Contents Tension free Cooking - Planning .................................................................................................................... 1 Fruits and Veg. - Planning .............................................................................................................................. 2 Freezer tips ....................................................................................................................................................

2 Storing items .................................................................................................................................................. 3 Making Lemon rice from frozen lemon cubes: ............................................................................................... 3 A Minimum List of Vessels to Start Cooking ................................................................................................. 4 Some more tips on 'Food storage' .................................................................................................................. 6 Mosquito Repellent ........................................................................................................................................ 6 More about storing items ............................................................................................................................... 7

Tension free Cooking - Planning In every action we should practice planning, from Office to Kitchen. In olden days because of Joint family there were more members in the family and always elders were available to give quick advice for managing cooking for sudden/unexpected guests/friends. The Staple food grains were available all the time to manage the situation. Cooking for 12 members instead of 10 members was not a problem. But now a days in Nuclear family of 3 or 4 members, managing cooking for 2 additional members requires proper planning of kitchen items. The following points will enable you to maintain your kitchen for TENSION FREE

COOKING. Budget your monthly requirements and see that you Plan and Spend only with in the budget. Every month end you should aim at saving 10% of your budget. First maintain month wise record for all house hold items including 'Groceries' indicating
Quantity, Unite price and Place of purchase. This will help you to know about the

Fluctuationsin prices, with respect to different shops and seasons.

Generally all of us will not use all the items fully which we purchase for a month. For example, Hair oil, Shampoo, Napkins, Detergent Powder, Tooth Paste etc., In rotation you buy any of the two or three items in one month and other 2 or 3 items in next month, and by doing this, certain items we will purchase once in two or three months gap. And in due course, it will come in a routine manner. So that the total bill for Grocery will not go high suddenly in one month and less in another month. You can avoid the fluctuation by adopting this type of purchase. Buy in Bulk or in Big Quantities: When you buy items like Shampoo or Detergent don't buy 'Sashays' or small quantities. During traveling you can buy them, but for house purpose and regular use better you buy big ones even for nuclear family. Because we will pay more, for the packing charges instead of the product. By buying big bottle of Shampoo or 4.5 Kgs. Detergent we can save more. More than this at least we will not buy the same items for the next 5 - 6 months. ( Now a days the rates are increasing daily!!!)

Better you prepare a list of grocery before your shopping. According to last month's consumption, this month's functions you prepare a list. Generally I will prepare my monthly list from 20 th of each month and whenever I want to buy a particular thing for the next month immediately I will note down the item in my grocery note book. You can also follow the same. So that when you prepare a final list, you will not miss any item which you need for the month. Write a slip to note down all the items from the note book before proceeding with shopping. Don't believe on your memory. After buying as per your list, note down about the purchase in your grocery note book with out fail. You may feel bore to fill up all the details in a note book but after 2-3 months you will feel good about the habit. And whenever you want, you can check the note book for a particular item's rate or quantity, or in which shop you can get cheap items. And definitely I can tell that there will be no deficit in your commodities throughout the month because of proper planning. As far as possible plan purchase once a month only to avoid unwanted items which are bought just for enjoying visit like ice creams, chocolates etc Fruits and Veg. - Planning Even for fruits and vegetables, go to whole-sale markets and get them all at a time. Like groceries, we have to store the fruits and vegetables in the fridge to keep them fresh and use them before they spoil. When ever you buy the fruits and vegetables from bazaar, wash them thoroughly. Make sure that all are washed well and wipe the water with a clean and dry cloth. Put them in a plastic cover or a cloth bag and keep them in the fridge. Buying from the market in bulk quantities will save your money. You can also plan your menu well before cooking. Otherwise, the vegetable may not be available in the market and will surely upset you and your family members. After storing the fruits in the fridge, you must take them out daily, wipe them, bring them to room temperature, and then keep them in the fridge.. If you do this way, you can keep them fresh for many days! I am doing like this for a long time. You can also do this for vegetables also. Even after 15 days, they will be fresh! If you find any fruit or vegetable spoiling, use them first. Because, if it is kept with others, it might spoil them also. Freezer tips In this plan I want to tell the role of deep freezer. You can keep Cauliflower, Beans, Green Chilly, Green Pepper (also Red and Yellow), Cabbage, Radish, Peas, Cooked Potatoes, Turnip, Carrots, Bitter Gourd, Ladies finger and many more vegetables inside the deep freezer. You can keep carrots as full size (by peeling the skin) and use them to prepare kootu. While keeping green chilies keep them without cutting them. For radish peel off the skin and keep as it is or cut them as per your wish. Regarding greens, weed out the stem and collect the leaves, wash them. After draining the water keep them in a polyethylene cover / zip locker / food covers and keep them in the freezer. You can also buy frozen vegetables for cooking. We can even store lemons in the freezer for a long time. Buy lemons when they are very cheap in rate and wash them. Then cut them in small pieces and keep them in plastic covers, keep them in the freezer. When ever you want to prepare pickles, you remove the lemon pockets from the freezer and keep them 1 to 2 hours our side the fridge and let it come to the room temperature. Then you can use as per your wish. You can Squeeze lemon with out adding water, pour them in the ice tray. When you want to prepare lemon juice or lemon rice you can prepare them easily by using the lemon cubes.

