Category: Get Organised!

My top Kitchen Gadgets for Desi food lovers….
Alliyah Dawud
February 18, 2019

Don’t get me wrong; you don’t need specialist equipment to cook a decent Curry or Pulao Rice at home however I’m Asian and we do things a certain way. So here are my gadgets and gizmos I use a lot of when I am cooking ‘desi food’.

1) Spice grinder aka a coffee grinder.
I try my best to avoid pre grinded spice mixes as I love fresh spices. It’s as simple as that. So I try and buy my spices whole and grind down a months supply at a time. I know the old skool amongst you will say you need a mortal and pester…and that’s fine too however the grinder is faster.
NOTE: I purchase pre-made (grinded) chili powder. For real the pain of making your own is crazy so please do not try it at home).

2) A tava (flatbread pan)
If you make parathas, rotis etc at home I recommend you invest in a good tava. I also use mine to make delicate kebabs (Shaami) on my tava.

3) Electric Rice Cooker
Yes I know my Nanny wouldn’t have had one of these knocking about in her kitchen however modern day cooking in the West is much more different to the homeland. I love my Rice Cooker as it’s awesome for cooking boiled rice, pulao and even biryani. My Rice Cooker has a saute function which makes it uber useful as my kitchen aid. I often freeze pulao masala. When I defrost it I can stick it in the cooker with rice and stock and voila! Perfect pulao.

4) Small frying pan (a one egg pan would be ideal)
I dry roast my spices before grinding them to get maximum taste out of the spices. I have a small pan I keep for just spice roasting. But if you are serious about your desi food you’ll understand my passion of maximum flavour.

5) Strainers
If you cook daal or rice you’ll need a strainer or three. I have fine mesh ones for lentils and rice.

6) Steel bowls (in different sizes)
Great for when you need to make dough and leave it to proof, or make up pakora batter etc.

7) Rolling pin (wooden thin one especially for making super cool rotis.
I purchased mine off eBay.

8) Tin opener
I use tinned Alfonso mango puree to make Lassi as well as using tinned tomatoes in curry bases. So a tin opener is an essential item to have on hand.

9) Wooden Tongues
Ever burnt your fingers turning over a paratha? Painful! So I use wooden tongues to turn over rotis etc.

10) Mortal and pester
Chutney made in one of these is out of this world. Enjoy said.

Other items that come in useful include:

ikea Garlic Press/crusher
Pressure King Pro (for the Pressure Cooker function which is useful for cooking pulses)
Chopping boards & sharp knives
A range of cooking spoons (separate ones for sweet and savoury)
Small frying pan for tempering
Bouquet garni muslin bags-I put the whole spices in them for making ‘yakni’ (meat stock)

My Kitchen Mince Hack (to save you time)
Stylemesisteradmin
February 15, 2019

I admit that I actually include store bought Pizza on my meal plans and if I’m totally honest those nights are pretty hassle free when it comes to time in the kitchen.

Over the last few years I have picked up some hacks I use daily and some that I don’t event get how they made it to pinterest (but that’s a different story).

One hack that I recommend to everyone is bulk cooking; but in various formats.

If like me you use your Slow Cooker (aka Crockpot) at least once or twice a week this hack is going to be your bestie…just trust me on this.

When I talk to friends about using a Slow Cooker for making curries or sauces I often get met with the looks and comments that ‘it won’t taste right because the meat wasn’t browned!” which is quickly followed by “my family will never eat it as it tastes bland/different”.

One of the reasons I started using my slow cooker was to reduce the amount of time I spent in the kitchen. I felt I was tied to the cooker and wasn’t enjoying my food and developing poor editing habits. I started to dislike cooking and that was a problem for me. I never want my children to think cooking is a chore; I’m a believer that everyone should have the skill to cook healthy food. I don’t know where my girls may end up at University level so I honestly want them to have cookery skills and also enjoy the time they spend cooking (after all if you’ve got to do it why not enjoy it?).

