The perfect lunchbox and recipe for Spinach Pesarattu

On my Facebook page (Saffrontrail on Facebook) I decided to do a month long series of logging my kid's lunch box and a brief recipe for each of the things. It turned out to be very well received, much more than what I had expected. Taking that cue, I did a column on lunch-boxes for my monthly column in Sunday DNA. Here, I am sharing the same for those who missed it in the papers. I shall be happy to answer your queries in the comment section. 

Whether it is for adults, or kids, the lunchbox presents many dilemmas. What to pack, how much time to spend on preparing it, what will taste good a few hours after packing, what can be made ahead – these are the top questions about packing a proper lunchbox.

A packed lunch should be a portable, less-elaborate version of a lunch you would have at home and by that I mean, well balanced, hygienic and tasty.

Carbohydrates form the base of any meal. One can choose from wholegrain bread, rotis, pita bread, cooked unpolished rice, broken wheat, semolina, pasta, potato etc. Younger kids can do with white sandwich bread as too much fibre can fill them up quickly before they can consume the required calories. Wholegrain sandwiches, stuffed pita bread, fried rice with vegetables or chicken, broken wheat patties, semolina upma, pasta tossed with vegetables or in a salad, boiled potato or potato patties are some of the ways to build the carbohydrate component.

The box needs to have a protein component too. You could choose from chicken, eggs, beans, lentils, cheese, tofu, paneer, yogurt and nuts. Shredded lean chicken can be a part of wraps, sandwiches or pasta. A whole boiled egg, sliced in half and sprinkled with a pinch of salt and pepper makes the perfect addition to a kid’s lunchbox, and the eggs can be boiled the previous night. 

Cooked beans like chickpeas, black-eyed peas, dried peas, rajma can be mashed and added to vegetable patties or made into hummus for sandwiches. Cheese cubes by themselves or in sandwiches are a most popular protein option for kids. Tofu or paneer can be added to dry vegetable curries that can be used to stuff rotis to make a roll. Yogurt can be set in one of the smaller boxes and put in the fridge overnight to be carried in the lunchbox. This makes a good accompaniment to rice and broken wheat based dishes, if the commute is not too long and the workplace / school has a refrigerator. 

Nuts are a great snacking option, rich in a variety of vital nutrients – add this to your kid’s muffins or cookies and to your salad. Taking it in the lunch box is the best way to eat nuts while exercising portion control. Nut butters are good for spreading in sandwiches.

Since both adults and kids need to get five to nine servings of vegetables and fruit, it is important that the lunchbox has a couple of servings from this group. Whatever food is going into the lunchbox, make sure it is fortified with some vegetables (other than potatoes, which are starch component) – for example, green beans and peas in rice, cucumber and carrot sticks with hummus, red bell pepper and zucchini in pasta. Add some pomegranate pearls to raita or curd-rice, grated apples and pears in muffins, sliced banana in peanut butter sandwich.

Once in a while, surprise your kid with a homemade goodie like a cookie or any other treat.

Some sample lunchboxes:

·      Egg Salad Sandwich and watermelon cubes

·      Broken wheat vegetable pulao with plain yogurt or raita

·      Pita bread stuffed with shredded chicken with salad and apple

·      Buttermilk semolina upma with peas and almonds

·      Pasta with spinach and cheese or paneer and orange

·      Vegetable idlis with tomato-onion chutney and a boiled egg

Recipe for Baby Pesarattu with spinach

1. Soak 1 cup of whole green moong overnight. 
2. Drain the soaked moong and grind it with a cup of washed and cleaned raw spinach leaves, a small piece of ginger and ½ tsp of salt. This does not require to be fermented. Pesarattu can be made immediately after the batter is ready.
3. On a lightly greased non-stick tava, spoon out tablespoon full of batter with a little space in between the pesarattu, add a few drops of ghee or oil along the sides and flip when one side is cooked. 
4. You can sprinkle sesame seeds on one side while the other is cooking. 
5. Cook the other side similarly and serve with chutney or ketchup. 
6. If this dish is for adults, you could add a couple of green chillies while grinding the batter.