To prepare lemon juice i.e. nimbu pani add 2 cubes for one glass of water. Add sugar or salt as per your taste Storing items After buying the items in big quantities we must store them properly other wise all our efforts will become waste. So please identify a separate rack or shelf for keeping the wholesale items. Before storing clean the shelf nicely and put an out line with Turmeric Powder or Laxman reka ( in India we will get this Laxman-Reka to protect our kitchen items like Sugar etc., from cockroaches and ants by putting a line on the shelf floor.) to protect your food items from ants and Cockroaches. Now put a newspaper or a plastic sheet to the shelf. Otherwise I will give you a very good item called COCKROACH REPELLENT, to control cockroach, which you will not get in the shops but you can prepare by your self in your house itself. But while using this REPELLENT, you have to keep 2 things in your mind. One, this contains a chemical and so you must keep the 'REPELLENT BALLS' away from the reach of children and the second is when you are putting this balls in your kitchen at the same time you must put them throughout your house. Otherwise all the cockroaches will migrate to other rooms from kitchen. So please keep these two thing in mind before using the cockroach repellent in your house. At the same time I don't know whether the cockroach repellent will protect your food items from ants. Because I have never seen a single ant herein Saudi Arabia. But for the past 10 years I am living in Saudi and till this time we never called any Pest controler to control small cockroach. I am using that cockroach repellent here in India also. It is very much useful. Yearly once you can prepare and put. Now the storing place is ready and you can store your grocery items in that. Weekly once you have to take the grocery items from the bulk. By doing this you will have a control of spending the grocery as well as weekly once you will check the items in the bulk section. You can easily check the quantity of the item and quality of the item, which will help to put a grocery list for the coming month

Note: While preparing this please wear a glove since it is toxic.

Already we discussed about the use of cockroach repellent. Now let us see how to prepare the repellent. Take 100 Gms. of Boric Powder, 2 table spoons of Wheat Flour or Patient flour and 2 table spoons of sugar. Put them all in a bowl. Mix well and sprinkle water occasionally. Prepare it like a tough dough and make small balls out of it. Put the balls in all rooms at a time. And keep out of the reach of children Making Lemon rice from frozen lemon cubes: If you are going to prepare lemon rice remove the lemon cube from the fridge and keep it in a cup. Before the rice gets cool or before you make seasoning for the lemon rice this cube will become lemon juice. Now you can add it in the rice and mix well. Patti Vaidiyam When we are away from our family, we must know some small small harmless medicine to use in the emergency time. Here I am going to give some of them. My Grand father's Sister gave this to us and in our

