Meal Plan For Saturday – Helps You Resist Junk Food

On Saturday your taste buds start tingling. They begin to remind you that they exist. And they prod you until you give them an unhealthy treat.

Now your body is very forgiving. It will forgive you for that occasional unhealthy treat – if you can restrain yourself and not eat too much of it. But self-control is not such an easy thing to practice.

And so the Saturday menu is designed to ensure that you stop eating unhealthy food when you should. The food in the Saturday menu – fills you with self-control. It ensures that you don’t eat the whole plate of French fries – you are able to stop after just two. It gives you the power to say “No” to the ice cream after dinner and empowers you to say an easy no to extra cheese in your burger.

The menu also repairs and rebuilds sections of your muscles that have got damaged by the work you have done through the week. And maintains and pampers your brain after the long week of using it a lot.

How To Plan A Balanced Diet For Your Child :10 Tips

Challenges with planning the Saturday menu –

  1. The meals of the Saturday menu must be interesting. No one will eat something that is routine on a Saturday.
  2. The meals must nutritious and filling so that they keep the urge to eat sugary, trans fat rich food at its lowest. .
  3. The meals should be easy to cook – so that very little time needs to be spent in the kitchen.
  4. The recipes must have ingredients that are rich in essential amino acids and essential fatty acids so that they can contribute to the repair and maintenance of the muscles and brain that are sure to be worn out after the whole week’s work.

customized healthy weekly menu

Saturday menu breakup

  1. A tasty and sustaining breakfast
  2. A nutritive and easy to eat 11 am snack
  3. A healthful tiffin
  4. A satisfying and strengthening lunch
  5. A delicious and energizing 4 pm snack
  6. A nourishing dinner

Weekly meal planning – Day 6 – Saturday

This menu is designed by Simran Oberoi Multani with nutritional and parenting inputs from Dr Debmita Dutta

Breakfast – Omelet with broccoli/spinach and toast

10 am snack – Fig Almond laddoo

Lunch box – Broccoli and chickpea cutlet

Lunch – Chickpea with tomato quinoa

Evening snack – Healthy quinoa brownies

Dinner – Baked Methi Quinoa Amaranth Khakra

Also read Monday Menu, Tuesday Menu, Wednesday Menu, Thursday Menu, Friday Menu

The features on the Saturday Menu

  1. The focus is on complete proteins and essential fatty acids.
  2. The meals focus on providing all the nutrients needed to nourish the red and white blood cells
  3. The menu ensures that there are no serious hunger pangs through the day – so that unhealthy snacking can be avoided.
  4. The ingredients have anti allergic and anti-inflammatory properties
  5. Three different fat sources have been included in the menu
  6. The meals are designed to energize the body but prevent a sugar spike followed by a crash to prevent craving for junk food from kicking in.
  7. Two key ingredients are mixed and matched to make the meals interesting and easy to cook.

The theme for the Saturday menu

The key ingredients for The Saturday menu are Chickpea ( Kabuli chana or chole) and Quinoa – that are used in recipes throughout the day. The best thing about both ingredients is that once they have been boiled they require just a little bit of further cooking to turn them into something delicious. The snacks and even the dinner are recipes that can be made ahead of time (on the weekend) and stored and served when hunger strikes on Saturday – so that not too much time is spent in the kitchen on a holiday.

Recipes for the Saturday menu

Breakfast

Omelette with broccoli/spinach and toast

Ingredients

Eggs   2

Chopped Broccoli or Spinach leaves   1/4 cup

Chopped Spring onions 1 tbsp

Salt    to taste

Black pepper   to taste

Oregano or Basil    to taste

Milk    1-2 tbsp

Ghee   1 tsp

Method 

  1. Whisk the eggs
  2. Milk and spices until fluffy
  3. Add the ghee to a non-stick pan
  4. Saute the broccoli / spinach leaves and spring onions until they lose their rawness.
  5. Add the egg mix.
  6. Allow it to cook through
  7. And serve the omelet.