[originally published in the Sunday DNA - September 23, 2012]

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How many calories is your roti?

Definitely not the slim 55 cal roti!
(For representational purpose only)

While calorific values of general food stuffs is readily found on the internet, roti or Indian bread is a tough one to estimate, because no two people make rotis of the same size or thickness. Some may add oil to bind the dough, some like to coat fresh rotis with a layer of melted ghee to keep them soft and fragrant.

Since a lot of friends ask me about how many calories does a roti add to your diet, I decided to do some basic calculations and came up with this method, where each one of you can calculate the calories in your roti.

This is how I make rotis in everyday cooking -

1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
water to make dough
1 tsp oil in the end to knead dough till smooth and non-sticky

I make 8 rotis from 1 cup flour.

1 cup whole wheat flour is roughly 400 calories
1 tsp oil is 40 calories

440/8 gives 55 calories per each roti that I make at home.


How can you calculate for your roti?

1. If you are not sure if yours is whole wheat flour - check for the calories provided by 100 g of your wheat flour brand (will be given on the packing in Nutriton information)

100 g of whole wheat flour is roughly 3/4 cup

To get the calories per one cup of your brand of whole wheat flour : Multiply the calories in 100 gram by 4/3.

This gives you the calories per cup of flour (a)
If the pack does not mention nutritional info (as would be the case where the atta is ground in the mills in many homes in India) - you can take a rough figure of 400 calories per cup of whole wheat flour.

For eg: If your package says that 100 grams provides 330 calories, then 1 cup will give 330 X 4/3 which is 440 calories.

While making rotis, measure out exactly one cup of flour and use water as necessary to make dough.

2. Note the number of teaspoons of oil you use while making dough.
Add 40 calories per teaspoon of oil. (b)

3. If you use ghee in the end, add 120 calories per tablespoon of ghee. (c)

4. Count the number of rotis that you made from 1 cup of flour (d)

5. Calories per roti will be (a+b+c) divided by d

Eg: If I made 8 rotis from 1 cup flour using 1 tsp of oil and 1 tbsp of ghee, it will be

(440 + 40 + 120) / 8 = 75 calories per roti

The same calculation applies to parathas or naan, where the number obtained from one cup of flour will be much less, also more fat used in their preparation making them high calorie.

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After all the depressing talk about calories, here's something to smile about!

Latest on The Feel Good Blog : A Happiness Scrapbook

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Detox diet - Part II - Weekend detox plan

After the wonderful response to my earlier post, I thought it would do good to share a sample plan which you can try over the weekend. This is adapted from the interview of a Bombay based nutritionist that I did while doing a feature on the same topic. I will try and answer the rest of the questions asked in response to the earlier post in its comments section.

How to do a weekend Detox Plan

Day 1

Plenty of water and fruits for the entire day in unlimited quantity. Include all fruits excluding bananas and chickoo.

Breakfast: Water melon.

Mid Morning: Apple

Lunch: Papaya with lemon squeezed on it.

4 PM: Grapes

6 PM: Oranges

Dinner: Papaya

Day 2

Breakfast: Any melon

Lunch: Salads + Vegetables + Pineapple. Use cold pressed organic oils (either sesame or ground nut) No potato should be included.

Mid Evening: Banana

Dinner: Salad + Vegetable + Soup.

Day 3

Breakfast: Fruits with a herbal tea like peppermint tea

Lunch: Salad + Vegetables + Sprouts + 1 Roti

Mid Evening: Any fruit

Dinner: Salad + vegetable+ soup + brown rice

Very important

• This diet MUST NOT be done by sick, convalescing or diabetic people without the approval of their doctor.
• There is no scope for any kind of diet for a pregnant woman.
• Even if you are in the best of health, it is better to take it easy during the detox days, drink plenty of water and take ample rest.

