How To Make Your Confinement Food Delicious & Nourishing

Nutrition is crucial during confinement for a mother’s recovery, what with the 9-month long journey and her depleting nutrients in her body due to breastfeeding. It is all the more necessary for her to regain her strength and get a boost from her diet. 

When it comes to confinement, it’s probably been instilled in your head that this is a period where you can’t simply eat anything as you please. In fact, it is quite the norm for new mothers who have just given birth to be told to abstain from an array of food and to focus on certain ingredients only, especially if they’re Asian. So, you may think that what you can eat for those 30 days or so are quite limited and possibly boring. How would you survive tasteless, bland meals for a whole month?

But no. Confinement food does not have to be boring or bland, and there are plenty of ingredients that you can incorporate into your meals to make them more interesting and mouth-watering in addition to being nutritious. Here are 3 ways to go about making your confinement food delicious and nourishing.

1. Use different cooking methods

One of the most common ways of cooking healthy food is boiling, and many people assume that boiling is the way to go in order to keep calories low and to retain the nutrients in the ingredients, unlike frying. While boiling is a great option, it is not the only one available. There are many different methods of cooking that make for scrumptious and healthy meals. 

You can stir fry vegetables, steam fish, braised chicken, sear salmon, grill some meat, and many more. The options are plentiful, and you can pair different cooking methods to make an amazing meal. Take, for instance, having stir-fried vegetables like carrots and broccoli, a piece of seared salmon, and some chicken soup for lunch or dinner. You get a very balanced meal that is tasty and full of nutrients. Who said confinement meals had to be unstimulating?

2. Use a variety of veggies, meat, and other protein

Now, the best confinement food would contain sufficient amounts of vitamins, minerals, fibre, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and all that jazz, and they would come from different sources of ingredients. No two ingredients contain the same amount of nutrients, which is why cooking with a variety of them would be ideal as you can supplement any deficiency from the multitude of available food, especially when there are certain vitamins and essentials that our body cannot produce.

For example, omega 3s and vitamin B12. We have to get these nutrients from external sources like meat and eggs. So, that’s exactly what we need to implement in your confinement meals. Add a variety of vegetables like carrots, leafy greens, and garlic, and don’t forget meat like fish, pork, and chicken. A very simple and straightforward way to get yummy food rich in nutrients.

3. Have fun with spices and herbs

Spices? Herbs? Did I hear that right? 

Yes, you did. Well, of course, if you’re Chinese, you would know herbs are fantastic additions to confinement meals as you get them in soups and sometimes with stir-fried dishes, such as red dates, black fungus, and goji berries, common traditional Chinese dishes. But did you know that spices are another way to play around with your confinement dishes?

It is not uncommon for people to think that confinement food should be a certain way and that adding spices might affect the nutritional value negatively. This is absolutely not true. Sometimes, cooking can turn meat a boring colour, so why not add some spices to spice up your meals and also your life? 

Turmeric is a wonderful spice that not only adds beautiful colour and great flavour, it is also rich in minerals and vitamins like potassium, magnesium, vitamin C, and vitamin B6, all of which are important for healthy body functions. In addition, it contains curcumin, a natural anti-inflammatory compound that also lowers the risk of osteoarthritis and in some ways supports the immune system  Researchers have even found that adding pepper to turmeric enhances the bioavailability of these nutrients With all these superb benefits for postpartum to just a single type of spice, why the hesitation in adding them to confinement meals?

Here at Tian Wei Signature, we incorporate all of the above in our confinement menu. Discover traditional Chinese meals like Braised Pork Trotter with Black Vinegar and fusion cuisine dishes like Kurobuta Pork Loin with Apple Mirin Sauce and Spaghetti on our extensive, delectable menu.

If you’re a little hesitant to sign up as it’s your first time, do not fret. We offer confinement food trial meal sets where you can pick from 2 of our trial meals to have a taste before you commit. What’s more, our meals do not only consist of main dishes, but also Chinese confinement soup, desserts, and drinks. So, for the best confinement food, you know who to go to.