This is to all women who are just happy to be at home thinking we are making our family happy. Unless you seriously have excuses to be a home maker, it’s not a good option. It’s better to realize earlier than later.
Most women are always happy to cook good food for their family, clean the kitchen and decorate and tidy their home. I am one of them. I am always super obsessed to organize, clean, cook and checkout my shining floor every day and keep it the same way in and out. I am that home maker who is satisfied and happy to see her family’s happy faces end of the day.
It is absolutely nice to make your family happy but what if we could make money from our good qualities. They will be more than happy. If we are very good at a particular thing we should try to monetize our expertise in which ever field it may be. While it doesn’t count how much money it is! It surely counts that you monetize from what you are really good at.
Indian homes have mostly items of minimum 3 generations and this is where the problem of hoarding starts. We live in a culture where we stay with our parents and grandparents. It is good to stay with them to learn many life skills, culture and for love and support however almost all homes have material collection of things of each generation which no one wants to let go off. The first generation keeps it so that the second generation can use it. The second generation doesn’t like used things and they buy new products of the market. This way they buy new stuff. The third generation too do not like old items and end up buying the newest items of the market. This way there are utensils pots and pans majorly of 3 generations which no one disposes of. Some items and things are not removed because of respect to the elders, some are not removed due to sentimental value of each person of the house and many are not removed because nobody wants to let go off and take responsibility of throwing it away. This way the whole house is full of 80 percent items which are not used at all. The house is never tidy and the mess keeps growing by the day.
The problem can be solved if everybody comes to a median solution. For eg:
Everyone let go off few things they don’t like.
Everyone let go off few things they like but do not use now.
Everyone let go off few things of sentimental value that the next generation will not use in any circumstances.
Everyone let go off those few favorite things which can be bought even now anytime if they need it again.
Every one let go off few things which has lost its value in the market due to new products.
And everyone let go off few favorite items which are not multipurpose in today’s world. Eg kitchen appliances, an opener, peeler, a cutter etc.
This solution will bring down much of your unwanted items which are piled up due to previous generations.
Do you have any other solution for such generational clutter?
Most Indian families usually store grains for the whole year in large quantities. Buying in bulk reduces cost and also saves the headache of purchasing every month. However storing the grocery like pulses, grains, lentil’s is a bigger issue than the cost of buying it. One has to take great care so that the grocery doesn’t get infested with pests, insects and fungus due to humidity. There are few chemical powders when mixed with grains can prevent from such infestations however if the grains are not washed properly before consumption can become harmful to us.
Listed below are good home remedies to protect grains for the whole year. These are our daily used spices and few other items which are excellent in keeping bugs away.
Proper sunlight for grains is the most important and absolute necessity if they are to be stored for the whole year.
Keep in airtight containers to avoid moisture and pests attacking grains.
Do not buy chemical laden tablets to protect grains. It will be harmful for you if grains are not washed properly before consuming.
Dried neem leaves are widely used as an insecticide. It is harmless and a cheap and effective solution to prevent insects. It also absorbs moisture from grains effectively. It is mostly used by women in rural areas.
Charcoal wrapped in cloth is also used for saving from humidity in rural areas.
There are many other easy options if you want to store for 3 to 4 months. They are as follows.
Ingredient
Prevention
Sugar
Mix 3 to 4 cloves for 1 kg
Lentils, pulses, daals and rice
Mix 3 to 4 bay leaves in 5 kg grains/ Dalchini sticks /Neem leaves
Coriander powder
Add one teaspoon of salt /asofoetida (hing)/turmeric powder/ black salt
Moong dal/ semolina(rawa) /peanuts / sevaiya
Roast properly, let it cool, apply castor oil and keep in airtight container
Even if there are numerous solutions to prevent insects and fungus on grains, it is not a necessity to buy in bulk as everything is available 24/7 now. Limited buying will occupy less space, less money and also less work for you to go through the process of drying the grains and keeping it safe for the whole year.
Above are easy and cheap home remedies for protecting grains at home.
