. It’s something that can help you start and guide you to better resources. For this post, I am focusing on planning the meal prep itself.

First things first, you need to have the right equipment to meal prep. While some people use disposable containers, I prefer using things I can wash and reuse. It is also always better to have multiple boxes so you can freeze portioned meals. I would also suggest buying labels for the containers. Here’s a picture of the containers I use.

My meal prep boxes are a combination of Walmart 2 partition containers, Tupperware my mom sent and (believe it or not) restaurant delivery containers.

Other staple equipment includes usual material like aluminum foil, plastic wrap etc. We also own a 3.5 L Chefman air fryer, which is extremely handy in multi-tasking and produces healthy food! We got ours during Black Friday at Best Buy, but it is available on Amazon too.

Another important thing is to prep with the quantity, quality and diversity of the meals in mind. The key to this is planning the week ahead of time. I have a template that I use to list the menu for each week, list recipe ingredients and then create a shopping list from it. This link: https://everything-nothing.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/mealplantemplate.docx has the format I use in Microsoft word. You are welcome to use it. Please let me know if it works for you! I usually fill it in every Saturday morning. If we are planning to go somewhere on a weekend, I prep for that week the week before.

Here’s an example of a week.

Recipe vise Ingredient List

Cauliflower curry: cauliflower (1 medium floret), onion
Soup: Thick loaf bread, mushrooms (2 packs), small cream/milk, garlic, butter, parsley, cheese, onion
Cumin potato curry: Potatoes (9 medium), cumin, chili
Cabbage curry: 1 medium head of cabbage
Egg muffins: eggs, milk, cheese, salt, pepper, broccoli, bell pepper, mushrooms
Banana muffins: egg, banana (2), Choco chips, salt, baking powder and soda, flour, honey, applesauce, mini liners (check)
Wraps: wrap, broccoli, mushrooms, bell pepper, onion, eggs, milk, salt, pepper, garlic powder
Lasagna: lasagna noodles, egg, ricotta cheese, parsley, garlic, tomato paste/tomatoes, onion, yellow squash, bell pepper
Meatballs: Ground turkey, parsley, tomato paste, garlic, spices, angel hair pasta, breadcrumbs, egg
Waffles: onion, cheese, chili, garlic powder, eggs, milk, vinegar, baking soda, baking powder, flour
Pav bhaji: potatoes (6 medium), tomatoes (3), cauliflower (1/4 head), bell pepper, spices, garlic, onion, unsalted butter, cilantro, pav buns (not sweet)

Shopping list

You might notice my ingredient list does not include weekend recipes. This is because I include the weekend in next week’s prep. Another thing you might notice is that I have written check in front of some ingredients. This is because I want to check if I have them before buying more.

Make sure you set aside at least 4 hours each weekend for prepping excluding grocery runs and menu planning. This reminds me that meal prep is an excellent activity to do with your partner. More people working means less work for one person and you get to spend time together!

Conversation with Shirley

This post is about a lady I met last week. Let’s call her Shirley. I started a conversation with Shirley that I never finished. I wish I had given her my side of the story.

The first time I noticed Shirley, we were sitting at the reception and she was telling a woman that people don’t come to the US to live the dream and that they should not be here in the first place. She glanced at the Hispanic couple who had just entered and me as she said this. We soon moved to the main waiting room. This next room had one other person in it. Let’s call her Samara (I’m watching Rings as I write this). There is one thing you should know about Samara: she was Hispanic. I tell you this because it is extremely relevant to what happened next.

Shirley was asked to take a seat next to Samara. Samara shifted a seat, probably since Shirley had a walker and would need space for it. Shirley laughed and said she wasn’t going to sit in Samara’s lap. She went on to thank Samara and we all settled down to wait. A few minutes later, Samara’s daughter got done with her appointment and they left. Now it was just Shirley and me.

Shirley looked over and said that she thought we were all together. I assumed she meant Samara, her daughter and me. I smiled and said we weren’t. I was a little offended by this because I thought this assumption was based on our skin color. She confirmed this when she asked me if I was Mexican or Indian. I told her I was Indian. She then asked me how long I’d been in the US and if I knew English when I got here. I said two years and told her that I was surprised people were ignorant about the use of English in other countries. Shirley brushed this aside and told me that she liked Indians. She thought we were hard working people, well educated and polite. She specifically admired the fact that we do not go on welfare. I was offended by this too, but I said thanks. She seemed to think she was paying me a compliment, but her opinions were quite racist.

Shirley went on to say that she welcomed Indians to the US and that the others didn’t belong here. I assumed she meant other immigrants. I pushed back on that. I told her I wouldn’t assume that others did not belong. She said when I’ve been here long enough, I’ll know she’s right. I was starting to get annoyed, but I still smiled.

She then started talking about the importance of standing on your own two feet. When I pointed out that this was important anywhere in the world, she explained that US was different. There were people from all nationalities here and there was law and due process. I was starting to get angry now. She was not only racist, but probably thought that other countries were lawless. Before I could say anything, Shirley was called in for her appointment and I was called in soon after. I did not see Shirley after that.

