15 Day Indian Meal plan with pantry staples, for Self Isolation, Quarantine, Coronavirus Lockdown situation.
I love meal planning (How to start meal planning) and sharing my meal prep or grocery shopping tips with you all, but one thing I never thought I will share is this quarantine Menu Plan for 15 days. But here I am, writing this Indian menu plan and grocery shopping list in case you happen to opt for quarantine to stay safe and protected from coronavirus.
Being married to a military officer, If someone asks me one important thing I learned as an Air Force wife is, it will be “living the Best life in limited resources and being prepared for the worst”. The meal plan is one thing I had to learn as a survival skill in the best or in the worst of conditions.
You must have some kitchen ingredients in store instead of going out of houses for daily needs.
I have been a menu planner and a meal prepper as far as I remember because that’s how I have managed my life. Having lived in remote stations and depending on our ration including milk and daily essentials coming in once in 15 days, meal planning and prepping to make use of the grocery supplies was a part of my life.
Not only that, ask any military wife and they will tell you how to throw a great party at a drop of hat within those limited resources. Yes! I do take pride in being married to A Man in Uniform and what a Military life has taught us and groomed us.
But I never in my life imagined that we would see a day like this when the whole world is trying to fight with this dreaded coronavirus Covid-19 and WHO has already declared it as Pandemic.
I guess at this stage like everyone else is saying “Prevention is the best measure”. And that means, self-quarantine, social isolation or maintaining a social distance. I think 21 days of lockdown in India will help us in lesser spread. We have been doing self isolation and work from home from 18th March itself.
As I decided not to go out in public places and no shopping until next month. That means I can cook these Indian recipes for this 21days lockdown in India. I am sharing with you a one-month Indian dry grocery list that has most essential kitchen ingredients which can be used for this menu plan. And this 15 Day Indian meal plan recipes are cooked with most of the pantry staples that are available in our kitchens.
This is 15 days menu plan is based on this one-month grocery list and two weeks fresh /green grocery list
IMPORTANT: Read this first Since we do not differentiate much between lunch and dinner recipes because our meals are different from WEST where they have a differentiation between Mains and Sides. In our Indian meals each component is different and what we eat at lunch can be accommodated easily for dinner meals. You can adapt any of these meal combinations for either of the meals lunch or dinner. You can change or substitute ingredients as per your taste and availability of the ingredients. You can make masala paste or dal tadka for 3 weeks and store in the fridge in individual portions that way cooking will be effortless. All you need to do then is boil dal and mix prepared tempering/tadka or Mix chopped vegetables with prepared masala. If you can’t find things to garnish just skip them. Herbs like coriander and mint do not last long in the fridge for some time, buy them clean, chop and freeze if you find them absolutely necessary. In most of the dishes, I have shared these are flavour enhancers so in a case in the last few days if run out of these It’s OKAY. Be prepared to substitute and change the plan depending on what is available. Be flexible as per choices you are left with, let your imagination do its magic and experiment. You can use common ingredients across recipes, this will help you to be efficient and be creative with what’s available in your pantry.
Also you can check out my regular weekly meal plans and Meal prep ideas. .
DINNER AND LUNCH Recipes for 15 Days
With the situation that we are now in with Coronavirus here, one of the most common concerns is stocking our pantry and what to keep in the fridge and pantry.
I have already shared the grocery list to stock for quarantine. In case you have not, no worries! most of us in Indian homes usually stock for a month.
This 15 days Indian meal plan that includes, breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes. These recipes come in handy especially times when fresh ingredients are not easily accessible.
With the number of recipes that I have included you can easily make them for all 21days of lockdown in India.
15 Day Indian Meal plan- LUNCH AND DINNER
You can make either of these as per your pantry items. So no specifics for lunch or dinner. It’s all about the availability of the ingredients. These are few best Indian recipes you can make during lockdown. All of these involve mostly using easily available ingredients.