Some pointers

• Eating out and socialising are almost impossible when on this diet, so choose the dates accordingly.
• The problem with detox diets is that the weight loss achieved is usually temporary and is the result of water loss and a minimal fat loss due to severe calorie restriction. The weight comes straight back after the diet is done, which is why Detox diets are not essentially weight loss diets.
• Some people also experience side effects like tiredness, acid regurge and headaches. While many believe that this result of toxins being expelled, it’s usually caused by a low sugar level.

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Detox diets - An overview

Spring is supposed to be the best time not only for spring cleaning but also for cleaning up the mileu interior of our body. A few pointers on how to get into a detox diet and how it helps are outlined in this article.

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Detox seems to be buzz word among the health conscious. It is something akin to spring cleaning your house. Dusting, vacuuming, throwing away used, old stuff and creating a fresh, clean atmosphere inside your body. Our body has a detoxifying system in place made up of the liver, lungs, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, and skin, all of which work to eliminate toxins that enter our body thorough air, water, food and skin. But considering the times we live in, the kind of foods we eat, the lifestyle we follow present too tough a task for these built-in detoxification systems. Some of these un-tackled toxins start building up in our bodies causing a host of health problems like loss of vitality, dull skin and hair, weight gain, abdominal bloating, indigestion and a general feeling of ill-health.

Detoxification therefore becomes essential to make our body jumpstart itself out of the rut of toxin build-up towards a life filled with vitality. The complete detox process includes cleansing of the liver, colon, kidneys and the diet is vital to overall cleansing. A high fibre diet helps in eliminating residual waste from your intestines, the vitamins and nutrition made available by eating fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts provides all the vital enzymes for cleansing the liver and kidneys. Taking a steam bath or a sauna and performing exercise, helps sweat out the toxins accumulated in the skin.

Essentials of a Detox diet

In a detox diet, you avoid certain foods that overload the system and eat other nutrition-rich foods that speed up mopping of old toxins and waste.

This diet will exclude allergenic foods, which may cause problems with digestion and elimination. Foods like wheat (glutens) and dairy (milk, cheese) are often the cause of many unknown allergies where the person may just be feeling poorly or a sense of bloating and discomfort. Refined sugar is eliminated because of its zero nutritional value and therefore empty calories. Meats are excluded because they may contain added hormones and/or antibiotics and are very difficult to process, taking a long time to be cleared by the digestive system. Tea, coffee and fizzy drinks are also out because they slow down the process of cleansing. Herbal teas are allowed though. Refined, processed and refined, fried or junk foods are also a no-no for any detox program to work.

Eating grains, vegetables and fruits closest to it's natural form are best while following such a plan. Over cooking destroys the nutritional value of these high nutrition foods. Eating raw, juicing or steaming for 3-4 minutes would be the best options.

The Ayurvedic Angle - According to Ayurveda, the best time to go through a detox routine is the time after winter. A complete ayurvedic cleansing program includes 15 days of preparation and 45 days of actual cleansing.

Ama is the residual matter of incomplete digestion-- sticky toxic substance that clogs the channels that carry nutrients to the cells and waste out of the body. Cleansing is done to eliminate ama out of the body. It is essential for this purpose that a person wanting to clear ama shouldn't eat any ama producing foods during this period and eat more of ama reducing foods.

Ama increasing foods*	Ama reducing foods*
Food grown with high level pesticides, chemicals	Lightly cooked vegetables
Deep fried food	Mung bean soup
Dairy products – Cheese, Yogurt, whole milk	Sweet juicy fruits – apple, pears, prunes
Sugar / fat laden sweets	Cooked leafy greens
Breads and biscuits	Light whole grains such as quinoa, barley, amaranth and small helpings of rice
	Spices like ginger, turmeric, coriander, fennel to be used with all the above

*Source- Maharishi Ayurveda

Along with the above principles, it is recommended to drink warm water throughout the day to help flush out toxins through urine. A herbal tea made by boiling ginger and fennel is also a good detoxifying agent.

