Kitchen Time Savers - Share Your Tips and Tricks

Whew! Whew!! This is the first time since I started blogging, I haven't put up a post since a whole WEEK!!! Reason- I have been quite busy with my office work and its summer break for school .  Having two hyper active kids at home, demanding my attention(EQUAL puhleez!!), demanding snacks and treats every now and then,  is not exactly the perfect setting for me to blog away!! Here I was thinking, I will blog and bake to my heart's content during summer, without a worry about homework, practice and stuff:-((

Being the foodie I am, I loathe to compromise on food for any reason in the world!! And the food had better be good and healthy! But hey,  now I do not have the luxury of time, but would love my kids to have some decent grub when they wish. I would love to spend some time with them, rather than in the kitchen... yet dish out some good food everyday, spend my time on productive office work when they are away at the 3-hour summer camp( What a respite:-)). Now, isn't that a tall order and also every mother's wish??

 You could tell me how I cut down the cooking time, what I can make ahead to a certain stage and then finish when I need, what I can freeze well, things that can be whipped up real fast - like 10 minutes without much prior preparation, everyday grind and store versatile masalas and pastes, ingredients I will need to stock up on to come up with a quick snack -  In short just about anything to make cooking easier and faster. I am fine with one time effort, but not repetitive. Do tell me your recipes in short too( without worrying about the measurement of ingredients that go in).

I will give a couple of my own(and quite common ones) here so that I make more sense in this crazy, hurried post.

1.Grind green chillies with salt and turmeric and store in the fridge to avoid cutting them everyday.
2. Dry roast all ingredients of Upma, just add water and cook when needed.
3. Grind roasted onion-tomato-ginger- garlic and freeze in small quanities for our own low-fat ready curry paste.
4. Grind roasted poppy seeds, roasted dry coconut, almonds, dates, mix with jaggery. Store. Bring milk to a boil and add the paste to make a quick Poppy Seed payasam.

You get the drift...

Every home maker has a few of these signature tricks up her sleeve. So guys, please share your time saving tricks and tips and lend a helping hand to a foodie in need:-)) Hope I sound desperate enough!!! Hope my next post comes in here soon and with a recipe..