This is super easy to make summer drink to keep your body cool, hydrated and full of energy. You can make it and freeze it for months to use as a drink. It has sweet and tangy taste with tinge of cardamom flavour. It is made during the mango season, which is the summer season in India.
So let’s get started.
Ingredients
Kairi or raw mango – 250 gms
Jaggery – 450 gms
Cardamom powder- 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Method:
Buy kairi (raw, firm, green coloured mangoes). The raw mangoes should be sour in taste for the drink, so do not buy soft ones.
We can replace sugar for jaggery here. If you add sugar, take a little lesser quantity. Sometimes the mangoes are very sour. You can increase or decrease the quantity of sweetness as per your taste. You can also add saffron strands for orange colour and taste. It is optional.
Wash the kairi and boil in a cooker for 4 to 5 whistles.
Once cooled, peel off the cover and separate the pulp from the pit/seed.
Grind the pulp with jaggery, salt and cardamom powder together to make a smooth fine paste.
Add chilled water and mix it to make a cool refreshing drink.
For half cup of ready pulp, pour 1 and ½ cup of chilled water. You can change the ratio as per your liking. This pulp can be kept in freezer for about 6 months. Whenever you need just add chilled water, ice cubes and have it. That’s it.
My mom in law and husband loves it very much, so every summer we have this juice ready to drink at home.
The main aim of grocery listing is to not waste food, time and energy. However, the kitchen should have all the grocery which you will need for a month. Some women like to bring grocery as it finishes while some like to bring it for a month or two. I prefer to buy it for a month. Few staple items are always better to buy more in quantity to overlap, if by chance you are late to pickup grocery for the next month.
Whenever there is a party at home or a festival around, we need to buy more quantity. Preferably keep this extra bought grocery in a separate box for 2 reasons. First the menu is different for the parties and even during festivals, so the grocery list is going to be different than usual. Secondly, by keeping it this way it does not affect our monthly grocery calculations.
You can make your own list by answering the following questions. So let’s start. First of all, know your basics: Understand what grocery you actually use day in and out?
Here the grocery list will have few steps like.
Which main cuisine do you make throughout the month?
What is the menu for each day?
Which ingredients are needed to prepare the menu each day?
What is the quantity you needed for the items you prepared each day?
When you finish writing for the whole month, you will find most ingredients are repeated. By this time you will have a rough idea of the quantity of ingredients you will need for the whole month.
It’s ok here and there. By doing this for just a month or two you will approximately get what your family size needs in a month. Also at the end, you will magically have a ready menu for the whole month from breakfast to dinner. You will be sorted with two things: the menu for each day and the monthly grocery list.
You may find it time consuming but believe me once you do these steps you will be free of grocery listing forever. Just write down every day what you make at home. That’s it!
Below is just an example of how you can do it step wise. Example:
Which main cuisine do you make throughout the month?
Cuisine
CKP Mahrastrian
What is the menu for each day? Breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. Make this list for 30 days. Please do not write at one go. Write it each day literally as the day ends. This helps to know what you actually make each day of the month.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Breakfast
poha
upma
idli chutney
Lunch
roti/ bhindi sabji
roti/ moth bean
chhole bhature
Snacks
sandwhich
pancakes
dosa
Dinner
rice and daal
khichdi
curd rice
Which ingredients are needed for the menu each day?Write it each day as you write the menu above.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
oil
oil
oil
asafoetida
asafoetida
turmeric
Cumin seeds
cumin seeds
red chiili powder
Mustard seeds
mustard seeds
chhole
flattened rice
Turkish gram
maida
turmeric
rice
rice
wheat flour
red chiilies
split black gram
sugar
Ready Pan cake mixture
chhole masala powder
rice
turmeric
maida
salt
wheat lfour
salt
salt
What is the quantity you needed for the items you prepared each day?This is just rough estimate for the day 1 menu.
