Every Day Morning Blues

Getting Rid of Everyday Morning Blues

To avoid the morning rush, prepare some of the things the previous night like cutting vegetables. The little chores which you do the previous night, leave you with ample time in the morning to talk to your kids and spouse peacefully. The stress level reduces so much that it reflects on the way you carry out your work at office.

Measure the rice and dal required for the next morning and keep it in the vessel in which you are going to wash the rice.

Measure the water required for cooking rice and keep it ready.

If you have the habit of eating fruits like papaya before or during breakfast, peel and keep it in the fridge the previous day. As soon as you enter the kitchen take it off the fridge and it will be ready to eat in 1-2 two hours.

Pack your fruit box the previous night and refrigerate it. Just before leaving home slip it in your bag and it is ready to munch for mid day snack.

Keep the snack box ready for your little ones like biscuits and other knick knacks. Ensure that the tiffin boxes are air tight.

Fill the water bottles previous night itself.

Keep separate all the lids of tiffin boxes which you intend to fill the next morning.

Home Made Masala Pastes

Storing of  Home Made Masala Pastes

While grinding the masala for veg curries or fish, always double or triple the quantity. After using the desired quantity, freeze the rest in small containers. So next time you want to cook the curry or pulav, use the frozen one. It saves you a lot of time in assembling ingredients, washing the mixer/grinder, grating coconut etc. whenever I grind masala, I see that I make it at least for 3 more uses and freeze it.

Label the ground masala containers. You may tend to forget which masala is stored inside after a few days as in the picture.

Keep the ground masala container outside the freezer for at least 2-3 hours.

If you need to cook early morning, it is best to transfer the ground masala box to refrigerator from freezer, the previous night.

If you forget to keep out the ground masala box and in a hurry to cook, just defrost it in the microwave. For this you need to store the ground masala in a microwave safe container.

Grind the coconut with only tamarind and freeze for future use. Depending on the vegetables/sprouted pulses available, you can add the sambar powder made by you or store bought to make delicious curries.

You may also like to read about avoiding every day morning rush

Handy Tips on Coconut

COCONUT

After breaking the coconut, grate and put it in a clean box and freeze it and use whenever you need it. (Grating the refrigerated coconut is difficult.).

If you can, keep the box out for 5 minutes prior to your need. Use a sharp spoon to loosen the frozen coconut. While grinding the frozen coconut use warm water to avoid traces of oil.

Fry the coconut which gives a not so fresh smell to make the curry more tasty and aromatic.

If the coconut comes out whole while breaking it or grating, cut it into bite sized pieces. Run it in the mixer for a minute, and you have finely grated coconut at your disposal.

Don’t discard the water which you find inside the coconut after breaking it. Drink it or add to the curry. Coconut water is very nutritious.

For a bit of fun serve the coconut water in the shell to your kids. They really love it.