Weekly Menu Planning and Spicy Cabbage Rice

A spicy cabbage rice which is a regular in my house and a perfect quick meal option!

Weekly menu planning is something I have wanted to do for many years now, but there things that I procrastinate forever and keep putting them off saying later. And this was just one of them, but then some months ago I saw Archana start a tag called #summermealplanning and I thought this is my chance to start something that I have wanted to do forever and I jumped right in. This spicy cabbage rice is a part of my menu planning recipe 🙂

I started with planning the week from Monday to Friday since I really wasn’t sure how things would work on a weekend. we are always socializing and it’s all so dynamic on a weekend, but I soon realised that there is a structure to it if I notice closely.

The social meetings are either prefixed or on Saturday nights and hence I started using the information around it, added a few flex meals here and there and went ahead, still skeptical about the whole weekly planning thing, but it worked.

The weekly menu planning has brought is such an ease and structure to my life, suddenly. We plan the menu as a family on Sunday morning, I order my groceries according to it and in up one copy on the fridge and all I am set. The househelp reads the menu and does the prep and my job to cook becomes so much easier. There is no getting up in the morning and breaking my head against what to make for breakfast and then my son telling me mumma can’t you think of anything else!

I also felt that the weekly menu planning is a great way to control those impulsive food and ingredient purchases.  Those things that we buy because of it looks so interesting and then it keeps lying in our ingredient cupboard forever, before we realised its expired and then dump it. I think we all do it, don’t we?

I also feel I am eating a much more balanced meal in a week after this started. The minute you start seeing on a paper what you are eating through the week you realise how much protein and carbs, how much vegetables and fruits and can quickly do corrections to make it all work at a larger extent. The husband commented saying we are eating much more variety of food after we started this too. I am remembering old recipes and dishes and putting them on and thanks to meal planning I also have loads to post on the blog suddenly, since I realised so many of my favorite foods to eat in a weekday don’t seem to be on the blog. So stay tuned for many more interesting easy and everyday recipes coming up. I am also sharing these weekly menus on instagram so if you want the regular updates, do follow me on instagram!

Starting with a spicy cabbage rice for today. I love cabbage in any and every form but everyone else in my house detests it. O would say I can’t eat this, N would add, I feel like eating maggi today every time I would make cabbage sabji and then I discovered this Spicy Cabbage Rice recipe many eons ago. I have been making this for so long now that I don’t even remember the recipe source anymore. I think it was a chawal book by Sanjeev Kapoor or may be it was a blog, but overtime I have adapted the recipe to suit my needs. Now I can close my eyes and cook this one and have been successful in feeding the brats in the house with cabbage.

Weekly Menu Planning and Spicy Cabbage Rice

A spicy cabbage rice which is a regular in my house and a perfect quick meal option! 

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Course Main Dish

Cuisine Indian

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup rice (I use basmati anything else would work too)
• 2 cups cabbage shredded (I like to use the mandolin to slice it thin)
• 1 cup Peas shelled
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tsps oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 5 to 6 curry leaves
• 1 pinch hing
• 2 tsps Chopped garlic
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 2 - 3 green chillies slit lengthwise
• 2 tsps Sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsps lemon juice

Instructions

 

• Boil or steam rice and keep aside to cool.
• Heat oil in a pan, add sesame seeds and add fry till it they start crackling.
• Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, pinch of hing, curry leaves, chopped garlic and saute till garlic gets nice golden color.
• Add turmeric powder, add shredded cabbage, peas, mix, sprinkle some salt, mix.
• Add coriander powder, red chilli powder, cover and cook for 5 to 6 mts.
• Add boiled rice, add some lemon juice, mix, cover and cook for 5 mts on low heat.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with raita

Notes

 

 

If you make this, share a picture with me on twitter, instagram or Facebook? I would love to hear what you have to say about it !

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!