We enjoy curries, mince based pasta dishes, casseroles….various meals as a family. A lot of these dishes call for braising of the the meat before adding liquids and the other ingredients. Now on some slow cookers you have this function which is bloody awesome! But not all models have this. Which is a shame.

Considering how simple I like to keep things when I cook things in the slow cooker I decided to do the following:

Brown off mince in bulk (so 2-3 KG at once) with garlic and onions.

I then drain and cool the mince before portioning the mince up and freezing it.

The result?

I have mince ready to go in:
Pasta sauces
Curries
Chili con carne
Shepards Pie
Cottage pie

Etc etc etc….

Because I don’t add salt or spices I’ve got more options. I never cook mince without garlic and onions however if you wished to you could omit them.

To create 6 family meals (servings produced: 6/7 giving me leftovers for School lunches and for myself the next day) you will need:

3 KG mince (I use mutton but you can use whatever you wish to)
6 medium onions diced
A full bulb of garlic crushed/minced (yes I love garlic)
3/4 Tablespoons rapeseed oil

Extras:
kitchen paper to drain off excess fat
Storage bags/boxes to store mince in freezer (don’t forget to label the mince)

1) Heat a large pan on a medium heat (if you don’t have a large pan you may need to do the browning in smaller batches. Add the oil.
2) Add the onions and fry for a few minutes until the onions are soft. You are not going to brown them.
3) Add the garlic and fry for a minute (you don’t want to burn the garlic. And believe me that’s a really easy thing to do).
4) Add the mince and break down the mince and fry.
5) Fry for 5-10 minutes. The mince won’t look very appetizing. That’s fine! What you want is to ‘seal’ the mince by frying it. The process won’t cook the mince completely and that’s fine too.
6) Turn the heat off and drain the excess fat off. I do this by tilting my pan when its slightly cool and scoop out the mince mixture and place it on kitchen paper. I let the paper absorb the fat.
7) Bag/box up the mince and label them.

How to use the mince:
I take the mince out the night before and place it in the fridge to defrost. I then add it to the slow cooker with the other ingredients and forget about it. Job done.

You can do the same with meat and treat it the same.

I’ll be over for Dinner later guys; so get cooking!

My top ways of keeping children busy whilst Traveling
Alliyah Dawud
February 4, 2019

My best friends live around 3.5 hours away from me by train. We change trains a few times (usually 3 times each way) to get to our destinations and the journey can be tiresome (and boring for the girls) so I try to keep them as busy as possible on the journey. Here are my TOP ways.

Important stuff to NOTE:

Travel Sickness is REAL
factor in travel sickness guys. We always wear anti sickness bands and try to sit near the toilets ‘just in case’. We also carry extra bags in case of sickness too.
You can pick up anti sickness bands for around £3.50 per pair on eBay. Worth their weight in gold; in GOLD.

Book in advance if you CAN:
It saves mad rushes in the morning. I prefer to buy my tickets in advance and I usually pick them up in advance too. I don’t like using an App if I’m travelling the girls as I don’t want tears (of my own) if I lose internet connection or something else.

Wifi on some trains is FREE. On others they will charge you. I’ve yet to meet a stable Wifi connection that was fast and signals often ‘drop’ on trains so I do not rely on any form of entertainment that is linked to that to save myself the headache of having the girls complain about ‘it not working’.

Hydration!
Oh and don’t forget water to remain hydrated. In hot weather I actually freeze disposable bottles with water in which helps keep water cool. If you do this wrap them in a teatowel before placing them in your bag.
I prefer disposable bottles for travel as it’s one less thing to worry about (e.g. I don’t want tears from a favourite bottle being left of the train).

But I don’t need the TOILET:
We’ve all heard this haven’t we? I get the girls to take a tinkle in each station we stop at. We usually find our platform first and then go to the bathroom.

