Indian Meal Prep 101- Indian Meal Plan and Meal Prep Ideas Beginners Guide

Weekly Indian meal prep for Indian kitchen. It is so heartening to see meal prep gaining momentum in Indian Kitchens. I have been doing meal prepping for years now. Meal prep a great way to save time and money and allows to have more time to pursue other things. So I thought to share my quick weekly meal prep for Indian Kitchen in this Meal prep 101.

I keep posting my weekly Indian meal plans on Instagram and Facebook, and so many times have been asked to write about the detailed process of my meal prep ideas. I am so glad to see so many people are realising the importance of meal prepping in the Indian kitchen. Unfortunately there so many myths as far as meal prep for Indian meal is concerned. I have tried to bust some of these in Meal Planning Myths.

Weekly Indian Meal Plans to Get You Started

If You are getting started with Meal prep and looking for Weekly Meal Plan Ideas for Indian cooking We have Indian Meal plans to sort it out for you.

• WEEKLY MEAL PLAN WEEK –1
• WEEKLY MEAL PLAN WEEK -2
• WEEKLY MEAL PLAN WEEK -3
• WEEKLY MEAL PLAN WEEK-4
• WEEKLY MEAL PLAN WEEK-5
• WEEKLY MEAL PLAN WEEK -6
• WEEKLY MEAL PLAN WEEK -7
• WEEKLY MEAL PLAN Week -8
• 5 Easy Indian Dinner Ideas

Meal prep 101 is, all you need to know about how to prepare and pack your smart meal prep containers for the whole week! Basic grocery shopping tips to start the new kitchen, and spices to buy for South Indian Kitchen. This 101 covers all meal prep ideas, basics and everything you need to start your weekly Indian Meal plan. 

How to prepare? what to prepare? And why to prepare for your weekly Indian menu? All doubts end here. How to pack the lunch box for office, Simple Indian dinner ideas, Indian breakfast Ideas and most importantly How to meal prep for these breakfast ideas and dinner ideas. 

Maybe tall claim but I have tried to share how I have been meal prepping for years. I will keep adding more meal prep ideas week on week basis. SO make sure to bookmark this post and keep checking frequently. I am planning it to run as a series.

Some Other Reads if You are beginner at Meal Planning

• Meal Planning for Busy People
• Meal Prep 101-All about Indian Meal Prep in Indian Kitchen
• Grocery Shopping and Meal Preps for Busy Moms
• Grocery Shopping Tips When Starting New Kitchen 
• Let’s Break Some Common Meal Planning Myths
• How to Make Basic Grocery List For New Kitchen 
• How to Start Weekly Meal Planning for Indian Meals
• Indian Lunch Box Ideas for Adults

Being well prepared and organised is no longer a luxury we had back in school. It is a necessity today. You work, you shop for groceries, you have your social commitment and plus spend time with your family. Can you do all of this and have that happy content smile on your face? I say Yes! It is all about planning well. My method is preparing Meal prep boxes for everything that I am planning for the next weekly meal plan.

It may sound little overwhelming but with just bit of practice, trials and errors you can plan and prep meals like a pro. Having been there done that, I promise it will make like comfortable like never before 🙂

Meals are the basic sustenance requirement for your human bodies and you really should not ignore them. Most of the times you skip your lunch at the office just because you couldn't pack food.he time crunch is a universal norm now for working people or even non-working ones. I have learnt my lessons from my ups and downs of life. I would like to share my meal hacks and preps with you so that you too can live your life to its best.

What is meal prepping?

Meal prep is simply being organised. You prepare portions of your meals and store it in your Fridge/freezer. When you need to eat you simply warm up the food or start preparing your dish with the almost cooked, pre-prepped ingredients. Bring that freezer section into the good use of feeding you and your family with homemade food.

You can pack meals for up to a week! Do them on a free day I mostly do meal prep generally on Sunday. I suggest buying your groceries on a Saturday evening and stock up your meals/meal prep for the rest of the week. It would not take that long, putting 2-3 hours is enough.

If you have house help like most of our Indian homes have, they can help you out. This way you can spend most of Sunday with your family and friends. And, have meal prep containers ready for these 20 Minute meals, 30 Minute Meal and other meal prep recipes.

Why meal prep?

