From the outside it’s a plain microwaveable white box – it announces Free Spirit Lean Kitchen and lists content as bell peppers, spinach and oyster mushroom stuffed chicken; has the calorie count per serving along with a contact number.
Inside is a riot of colours, of flavours and textures – it is hard to take in that all this is diet food. Conventionally diet food is dreary, intimidating and plain simple boring. Priyadarshini R. Menon, a home-cook, whose idea is Free Spirit Lean Kitchen wanted to bring ‘interesting’ into diet food. Everyday food, the traditional fare, adapted for weight loss doesn’t offer much variety - you either reduce salt or do away with oil. It becomes monotonous and attempts to break monotony, often, send the diet out the window.
“There are not many takers for traditional fare especially when one is on a diet. Variety is welcome,” she says. What started out as a search for low-cal food for her husband who had been asked to reduce his weight ended up with her providing interesting diet food to those ordering with her on her Facebook page. While trying out recipes and tweaking recipes, her husband lost close to 25 kilos.
She puts up the menu for the week on Mondays on her Facebook page. It generally includes two salads and two dishes for a day, lunch and dinner. Her kitchen in her apartment is her workspace.
“For lunch, orders should be in by 11 a.m. and for dinner by 4 p.m. I do all the cooking, I need the advance notice.” She home delivers too. She has people ordering only lunch or both and she has plans to launch a monthly package, which will be a mix and match of cuisines.
A sampler of her menu is penne pasta with tuna flakes, shrimps and mushroom in garlic soy sauce with spaghetti, pot mushroom and rice, fish fillet in mole verde – she says she balances her meals. “I include everything in the meal – vegetables, grains – brown rice or brown bread or pasta or chappathi – you need to have grain too. And as far as possible I use organic produce. It is not all continental; I do include Indian and Chinese food too.” She uses Basa for her fish dishes as it absorbs flavours, is protein and vitamin rich; the shrimps she uses are the smaller variety.
The Kochi-based former HR professional says she is enjoying her switch from the boardroom. The Net has been a resource; she is also currently pursuing a post-graduate diploma in Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition. A self-confessed foodie, she has given a healthy twist to her food passion. “I love cooking and this is an extension of that passion. I trust food and I am sure it won’t backfire if done right and responsibly,” she says. A couple of her friends asked to be cooked for and Free Spirit Lean Kitchen came to being a couple of months back.
She ensures that the calorie count of her meals does not exceed 400 calories, “anything more than this and the body stores it as fat. One has to exercise portion control strictly,” she says. Although she offers two salads and two main course dishes, she advises sticking to a single dish meal in order to prevent overloading the body with food.
She can be reached on Facebook on >www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Spirit-Lean-Kitchen or contacted on 9539253535
