Meal prepping Comments War thread

 Notes or my comments from a full blown comment war on a Meal-prepping post.

Not many, those who are not the primary for the feeding of their families, realize that "Day to day Cooking" involves:

1. Menu planning
2. Shopping
3. Prepping
4. Cooking
5. Serving
6. Storing
7. Clean-up

Each of these steps are complex:

1. Menu planning -
• Consider available grocery & ingredients. 
• Every members dietary preferences - based on taste, health, allergy. 
• Special events - festivals/holidays, birthdays, parties, travel
2. Shopping - 
• to stagger variety across the week. 
• Special items for festive occasions. 
• Special items for birthdays
• Party planning
3. Prepping - 
• vegetables chopping
• soaking grains for idli, dosa batter
• soaking legumes - rajma, channas
4. Cooking 
• stirring on the gas-stove part or oven
5. Serving
• plates, katori, cutlery and glasses
• make food available buffet style in kitchen or on dinner table
6. Storing
• pack foods in different boxes and store in fridge or pantry
• provision for next meal
7. Clean-up
• wash all cooking vessels
• move used dishes from dining area to kitchen sink
• wash all used dishes
• dry washed dishes
• pack dry dishes & vessels back to their place
• clean dining area - table, placement mats
• clean stove & kitchen platform and other cooking areas

Many of these tasks can be

•  prepped beforehand 
• delegated to other family members
• outsourced
• or help staff employed for it

Meal prep is the thing for 2020s Home cooking. Or eat outside food. It’s not 1980s anymore. Menu demands & dietary preferences of today are way more than in 1980s. Before 2000s, meals were simple options and everyone ate the same thing, at the same time.

Most of the opposers don’t understand that half of these meal preps are being done for decades before microwave. They are just panicking that mom is not standing in kitchen & serving on their order.

Meal prepping is a broad umbrella term for a lot of food prep activities. Soaking channas & Idli/Dosa batter grains. Jolada Rutti, Thepla. Chopping vegetables in train on the way home. Pounding masalas & Pudi. Making Dal Bari, Sandige, Papad & pickles. Making Dahi, butter & cream. Just peak in your previous generations kitchen. It has always been done - depending on the availability of fridge, Sun / dehydrator and other resources.

People who have only boiled a Single serve Maggi want the home-cooks to slog infront of hot-stove in summer. Women at leisure is a scary thing. They are just scared they wont get served a beautiful plate while seated on sofa in front of tv. 

People are not worried about the nutrition of the food. They are worried their Server will go missing. All the nutrition-destruction myths about microwaves, fridge & pressure-cooker have been long & widely debunked.

So many of the Indian food taste better after a day or two - Puran poli, Samba. Cold rice recipes are its own section in every Indian state. Maad-bhaat, Chitranna and the chic Fried Rice.

If there is no ready food in fridge, the non-cooks of the house will order from outside. They wouldn't dare to cook from scratch. While eating outside, no one extolls the value of pink-salt or fresh vegetables. Everything goes. But for argument sake, they will crib about restaurant food not being as good as home food. And at home, they will crib about menu being bland and not like restaurant food.

Meal prepping doesn't reduce cooking time. It streamlines the home-cooking assembly line so home-food is available for every meal. 

Activity Report 2025

  

Running:

Pretty much no running in January due to cold blast, snow, ice. Got a few walks in. And again dropped the running in last few months.

Walking

Did pack in a lot of solo walking. And a chosen few Group hikes. 

 

All of my yearly Run Reports are here.

Wish you all a very Happy & Prosperous New Year !

Books 2025

I did get to Books to counter smartphone scrolling. But its tough to fit book reading in all the 5-10 minute waiting's I have to do all day. By the time I get the glasses, right bookmarked page & paragraph and focus back to the non-fiction (which is extra effort from fiction), phone is right there with zero wait. But I continue to wager the Smartphone vs books war.

God Bless American Libraries. We will get all books there. Just do online search on your topic and we will find it all. 

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I did that to learn more on art thanks to these Art books.