How I keep my sanity on train rides…

Firstly I don’t allow the use of tablets. The internet cost on Virgin trains is high and if you are streaming videos its slow and well; expensive. So I encourage screen-free activities.

I break down activities depending on how long that ‘leg’ of the journey is.

To make the journey fun we pack a Breakfast picnic. That’s correct guys a picnic for breakfast. Bare in mind the first train we board is usually around 7AM.

Breakfast Picnic on the Train (it’s a part of the adventure)

I prepare breakfast wraps (egg, spinach, cheese etc), sausages and hash browns the night before. I then warm them up in the morning and wrap them in foil and pack them up in the morning. We also take ketchup sachets and juice boxes to make life easier. Wet wipes help to clean fingers (and the table) post breakfast too.
I also pack some cereal bars too (which we usually avoid because of the high sugar. They do however make a convienent snack on trains).

Two of their favourite Barbies can come along for the ride….
The girls pack two of their favourites Barbie dolls EACH minus any small accessories to avoid tears when things get lost. The girls understand the rule and it’s easier all around when there’s minimal toys to worry about.

Music….
My girls really are their Mothers daughters and love music. I have created around a 2 hour playlist of their favourite songs (Bieber, Taylor, Little Mix etc) and have it on an old fashioned Mp3 player. I also have a headphone splitter I connect to it to save tears on whose ‘go it is’. The girls then have the option to listen to a few songs. I purchase cheap headphones for the journey (from Poundland in the UK) so if they do get lost it’s no big deal.

Snacks….
Food and drink on trains costs a lot…I mean I found the prices on Ryan Air to be reasonable but Virgin Trains when you are travelling with kids?! We calculate how long we’ll be on the train and pack around one snack per half an hour. Snacks can include small chocolate bars, crisps, fruit, crackers etc.
I also pack a lunch style box with olives, cheese cubes and crackers for them to graze on (which helps to keep sugar intake in moderation).
I also pack a few extra bits ‘just in case’.
TIP: places like Tesco do ‘long life’ packed croissants. They work out well for journeys too.

Activity/Colouring books
I generally pack 2 each of these for the girls (And they are usually new so it’s like a gift). I get a set of pencils from poundland (so if they do get lost again no tears). These are great for children who need a bit of variety.

Travel board games (which are either magnetic or have no parts to lose e.g. Guess who).
My girls love board games (so do I!) so this is one of our favourite ways to keep the girls entertained for at least half an hour. We pack travel Guess Who and a 4 in 1 magnetic draughts/ludo/chess/snakes and ladders too.
You can pick these up on Amazon for around £5.00 each (the magnetic board game that’s a 4 in 1 is a REAL bargain even if you only play ludo and snakes and ladders).

And that’s about it…what do you do to keep children busy while you travel? Drop your tips below.

Why you need to set your Goals and Intentions for 2019 NOW
Stylemesisteradmin
December 3, 2018

Why you need to set your goals for 2019 NOW

If I said to you that if you set your goals and intentions on the 1st of January 2019 you would be more likely to fail you would accuse me of setting negative intentions and sending out negative vibes into the universe thus actually causing the failure in the first place.

  • The truth is that if you sit down on the 1st of January you are more likely to:
  • Set general goals rather than be specific to what your real needs are
  • You will set the same goals as last year
  • Your friends and family will be more influence as everyone is talking goals
  • You won’t put enough effort into plans and are more likely to fail due to that

And the list goes on.

To set goals and intentions that you can actually achieve you need to actually work out many different elements.

To get you going here are questions I ask clients:

  • What is the outcome you want to achieve?
  • Why do you want to achieve this?
  • How much time do you realistically have over the 12 months to achieve this?
  • Can you afford to reach this goal?
  • Is your goal realistic?

I then get them to write out their goal.

And then BREAK IT DOWN.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say Sara wants to open up her own Bakery.
She wants to open it as she already bakes from home so this is progression.
She has £10,000 investment available from family.

That’s all awesome.

