Weekly food recap

I have been thinking of doing a weekly food recap post for a very long time now. It would serve as an idea library for the eternal question "What should I cook for lunch today?". I also love to see these weekly recap posts on other blogs and it would also keep me accountable to post at least once a week.

The daughter leaves for school at 7:15 am. She carries breakfast and lunch boxes with her to school. The husband usually carries lunch to the office. So I cook it in the morning. Dinner is mostly leftovers from lunch. The husband usually comes home late so he doesn't eat dinner most of the time. He just has a snack in office in the evening.

This week I didn't click the daughter's tiffin. I hope to start in January when her school reopens. Here's the recap of week 17-23 December.

On Monday the fridge was quite empty. So I had to improvise with whatever was in the fridge and freezer to come up with a meal. I made paneer and vegetable bhurji with parathas and chana salad. I had made the dough the previous night and also soaked and boiled the kala chana the previous day. The daughter took the kala chana with rotis to school for her lunch.

paratha, paneer vegetable bhurji and chana salad

The paneer vegetable bhurji had ginger, garlic, onions, tomato, grated carrot, peas, capsicum cooked with kitchen king and sabji masala along with crumbled paneer. The kala chana salad had a tomatoes, cucumber, a tiny bit of onion and lots of coriander along with black salt, lemon juice and jeera powder.

I had curd rice for dinner on Monday and used the leftover bhurji as sandwich stuffing for breakfast the next day. I did vegetable shopping on Monday evening and stocked up the fridge.
I seem to have forgotten to click the food on Tuesday. But I do know that I picked and chopped a bunch of methi and shelled peas that evening.

On Wednesday morning, I made gajar methi matar and kadhi along with rotis. The rice seems to have been made the previous evening.

carrot peas methi sabji, kadhi, rice, roti and salad

The sabji had ginger, garlic and my favourite spice blend of kitchen king and sabji masala as flavourings.

On Thursday, I made gobi aloo matar, boondi raita and rotis.

gobi aloo matar, boondi raita, rotis and salad

I soaked handwo batter at night to be made on Friday morning. I get handwo flour from Gujarat and soak it in curd and leave it to ferment overnight (which is fine in winters but leave it for only 4-5 hours in the summers). I also made a dough out of the leftover cauliflower sabji. But on Friday, the husband said "don't make tiffin today" and I knew he wouldn't be very excited about the menu so I didn't make it in the morning. The daughter had half day school on Friday, which was the beginning of her Christmas vacation. She was going to be back for lunch. She likes handwo with ketchup and she likes the traditional Maharashtrian varan bhat. So I made that for lunch. I also had  the cauliflower paratha with leftover boondi raita. The plate also has the winter superfood - fresh turmeric; pickled in black salt and lemon juice.

handwo, cauliflower paratha, tamarind date chutney, salad, boondi raita, fresh turmeric, varan, bhaat

On Saturday, we ordered in lunch. For dinner, I made salad as the first course and tomato-beet soup with focaccia as the next. That was our favourite family meal of the week. Everyone loved the focaccia and I always like leafy salads and all kinds of soups.

salad with balsamic dressing

focaccia with tomato soup

For the salad, iceberg lettuce was topped with tomatoes, grated cheese, chana and sweet potato wedges (boiled and pan-fried sweet potato) with balsamic dressing (balsamic vinegar, olive oil, mustard, honey, salt and pepper). The soup had ginger, garlic, onions, carrot, beetroot and tomatoes cooked in olive oil, pureed and seasoned with salt and pepper and topped with little bit of cream.

Sunday morning was spent trying to sew. I have been trying to learn to sew on the sewing machine. I created a frock for the daughter using 2 of her tops and a dupatta.

frock sewing project

For lunch, I quickly made Shakshua which is a middle eastern dish to serve with buttered paav. I just cook onions, garlic, tomatoes and capsicum with spices like smoked paprika, cumin powder, and coriander powder. Break some eggs over the top and cook till eggs are done to your taste.

shakshuka with buttered paav

It was quick, easy, and tasty. We had a party to attend in the evening so this was a perfect late lunch.

That's the first weekly recap of the blog. I will be back next week with the Christmas week recap.