How to Be An Artist Without Losing your Mind, your Shirt, or your Creative Compass - A Practical Guide - by Nagler, JoAnneh

Start Here - Paint - Moira Clinch

These trilogy by By Austin Kleon

Steal Like An Artist 

Keep Going

Show your Work! - 10 Ways to Share your Creativity and Discovered

What Color Is Night? & Nothing Ever Happens on A Gray Day - By Grant Snider

How to draw Robots - books of different titles - by Carolyn Serace, Keith Thompson, @markberginart & Ralph Masiello @RalphPaints

Here the Robotos I made from them: Part 1 and Part 2.

Artist's Photo Reference books of Tigers, Fish, Sharks, Flowers, Birds

Lots of Art education and photo reference books. This is one steps ahead of looking at masters work coffee-table photo books. 

The Creative Habit - Learn It and Use It for Life : A Practical Guide - by Tharp, Twyla

Norman Rockwell - Behind the Camera - by Schick, Ron
In Search of Norman Rockwell's America - by Rivoli, Kevin
Norman Rockwell - Pictures for the American People 

Bloomberg showed the Quantum computer & its chip. So I ordered a bunch of books with the title "Quantum Mechanics". Was nice to read about that "wave & photon" gondogol. This was my non-fiction quota. I am still wading through them.

---

Okay I did it. Stayed away from fiction (for most part of the year) like I had been trending towards past few years. And in the last quarter of the year, I found a few gems, so read them with enthu.

The Bangalore Detectives Club series:

The Bangalore Detectives Club. 2022. 

Murder Under a Red Moon. 2023.

A Nest of Vipers. 2024.

By Harini Nagendra

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping - Suzanne Collins

Ofcourse I finished Hunger Games Book 5. No way I couldn't not read the next installment of my existing fav series. 

2025 Movies

 Good year of good Movies. But too many to watch. Lot of theatre watching this summer.

KANNADA

Su from So - (Theatre) - Weeknight show was also housefull. It was fun laughing with the entire theatre. I enjoyed repeat viewing on Hotstar when it came. DK Kananda language and humor is a unique thing. There are so many characters and each one just adds to thefun of this movie. Every frame has something to offer. I hope the makers sell the screenplay to Mexican or Indonesian filmakers. The entire movie will fit perfectly in their culture as well.

Kantara Chapter 1 - (Theatre) - Wednesday evening show also got housefull. Lot of violence, good stunts, engaging music throughout. No stretch felt boring. Comedy element was fast paced by Deepak Rai Panajeas Sankappa (Architect of Jail & Ship), Booba & Peppe & Prakash Thuminad. Sprinkling of Chinese, Arab, Spanish traders. A huge audio & visual treat.

Bellbottom (2019) - Risabh Shetty detective movie. Good one for all the reasons.

HINDI

Dhurandhar - (theatre twice) - Saw it twice in theatre and that is usually my measure of a good movie.

Grandly Impressive !  Extremely violent. Total fire.

Wild music ! Both the Jukebox and the BGM. 

Great story telling infused with so many recent history events.

This review covers a lot of the mood.

Music is fire and needs to be researched more - there Phd level material there. More than reviewers , SM commenters are saying real & perspective things. 

Raid 2 - Best

Inspector Zende 

Sitare Zameen Par - entertaining, humorous & education mixed in. Every gag, skit & character had funny stuff going on.

Pushpa 2 - isko bolte hai theatre wali picture  

Joly LLB 3 - followed by a binge of Jolly LLB 2 & 1.

Akshardham Operation Vajra Shakti

Detective Sherdill

Ground Zero - coz Emraan Hashmi after a long time.

Costoa

Jewel Thief: Hiest Begins

Logout - Babil & SM addiction

Superboys of Malegaon

Bhool Chuk Maaf - very well made. like Reels. scene or camera angles changed every 

Loveyappa - Saw in theatre with a childhood friend. So great exp. Also a good fun movie. Also liked it cause I liked the Tamil version too.

