Honey....What to cook for Dinner tonight???

This is one question which is thrown out at M by me every evening when I return from office...and for which every evening, a pre-recorded message type answer is tossed back at me - "Whatever you wish, dear"....which makes me all the more frustated than the whole tortourous cooking proceedings.

Here is our daily conversation on this topic.

Me: Kya banaun aaj khane mein? 

       (What to cook for dinner today?)

M: Kuch bhi bana lo, jo tumhara mann 

      (Make anything, whatever you wish)

Me: Kuch bhi matlab kya.....kuch naam to hoga na 

       (What do you mean by anything....It must be having  a name)

M: Matlab jo tumhe khana hai, main toh kuch bhi kha lunga 

     (I mean what ever you wish to eat, I will eat anything)

Me: Gusse mein...Kabhi kuch bol bhi diya karo

        ( All frustrated... At least name something at times)

M: .............................(no answer)

Really I tell you ...Cooking is a hell of a boring and terrible task (Note: Here I am talking about the regular household cooking comprising of a breakfast, lunch and dinner) but the more dreadful task is the thinking process which goes behind deciding on the dinner menu...I mean thinking what to cook is more stressful than the actual cooking itself (except for some preprations which seem to be never ending..)

All these food items look so tempting na...so much variety....But only the planner and maker of this yummy food knows the hard work both mental and physical which goes behind that.

The minute I step out of my office, this question dances in my mind from one corner to the other giving me shudders....Every Monday to Friday (Note: Its not that I do not eat on weekends....but dinner is always out...breakfast is skipped as we get up late and lunch...somehow I manage) I come home, stand in front of the fridge and think.....And when I finally decide on what to cook (as it is of no use to ask M about it and get that same question mark look on his face), another trauma awaits me of finding out half of the ingredients are missing. That leaves me with no option other than going for some life saver recipe for which ingredients is not a problem as khichdi, vegetable pulao or some aloo dish......and just for the information, these are all which I hate and M loves....but at least these are easy to cook rather than going out to get the missing ingredients. There are same four five patent vegetables available at the shop which I am sick and tired of cooking and eating....Yes, I can try to cook different cuisines.. Chinese... Continental and I do know some off-the-routine recipes like dosas, manchurian or pavbhaji.....but who has the time to try out new delicious recipes or to break my head on inventing some new variation of the same old stuff.....The day when there is dinner party or outing on a weekday, I am sure that there is no person more happy on this Earth than me....It feels like there is no work after reaching home...I am the most relieved and relaxed person that day.....

This used to be the scene every day until I came up with a solution. Its that we normally buy vegetables for the next whole week on Friday itself as there is lot of other stuff to do on weekends and weekdays are super busy.. So now I make a menu (and you guessed it right....again a list) for the week and buy vegetables as per the menu list so that nothing is missed out and I am spared of exercising my brain of  the same routine question everyday. This way I have a stock set of recipe list which are of different variety and which I can alternate over a two week period so that the dinner is not monotonous or repetitive. See change is needed here too. The quote "The Only Thing is Constant is Change" fits this situation so damn appropriate.

I believed that it is the case with  me only that it takes half the task off my head when somebody tells me what to cook but after interviewing all the ladies of my family and the extended family...I concluded with a relieved heart that this is the case with every lady who is in charge of cooking dinner.

So here are five quick tips for ladies to find a quick answer to this question?

- Have some frozen food items like paneer, peas always stocked in your refrigerator in case you do not want to cook an elaborate dinner or something is missing.

- Make a list of all the daily routine recipes so that you do not have to think of what to cook when time is running ahead of  you. Look at the list and in the fridge and get ready to cook.

- Its not always that you have to cook as per the strict instructions by the recipe book or the one who has told you the recipe. Some change here and there as per your convenience can be done...just that they should not be too consequential on the taste front.

- Plan the menu in advance to suit your schedule. As in you can cook something elaborate on Friday night as Saturday is a holiday and your are not in a rush to eat and sleep early.

- Always keep an eye on the ration list to have an idea of what is there in the kitchen and what is going to run out of stock so that you can refill those before its needed.

Hope this helps you in your cooking ordeals.....Do let me know any other quick fix tips to save on time and energy. I guess, ladies, we are all sailing in the same boat.

My Listomania....