house we are using for more than two generations. This may be useful for you too. 1. For the new born baby we use togive sugar water, is it not? After 10 days or 15 days, we will start to give a small spoon of honey with warm water to the child in empty stomach. This will prevent fluffy region that is in Tamil we say uhoolaisadhai. 2. In the night put one DRIED BIG KISMIS WITH SEEDS in water and in the morning squeeze it in the water. Filter it and give it to the child after the honey water. You can give 15 min. gap for this. We are giving this water to avoid constipation. You can give this water when you feel the baby is struggling to go motion. 3. When the baby cries in the night and you dont know the reason, just give a small of honey with warm water. It will sleep and the next day morning you can show the baby to the doctor 4. We are having one stick which we call as VASAMBU I dont know the name in English. But I can put the photo in this site. Keep this vasambu with you always through out your life. We can use this always. It is a wonder ful medicine. Keep 4 - 5 sticks on the gas flame and alow it to become black fully. (If you are in America, be careful, because you will get smoke out of this) Turn that stick regularly, make sure that it must become black fully. And must become 'red 'like coal which we prepare for putting sambrani. Remove from the fire and keep them in a plate. cover it with a big vessel. Allow it to cool. After 30 -45 min. take them and powder them. you will get a black powder which we call it as vasambu podi. You can store it in a bottle or plastic container. For children 1 year and small babies, make VASTRA GAYAM and keep it. For others you can use the powder as it is. VASTRA GAYAM = Seive it using muslin cloth.

How to use: 1.When you have indegiestion/gastic problem, Take one spoon of this powder add sugar as per your taste and just put it in your mouth. Eat that and have a tumbler of hot water. Like this you can take 3 time a day for 3 days continously. 2. When you are suffering from loose motion, Take one spoon of this powder and add one spoon or more honey in that. Mix well and eat. It will stop the motion. Like this you can take 3 time a day for 3 days continously. For babies, take a pinch and do the same as above. THE MOTION WILL BLACK IN COLOUR. DONT BE AFRID.
A Minimum List of Vessels to Start Cooking I am giving the list here and I think this will help you, to add with your ideas. 1. Small rice cooker,with its vessels. If it is with pan means it is too good. 2. 2 Vanalies, (Illupa chatti) different size. Or You can get non stick kadai, with or without lid.

3. 2 KUZHI KARANDI 4. 1 JALLI KARANDI 5. 1 RICE KARANDI/ ANNA VETTI 6. 1 VESSEL SET (4 -5 ADDKU SET) 7. 1 SMALL SEASONING PAN 8. 12 TEA SPOONS 9. 4 TABLE SPOONS 10. 2 SERVING KUZHI KARRANDI 11. 2-4 EATING PLATES 12. 2 -4 TIFFEN PLATES 13. CUTTING BOARD (VEG.) 14. KINIFE SET 15. 6 TUMBLERS/ CUPS 16. 2, 5KG PLASTIC BOXES FOR RICE AND SUGAR 17. 6 - 8, 1KG PLASTIC BOXES FOR DHALS 18. 6 - 8 200gms PLASTIC BOXES FOR MASALA POWDER, KUZHUMBU MILIGAI PODI etc., 19. 1 ANJARAI PETTI ( TO KEEP KADUKU, MELAGU etc., for daily use) Even in pooja room you can keep this to store, kumkum, manjal powder, THRI, karpuram etc., in one box. 20. Idly cooker or just 2 Idly plates 21. One dosa tava + dosai karandi 22. 2 - 4 small cups (kinni) 23. MURUKU ACHU (Sevai nazhi) 24.Coffee Filter. 25.Tea Filter Note: Here I am not adding things like Electric Rice cooker, Mixer Grinder, Food processer, MW, Wet Grinder etc., Those items will reduce our work load and we can get them one by one as per our need.