Dhoom Dhaam - for Pratik & Yami Gautam

Bobby Jasoos (2014) - Very good comedy detective movie. Vidya did Sridevi level acting.

ENGLISH

Karate Kids - (Theatre) - Cause Jackie Chan, Danny Loruzo and Johny cameo.

Superman  - (Theatre)

Jurrasic World Rebirth - (Theatre)

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning - (Theatre)

Hidden Strike - cause Jackie Chan and John Cena

Mule - unbelievable . Admiration for Clint Eastwood working at that advanced age.  Each scene. Family dynamics vs personal freedom. Dynamics with diff groups of people.

Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado

Nonnas

Ice Road: Vengeance -  coz Liam Neeson

Happy Gilmore 2 & Happy Gilmore

The Old Guard 2 - coz sequel

The Thursday Murder Club

Nobody - Great selection of music.

Accountant & Accountant 2 - again good music

My Yearly Movies List here.

2025 OTT & TV Shows

Loads of releases this year and caught up with some which had some connection or the other with me.    

INDIAN WEB SERIES

Family Man (S3) - clif-hanger wait for S4. Lot of dejavu with Paatal Lok S2.

Two Much of Kajol & Twinkle - for the babble

Do You Wanna Partner - for Tammananh & Dianna

Paatal Lok (S2) - I skipped S1 and watched S2 for Nagaland & all the main char actors. Did not disappoint. The Nagaland portions & their houses - all great. Also the story & twists & turns. Jaideep A is impressive 

Duphaiya (Prime) - Well made cause well written characters who were in multiple. Every char with seaking line seemed to have a huge backstory. Plot twists unfolded well and every loop was well answered.

Panchayat (S5) 

The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case -

Special Ops - S2 - as reliale as ever for the cast & thrills

Criminal Justice - Family Matter - cause Pankaj Tripathi and reoccuring cast and the show format with weekly episode release.

Mistry - Because Monk remake. Not bad but not great. Same story but some modified or fused into one.

Salakaar - spy story and keeps the thrill with switch between current & 70s. 

The Secret of The Shiledars - National Treasure template Treasure hunt related to Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Vijayanagar Empire.

Mrs Deshpande - for Madhuri Dixit & Nagesh Kukunoor.

Chacha Vidhayak Hai Hamare (S2)

Bigg Boss (S19)

Gram Chikitsalay (Prime) 

Bada Kaam Karenge - Great music and lyrics. 

Roshans - Netflix Docu

Cubicles S4

The Trial (S2) - starring Kajol

Khakee - Bengal Chapter - I finished it but Eww.

ENGLISH TV SHOWS

Stranger Things (S 1,2,3,4) - covered them all in Dec holidays to prep for S5.

Squid Games (S3)

Man on the Inside (S2) -  coz Charles Nieuwendyk and the crew.

Running Point (Netflix) - for Katie Hudson, Mindy, refreshing.

Resident Aliens (S1 &S2) - funny like lol funny meanwhile the characters stay deadpan.

And then the usual lot

Elsbeth

Matlock

Ghosts (S4 & S5)

College room cookoff playbook

 Guide playbook

Food Menu

Aloo matar - https://youtube.com/shorts/RHtv44J36b8?si=csAkBPYQqDksUpkX

With rice or naan or bread

Pasta in rice cooker - https://youtube.com/shorts/xOF4Hdq9yV8?si=dWZTH9BjuwvPZ_ox

White pasta on Instapot

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZZy5HSkRhZc?si=3yjPeMSj5Uqt_60i

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM_XJYYBrUM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Sambar rice

Vegetable egg fried rice

Curd rice pickle papad

Puliyogyre rice

Bisi bele bath rice

Salad - Chopped cucumber, tomato, onion , With a dash of Lemon & Salt

Boiled eggs

 

Breakfast

Cereal milk

Bread Toast

Egg – Omlette, Sunny side, Boiled, Poached

 Sandwich maker Sandwiches

 

Recipes (add salt in all)

 

Tadka

Heat 1-2 spoon oil

When hot, add jeera and/or mustard seeds and wait for them to pop.