  • What Sara needs to start with is:
  • Where is there a demand for a bakery in her area.
  • How many sales does she need to make to actually make this a realistic business venture?
  • How much can she expect to pay in rent?
  • What are the bills like?
  • What is her current cash flow like with business.
  • Whilst she’s working on opening her business can she afford to hire someone to run the home business?

What costs can she expect in kiting out the shop?

As you can see Sara needs to do a LOT OF RESEARCH. In my opinion it’s the most important stage that can make or break a business idea.

As Sara works she needs to fit this in around her business hours.

Once she blocks out her work time, family time and other commitments she’ll know how much time she has to actually carry out the research (and also see if she has enough capacity to do this during the actual year or will she need to consider a 18 month plan).

Once she knows this she can break down what she needs to research and slot it into her calendar and tick off each task.

Steadily Sara will see her tasks go down and she’ll progress steadily towards her goal.

But if Sara sets a general goal and just writes down “my goal is to set up a bakery in 2019” she wouldn’t know where to start. She’s literally setting herself up to fail and come end of 2019 she’ll be setting the same goal and potentially repeating the same mistakes.

So what do you need to do today?

  • Sit down and think about what you have achieved this year and what you set out to actually do during the year. Consider which of these goals you want to set for 2019 (if there are any).
  • Break down the goal considering the time you have to achieve it (be realistic so you have more of a chance of achieving the goal).
  • Put dates in your diary.
  • Schedule ‘check ups’ during the year on your goal. I suggest once every 3 months. That was if you are behind schedule you can either look at catching up or potentially moving dates around to accommodate this. Either way we are looking at increasing your chances of successfully completing your goals.

It seems like a lot of work to do however this method increases your control on the goal achieving process and also will increase your confidence with goal setting as your success rate too.

And once you’ve done that you can sit back and watch others set out goals with no structure on the 1st of January 2019 and watch a lot of them give up by 1st of February.

What are your goals and intentions for 2019? Share them below.

Mini Guide to Meal Planning
Stylemesisteradmin
November 12, 2018

Meal planning made easy!

No really; you don’t have to be Martha Stewart of Nigella to carry out successful meal planning.

I bet a lot of you have thought of meal planning and may have even done it and FAILED because of many factors. Some of the main factors that lead to epic maiden voyage failure include:

1) Not considering what your family (and you!) actually enjoy eating
2) Not considering time restraints
3) Not considering budgets
4) Not considering how difficult it maybe to get hold of ‘exotic’ ingredients
5) Not considering fridge and freezer space
6) Not considering family life on the days you are planning meals
7) Not considering the equipment you have at hand
8) Not considering how expensive some pieces of equipment maybe to purchase for a recipe you may not even like

….I could continue but I think I’ve considered the majority of you.

I know exactly how easy it can be to get carried away on pinterest an pin hundreds of lentil meatless balls recipes to a board to try when your family cannot stand lentils. I’ve been there; and that’s why today I will try to demistify meal planning and make it something you CAN do and be successful at.

Let’s dive straight in.

1) BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET
We need to keep this real y’all. How much do you have to spend a week/month. If you have a monthly budget break it down into 4 to see how much you have per week.
TIP: if you really are unaware of food prices log onto a Superstore website and look up prices on the items you’ll be using e.g. meat, pasta, yogurts. I always start by looking at the essential items.

2) How much time do you REALLY have to prepare and cook meals? Do you have a couple hours on a Sunday to prepare for the week ahead? Do you have a block once a month to make a couple of meals you an freeze? Be realistic. We all have lives. You cannot be super wifey, super mama and work long hours and cook organic vegetable lasagna with homemade pasta sheets every day.

NOTE: If you planned to do a bulk preparation session PUT IT IN YOUR DIARY NOW.

So be realistic; go through your diary/plans and look at what time you have on your hands. If your main aim is to eat healthier and you are struggling with time you need to consider freeing up time in your life; after all health is something we cannot put a price tag on.