Now small rice cooker is available in market. Only 3 lt. It is very easy to cook 1/2 cup or 1 cup rice. To cook a small quantity you can have this. We dont get seperaters for this cookers. So we can use old tiffen boxes as seperaters and can easily cook rice and dal for one or two persons. Or instead of small rice cooker you can use your 'milk boiler' to cook rice. Just fill water as usual in the outer part; and keep rice in the milk cooker. Keep in low flame. In 1 lt. cooker we can cook 1 cup rice easily. You can check the rice in between and can switch off the stove after done. While keeping rice in the 'milk cooker', you can keep a big potato with rice and it will cook with rice. We can use the cooked potato to make 'curry'. It is difficult to cook in small quantities. This will help you to cook little and you can avoid 'left overs'. More over for night you can keep 1/2 cup rice, 1 big potato for curry easily by following this.

Some more tips on 'Food storage' Check out the following convenient tips on storing specific food items Dairy: Most dairy products readily absorb strong odours from certain fruits (peaches), vegetables (cabbage, onions) and fish. So it is necessary to keep the dairy foods tightly covered when stored with these strongly flavored products. Bakery products: To extend shelf life of bakery products such as cakes and pies, wrap them up tightly in moisture proof paper and store at 0 degrees Fruits and nuts: It is best to keep the fruits in a low temperature. But some fruits like lemons, limes, mangoes, papayas, honeydew melons, grapefruit, and avocadoes should be kept in a warm place to store its nutritious value Vegetables: Other than beans, ripe tomatoes, summer squash, watermelons, cucumbers, eggplant, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, the vegetables should be kept under the low temperature. Mosquito Repellent For Moisquitos... you have to use mosiquitos repllent only. Use, red colour

bulb as night lamp. If you have the skin of 'santhras' you keep them here and there in the house or keep it one the night lamp that will prevent mosiquitos. More about storing items I am keeping pappads for more than a year. Not only pappad also vathal vadam varities. I will keep them in 'crisper' where we have to keep veg. I will use the full 'crisper' by keeping 'coffee powder' , all dhals, rice flour, besan, dry neem flowers, L.G. Powder, 'kesari powder', 'pachai karpuram', red chilly ( it will remain red and fresh, Tamarind (by keeping this in fridge it wont turn black for more than a year). In the freezer you can keep coriander leaves, pudina leaves, methi leaves, all cut vegetables, thill etc., You can keep 'cut vegetable in the freezer'. Regarding 'Tamarind paste' you can keep it in the Fridge. and there must be enough oil to submerge the paste pulp under the oil. You can put 1 tea sp. of tamarind paste for rasam, for 2 people for one time use. This you can adjust if you prepare rasam or sambar while using tamarind paste. Use less quantity first . Check the taste and at any time of cooking stage you can add the paste and correct the taste as per your wish. Please go through my 'House Made - Ready Made Powders To Make Cooking Easy ( 1 2 3 ... Last Page) And go through this also Basic Paste - To make cooking easy ( 1 2 3 ... Last Page) krishnaamma These links will help you in cooking . By using these powders and pastes and cut veg. You can finish cooking with in 1/2 hour. In Freezer keep 'cut veg.' , not full one. You cannot keep them as it is. You have to wash and cut. Put them in a cover and then keep them in the freezer. Bell pepper you can keep them by cutting them just like that for sambar. Or if you want them to ues for noodles or raitha then make small slices. To make slices easily just use 'chips maker' . Use the grater which we use to make potato chips, so you will get thin slices of capcicum. OK? then store it. For carrots, peel the skin (otherwise they will become black), grate them and keep for raitha and noodles. Just keep them as it is for sambar and kuttu. While preparing kuttu, remove from the cover, cook it with out water. That is when you cook rice int he cooker, you will place a llid on that . is it not? keep this carrots on that and when you open the cooker, you can remove the carrots and cut them easily. Or you can smash and give for children. ok? REgarding Lemon, You have to squeeze the lemon and remove the seeds. dont add water. Just pour the juice inthe ice cube tray or in a small container and keep inside the freezer.