Then add wet stuff to cool the oil – like curry pata leaves, minced garlic, sliced green chillies,  onion, tomatoes (in this order)

 

Aloo mutter recipe

Microwave 2 potatoes. Then peel & chop potato as cubes.

Make tadka on pan.

Add washed Frozen peas & Chopped potato

 

Aloo Bhaja

Peel & chop 2 potatoes in long fries format.

Make tadka (without tomatoes). Add Potatoes. Stir from time to time. When potato is cooked, sprinkle salt.

 

Dal Fry

Boil Toor dal in Instapot with turmeric & salt & hing.

After dal is cooked, give it a stir to melt/mash all dal together.

On stove & pan, add Oil & tadka with jeera seeds, curry pata, garlic, cut red chilly.

Add onion, tomatoes & cover cook till it melts.

Add mashed dal & give a boil.

 

Vegetable Egg Fried Rice

Bag of frozen mixed veggies.
Wash rice in rice cooker. Add peas, salt, jeera, ghee/butter. 
Add water & cook rice.
Eat with Egg

Curd rice pickle papad

Make rice in rice cooker. When done & steaming, add salt, curd & water and mix together.

Give small tadka of oil, mustard seeds, urad (1sp), curry pata.

Add chopped apple, grapes or pomegranate.

 

Puliyogyre rice

Make rice in rice cooker. When done & steaming, mix MTR Puliypgyre paste & salt.

 

Bisi bele bath rice

Make dal & rice & peas & salt in Instapot. When done & steaming, add MTR Bisibelebath paste and mix.

 

MTR Sambar recipe

Boil Toor dal in Instapot with turmeric & salt & hing.

After cooked, give it a stir to melt all dal together.

On stove & pan, Oil & tadka with mustard seeds, curry pata, garlic, cut red chilly.

Add onion

Then add cut veggies (brinjal, drumstick, bhi NRI, beans, carrots, small potatoes, peas, Lima beans)

Then chopped tomatoes.

Let it melt, then add salt & Sambar powders.

When all mixed up, transfer pan contents to Instapot with dal. Cook it all for another round of Beans 15 minute mode.

 Sandwich maker Sandwich Fillings

Sliced tomatoes, boiled potato, cucumber. Chutney & butter on bread on the inside.
Butter bread & boiled egg slices with sprinkled salt & pepper.

After college dropoff

One week after college dropoff and this song played in Friday evening yoga class and after the 3rd Antara repetition, melted me into a pool.

Song: Tu Hain Toh | Mr. & Mrs. Mahi | Rajkummar Rao, Janhvi Kapoor | Hunny, Bunny, Sagar | Team Jaani

Sath tere na safar vo safar nahi lagta 

Tu hai toh dil dhadakta hai 

Tu hai toh saa’ns aati hai 

Tu na toh ghar ghar nahi lagta 

Tu hai to darr nahi lagta 

Tu hai toh gham na aate hai 

Tu hai toh muskurate hai 

Ke tere bin so nahi sakte

Kisi ke ho nahi sakte

https://open.spotify.com/track/6egfWbtFFhMToV2DvmEzmo?si=trvmt3g5RDO8ZkxntB33jA&context=spotify%3Atrack%3A6egfWbtFFhMToV2DvmEzmo

Cricket Wives Wishlist

Bagwan kare Param fields mein aag lag jaye.

Aur ACF Fields mein ghode ki lind phail jaye.

Baki grounds mein gad-dhe pad jaye, aur paani bhar jaye.

Indoor practise facilities mein termite lag jayi aur rat-infestation ho jaye.

Har sports adda/bar ke samne police skateout karen aur DWI chalen baatathi phiren.

Amer Cricket League corruption mein band ho jaye.

BCCI corruption mein gir jaye.

ICC bankrupt ho jaye.

Why you ask ?

Through the core youth years of the women, 

this infrastructure made them single moms of kids plus one man-child.

