8 Tips To Help You Prepare Your Own Food

Eating healthy is a vital protocol for every pregnant woman and emphasis on this comes to you from almost everyone around you. Food joints are abundant and late night meals are also easily available these days. However, eating home cooked food is the best bet during this period.

Cooking is strenuous for many pregnant women blame it on the nausea or the big bump. And if you have to cook for the whole family cooking actually becomes a nightmare. It is very easy for you to ultimately end up ordering outside food or just go to the restaurant yourself to fill your stomach. Eating outside food is not bad for you. But making it a routine is not good at all. This article aims to encourage you to cook your own food so that you are sure that every morsel you eat is super healthy and the cleanliness while cooking is taken care of.

Tips to prepare your own food

1. Planning
   Plan your meals one day in advance. This gives you ample time to prepare for the cooking like cutting vegetables or fruits for the meal, soaking required ingredients overnight, grinding and resting time for fermenting. When you plan your menu for the next day, plan in such a way that you include all food categories recommended for you. Having a balanced diet is crucial and spending just 15 minutes a day for planning your meal can help you manage your cooking in a much organized way.
2. Involve your family members
   
   Once you have charted down the menu for the next day, ask members at home to help you in cutting vegetables. If you are sleeping early and if any soaking is required only for a few hours, ask your husband or parents-in-law to soak the required stuffs accordingly.
3. Preparing ready-to-use powders and pastes
   
   If you are working, cooking in a very little time will be the biggest challenges you will face. Ready-to-use powders and pastes are very handy in such cases and will help you save a lot of time.If you have such flavors at your reach, all you have to do is cook some rice and add suitable powders or pastes and some tempering once the rice is done. The entire dish would be done in 20-25 minutes. You can also prepare a few powders for vegetable curries for accompaniments with rotis or parathas.
4. Using kitchen tools and small appliances
   
   Have you been thinking of buying kitchen tools or food processors lately? Investing on choppers, juicers and food processors now is a good idea. Spending a lot of time standing and chopping vegetables or fruits can be avoided. Small appliances are always useful to make cooking simple and speed up the process too. Tools like blenders, choppers and juicers will come in handy forever. After your little one arrives it will be very difficult to find time for any task and anything that can save time is what you will be looking for in the years to come.
5. Shopping fruits and vegetables
   
   Finish your shopping for fruits and vegetables in the weekend or whenever you have a holiday during the week. Stock enough fresh vegetables and fruits for the whole week. Eating canned foods during pregnancy is a big no as it is loaded with preservatives. If you have to use canned foods the entire purpose of eating healthy is defeated.
6. Keep it simple
   Choose dishes that are easy to cook and are also healthy. Prepare dosa / idli batter during the weekend and let it ferment overnight. You can now store it in the refrigerator and use it for a couple of days. This batter also serves the purpose when you wake up due to hunger pangs in the middle of the night. If you plan to make chapathis, you can knead the flour in the night and leave it to rest(in winters only). Plan one-pot-cooking meals when you do not have the patience for an elaborate cooking. Most of the one-pot-cooking meals are wholesome and loaded with nutrients.
7. Practice multitasking
   If you plan to cook more than one dish, practice multitasking in the kitchen. This way you do not have to spend a lot of time while cooking. If you are quick enough in finishing off cooking, you will not have a grumpy face when you have to cook again the next day. This practice will also help you in the long run. With the little one by your side, if you have to manage cooking and other activities too, it is very important you are used to quick and smart working.
8. Use the casseroles
   
   From the second trimester, you will feel very active and energetic in the morning. As the day progresses, all you want to do is just laze around or sleep. It is best to finish off maximum cooking for the day in the morning. Transfer the dishes to the casseroles to keep the food hot so you don't have to cook afresh later in the day. Sometimes, you might just have to heat up the food and use it.

Cooking is an every day activity. The best attitude to carry is to see it as a fun task. Compete with your own self and make cooking an enjoyable experience everyday. Eating outside is inevitable in many situations. So whenever there is a possibility, try to eat home cooked food to enjoy good health during pregnancy and to keep food related issues at bay.