I have a habit of keeping a small diary and a pen handy in my bag...who knows when I remember anything I have to do and I don't have something to note it down for reminding me later. And thus adding things one by one transforms into a list.

I have a list for everything...to-do list, grocery list, laundry list, to alter, to buy, to cook and sometimes (this may sound weird) list of clothes I have so that I can make out which all colors are there in my wardrobe and for which one I need to shop :P. And if I have to travel...the list of clothes to pack...things to take..medicines...camera...charger..etc etc. Give me a pen and paper and I would be lost in thoughts with these two gadgets and my unending lists....so  much that I have been declared suffering from Listomania by M. And so much for the mania that my pocket diary needs to be renewed quite periodically.... some people who know me question that how do I come up  with various topic for these list of mine..And I reply them promptly with quoting many advantages of this habit. I am an obsessive list maker. I really enjoy the sense of accomplishment by crossing the tasks off. Done. Finished. Mission Accomplished..... I like lists so much that if I accomplish something that wasn't previously on list I write it down so that I can mark it off.  Lists are often the core of my daily planning, the directions of what needs to be done next. Despite the fact that you may be having an iPad or an Android, there is nothing like scribbling on a piece of paper. Putting your to do task is on paper refine your focus...you see it and hence you are committed.

A practical example would be of last year when one of my ex-roommate was getting married and she was in process of doing up her new house..she kept calling me asking what else she needs to buy for kitchen or in cosmetics...as she was short on time and did not want to miss on anything important...and when she found my list mailed to her covering all the required kitchen items and the cosmetics list (which I had made before my wedding)..she was more than overjoyed and really praised me for my this habit :))))

How many times it has happened that you plan and leave home with what things you have to shop in your mind and you come back realizing that you have missed on a couple of things and cribbing on how you will have to go all over again for that...and if it was like urgent then God only help you to tread back to the market facing dreading traffic. So if you were having a list of things noted on a piece of paper, it would have been nearly impossible to overlook and forget it. I have really been caught in these situations before, hence these lists. This habit of mine helps me to be systematic and plan out my day according to the activities as per their importance. So I don't face the question of missing out on important things.

This habit can not only help you in your personal life but as well as your professional life. For eg.. If you are heading a team, that is working on a large complex project with so many tasks to be done and so many people doing them, that staying abreast of all seems unmanageable. You can use your to do list in this situation to help stay organised by structuring your list by team members, writing out tasks and deadline for every person on the project. 

It's not that I am alone who is stuck with this habit, there are many and hence there are number of tools or apps that help you out in creating your to-do list. Well, it's simply too hard to remember everything that you have to do. If you don't write it down, you will probably forget it or remember it at the wrong time (for example remembering what you should have told your boss today as you are just about to go to sleep at night). The point of making all these lists is not to be a compulsive list making person! There are some powerful benefits in making these lists. It helps you to get these items out of your head and onto a storage system where you can remember to do them when the time is right. Also, it makes it easy to get into action because the appropriate list of actions that you can take is there waiting for you. It's also valuable to separate the different types of items because you can deal with them more powerfully when you have listed them in related groups. 

Once you get into this habit, you will certainly be more organized and more effective. Another great benefit is that you can also be more relaxed. You don't have to worry about what you need to do because you have clarified it and written it down. This frees up your mental energy to focus on more creative and interesting tasks than remembering what you have to do. And because you have an appropriate reminder system, it is a lot less likely that you will miss things that you have committed to do. 

Some of the advantages of making list are listed below:

- Organizes your mind ( brings order to chaos...clear your mental clutter)

- Saves on time and effort

- Relieve stress

- Help us from procrastinating

- Beats workload

- Feel good factor (a visual proof that we have done our tasks)

So now if anybody makes fun of this habit of yours, you can surely give these feel good tips. List makers are successful, and if you don’t believe me — check out this fact. Madonna, Ellen Degeneres, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Martha Stewart have all been known to keep lists. Being able to accomplish your goals is one of the secrets of success. 

Well now its time to cross off another task on my to do list ...????.....that of penning my thoughts on my blog :)))))

Get out a piece of paper and pen or open a new document and start listing. Just try it – and if it doesn’t help you stay focused and complete your tasks, I want to hear about it. Also will like to know who all have this habit (mania) along with me :)))

Keep reading n writing too :P