“10 Tips for working moms to cut-down their kitchen time”

A working mom is mostly loaded with so many responsibilities. She has to go to work, look after her kid(s) and also has to do the household chores. She can spend 1-2 hours extra in the kitchen during weekends to save her “kitchen time” during weekdays. Below are the tips even you can follow!

1) Instead of cutting tomato daily, you can do the following-cut each tomatoes into four pieces, pressure cook it with little salt and sugar. Make its puree/paste and freeze it in the ice tray. De-mold it and keep it in a zip-lock bag. It will be all handy(for making dal, curry, soups etc) and can be used within 15 days.
2) You can also do that with ginger-garlic paste and can store for 15 days in freezer.
3) You can also make “bhuna masala” and store for a week. Just fry ginger, garlic and onion in little oil and refrigerate it in an air-tight container.
4) You can also boil potatoes and can refrigerate for 4 days.
5) Make sugar syrup which is very handy and do last long. Mix water and sugar, keep it on a stove just to melt the sugar. Let it cool down. Now transfer it in a bottle and refrigerate.
6) You can dry roast semolina, peanuts etc which can be used easily for making halwa, upma etc.
7) If you are also so fond of spinach, like me, you can make its paste and refrigerate it in an air tight container. And can use it in making curry, dal, soup, raita etc.
8) If you are fond of cardamom tea and have to grind cardamom daily(be it in mortar-pestle), just grind its peel and mix it with the tea leaves/tea grains. When you’ll make your tea it will have the flavor of cardamom, just make sure to store the tea-cardamom peel powder in an airtight container.
9) You can keep frozen paneer, peas and corns handy in your freezer.
10) If you drink coffee daily and have to beat it every day, you can try this one-just beat coffee powder and sugar with little water(just to help mixing). And keep it an air-tight container. You just have to heat up milk and add this mixture and your coffee will be ready in no time. (Also find: How to make cappuccino at home).

Few days back, I was going through a site where maids were supplied. I loved its tagline to the core. It was something like this “you are not born to spend your life washing or cooking”, so true! We spend so much of our time FOR our near and dear ones in the kitchen; now we should try spend time WITH them. :)
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11 Vastu tips for a prosperous home..

1) Keep the entrance of your house clean and clutter free. Do not keep shoes scattering around the main door, it obstructs the energy coming inside the house.

2) Do not hang any depressing, painful or sad painting on the walls. Instead hang some bright and happy pictures/paintings.

3) Fish aquarium is considered to be very auspicious especially in the wealth front. Keep it in the living room for continuous flow of wealth. Clean and change the water at regular interval.

4) Keep the toilet/bathroom doors closed.

5) Never keep a cactus or any of the kind plants at home.

6) If your expenses are out of your control, keep a plant in your bathroom.

7) Never keep a plant or water element in the bedroom.

8) While sleeping your head should point towards south. For students, it should be east.

9) Never place God’s image facing south direction. You should face east while praying.

10) Never keep dining table against the wall.

11) Keep salt in the bathroom. It absorbs negative energy. Don’t forget changing the salt at regular intervals.

5 tips to deal with toddler tantrums!

When I was not a mom and used to see those toddlers rolling on the floor of the malls for one thing or the other, I used to pity their parents. But now I can understand their conditions better 😉 Sometimes toddlers give us really tough time handling them. Here are the five tips which would help handle the situation:

1) DISTRACT. Babies/toddler mostly have very short span of attention, it is very easy to deviate their minds. So try distract his mind and deviate it to something else.

2) IGNORE. Ignoring sometimes is the best of options available to us. Don’t react, just ignore. He would perform his tantrum dance, get tired and at the end will go back to his normal sense. Why would he continue his tantrum, if he knows no one is really caring for it? 😛

3) ENGAGE. If you are going to supermarket carry his favourite toys or candies etc and let him be engaged in it.

4) KEEP THINGS OUT OF SIGHT. If you know that your toddle will ask for a particular thing he gets to see, try to keep those things out of his sight to avoid his unnecessary tantrum. For eg, if you know he will ask to switch on a laptop or iPad when he gets to see that, just keep them at that place which is not visible to him.

5) NO MEANS NO. Don’t ever change your NO into YES. Kids know that with little tantrum they can get what they want, so they act that way deliberately. When you say “no” to something it shouldn’t be “yes” just because he is acting that way.

Hope these tips helps! 🙂

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5 ideas to make this “Valentine’s Day” special!

Being a mom keeps us so engaged that we hardly get much time to spend with our spouses. We have to literally grab any opportunity that comes along our way. So what about grabbing an opportunity this V-Day? 😉 Here are 5 ideas for the same-

1) You can ask your partner to take leave from his office on that day and can send your baby at daycare so that you both can spend the whole day together, relaxing and pampering each other.

2) You can drop your baby at your relative’s or friend’s place for 1-2 hours and can go for a dinner date.

3) You can spend time together watching your wedding video.

4) Make your baby sleep early, order dinner from outside and have a candle light dinner at home only.

5) You can watch a late night romantic movie together with your favourite snacks around.

So enjoy the much-deserved ‘couple time’ this Valentine’s day! 🙂

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