Meal prepping and planning helps to save you lesser time in the kitchen during weekdays. This is like planning a good week where you accumulate the thinking and cooking process to one free day. Meal prepping and planning is good for everyone homemakers to working women. But especially if you are a woman like me who is a workaholic and often lose track of time, meal prep is a life saver.

As I told you this meal prepping and meal planning method is what I have been using to plan all my Indian meals in my Indian kitchen. So, if the idea of meal prep appeals to you and you thought it is just for continental meals. Jump right in and start with the meal prep. I am sure with some tweaking and twisting to these meal prep ideas, you will be able to device your own method to suit your kitchen and family.

Who is meal prepping for?

Meal prepping is for everyone. Some people might give you an impression that meal preps are for singles, or working people or for a family of two to three people. No, they are not. It is a necessity for living an organised and effective life. Yes! If you are working and with a few family members meal prepping is a smart way to eat homecooked meals.

But if you have a bigger family, prepping your meals is a smarter way to ensure that you have everyone's favourite meals on the table. You can cook Dal in bulk and store it, you can cut the veggies, boil the chole and rajma. You can make various tadka/masala paste and store them in the freezer. Doing this will make your work easier even if you are a homemaker.

What can I meal prep for Weekly Indian Meal Plan?

If you are a home where Indian meals are preferred, the best things to meal prep would be.

• Bhuna masala, this is going to help you in every gravy be it dry, Shahi or tawa. You can use Bhuna Masala recipe, Dal tadka recipe, Makhani gravy paste, Kolhapuri curry paste and make them in advance for 1-4 weeks and store them in the freezer. (Images may not be pretty but anyways adding them because it may give you a real picture)

• If you like some variety you can try this Thai green curry paste and red curry paste, Though it is not originally Indian recipe  Thai Curry with rice tastes absolutely delicious. When in Pinch you can always buy a few ready to use Indian masala paste and keep them in the pantry for convenience. Also, the masala and curry pastes which are not used frequently can be frozen into individual portions and stored in the freezer. 

• Cut and boiled vegetables like carrots, potatoes, beans, cauliflower. Keep these separately for an exclusive vegetable dish. You can store them together for dishes like pav bhaji, mix veg sabzi, pasta, lasagna, All types of pulao, Biryani and mix veg paratha. I make meal boxes like these and store them in the fridge as per weekly meal plans.

• Fresh Tomato purees, chutneys, ginger-garlic paste, tamarind pulp, lemon juice, green chilli-garlic paste, These pastes and purees will form the base of your next awesome meal.
• If you want to have a sandwich in the morning, you can just make a quick paneer and green chutney sandwich so on and so forth. Hummus and chutneys like apple chutney, green chutney is a great accompaniment for many fritters, kebabs, sandwiches etc.
• Boiled beans, Chole, chana, dals and maybe some cooked rice and quinoa. You can either prepare them fully or prep them and cook them half. If you are confused about how to store Indian meals and preps in your fridge, have a look at the post on how to freeze Indian meals on my tasty curry.

• You can always make the batter for dosa, cheela, vada, dahi vada etc in advance and store in the fridge. If you do not get time to make your own batter, ready-made batters are easily available in the market and you can make use of that. Even dry dal flours are available all you need to do is add water and spices etc to make a batter for dosa, chila or adai. 
• Another method of meal prep is preparing the whole meal and keeping them. Like making parathas, sabzi, pasta, patties, kebabs, pulao, almost anything. The basic rule is to cook any dish until it is 75% cooked and storing them with the right method in your freezer.
• Boiled eggs, cooked meat chunks, soups, pasta are other meals which are good to prep and store. You can make a complete curry and store them in portions according to meals and people for up to 2-3 days.
• Fruits like strawberry, apples, and mangoes could be diced and stored in small fruit boxes. You can even make fruit purees and use the whole year for smoothies, ice creams and other desserts.
• The trick is to first freeze these fruit dices on a plate and let them freeze individually and later transfer them to a container. There is a whole article on how to freeze fruits on my tasty curry. You can get all the tips and hacks for eating healthy with no wastage.
• You can make half cooked chapati, Paratha, stuffed paratha and store them in the freezer.
• Prepping salads is another great idea. Salads with cucumber, tomatoes, various types of salad leave some fruits and nuts make for a good and healthy meal. Here's how to build a better salad. 

How long do These meals/meal preparations stay good?

That totally depends on what type of food have you prepared. The quality of food at the initiation of preparing that meal matters the most for the duration. I would suggest preparing meals for a week. This is what I do and at the end of the week, my meal preps are still okay.  You should select your meals with the veggies which are least prone to fast decay.

