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[quote=Anonymous]I am Indian immigrant and have been  sticking to the old way of Indian cooking for 30+ years.  My kids want other cuisines and we do indulge but in a limited way and we try and replicate everything at home.  I have also made some healthy adjustments like switching entirely to olive oil.  I also make my own ghee with fenugreek in it.   First of all, Indian traditional cooking can be a laborious process (at least the way we were taught).  DH and I are still used to having a variety of foods on our plate. Here's what on our thali usually - ...

- Basmati rice (washed thrice before cooking, cooking like pasta and draining the starchy water out.  Removes arsenic and most of diabetes causing starch)
- Roti (made with multigrain flour - whole wheat, chickpea flour, rice, millets, oat, barley, flaxseed, various daals, psyllium husk, chia seed, turmeric, fenugreek)
- Daal (tampering with cumin, coriander, asaphetida, mustard, red chillies, coriander, curry leaves)
- Home made yogurt set in organic milk
- One dry veggi prep with spices 
- One curry veggie with spices 
- Chutneys
- One non-veg curry or kebab
- One salad - onions, green peppers, tomatoes, cucumber with a dressing of lemon juice, black pepper and salt. 
- Fruits in the day time. We do not eat fruits in the evening. 
- Mukhwaas (mouth freshner) - fennel, cardamom, cloves, sweetened rose petals, coconut and jaggery.

All of this is well and good but it requires planning and execution. I spend around up to two hours in the kitchen a day - prepping, cleaning, cooking, serving etc and I am strickler for meal times. Earlier no one liked what I did but now they are used to it too.  Food is important for your health. You cannot be eating restaurant food and expect that health will remain good.  The care that you take in making the food and maintaining hygine and freshness is missing at restaurants.  Look at my menu above. So much of this food is quick to make and serve - fruits, salad, yogurt, pickle, rice, daal, a few chappatis, mukhwas are just low effort food. Early every morning I have all my burners going with veggis and non-veg entrees being cooked in the morning. Every evening, I am doing prep work for the next day.  When I have failed to do that, my family will happily order food from outside.  That's when their health goes downhill.  Either they will put on weight, or get acne, or get GI issues or feel tired and sleepy.  The moment I make hearty and healthy food for them, they are doing better.  No, there is no shortcut solution to good nutrition without spending time on it unless you are super rich.  Otherwise, the whole cooking routine has to be baked into your daily life and it is boring, repetetive, thankless but essential.

If I don't do it first thing in the morning, I run out of steam and energy.  If I want to feed my family without being resentful, I have to cook first thing in the morning and be done with it. I have also found that if cooked food is available at all times, my family will eat it without any drama. Otherwise they are hangry and will eat some kind of junk.

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