3) What do you actually enjoy eating? What are your favourite meals? Where do you enjoy eating out?

Make a list of your favourite meals (even the naughtier ones that would give your Doctor a shock).

4) What equipment do you have (or can borrow)?
Do you have a Slow cooker? Maybe a pressure cooker? A panini maker collecting dust?

5) How much fridge and freezer space do you have? Can you brown meat/mince etc for a few days in advance or will you struggle to fit yogurt and milk in?

6) Look up recipes you’ll be using based on the food you enjoy. You may have recipe books. You could also pop into your local Library to borrow some books. Or use the internet.

7) Find a meal planner that works for you. I created my own which has enough space for me to jot down if we’ve got a busy day that day so I don’t over commit to cooking that day.
I keep my Family Calendar on the table as I plan my meals; this helps majorly because I can also see if I need to prepare lunches etc too (which I often use leftovers for).

Note: NOT all the meals I cook are from recipe books. Some are meals I’ve grown up on or use weekly.
You don’t need to try new recipes every single night! That’s going to stress you even more.
If you are an expermental cook set aside maybe two nights a month to try something new. I would ensure you either have leftovers from the night before or a simple meal alternative incase the meal doesn’t go to plan (so maybe the night after a Roast meal. That way you can use leftover roast chicken in tortilla wraps and make cheese and chicken quesadillas and serve them with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream).

Now the fun bit: plan out your meals. I try to make life easier by having rough outlines to what I am aiming to cook on a weekly basis based on what the family eat so I have sub-categories:

Once a week pizza (frozen)
Once a week Pasta dish
Once a week Mince based meal
Once a week Chicken based meal
Once a week Roast chicken meal (with/without all the sides depending on what we fancy)
Once a week fish option
One a week vegetable/lentil based meal

Now some weeks I don’t cook a meal from all those categories but we try our best to vary our diets as it’s important to not get bored with meals and to get as many vitamins, protein etc as recommended.

Some meals cross over more than one category for example:
Chili con carne ‘Shepard’s pie’-it contains mince and a hearty dose of vegetables in the carrot and root vegetable topping. It also contains red kidney beans (lentils=extra protein).

Desi style keema pasta bake: contains pasta and mince chicken. So it’s a pasta dish, contains chicken which is mince.

Notes:
I don’t usually plan lunches UNLESS it’s the holidays as we’re usually busy and I get bored of sandwiches everyday.
I also increase food budgets in holidays because you have extra people around at lunch time.
I also reassess time restraints in holiday lunch planning.

8) Do you shopping after checking what you have in that you will be using.

9) PRINT out your meal plan and keep one on the fridge, one on the family notice board (if you use one) and once in your planner. Whilst you are getting used to meal planning you can do with having gentle reminders.

10) And for the big event itself: get cooking based on your Meal Plan.

What happens next?

Firstly, don’t panic if things don’t go to plan at first. You may have glitches and that’s fine!

Have back up meal ideas if you are trying something you are not sure will go down well with the family (I offer my children toast, beans on toast, spaghetti on toast etc as alternatives to anything they get to fussy with).

NOTE down which meals worked best and which DIDN’T. It’s absolutely fine to cook the same meal a few times a month. It’s also fine to rule out certain dishes too.

Extra useful TIP: I made a list of 7 meals by children and I enjoy and I always include them on the plan. ALWAYS. I also have a Pizza meal night which is Friday’s. I use frozen pizza and that takes away another 3/4 meals a month. That helps me a lot and my girls get their treat too (whilst watching a movie).

Give yourself a pat on the back because getting used to meal planning at first can be very stressful!

I hope that’s helped you somehow: I wish someone had explained to me the basics of meal planning when I first started planning meals and also pointed out that I didn’t have to try something new everyday; and I don’t have to cook anything we don’t enjoy (if your choice is based on nutritious value look for an alterative because in all honesty meal time struggles are not worth the energy lost).