Day 1 ingredients
Quantity
oil
half cup
asafoetida
one fourth spoon
cumin
2 tspoon
black mustard
1 teaspoon
flattened rice
1 cup
turmeric powder
1 teaspoon
wheat flour
2 cups – 10 rotis
Tuvar daal
one fourth cup
sugar
1 tspoon
rice
half cup
This way your whole month’s menu, the quantity and recipe also gets done easily. Your grocery list is done for ever. Perishable items are not written such as bread, onion, potatoes etc as you will need to get them weekly. Now add each ingredients quantity till the end of month and you get your list. You don’t have to list it very accurately. Below is just an example of how you can write it at the end of month.
Ingredients you needed for the month
Qty for 1 month
Qty for 3 months
Qty for 6 months
oil
4 litres
hing
1 small box
Cumin seeds
200 gms
Mustard seeds
200gms
Flattened rice
1 kg
Turmeric powder
1 kg
salt
1 kg
wheat flour
7 kg
maida
500 gms
Split pigeon peas
1 kg
red chilli powder
2 kgs
semolina
500 gms
pan cake mix
1
Mixed lentils
250gms
Idli rice
500 gns
chickpeas
250 gm
rice
5 kgs
I understand this sounds to be a very complex and may be irritating work especially for those who are not interested in cooking but believe me once the list is done you will save time, money, space and the frustrating process of making the monthly grocery list forever.
Write what menu you made at the end of each day only. This will take hardly 10 minutes time and the benefits will be much greater.
Mostly other than the staple food, different types of cuisines are rarely prepared at homes, so bring the quantity as you plan to make it. Do not buy bulk just because there is an offer. You may end up throwing it in the dustbin end of few months.
Keep this list forever copied in your excel sheet as we keep on getting same items from the super market. The brand may change but the ingredients and quantity you need will not change for 95 percent of the time.
I hope this will give you a fair idea of how much grocery is to be bought every month.
The crux of decluttering are the steps of how to do it which are very important, whether its our home, garage or office. We become so confused of what to keep and throw and moreover just by the heaps of clothes, utensils, stationery, papers and whatnot we become frustrated and end up keeping back most things. Here are just few points of how I make it easy to declutter.
Always take one item to be decluttered eg: if it is clothes, just take clothes of one family member to organise and declutter at a time.
2) The reason for above is it gives you time to think whether you need a particular thing or not and secondly by chance you get some urgent work while cleaning up the cupboard, you will be able to wrap up faster.
3) Do not declutter because everybody is doing it! We always have old beautiful but broken bottles or artefacts or stained rugs or things. The choice is easy to throw them but if we are into making a DIY out of it, which many are into nowadays, why not keep it? Please do keep it. But do keep it in a separate box labelled accordingly.
4) Do not declutter the way others declutter. Everyone’s needs are different. Just because I keep 12 tea cups you need not keep 12. We are tea addicts and so we end up having tea very frequently in a day. You may not need so. I have seen so many videos showing a 12 dinner plates in the cabinet when there are only 2 people at home! Why do you want so many? Point is declutter the way your needs are or you are comfortable with. Example I like to keep 2 extra blankets in hand in my day to day drawer as there are guests coming in frequently, you may not feel so to have that extra one handy.
5) Another important benefit of keeping less is we will have less things to maintain, clean and organise.
6) Do not keep emotional value things in a dead place for a long long time just because they are given by someone dear to us and are pricy and rare. Give it away to people who will use it or who are in real need of it.
7) Always keep three boxes while decluttering. However easy we feel it is to declutter, when we actually start doing it, we get entangled into emotional value of few things. Inspite of knowing we have not used certain things for long time we don’t feel like throwing it away. Eg artefacts, purses, bags, clothes and there may be so many other things gifted to us. The best way to decide on all above points is by the following way. For this I have 3 boxes named keepthings box, Emotional Value clutter box and Throwbox.
keep
Throw
EV Box
The keep things box has ofcourse the things we need.
The throw box has those items which I am sure 100% of giving it away to the people who really need it.