Certain rasayanas (Ayurvedic formulations) are prescribed along with the above diet for maximum effect. These should be taken under the guidance of a qualified Ayurvedic Practitioner.

8 detox ideas for life

1. Water – Keep sipping water throughout the day consuming upto 2 litres. Don't gulp glasses of water hastily as you may swallow a lot of air which in turn causes bloating.

2. Air – Make sure you take a brisk walk in a natural setting preferably. This revs up your circulation and flushes out toxins to the kidneys and liver.

3. Go gradual – Reduce the frequency with which you eat refined foods, red meats, sugar. Go for cereals with half the sugar content of your current sugary cereal, or mix a no-sugar cereal with your sugary cereal. Slow changes make it easier for you to stick by them for life and not just be a follower of fads.

4. Keep up the taste – Good food can be tasty too. Ginger, garlic, lemon rind, freshly sqeezed orange, cayenne pepper, black pepper, fennel are some of the spices and flavourings you can add to food to give it a zing and tantalise your taste buds.

5. Fibre – For any meal, choose ingredients with high fibre content. Fibre is the best natural detoxifying agent, sweeping down all the collected debris in the intestines. Choose whole wheat bread over white bread. Play with interesting grains like cracked wheat, red unpolished rice, millets for creating a variety in your meals.

6. Chew – Age-old granny wisdom but completely true. Ever since we started having TV dinners, we have forgotten to chew food. Mixing food well with saliva makes it alkaline and therefore less harmful than unchwed food. Not chewing your food properly also means that it stays longer in your gut, fermenting in your intestine causing indigestion and bloating.

7. Organic food – Food that has been not been treated with harsh chemicals and has grown naturally will be naturally good for you. If you have access to organically grown produce, by all means go for it or if you have the means to growing it yourself, nothing like it!

8. Skin brushing - Brushing your body with a soft skin brush rushes blood to the surface capillaries and toxins are eliminated from the pores. Use long sweeps, start at the feet and work up towards the heart. It is a good practice to follow each day for 5 minutes before a shower.

A word of caution

While it is good to follow a detox plan once in a while, or a natural foods diet for life, it is important not to go overboard with fruit juice diets or with fasting diets. They may sound very healthful and a fast-forward way to losing weight, but may do more good than harm by disturbing electrolyte balance and causing loss of muscle. Gettign into a detox regime with the knowledge and approval of your doctor or a qualified nutritionist is the best way to go about it. Moderation is the key to anything and so also to detoxification diets.

This article is copyrighted. Do not copy. To send query for such articles, you can contact the author of the blog.

Tags: detox, detoxification, spring cleaning, ayurvedic detox, Saffron Trail, Recipe, Food, Indian food blog, Healthy eating, Healthy living, Mumbai, India

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How to snack and lose weight

I was exercising like a maniac, eating the right foods, no in between grazing and yet my weight refused to budge. Since I did not have too much to lose in the first place, it was all the more difficult. While I'd like to believe that I'm just a little short of a health freak, I didn't have a figure to match. When I went to a nutritionist with my concerns, the diet plan they drew out for me was so much more than what I was eating already. At least 4 meals a day, and the Ms. Cynical in me said - "Wow! That's generous! But will it work?"

Work it did and I am now almost close to the number I desire. And I not obsessed with it either. As a part of the weight loss tips that I plan to include here, snacking is one of them.

How snacking helps weight loss

A little something inbetween meals helps in two ways.

1. Prevents your metabolism from dipping. A good BMR (basal metabolic rate) is very important to make sure your body keeps burning calories at its resting state. Prolonged periods for fasting (like skipping breakfast) will convince your body that something is wrong and it has to conserve as much as possible.
2. Keeps your blood sugar at stable levels, hence prevents cravings.
3. You are better prepared for dinner time. The 200 calorie odd snack will make sure you don't feel terribly hungry and ready to jump on everything on the table at dinner.

