Bulk and healthy cooking
As mentioned in my introduction, my life is very hectic. I like to do a ton of activities after work such as dance, modeling, writing blogs etc. and I take every effort to ensure that I make time for my passion without compromising my health. Everyone who has travelled from India can relate to the fact that once their mom’s food supply discontinued, they started putting on weight. In India, we devoured home cooked food that had a generous amount of clarified butter and we never tracked calories. In fact we did not know the difference between good carbs and bad carbs. Ever wonder why we stayed healthy in spite of lack of calorie tracking? The answer is simple- our dear mommy always cooked food with less sodium and less oil as compared to restaurants. I myself noticed weight gain when I started living in USA for MBA studies and for me weight gain was a drastic change and a change that I did not personally like. I was able to analyze the situation quickly that the cause is mainly due to eating food outside every day. Having ties from the field of modeling, a 10lbs pound on weight scale was close to panic attack. I started working on my options to divert to aa healthy lifestyle.
In USA, we do not have the luxury of hiring cooks that are economical and will rather cook at our own abode. But we do have the flexibility to order a home delivered tiffin service. The disadvantage of getting food from an outside source is that you do not know what is the quantity of salt added, which oil has been used. The best way to initiate a healthy lifestyle is to commence cooking by yourself since you can measure and add the right things. I was struggling after my gym workout since I also wanted to spend my evenings in pursuing my passion of dancing, acting and modeling activities. Hence I always ended up ordering food for dinner and also ended up going out for lunch the next work day. Although I worked out dedicatedly Mon to Fri for 1.5 hours, I did not see good results in shaping and toning up and one of the major cause was that I never cooked at home. I really wanted to cook but not by compromising my office, my workouts and my hobbies. Also, the concept of spending around 1 hour on cooking and cleaning everyday which is 7 hours minimum in a week scares me.
I thought of a workaround and the scheme I came up was to do bulk cooking on the last day of the weekend-Sunday and cook food for the entire week. I did some research on vegetarian food and what is its shelf life if kept in the refrigerator for 7 days. All of the articles that I found mentioned that vegetarian food that has salt, spices last for 10 days and meat/chicken lasts for 3 days. Since, I am an Indian vegetarian all of the food that I love eating has salt. To run a second round of check, I consulted a family practitioner to confirm if this new plan of mine would be a healthy choice. He mentioned that I should restrict to making bulk food for 5 days. Ideally we tend to eat Mon to Fri at home and weekend, we like spending time with friends and trying new restaurants. Hence, I made up my mind that every Sunday, I would spend 2 hours to cook food for Mon to Fri and Saturday and Sunday I would eat in restaurants until I cook the new batch. At first, it was tough to figure out how to multi-task and ensure that I do not spend more than 2 hours to prepare and finish the cooking along with cleaning the mess that goes around with cooking.
My first try on a Sunday cooking was successful. Here is a summary of what I did. I cut onions, tomatoes, garlic etc. the basic ingredients that go in every Indian food before starting to cook. Then I put 4 pans on all of the 4 gas stove burners so that I can cook 4 dishes at the same time. I started with heating oil on all 4 pans at the same time along with putting cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves on all of the pans at the same time. When the mustard and cumin seeds popped, I added onions and garlic in all of the pans. I made sure that I sauté them well simultaneously. Now I added tomatoes in the dish that needed it. Then I added red chili powder, turmeric powder, salt to taste, cumin powder in all of the 4 pans. Once I saw the flavor well mixed, I added respective vegetable dish that I had to make in the respective pan. I added potatoes in 1 pan, okra in 1 pan, cauliflower in 1 pan and lentil in 1 pan. This took around 30minutes. Now I let this cook for 20 minutes. While the dishes were being cooked, I got time to clean some utensils for reusing or putting it away. Few dishes get done earlier than the rest and I kept storing the ones that were done in airtight containers. By this time I had made good use of 1 hour 15 minutes. Now the burner that was emptied, I started heating Naan/Chapatis(Packet Rotis) Ideally if one knows how to make Chapatis/rotis from fresh dough then they should prefer making it fresh. I made all Naans that I needed for the week at once by multi-tasking and heating it on all 4 pans as the burners got free. In 15 minutes, I had 15 naans ready which is equivalent to eating 3 naans a day for 5 days. For diner, I only prefer eating lentil and salad with protein powder as well as smoothie to avoid late evening carbs. In about 1 hour 30 minutes, I had food ready to go for work for 5 days. I used the remaining 30 minutes to pack food, clean the remaining mess. There may be some dishes that may take you a while but no matter what, your cooking duration will never surpass more than 2 hours 30 minutes with multi tasking and bulk cooking. And who knows, with practice you may end up cooking in 1 hour. As they say practice makes a man perfect.
With this bulk and multi-tasking cooking, I have had the luxury and flexibility to eat home cooked food at lunch every day and I get ample time to do other activities after my gym. Also, now I get to eat right after gym since after working out when I feel crazy hungry, I have lentil ready for me I the refrigerator and this way I avoid ordering bad carbs for dinner. They say eat heavy breakfast, eat most of your carbs for the day during lunch and for dinner go light. I have been following this since 1 year and I have noticed a lot of difference in my weight and also my toning. Your cravings for late night carbs would pretty much fade once your body gets used to eating lite and eating right at diner. Mon to Fri your mind can focus on other important things and not worry about food. You can divert your mind in other creative or important things that you need to achieve and manage your lifestyle in a balanced and healthy way.
Please do leave comments if this technique worked for you and do feel free to ask any questions.
