Make a meal? Sure!

I often stand in my kitchen and ponder over my culinary skills. No, can't say I am a great cook...Well...to tell you about my skills in the kitchen...I was never very interested in cooking... that is, until I moved away from my motherland and my mother.

Food was always associated with my mum...she is an expert cook and, going by that...most people expect me to be as good as her... well its only fair! But whenever I worried about it my mum said "Abhi kya chinta karni, shaadi ke baad to khana hi banana hai...abhi you live your life..." (Why to worry now...you will anyways be cooking after marriage...live your life now)... so true! sari chinta ab ho rahi hai! (Its now that I am worried).

Anyways...coming back to my travails in the kitchen... I had often wondered how am I going to meet those expectations and be able to put some extremely delicious food on the table. But you may be surprised to know that I am! How? If I say its a secret you would thing I am bluffing so here I reveal my new found love for my kitchen. The magical formula!

They are called make a meal sachets. They come in a wide variety of cuisines and companies. From Gits to Knorr to Pramapara to Milkmaid and now Sanjeev Kapoor...they are all competing with each other to provide us expat Indians with the desh ka swaad! (Taste of India) And some of them have come up with quite authentic and tasty stuff.

Knorr, I use for their soups and Indian Chinese dishes (Schezwan Paneer & Chinese Chilli). Sanjev Kapoor comes handy for Paneer Butter Masala and Pav Bhaji and I stick to Gits for Dhokla, Uthapam and Idli! I have tried Milkmaid's kalakand and its delicious but difficult to find in Patels. However, I do try to improvise with these packets and add my signature touch to them to make them taste a little different than what others might be cooking! Rest of the things I prepare from scratch. I sure inherited some of the culinary skills.

So you see having these products in the kitchen cabinet have made my life so much easier. Now I don't have to worry much about cooking on the days I am not in a mood to spend much time in the kitchen. Though on most days I do cook fresh regular food... I always have these packs stacked up at my home...who knows what my husband might be in a mood to eat.... at least we don't have to go to the restaurants anymore to eat Idlis! Thanks to these products my life in the kitchen is a bit easy!