Other Women's Jobs // A Day in The Life And Career of Arij Baidas

NAME: Arij Baidas

AGE: Turning 50 in 3 weeks!

INSTAGRAM HANDLE: @ajbaidas1 or @yufeed.ae

JOB TITLE: Founder – yufeed app

MOVED TO THE UAE IN: 1999

Arij is mother to 3 girls and founder of an AI driven meal planning app called yufeed which takes away the decision making pain of what to cook every day. yufeed is aimed at mothers with kids – where food creates belonging, connecting generations and preserving traditions. At yufeed, the aim is to make this easier by strengthening cultural identity, sparking food conversations at home, and turning everyday meals into memories and stories.

The AI-powered meal planning, and interactive family-sharing features, makes cooking a meaningful experience, one that nourishes both body and soul. With over 700 culturally diverse and rich recipes and a growing community of 28K+ foodies across 10+ countries, we make home cooking fun and effortless.

yufeed isn’t just about what’s for dinner, it’s about gathering people together, overcoming disconnection, and bringing out the best in people through the power of food.

Let's discover a day in the life and career of Arij:

8AM:

School drop off done and in good weather walking and talking on kite beach and in hot weather walk and talk in Dubai Hills Mall or work out at home. This became a daily thing in my late 40s and I try to keep it a daily ritual as much as possible as it gives me a great start to the day and keeps me up to date with friends and sometimes breaks the ice for professional relationships. Women always appreciate an option to walk and talk as we are all trying to juggle so many different things so multi tasking is ideal!

10AM:

Supermarket shop to pick up recipe ingredients for the house and for any recipe video shoots for work. As I have a meal planning and recipe app, recipe videos are at the core of it as food is very visual and I am waiting for that one recipe which will go viral some day! Some days I just film what I am cooking for my family, and sometimes I am testing recipes that I have been sent and other times I am trying out new recipes of my own.

12NOON:

Meetings and catching up with emails and work. As I do work with Jordan, Saudi and Belgium, this is a great time to get things done. I still have three hours before pick up and my focus is still pretty good so I go over two hours non-stop focus.

2PM:

Zone out time on the couch before school pick up. This is a very important thing I found I have to do and I realised it is ok to zone out and either have a quick nap or watch something – I need to keep going for the rest of the day and the only way I could do that is with this little break in the middle of the day. This is a kindness I offer myself.

4PM:

Late lunch with kids after school and catching up – I do this every day as the kids are full of news and happenings of the day and they really engage during this time – one of the core reasons for starting my app is to get families to gather at least once a day to reconnect, touch base and stay connected to each other in an otherwise very busy world.

6PM:

After school activity drop off / pick up or meetings/workshops – this time of day varies a lot, sometimes I am picking up from activities, sometimes I have online workshops or meetings at this time. It is the last bit of productivity for the day workwise as well.