“Food is not about impressing people. It’s about making them feel comfortable.” Ina Garten

I don’t remember my lunch time in preschool or nursery days but I do have a vivid memory of it during my elementary school.

Mom was a working woman and as usual morning time used to be very hectic at home. She would cook breakfast & lunch for me and my brother and pack our dabbas before leaving for office at 8am.

To make a filling as well as a kids-friendly lunchbox day in and day out, is a challenge for every mom. A dish repeated twice a week becomes a boring stuff and is brought back half eaten as a revenge on moms.

Most of the days the lunchbox menu is decided in the morning itself and the days of the week are remembered according to the lunchbox recipes. Monday is for variety rice, Tuesdays are reserved for wholewheat noodles, Wednesday is dedicated to stuffed chapattis and like wise.This one is a favorite menus for Friday lunchbox.

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.” ~ Andy Rooney.

It has been over a decade of my ‘food centric’ life and I am absolutely enjoying every moment of it. My food journey has been truly incredible. Though many forced long breaks from social media quite upset me at times.

I am grateful that my profession as a food stylist keeps me in constant touch with ‘food’ and gives me the privilege to work with many eminent personalities from media.

“This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well“. Susan Polis

Cooking & clicking food is a hobby that has filled a large part of my life and has kept me busy for a long time, till it became a real-life job.

And now, working around food as a food blogger and a professional food stylist, completes & compliments my purpose of living. Not to forget the enormous personal growth and fulfillment I get from doing the same.

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” ~ Confucius

I was like a headless chicken the whole of last month, when no amount of work was ever enough. And the pressure to keep up with the deadlines and managing home at the same time was making me lose sleep.

I finally decided to slow down a bit and also to spend less time on my social media accounts. Not a wise decision for a food blogger, you say..but then there is a feel-good factor which is a reason good enough to continue the same for some more time.

So, life is moving at its own pace for me and I find lot of time to do many other things which were put on hold.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” ~ Jack Canfield

I’ve been doing commercial food styling projects for over 5 years now, and it’s been an amazing journey so far.

The assignments that come my way are freelance projects, Ad shoots, magazine tie ups and television commercials of various brands and companies. I absolutely love my job, as every new project brings in the opportunity to meet new people and acquire different skill sets.

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” ~ Frederick Keonig

Reminiscing good old days, appreciating small things in life and connecting with beautiful people, keeps me happy…always.

Sunday lunches have been a big affair since childhood. Mom would decide the menu a day before and start prepping for the dishes early in the morning. Though the menu would be a simple Indian meal with a dessert to go with it, but eating together made us try new food without making fuss and helped creating a feeling of belonging.

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”~ Jim Rohn

It has been days since my last post on Lite Bite.

After the life-changing career shift through food blogging, time is one luxury I don’t have.

Finding a balance between the demands of family and fulfilling your dreams is tough when you are passionately inclined towards both.

“Always take a picture for everywhere you go; if you don’t, then all you just lost was the precious memories and moments” ―Inspiracreatiflife.

It wasn’t too long ago that the only time I would pick up my phone was to just receive calls or send messages.

I am not a tech-savvy person, given a choice I would rather grind my spices old-fashioned way using mortal and pestle than switching on my blender.

I do operate my microwave occasionally and slide in a CD to listen to songs sometimes. But then, if I can get my children to do the task for me, all the better 🙂

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”~ Phil Jackson

“Hi Sanjeeta, there is a shoot on 14^th, are you free?”

 “Yes”

 “See you there!”

This is the conversation with Kunal before most of the food photo-shoot assignments we do together.