Everyone has the same 24 hours. How HE uses those 24 hours and how SHE uses those 24 hours is the huge difference.

Cricket wives, aur kuch ?

Run Report 2024

 2024 running was with more peace. Weekly pattern with numerous skipped runs but no guilt after that.

I got 449 miles of Running and 85 miles of Walking this year.

 

I am getting a hang of the weather pattern. Pattern is important for preparedness.

January: Rainy mornings and gloomy days. And those days were in 60s & 70s temps. Remaining mornings were in 35F-45F range.

February was again perfect 45F mornings and hardly any rain. 

March started well before a weeklong interruption due to rain. And even as I got back, mid-March was hit with the biggest Pollen blast I can imagine. All these years I was wondering about what people are talking about Pollen season and this spring I got to actually see it. It is bigtime. Few rains brought it down. But AQI stay high till mid-April. It was equally or worse in Texas during Spring break.

May had great temps and I ran as much as I could.

I did the only race of the year in September - Vibha DreamMile10K. 

There was a brief cold spell in October and then it was back to summer.

Second half of November showcased beautiful fall colors everywhere, with a hint of cold in the last week.

December had a few cold spells and rainy or windy mornings. So I practically ditched running for gym classes. There I said it, I am that kind of runner now.

The only race I did this year was Vibha DreamMile 10K. I have seriously sworn off Half-Mara in Georgia thanks to its terrain. Just not for me anymore.

Managed to pack in some walking thanks to friends and being part of a trail group.

All of my yearly Run Reports are here.

Wish you all a very Happy & Prosperous New Year !

My Movies seen-list of 2024

 Started the year with the usual attitude. By second half of the year I was leaving movies & shows halfway if they did not have anything to offer. No guilt. Hardly anything watched on OTT in the second half.

But I did watch some and more in the last weeks of the year with holidays to help.

TAMIL

Love Today (2022) - insane laughter riot even the situations cause the film characters misery & crisis. Movie premise is the misery phones cause. Rampant use & disabuse of every SM app and its impact on personal life. And then the age-old matter of perspective and misunderstandings that things can cause. Well made movie.

Maharaja (2024) - Vijay Setupathi. Interesting timeline.

TELUGU (in Kannada Audio)

Saripodhaa Sanivaaram - some raw but stylised action sequences.

Lucky Bhaskar - again very stylised naration and Dulquer's charm.

HINDI

Stree 2 - in theatres. Paisa vasool entertainer as promised and same old comfort.

I saw Archies & KGHK on the same day. Couldn't be more antithesis that anything. They were about teen & young working adult drama. But time being separated from 1964 & 2022, they were world apart in all ways. But music for both movie was outstanding. Their jukebox were playing on repeat for few days.

Kho Gaye Hum Kahan (2023) - 

By the end it would seem like a moralizing story on effects of smartphone & SM and all the lifestyle impacts it has brought. Albeit with a happy ending. A lot of situations, dialogues and punchlines had the heard/read feel. Its simplistic that way. Even with that, the movie was needed. Every gen needs its story documented and said.

In those terms it was an entertaining movie. Main 3 and all actors did a good job. Makers did the heavy duty part. The innumerable number of images and collages, scene snippets, means they arrange and shot so many. That's a lot of work.

KGHK Music is expectional & uncoventional. Some of the songs are running in loop on my devices.
"Hone Do Jo Hota Hai" earworm music by OAFF–Savera, sung by cant make sense-voice of Savera, Lothika Jha and lyrics by I-cant-believe-its Javed Akhtar.
"I Wanna See You Dance" - perfect dance number by Ankur Tewari, the reliable Sachin–Jigar and tricky voiced Saba Azad.
"Kho Gaye Hum Kahan" lyrics by Javed Akhtar & the exceptional Achint.

The title also brought back the Jasleen Royal's song "Kho Gaye Hum Kahan" from Baar Baar Dekho.

