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Mondays come with a calendar full of work meetings, conferences, kids’ school and extra curricular activities that hit like a storm after a relaxing weekend. Meals during such busy weeks can often run the risk of looking too much like hastily-crafted messy spreads, take-out boxes littering the garbage or worse, skipped lunches and dinners that leave you feeling fatigued.
Keep family health and nourishment a priority no matter how occupied you are during the week with some easy make-ahead dishes. These are nutritious foods that store well, reheat beautifully and pack flavour: simplifying daily home cooking. Assembling pre-prepped dishes on busy mornings and evenings can become a rejuvenating activity which keeps you pumped throughout the week.
Veggie Pulao Kept Warm
Now, place the pulao in the cooker and let the rice cook. Transfer it into air-tight containers to be warmed up for lunch or dinner. Alternatively, the pulao can stay warm in the rice cooker until it is time to eat. Pair it with curd and pickle.
Rajma Masala
Find a little bit of time on weekends or a Monday evening after work to slow-cook an onion and tomato-based gravy. Cool and refrigerate it and as need arises, bring it out of the fridge, simmer in a kadai or a fry pan and stir in cooked rajma. Protein-rich rajma masala will be ready within minutes on a busy day. It can be packed as a quick lunch alongside warm rotis or steamed rice. Accompanied with julienned carrots and beets, rajma masala can also act as a rich filling inside a homemade wrap. This is a perfect on-the-go lunch for a particularly busy, travel-packed day.
Stir-Fried Veggies
Bring together chopped purple cabbage, carrots, beans, capsicum, corn, mushrooms, tofu, bell peppers, bok choy and any other fibre-rich veggies of your preference. Toss the loaded mixture on high heat, in a wok, and season lightly with vinegar, soy sauce, some red chillies and a little bit of minced garlic. Make a large load of the veggies in advance and refrigerate it in containers. The stir-fry recipe can be served with boiled noodles, a piece of grilled chicken, some brown rice or even as a sandwich stuffing as a quick mid-week dinner for two.
Grilled Paneer Cubes
Filled with protein and utterly kid-friendly, paneer cubes can be grilled and stored for a couple of days in the fridge. Add them to gravies, pulaos, sandwiches, wraps or stir-fry them with light seasonings depending on your preferences. This ready-to-use protein is the fastest way to put together a nourishing, home spun wrap, grilled sandwich or open toast for breakfast. Sumptuous and tasty, it is the perfect start to days when kids have sports in school and for working parents who plan to stay late in the office.
Plain Steamed Rice And Lentils
One of the cleverest make-ahead, meal prep ideas is a pot full of fluffy steamed rice which stays fresh in the fridge for at least two days. Cook a large portion of rice along with lentils such as tur or moong. With this, you will have a ready base to make pulao, dal khichadi, dal tadka and rice or simple rice variations like lemon rice, puliyogare or a comforting bowl of curd rice. Pre-cooked rice and lentils make last-minute, home cooked meals delicious, comforting affairs on busy week days.