 

11 AM snack

Simple Fig-Almond Laddoo

Ingredients        

Chopped figs    ½ cup

Chopped soft dates   1/2 cup

Almonds   3-4

Seeds mix like chia seeds, melon seeds, sunflower seed

Ghee    1 tbsp

Elaichi green    1

Method –

  1. Mix all the above first
  2. Dry roast except for the ghee.
  3. Add to the mixie and grind well.
  4. Take it out in a container
  5. Add ghee.
  6. Mix well
  7. And shape into laddoos, and store

Lunch Box

Broccoli and Chole/Chickpea Cutlet

Ingredients

Leftover white chana from lunch or extra boiled chana    1 cup

Grated broccoli    ½ cup

Salt    2 tsp

Paprika   1 tsp

Crushed garlic    1 tsp

Chopped spring onions   1/2 cup

Grated cheese(optional)     1/4 cup

Olive oil    1 tbsp

Method-

  1. In the oil, sauté the onions
  2. Add the chana, broccoli and mash them well together.
  3. Add the seasoning and finally the cheese.
  4. Mix all of it together
  5. Make small-sized patties
  6. Coat them with bread crumbs
  7. And shallow fry.

Lunch  

Chickpea/White Chana

Ingredients

Gingelly or groundnut oil   2 tsp

Cumin / jeera – 1 tsp

Bay leaf / tej patta – 1

Hing / asafoetida – 1/2   tsp

Onion finely chopped – 1

Red chilly

Ginger garlic paste      2 tsp

Tomato finely chopped    11/2 cups

Haldi       as per your taste

Red chilly powder    as per your taste

Coriander powder     as per your taste

Salt    as per your taste

Garam masala    as per your taste

And dried mango powder or amchur    as per your taste

3 cups water for 1 cup of white chana that has been soaked overnight.

Method –

  1. Saute the jeera, bay leaf in the oil in the pressure cooker.
  2. Saute 1 onion, red chilly and ginger garlic paste.
  3. Then add the tomato and cook until it is soft and loses its rawness.
  4. Put in the 1 cup white chana and the water.
  5. Then add the remaining spices except garam masala and amchur.
  6. Pressure cook for 6-7whistles or till the chana gets cooked completely.
  7. Open the cooker
  8. And add the garam masala and amchur.
  9. Mix well and serve.

Tomato Quinoa 

Ingredients        

Boiled quinoa   1 cup

Homemade tomato puree    ½ cup

Oil   1tsp

Grated garlic    1tsp

Salt

Red pepper

Fresh coriander

Method –

  1. Add the oil in a pan
  2. Add the garlic and let it cook a bit.
  3. Add the tomato puree
  4. And allow it to cook well until it loses its rawness.
  5. Add the quinoa and then the spices.
  6. Mix it well and uniformly.
  7. Switch off the gas
  8. Add chopped fresh coriander leaves
  9. And serve.

4 PM snack

Healthy Quinoa Brownies/Cake Slice   

   

Ingredients

Cooked quinoa which is mashed    1cup

Dark chocolate ( 55% )    120 gms

Butter   100 gms

Baking powder    1tsp

Eggs   2

Coffee dissolved in water    1 tsp

Coconut sugar     ¼ cup

Cup milk   ¼ cup

Method-

  1. Beat the eggs well
  2. Add the coffee, milk, baking powder and coconut sugar to it
  3. And incorporate it nicely.
  4. Melt the dark chocolate and butter together on a double boiler
  5. Cool it off
  6. And then add to the above mix
  7. Finally add the quinoa
  8. And fold it in gently
  9. Do not over beat
  10. Put it into a greased and dusted pan
  11. And bake in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, at 170 degrees C.
  12. Cool off and eat!
  13. The sauce on top is a super simple mix of date syrup
  14. With 1/2 tbsp of melted butter
  15. Mixed together on low flame
  16. Add chopped almonds
  17. Cool it off and then use.

For an eggless version ,

I haven’t tried it as yet, you can replace eggs with applesauce. It will taste better than flaxseeds or curd as the replacers, since quinoa already has its own nutty flavour.

Dinner

Baked Methi Quinoa Amaranth Khakra 

Ingredients

Amaranth flour   1 cup

Powdered quinoa    ½ cup

Kasoori methi    2 tbsp

Jeera, Red chilly    1 tsp

Salt     as required

Warm water

Oil    2 tbsp

Method –

  1. Mix the flours and the spices.
  2. Add the oil and rub in well.
  3. Add water as needed to bring the dough together.
  4. Refrigerate it for 30 minutes.
  5. Roll into thin discs.
  6. Place on lightly greased baking tray
  7. And bake for 15 minutes until crisp, at 170 degrees C.
  8. Cool off and store.

 

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