The Emotional value box (The EV box) has very few things which I don’t use but has immense emotional value attached to it. These are things which are very dear to me given by special people in my life but I don’t use them for some reason. like it may be of no use to me or under size clothes, or stained favourite dress. I keep these things till next declutter because I just don’t want to give it to charity or throw it away too. Having said this I make it a point to try and use the things kept in the box but if I don’t use them till next declutter, I just empty the EV box in the throw box before I start my next decluttering.
The 8th point is agreed by astrologers and I too believe in it to an extent. We should not keep stagnant or unused things at home for long time because they bring negative energy and stagnancy in our lives too! But ofcourse this point is to each one of you on what your belief system is.
9) And the last point is once you have decluttered , dispose off completely before you change your mind to keep it back at home!
Keeping in mind the above, I am sure it is easier now to declutter most of the things in an organized smart way.
This is not a sponsored post. It is a review of fridge side rack. This post contains an affiliate link.
Any one who cooks in the kitchen has this thought of how to declutter and organise the kitchen! I am sharing with you the most liked useful and classy product in my house today. This is not a sponsored post. I always try to share convenient tips and tricks of kitchen with everyone whenever I buy a product really worth the money.
We always need few essential things handy on the counter top, which we use throughout the day or daily basis.
Myself being cooking enthusiast and ever organising person I came across this and it satisfied my both issues.
Just imagine trying to keep things handy and making the counter top look messy because of it. That is not me. My kitchen counter top is a small space and I was always trying my best to keep it empty as much as I can because however hard I tried to organise it the place looked messy, until I got this invaluable product a year ago. This has de cluttered the counter top completely and the essentials kept in it look classy and organized.
The first shelf has a tall oil bottle and a beautiful chumbak cup and starbucks coffee mug of my daughter.
The second shelf has raw peanuts and dry fruits in my beautiful DIY glass bottles.
The third lowest shelf has tea sugar and coffee containers and a filter coffee tetra pack sometimes.
The 4th and lowest shelf has a small basket in which I keep tongs, a scissor ( to cut milk pouch every morning), a gas lighter (as our gas is not automatic) and a tea strainer ( tea is made almost every hour at my home). This shelf also has a tin full of homemade ghee and box of Amul butter.
The fridge rack is one of the best buy ever from Amazon. This rack fits exactly in between where my countertop ends and the fridge. It is extremely sleek at the same time fits many things into its 4 shelves. It is made up of wooden material and gives a real good look to the kitchen. You can use it for various purposes. I have used it according to my convenience.
Again you can keep another sleek slider below this one and optimize the space. Isn’t it awesome!
Everything from this shelf is needed every day. And this is visible to all at home whenever they need it. And still at the same time no clutter on the counter top.
Luckily from the entrance of my kitchen it is not even visible. Even you can think of such a place. I feel every home should have it as you can keep so many things as per your need like spices, masalas sauce bottles pickles, Jams or any other pulses or pastas, flours or even baby food, biscuits, snacks just anything which you may need handy.
Most important I liked about this product is it is multipurpose. You can also use it as a book stand or for keeping decorative items or flower pots in the balcony or in your living room or library room just as a standing decorative piece. Let your creativity work on it.
As for me I am the happiest person having this rack as I am always looking for compact organising options and am sure those who are like me will surely go for it. By chance you are planning to buy please click here https://amzn.to/37a39Xz this will not charge you more but it will give me a small percentage of commission. This is a link for above fridge rack called Livzing 4 Tier Adjustable Bamboo Storage Rack – Multipurpose Wooden Layer Kitchen Bathroom Organizer Shelves – Fridge Side Hanging Shelf.
As a parent we all love our daughters and find them as beautiful angels. While yes they are angels why do we just have to wish them with.. my beautiful ..my lovely ..my angel….etc. When they are grown up they need much more than just this. I feel motivating them with what they are good at through our wishes will do much greater help and inspire them to do best in their lives. I am sure these wishes will also remain in their hearts through out their life. Wishing birthday wishes to your daughter with a very short lyrical poem and with complete sum up of her capabilities and talent is more real and feels by the heart than just saying my beautiful or sweet daughter. Always make them feel proud of what they are and what you love the most of them other than their looks. This will surely motivate them to do their best ahead. And also they will realize you are aware of their good qualities which they themselves might have not known.