How snacking helps diabetics

Most busy executives start their day with hardly any breakfast, have a greasy office canteen lunch ( especially in India) at around 2 PM, some rounds of tea / coffee to sustain till they manage to get out and then prowl for some fried chips / munchies at around 9 PM with a heavy dinner at around 10.30 PM. The gap between 2 PM and 9 PM is the critical time where blood sugar takes a dive. Maintenance of sugar levels through out the day is essential to management of diabetes. Here's where snacking comes to the rescue. A fruit or a trail mix would be ideal to break the 2pm - 9 PM fast and stabilize sugar levels.

The snacker's grocery list

That's my secret list for you. Not too many exotic ingredients, nothing that you wouldn't find in your supermarket. If I get them in Mumbai, then you can find them in pretty much any other city.

Buy a pound of unroasted, unsalted peanuts. Roast them either in your microwave or stove top, cool and store in an airtight container. To snack on them, don't grab a bowlful. Take a handful, mix it with one each of finely chopped cucumber, tomato and onion (small sized). Squeeze half a lemon, sprinkle salt, cayenne pepper, coriander leaves and you have a crunchy, yummy peanut snack ready.

Do the same with the soy nuts and almonds, puffed rice or other soy products.

Any of the nuts can be bulked up by adding raw grated veggies and flavourings so that you don't eat too much of the high calorie nuts.

Snacking tips

The super-size culture is fast catching on in India too, and it started with the 2 Litre 2.5 Litre pet bottles of colas, never mind that the 500 ml is free! The Lays and the Kurkures followed suit and we are not surprised to see supersized people too.

No snacking from the bag

I'm sure if you are snacking for weight loss, you wouldn't even pass by the 'Chips' or 'Crisps' aisles. But this is true even for the healthy stuff like nuts or puffed soy snacks. Don't eat from the bag. Have the patience to remove it into a small bowl, mix it with the veggies & flavourings, keep it aside, lock /seal the bag, put it away, take your bowl to the living room and munch on it as if you would eat a gourmet meal. Savour, chew and eat. If quality of food matters, quantity matters even more. I was earlier of the opinion that if something is low-cal, healthy and good for me, quantities don't matter. I have been proved wrong entirely.

Don't get addicted to any one snack

Keep changing routines. Find newer healthy alternatives to add to your list of healthy munchies. And in my personal experience, munch on stuff you don't like too much. This might sound silly, but I recently read in a daily's Page 3 that a famous Bollywood star known for her fab figure, never hires good cooks. If the food is VERY GOOD, you automatically eat more. My best snack is roasted chana because I don't relish it too much. I'll lazily munch on a handful and say -Oh! I feel full! Or the ones that require a little more effort like grating or chopping veggies, because who'll want to do that all over for a second serving?

Take your own snack bag to the movie-hall

Any guesses why movie hall popcorns entice you? The smells beckon you as soon as you enter and the allurement wont stop until you rush to the counter, get your fill and finish the last morsel even before the trailers at the beginning of the movie are over. Why don't you feel the same about home-made popcorn from corn-kernels? Simple! You wouldn't dream to add that much butter. A large size popcorn probably has at least half a stick of butter and a bucket - well, I don't think you even want to imagine. So you can take your own little baggies filled with some nuts, dried fruits, something like a trail mix, that you'd chew and eat slowly. Focus on the movie so that you don't dip around into your partner's or your friend's goodies.

Like all good habits, this one takes a while to form. Whether you are a busy working person or a stay at home mom, you can make this work for you. Combine it with your tea-time ritual and watch your body thank you for it!

I'd love it if you shared your similar experiences with us. What is your idea of a healthy yet satisfying snack? Add to the list please!

If you live in India, I can share with you some of the real low-cal and healthy products available in most supermarkets here। Leave a comment or mail me and I shall be glad to help!

Tags: Tips, weight loss, snacking, snacks, eat and lose weight, diet tips, nutrition, healthy eating

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