Archies - Set in 1964 and among Anglo-Indian community in a hill-station, is perfect setting to transport the American 1960s Archies. No cussing, no modern lingo, no phones & gadgets except Radio. Talking with teeth closed, almost a whisper,  made dialoges very private. Dances with 60s vigorous movements but all synchronous. I saw it twice just to live in the phone-free 60s Mumbai.

All youngster actors were good. Aditi Dot gave great music and sang well for the music, and shone in her speaking parts & scene. Vedang Raina has great presence - for his rough exterior he spoke in a very soft voice reminding of Ranveer Singh. Mihir & Vedang were right for their roles. Moose (Rudra) and Midge (Samantha Roach) were adorable and eye-catching even with limited speaking time. And it was so nice to see Tara Sharma, Koel Purie, Dilnaz and Kamal Siddhu (familiar but took time to remember cause her curly mane was locked in hats).

Music was all peppy, catchy and visually engrossing. Archies Jukebox is lengthy & great to play on repeat. Major reason are the peppy guitar riffs on foot-tapping music. And they danced well on skates.

This elaborate review says all what I would say.

This Zoya A interview on Deadline captures all I needed to know.

 She says the appeal of the comics is that they were a portal into the West at a time when India was still not totally liberalized and there was no cable and satellite TV to provide a window into the wider world. “It showed us everything about Western culture – how people dressed, what they were listening to, what food they were eating, so we all wanted burgers and milkshakes. But it was also wholesome and family-oriented, so nobody had a problem with children in India reading it.”

“I figured I wanted to take it back to that original naivety and innocence, so it had to be period, but it also had to resonate with a younger audience,” Akhtar says.

Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya - good watch in theatre. Catchy songs.

Dry Day - anything with the reliable Jeetu Bhaiya . And Shriya P is the reliable but not hyped actor with a huge kitty of work.

Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai - reason to see - Bajpayee and his courtroom scenes.

Crew - I wanted to see in theatre but ended up seeing on TV. It was definitely fun gals movie.

Sam Bahadur

Dono - refreshing take on rom-com.Fitted in the GenZ topics with GenZ actors.

Mast Mein Rehne Ka

Lapata Ladies 

Bade Miyan Chote Miyan

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke - good one. Almost like a series for Luka Chuppi/ Always good to see Vicky & Sara.

Mr. & Mrs. Mahi

Ulajh - for Jhanvi & Roshan

Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba - just cause its sequel and did not disappoint.

Khel Khel Mein - good one centered around group conversations in a closed room. And for Akshay.

CTRL - for Ananya. But did not like the dis ending.

Trial Period - for the best small budget and absolutely unrealistic escapism with endearing people and situations.

Phir Aayi Hasseen Dilruba - for that rare pulpy film.

Rautu Ka Raaz - almost a thematic sequel to Raat Akeli Hai.

Berlin - for Ishwak Singh & Aparshakthi

Khel Khel Mein - good drama of a group of people in a room discussing and story is revealed in layers.

Jaane Jaan 

Yodha - for Siddhartha M

Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha - mellow stroytelling sprinkled with action.

Merry Christmas - for Katrina & Vijay Setupati

Sarfira - need reminders like these.

Jigra - The jail-breakout sequence was great.

Bhool Bhulaiya 3 - easy to be blamed kitschy , the movie did many clever things cinematically. The way story twists every 15 minutes, the reveal surprise. The usage of CGI to convey some emotions. 

Singham Again - the cop universe ensemble movie with the usual masala. But the very stir pace. Ramayana track in background which was high-prod.

ENGLISH

Carry-On - Netflix Xmas thriller airport movie.

Trap - in theatre. 

A Haunting in Venice (2023) & Death on the Nile (2022)

Started the year with a back to back watching of newer Hercule Poirot movies, starring Kenneth Branagh. Worthy addition to the Agatha Christie & HP collection. Feeds the need.

Yesterday - I didn't have Beatles experience but now I am going to check all songs out now. Movie was very interestingly made with a sci-fi premise but no CGI at all, just storytelling and acting. Lot of suspense.

My Yearly Movies List here.