This unfinished conversation is all I can think of since then. I had so many questions. Did Shirley think that other countries did not have due process or laws? Did she not know that immigrants contribute more to the welfare programs than they used? Did she really like Indians or was that because I turned out to be Indian? Would she have said I don’t belong here to my face if I had been Mexican? Why was she so friendly to Samara when she didn’t think Mexican people belong here? I was also very curious about her background, her life story and her ways of getting information. I was curious if her views were based on her experiences and if not, then why would she have such views? Did she think the same about white people who immigrate to US or were they not a part of the “others” she mentioned?

I was also questioning my own responses during the conversation. I said thanks and smiled when I would have started a debate with another person. It took me longer to become angry since Shirley was quite old. I couldn’t bring myself to argue with her or express my opinions freely. It seemed disrespectful to do that. Now I realize that I have been doing that all my life. I do not regret this since I do believe that old people are from a different generation and are set in their opinions. This time though, I should have gotten my point across. I could have done it politely given more time.

These things are why I wish I had finished that conversation and why I am writing this. Maybe I’ll find another Shirley who wants to have a conversation. Maybe I’ll find someone who has had such a conversation. If nothing else, I know that it will definitely help me move on and be better prepared when I do find another Shirley.

The Feminist Identity

Feminism has always been an integral part of my identity. Recently, however, my beliefs have been called into question so many times that I became confused. The meaning of being a feminist has changed dramatically in the age of social media. Every time I go on Facebook, I am bound to see something that proves my conviction that the society needs feminism. I am also bound to see something that speaks to my sense of feminism, but makes me question the movement itself.

Feminism has its roots in gender equality and advocating on the behalf of women in a society built on patriarchy. Are we still staying true to that? Are we benefiting women at all or are we lost in fighting inconsequential battles? I can think of so many instances where I was left unsettled by feminist advocacy.

I was excited to see the ad titled “My Choice” by Vogue (https://youtu.be/KtPv7IEhWRA). It was being directed by a woman and featured women I admired. The video was well directed with appropriate awe-inspiring moments. It had enough high profile and feminist women that it would be seen. The music was sensational! The message though, the message wasn’t what I was expecting. Yes, it is my choice to dress as I want, choose when to marry, choose whether to have a baby, choose to accept my sexuality, choose when to have sex, choose everything. However, these are also choices which only elite and liberal women can afford to demand. These are also choices that only Vogue readers, i.e., the progressive and fairly rich females in India will want to talk about. The script of the ad only served to antagonize people and did nothing for feminism. Vogue has quite a few great women empowerment videos out there, but this one is the only one people will remember. This is not to say these issues are not important, but to say that their “Start with our Boys” campaign (https://youtu.be/0Nj99epLFqg) was so much truer to my ideals of feminism.

Something similar happened when I read the article written by Swara Bhaskar in opposition to Padmavat (https://thewire.in/women/end-magnum-opus-i-felt-reduced-vagina) . Ms. Bhaskar was eloquent and passionate in this open letter to Mr. Bhansali. The letter was so well written that I had to read it thrice to make sure I disagreed with her. While there were parts of the movie which did not appeal to me like the intense effort put into portraying Alauddin as a villain and Rajputs as the picture of ideal human beings. However, I also saw that the story clearly painted the picture of a strong, intellectual and independent woman who proved that women are everything that men are. While I hate the idea of Jauhar, I hate the idea of these women living under the thumb of a conquering force even more. While I do think several scenes in the movie overemphasized purity and such like, I do not think it reduced women to a vagina. So why did Swara Bhaskar write a piece that might be misinformed and misguided? Did she really think it contributed to feminism or that it would benefit women in some way? Also, why did the letter contain paragraphs glorifying Sanjay Leela Bhansali which effectively safeguarded her future with the director? Why is she willing to work with a person who made her feel like a vagina only? So many questions, but many of my friends did not ask them at all. So many of them blindly agreed with the letter and questioned my commitment to feminism because I disagreed.

I myself have made the mistake of questioning feminist beliefs of women whose choices were different than mine. It was only when it was pointed out to me in a class one day that becoming a housewife is also a choice that I realized how much of a hypocrite I was. Why was the choice of staying at home any less than the choice of working? Why was the choice of wearing skirts any less than the choice of wearing a saree? Why was the choice of getting married just out of high school any less than the choice of getting married late or never getting married? This hypocrisy is evident in most modern feminist circles. Why should liberal western women dictate how conservative Muslim women should dress? Why should educated working women decide that women should not stay at home and raise children? Although many of these choices are a result of systematic conditioning, let’s spread awareness instead of condemning those making these choices. Then there are women who advocate for women’s rights but refuse to call themselves feminists. They do not want to associate themselves with a term that, according to them, has devolved and lost its purpose. Things like these only serve to provide ammunition to people pretending the that gender crisis is over.

While I struggled with what feminism means, I was given varied advice from fellow believers. Things like have you read that book or have you seen this movie. Things like have I heard this TED talk or have I seen this documentary. Is this what feminism is reduced to? Has it become a theory trapped in book and reel, never to be questioned? Has it become a tool for women to justify their choices, however wrong?

I still do not know the answer to all these questions and I will surely have many more. I do know that all this questioning has only served to strengthen my belief system and my conviction towards it. So, while I have misgivings and questions, feminism will keep being a prominent part of my identity.