Well, it’s been a minute. Or a month that feels like a few years. Feeding 3-5 adults in Mumbai at the moment, rather than mostly 1 in NYC.
We lost my dad unexpectedly a month ago, and just before his 1 month prayers (and my anticipated return home thereafter), my mom tripped and then had to have surgery for a compound hip fracture. We brought her home yesterday, and it is a new normal in so many ways that we are all mentally and physically exhausted and drained – each in our own ways (and I’ve extended my trip for a few more weeks). She doesn’t feel like eating (no surprise, given the physical pain, the medications, and the emotional trauma), and neither do we, really, so I am back to planning at least a few days out so there are options to cover us and keep her well fed with the diversity she seems to need at the moment.
Tues – Home from hospital. Lunch: Aloo parathas, yogurt, pickle. Dinner: Terribly unplanned scrounge (mom barely ate a piece of toast with tomato and some clear soup, we ate leftovers from the preceding takeout days at the hospital).
Wed – Lunch: Cauliflower and potato curry, yogurt, and I made two fresh chapatis for mom so I could control the size and feed her 50% more in her acceptable count, lol. Dinner: Roast chicken with potatoes, fresh bread, and rice cooked in the chicken drippings (triple carbs ftw) for us; purple yam cutlet, butternut squash soup (we had this too), and fresh bread for mom with bonus nutritious dessert of a favorite comfort sweet (sheera / ww “pudding”).
Thurs – Lunch: Kerala vegetable stew with appams (one of my sis’s specialties). Dinner: leftover cauliflower potato curry repurposed into Pav bhaji (mashed veg with buttery griddled bread) with the addition of a few more vegetables.
Fri – Lunch: Green moong in buttermilk gravy, sautéed cluster beans or ivy gourd, chapatis. Dinner: Momos (Tibetan dumplings, paneer+vegetable and mutton options), sweet corn soup.
Sat – Lunch: Thai green curry with vegetables and mock duck. Dinner: Homemade pizza (either using ready crusts which are ubiquitous here or Roberta’s crust recipe, depending on my energy level). I may play with lahmacun as I have both beyond and meat kheema ready in the freezer and the turkish topping is two tiny steps from it
Sun – Lunch: Millet flatbreads (Rotla), eggplant mash (bharta) though not for me, garlic chutney, yogurt. Dinner: Mixed mushroom Japchae (found sweet potato starch noodles, amazingly), soup tbd.
I’m also trying to get some breakfasts and tea snacks made (yes, there are 4 meals a day here) so there’s always something to eat that she’ll try a bit of, as she can’t taking medication without eating something proper, and a single biscuit / cookie / cracker doesn’t meet the bar.
Will report back on how the longer range planning turns out in this otherwise daily plan household.
