I am sharing some diet tips I have learnt over the years from various people and also through my course on nutrition and dietetics. These small things have enhanced my life to a great extent.
Hope you can take away a tip or two for yourself. Please feel free to comment and share what you have been practicing as well.
Early morning
Upon waking up, squeeze half a medium sized lemon juice to 150 ml of warm water and drink it.
- Lemon water helps prevent acid re-flux, stimulates digestion and helps to remove toxins. Lemon is rich in vitamin C, which helps to improve immunity too.
Additionally, you can consume a spoon of ground flax seeds / soaked chia seeds / 3 or 4 soaked and skin-peeled almonds / 2 to 3 walnuts. Leave a gap of at least 30 minutes before consuming anything else.
- Flax seeds and chia seeds are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids and fiber. Flax seeds can also lower the cholesterol.
- Almonds are rich in protein, fiber, vitamin E. Vitamin E is beneficial for skin and hair.
- Walnuts are rich in omega 3 fatty acids. It is good for brain too.
Breakfast
Here are a few tips to make your breakfast nutrient rich, rather than calorie rich
- You can add peanuts in the tempering of Upma, Aval / Poha so as to add some protein to the dish. You can also add sprouts, fresh green peas, Hyacinth beans (Avarekai), pigeon pea (Togari kai), sweet corn etc.
- Chutney powder –prepared using lentils, peanuts and green leafy vegetables like curry leaves, moringa, coriander leaves etc. is the easiest way to add protein and other nutrients.
- You can diversify breakfast cereals by using different cereals – rice, wheat, bajra, finger millet (ragi), maize and other millets. (Millets are rich in nutrients. Be watchful about the quantity you consume; Moderate the quantity depending on physical activity levels).
- You can add vegetables like carrot, beetroot, beans, potato, onions, tomatoes, brinjal, knol khol, curry leaves, coriander leaves, sweet potatoes, capsicum, raw tomatoes, sweet corn, hyacinth beans (Avarekalu), green peas, pigeon peas (togari kai), cauliflower, broccoli to daliya upma, rava upma, semiya upma.
- You can add vegetables like grated carrot, grated beetroot, finely chopped potato, finely chopped sweet potato, onions, tomatoes, brinjal, curry leaves, coriander leaves, capsicum, sweet corn, green peas to avalakki / poha.
- You can prepare parathas using different vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, methi leaves, palak leaves, grated radish, carrots, beetroot, raw papaya etc.
- You can prepare rice roti (Akki rotti), ragi roti, wheat flour roti using vegetables like carrots, cucumber, dill leaves, hyacinth beans (Avarekalu), pigeon peas (togari kalu), methi leaves, spinach, radish leaves etc.
Dosa:
- Different grated / chopped vegetables can be added to the dosa batter - cucumber, carrot, beet root, radish, potato, onions, spring onions, capsicum, sweet pumpkin, Madras / Mangalore cucumber etc.
- Fruits like banana, pineapple, mangoes, watermelon (green portion) can be added while grinding dosa batter
- Dosa batter can be prepared using rice, lentils and spices and dipping the vegetables in dosa batter and cooking on tawa (ridge gourd, brinjal, raw banana etc. to make the dosa different and interesting).
- You can add different chopped green leafy vegetables to the dosa batter – Dill leaves, coriander leaves, methi leaves, spring onions, drumstick leaves, palak leaves, radish leaves, Malabar spinach (Nela basale), Senna tora (Tagate soppu) etc.
Idli can be prepared using different grated vegetables like Mangalore cucumber, green cucumber, sweet pumpkin, carrots.
Idli recipes
Chutney
Chutney
- Add vegetables like radish, carrot, hogplum (Amate kayi), gooseberry, coriander leaves, mint leaves, mango, herale kai (Citron fruit) to chutney.
- Prepare chutney using different vegetables (whenever you find them) like Giloy (Amrutha Balli), Sandal leaves, Veldt grape (Sandu Balli), Senna Tora (Tagate soppu), raw mango, Banana blossom, spine gourd (mada hagala kayi), jackfruit seeds, pumpkin skin, ash gourd skin, vitamin leaves etc
All chutney recipes here
- Use spoons to measure oil. If there is increase in the number of people to serve, you can just increase the oil quantity proportionately.
- Similarly use the cups or other utensils to measure the quantity of rice, rawa, semiya etc. so that you can increase the quantity based on number of people. This way we can avoid cooking extra and eating stale food.
- You need not add extra oil to make breakfast tasty. Vegetables and fruits, along with the right amount of salt and spices enhance the taste to a great extent.
- Make a conscious effort to avoid processed foods.
- Use a cast iron pan for dosas and chapatis/parathas as it adds iron to cooked food, also they are free of chemicals.
- We can use pumpkin stalk / brinjal stalk to grease the oil on iron tawa so that we can spread very little oil using these (if you want to reduce your oil consumption). It is also convenient to spread the oil.
- Use smaller plates for serving breakfast if you want to avoid over eating.
- Most importantly, try to cook and serve the dish as fresh as possible.
Chai / Coffee
Continue to enjoy your coffee / tea once or twice a day. You can add different spices / herbs to the chai to make it interesting and healthy.
Some spices to make your tea more delightful here
Productivity improvement tips / How to cook fast
You can decide the previous morning or night what to cook for next day breakfast:
- When you have very less time to cook in the morning, you can chop vegetables and keep it in the fridge previous night (though it is ideal to chop and use within an hour)
- For chapati / paratha, you can knead the dough the previous night and keep it ready.
- Grind dosa batter the night before, not only to save time, but also for its effective fermentation. Fermentation helps add good bacteria and aids digestion.
- If there are many people at home, use two tawas at a time to cook dosas, chapatis, parathas, rotis etc. It reduces the cooking time to half.
- Use different chopping tools based on what you chop.
- Big vegetables and fruits like jackfruits, watermelons, Mangalore cucumber, pumpkin etc. are easier to chop using Metkatti / Eeligemane
- Whereas onions, tomatoes, capsicum etc. are easier to chop using a chopper
- Green leafy vegetables are easier to chop using chopping board and knife.
- For Upma, you can roast the rawa / semiya / broken wheat the previous day to save time next morning. While preparing upma, on one stove keep the water to boil, while on the other stove you can put the tempering and cook the vegetables. Once water boils, you can add the water and then roasted rava / semiya / broken wheat.
- If you are cooking using a pressure cooker, use the size just appropriate for the size of the family. Smaller the cooker, lesser the time it takes to cook and also to cool down after switching off the stove.
- If you are too busy and have very less time to cook, try OPOS (one pot, one shot) cooking – Can prepare some of the dishes like Upma, Pongal, Kichdi, Pulav using this method.
- Typically, we worry about what to cook. For easy reference, prepare a menu of breakfast items you usually cook and paste it on the fridge / list down in a diary.
Special thanks to my daughter for her valuable review comments and editing.
Note:- These tips are based on vegetarian diet practices. Please write to me if you are looking for other diet tips.
Nice, all the ideas in one shot.
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