Accomplishing this task often seems impossible. But you can make it easier. All you need is a comprehensive chart. To make your job easier, here’s a detailed food guide titled food time table for Nigerian homes.
It includes balanced meals any working parent can prepare within a few minutes, with as little as one thousand naira (approx. $3), for a family of four.
Food time table for Nigerian homes
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | |
| Breakfast | Wheat bread + beverages + Avocado or bananas | Oat meal + milk + apples+ dates | Boiled sweet or Irish potatoes + egg stew = cucumber | Toast bread + omelettes + coconut milk (or dairy milk) + avocado | Pancakes + custard + bananas | Toast bread + sardines + margarine spread+ banana+ milk (or green tea and lemon for adults only) | Moimoi + pap +tigernuts |
| Lunch | Boiled rice + beans + fish or meat-seasoned tomato stew + steamed vegetables | Semo + okra soup+ cucumbers | Jollof rice (or pasta) + moimoi + vegetable salad. | Unripe plantains + beans porridge with vegetables. | Moimoi + cole slaw + cucumbers | Vegetable soup + weat/semo/garri | Egusi soup + garri/semo/ dawa |
| Dinner | Boiled plantains + egg and tomato gravy sauce + mangoes or oranges (for dessert). | Unripe plantain porridge with vegetables + pawpaw (as dessert) | Vegetable soup + oats swallow. Watermelons and pineapples (for dessert) | Rice + vegetable (or Bolognese) sauce Oranges (for dessert) | Boiled potatoes + egg sauce gravy + cucumbers | Rice + fish-spiced vegetable sauce Groundnuts + garden eggs (for dessert) | Grilled fish + roasted plantains + soursoup |
Tips for maintaining a healthy food time table
It is one thing to have a meal plan; it is another thing to know how to implement the ideas. Some homemakers adopt meal plans and forget about them after a while. Often, these homemakers just lose their enthusiasm for the plan because they just don’t know how to get around preparing these simple meals within short periods.
With a little bit of creativity and entry-level cooking skills, you can achieve it. The tips explain how you can follow the plan.
Prepare and freeze sauces and stews over the weekend
If you work from 8 AM – 5 PM Mondays through Fridays, you might want to utilize your weekends effectively. Buy plenty of fresh and pureed tomatoes so that you can cook enough stew to last for a whole week. As the weekdays unfold, you can modify the stews to suit your needs. For instance, when you have to serve egg stew, all you’ll have to do is warm up some stew, pour some whisked eggs into it and voila, you’ll have a ready meal.
The same goes for soups. Prepare and freeze your soup stock (meat + dried fish + oil + seasoning). During the weekdays, you can buy a small quantity of the vegetables of your choice. If for instance, you’d like to have edikang ikong soup, all you’ll have to do is wash and chop the waterleaves and ugu vegetables, warm a small portion of the soup stock and pour your vegetables in.
A pressure cooker will save you plenty of time
Before the invention of pressure cookers, women had to cook beans overnight. Things have changed now. Your family doesn’t have to be deprived of this nutritious food option just because it takes longer to cook.
With a solid pressure cooker, you can whip up a tasty and affordable meal of beans and plantain porridge in less than thirty minutes.
Another alternative would be to pressure cook your beans in bulk during the weekend. Save some in the freezer for use during the busy work-week. That way you’ll save hours of cooking time. You’ll need the extra time to bond with your spouse and your children.
You don't always have to cook everything from scratch. You can prepare and freeze your ingredients on weekends
You don’t have to make everything from scratch
Did you know you could buy already-made beans flour for moimoi? Well, yes you can. You can also buy cocoyam and pounded yam flour for your soups and fufu too.
You can order for these pre-made food items online and stock them. You could prepare your own moimoi in thirty minutes. Isn’t it wonderful how easy it is to follow your food time table for Nigerian homes?
Eat every fruit in season
Be creative with the fruits you serve during meals.
Health experts recommend that you eat every fruit in season until they goes out of season. You should add fresh fruits and vegetables to your food time table for Nigerian homes. This way you and your family can get all the required vitamins and minerals you need to stay strong and healthy.
Our food time table for Nigerian homes is designed to help you and your family stay strong and healthy. It is tailor-made for families trying to adjust to the tough economic realities of our time.
Resource: US National Library of Medicine
Also Read: 6 top Foods to feed your child with a fever
This article was first published on AfricaParent.com