Here’s a weekly meal planner featuring South Indian-inspired dishes, complete with tips, prep ideas, and more! Explore this week’s meal planner to make cooking easier and more enjoyable.
I’m back with my meal planners after a year-long break! Though I’ve continued creating meal plans as part of my weekly routine, I’ve been documenting them in my meal planner journals, which are also available for purchase. Recently, I started sharing daily meal inspirations on my WhatsApp and Instagram channels, and I received feedback asking for the return of weekly plans. So, here I am with a new meal plan! 😊 Be sure to join my channels for daily meal inspiration.
Batch cooking
Lately, I’ve been fully embracing batch cooking. With a long commute to work, it’s tough to prepare all meals in the morning, and by the time I return home, I’m too exhausted to cook a full meal. So, I usually batch cook on the weekend for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I prepare meals on Thursday and Friday the night before or in the morning. If you work from home, you can easily adjust this schedule to fit your routine.
Note: Feel free to use the grain of your choice. Instead of rice, you can opt for millet, quinoa, or brown rice. You can also try making multigrain roti, quinoa roti, or ragi roti.
VVK Meal Planning Tips
- I can’t stress enough how convenient it is to chop vegetables and refrigerate them over the weekend. While I wouldn’t recommend chopping veggies like brinjal, mushrooms, or cucumbers in advance, most others are perfect for this. Chop them and store them in reusable ziplock bags. For vegetables with high water content, like snake gourd or ridge gourd, be sure to use them first.
- What can you cook in a batch from this week’s menu? Over the weekend, you can prepare the tamarind rice paste, idli dosa batter, tomato pappu/dal, cabbage curry, and garlic kuzhambu. Additionally, you can pressure cook the toor dal and moong dal for sambar and kootu, then freeze or refrigerate them for later use.
- If you’re not into batch cooking and prefer quick meal prep, consider using pot-in-pot pressure cooking. The pressure cooker inserts are incredibly useful, allowing you to cook dal and veggies or rice and dal simultaneously, saving time and effort. Make sure to chop the veggies ahead.
- I prepare tamarind paste in bulk and store it so I don’t have to soak and extract tamarind juice every morning. If making a large batch isn’t feasible, you can prepare a smaller amount for the week. Alternatively, you can soak the required quantity in an airtight container and refrigerate it, then extract the juice as needed each day. Another option is to soak it in hot water for 20 minutes in the morning.
- Coconut, curry leaves, garlic, and shallots are staples in South Indian cooking. Frozen coconut is convenient, but if you’re using fresh coconut, cut it into small pieces or grate it in advance and refrigerate. You can also peel the shallots and garlic ahead of time and store them in an airtight container.
I’ll share more weekly tips, but I’ll stop here for now. These tips might seem simple, but trust me, they’re real lifesavers in the kitchen.
This week’s meal planner
Here is this week’s visual meal planning chart. Most of the recipes are on the blog; find the links below. If it’s a new recipe, I will share it on Instagram first, so follow me there.
Monday-
Tuesday-
- Poha / aval upma
- Tomato pappu and brinjal roast
- Chapati with tomato pappu
Wednesday-
- Health mix or kanji
- Poondu kuzhambu with cucumber kootu
- Dosai with coconut chutney
Thursday-
- Pongal and gojju
- Upma khichdi
Friday-
I hope this menu planner provides some inspiration for your meals. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. I’ll share daily updates on my Instagram and Facebook groups, so stay connected!
Happy planning & cooking!
Vidhya
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