S/O life hacks thread- meals and food focus

[Anonymous]

PP here - we also let everyone pick a dinner for the week and fill in the rest with favorites as needed. It keeps the kids from complaining and keeps the adults from having to come up with all the meals.

My kids are younger but my friends with older kids actually have them find the recipe and include the ingredients on the grocery list and then be responsible for the meal itself. I can't wait to do that!

[Anonymous]

We are Indian and primarily eat Indian food at home. I plan a monthly menu for lunches and dinners, so everyone at home knows what we will be having (and don't have to rack my brains when the kids ask me whats for dinner!). I have a Rotimatic for chapatis/rotis, and an Instant Pot and Airfryer all of which help make cooking fairly 'automatic'. I make a big batch of 'punjabi masala' with 20 lbs of tomatoes and onions every few months. It is one after of labor, but once done I done, it lasts me 3-4 months. I use this as a base for most of my gravy dishes (dal, chana, rajma, palak, aloo matar, fish curry, chicken curry etc). I also keep the freezer stocked with frozen vegetables, sambar vegetables. I fry onions in the air fryer and freeze it to use in Biryani. I also chop fresh vegetables and freeze them in ziplock bags the day i buy them. The food prep takes a few hours, but I do it just every other month or so (I have an extra freezer to house all this). So when I need to cook each day, its pretty much taking stuff out of the freezer and cooking it in the Instant Pot. We typically have rice for lunch and chapati/subzi/dal for dinner. I've been doing this since August and it has honestly saved me lots of time and stress in figuring out what we will have (though creating the menu at the start of the month does take me over an hour!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are Indian and primarily eat Indian food at home. I plan a monthly menu for lunches and dinners, so everyone at home knows what we will be having (and don't have to rack my brains when the kids ask me whats for dinner!). I have a Rotimatic for chapatis/rotis, and an Instant Pot and Airfryer all of which help make cooking fairly 'automatic'. I make a big batch of 'punjabi masala' with 20 lbs of tomatoes and onions every few months. It is one after of labor, but once done I done, it lasts me 3-4 months. I use this as a base for most of my gravy dishes (dal, chana, rajma, palak, aloo matar, fish curry, chicken curry etc). I also keep the freezer stocked with frozen vegetables, sambar vegetables. I fry onions in the air fryer and freeze it to use in Biryani. I also chop fresh vegetables and freeze them in ziplock bags the day i buy them. The food prep takes a few hours, but I do it just every other month or so (I have an extra freezer to house all this). So when I need to cook each day, its pretty much taking stuff out of the freezer and cooking it in the Instant Pot. We typically have rice for lunch and chapati/subzi/dal for dinner. I've been doing this since August and it has honestly saved me lots of time and stress in figuring out what we will have (though creating the menu at the start of the month does take me over an hour!).

Is there a particular recipe or method you follow for the biryani onions? One of my next cooking projects will be biryani and I am hesitant about getting the onions right.