Gatte ka pulao Dal Khichdi Recipe Vegetable Dalia Pulao Schezwan Egg Fried Rice – If you do not have schezwan sauce, substitute with sriracha sauce, pepper sauce, peri sauce, or even green or red chilli sauce. It’s time to add any flavour and utilise what you have at hand. Amritasri Wadi chana masala pulao + Curd/yogurt (if you have that) otherwise it is good on its own Paneer Biryani + Raita ( make with any fresh ingredient if you have, if not boondi or just curd is absolutely fine) Boondi ki sabji + Dal paratha Papad ki Sabji + Bajra roti / whole wheat paratha Vada curry with Rice or Chapati Red Sauce Pasta – You can replace fresh tomatoes with canned tomatoes. But tomato puree may not work here. Sambar sadam + Boondi raita Coconut curry noodles ( I used rice noodles, but any noodles will do fine, even ramen noodles are okay. Italian lentil soup or Instant pot lentil curry with rice Indian Style Pasta – Pasta like our Mom’s made it with all those desi ingredients. Palak paneer – If you have stocked frozen spinach / fresh spinach/paneer in your pantry Cabbage soup + Veg Sandwich – If you have access to bread otherwise you can bake your own sandwich bread Egg Curry with Chapati/paratha or Paneer Ghee roast KHOW suey soup Thai Curry + Rice Soya bhurji + Any Dal + Roti/Paratha/ Rice Tomato Soup + Grilled cheese Sandwich Healthier Dal Makhani + Naan or paratha Aloo matar + Any Raita + Rice or Roti Coconut egg curry + rice All in one baked omelette toast or Thai noodles salad Veg sandwich + Cold coffee Extra spicy veggie fried rice Matar Paneer + Chapati/ Naan / paratha Egg Paratha + Salad + Tea Soy bhurji + dahi + Peas salad + chapati/paratha Tawa pulao
Meals with one Main and one Side dish Kala chana + Multani style baingan tamatar + and Roti/ Paratha Kashmiri dum aloo + raita + Mixed Vegetable Paneer tikka masala, Laccha Paratha Sabut Moong Dal Tadka + Khatte Aloo + Green Salad Matar Paneer + Aloo Gobhi Achari + Rice/Quinoa Matar Mushroom, dal fry, roti Punjabi Kadhi Pakode Wali + Chawal + Simple Indian Green salad Malai Soya Chaap + Sabut Masoor Dal +Roti Paneer veggie Keema + Roti or any other flatbread
If you love stuffed Parathas, you can enjoy them for either one of the lunch or dinner meals.
Aloo Paratha Paneer Paratha Paneer kulcha Gobi paratha Dal and Methi paratha – Substitute fresh methi with dried kasuri methi from your spice cabinet. BREAKFAST RECIPES
You really do not have to depend on breakfast cereals for these 15 days. If you are staying home I suggest making the most out of it and cook a hot breakfast every day. If hot breakfast is not your JAM just skip the list below and stock up on your cereal supply as usual.
You can make this Instant Breakfast mix and make 3 recipes with the same mix and that will sort out your 3 breakfast out of 15 breakfasts.
Instant Idli Instant Vada Vegetable Upma
Other than those you can try
Savoury Pancakes We Love
Sooji Cheela / Semolina pancakes Besan Cheela Moong dal pancakes Moonglet – Moong Dal Omelette Eggless Omelette
If you love eggs for breakfast you can pick and choose 3-4 breakfast from this list or buy more eggs than mentioned in the list and enjoy these egg dishes whole month without getting bored because I have enough varieties of egg recipes for breakfast.
30, eggs breakfast recipes that you can make in 20 minutes.
You can try from three vermicelli recipes
Vermicelli Pulao Thai Vermicelli Lemon Vermicelli Upma Kanda Poha Sabudana khichdi
You can try these Breakfast sandwich recipes with Bread
Curd Sandwich Chilli cheese sandwich Banana and Nutella sandwich Bombay Masala sandwich
3-4 days you can include oats sweet or savouries for the breakfast
FEW MORE POINTS TO REMEMBER While I designed this meal plan, I had a few of these things in my mind. These are not exactly what you can call gourmet meals. These are basic but wholesome meals that can be made quickly and easily. This is what I call is survival meals during the time of pinch, because that’s what I have learned during my life as a military wife – To manage and survive as per your present conditions. From lavish parties to time of surviving on dal khichdi, that’s how we have lived. I am assuming that you have at least stocked basic flours, lentils, rice etc. If you were an early reactor and stocked as per my consolidated grocery list for 3 weeks of quarantine you can make all of these plus few sides. If you are a meal planner by nature then I assume you have some basic frozen vegetables like corn and peas etc. If you have not started meal planning yet it’s time to read my Indian Meal plan section and start, it makes life a little bit easier. You do not want to be cooking all the days and keep doing the dishes the whole day. Plus make those pantry staples to last longer because these are uncertain times.
Hope this meal plan comes handy and useful.
YOU can also check these
10 comforting Indian Dal or Lentil recipes
One-pot rice recipes
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