From the heart to the plate: Happy Healthy Meals, a cookbook by St. Jude parents, provides nourishment and joy

Chemotherapy is one of the most common cancer treatments and uses one or more drugs to fight cancer cells in the body. Side effects such as hair loss and nausea are common, and for best results, your diet should include vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, bitter melon, and beets.

It can be difficult to convince children to eat all this. But at St. Jude India Child Care Centers, ragi parathas and oat idlis are favorites, especially those made by parents whose children are being treated at 11 facilities across the country. ing.

recently released cookbooks happy healthy mealis a heartwarming project that collects recipes from parents whose children are cared for at the center. This book contains 21 recipes for making delicious, healthy meals using ingredients that children don’t often like.

“What we are doing is chefIt’s like a monthly contest where parents are given a set of ingredients and asked to come up with a dish based on it. Children enjoy this activity, but parents have a lot of fun too. In the end everyone can taste everything. We have chosen something that is easy to make, delicious and healthy enough to feature in this cookbook,” says Anil Nair, her CEO at the centre. He added that this cookbook is available at all his CHANGE centers.

The book, compiled by chef Irfan Pavani, includes recipes for egg ravachila, vegetable samosas, oat idli, and more. There is sweet curry masala made by 19-year-old mother Durgarani Ghosh. The recipe also includes notes about why her 3-year-old son Shreyan Ghosh likes this dish. “Shreyan likes all things sweet. The bitter gourd in this dish is topped with jaggery, so he doesn’t complain about eating vegetables,” the note said.

At a center in Chennai, Parimala G and her husband have been caring for their son Nitesh for a month. Although she has not participated in this cooking competition yet, she is looking forward to it. Hailing from Karur district in Tamil Nadu, she has found her second home in this centre. “My son, my husband, and I have been here for a month now. My son loves purisadam (tamarind rice) with potatoes, so we often make it. I speak the same language as the other mothers here. “But we’ve learned a lot of recipes and my son enjoys trying something new.”

The center provides free, comprehensive care to children undergoing cancer treatment and their families. Each family is assigned a room, but the kitchen and dining area are shared. Each family staying at the facility is given an individual induction stove, containers, bottles, and pressure cooker. Commonly selected produce is purchased and distributed equally to all family members twice a week.

“Children undergoing chemotherapy tend to be agitated. For them, comforting things like their mother’s cooking bring comfort. That’s why their mothers cook meals for them. All food offerings and meal timings are planned based on the recommendations of nutritionists and nutritionists,” says Prajna Shetty, Director, St. Jude Center, Royapettah, Chennai.

Lunch on the day we visited was prepared together by all the mothers at the center and consisted of beetroot puris, soybean gravy, egg biryani and onion raita. A team of two flattens the puris while one of the mother’s girlfriends kneads the dough, and she also helps two of them work on the stove while others make the gravy and biryani in a similar order. I did. When Nitesh returned from the hospital after completing her treatment, she was pleasantly surprised. He wished there was no sambar on the menu, but he enjoyed the meal with his friends and mother, chatting and laughing.