The real trick to make each and every perfect puffed Roti / Phulka / Indian bread.
When it comes to having lunch or dinner, everybody relishes on the hot puffed roti / Phulka or as called the Indian bread.
You can have it with any curry or stir fried vegetables or use it as a roll to eat with any spread like jam, nutella etc. Just a dollop of ghee or butter is also such a treat when the phulka is served hot.
Actually I didnot know without paid plan I cannot post videos. Wish I could post it! I had actually recorded all phulkas so that one could get first hand demo. Hope the photos help atleast a little. Posting a lot of photos to give a glimpse that with this trick each roti is sure to puff up.
So let’s get started.
1 cup any whole wheat flour
Salt as per needed. less than one fourth teaspoon if you want.
Half teaspoon oil
Water as per needed to make a medium soft dough preferably on a harder side.
Except oil mix all ingredients and make dough. It should be medium soft, apply oil and knead again for few seconds. keep aside for at least 15 minutes. This resting time helps to make good phulkas but it is not compulsory as with practice you don’t actually need to rest it.
Make small balls of the dough and keep so that when you are cooking one phulka simultaneously u can roll out another without wasting time.
Take a ball of dough roll it flat about 8 cm . apply dry flour if it gets difficult to roll out.
First pic above- Heat a pan on medium, put the rolled out phulka. Now here the trick is of heating it right for just 5 seconds.
Second pic above-Within 5 seconds turn phulka upside down. it should be cooked just as shown in above second pic and not more.
Third pic -Now the other side should be cooked nicely .
Fourth image- Check the phulka with a tong, if it is cooked properly the way you want from other side as shown in above last pic.
Now remove from the pan and flip the phulka directly on the gas. It immediately starts puffing . Cook a little on this side.
Remove from gas and apply ghee or butter immediately. We all love the hot phulkas straight from the pan loaded with ghee or butter. I myself enjoy and relish it this way.
Each and every phulka puffs with this little trick of heating right. I hope the photos help you to make each phulka, the perfect puffed one.
These two snack recipe / starters are all time favourite because they are not fried or oily appetizers. Even if it is last minute party plan it is super easy to make. Even a beginner can make it and surprise his family with these yummy bites. You need not be a cook to try these. The ingredients are also very minimal. So let’s get started.
Cheese corn canapés
Canapés
Mozarella cheese
Boiled corn, finely cut carrot and capsicum (ratio as per your choice)
Pizza /pasta sauce
Mix all vegetables, add sauce and grated mozzarella cheese. Do not put salt as the sauce contains salt.
Fill in the canapés, put grated cheese again on top, bake it till cheese melts and has a lovely brown colour on top and serve hot. It tastes heavenly guys…. just make it!
Cold Sprout Salad
This doubles up with being easy quick super healthy tasty filling and looks so tempting and best part is you can make it and keep in the refrigerator. It is ready to serve dish. So let’s get started.
Cold Sprout Salad
Half cup sprouted green beans
Half cup any boiled pasta
Half cup shredded Purple /red cabbage known as (Brassica Oleracea as per Google)
One fourth cup spring onions
1 and half tablespoon crushed or finely cut garlic
2 tablespoons Red Chili flakes
1 tablespoon Oregano flakes
Pepper powder as per taste I took 1 teaspoon
1 tablespoon Lemon juice
2 tablespoon Olive oil
Salt as per taste
Mix (sprouted beans, pasta, cabbage, spring onion) in a bowl. In another bowl mix the remaining ingredients.
Keep both the bowls in the fridge and mix both only when it is ready to serve. You can mix and keep too but it might get little soggy and leave water if kept for long time. We like it little spicy, you may reduce it according to your choice. This salad is always on the menu for any party for its health benefits.
I served both starters on a (click to see it) beautifully decorated table which added to the ambience in a great way.