While meal planning I try to strike a good balance of curries, salads and sandwiches etc. I prefer to have chopped veggies, masala pastes, Salad ingredients etc and store them in Individual containers. I guess that's what makes our Indian meal prep slightly different from western meal prep where they keep almost fully cooked meals into meal prep containers.

The quality of meal prep containers, zip lock plastic bags, foil and parchment paper for parathas, also makes a difference. So use good quality kitchen helps. If you guys want to know what I use I will be glad to list all my Indian meal prep resources with you. DO let me know in comments below. 

Keeping your fridge clean is another thing you should be careful about.

You can alternatively prepare your meals twice a week or every four days. Doing so your food would not become lumpy or change the texture.

How do I start meal prepping for Indian Kitchen?

Start by storing your leftovers and using them to make interesting recipes. For example, there are many leftover roti recipes which are a really good quick snack. Leftover sabzi, noodles and pasta also contribute to some amazing meal prep recipes.

Once you are a pro at utilising your leftovers, include a basic prep regime. This would be boiled and cut veggies, boiled rice and Dal, kneaded roti dough and cut fruits.

Making chutneys, purees and bhuna masala and other gravy bases is the next step. Storing these should be done with care. Use less water ( make them almost dry), roast them properly and use enough oil.

Boiled eggs, boiled pasta, roasted sooji, etc are easy things to store. Next, you can store by stacks sets and names. Store a set of veggies used in a dish together or a mixed salad. For example, Grated gobhi, green chillies and coriander leave in one bag for gobhi paratha.

Lastly, gravies should be given a shot. Make the gravies with less water and enough oil, roast them well and you're all set. Store them in portions as required. You can even make complete gravy bases and store them in fridge/freezer as per the length of time you are planning to store them for. Pop in some boiled potatoes, eggs, paneer, chopped veggies or cooked meat when reheating.

It is possible to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner meals for a day but do it in a limited portion. Do not overdo it. See how your family likes the pre-prepped full meals and accordingly choose how much and what to prep. If your family doesn't want frozen meals you can simply prep and store chopped veggies, boiled dry Dal, boiled eggs and aloos. So these will be very helpful to whip up a quick meal.

What do I need for the Meal Prep?

• As mentioned above you will need good quality containers and zip lock bags. Buy a range of sizes of plastic containers, glass jars and containers and zip-lock plastic bags. Be careful to choose a freezer and microwave safe container. I always buy a glass container as far as possible.
• Use a plastic food safe, microwave safe, freezer safe containers only for storing chopped veggies if you are using them. I somehow do not like to reheat food in plastic containers even if they are microwave safe.
• Using containers or Tiffin boxes with compartments is helpful for grab and go lunch or breakfast.
• Use BPA free containers they are safer for storing food. Lastly, they should be airtight containers and good quality zip locks so that there is no leakage.
• I even have airtight smoothie glasses which are great to carry.

Ready to get started with Meal Prepping?

I am sure you are. I believe in you ? Read food and kitchen tips and hacks daily updates on Twitter. It might prove of great help. Once you start doing so, step by step, you should fine-tune these skills. There are weekly meal plans in mytastycurry, o that you are sorted with groceries and planning your food for a week.

Meals preps are nothing but genius. They are a very smart way to live. When you have most of your meals prepped and planned you no more will have those days when you skip your meal or even worse crib about cooking. Bye, bye order in's and takeaways.

Start it today. It saves time, keeps you and your family well fed and active. Choose from a variety of curries, salads and other snacks from my tasty curry to start with. Follow my tasty curry Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for latest updates and cool food tips. Pin your favourite recipes for the week on Pinterest and be organised.

These meal preps and other how-tos are a life changer. Share and like the recipes you like so that there is more food awareness in the world. Write your comments and feedback below in the comments section. We love listening to you!

Preparing and planning for your meals will help you be a little less burdened. You will not have to worry about what to prepare and how to do it in time. Life is busy and if it is not for you then you should make it busy and see all of it before you are old. You plan your days, your years and your whole life so why not plan your basic need, Food. Have a look at the Indian meal plans on my tasty curry, where you can find weekly grocery list and recipes for daily eating.

Meal preparation and meal plans combine to give you homemade food every day, waste less, eat healthily, and be more active and efficient.

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