Vijaya Venkat's all-natural lunch box ideas

Vijaya Venkat is one of the pioneers in holistic nutrition in India. The Health Awareness Centre (THAC), which she calls a temple, is the institute that she set up in 1989 by Vijaya Venkat and now run with daughter Anju Venkat.

I had had the good fortune of talking to her around 6 months ago, as part of an interview for a feature and I found her thoughts utterly simple yet completely inspiring. Just last week, it came to my knowing that even Bee had used Ms. Venkat's tiffin service when she was working in Mumbai.

I was thrilled to bits when the Times of India's Mumbai supplement Mumbai Mirror carried Vijaya Venkat's recipes for lunch boxes for the whole week. I cannot help but share with you.

She believes that we must eat food as closest to its natural form as possible. Fresh fruits and vegetables, sprouts, spices are all considered first grade food and you'll find steaming as the commonest cooking technique in all her recipes.

Day 1 and 2 - Cutlets, Veg salad with tadka, Three bean salad, Potato soup

Day 3, 4 & 5 - Tricoloured vegetable salad, Chilla, Bean sprout, Alu chat, Corn salad, Stuffed vegetables

So that takes care of Monday to Friday. Do make your substitutions to make many more such healthy meals.

I have a question for you. In most of the recipes like cutlets etc, she asks us to steam the potatoes and other starchy vegetables in recipes. How do we go about steaming a potato? I have never done it before, whole or sliced or is there any other tried method?

Also, I must share with you that I made my first cheesecake today using all Indian ingredients. No cream cheese and no springform pan and no baking either! In this weather, baking would kill! That's besides the point though.

I have tasted it (read as eaten a large slice) and it tastes fantastic. The Swadeshi Strawberry Cheesecake will be up soon, may be tomorrow itself, so do keep a watch on this space!